The Stories and Myths

There is an old legend dating back from the dark ages of a warrior woman who travels the lands helping those who were too weak to help themselves or helping rulers who she determined to be fair and just.  This in itself was unusual, but tales of this heroines’ battles grew in number, even decades after the mystery warrior should have died of old age.  Was this heroine a god come down from the heavens?  Was it the exploits of many people who passed the mantle of the warrior once they couldn’t carry on with the never-ending battles?  Or was it really only tale tales told and passed on through the years?

Tales of the supposedly eternal warrior persisted until just after the tales of Camelot started to spread.  The story goes that the warrior had grown weary of the battles and strife and wished to rest and consulted the wizard Merlin for a solution.  The myth states that Merlin enchanted her, turning her into a statue of indestructible stone.

Yet even after this happened in times of great strife or tragedy new tales of the warrior would spring up afterward, telling of her acts of heroism.   Tales say that part of Merlin’s enchantment on her is that when she is needed that she returns to flesh and blood ready to help, or in the worst case of scenarios avenge the fallen.

Tales of her exploits have been told as recently as World War II of where she, or someone using the myth as a cover for their real identity freed a polish town of Nazi occupation and then walked off into the night.  That was just one of many new stories telling of her from that time.

In 1971 the wealthy Edward Mercer left London to live in the United States.  They moved to Gatewood Bay.  One of the family’s heirlooms was a statue of the mythic warrior that had been in the family, passed on from generation to generation.

Edward Mercer was a widow with no children to pass on his fortune to and upon his death in 1992 donated his wealth and estates to the city.  The estates' grounds were made into a city park and his manor became a museum of local history.

The park is in a rural area and isn’t used by very many people these days, the statue of the eternal warrior still stands in the center of the park. An inscription ‘Forever Vigilant’ runs up the center of both sides of the stone sword the statue holds.

Bio:

Lady Rowan Meredith was born in 1358 in northern Britain in a small farming village near the west coast.  She lived a normal life until her village became more and more scared of her fearing she was a witch or under the influence of a witch or demon.  She was 48 years old and still looked like she was in her early 20’s.  Rowan slipped away in the middle of the night, fearing for her life.

She found a group of brigands who initially tried to subdue her and use her as their ‘stress relief’.  This didn’t go well for the brigands.  One of the secrets that she kept from the superstitious villagers of her hometown was she was incredibly strong.  She has picked up the largest ox the town had without any effort whatsoever.  What she lacked in fighting ability she made for with her prodigious strength and made short work on the band.  After defeating them she stayed with them telling them to teach her how to use a sword.  The brigands were leery of her at first also thinking she might be of the devil but eventually she and brigands came to respect each other.

In the few years that she was with the brigands, they slowly moved away from robbing people to protecting others from other threats.  She moved on, wanting to learn more than just fighting.  Over the decades she went from town to town and country to country absorbing knowledge and even those she didn’t enjoy fighting she learned new fighting skills as well because she felt that with he abilities that she had a duty to help people who couldn’t help themselves.   She had traveled far and wide making all the way to Japan and back as Camelot was falling.  She stepped in and helped  an old man who was being attacked.  It turns out the old man was the wizard Merlin, advisor to King Arthur. 

She helped in the final battle vs Mordred’s forces and once everything is done, she told Merlin that she was weary of the constant battles and wanted to rest.  Merlin thought on it and explained his idea on how to help her get her rest while still being able to be called upon to help people in times of great need.