Sarai Wellington is the privileged daughter of Britania‘s Governor Virgil Wellington. Growing up in “proper” society meant that a great deal was expected of Sarai. Her childhood was not filled with games and playmates but was one of etiquette and study. One of the more antiquated traditions in Britania involves the arranged marriages of young girls for political alliances. Known as Promise Girls to those who engage in the practice and as Honor Girls to the rest of Britania, Sarai’s fate was set down this path from her birth due to her family’s standing in the great City-State.
It was ultimately her mother who bought whole-heartedly into this tradition. She did everything and anything to ensure that Sarai grew into the idea vision of a Promise Girl.
Sarai hated it. Rarely was there a girl child more ill suited for such a life. Sarai was not demure, she was not soft-spoken, and worst of all she far too frequently took to her own opinion on matters of politic and state. Her mother’s corrections on these matters were savage. Sarai was often left with physical reminders of her failings and disobedience. When her father found out about the manner of correction Sarai was receiving, he only ever warned his wife on the matter one time.
After Sarai’s mother died unexpectedly, the result of a suicide having thrown herself from a window, Virgil took up Sarai’s teaching. Her father’s lessons differed greatly from what her mother strove to teach the young woman.
Virgil engaged the girl’s interest in statecraft. He gave her books on philosophy, religion, and history. He arranged for her to learn various methods of self-defense. In his own way, he gave Sarai the world she longed for.
Despite the opportunities Virgil offered to his daughter, escaping the life of a Promise Girl would be nearly impossible. Longstanding alliances rose and fell on such matters. If Sarai was planning on changing her fate, it would have to be by her own hand. She would have to show herself to be worth more than the promise her young life had been made into.
So it came to be that when Sarai heard of the dangerous young man who was making a mockery of both the Guild and the Templars, she knew that the time to carve her own path was at hand.
