Agna al-Shelyn, originally named Agna al-Ortona, didn't grow up in Kintargo. In fact, she was born in the far off lands of Qadira, the daughter of Aldebert al-Orta and Ortona al-Lorsalda. As her small stature would suggest, she is of Dwarvish descent. Her father was officially a merchant dealing mostly in imported Dwarvish crafts and other goods, his true job and influence was in less legitimate dealings. Through the combined influence of his underworld dealings as well as the commerace he brought into Katheer, they experenced a level of comfort that most Dwarves don't normally enjoy.

To say Agna grew up in the wrong crowd would be an understatement. Being the eldest and at the time only child of her parents, she was expected to follow in the footsteps of her father and take over both his legitimate and underworld businesses. Agna was taught everything she needed to know from a fairly young age. She learned to read and write, basic math, and once she entered her teenage life she even learned to fight. The pressure to succeed was immense, but Agna was able to flourish fairly well. She particularly took a liking to fighting, quickly mastering her weapon of choice of the warhammer.

Once Agna was deemed ready by her father, she began to assist in his smuggling business, typically acting as a vanguard against the various bandits that always tried to raid the shipments. Agna began to gain some noteriety in the underground for her quick and often savage methods of dispatching these bandits, which would prove to be as much of a curse as it was a blessing.

In between these jobs Agna would spend much of her time working with her father on some of the finer details of the business, or in the illegal fight pits dotting the city. Agna found she had taken quite a bit of enjoyment in fighting, and was eager to hone her craft. Agna generally thrived in the fights, whether it was the larger melees or the more intense single combat situations. It wasn't long before she had become one of the most prominent fighters in the city.

On the road with the shipments, the bandit raids became less frequent. However, in turn they started to become more intense, causing a significant amount of danger. It would be during one of these raids that many life-altering things would happen to Agna in extremely short order.

The attack had come fast and hard. The caravan had a small vanguard, despite the increased danger, and Agna was one of the guards. It became quickly apparent that the target wasn't the shipment she was protecting, but instead was meant to attempt to dispatch her. Agna fought viciously but ultimate the numbers were too much for her and she was soon overwhelmed. Once she was down, the attackers made quick work of the remaining caravan before turning their attentions back to Agna.

In almost every respect, Agna should not be alive today. For reasons still unknown to Agna this day, the dozens of swords that had been plunged into her body had failed to kill her on that fateful day. Left in the desert sands, bleeding profusely and constantly fading in and out of consciousness, it was nothing short of a miracle that she had been discovered by a small band of Shelyn priests, one of the few conclaves that followed the Goddess throughout Qadira. Knowing nothing of her or what she had done, they had saved her that day. Her wounds were grevious, and if it weren't for the divine healing magic of those priests she likely would have died from her injuries. They would transport her barely-conscious body to their temple, some miles outside of Katheer.

Even with their healing magic, it would take many weeks for Agna to regain full consciousness, and many months more before she was fit to move around. In those months she learned many things about the conclave that had saved her. Agna had never been particularly religious growing up, as her parents were more focused on teaching her the business, but something deep down inside Agna seemed to be telling her that someone was watching her on that day in the desert. Whether it was divine intervention or just blind luck, Agna owed her life to Shelyn and her followers.

Everything about Agna's perspective on life began to change quite drastically. Before now she had only assumed that her destiny was to take over the family business, to perpetuate the endless cycle that her parents dealt in. In many ways that part of Agna had died. While it was by no means a sudden shift in perspective, the more that she stayed with the Shelynites, the more she learned of the Goddess and the more she felt that her life was destined for a different path.

Of course, this didn't happen overnight. After about four months Agna was able to travel back home, much to the relief and delight of her parents to discover their daughter was still alive. After a few more weeks of recovery, Agna would continue working with her father. However she found that the desire and drive wasn't as intense as it used to be. Over the course of a few years it would continue to fade.

About once every two to three months over the course of about five years Agna would travel back to the temple that had housed and healed her. She would often bring monetary donations or food for the Shelynites, at first in a desperate attempt to absolve her self-imposed debt, but eventually out of the goodness of her heart. The Shelynites would accept these gifts, and then sit with Agna for hours, talking about Shelyn and her stories and her teachings. They would often encourage Agna to pray before she was going to leave. At first she would refuse, but over time she would give into the request reluctantly, and eventually she would pray unprompted before leaving.

At the end of these five years Agna found herself at crossroads in her life. Her desire to follow in her father's footsteps had almost completely disappeared. Expressing this to her father was not a fun conversation in the slightest, and ended with the two extremely angry. A week later, Agna had packed up a small pack of things she valued. As she was leaving what had been her childhood home, she found a small wooden amulet hanging on the handle of the door. It appeared to be freshly carved, as though it had been made specifically for her in the last week. On one side was an image that Agna was all too familiar with at this point; the symbol of Shelyn, a beautiful songbird. The backside of the amulet had a single phrase written on Dwarvish which read, "These Wings Are Your Freedom." Taking the amulet and fastening it around her neck, she looked at her home one last time before opening the door and leaving for the final time.

The Shelynites were eager to have a new member in their conclave, especially one they had known for some time. Agna was eager to learn and to contribute in whatever way she could. Her talent in combat meant it was almost a natural path for her to begin learning the ways of the clerics. Agna would spend the first few years of her training in the temple she had been saved in, before traveling to the more established temples in various regions. It was this journey that lead her to taking residence in Kintargo about 10 years ago, as it housed one of the largest Shelyn temples in the world. Agna worked dilligently on learning the divine magic of the clerics, and vowed that she would devote her life to protecting those who needed it.