Description: Tikva is dynamic motion caught and bound into a slight, wiry frame; sculpted muscle and lithe grace combine in her youthful athleticism. An archer's strength cords the strong muscle of her arms and back. Her feet are rough and callused, her long-fingered hands strong but slim. Her eyes are large, vivid blue as a summer sky, beneath the darker arch of her eyebrows, expressively canted. Tiny freckles dust the bridge of her nose, the tip of which turns down in a slight snub. Her skin is warm and fair, her cheekbones high, her jaw's narrow angles drawing the suggestion of a heart's shape to her even features. Her hair is a soft fluff of sunset, its waves cut short around her jawline. The soft bow of her mouth turns up at the corners in the shade of an impish smile that rarely ever seems entirely vanished from her face.

Personality: Free-spirited, adventurous, and alive with a bright spark of seeming unflagging energy, Tikva launches a one-woman vitality assault on the world. Warm and generous of spirit almost to a fault, her compassion is coupled with a deep curiosity that frequently involves her deeply in other people's business. This warmth could become cloying if it weren't cut by a finely honed sense of the ridiculous, a wry pragmatism that frequently verges on snarky. Tikva's primary personal values are love and loyalty, and she holds personal and familial loyalty especially paramount in her heart of hearts. Tikva loves stories and songs and wants to know everybody's stories. She also enjoys words, being a creative thinker and speaker, and she likes to play with them and make them dance on their heads.

Background: It’s hard for a bastard to be born quietly, but sometimes it can be done. Tikva's mother was a godsworn priest of the Faith, who should really have known better than to become pregnant. Yet sometimes accidents happen, and it left the priest in kind of a bind. Luckily for her, she had a good friend in the seraph at Brighthold, and wrote there in urgent haste about the babe she had given birth to, certifying both the child's bloodline and her great need of a place to go. In time, the priest lost her role, and became one of the Silent Reflections, but the child was adopted by Count Laveer’s house, and grew.

An adventurous child who was hungry for tales and songs of all kinds, Tikva latched onto strangers who knew stories and absorbed her lessons like a human sponge for information. She embraced song of all kinds, music and dance; she grew carefree and clever, running barefoot through the holding and ambushing friends and family with affection. She grew to be a capable young woman, trained to be a scout high in the rigging aboard ships or high in the trees of the surrounding forests, and studied under the Count to learn the arts of diplomacy and understanding that would make her a useful, worthwhile future Voice. What she did not expect, and what neither did Tibault: on a rare visit to the capital, she met with the brother of Count Thesarin Riven, a tattooed and bright-hearted man full of impish mischief, and foolishly lost her heart to him. After a whirlwind courtship and much wheedling and back and forth between Count Tibault and Countess Mia, Tikva married him and joined the Twainfort: Lord Kelleth Riven and Lady Tikva Riven! Uncertain at first away from the seclusion and independence of the lighthouse at Brighthold, Tikva found her new family sustaining. But when her husband Kelleth rode out against the Abandoned and Tikva was -- at six months pregnant -- forced to remain behind, she had a very bad feeling about this that-- well, turned out to be right.

Widowed and grieving but determined, Tikva set forth in a new role as Voice of the Twainfort to establish herself in Arx and care for her son. She grew in personal fortitude and maturity, and accepted duties and responsibilities far beyond her ken. She joined in the effort to save the King from a coup attempt by then-Master-of-Questions Shreve Tyde, and when he was overthrown, she joined the Inquisition and studied under her new friend and mentor Laric Grayson, to find new ways to defend the Compact, honor her duties and find the light amidst the dark.

At the close of the siege of Silence, when Ainsley Grayson slew Tolamar Brand and raised his head in victory over the forces of Oblivion, Tikva rewarded him by finally accepting a marriage proposal she had refused many times, and became Tikva Grayson, Princess of Bastion. Her efforts for House Grayson and her training in diplomacy and statecraft led House Grayson to capitalize on her experience and her energy by making her a Voice, and she dedicated herself in service, in motherhood, in love and duty entirely to House Grayson.

Relationship Summary

Acquaintance:

Zhayla - brilliant duellist

Audric - super charming grin, lover of hats, probably saved my life?

Maeve - quiet healer, definitely saved my life

Saedrus - charmingest Whisper, best taste in clothes

Family:

Tiber - tiny terror

Laric - cousin by marriage and Inquisition boss, except actually he's my big brother AND HE PROBABLY HAS WEBBED TOES

Cara - cousin by marriage but sister by my heart

Calarian - cousin by marriage, super competent

Luca - cousin by marriage by marriage, possibly allergic to shirts (this is not a complaint)

Aiden - brother-in-law, quiet type who likes birds! good taste in gentemen!

Ailys - sister-in-law, fine healer and kind woman

Reese - Princess Ribbons, sweet and silly and WEAR YOUR ARMOR REESE

Lark - cousin by marriage, weaponized common sense

Asharion - my second son, prince of my heart

Sibling:

Tibault - eldest brother, truly trusted

Sen - Spear of Brighthold

Rey - sweetest sister and best Mercy

Friend:

Esoka - knight of the Twainfort, wise in war and also OTHER THINGS

Holden - quiet knight and excellent jungle gym

Aleksei - charmingest priest

Lucita - a kind and dutiful woman with a passion for service

Sorrel - a warm and energetic musician whom I trust entirely

Thena - a fine friend who shares a penchant for absorbing too much responsibility

Aislin - dearest and closest, gone a-wandering - we will never forget

Spouse:

Kelleth - beloved but lost

Ainsley - My husband, my love, my terrible.

Ally:

Thesarin - Count of the Twainfort

Mia - stalwart liege-lady

Samantha - generous marquesa and fellow shoe-hater

Nigel - There once was a main from the Twainfort / Whose passages lacked neither wit nor sport--