Profile
Basics:
Name: Saffiyah Begum
Nicknames: Djaq (Preferred name)
Age and DoB: 20; November 12th, 1172
Gender: Female (often disguises herself as a male in front of Sheriff's men)
Relationship: Not ready to admit to anything as yet. Likes spending time with Will.
Occupation/Rank/Title: Outlaw, formerly: potential slave, assistant-level scientist/physician.
Contact Information: AshLillymon@hotmail.com, or pm Lady_Lilletia or djaq_thesaracen
Appearance:
Height: 5'2''
Eye Color: Brown
Hair: Brown, cut in a short boyish style
Distinguishing features: As a Saracen in medieval England, she's quite noticeable already.
Played by: Anjali Jay
Style: Tomboy, and likes to be treated as 'one of the lads'. Values practicality far more highly than beauty.
Personality:
An immensely practical, strong woman. She fights with all the passion and determination her brother once had. She is strong in body, and also she is terribly strong willed and speaks her mind when it is necessary.
Being very intelligent, her faith is in the (considerably more advanced than English) Saracen medicine and science, which is frequently needed by the outlaw gang. She is confident in her abilities as a healer and has a well practiced medical poker-face, as she has treated so many mortally wounded soldiers from the battlefields.
She is also very caring of people, especially her friends. She feels for them and is especially perceptive of people, often being able to read what they are really thinking and feeling. She is fiercely loyal to her team, to the point where she would fight and die for them. She has taken their campaign against the Sheriff and his order as her own. In addition, Djaq desperately wishes for peace in the Holy Land. She has witnessed at such close quarters the horrors of the bloodshed there, and hates that such conflict tears apart her people and the places she knows so well.
Background:
Hometown: Near Acre; has adopted Sherwood forest as home
Family: Parents killed by Crusaders, twin brother Djaq also killed fighting in Crusades.
History:
Djaq is rarely forthcoming about her past. She sees Sherwood and Robin Hood as her new life and hence puts most of her life in the Holy Land behind her.
As a child, things were always confusing and frustrating for Djaq. As a twin, she never saw any difference between herself and her brother; but as a girl, she was always treated differently. She showed little to no interest in any activities considered womanly that her family tried to coerce her into, and always longed to do everything her brother did.
Her brother equally never saw the gender difference as important, and frequently allowed her to watch him training to fight, sometimes even sparring with her in secret. Their family would not permit this, and tried to take their daughter away from all her talk of fighting. They were outraged when she asked to try for Saladin's assassination squad. Because of all her boyish ways and disinterest in womanly talents, a potential husband for her was never found.
During the crusades Djaq's physician father was treating the injured soldiers, and her twin brother was called to fight in the Saracen armies. Djaq herself was distressed at being parted from her brother in this way, especially as she could fight, too. She wanted more than anything to join him on the battlefields, and was only pacified when her father agreed she could help in the hospitals. So proud of being able to help, she learned everything she could about medicine and science from her father. However, many of the soldiers scorned her for being a woman, refusing her treatment and demanding her father's help instead. This was the most frustrating thing for Djaq, so she attempted, one day when her father was away, to disguise herself as a male physician. Seeing the difference in the way she was looked at and was treated gave her great joy, but her mother found out and she was fiercely scolded.
After her brother was killed on the battlefields, the whole family was distraught. They wanted to cling to their remaining child, but Djaq was stubborn and needed to fly the nest. Permission was eventually given for her to leave to use her talents at another physician's camp. Even though she was forbidden to go about as Djaq her brother, once she was far enough away, she disobeyed and 'became' Djaq almost permanently.
It was shortly after the news of the destruction of her hometown and death of her parents that the camp Djaq worked in was attacked, leaving only a handful of men and Djaq, who were taken to England as slaves.
On reaching Nottingham, the slave-trader was stopped by Robin Hood, and his cunning plan freed Djaq and her fellow prisoners and destroyed the mine. But when Little John fell down the mine, she found that this very clever, exciting gang of people could use someone with her knowledge and abilities. And so she finds herself with new friends, a new usefulness and a new freedom.
Writing Sample:
Djaq walked over to the injured man, poultice in hand. He pulled away slightly.
"You do not trust me? Because I am a woman?" she asked, knowing the answer.
She began to treat the man's arm.
"But I am a woman of science," she smiled softly.
"You want big clodhopper there to treat you instead?" Djaq said, indicating Little John. The look on her patient's face was enough to give her the answer. He froze a little, but seeing the outlaws laugh, relaxed slightly at her joke.
"Now," she said seriously, "this will sting."
Anything else?