Astrid was born in Haradwaith and was the only child that her parents would ever conceive. She remembers nothing of her mother, who died in childbirth the day that Astrid was born, and she was raised solely by her father. Despite many years running away from the war in the south, Astrid managed to keep a few things that her mother previously owned, and they are her most prized possessions. 

Her childhood was spent in Far Harad, where she grew up alongside many cousins and extended family. Astrid was very young when she fled from her village, no older than sixteen summers, and unbeknownst to her, it would be the last time that she would ever be in Far Harad. Along with her family, she gathered what was left of her things and she fled while her father stayed behind with several men. Astrid fell behind and her family went on without her and as such, she would find herself stumbling upon a group of corsairs near the coast.

At the time, Astrid didn't know the trouble she would get into when she boarded a ship at the coast, and she didn't know that she'd spend the next several years of her life on a ship with black sails, pillaging and plundering. The few years she spent aboard the black-sailed ship were long and gruesome and, as she would say, the worst years of her entire life. But she was trained by other corsairs, learning how to wield thin blades and becoming a proficient swordswoman, though she always favored daggers.

Astrid fled once again shortly after her twentieth summer. She had trouble seeking refuge in Gondor but eventually fell into a caravan of merchants and she stayed with them for a few years, getting as far away from the coast as she possibly could. Astrid would eventually move on, leaving behind Gondor and Harad and everything in the South to journey through Rohan and into Eriador, where she sought a better life for herself.

"Joan" by Kayla Scribbles | "Bhadra" by Luisa Rafidi | banner: Skyrim screenshot