#kansif

my new dnd character, kansif, an orc fighter who is a pirate

Kansif is a minor NPC (for now at least) in my D&D game. When my players first arrived in Riverrun, I had to create a laundry list of people they might possibly meet and, as is my usual technique, I used a random character generator to give them bare bones interesting traits. Kansif was one of these. Her pre-generated traits included: “Half-orc fighter, 39, 5’10, sleepy, eye-patch. No homeland, outcast, kidnapped for slavery. Discovered an old soldier or code and decided to follow it. Gained employment under the boss, make them listen. Keep them in line. Natural born leader. Cheated a noble because I was manipulated. Mixed feelings. Several inconsequential relationships. Family means everything.”

As is also my way, I kinda looked at that, picked what I liked, and just threw the rest out and rolled with whatever felt interesting at the time. 

Kansif is the Adventurer’s Guild Panther Tier Guildmaster. When official adventuring companies are formed, they’re placed in a tier based on their talents and successes. Most start in Wolf Tier, but thanks to Baroness Eloise Moonstream’s letter, the Dawnguard were immediately advanced to Panther Tier, the second level. Kansif is in charge of the administration and discipline of all Panther Tier adventuring companies. 

She was first introduced in Session 51: 

There's a half-orc woman, about 40, sitting at a desk in one corner. She has a mess of scars on her visible forearms and across her face, one of which disappears under an eye patch. She looks up from her desk. "Can I help ye?" 

Urrak, our own half-orc fighter, took an immediate interest in her, one that Kansif did not reciprocate. 

"Mornin', daikav." Urrak as she steps next to Ryleigh.

She glances up at Urrak and back to the paper. "Right." She stands and grabs a box of papers. "Castle sent word. Rent's been paid through Gishmont. First payment's due t'me by the first o' Bishmont. These're yer contracts. Fill 'em out twice, you keep one, patron keeps the other. Signed by both when complete. Keep 'em just in case. Which o' ye's the treasurer?"

She’s very blunt, to the point, efficient. Her dismissiveness towards Urrak was an on-the-spot decision for me, deciding that she didn’t know Orc. In D&D canon, most half-orcs are created through violence, not love (Urrak is an exception), and Kansif is no different. She was unwanted by her mother and never knew her father or his kind. She did not grow up with the orcs and never learned their culture or language. Kelsey (Urrak’s player) once mentioned that the ‘Scottish’ accent she uses is what she imagines Common spoken through tusks to sound like, so I used the accent for Kansif as well. 

She is a level ten-ish samurai who favors the glaive. She’s retired, but would pick up her weapon if needed. She spends most of her time reading, whether it’s tactics and leadership or poetry and romantic novels. She wasn’t wanted as a child, but she used the brute strength she was born with to make her way to the city where she could find her own way and people who wouldn’t fear her just because she was, in her mind, part monster. She was part of a mercenary guild herself, but when it disbanded, she decided to move into administration rather than continue putting her life on the line for trinkets.