Some people are born to righteousness, some have righteousness thrust upon them…

….and then you have Mara Hornraven, who had righteousness thrust into her.

Mara was the daughter of a noted festhall worker, who missed her dose of nararoot and found herself with child. Raised in the festhall, Mara learned many of the skills along the way, first as mascot, then as an employee when she became old enough to learn what to do. Her mother refused to let her be an escort until she was at least sixteen, so she learned all the other skills – cooking, cleaning, handling the books. She also was taught by all the other workers there in their skills, learning languages and a bit of magic. She also picked up some skill in alchemy, helping to compound nararoot teas and perfumes and colognes that would make escorts more compelling.

When she turned sixteen, her mother allowed her to become an escort, and she threw herself into the task as she did into all others – and like the others excelled at it. Unfortunately, the festhall had no room for more escort staff. Thankfully, the owner of the festhall helped her with a recommendation to another hall that was looking for people.

She spent time at the new hall, dancing, singing, and escorting until the night that the priestess of Shar walked in. Sneering and decrying the foolishness of the revelry, she used her dark and twisted magics , and an enchanted throwing-disk, to kill most of the revelers, and to scar many of the escorts, starting from oldest to youngest. Just before she was about to begin with Mara – she thought scalping her of her red hair to start would be good – the door was kicked in and a bright light filled the room. Moments later, the priestess was dead, and her killer – Karan Grantan, a paladin of Sune – was using his spells and powers to heal the women of the festhall. After him came his companions, who turned their own powers to doing what they could.

Mara, in the wake of this, fell back on her training, and began to serve them wine and try to get food for the adventurers, the Company of the Nightbreakers, all of whom had been wronged by Sharrans and who had banded together to battle them.
Much wine and food and cleaning and crying later, as the sun was dawning, Mara awoke next to Karan, who said he saw much in her worth cultivating.

She raised the sheet, looked down, and said, “You certainly did see much in me last night.” There was a brief snicker, and then he told her that he thought she had the possibility of being accepted by the church of Sune, and he would take her to the nearest church.
After some thought, and the assurance she could leave the temple and return to the festhall if things failed to work out, she said her goodbyes and travelled with the Nightbreakers to a church of Sune. It was there that she found the focus of order to go with her generally good nature, and it was to her surprise she was not accepted as a novitiate of the order, but as a paladin-candidate. She already knew how to use Sune’s weapon – sometimes a patron wanted a bit of the rough stuff, and, well, a girl has to make a living – and she was able to teach her teachers a couple of things about the physical arts of love.

When she left, a newly-minted paladin, she went to wander, until she found groups to adventure with, people who needed the words or caresses of love to inspire them, and sometimes posing as a simple tavern wench in a place where dark things hid.

The Knights of the Ruby Rose are the paladins and warriors of Sune’s faith, working together to protect the priests and worshippers of Lady Firehair.

Some information about Festhalls in the Realms.

Mara is not stupid. She’s beautiful, strong-bodied and strong-willed, and smart. When she’s in over her head, she knows when to call for help, and she knows when it’s time to just watch before kicking the table over.

As a skilled alchemist, she is rarely without a number of small alchemical items stowed about her person most of the time. For emergencies, she always has at least a dozen daywalker capsules in her pouch at all times.