From StuartL - Altar of the Snow Lord Addendum/Offering to Sarah - 25 points.

Hello again.

After completing my entry for the Altar of the Snow Lord, I find myself deep in the Chambers of Challenge, with a long trek back to the surface. This seems like the perfect time to call on the tireless services of Sarah the Sorceress, so I guess I need a female mini as tribute.

For this offering, I have a mini that was painted up alongside my Naga for the Altar. The model was sculpted for me by my friend who converted the Naga warriors and will be used to represent a specific individual on the gaming table. The mini isn't particularly accurate to the real person in question, but as my friend made it for me as a gift to go with the Naga, I intend to make good use of it.

Ursula Graham Bower MBE was a British Anthropologist who moved out to India in her twenties to live among the Naga tribes. She studied their language, culture and way of life, while staying in one of their villages for several years.
Though the Naga would generally have been considered savages by her peers back home, Ms. Bower said that they always treated her with immense kindness and respect. Due to some local religious beliefs, some of the tribespeople believed she was the reincarnation of a young woman who was thought to be a god. (The young goddess in question wasn't dead, but was languishing in prison for encouraging her followers to perform human sacrifices and to rise up against the British). This misunderstanding probably made it a bit easier for Ms. Bower to be welcomed into the Naga villages.

Ms. Bower was living with the Naga when the Japanese invaded, and volunteered with the British Indian army to organize the Naga to assist with the war effort. I have no idea if she actually saw combat, but she did join some patrols and was on the front lines for quite some time.

Ms. Bower got married to a British army officer who proposed to her rather unexpectedly. He had heard stories of this strange British lady who was living amongst the Naga and decided that she sounded like just the sort of girl he'd like to marry. He took leave from his post, trekked out to the village where she was living and after spending a couple of days together, asked her to marry him.

After Ms. Bower left the Indian border region along with her husband, she moved to Tibet and then lived in Kenya for a while before they returned to the UK, carrying thousands of photographs, reels of film and a collection of items to be displayed in a museum.

There is a two-part interview with Ms. Bower on YouTube, in which she talks about her life in India, it is well worth a watch (though it runs for almost 2 hours). She published a book called the Naga Path about her experiences and there are a couple of books written about her by other historians.

No side duels here, but this model should score me 5 points for the figure and 20 as an offering to Sarah. While some people may have believed Ms. Bower was a goddess, she had no magical powers, and so is ineligible for the extra bonus points. This comes to the total of 25.00 points if my math serves me correctly. I'll be heading back up the Chambers of Challenge to the Aquifer for now I think.