In 535, Quintus Lucius Javelot's wife bore him twins, a boy and a girl,
named Darius and Dara. They were preceeded by eight children; only one, a 
girl, survived early childhood. Six more children were to follow; of these
only another girl still lives.
	Quintus was the fifth son of a vassal knight, Lucius, of High King
Uther. For his extraordinary valor in the Battle of Badon, Uther raised
Lucius from mercenary-knight to a landed vassal-knight, granting him a small
manor outside of the city of Lincoln. For three generations, the men of the
family had been mercenary knights; the family tree remains small. Of Lucius'
children, Quintus became the oldest to live through childhood; no other males
survived.
	Thus, Quintus was left with a single son and three daughters, plus
an embarassing number of female relatives. Like his own father Lucius, he
was often absent from home, campaigning with King Arthur. From the tales of
his childhood, he learned to share Lucius' hatred of the Saxons and Cumbrians;
Dara's great-grandfather fought at the Battle of Windsor, and her grandfather
fought at Carlion and Carohaise. He passed these stories on to his children,
and, thus, they still harbor considerable ill-feeling towards both Saxons
and Cumbrians.

	Quintus had little formal education, but decided that his children
would be raised as befit landed vassals; thus, he spent considerable sums
on tutors for his children. Although Dara was not trained in the arts of
battle, as was her brother, care was taken to ensure that she was well-versed
in most of the courtly arts. Her natural skill with animals also earned her
training in horsemanship, hawking, and hunting. She also proved talented at
healing, with good first aid skills and excellent ability at chirurgery.
In addition, she is a natural scholar, quick with words and fascinated by
intrigue. She is also is quite pious, with a sincere belief in serving her
lord, and through her lord, God himself.
	In 550, Quintus died in the Yellow Plague that swept through Europe,
leaving his fifteen-year-old twin children to fend for themselves. Not long
after, Darius left to supplement the family income and earn some glory by
fighting in King Arthur's army. He also spent a very brief time in Camelot,
at King Arthur's court; here, he learned of the Grail Quest and decided that
he, too, would seek this holy relic. He was last seen in 554.

	When Darius disappeared, Dara and Quintus' wife had a difficult
dilemma on their hands. With the last male relative dead, their lands would
revert to the crown. Dara, who strongly resembles her brother, decided that
she would carry on life in her brother's name. Publicly, it was made known
that Darius had returned from the Grail Quest driven mad by unknown horrors
encountered in his journey, and that Dara was first busy tending to her
stricken brother, until the hardship of it all forced her to retire to
some obscure convent.
	In reality, Dara was being trained in the skills of the knight.
For eight long years, from 554 until 562, Dara became a superb swordsman,
and received training in politics and the behaviors and graces expected
of a nobleman. She excuses her lack of memories of her "earlier" time as
a knight as amnesia caused by the madness inflicted on her during the
Grail Quest. Physically, she strongly resembles her brother -- as children
it was difficult to tell them apart. She is just as tall as her brother,
quick and strong, and extremely hardy. Darius was a handsome man; her own
appearance lacks the fineness of feature to qualify her for "beautiful
woman", but in masculine garb, she would be called handsome, retaining
a youthful look, with a wealth of thick, dark shoulder-length hair and
striking deep-blue eyes. Her physique makes it much easier for her to
masquerade as a man, and muscle and a natural tendency towards a bony
build have masked most of her feminine figure.
	Dara's training was carried out in secret, in a remote corner
of the family estate. Her father's most trusted retainer, once his
squire, thus knows her secret, as does the old family nurse -- it's
impossible to hide anything from the old woman. Of course, Dara's mother
also knows of the deception, but, for the sake of her estates, remains
silent. The matron of the family is getting well on in years, as well,
and age has not been kind to her. Although Dara's mother disapproves
of Dara's "stepping above her natural station", she will take the secret
to her grave, not wishing to shame the family should it be revealed that
her daughter is masquerading as a knight.

	When the realm was thrown into chaos by Mordred's treachery, Dara,
ever-loyal to the King, joined Arthur's army. She was present at the sieges
of Joyous Gard and Benoic, the ambush by the Frankish rebels, and the
battles at Kent and Barham Down. Finally, she was with Arthur's army at
the climactic Battle of Camlann, where she was one of the few survivors.
She was almost fanatically loyal to Arthur, a "true believer" in his dream
of a better world; she is firmly convinced that God Himself was on Arthur's
side, and that evil is only victorious temporarily.
	At present, she has been impersonating her brother in public for three
years; the "Dara" identity supposedly entered a convent eleven yeras ago. She
is now moderately comfortable in her role as Darius, and is perhaps even a
little relieved that practically every knight that might have known Darius
was killed in the battles of the last few turbulent years. The necessity of
carrying on this deception has made her rather suspicious of just about 
everybody, and she lies with the ease of much practice. Yet, she is firmly
committed to the chivalric ideal, and has even won some small measure of
fame as a valorous knight.

	Dara is not a naturally aggressive person. If she had her choice
of lifestyle, she would be sitting at home in the manor, living in comfort,
riding horses, hawking, and occassionally venturing into the city to catch
up on court gossip and perhaps read whatever manuscripts she could get her
hands on. However, she felt called by God to aid Arthur in his fight against
Mordred, and would have been willing to do nearly anything in order to aid
the King. Now, as the world begins to disintegrate into darkness again, she
feels she must attempt to uphold Arthur's ideals, especially Arthur's beliefs
in justice and peace.
	At present, she has no confidants; the very few she had were killed
in the campaign against Mordred's army. Her current major personal difficulty
is that she has obviously not yet married, and she realizes that she will not
live forever. Thus, there is the pressure of producing a male heir; there
are likely some eyebrows being raised at Darius' failure to marry and have
children, although these largely can be excused by his past "madness" and
the past few years of intense campaigning, which have left Dara with
virtually no time to spend at home. She thus needs to contrive some way of
gaining an heir, or the estate will revert back to the crown at her death. 
Her first loyalties, however, are to God and to the ideals of Arthur.