Name: Eva Cornelia Vollmer (maiden name was Riegel)
Age: 61
Affiliation: Former Assassin, currently free agent
Appearance:
Though standing only at a stocky 5’2’, Cornelia is still strong from years of missions. Having left the Assassins, she now wears the typical clothing of a colonial woman, though augmented with hidden armor over her vital regions. Cornelia is never without a satchel containing he herbs, medicines, and tools of her trade as a midwife.
Personality: A long life has left Cornelia with a harsh, unbending personality. She cares little to preserve the feelings and (what she sees as)the delusions of others, and speaks with brutal honesty, viewing the unvarnished truth as the best way to protect others from devoting themselves to false causes. Only to her patients and those in distress does she display the warm manner and endless patience of her younger years, and she remains as strongly devoted to protecting the innocent as she ever was. Her view of the world is black-and-white, and it takes little for her to distrust someone.
Favorite Weapons: Though she retains passable skill with most weapons, hidden blades in particular, her greatest asset is surprise; an old woman is easily overlooked, and few men are at their most vigilant while their wives give birth.
Strengths:
-Medicine. She has learned midwifery from childhood, and treated combat injuries for decades. Except in the most severe circumstances, any patient under her care stands a good chance of surviving, and she herself is just as resilient.
-Stealth. Physical disadvantages of height and age mean that she relies on surprise more than combat skill. Whether it is blending into a crowd, or entering an enemy camp, Cornelia will not be seen if she doesn't wish to be.
-Well-Connected. Although she keeps to herself, there are many people that Cornelia has helped over the years who would gladly return the favor, and she can usually find willing aid in most larger towns.
Weaknesses:
-Age. Though she is still proficient, freerunning and combat are difficult for her, and she will be at a disadvantage against younger opponent. Similarly, her eyesight and hearing have both worsened with age.
-Simplistic Morals. She still holds tightly to the ideals of the Brotherhood, and it takes very little for her to consider someone irreparably morally wrong. Expediency is a foreign concept to her, and she will abandon help from anyone who does not fit her standards, even if she badly needs it.
-Overly Self-Sufficient. Cornelia is violently opposed to asking others to fight her battles for, or even with, her. She would rather take on a hopeless task than endanger others by association.
Background/Biography:
Born to German parents fleeing famine in 1704, Cornelia spent her first decade in a struggle for subsistence in the Colonies. At the age of eight, her family joined a group in immigrants who undertook the difficult winter journey of more than 150 miles by foot to Livingston Manor, her father becoming badly ill along the way. He was nursed back to health by a doctor, giving Cornelia her interest in medicine. Although her father did not object to this interest, he apprenticed his daughter to a midwife, as it was a more appropriate profession for a woman than surgery.
In 1725, Cornelia married Johan Robert Vollmer, then a member of the Brotherhood, although he posed as a surveyor. Over the next nine years, she bore him four children, only one of which would survive to adulthood, and became a talented doctor as she treated the wounds that her husband sustained from "surveying," eventually treating other members of the Brotherhood, which she only knew as friends of her husband. She became aware of the Assassins' existence when Templar thugs attacked the Vollmer home, hoping to catch Robert unawares. Having no desire to repeat the experience of hiding in a closet while a visiting assassin warded off attack, she demanded explanations, and joined the Assassins.
Cornelia remained in the Brotherhood until her son Martin was killed on a mission to gather information. Furious that the Assassins had seen fit to throw away his life for so small a cause, she and her husband pursued the Templar responsible killed him by setting fire to a barn with him inside. Although Robert ask her to offer the man a quick end, saying that they were after justice, not cruelty, she refused and left the Assassins.
These days, she has returned to her original profession of midwifery out of a desire to bring lives into the world, not purportedly save them on the commands of others. Cornelia is more fiercely devoted to ending injustice, but the only life she is now willing to risk is her own.
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