Appearance:

Niobe always opts to wear dark form-fitted clothing with a low, v-cut neckline. It is a point in itself that the clothing accentuates her figure. Since she doesn't usually work the lifting lay she doesn't have to wear loose clothing. Besides most of the city guards and the local hired 'guards' and mercs are male... and it is amazing how much you can get away with when people are distracted! If Niobe is expecting trouble then she will usually wear light armor and a couple of daggers. She almost always wears fingerless gloves. Niobe always makes sure that she and her clothes are clean, since smell can give you away. Her clothes are always in good repair. When she doesn't want to attract too much attention to herself she usually tosses a loose belted tunic over her usual clothing.

She has fairly long dark brown hair that looks black in bad lighting. She wears her hair tied back in a loose braid tied with a long, thin leather strip. Niobe is in good shape and is considered average by height, weight and coloration. However she does have good looks, which she does not hesitate to use to her advantage if necessary.

Personality:

Niobe likes a good challenge. She also enjoys the excitement of altering other peoples' reality - occasionally being only moments from getting caught! Deep down Niobe is a 'good' person; she firmly believes in the 'even' distribution of wealth. Rather she believes that if you have so much that you can't count it all then you should be taught a lesson in sharing... She only steals from people with excess to spare.

She tries to be friendly and courteous towards other people, particularly local law enforcement. She tends to be inquisitive, and that sometimes gets her carried away on spur-of-the-moment things.

Niobe usually smiles, even when other people aren't around to smile back. She is an optimist all in all.

History:

Niobe grew up in the city, mostly in the merchant district though. Ruairi (her human father) is a merchant who specializes in hawking low cost gems to the general populace. He usually takes flawed gems and re-cuts them; he has quite some skill at the gem-cutting craft. He is a low-ranking member of a local trading coster and therefore has very little money and no spare time. Niobe's mother Zanthedescia is an Elven ranger. She met Ruairi while she worked as a ranger/caravan guard for the coster. Zan hasn't been around for the better part of Niobe's life; she frequently works as a guard on the local trade routes. Niobe has only accompanied her mother once on a job for another coster; it was part of her training.

Although Niobe was pretty much left to her own devices most of the time (except for during school). Ruairi made sure that his daughter learned the three most important skills he could think of... appraising the value of goods, gem-cutting (his chosen craft) and calligraphy (a nice past-time for a young lady). Until Niobe discovered how useful the things her father taught her actually were, she often tried to avoid her lessons. Zan started teaching Niobe ranger skills (during the low season, when she was home) when it became apparent that Niobe would never pursue her father's profession. Niobe learned what she could and hopes to use it to augment her thieving endeavors. Niobe learned many of her skills on the streets in fact. Her parents would say that she definitely fell in with the wrong crowd - if they knew!

She began her 'thieving career' early as a way to introduce a little excitement into her dreary life. Niobe quickly found out that getting into locked things was a fun challenge and not nearly as difficult as she first thought. Now days she often unlocks cages at traveling sideshows and peoples' private lock-boxes just for kicks. Occasionally she will take small unremarkable baubles with her when she leaves and sell it to the local second-hand merchants (those not associated with her father's coster) if she wants a little spending cash. She finds the thief life-style addictive and exciting.

Eventually Niobe came across one of the few professional thieves in and around the city. This was during one of her little capers to make life more interesting. Niobe's skill with locks impressed Myrkiu, and so he offered her a deal. He would teach her the proper skills if Niobe could get some of the less picky merchants in the trading costers operating outside of town to fence the goods. He wanted access to new traders and hopefully better markets. It took Niobe quite a bit of hard work and much sweet talk to set up a few deals, but she succeeded well enough in her task that after a proving period of two moons she was accepted into Myrkiu's small gang. There have been comings and goings in the gang, typically if someone makes a very good run then they go into retirement - usually running small tenements for rent, or a tavern. She has worked with Myrkiu for a while now and the takes have been good. However Niobe isn't interested in giving up her current livelihood for a more mundane one. Occasionally Niobe will leave town and camp rough for a while until things cool down. She tries to make a point of being in or around town for markets and festivals; since most folks are not so careful with their gold then.