Raena was born to a Westfold household that worked the land and kept watch over a valley. Her kin were not great in name or wealth, but known as reliable, the sort who answered a mustering horn-call without delay.

Her elder brother rode in the War of the Ring. He did not fall in the great battles that songs remember, but in the Westfold, during the bitter skirmishes that tore at farms and villages while the Riders were drawn east. He was killed by Dunlendings in a night attack, defending others as they fled. Something Raena holds a grudge about.

When the war ended and the king’s peace was spoken, Raena did not set her brother’s shield aside. She took it up.

With the Mark wounded and the Westfold scarred, her choice was accepted, even respected by some. Shield-maidens were not unknown in Rohan, and necessity has a way of reopening old paths. Raena swore herself to patrol and protection, stepping into her brother’s place with little ceremony and no claim to glory.

Outwardly, she is what the Mark expects: steady, loyal, and silent about her grief. Inwardly, she has a burning desire for vengeance. Though the Dunlendings were spared and driven back to their lands after Helm’s Deep, her brother was not spared, and that reckoning remains unfinished in her heart.