Clara Bedivere

Clara Bedivere is a human fighter and a member of the Cobalt Caravan. She is played by Megan.

Appearance
Clara is white, 5'9", and has medium length brunette hair, typically worn down. Currently, her everyday garb includes plate armor, Chua's stolen longsword, and an optional shield embedded with the blue wheel symbol of the Cobalt Caravan.. When not in armor, she wears basic, comfortable clothing, typically earth-tone pants, tunics, and sometimes jackets. Due to her class and life experience, she's rather muscular.

Personality
Clara is reckless, stubborn, big-hearted, and sometimes naive. When faced with serious problems, her typical first response is to evade them or play them off casually. It's unclear how much of this is intentional and how much is a result of her sheltered upbringing and general ignorance—a best guess is a mix of the both, likely feeding into each other.

Clara is distrustful of authority and most organized religion. She's seen to be suspicious, bored, or annoyed by many authority figures she has encountered, and rarely shows interest save if there is some other benefit or fun. While it's unclear how much etiquette she actually knows, she rarely and begrudgingly practices it, mostly at the behest of her party. She's especially wary of the Church of Iomedae, and has shown that she will go out of her way to avoid encountering members of the church.

At times, however, Clara does try to take life more seriously. After drinking with Cal, he managed to convince her to reach out to Iomedae—a success that was somewhat genuine, if unsuccessful. When around good influences who don't attempt to hold authority over her, she can be less directionless and chaotic, but it takes a special effort and patience.

Background
Clara was born to two middle-class cartographer-merchants in the town of Tollermach. Born the 2nd oldest of 5 siblings (including herself, her older brother Weston, and her younger siblings Sabin, Audrey, Anna, and Cassian), she both held many roles: the older caretaker of her younger siblings, one of the easily invisible middle siblings, and eventually, a kind of black sheep in her family.

From a young age, Clara was known to get into fights with local children and occasionally her siblings. After being bullied by local boys, she sought them out and fought back, much to her parent's frustration and dismay. In an attempt to discourage her from fighting, her father took her to watch a local staged fight. The attempt only backfired, further encouraging her interest in melee when one fighter signed a skull for her. Later, her parents left on a trip and her aunt, a knight of Iomedae, watched her. Her aunt, remembering word from her parents and noticing her energy, began to teach her swordfighting.

Clara, excited by her training, started secretly meeting with other neighborhood kids, including her brother Wes and initially Sabin, and practiced swordfighting in the local woods. Sabin, jealous and frustrated with her, eventually told her parents. Wes, who overheard their discussions, warned Clara that their parents were planning to send her to the Church of Iomedae. She ignored his warnings, and when her parents told her the news, she did not fight back.

At the church, Clara was trained to be a paladin of Iomedae. She showed little interest in the rigor, requirements, and rules of Iomedae's teachings, as well as general disrespect for the school's staffing. During training, she generally slacked off, ignored the instructions, and often skipped classes. The headmaster, Jeremy, noticed her lack of care and prompted another student, Chua Kimbatuul, to spend time with her and keep her on the right track. The two became quick friends, as despite her genuine interest in Iomedae's teachings, Chua was not unwilling to participate in Clara's antics, and proved an even better swordfighter and paladin. At the school, Clara once again gathered various other students, Chua included, and would fight illicitly in the woods, ignoring the school's rules and teachings. When her family sent letters or correspondences, she either ignored them entirely or responded in stilted, formal responses, not keeping up with their life back at home. She stayed at the school during the summer.

In her later years of training, Clara was fighting Chua alone in the woods at night, a common pastime the two had to train. In an unknown accident, she accidentally wounded Chua, hurting her badly enough to knock her unconscious and, to Clara's presumptions, dead. In a dissociative panic, Clara pulled the sword from Chua's body, carried her back to the temple in the middle of the night, left the body, then gathered basic supplies from her dorm, took Chua's non-bloodied sword, and left. From there, she spent an indeterminate amount of time fleeing, eventually crossing the Zabrajen pass.

Cobalt Caravan
After crossing the pass, Clara stumbled into the town of Threshold, where she immediately noticed an encroaching pack of Hobgoblins about to attack the town. She ran into the inn, noticing the rest of what would become the Cobalt Caravan. She warned them and the town of the encroaching attack, and worked together to defend the town. After successfully defeating the hobgoblins, she decided to stay with the party and accompany them on their way.



After investigating the mystery of disappeared miners in Letheril's Forge, Clara quickly was overpowered by intellect devourers, which quickly killed her. Cal, quickly suspicious, used Protection from Good and Evil on her then dead and possessed body, and the party carried her back to Letheril's Forge proper. There, in the temple of Avandra, where many high priests gathered and discovered that her soul belonged to no one god. Each member of the Cobalt Caravan pleaded for her soul in different ways. Meanwhile, Clara awoke in a sort of purgatory, and Iomedae confronted her reasons for fighting. Iomedae grew increasingly angry, and eventually another voice began to speak: that of the Thunderlord, also known as Kord. Eventually, due to the successful pleas on the part of her party members, the Thunderlord claimed her soul and she was revived.

Later, at the masquerade gala in Sovereign, Lady Alundra Sandtracker revealed to Clara that, in her absence, her family had taken noble house after Jian's family had lost their title. At the same gala, it was revealed that Chua was still alive and the sister of Sora Kimbatuul.

Calamity James
Clara and Cal are generally good friends. The two have bonded well over shared struggles with organized religion, schooling, and, initially, the (percieved) murder of people close to them. Clara has helped Cal to step outside of his more serious persona and re-engage with some aspects of his youth that he missed out on, and Cal helps to ensure that Clara stays level-headed, focused, and generally doesn't endanger herself or her party too greatly. The two often drink together and have been known to have impromptu sleepovers.

Jian
Clara is fond of Jian. Although initially not minding him much attention, the two grew closer when Clara fended off invasive questions about his past and sat with him. The two later bonded over their chaotic natures, compatible fighting styles, and general disregard for taking things seriously. They competed together at the festival's eating contest, performed a "fight dance" on stage, and are known to help each other out.

Hadiya Pashar
Although Clara isn't as close with Hadiya as she is with either Cal or Jian, the two still share an important and meaningful friendship. Despite Clara's reckless and sometimes selfish behavior, Hadiya has repeatedly shown kindness to her, including aiding her in prayer to Iomedae and offering advice on her relationships. Hadiya often keeps Clara out of trouble and helps her get out of it if she's already gotten there. Their relationship is occasionally strained, however, by Clara's distrust of religion and magic, which causes her some confusion about Hadiya.

Meraki
Out of every Cobalt Caravan member, Clara has spoken to Meraki the least. The two are not hostile towards each other, but have little in common. However, Clara does hold Meraki dear in her heart, and is excited by the precept of big animal friends.

Family
Clara's relationship to her family is tense. She is closet to her brother, Wes, and to her aunt (unnamed), but has not spoken to either since entering school. She has strained relationships with her mother, her father (to a lesser degree), and with her brother Sabin, who consistently fought with her in her childhood.

Chua
After entering paladin school, Chua and Clara were rather close, and became good friends. Chua, more level-headed, kept Clara in-check while not taking the school too seriously. After the incident, Clara's relationship with Chua was presumably destroyed.

Trivia

 * Clara was the first and only addition to the Cobalt Caravan after the party was formed
 * Before being used for Beyond the Zabrajen Pass, Clara was created for a very short-lived Dungeon World game
 * Clara's paladin backstory was almost an accident; she was drawn in paladin's grab without realizing the meaning of the clothes, which inspired her backstory
 * Clara's main personality inspiration is Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and much of the atmosphere of her paladin school is inspired by POP's fright zone young fighters