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Little is known about the lineage of DeVia Dirkdancer. Around eighteen years ago an elvish maid called Merryweather of the Court of Perfumes succumbed to complications of childbirth while bearing twin daughters, DeVia and Raven. Any real clue to who their father might be died with her. Due to the children's obvious human characteristics we can assume he was no elf.
Shunned by the elvin community and ignored by humans, the girls
were taken in by Wanna Knother of the small Dorry Street Orphanage
and raised together as sisters. Different as night and day, the
children followed separate paths, even choosing different surnames
upon leaving the orphanage.
DeVia's appellation of Dirkdancer was originally given to her by
several of her fellow orphans following her first home performance of
her now legendary rendition of Ekoj Atton's "Serina's Dance of the
Dagger." Part of his larger ballet "Court of Thieves," DeVia was
introduced to this choreography by an unknown priest of the temple of
Tymora for whom she claims to have performed the service of locating
a lost cat.
Previously thought to be too dry and cerebral for the common citizen, Atton's work has not often been performed in Ravens Bluff. DeVia's own interpretation of the final scene of this piece in which Serina, formerly a queen among warriors reduced to a harem dancer to a den of thieves, dispatches each of her captors during a night of passionate dancing is unarguably the most sensual rendition of Atton's work ever performed. DeVia has performed her rendition of this dance countless times publicly, and even a few times privately.
Conversely, her rendition of "Serina's Scimitars," the opening of Atton's master work, has never been performed publicly, and possibly never will. Along with selected members of the Fellowship of Bards, Performers, and Artists DeVia was to star in the Ravens Bluff premier of the full ballet "Court of Thieves" next week as a benefit for the City Watch, and the war effort.
Many City Watch members fondly remember her antics as a street dancer as well as the fact that she never performs for money. Instead, she prefers to rely on her adventurous spirit for her income. Applying for an investigative post with the City Watch herself, she was turned down on the grounds that even her most mundane investigations might become too distracting to fellow Watch members. Whatever she does, she does it with flare.
