Haley Starshine
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| Haley Starshine | |
 Haley Starshine, drawn by Rich Burlew. |
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| Publication information | |
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| Publisher | Giant In The Playground |
| First appearance | The Order of the Stick #1 |
| Created by | Rich Burlew |
| In story information | |
| Team affiliations | Order of the Stick |
| Notable aliases | Mistress Nightengale, The Red Blur, Dark Mistress Shadowgale (as a teenager). |
| Abilities | Proficient thief, skilled archer. |
Haley Starshine is a major character in the webcomic The Order of the Stick, written by Rich Burlew. She is a 24-year-old red-haired human rogue.
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[edit] Character History
[edit] The Thieves Guild
Few details have yet emerged about Haley's childhood. What is known is that she is the daughter of First Edition thief Ian Starshine and that, at the age of 15, she was a goth, referring to herself as "Dark Mistress Shadowgale". On one occasion she lamented that all good people (her mother and the names Kyran and Rachel were mentioned) in her life left her when they found out what she was really like and that she must thus conceal her true nature.
She joined the Thieves' Guild at the age of 17, her father having given them special permission to train her. Her skills developed quickly and she became a favourite of Guildmaster Bozzak, who considered her to be one of his best earners - as well he might, given that the Guild automatically took half of any take, then added on as many fees as possible, so that Haley's earnings after stealing a diamond worth six thousand gold pieces eventually amounted to the princely sum of fifty-eight gold and three copper pieces.
Around eight months prior to the events of the webcomic, Haley received a letter from the land of Tyrinaria, in which she was informed that her father had been imprisoned for life for 'crimes against the government'. She was also informed that if she, as her father's only living relative, paid them the sum of 200,000 gold pieces, then they would consider granting her father clemency.
Realising that she would never be able to raise that sort of amount working for the Thieves' Guild (due to the absurd fees they charged), Haley immediately quit and left town to avoid any retribution from the guildmaster.
[edit] Pre-Order Adventuring
Haley became an adventurer, which she swiftly found to be far more profitable, both in terms of gold and experience, rising four experience levels in only six months, which was more experience than she'd gained in six years as a regular burglar.
Drinking in a tavern after one quest, Haley made the acquaintance of Vaarsuvius, an elven wizard who had just been disqualified from a magical tournament after accidentally destroying the stadium. The two debated the relative merits of adventuring over research and Haley eventually persuaded the skeptical elf to accompany her to the local adventurer's tavern to see what work might be available.
At the tavern, Haley encountered Roy Greenhilt, a fighter who was assembling a party to locate and destroy a lich, Xykon. Using a combination of bluffing and a hastily forged Thieves Guild membership card, Haley persuaded Roy to take her on. She also recommended Vaarsuvius as a possible party member, a suggestion which Roy followed.
[edit] Gains and Losses
Throughout their adventures, Haley has been an almost quintessential rogue, taking every opportunity to acquire treasure, preferably in such a manner that she could deny that she'd found anything to avoid having to share it. She was the first to distrust the Linear Guild, taking an almost immediate dislike to them (particularly Sabine, her opposite number) and was instrumental in foiling their plans after Roy realised that a cryptic prophecy given to him by his father referred to her and told her to attempt a seemingly impossible shot, which obligingly struck true.
Haley was also instrumental in foiling Xykon's plan, after she used her feminine wiles to get information from one of his goblin minions. Realising that Xykon actually wanted the team to open the gate on the lowest level of the dungeon, Haley was able to stop Elan the bard from doing so at the last minute.
Haley took control of the party briefly when Elan was captured by a group of bandits and Roy elected not to try to rescue him. Haley rallied the remainder of the party and went to the bard's rescue. Somewhat appalled to find Elan, who she had developed feelings for, romancing the female bandit leader, Haley challenged her to a duel for leadership of the bandit group. Unfortunately, her opponent, an experienced sorcerer, defeated her readily, and it was only Roy's intervention that saved them all from execution.
Shortly afterwards, Haley was eaten by a dragon, although she was saved by Vaarsuvius, who forced the dragon to vomit her up again. Critically injured and believing that she was dying, Haley began to tell Elan that she was in love with him, but was interrupted by a Cure spell from Durkon Thundershield, leading her to change the ending of the sentence and leaving the confused bard under the impression that his teammate was in love with ukuleles. The sheer size of the dragon's hoard, however, was more than enough to restore her spirits.
Loading up their treasure on carts that Haley had stowed away in her impressive collection of eight bags of holding, the team aimed to return to town, only to be waylaid en route by Miko Miyazaki, a paladin of the Sapphire Guard of Azure City, who had come to arrest them for crimes against existence. Tempted to simply up and leave when Miko ordered them to accompany her to her city, Haley was persuaded to stay by Durkon. Staying in an inn on the way, a complex series of events led to the almost complete destruction of the establishment, plus most of the treasure that the Order had carefully stored away in the vault there. The psychological shock of losing all their hard-earned treasure hit Haley so hard that she spoke only in cryptograms for an extended period of time, from episode #247 to #393. [1]
[edit] Azure City
Finally arriving in Azure City, the Order were put on trial and, to everybody's surprise, were found not guilty. Haley swiftly figured out that the seemingly senile Lord Shojo, the city's ruler, was, in fact, still entirely in command of his senses (although she had more than a little difficulty in communicating this to Roy). The entire trial turned out to have been a sham to get the Order to Azure City, where Lord Shojo asked them to investigate the other gates scattered around the world.
As a boon, Lord Shojo ordered his best clerics to examine Haley to see if they could determine the cause (and, thus, any possible cure) for her speech disorder. They came to the conclusion that it was caused by an excess amount of stress caused by keeping secrets. Whether this is related to her hiding her love for Elan, to keeping her father's situation secret from her teammates or is simply due to her being a rogue was unrevealed until recently (see below).
Deciding to face the problem directly, Haley decided to tell Elan about her feelings for him. Over the course of a meal to celebrate the New Year, she told him, but this failed to cure the problem and, because of her disorder, Elan didn't understand anyway. In an effort to try to find out which of her assorted secrets might be behind it, she proceeded to tell Elan about her father, that she wasn't actually a member of the Thieves Guild, that she cheats at solitaire, that she has a tattoo that he's never seen and that she's kissed a girl more than once. None of these made any difference, so she began to tell him another secret, one that she's not told anyone else, but he interrupted - all she got out (translated) was "Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call..." What this could refer to is as yet unknown.
Haley's self-loathing then manifested, appearing as her fifteen-year-old goth self. She suggested that rather than telling Elan, the best way to communicate her feelings to him was simply to kiss him, thus getting the message across without having to get around her language difficulties. The plan was put forward that she should kiss him at midnight, so that, if Elan reacted badly, she could simply dismiss the kiss as a New Year tradition. The moment arrived, but, even though Elan appeared to be waiting for her, Haley's courage failed her and before she made the move, an Azure City resident kissed him instead, leaving Haley to walk away sadly.
Haley eventually came to terms with her problem, realizing that it will be sorted out in her own time and that attempting to force the issue will do no good. Visiting the Oracle of Sunken Valley, she asked how she could restore her speech, to be told "When the gift horse comes calling, don't look it in the mouth". When The Order subsequently returned to Azure City after their adventure in Cliffport, Nale, disguised as Elan and having figured out that Haley has feelings for his brother, asked Haley out because Sabine was visiting the Lower Planes and he was bored. Haley's embodiment of self-loathing distrusted Nale's offer citing the fact that "Elan" was suave, romantic and his vocabulary was higher than normal. Even though she acknowledged that "Elan" was not acting normal, Haley ignored her mental embodiments and decided to go on the date anyway (thus fulfilling the conditions given by the Oracle for the return of her speech).
The date seemingly went fairly well, despite an initial mistake by Nale who was unaware of her speech problem. The pair ended up back in Haley's room at the inn where they were staying, where Haley happily accepted a kiss from "Elan", unaware that Nale was holding a dagger and was about to stab her with it. His plan was interrupted when first the (apparently) jealous Sabine burst in through the door, then the real Elan swung in dramatically through the window, followed, bizarrely, by Thog dressed as a leprechaun. Nale and Elan dueled with Elan quickly proving the victor, much to Haley's delight. Faced with defeat, Nale tried tricking his brother into believing he and Haley were in fact working together, and that Haley's crypto-speak was really the language Infernal that they used to communicate. Elan was fooled by this bluff, assisted by a suggestion spell that Nale cast. He was about to turn on Haley, when the rogue, caught up in the yelling of an angry Elan and her own self-loathing, finally broke through her speech problem, screaming out that she was in love with him, and kissed Nale only because she thought he was Elan. This abrupt revelation stunned Elan, breaking Nale's hold over him.
Shortly afterward, Vaarsuuvius and Durkon arrived, seeking Haley's help with subduing Belkar, whom Nale had magically charmed into attacking his own teammates. They joined in the battle with the Linear Guild, and were able to defeat the evil party. After Vaarsuuvius and Durkon left with the defeated Guild in tow, Haley attempted to play down what she had said to Elan, to which he replied by walking over to her and kissing her.
[edit] Under Siege
As Xykon's army approached the walls, Haley helped prepare Azure City's troops for the coming battle, showing them a confident attitude. However, after a discussion with O-Chul, a senior Paladin, she realized the true gravity of the situation, that a war was very different from adventuring and that many of the troops, quite possibly including Haley herself, or some of her friends, were likely to be slain in the upcoming battle. Reassessing her priorities, she chose to spend the rest of the night with Elan.
On the day of the battle, confronted with three copies of Xykon, Haley suggested that in fact none of them were the real one, that their opponents were playing a classic shell game. This turned out to be quite accurate; a True Seeing spell quickly revealed the real Xykon atop his undead dragon steed, practically on top of them. With Roy engaging Xykon directly, Haley continued to defend the wall. Witnessing Roy's death, Haley was distraught, feeling that she should have been able to help, but, with Durkon's help, was able to put her grief aside and assume her duties as the new leader of the Order. With the hobgoblin army in the city and advancing on the castle, Haley attempted to distract Redcloak from the castle with a long-distance longbow shot. Unfortunately, she missed, failing to distract Redcloak, but attracting the attention of a considerable number of hobgoblin archers. With the Order under attack, she suggested to Elan that he should use illusions to convince the archers that the Order had been killed, a tactic that apparently proved successful.
With the battle lost, Haley convinced Hinjo to retreat (although it pained him deeply). She then revealed that she intended to go back to retrieve Roy's body, along with Belkar, who was forced to come along due to the Mark of Justice preventing him from being more than a mile away from Roy. When the stealthy approach failed, Haley grabbed Belkar and made a mad dash for the city wall. Realising that this was accomplishing nothing as the hobgoblins were gaining on them, she turned and fought back, eliminating twenty-two pursuing hobgoblins in a display of agility and marksmanship that greatly impressed Belkar.
The two of them discovered that Roy's body and a paralyzed O-Chul had been recovered by the Monster in the Darkness, who had "invited" them to his tea party. Haley convinced the Monster to give up the bodies in exchange for some vulture stew prepared by Belkar, and the two fled the scene with Roy and O-Chul in tow, escaping while the Monster debated with himself over whether he should devour them. When the Monster finally decided to pursue them and caused an earthquake to slow them down, Roy's body fell into a chasm created by the earthquake. A quick-thinking Haley fired an arrow to stop Roy's descent by pinning his crotch to the wall, while Belkar abandoned O-Chul to save his own hide. Haley and Belkar then hauled Roy's body up and continued their flight toward Hinjo's Junk, not knowing that it has set sail without them. Upon seeing the ship sailing off in the distance, Haley's self-loathing accredits this to Elan abandoning her as she got too close to him.
[edit] Hiding Out
Eugene's pseudoscrying spell revealed Haley to be alive and still hiding in Azure City, currently the leader of a resistance group made up of 200 survivors, though Haley mentions that there are other resistance groups that blame either the Order or Hinjo for causing the destruction for Azure City and are not willing to work with her. While attempting to free prisoners and steal supplies, the group was attacked by Tsukiko and her Wights. Haley later came out of hiding to confront Tsukiko directly, but she quickly ended up being overwhelmed by Tsukiko and her undead, saved only by the intervention of Belkar. Later (due to Tsukiko's use of an Electric Orb spell), Haley inadvertently summoned Celia, whose talisman (which Haley had on her person) reacted strongly to electrical energy, thus breaking when Haley removed it from her pocket. After learning of Roy's death, Celia convinced Haley to go out with her to seek the other members of the Order, partly by saying she was taking Roy's corpse with her when she left the city, which would force Belkar to tag along, which Haley agrees with once she learned of Xykon's Cloister spell prevented her comrades from finding her, her original plan being to wait until the Order managed to locate her.
[edit] On the Road Again
Haley, along with Celia and Belkar, set out, away from Azure City. Celia put black eyeliner Xs on Haley and Belkar and put them in a cart with Roy, so they looked dead. She transformed herself into a necromancer to fool the hobgoblin guards. After Belkar killed a guard, a feud begins between him and Celia. Celia can't stand killing things, while Belkar loves it. Haley, being caught in between, attempted to be the voice of reason. Later, when Belkar killed a gnome spice peddler, just to take his donkey (and chocolate bar) Haley and Celia are both angered, although Celia takes it as an opportunity to insult Haley. Haley then muses whether praying to Roy (for the strength needed to not strangle Celia and Belkar) would offend the gods.
[edit] Personality, Traits and Abilities
In common with many fictional rogues, Haley is secretive, deceptive, manipulative but essentially good-hearted. She is obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, at one point speaking to a treasure horde as if it were her child and is not above conning her teammates in order to get a larger share than they do, despite so she is the one with the most acumen, using her finacial knowledge to deter the bandits from killing them. She generally seems to get along with men much better than women, being quite happy to use her feminine wiles on them to get her way. Haley is beautiful and is moderately vain about it. Her considerable skill at deception and a somewhat suspicious nature gives her a good ability at seeing through other people's deceptions. She is the person in the party that is best at "getting", "seeing through" and "figuring out" people.
When several parts of her personality manifested, several facets of Haley were revealed. Her self-loathing is consistently the most dominant and sensible part of her personality. This aspect is also excessively gruff towards her latent bisexuality, which may partially explain her difficulty in forming friendships with other women. Haley's intellect also manifested with pink hair and elven ears, similar to two of the dominant traits of fellow party member Vaarsuvius.
Despite her problems with self-confidence, Haley generally has a sunny and optimistic disposition and gets on well with her teammates. Haley is good friends with Vaarsuvius and the strip strongly suggests that the wizard is Haley's confidante. The fact that Haley and Vaarsuvius often share a room when they lodge at an inn further compounds the mystery over V's gender. Her previously hidden love for Elan has recently been consummated when the two shared a long, romantic kiss. The two are undoubtedly close and Haley will stand up for the bard against just about anybody including Vaarsuvius. She has a good working relationship with Roy and Durkon, although Roy distrusts her larcenous tendencies to the point where he shows a noticeable reluctance to let her stand guard while the rest of the party sleep.
Her rogue nature means that she probably has more in common with Belkar Bitterleaf than anyone else in the party does, but their alignment differences prevent them from agreeing on too much. Vaarsuvius suspects that Belkar lusts for Haley and she does, on occasion, bring out unexpected sides of the ranger. On one occasion she made him feel guilty of being insensitive and prejudiced to her, the only time he has ever displayed anything resembling guilt and shame. Belkar also admits to finding it creepy that Haley polishes the party's gold daily, one of the very few occasions where he has been shown to be ill at ease. He has also shown respect for Haley's skill with archery.
[edit] The Order of the Stick Adventure Game
Haley Starshine is one of the characters players may choose when playing the Order of the Stick Adventure Game. The abilities of the character are reflective of her personality and skills as depicted in the comic, with cards titled such things as Ridiculous Bluff, Sneak Attack, and Come to Me, My Pretties!.
[edit] References
- ^ What Haley Said Compilation of Haley's speech in cryptograms, along with the translation.
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