Seraphina Sunmeadow

Seraphina is a monk of the Way of the Sun Soul. She was born in Fairwater into a wonderful family who understood the values of both a caring environment and hard work.

Personality
Seraphina is a calm and collected person. She always thinks about consequences before acting and has a strong sense of self-discipline.

In combat she clearly knows the moves but obviously doesn't have much experience in actual combat. She also tends to lean towards self-preservation over defeating her opponents. Focusing on defending herself and learning and overcoming her limits rather than forcing her opponents down. If she's backed into a corner she will use maximum force until her opponent is no longer able to harm her.

Early Life
Seraphina Sunmeadow, or Sera for short, was born to Jasmine and Eddie Sunmeadow as the eldest of 3 children. Jasmine, a priestess at Helena's Church, was a very nurturing person using her kindness to help everyone who needed her help. Eddie, an old grizzled retired soldier who was still as hardy as ever, enjoyed his simple but demanding job as a builder in Fairwater. Sera had a fascination with fighting, not for the violence but for the balance, skill and speed required to keep yourself safe while defeating your opponent. As time went on and as siblings often do, they would fight each other, with Sera almost always the victor. Most would attribute this to her being the big sister, her father however recognized she was fighting almost instinctively without even thinking about it. Eddie, seeing potential in his eldest child, decided to teach her how to fight properly, not to attack and kill but to defend and protect.

At the age of 15, Sera first defeated her father in one of their many sparring matches, quickly becoming a trend. Her father continued to spar but was no longer able to win, it wasn't her strength but her speed and technique. Sera continued to spar with her father every chance he wasn't too sore or tired from the last, honing her skills to near perfection.

Though the same compassion burned in her heart as in her mothers', Sera was never quite as focused on helping and healing as she was her martial prowess. She enjoyed helping those who needed it but she preferred dissolving conflicts herself rather than healing those who survived.

Despite the love in her household and the kind hearts always shown by her family, other town members didn't seem to accept them as much. The townspeople were glad the mother and father were such hard-working individuals, but they always clutched their coin purses close and kept a close eye on the children when they were around. Sera realized this and, being educated in the normal topics taught by a full education, was aware most people of the world always had at least a slight distrust towards most halflings due to the halfling deity Pollus and Her Majesty's Missing Eye (in the Undercity). Staying true to the heart from her mother and the skills from her father, she decided to leave home to seek the training required to show the world not just how powerful, but how good a halfling can become.

Burning Sun Monastery
At the age of 19 she set out on her adventures, spending a year to travel the world and learn everything she could about it to best know where to go. In her travels she heard of many monasteries, where people of all kinds honed their minds and bodies to gain great strength. The fire in her heart drew her close to one in particular, Moeru taiyō no shūdōin or Burning Sun Monastery, tucked away up north in the The Scorched Expanse. She made the journey to the monastery but it seemed no one was home. She didn't believe it to be abandoned, everything was too well kept and she had a feeling in her gut that this was but a test. She took whatever shade she could find and waited, by day 3 the heat was overwhelming, she had already gone through the water she had brought with her a day prior and she was beginning to doubt her path. On day 4 she fainted before the doors, which had still not opened. Two days later she awoke, in a strange but familiar place...she had passed the test and was recovering inside the monastery being treated for dehydration and sunburn.

Another day passed and she had recovered enough to walk around and explore her new home, meeting many of the sun monks and learning their history. Each and every monk knew each others story as if they had all been childhood friends, she was impressed by this and began her training in the classroom as soon as she was able. Learning everything about the sun monks, how they came to be and when, how their combat style was different than other monks, how they harnessed a deep power within themselves to project their ki, etc. After a year of classwork she was finally ready to begin her physical training no longer a stranger, for she had learned every monk in the monastery and they had all learned of her, but as a sister.

The training was rigorous, consisting of long hours in the unrelenting heat performing various movements, stances and forms while using various techniques she had learned to protect her skin. She progressed in skill notably quick, adapting to the new environment and mastering techniques she wouldn't have believed possible previously. She spent 9 years training and while she was not a master of the techniques of the sun monks she was aware of what they were capable of doing; but she knew she had to get stronger, not only to prove the goodwill and strength a halfling could contain, but to help stop new threats that were arising. To do this she had to stop sparring and training the same way over and over and instead had to put her skills to the test and seek out tougher and tougher challenges to overcome.

Adventure
Ten years after arriving at the monastery she brought forth her tenets, a tradition required by each sun monk who wishes to leave the monastery. Without them, you become exiled as the masters consider you too carefree to return and continue training. She set out on her adventure; heading to what she'd heard is a major center for information regarding current world events, Howling Rise.