Riend (prime): Difference between revisions
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{{characterprofile |
{{characterprofile |
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|name=Riend Ar'Fiernel |
|name=Riend Ar'Fiernel |
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|image=[[File: |
|image=[[File:Riend_Ar%27Fiernal_SF.png|300px|thumb|center|Portrait of Riend Ar'Fiernel<br>Artwork created by uploader using MidJourney]] |
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|race=Sylvankind |
|race=Sylvankind |
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|class=[[Rogue]] |
|class=[[Rogue]] |
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|profession= [[ |
|profession= [[Artisan]] |
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|religion=[[Church of Voln]] |
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|affiliations=[[Landing Defense Irregulars]], [[Elanthian Elegance]], [[Rone Academy]], [[Moonshine Manor]], |
|affiliations=[[Landing Defense Irregulars]], [[Elanthian Elegance]], [[Rone Academy]], [[Moonshine Manor]], |
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|disposition=Excruciatingly polite |
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|word=''Pardon me.'' |
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|demeanor=Sheepishly reserved |
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|disposition=excruciatingly polite |
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|demeanor=sheepishly reserved |
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|ptrait= |
|ptrait= |
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|strait= |
|strait= |
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|flaw= |
|flaw=Naivete |
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|strength= |
|strength=Persistence |
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|weakness= |
|weakness=Shyness |
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|habits= |
|habits= |
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|hobbies= Cobbling, Painting, Drawing, Baking. |
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|soft= |
|soft= |
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|dislikes= Non-consensual touch |
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|likes=Shoes, luxurious fabrics, tea, her home |
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|fears=Not being in control of herself |
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|dislikes= being touched, alcohol, public displays of affection, loud noises |
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|loyalties= |
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|fears=Not being in control of herself. |
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|friend= Seomanthe, Greganth, Karibeth, Kippe |
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|loyalties= Her family, her people. |
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|friend= Seomanthe, Greganth, Karibeth |
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|spouse= |
|spouse= |
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|loved=Jaired |
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|loved= Sir Bristenn Mires, Grishom Stone?) |
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|instance=Prime <!--- REQUIRED: This will auto-categorize in the proper instance category---> |
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|instance= Prime |
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|color=black|background-color=|border-color=}} |
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|town= Solhaven |
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|town2= Wehnimer's Landing |
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}} |
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==Riend Ar'Fiernel== |
==Riend Ar'Fiernel== |
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"I wanted to dissolve into the floor, mixing myself with the hard stone. A stone had a single purpose: to be. No complicated promises, no worries and no feelings." |
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==Features== |
==Features== |
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You see Riend Ar'Fiernel the Master Artisan.<br /> |
You see Riend Ar'Fiernel the Master Artisan.<br /> |
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She appears to be a Sylvankind.<br /> |
She appears to be a Sylvankind.<br /> |
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She is tall in stature and has a lithesome, nimble build. |
She is tall in stature and has a lithesome, nimble build. She appears to be in the bloom of youth. She has expressive, chestnut-haloed malachite green eyes and gardenia white skin. She has fine, textured hellebore black hair worn swept up in a blossom-like style of many petals pinned in the center with an eleven-pointed silver star barrette. She has an oval face, a gently sloped nose and gracefully pointed ears that complement her high cheekbones. Though her features are predominantly sylvan, subtleties in the shape of her face and the tilt of her eyes appear faintly erithian. |
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==Origin== |
==Origin== |
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Riend’s home |
Riend’s home, Llythwere, lies deep within the southeastern forests of Elanthia, nestled between the site of the once-great sylvan stronghold of Nevishrim and the winding cliffs of Barrett’s Gorge. Established in 2874, the settlement’s origins may reach even further back, according to the older families who whisper of an earlier encampment near Ne’Yuscarl Point. The truth, they say, depends entirely on which founding family’s tale you hear. |
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The wise and honorable sylvan mage Illiweth Siergeth banded together sylvans from all the D'ahranal together and sought refuge after the closing of Yuriquen. They travelled first to the edges of the Southron Wastes, gathering those sylvans who had fled after the battle against Myrdanian, before they began to retrace the steps that once brought them to their beloved Silver Veil. <br /> |
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===The First Year=== |
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With so many people in their caravan, it took nearly a decade to reach the forests nestled within the tail of the Dragonspine. Conditions and sickness began to dwindle their numbers. What once boasted tens of thousands strong now could barely count more than three. <br /> |
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In the early spring of 1343, the sylvan settlement of Llythwere was established. A people accustomed to the nomadic life slowly began branching out and growing roots. Plans were made to create a modest, but traditional sylvan structure high up in the sturdy trees of the forest. Before construction could begin, materials needed to be gathered and foraging patrols were sent out. None ever returned. <br /> |
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Fear wove its way through the people of Llythwere and talk of moving north closer to the civilization of Ta’Illistim was on everyone’s minds. The idea of dealing with the intrusive elves seemed the lesser evil to dying in the wilderness. The fledgling council, which had only just been created a few weeks prior, deliberated for a fortnight on the matter before deciding that they would remain in Llythwere, <br /> |
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Over the next few months a silent, invisible war was waged against the small settlement. With no discernable motive or preference, sylvans of all ages began to disappear in the dark of night. Each morning, people woke fearful, dreading to discover their loved ones were taken in the night. <br /> |
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It wasn’t until their fourth month at Lylthwere that they discovered the identity of their enemy: a band of rogue Faendryl bandits. Still weak from travel and malnourished, their numbers were decimated, leaving less than half a thousand survivors. With so few Ne’Yuscarl left and Illiweth Siergeth’s failing health, they were unable to draw enough power to erect a protective Nanrithowan They were left with only a few armaments to defend against the invaders. <br /> |
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The raiding continued through the spring and, by mid summer, there were less than a hundred sylvans left in Llythwere. What little supplies they had would not last through the winter, and they were incapable of producing crops and too frightened to set out into the forest to forage. Desperate to save their people, the council sought the aid of Imaera and held a commune that lasted nine days and nights. In the early morning of the ninth day, Imaera appeared before them and spoke to the sylvans of a great sacrifice to be made for salvation. That in giving up that which they held dearest, they would be saved from the threat and Lylthwere would thrive for many generations. <br /> |
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Her riddles perplexed the council, and they spent days meditating on its meaning. A decision was never made and enlightenment was not discovered for three days after the commune Illiweth Siegeth passed in her sleep. The last known mage of Yuriquen and, with so few sylvans left to learn the arts or power the spells, any hope of establishing protective wards gone with her. <br /> |
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Despite their meager means, the sylvans held a traditional memorial for their leader and laid her to rest in the foothills of the Dragonspine. The council took her passing as an omen: Imaera’s prophecy come true. They bade their people to wait patiently for the promised prosperity, but the cold of winter and the empty bellys of the children left the sylvans ill at ease. <br /> |
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===The Long Winter=== |
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By the beginning of the new year, the sylvans were desperate. Food stores were empty and they had taken to stripping the bark of nearby trees to feed themselves. Sickness and injury riddled what was left of the small community, threatening to end their dwindling family. <br /> |
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What members of the Ne’Yuscarl remained took up patrolling the forests to forage for any food and herbs they could find. On one such trip Gearith Tilweth was caught in a terrible snowfall, unable to make the trip home. The blizzard lasted days and weak with hunger, the sylvan became lost in the forest and feared for his life. <br /> |
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It is not known how long he traveled blindly through the heavy storm, or would have continued to had he not come upon a small encampment. A group of people, the likes of which he had never seen before greeted him kindly, though guardedly. Their height rivaled that of the the giantkin he had once glimpsed on a trail through Barrett’s Gorge. Both their male and females were completely bald on top of their heads but all had extremely long, pale hair that flowed down to their waists. But what was most striking about these fair, strange people were their eyes. Instead of pupils, their light eyes had slitted sclera. <br /> |
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Too hungry and weak to be truly afraid, he accepted the hospitality of these people and quickly fell asleep by their fire. He woke only once in the night to speak deliriously of his people and their plight before passing out again. The next morning he did not wake, and a quiet prayer was spoken over the body.<br /> |
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After a lengthy discussion about what to do with the body, the group came to a labored decision. Instead of leaving the sylph’s body, the strangers took him and returned him to Lythwere, curious about the people the small man has spoken of. <br /> |
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It was the wise and honorable sylvan mage Illiweth Siergeth who gathered the scattered survivors of the D'ahranal, left homeless and adrift after the closing of Yuriqen. Seeking refuge from the turmoil that followed, they journeyed first to the fringes of the Southron Wastes, gathering others who had fled or still longed to return to their lost homeland. Carrying word of what had befallen their kin, they sought to turn back any who might attempt the perilous journey home. Bound by kinship and strengthened by safety in numbers, they set out in search of a new refuge, following the ancient paths that had once led their people to the Silver Veil.<br /> |
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At first, the sylvans were wary. It had not been an entire season since the Faendryl’s attacks and their desire for peace and solitude from the outside world, as well as the discovery of their deceased brotherkin made them less than hospitable.<br /> |
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== Where the Lost Took Root == |
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Communication between the sylvans and the strangers was difficult and frustrating in the beginning. Their language sounded lyrical to the sylvans but held no discernable alphabet or dialect they knew. The strangers, whom the sylvans gathered called themselves the “Erithi,” could understand pieces of the sylvan language but prefered to answer in elven. Having distanced themselves from their elven cousins for millennia, there were very sylvans few left who spoke the language. <br /> |
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The sylvans’ journey to the southeastern forests of Elanthia lasted nearly a decade. Harsh terrain, unrelenting weather, and sickness claimed many along the way, reducing a caravan of thousands to only a few hundred weary survivors. In the early spring of 2871, they reached the shadowed forests at the base of the Dragonspine and founded the settlement of Llythwere. Their first shelters were little more than makeshift huts of branches and hides, built from what they could scavenge. Supplies were always scarce, and each day was a struggle to find enough food, water, and firewood to survive. |
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Their hope did not last. Foraging patrols sent to gather supplies never returned. Fear gripped the settlement, and whispers of abandoning Llythwere spread. It soon became clear they were being hunted. A ruthless band of rogue Faendryl struck again and again, taking lives in the dead of night. By the end of the raids, barely one hundred sylvans remained. |
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After a brief adjustment period, the two races were able to communicate through a strange mix of languages and drawings. The Erithi offered the sylvans their protection, supplies to keep them through the winter, and assistance rebuilding their homes. Such an offer seemed too good to be true, but left with their proposal or a winter they weren’t certain they would survive… they had no choice.<br /> |
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Winter descended, bringing famine, sickness, and despair. Their warriors were nearly gone, and their last great mage lay dying. They could not farm, dared not hunt, and their meager stores were nearly gone. Each day brought the sound of hunger and grief. When the erithi appeared, strangers of an otherworldly kind, their offer of protection, food, and shelter seemed almost impossible to believe. Suspicion warred with desperation, but the choice was no choice at all. The sylvans accepted. |
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An accord was struck and within a week more Erithians appeared in Lythwere bearing desperately needed food, medicine and supplies to build. Before long a tentative friendship blossomed between the two races, despite the looming shadow of their bargain. <br /> |
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For a year the alliance flourished, and Llythwere began to recover. Then the erithi named their price. Every fifty years, a sylvan would be tithed, bound to them in a ritual of blood magic. The accord was not entered lightly, but the sylvans remembered too well the starvation and slaughter they had endured. Faced with the possibility of returning to that state, they agreed. The first ritual was witnessed only by the elders, its details kept secret, but its outcome ensured the pact would hold for generations. |
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===At Great Cost=== |
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As time passed, Saoirce Ar’Fiernel, a gifted mage and Riend’s mother, rose to prominence in Llythwere. She saw the tithing as barbaric and considered severing the erithi’s access to the settlement. Her skill with the wards that protected their home gave her the means to do so. Quiet dissent began to gather around her, and for a time it seemed the centuries-old accord might break. |
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By the time spring was settling in the forest the sylvans were flourishing. Their homes now spanned the tallest branches of the forest and their people were well-fed and strong. Very little thought was given to the conditions of their bargain with the Erithi and the two races existed in amicable prosperity.<br /> |
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It was Saoirce’s grandmother who intervened, reminding her that the tithe had safeguarded their people when they were at their weakest. She urged her to see it not as a punishment but as a duty, a sacrifice made to ensure survival and honor the covenant with their allies. Saoirce had been raised to believe in that duty, having been a tithe herself, and the words stirred memories of the pride and purpose her own mother had instilled in her. In time, her defiance softened, and she set aside her rebellion, choosing instead to pass down that same belief in sacrifice and the needs of the many to her daughter. |
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Two more seasons passed, bringing the with it the anniversary of the arrival of the Erithians to Lythwere and a new uneasiness settled like a blanket across the settlement. Would their new friends leave and sever all ties with them? Would the conditions of their bargain finally be made clear?<br /> |
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Over the centuries, Llythwere thrived. As their numbers grew and their needs expanded, they began to build upward, weaving their homes into the great trees that had once sheltered their first camp. The city that emerged did not rival the splendor of Yuriqen, yet it was a quiet, graceful place, its walkways and dwellings shaped to live in harmony with the forest. Bathed in dappled light and the whisper of leaves, Llythwere became a testament to survival, resilience, and the enduring bond between its people and the land.<br /> |
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The Erithians met with the sylvan council and with a year to learn the other’s language, they were able to communicate easily this time, leaving little room for misunderstanding. In exchange for the help given to the sylvans, the Erithians sought to expand their population and experiment with genetics. Over the centuries their ability to produce healthy offspring had diminished and the threat to their clan was dire. To this end they would require one sylvan of female sex from each generation to conceive a child with an erithi male. <br /> |
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== The Path Set Before Her == |
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The sylvans were shocked and horrified, they railed against such a horrific demand, feeling as if they had been tricked by their exotic benefactors. With no other recourse honor bound them to accept this condition, but the goodwill built between the two races was severely damaged. <br /> |
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[[File:Ariend3colors.jpg|thumb|Riend as rendered by [[User:MAZEIKISJ |MAZEIKISJ]]|left]] |
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When Riend was born, her mother’s heart filled with both joy and sorrow. By tradition, she should have been protected from the tithe, for Saoirce herself had already been given and returned. Yet Riend was the first female born in Llythwere in three generations, and the shortage of daughters left the council with no other choice. She was chosen for the fate her mother had endured, and with that knowledge, Saoirce vowed her daughter would know freedom, however brief, and taste a life she herself had been denied. |
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Riend’s early years followed the path of any sylvan child in appearance alone. She learned to track with a light step, to string a bow with quiet precision, and to hear the language of wind through the leaves. Yet where others had laughter among the branches, Riend had silence. She was kept apart, her world narrowed to a quiet corner of the forest under the careful watch of appointed elders. Days passed with little more than measured lessons and long stretches of solitude. She did not grow up among the easy chatter of friends or the shared mischief of youth, and the rhythms of companionship were foreign to her. Words came rarely, and when they did, they were offered in hushed tones. She learned to speak softly, not from gentleness, but because there was no one to listen. |
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Tenets of the bargain were marked down and signed by both parties over the next few days. The sylvan was required to be between the ages of 300-350, as these were considered to be the most fertile years by the Erithians. She must also be healthy to lessen any chance of transmitting diseases to the male or the child. She must also be a virgin in order to ensure the child’s paternity. <br /> |
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Saoirce saw how solitude and the shadow of the tithe pressed on her daughter. Wanting to give her more than a life spent waiting, she entrusted Riend with a task. She was to travel westward, carrying word of Llythwere and its open gates to any sylvan who wished to come make their home among its people. Outwardly, it was a mission of welcome and kinship, but in truth it was a chance for Riend to walk beyond the familiar boughs of her home before the tithe claimed her. |
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This process, for the sylvans refused to acknowledge it as any kind of union, would take place in Lythwere and the “couple” would be housed together during conception and throughout the term of the pregnancy. If the couple were not able to conceive over the course of a year, steps would be taken to select another female to replace her. <br /> |
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Her journey took her west past the Dragonspine, moving from forest to forest, meeting scattered sylvans and guiding them home. In time, her steps carried her to the small town of Wehnimer’s Landing, where she would learn that not every freedom brought joy, and some paths, once taken, could never be walked again. |
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Any offspring that resulted in the bargain would automatically be given to the male and returned to their clan to be raised as they saw fit. The mother would never see the child again. Of all the conditions in this bargain, this was the only one the Erithi capitulated on. One female child in every ten generations would be allowed to remain with the sylvan mother, but would be required to be tithed when she came of age.<br /> |
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== The Weight of Another Soul == |
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With no choice, the council discussed the bargain with the people and shared in their horror and sorrow. They sought to discover ways to keep their bloodlines strong and clean, while spreading the burden of this bargain out among them. It was decided that each family would take turns, offering up one child every twelfth generation. How they chose the child from their own growing families was left to their own choosing.<br /> |
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In the early 5110s, Riend was drawn into a nightmare. Grishom Stone, a rogue blood mage, sought to create an urnon golem capable of bringing the demon Althedeus into the world. To power it, he hunted and murdered women who resembled his former lover, Madelyne, using them as both punishment and sacrifice for a betrayal that had driven him to madness. |
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One night in Wehnimer’s Landing, Riend heard a voice that chilled her to the bone. Weak, frightened, and pleading for help, it pulled her through the streets until it surged into her. It was Madelyne’s restless and vengeful spirit, and that moment marked the beginning of a torment Riend could never have imagined. |
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It took many years to discover the incompatibility between sylvans and erithi. Nearly a decade passed without any offspring. Tensions rose between the races, and the erithi accused the sylvans on more than one occasion of purposefully keeping their females from becoming pregnant in order to sidestep the arrangement. Having neither the ability to, nor the intention of dishonoring their bargain, the sylvans sought out the real reason for the problem. With little to no experience with these things, the council was at a loss. It wasn’t until one of their own herbalists explained that he had run into a similar problem trying to cross-breed seed from the trees of their silver veil with the local trees. The difference in their species was too great to produce offspring.<br /> |
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The possession broke her slowly. It did not strike her down in an instant but wore her away piece by piece. Fevered nights blurred into waking hallucinations so vivid she could no longer tell memory from reality. Sores marked her skin and refused to heal. Her limbs grew too weak to carry her far, and her voice often failed her entirely. The pain was constant, but the spiritual torment was worse. Madelyne clawed through her thoughts, whispering the dying screams of Stone’s victims until they became her own. Every night brought another echo, another memory that was not hers, and always the same demand: that Riend destroy him. |
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The sylvans approached the erithi with this information and it was met with relief and approval. With only a cryptic explanation of their returning to their homes to seek out a solution and the promise to return, the erithi left Lythwere.<br /> |
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When Stone first approached her, he seemed unaware she knew what he was. He offered help, promising to free her from the spirit’s grip. His attention, and her striking resemblance to Madelyne, made her valuable to him. Others noticed. They saw how he looked at her, how she occupied a space no one else could. She was asked to remain near him, to watch and gather what she could. It was not given to her as a trap but as a quiet sacrifice. She agreed, not from trust, but from a belief that she could help bring an end to him. |
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===A Less than Welcome Return=== |
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The danger lay not only in the pain, but in the doubt. Somewhere beneath the madness, she began to feel drawn to the man who had orchestrated her suffering. Stone could be charming, attentive, even gentle. There were moments when he smiled without cruelty, when he listened without judgment. In those rare times, she could not tell whether the warmth she felt belonged to her, Stone's own manipulations of her mind, or the fractured love Madelyne had once held for him, still clinging to her mind like a stain that could not be washed away. |
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It took nearly a year for the erithi to return to the sylvan settlement with an answer to their problem. To the dismay and general horror of the people, they were informed that a ritual would be performed between the pledged male and the female. Their blood would be mixed and they would be be bonded together until a child was conceived. At birth the bond would be severed and the two allowed to part. <br /> |
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She tried to redeem him more than once. She wanted to believe there was something in him untouched by ruin, that he could be persuaded to turn away from what he had become. Even as Madelyne twisted her from within and Stone bent her from without, she held tightly to the belief that humanity could be reclaimed. It was not faith. It was desperation. |
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At the time, very little was understood of blood magic, but since it has been revealed as the basis of the tithe ritual the sylvans go through. A heavy mistrust of magic in general, any sphere beyond the most common is not actively practiced. In general a deep-seeded distrust of blood magic is common among sylvans of Lythwere, stemming from this accord.<br /> |
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Eventually, he spoke of a ritual that would sever her bond with Madelyne’s spirit. He painted it as a mercy, a kindness, a clean end to years of torment. Riend agreed, desperate for relief. But the ritual was not what he promised. Instead of releasing her, it transferred Madelyne’s spirit into his urnon golem, binding her to his monstrous creation and leaving Riend broken in its aftermath. |
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After a period of preparation, the ritual took place on the second full moon of the year. Outside of the couple, only the elders are allowed to attend, therefore very little is known about the ritual. Rumors suggest that the couple share their blood and bind themselves together. Days later, the ritual was completed and a child conceived soon afterwards. As promised, once born the parents were no longer bonded and the child given over to the erithians to raise. The sylvan was then allowed the freedom to choose her own path, no longer bound to the rules of the tithing.<br /> |
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Time passed. The golem was destroyed, the demon’s influence faded, and Stone was captured, his power weakened. From his cell, he sent for her with an unusual request: a pair of shoes. She delivered them in person. In the stillness of the prison cell, they spoke with a quiet normalcy that was almost unsettling. There was no magic, no threats, only two people hollowed by what they had endured. She asked him to stop, to let it end. He claimed to care for her. She could not believe him, and she could not trust herself. |
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For over thirty-seven hundred years the tithing has been upheld by the sylvans, without fail. Throughout that time they have thrived and built a true home for themselves. While they will never attain the golden age that was nurtured in Yuriqen they have created a society that holds to the traditions of their people. <br /> |
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He escaped, as he always did. Soon, letters began to arrive. They came without warning, sealed with care and signed with the same words each time: “Yours, always, Grishom.” She never replied, but she read every one. In the quiet hours before dawn, she could not say whether part of her still hoped he might change, or feared that he never could. |
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===The Almost Uprising=== |
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Riend’s mother, Saoirce Ar’Fiernel, was a reknown mage among the people of Lythwere, one of the last students of Illiweth Siergeth. With her people protected and thriving, their numbers steadily increasing, she sought to improve upon the Nanrithowan they were strong enough to create. This included allowing the Erithians to pass through the wards unharmed. Few knew she also held the power to stop it, and when it came time for her tithing she pondered revoking it and casting the erithi out. <br /> |
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For a time, Riend believed Madelyne was truly gone. But the spirit was not destroyed. A fragment had splintered off and lodged within her, feeding on everything she tried to bury. It grew stronger with each unspoken fear and every moment she tried to forget. Madelyne waited, patient and watchful, ready to surface whenever Riend allowed herself to feel too deeply. |
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Considering the practice barbaric, she sought to end it altogether and sought support from others equally unsettled by the tithing. Unrest steadily grew into firm opposition as she gained followers in her efforts. Had she not been persuaded, it is generally thought that the tithe would have ended and the prosperity found with the erithian aid would have ceased, leaving the sylvans in a state only marginally better than when the erithi found them.<br /> |
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In order to survive, to protect those she cared for and unable to know how dangerous Madelyne could still become, Riend learned to close herself off. She buried the joy alongside the pain, the longing alongside the fear. Every feeling became a weakness, a door that could be forced open. She locked them all, until nothing remained but a quiet shell of the woman she might have been. It was the only way she knew to keep the darkness inside her from breaking free. |
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Set on her path, it was her own grandmother who stepped in and attempted to sway her from it. “The tithe is not a punishment. It is a burden we bear proudly because in tithing we are honoring our people, our ancestors and the covenant we made to protect ourselves.” She explained. “There is no honor greater than putting the needs of others above your own.” Her grandmother’s words resonated and with the sliver of doubt it created, she found her opposition waning and replaced by a keen sense of duty she would eventually instill in her daughter.<br /> |
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== The Price of Survival == |
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===Present Day Lythwere=== |
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[[File:Riend watercolor AI.png|thumb|Portrait of Riend Ar'Fiernel Artwork created by uploader using MidJourney]] |
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When Riend returned to Llythwere, she came not as the dutiful daughter destined for the tithe, but as something worn and withered by years of torment. She told her people what had happened beyond the forest, speaking of the possession, the slow breaking down of her body and mind, and the lingering presence of Madelyne’s spirit that had never truly left her. She asked for the sanctuary and healing her home had once freely offered. The council listened in silence, their faces a mask of judgment she could not read. |
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Saoirce was gone by then, her voice absent from the chamber where her daughter’s fate was decided. No advocate rose to speak for her, no elder who had watched her grow up an awkward, isolated thing took pity on her. When the council delivered their verdict, it was without hesitation. She was unclean. Unfit. Unworthy of the tithe. What had been done to her, though no fault of her own, had tainted her in their eyes. Worse still, her ruin placed all of Llythwere at risk. Without her, there was no other daughter to tithe when the time came, and the breaking of the accord could mean the end of their fragile peace. |
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When Riend was born, her mother was filled with joy and sorrow. Having been born ten generations after the last female in her line, Saoirce was allowed to keep and raise her, but it would also sentence her to the same fate she had with the tithe. Resigned to the fate her daughter would endure, she sought to give her a life of freedom she, personally, had not known. <br /> |
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The verdict was final. She was cast out, told she could not remain among them. The paths she had once walked as a child were closed to her, the voices she had once longed to hear fell silent. There was no farewell, no parting gift, only the forest itself standing between her and the life she had tried to return to. She left as she had once entered the wider world, alone, carrying only what she could bear, the weight of her people’s rejection pressing heavier than the years of pain that had brought her there. |
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Riend was raised like any sylvan child, taught to hunt with a bow, hide and live within the forest. When she was old enough, her mother tasked her to travel under the guise of bringing knowledge from the west to their forest. Allowing her the freedom to explore the world and experiences cultures previously unknown to them, Riend was given this blessing and curse. Her travels took her across Elanith and eventually she settled in the town of Wehnimer’s Landing, falling in love with it’s rustic nature settled in the untamed wilderness.<br /> |
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Her purpose stripped away, Riend found herself without direction. The duty she had been raised to fulfill was gone, and with it, the anchor that had shaped her entire life. She could neither return to what she had been nor see the shape of what she might become. In the emptiness that remained, she stood suspended between past and future, unable to move forward. |
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With the world stretched out before her she lived, full of hope and wonder… bound to a future without realizing she was chained.<br /> |
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== Vignettes == |
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[[Riend (prime)/Vignette: Nothing Harmless|Nothing Harmless]] |
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Master of the Rogue Guild <br /> |
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Master of Voln <br /> |
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[[Riend (prime)/Vignette: The World He Promised|The World He Promised]] |
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[[Riend (prime)/Vignettes: Different|Different]] |
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==Artisan Skills== |
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Master Cobbler <br /> |
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Master Fletcher <br /> |
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Master Painter <br /> |
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''New -'' [[Riend (prime)/The River Between us|The River Between us]] |
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==Links== |
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Latest revision as of 12:55, 22 November 2025
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Riend Ar'Fiernel
"I wanted to dissolve into the floor, mixing myself with the hard stone. A stone had a single purpose: to be. No complicated promises, no worries and no feelings."
Features
You see Riend Ar'Fiernel the Master Artisan.
She appears to be a Sylvankind.
She is tall in stature and has a lithesome, nimble build. She appears to be in the bloom of youth. She has expressive, chestnut-haloed malachite green eyes and gardenia white skin. She has fine, textured hellebore black hair worn swept up in a blossom-like style of many petals pinned in the center with an eleven-pointed silver star barrette. She has an oval face, a gently sloped nose and gracefully pointed ears that complement her high cheekbones. Though her features are predominantly sylvan, subtleties in the shape of her face and the tilt of her eyes appear faintly erithian.
Origin
Riend’s home, Llythwere, lies deep within the southeastern forests of Elanthia, nestled between the site of the once-great sylvan stronghold of Nevishrim and the winding cliffs of Barrett’s Gorge. Established in 2874, the settlement’s origins may reach even further back, according to the older families who whisper of an earlier encampment near Ne’Yuscarl Point. The truth, they say, depends entirely on which founding family’s tale you hear.
It was the wise and honorable sylvan mage Illiweth Siergeth who gathered the scattered survivors of the D'ahranal, left homeless and adrift after the closing of Yuriqen. Seeking refuge from the turmoil that followed, they journeyed first to the fringes of the Southron Wastes, gathering others who had fled or still longed to return to their lost homeland. Carrying word of what had befallen their kin, they sought to turn back any who might attempt the perilous journey home. Bound by kinship and strengthened by safety in numbers, they set out in search of a new refuge, following the ancient paths that had once led their people to the Silver Veil.
Where the Lost Took Root
The sylvans’ journey to the southeastern forests of Elanthia lasted nearly a decade. Harsh terrain, unrelenting weather, and sickness claimed many along the way, reducing a caravan of thousands to only a few hundred weary survivors. In the early spring of 2871, they reached the shadowed forests at the base of the Dragonspine and founded the settlement of Llythwere. Their first shelters were little more than makeshift huts of branches and hides, built from what they could scavenge. Supplies were always scarce, and each day was a struggle to find enough food, water, and firewood to survive.
Their hope did not last. Foraging patrols sent to gather supplies never returned. Fear gripped the settlement, and whispers of abandoning Llythwere spread. It soon became clear they were being hunted. A ruthless band of rogue Faendryl struck again and again, taking lives in the dead of night. By the end of the raids, barely one hundred sylvans remained.
Winter descended, bringing famine, sickness, and despair. Their warriors were nearly gone, and their last great mage lay dying. They could not farm, dared not hunt, and their meager stores were nearly gone. Each day brought the sound of hunger and grief. When the erithi appeared, strangers of an otherworldly kind, their offer of protection, food, and shelter seemed almost impossible to believe. Suspicion warred with desperation, but the choice was no choice at all. The sylvans accepted.
For a year the alliance flourished, and Llythwere began to recover. Then the erithi named their price. Every fifty years, a sylvan would be tithed, bound to them in a ritual of blood magic. The accord was not entered lightly, but the sylvans remembered too well the starvation and slaughter they had endured. Faced with the possibility of returning to that state, they agreed. The first ritual was witnessed only by the elders, its details kept secret, but its outcome ensured the pact would hold for generations.
As time passed, Saoirce Ar’Fiernel, a gifted mage and Riend’s mother, rose to prominence in Llythwere. She saw the tithing as barbaric and considered severing the erithi’s access to the settlement. Her skill with the wards that protected their home gave her the means to do so. Quiet dissent began to gather around her, and for a time it seemed the centuries-old accord might break.
It was Saoirce’s grandmother who intervened, reminding her that the tithe had safeguarded their people when they were at their weakest. She urged her to see it not as a punishment but as a duty, a sacrifice made to ensure survival and honor the covenant with their allies. Saoirce had been raised to believe in that duty, having been a tithe herself, and the words stirred memories of the pride and purpose her own mother had instilled in her. In time, her defiance softened, and she set aside her rebellion, choosing instead to pass down that same belief in sacrifice and the needs of the many to her daughter.
Over the centuries, Llythwere thrived. As their numbers grew and their needs expanded, they began to build upward, weaving their homes into the great trees that had once sheltered their first camp. The city that emerged did not rival the splendor of Yuriqen, yet it was a quiet, graceful place, its walkways and dwellings shaped to live in harmony with the forest. Bathed in dappled light and the whisper of leaves, Llythwere became a testament to survival, resilience, and the enduring bond between its people and the land.
The Path Set Before Her
When Riend was born, her mother’s heart filled with both joy and sorrow. By tradition, she should have been protected from the tithe, for Saoirce herself had already been given and returned. Yet Riend was the first female born in Llythwere in three generations, and the shortage of daughters left the council with no other choice. She was chosen for the fate her mother had endured, and with that knowledge, Saoirce vowed her daughter would know freedom, however brief, and taste a life she herself had been denied.
Riend’s early years followed the path of any sylvan child in appearance alone. She learned to track with a light step, to string a bow with quiet precision, and to hear the language of wind through the leaves. Yet where others had laughter among the branches, Riend had silence. She was kept apart, her world narrowed to a quiet corner of the forest under the careful watch of appointed elders. Days passed with little more than measured lessons and long stretches of solitude. She did not grow up among the easy chatter of friends or the shared mischief of youth, and the rhythms of companionship were foreign to her. Words came rarely, and when they did, they were offered in hushed tones. She learned to speak softly, not from gentleness, but because there was no one to listen.
Saoirce saw how solitude and the shadow of the tithe pressed on her daughter. Wanting to give her more than a life spent waiting, she entrusted Riend with a task. She was to travel westward, carrying word of Llythwere and its open gates to any sylvan who wished to come make their home among its people. Outwardly, it was a mission of welcome and kinship, but in truth it was a chance for Riend to walk beyond the familiar boughs of her home before the tithe claimed her.
Her journey took her west past the Dragonspine, moving from forest to forest, meeting scattered sylvans and guiding them home. In time, her steps carried her to the small town of Wehnimer’s Landing, where she would learn that not every freedom brought joy, and some paths, once taken, could never be walked again.
The Weight of Another Soul
In the early 5110s, Riend was drawn into a nightmare. Grishom Stone, a rogue blood mage, sought to create an urnon golem capable of bringing the demon Althedeus into the world. To power it, he hunted and murdered women who resembled his former lover, Madelyne, using them as both punishment and sacrifice for a betrayal that had driven him to madness.
One night in Wehnimer’s Landing, Riend heard a voice that chilled her to the bone. Weak, frightened, and pleading for help, it pulled her through the streets until it surged into her. It was Madelyne’s restless and vengeful spirit, and that moment marked the beginning of a torment Riend could never have imagined.
The possession broke her slowly. It did not strike her down in an instant but wore her away piece by piece. Fevered nights blurred into waking hallucinations so vivid she could no longer tell memory from reality. Sores marked her skin and refused to heal. Her limbs grew too weak to carry her far, and her voice often failed her entirely. The pain was constant, but the spiritual torment was worse. Madelyne clawed through her thoughts, whispering the dying screams of Stone’s victims until they became her own. Every night brought another echo, another memory that was not hers, and always the same demand: that Riend destroy him.
When Stone first approached her, he seemed unaware she knew what he was. He offered help, promising to free her from the spirit’s grip. His attention, and her striking resemblance to Madelyne, made her valuable to him. Others noticed. They saw how he looked at her, how she occupied a space no one else could. She was asked to remain near him, to watch and gather what she could. It was not given to her as a trap but as a quiet sacrifice. She agreed, not from trust, but from a belief that she could help bring an end to him.
The danger lay not only in the pain, but in the doubt. Somewhere beneath the madness, she began to feel drawn to the man who had orchestrated her suffering. Stone could be charming, attentive, even gentle. There were moments when he smiled without cruelty, when he listened without judgment. In those rare times, she could not tell whether the warmth she felt belonged to her, Stone's own manipulations of her mind, or the fractured love Madelyne had once held for him, still clinging to her mind like a stain that could not be washed away.
She tried to redeem him more than once. She wanted to believe there was something in him untouched by ruin, that he could be persuaded to turn away from what he had become. Even as Madelyne twisted her from within and Stone bent her from without, she held tightly to the belief that humanity could be reclaimed. It was not faith. It was desperation.
Eventually, he spoke of a ritual that would sever her bond with Madelyne’s spirit. He painted it as a mercy, a kindness, a clean end to years of torment. Riend agreed, desperate for relief. But the ritual was not what he promised. Instead of releasing her, it transferred Madelyne’s spirit into his urnon golem, binding her to his monstrous creation and leaving Riend broken in its aftermath.
Time passed. The golem was destroyed, the demon’s influence faded, and Stone was captured, his power weakened. From his cell, he sent for her with an unusual request: a pair of shoes. She delivered them in person. In the stillness of the prison cell, they spoke with a quiet normalcy that was almost unsettling. There was no magic, no threats, only two people hollowed by what they had endured. She asked him to stop, to let it end. He claimed to care for her. She could not believe him, and she could not trust herself.
He escaped, as he always did. Soon, letters began to arrive. They came without warning, sealed with care and signed with the same words each time: “Yours, always, Grishom.” She never replied, but she read every one. In the quiet hours before dawn, she could not say whether part of her still hoped he might change, or feared that he never could.
For a time, Riend believed Madelyne was truly gone. But the spirit was not destroyed. A fragment had splintered off and lodged within her, feeding on everything she tried to bury. It grew stronger with each unspoken fear and every moment she tried to forget. Madelyne waited, patient and watchful, ready to surface whenever Riend allowed herself to feel too deeply.
In order to survive, to protect those she cared for and unable to know how dangerous Madelyne could still become, Riend learned to close herself off. She buried the joy alongside the pain, the longing alongside the fear. Every feeling became a weakness, a door that could be forced open. She locked them all, until nothing remained but a quiet shell of the woman she might have been. It was the only way she knew to keep the darkness inside her from breaking free.
The Price of Survival
When Riend returned to Llythwere, she came not as the dutiful daughter destined for the tithe, but as something worn and withered by years of torment. She told her people what had happened beyond the forest, speaking of the possession, the slow breaking down of her body and mind, and the lingering presence of Madelyne’s spirit that had never truly left her. She asked for the sanctuary and healing her home had once freely offered. The council listened in silence, their faces a mask of judgment she could not read.
Saoirce was gone by then, her voice absent from the chamber where her daughter’s fate was decided. No advocate rose to speak for her, no elder who had watched her grow up an awkward, isolated thing took pity on her. When the council delivered their verdict, it was without hesitation. She was unclean. Unfit. Unworthy of the tithe. What had been done to her, though no fault of her own, had tainted her in their eyes. Worse still, her ruin placed all of Llythwere at risk. Without her, there was no other daughter to tithe when the time came, and the breaking of the accord could mean the end of their fragile peace.
The verdict was final. She was cast out, told she could not remain among them. The paths she had once walked as a child were closed to her, the voices she had once longed to hear fell silent. There was no farewell, no parting gift, only the forest itself standing between her and the life she had tried to return to. She left as she had once entered the wider world, alone, carrying only what she could bear, the weight of her people’s rejection pressing heavier than the years of pain that had brought her there.
Her purpose stripped away, Riend found herself without direction. The duty she had been raised to fulfill was gone, and with it, the anchor that had shaped her entire life. She could neither return to what she had been nor see the shape of what she might become. In the emptiness that remained, she stood suspended between past and future, unable to move forward.
Vignettes
New - The River Between us