DnD Characters

Saline Detre-Monrow

Saline Detre-Monrow was born to a coastal town that's completely penned in by dense jungle, a place where people vanished if they didn't stick to a pre-determined path through the underbrush. When Saline was born, people thought she was human. There was nothing that could distinguish her as different from the other townsfolk until she became 3 years old. At first, her parents thought she was just grubby, covered in sand from playing on the beach and, when she complained, screamed, cried, they thought she was like any other young child and disliked being bathed. It wasn't till she was older and able to articulate thoughts that her parents found out that scrubbing the crusting that seemed to 'grow' at their daughter's hairline... did grow at their daughter's hairline. She wasn't human...

Growing up as the youngest of three, all she felt was lonely. The other kids in the village tolerated her because they were friends of the family but they never voluntarily spent time with her. Her eldest brother was training as a shipwright, so was away from home a lot, usually unable to defend his little sister so stopped trying to do so. Her elder sister became discriminatory towards her 'freak' sister. It got to the point where friends would throw handfuls of salt at her, shouting, "Go back to the sea!" She never did anything herself; Saline was still her sister; she just didn't have to like it. Facing adversity on all sides on the land, she did exactly that. Saline fled underwater, spending much of her childhood and early teens exploring the aquatic wildlife and reefs that bordered the town, finding peace and happiness under the waves. She couldn't breathe underwater, unfortunately, but she would spend as much time swimming in the open water as she could.

As she got older, her parents became very aware that their daughter was spending a lot of time by the ocean and not focusing on her studies. Thinking this was because of an interest in the ships when the actual reason was that she was avoiding the school for fear of harassment, they got Saline to work in the city. Possibly a more practical pursuit would suit their absent-minded daughter. The job was a clerk in the local grocery store, boring and simple but it kept her busy. It helped that she had a view of the ocean, so on her breaks, she had a view to look forward to. One of the phrases that have hurt her the most throughout her life was what her mother said to her the day she set off for her first day at work. She placed a hand on her shoulder and practically begging her, "Try to be normal, honey." It showed her that, even though her parents were willing to support her, they also upheld the belief that she was abnormal, a "freak". Without knowing it, Saline's parents had just re-enforced every insult that the bullies at school had ever thrown at her. This job lasted for a while, and she even started gaining rapport with some of the regular clientele.

Unfortunately, a couple of the older sister's friends took it too far. They heard from the sister talking about her 'family's freak', that she'd dropped out of school and was working full time and took it as complaining when really, she was elated that Saline was at home during the day (home-schooling) and busy during the evening at the shop. The friends went into town after school and started spreading malicious rumours. Some about Saline contaminating the food with her 'rot' (one of the most common insults Saline got. The local kids called her things like 'zombie' because the salt around her head 'looked like dead skin'.). Other rumours were about the owner and his family, going as far as accusing him of placing prices that were twice what they should be. At first, people didn't believe rumours coming from a group of teenagers. But then the grocer changed his prices for unrelated reasons and people that weren't that familiar with 'salt girl' started to notice a substance that looked like dried up, dead skin flakes falling on the food she packed and served. It got to a point where the owner had to fire Saline because otherwise, he would have lost too much business. Brought down to a new low point, Saline then spent her mornings being home-schooled and the rest of her days hidden away in a quay that she found, somewhere she could be herself and be able to swim out into more open waters.