Introduced in Eslading’s Exiles as a successful candidate for the exile council, Cara enters leadership with sincerity rather than calculation. She is fair-minded, steady in judgment, and earnest in her belief that good intentions invite good outcomes, a quality that makes her respected and, to more perceptive observers, vulnerable. Aylman recognizes this openness immediately, marking it not as a flaw to confront, but as one to guide.
Cara is a blacksmith who measures the world in strength, pressure, and endurance. To her, every person and every policy can be forged into something better if subjected to the right heat and struck with purpose. Years at the forge have made her deliberate but decisive. She never swings the hammer without knowing where the blow will fall, and she assumes others work with the same care. Among Hile’s exiles, she earns respect for turning raw, chaotic effort into disciplined productivity.
As a council candidate, Cara frames her campaign in the language of her trade. Cooperation is alloying, each person contributing different metals to create something stronger. Discipline is tempering. Too soft and the community bends. Too hard and it breaks. She believes rules, like tools, require maintenance and occasional remaking. Her speeches are plain, her metaphors practical, and her conviction steady as iron.
Beneath her pragmatism lies a deep sense of responsibility. She believes survival depends not only on defense and food, but on forging a social order that can endure pressure without shattering. Cara does not seek power for its own sake. She builds what lasts, trusting that strength, once proven, will speak for itself.