Leafiara (prime)
Leafiara Autumnwind, or Leafi to her friends, born on Tilamaires the 6th, Jastatos 5092, is a half-sylvan cleric of Tilamaire and citizen of Wehnimer's Landing. Though typically cheerful, she becomes ferociously defensive if her friends or her home are at risk and will use absolutely anything at her disposal--warding magic, bolt spells, two handed weapons, [[::brawling|her own hands and feet]], [[::Invisibility_(916)|spying]], or simply distributing information as a snooping [[::Category:TownCrier|TownCrier]] reporter--to protect her loved ones.
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[[Category: Half-elf player characters]] [[Category: Half-sylvan player characters]]
Appearance
You see Maiden Leafiara Autumnwind the Champion of the Fallen.
She appears to be a Half-Sylvan.
She is tall and has a slender build. She appears to be very young. She has sparkling green eyes and soft, fair skin. She has shoulder length, tousled bright red hair held back in a ponytail with a simple band. She has a well-defined, heart-shaped face and slightly pointed ears. She has ebon-marbled kelyn green lacquer brushed onto her smooth oval fingernails.
She is wearing a gold rose-patterned locket, a bold red musical note-shaped locket, a mazerine angora cape fastened with a diamond snowflake pin, a platinum and emerald ivy leaf, a crested hawk charm, a honey beryl note symbol inset with tiny water sapphires, a white silk tote patterned with sewing needles along a musical staff slung over her shoulder, a sleeveless white silk shirt with a red leaf-printed collar, a pair of fingerless eonake-studded sylvan gloves emblazoned with leaves, a pure white silk gem pouch embroidered with a bold red musical note, some silver and gold filigree bells, a pure white silk instrument case with a bold red leaf-shaped latch, a soft grey textured sash, a high-slit knee-length red silk skirt adorned with a dozen white bells, and a pair of eonake-soled sylvan sandals with leaf-patterned toe straps.
Background
Florania's Plea
Florania, a sylvan bard, had always known she wanted her daughter to be raised in the sylvan forests--and Florania's husband, a human ranger, agreed. Although non-sylvans are almost never permitted in sylvan communities, the pregnant Florania traveled to her old home and made her case to the village leaders, supported by her husband's animal companion, a forest wolf. The leaders eventually agreed with two conditions: he would only be allowed in a limited area of the forest and could only stay until their daughter was twenty years old--a pittance to a sylvan lifespan, but a fully grown lady by human standards.
And so, several months later, Fiara was born in the sylvan forests, rare enough to be there as a half-sylvan and rarer still that her human father was with her.
Florania lived with guilt, however, that her family would have to leave the forest in what seemed to a sylvan as no time at all. She mused to her daughter one day, thinking she was alone in the room: "Our little leaf, Fiara, who must one day fall from these trees..."
Her husband, who had walked in without her noticing, tried to lighten the mood: "What's this, not even two weeks old and you're renaming her Leafiara without me? 'Cause I do like it," he added, flashing a grin.
Florania returned a smile to him. "So do I."
Smiling Face of Salvation
Naturally very energetic, Leafi grew up as a mischievous handful unlike anything the pure sylvans were prepared for. But thinking herself invincible, and largely actually being stronger and faster than sylvan children her age, also set her up for a near-tragedy. At seven years old she had run off to pick herbs on her own when something put a large hole through her midsection, killing her instantly and unexpectedly.
There were no known witnesses to the event and to this day Leafi doesn't know what happened; it might have been a wild boar goring her on its tusk, an unusually prejudiced sylvan firing an arrow and clearing away the evidence, or a practicing mage's spell gone astray. She only knew she lay there dead in a still and helpless panic, an eternity of terror to a child even though only a few minutes in reality, before a cleric arrived to save her, soothing the girl with a gentle smile and a warm, almost motherly voice that would never leave her memory.
And so Leafiara, whose stamina and energy could easily have led her to take after her parents and become a ranger or a bard, knew that she must one day became a cleric--with the hope that she could one day to be to others that smiling face of salvation.
Actress of Many Masks
Although she was clearly different from others throughout her time in the sylvan forests, Leafi established her place in the community starting in her early teenage years after her parents encouraged her to join a theater troupe, where she began discovering her love of music, dance, and whimsical outfits.
Her mother helped her develop a strong and clear singing voice for her age, which got her foot in the door, but being the only half-sylvan of the troupe eventually led her to become one of its cornerstones. Sometimes told that she was a blessing from both Tilamaire and Cholen, Leafiara's distinct appearance led to her being frequently asked to play a variety of human characters simply to look more believable, giving the girl leeway to expand her acting range and avoid being typecast. There was never any predicting what personality, profession, race, or even gender Leafi would portray next time she stepped on the stage.
Leafiara was not quite as unlimited an actress as audiences came to think. In her troupe's eyes she was never able to convincingly play a romantic role even in practice, and thus never asked to play one publicly, though they found her acting slightly more credible if her love interest was female. She could also never master the portrayal of a villain unless the character was comedic, over-the-top, or covert. In an infamous incident Leafiara also literally "broke a leg"--and an arm--mere seconds after putting on a pair of heels for a princess costume, after which she swore it was the one and only time she would ever wear them.
Despite these shortcomings, Leafi was believable enough in the roles she did play that she was sometimes teased with questions over which of her many faces was the real one--and some in the community had unspoken concerns about whether she had become a proficient enough actress so as to raise doubt over her sincerity and openness in everyday life.
Coverup and Fallout
Throughout her young life Leafiara's parents had withheld the truth of Florania's deal from her, pushing that they wanted to leave the forest as a family when she was of age instead of explaining that her father had to leave. However, her parents' lingering guilt grew as they saw their daughter become more entrenched with her theater troupe and, after realizing she might not want to go, they revealed the truth to her five months before it was time.
After Leafi's initial angry outburst and a extensive heated argument, she calmed down and her parents discussed their options, leaving the choice in her hands: while her father had to leave the forest, she and her mother had the option to remain if they wished. Ultimately Leafiara decided that leaving as a family was for the best, partly because that had already been the plan but mostly because of being upset with the village leaders for not allowing her father to stay.
Between the coverup by her parents and the isolationism of the leaders, Leafi developed a distrust of figures in power, including well-intentioned ones, and lives with suspicion of conspiracies against her as well as insecurity that everything around her could be a house of cards that falls apart for unknown reasons. To prevent either possibility, she aims to be a people pleaser in a broad sense, but also shows reluctance to get emotionally close to others in a way that leaves her vulnerable.
Characteristics
Likes
- Adventure
- Dance
- Fighting competitions such as the Festival of the Fallen or events held at the Icemule Trace Brawling Tavern
- Music
- Rescuing
- Shoes
- The Brotherhood of Rooks (at least in theory)
- Theater
Dislikes
- Alcohol
- Bureaucracy
- Cowardice
- High heels
- Prejudice
- Stuffy armor
- Stuffy clothing
- Ta'Vaalor
Hopes
- Acceptance despite being half-sylvan
- Being a great resurrection-specializing cleric
- Excitement in everyday life
- Recognition of heroic deeds
- Staying young at heart--and in body
Fears
- Boredom
- Giving in to vengeful feelings
- Hurting loved ones
- Inability to save a life
- Learning of some great power that could tempt or corrupt her
- Maturing
- Mind control
- Pain
- Rejection
- Stoics
Other Quirks
- Can't wear long sleeves, pants, or fully enclosed shoes (like boots) for long without feeling uncomfortable and out of harmony with nature
- Does not swear even mildly
- Has a somewhat limited vocabulary, despite her more eloquent mother's best efforts to teach her
- Romanticizes the heroism of knights as they're presented in plays, but pragmatically thinks spies are more important for protecting the innocent
- Too impatient and full of energy to study magic in a traditional academic way, but instead develops her talent in a passive and subconscious way that gives off the impression of a prodigy, growing stronger by hearing and adapting to the inner musical harmony of magic as Tilamaire allows her to hear it
- Willing to throw herself into nearly any dangerous plan that poses risk of her being seriously hurt, but straight-laced about refusing to do anything that will intentionally hurt even mildly, such as getting a piercing or tattoo
Affiliations
- Guildmaster of the Cleric Guild
- Master in the Order of Voln
- Contact for the Scions of Shaundara
- Wehnimer's Landing correspondent for the [[::Category:TownCrier|TownCrier]]
- Advisor and Public Relations liason for Mayor Cruxophim
- Member of Hand of the Arkati
- Member of The Witching Hour
- Member of Twilight Hall
Eyes of the Dawn
Events
Leafiara came to live in Wehnimer's Landing during the time of the war against Chaston Griffin, who exerted mental powers over the Blameless and even the general populace, turning them against [[::half-elf|half-elves]] as murderers and assassins. Though not a part of the [[::Wehnimer%27s_Landing_Militia/saved_posts|militia]], she made early efforts to patrol town and root out snipers using herself as bait.
The conflict escalated as Leafi and hundreds of other half-elves were afflicted by a curse, later discovered to be the work of Raznel, which gave the appearance of black veins and caused debilitating outbreaks of sores and boils. Seeing the curse as a blood-related affliction, Leafi approached the blood expert Cruxophim with a proposal to find half-elven donors and supply samples of cursed and pure blood alike for his study in efforts to find a cure. She at first eagerly supplied donors and samples to Crux, amidst being fired up in more direct war efforts to repel Chaston's crusaders from the Landing and Vornavis as needed, but backed off from blood collection several weeks later after hearing certain reports about Crux's past, previously unknown to her.
The situation worsened as Chaston's forces occupied the east side of the Landing and constructed cleansing camps, taking half-elven and half-krolvin prisoners to bleed and kill them. As with her earlier self-sacrificial plan to draw out snipers, Leafiara thought of infiltrating the camps under the guise of a prisoner in fake bonds, but before she could propose it to the militia she was captured and brought into a camp in real bonds. There some of her blood was taken and she might ultimately have died if not for the unexpected intervention of Disean setting her free, for which she still says she owes him a debt. Only a few days later she was kidnapped again along with several other half-elven adventurers around the Landing, brought onto a ship by Raznel herself, where the witch took their blood to complete her work with blood marble before releasing them.
Though shaken by these experiences and filled with an unfamiliar feeling of vulnerability that led her to become more physically affectionate, Leafi eventually seemed to rebound from her trauma with the support of Severine and other friends. She joined with dozens of Landing defenders aiding Rodnay in hindering Chaston's mental control and then again in defeating Drangell and Chaston himself at Talador. Despite these victories, Chaston used his final moments to activate an obelisk, seemingly powered by Raznel's blood magic, which laid waste to Talador--and for that reason along with the black blood curse, Leafiara has her eyes set on taking Raznel's head one day and cannot be satisfied until then.
As peace settled in, Brieson from the Hall of Mages was able to use Cruxophim's research to produce and distribute a cure for the black blood curse, from which Leafiara seems to be fully recovered--though several months later Dennet Kestrel would question whether this is truly the case.
Aftermath
Freedom Fighter
For her efforts in the war and with the cure, Leafiara was recognized as one of a few trusted contacts in the Landing for the Scions of Shaundara. Although the Scions themselves are not recognized by the Turamzzyrian Empire in any positive light, it is just as well for Leafi, who distrusts authority and has said that the Hall of Mages, Church of Koar, and the Emperor himself did not act quickly or forcefully enough against Chaston.
Self-Improvement
Seeing the power of Chaston and Raznel at work led Leafiara to believe early in the war that her unfamiliarity with blood magic might be hindering her duty to save the fallen and protect her loved ones. She joined Twilight Hall, a [[::Co-operative_Houses_of_Elanthia|Great House]] dedicated to studying magic, in hopes that someone could teach her. However, after being captured very shortly thereafter, she became self-conscious about being seen as physically weak and ultimately put off those studies to rededicate herself toward greater physical strength.
Trust and Reconciliation
Despite learning about Cruxophim's past, Leafi eventually reconciled with him and expressed trust that he had changed after noticing that, when Chaston had thrown waves of mind-controlled children at adventurers in Talador to activate the obelisk, Crux had not been among those who slaughtered them.
Keeping up with the Kestrels
Events
[OOC: I might come back later to trim this down a bit in editing.]
Mission: Carenos' Death
After the Kestrels arrived at the Hendoran outpost, Leafiara maintained early distance from them and wariness of them. However, after Carenos assassinated Leafi's best friend Severine in Icemule for refusing to provide information about the Kestrels, Leafiara took a more active interest.
Among various mysteries, murders, and disappearances over the next couple of months, as well as campaigning for mayor, Leafiara indifferently offered occasional help to the Kestrels, largely hoping to glean information that might help her get vengeance on Carenos. Carenos' target was Cyph Kestrel, who he claimed had killed his daughters, and he would eventually shoot Cyph with the Long Suffering poison, which put him in endless agony.
Leafiara joined Elementz, Ariond, and many others as they led a search for Carenos over two nights, first getting information on his whereabouts from the [[::Brotherhood of Rooks|Rooks]] and then tracking him down. Though Carenos was living in the wilderness outside of Landing jurisdiction, Shinann fogged him into the Landing to escape pursuit by golems under Dennet Kestrel's control. There Carenos would go on to murder Rowmi, though he was seemingly frantic and possibly having his mind invaded at the time. Various adventurers attempted to take Carenos into custody, including invisible ones, but ultimately Leafiara fogged him to the North Dock, where the militia arrived to arrest him as he was cornered.
Carenos was later put to trial, where Leafiara and many others testified, but ironically Carenos was himself shot with the Long Suffering by an unknown assailant before Judge Renpaw could render a verdict. Months later, Ysharra and others would put him out of his misery with a mercy killing, to Leafiara's apparent delight.
Self-Reliance
During his stay in the Landing, Dennet invited Leafiara and Sareyna to take care of his wife Reannah Kestrel, joining Shinann in doing so as she had already been visiting her for months in efforts to cure her of a mysterious ailment. Leafi agreed with the same hope of finding a cure, though many months later she would admit the ulterior motive of also wanting to keep a closer eye on the Outpost and the suspicious behavior surrounding Dennet.
Osment the Augment, a member of the Red Brigade, came to town to investigate that suspicious behavior, including the murder of Sir Michol, and interviewed many people over several nights including Leafiara. On one such night he disappeared, but he resurfaced a few nights later and claimed that the trail had gone cold and he would return home. While adventurers discussed whether something was wrong with him or his memories had been altered by Quinshon, a Tehir mentalist and former member of the Hall of Mages working with Dennet, Leafi agreed that something was wrong but argued that it didn't matter and the Landing should resolve its problems on its own.
The Cyph Who Leafiara Could Have Been
Cyph's father Dennet Kestrel had a plan to seal him in stasis inside a bane coffin until a cure for the Long Suffering could be found. Leafiara reluctantly joined others to help build the wards on the coffin, acknowledging it as a viable contingency plan if the Landing couldn't come up with a better alternative. However, she came to regret offering her aid when circumstances surrounding the ritual seemed suspicious to her--and she later did not help with sealing Cyph away.
Cyph was eventually saved from poison by a ritual conducted by Dennet and Quinshon to transfer his soul into the donated corpse of a Landing citizen. After recovering some of his strength, but while still having trouble retaining memories, Cyph began to make romantic advances on Leafi, who didn't return his affections but also didn't reject him due to sympathy and not wanting to risk hindering his recovery.
Quinshon revealed that the transference had not been a success and Cyph would die soon. Leafiara tried to reach out to Cyph with an offer to seek the intervention of the Arkati, but he didn't respond and the transference inevitably fell apart as she and other Landing adventurers watched him pass.
In some of Cyph's final moments, he admitted to feeling pleasure over killing Carenos' daughters in an act of vengeance after Carenos had tortured him for two days. However, Leafi, who had carried vengeful feelings against the same man, did not blink at this and even snapped at the ghosts of Carenos' daughters when they appeared to witness Cyph's death.
Afterward Leafiara retreated to her sanctuary and attempted a silent bargaining prayer to Lorminstra to offer more of her spirit to a [[::Raise_Dead_(318)|resurrection]] than ever before if Cyph could be saved, but to no avail other than the [[::Spirit_death|loss of her own life]]. Though Lorminstra restored her, Leafi was left despondent and Severine, Chaoswynd, Lylia, Ysharra, and others arrived to comfort her in a moment of weakness and grief.
Dennet's Downfall
Dennet's ultimate plan was to rescue Reannah from her ailment using Quinshon to transfer her into the body of a living person, for which his candidates were Shinann, Sareyna, and Leafiara. The latter two were ruled out for still-unknown reasons and Dennet kidnapped Shinann, uniting dozens of Landing adventurers to find and save her.
With the guidance of Rodnay, adventurers destroyed pylons that Dennet had established to sustain Reannah and made their way to an underground chamber where Dennet, Quinshon, and Shinann were. There they witnessed the last moments of what appeared to be a successful transference--but in actuality was an unsuccessful one, leaving Shinann only experiencing lingering memories of Reannah's instead of being overtaken by her.
All his objectives having failed, Dennet died alongside his wife in an underground chamber.
Aftermath
Lingering Curse Concerns
Having originally dismissed it as a poor attempt at sowing dissension when Dennet Kestrel questioned during the 5117 mayoral campaign season whether any taint from the black blood curse still lingered within her, Leafiara took it more seriously in hindsight after Naimorai Kestrel's journal revealed that, for undisclosed reasons, Leafi was ruled out as a host to transfer Reannah's soul into.
Even though Dennet ultimately selected Shinann, who had also been afflicted with the black blood curse and had shown a more similar reaction to Leafi than to others such as Bekke or Gavrien when the cure was applied, the mere possibility of something remaining wrong with her led Leafiara to provide Cruxophim with another blood sample to compare against past blood she'd given while known to be cursed.
Love and the Line Between Justice and Vengeance
Leafiara's concerns in the wake of the Kestrels were not merely external threats, as her struggles against darker tendencies haunted her.
During the height of Chaston Griffin's power she had dreamed of taking his life, not merely for pragmatic reasons but with a gleeful sense of vengeance, and had been talked down from becoming twisted with rage by Rubi and Ysharra. Despite this, less than a year later she watched with no small amount of pleasure as that same Ysharra offered a mercy killing and ended the life of the Long Suffering-poisoned Carenos, who Leafiara had never forgiven for assassinating her best friend Severine.
That there might be something wrong with her joy over Carenos' death did not occur to Leafiara until several months later when grief over failure to save Cyph Kestrel led her to dream of ending Dennet's life in a fit of vengeance--and to again be talked down from it, this time by Chaoswynd, Khylynnia, and Severine.
Though fearful of what she might become, Leafi hangs on to the memory of her horror over seeing her friends' concern and secretly relies on them to save her from herself if she loses sight of her better judgment again. Although she publicly revealed her past vindictiveness toward Chaston during the 5117 mayoral debates, her vindictiveness toward Dennet remains secret to all but very close friends.
Blood Magic Musings
As she did during the war against Chaston, Leafi again pondered whether she needed to gain experience with blood magic due to disappointment with her inability to save not only Cyph, but also Lana and Reannah Kestrel.
However, she has not yet approached anyone to inquire further since, despite looking up to known practitioners Cruxophim and Stormyrain, blood magic is also the domain of her hated enemy Raznel and not to be taken lightly, especially considering newfound self-recognition of her emotional vulnerability.
Rook Sympathizer
Despite turning against Rysus after he made threats on Reannah's life in retribution for Dennet's suspected misdeeds of kidnappings, Leafiara still admired the [[::Brotherhood_of_Rooks|Rooks]]' talent with gathering intel, including supplying information on where to find Carenos. She also had ongoing frustrations and impatience with the [[::Wehnimer%27s_Landing_Militia/saved_posts|militia]]'s inability to act on suspicions, such as an unwillingness to detain Dennet after his mother-in-law Drandea first accused him, or to act outside of Landing jurisdiction, such as an unwillingness to detain Stephos DeArchon when he spoke with adventurers at the Black Sands.
Her disdain for the limitations of the law, along with Rysus' eventual claim that he hadn't been serious with his threat to Reannah, have ultimately led Leafi to continue considering the Rooks a valuable ally and a necessary option for protecting the town, despite disagreement with some of the methods and motives they have been known to show.
Anti-Imperialist Leanings
Leafiara has begun to more seriously sympathize with others such as Archales, Chamorr, Pukk, and Wolfloner in anti-imperialist sentiments. Despite seeing Brieson, Malvernus, Pylasar, and Sir Thadston as allies, along with [[::Kingdom_of_Hendor|Hendor]]'s ongoing aid, she is also constantly surrounded by Imperial figures either incompetent, malicious, or self-serving enough so as to be untrustworthy.
The quick downfall of Osment was a particular turning point leading Leafi to say publicly that the Landing is better off solving problems without relying on external help.