Sergeant Molly Cliffburn – Half-Elf Arcane Constable

The love child of an Elven diplomat from Belfrie and a humble inn owner in Grimgate’s inner-city. Over the diplomat’s one week stay, she found herself courted by the man who made her bed and breakfast and fluffed her pillows. When she returned again six months later, she carried his child, deciding to settle down in Grimgate alongside him, no longer having to pay for his breakfasts in bed. Molly was the name given to their daughter, in hopes that at least with a Baldurian name, she might avoid some forms of more covert prejudice. Molly was the eldest of four, but the only one among her siblings that showed any aptitude for Minera’s Breath, a natural development from her mother’s own arcane heritage, which she had forsaken since moving to Baldur. Rather than try to reign in her powers or live like vagabonds on the run from the law, Molly’s father pushed for his daughter to seek training in a magical institution across the Grey Sea, applying at both Ardris and Canos Universities. Though Canos rejected her based on her age, the University of Ardris welcomed her, having fielded children in similar situations in the past. When Molly completed her education and returned home, she was able to apply for a Breath Wielder’s License, hoping to one day follow her mother’s footsteps of being a court mage and diplomat, sent across the continent or sat at the side of a great noble. Alas, some dreams can only be dreams. Finding such work proved difficult. Most who held a Breath Wielder’s License in Baldur were little more than conjurers of party tricks: wisemen and women who sold basic services to ignorant villagers, and if they were lucky, a wealthy merchant or lesser noble without their own court mage. Molly, not wishing to find herself wandering the endless fields of the Heartlands or the scorching plains of the Drylands on foot opted for a more unorthodox approach: applying for the Grimgate Order Force. She was forthcoming about her status as a Breath Wielder, which surprisingly drew a positive reaction within the interview. The Crown was beginning to bolster the Order Forces in major cities with a small number of Licensed Breath Wielders to aid in detecting the use of magic in small and petty crimes: the sort of things Inquisitors did not have the time nor presence for. Those caught by Molly would then receive visits from the Inquisitors in their jail cell. She was thus hired on the spot, though only one other Breath Wielder like her was hired for all of Grimgate, and the fanfare they received from their new colleagues was far from welcoming. Both her and her fellow rookie, Osten, were subjected to overt hatred and cynicism from other members of the Force. It was debilitating and soul crushing at first, but the two persevered, bolstered by each other’s company. Their presence was a rousing success in cleaning up arcane crimes in the city, particularly within the areas beyond the walls, where the Inquisitors seldom cared to tread. It ushered in a new wave of order to the city, but sowed greater malcontent with the populace behind closed doors, for there was no mercy shown to these criminals, wantonly wielding the Breath for selfish and nefarious gains. Magic was hated enough in Baldur even when used for the benefit of its people, those who used it to their detriment were pariahs of the worst kind, and death at the gallows was considered a merciful sentence for these criminals by comparison to other methods. When Tomas Lumens began his rebellion in Grimgate, Molly and Osten were pacing the streets day and night in a bid to detect their hideout, and his next attack. Yet it was useless, and in their search, Osten was killed in the line of duty: throat slit from ear to ear. A successful attack went off without a hitch that same day, almost a year later, Molly wonders if Osten could have prevented it, or if she should have died in his stead that day. The thought has haunted her since, and now she is alone, in a Force spread thin across the city where already so many of her colleagues have perished in the fires of rebellion. It seems every other week a new skirmish is being fought in the streets, and its a roll of the dice for who gets to walk away from it. Still, the bleak state of things hasn’t given her reprieve from her colleague’s disgust, who often remind her that her ilk are the cause of the fighting, and question her loyalty. Thankfully she has now been assigned to aid an Inquisitor and Justiciar on a special operation for the foreseeable future, giving her a much needed escape into the streets.