Aeronwen Galanodel - @ElvenAeronwen
Age: 27
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Druid
Alignment: Neutral Good
Personality: Warm, friendly, curious, hopeful
Home Region: Averwyn
Powers/Abilities/Skills: Communing with nature, animal telepathy and animal speech, "wild shape" and other druidic abilities
Other Associated Regions: None
Face Claim: Melissa Benoist
Aeronwen Galanodel grew up in a village of druidic wood elves known as the Averwyn Order as a member of the Encana tribe. Nestled in the heart of the expansive Averwyn Forest, the village has minimal contact with the outside world and most of their communication, trading, and traveling occurs within the Averyn Forest and the other Averwyn tribes. The exceptions to this rule is the trading they take part in with a nearby Rhalist monastery and their sparse communications with the loxodon city, which has helped them keep their rituals and religion unchanged for thousands of years. They worship Alastriona, goddess of the woodlands, and they hold a deep reverence for the natural world around them, following Alastriona’s dogma that states the forest and the life it contains is sacred and not to be stolen or injured.
A herd of dawn unicorns coexist peacefully with the Encana village, a partnership where both sides view the other with respect and compassion. Unicorns are intrinsic to the belief system of the Averwyn people. They are considered the holy symbol of Alastriona. Of the vast network of Averwyn tribes, the Encana tribe is generally looked towards for guidance and leadership due to their deep connection with the unicorns. “Encana” is Druidic for “unicorn” and each other Averwyn tribe is named for their patron animal. Every tribe has a unique voice and perspective, but all follow the golden thread of Alastriona’s teachings.
Aeronwen’s mother, Rune, was the Archdruid and spiritual leader of the tribe until Aeronwen was eighteen. She was kind, steadfast, and strong, with a spark of the wilderness in her eyes and the heart of a true warrior. There was something different about her, and even the unicorns bowed to her in reverence.
Although largely peaceful, the woodlands were flanked on one side by a region of dark necromancy- the Deadwood, a region ruled by Nagendra and the Shadow Walker. When the dead attacked the Encana lands, Rune left with a battalion of elves and unicorns to meet them head on and fight them off. She was the only elven casualty of the battle, but because of her heroism the necromantic battalion was razed. After sustaining a mortal wound, it is said that her bow glowed a brilliant white light before she let loose six arrows which each burst into explosive, holy, energy. These blasts obliterated the necromancers, leaving nothing but bones and dust. No one knows how such a feat was accomplished- but it is thought that Alastriona herself joined her that day, and with Rune’s last breath, she turned the tides of the battle, saving the entire tribe.
As is customary of the Encana tribe, Rune’s ashes were ground and dyes added, and her family painted her colorful remains over the stones in the tribe’s memory garden. The colors remained in her honor until Alastriona’s rains brought them trickling into the earth. Rune’s name was carved in Elvish on one of the larger stones. Beneath her name, they carved one of her many poems. Other honor stones are contained in the garden, but it always seems that the light hits Rune’s stone just a little brighter- or so Aeronwen likes to say.
Aeronwen’s father, Aureum, assumed the role of Archdruid shortly after Rune’s passing. He is often seen patrolling their lands in his bear form, ever alert to any new necromantic activity.
Aeronwen was an adventurer at heart, and while she loved learning about the flora and fauna of the forest from her elders, she spent most of her time as an explorer- scaling massive trees, collecting herbs and mushrooms, tracking massive beasts, and exploring new areas. She was free to do all of this, with only one rule- to never enter the Deadwood. This area was off limits not just for children but adults alike, for it held (and still holds to this day) a power of evil so intense it was palpable in the air around it.
Wanting to both prove herself as a true explorer and see for herself what went on there, she traveled to the Dead Wood when she was twenty-five, the first elf of the order to ever do so. She crossed over the barrier river and entered the forbidden space. With each step, the fertile ground became more ashen, and the trees barren of leaves. Once fully inside, the area had the appearance of a rotten forest and the air was damp with decay and necromantic energies. After some time, she came upon a ruined structure with nothing but a crumbling foundation and part of one wall still standing. A sculpture or an enraged woman with seven gems arranged in a circle between her eyes met her as she approached. Without a thought, she reached forward to touch the plaque in front of the statue, and the moment her hand touched stone there was a flash of smokey black, a burst of energy, and she was flung into the air, her back striking a tree. Unconscious, she lay on the cold stone floor in a crumpled pile, a smoking black crescent symbol burned into her right palm.
She had entered unholy ground, the land of cultists worshipping Nagendra, and through her statue she had exacted her wrath on Aeronwen for her trespassing.
Aelwyn, one of the matriarch unicorns in the Encana herd, sensed what had happened and took off after Aeronwen. Aelwyn came to Aeronwen moments before it was too late, lifting her onto her back and using the healing power of her horn to keep her alive while she rushed her back home.
The curse was a powerful one, and the elves soon realized their abilities would not be enough- so an urgent message was sent to the loxodon tribe that lived on the other side of the forest. They had greater experience with necromantic magic that could aid them, and Peach Ears was sent to her aid. Through powerful ancient spells and magics, Peach Ears pushed the curse out of most of her body and up into her right hand but the curse would not leave her body. As a life-saving measure, the loxodon gifted Aeronwen with an enchanted silver bracelet to keep the curse at bay and provide her with strength to fight it back. She always keeps that hand wrapped in strips of blessed linen cloth. It is where the curse is centralized, and because of this, her palm reacts violently to contact with intense dark and desecration magic. If the silver bracelet were to be removed, the curse would immediately begin to spread once again.
The ordeal left Aeronwen significantly weakened, and she could no longer run, leap, and climb with the same ability as she once had. Prior to the curse, she was seen as an incredibly gifted druid. She had learned to shapeshift into animals at an incredibly young age and her eyes glowed with a similar brightness as her mothers’. Now cursed, Aeronwen struggled at times to even walk. When she tried to speak to a squirrel, or turn into a heron, she found she could not. Everything that made her feel alive had been taken from her, her magical well depleted.
Recovery was slow, painful, and frustrating. She felt as though her identity had been stripped from her. There were many dark months and a gaping hole in her heart. Aureum tried to reach her but he could not, his own gentle heart breaking in the process. Her uncle Barabor, Archdruid of the Bairn tribe sat with her and offered her some tough advice:
“Ye can sit on the shore of life’s water never knowin’ the depths it carries, or you can set the stream alight with the sun’s glitter as you dive fearlously in. Be brave, lass. Enter the water. Ye might never be the same as before, but ye will never know all ye can be unless you take that first brave step.”
With his words, Aeronwen started to heal her mind. She began to study herbalism, healing, and the religion and culture of her storied people. She also spent time at the local Rhalist monastery, learning about their own culture and belief system, joining in their daily prayers when she had the chance. With her own people, she would often play the ocarina during their rituals and celebrations. Peach Ears had decided to stay in her village and she enjoyed asking him all about his own people. They also worshiped Alastriona, but their customs varied greatly. As her confidence and spirit grew, some of her magical abilities started to return, including her ability to talk to animals and assume some animal forms.
Aeronwen became increasingly close to Aelwyn. The unicorn would often let her ride on her back as they traveled through the forest, and they spent a lot of time together gathering herbs and berries for various remedies and potions. She always accompanied Aeronwen to the monastery as she wouldn’t be able to make the trip alone. When Aelwyn gave birth, it was Aeronwen who named her new daughter- Rozenwyn, meaning “shining rose.”
As she became stronger and stronger, Aeronwen decided she was ready for her coming of age ceremony, a celebration of an elf's first steps into adulthood. The day of her ceremony, Aeronwen decided to spend some time in silence meditating in the stone gardens. She sat down and, as always, read her mother’s poem aloud- a ritual she had created for herself whenever she went to the gardens. Something happened on this particular occasion- she noticed patterns and hidden meanings behind her mother’s words. In an instant she saw the poem as something else entirely- a prophecy. She couldn’t explain why or how she knew this but she couldn’t shake the idea once it was in her head.
She rushed to her father to tell him the news, showing him that she believed the poem meant a team of heroes were to gather in order to thwart Nagendra once and for all. She wanted to venture outward to find these heroes, and believed the journey would start at the distant loxodon village, where a very different sect of Alastriona followers lived and worshipped. Aureum was skeptical, but more than that, concerned. He did not want his daughter leaving their village where she could live in safety. She was not as resilient as a typical elf and prone to fatigue.
The Archdruid could tell how much this adventure meant to Aeronwen, so he made an agreement with her. If she wanted to test her theory, she would first need to prove she was capable of traveling beyond their order by spending time adventuring in the closest settlement, a distant town named Thark. Peach Ears would accompany her. If she found that she could manage that, he just might be persuaded to let her leave on her journey…
That very night, Aeronwen, Peach Ears, and Rozenwyn headed off, a scroll with her mother’s poem kept safe in her pack.
The prophecy reads:
In the soft summer light come walk by the way
In the soft summer light in the evening
Come slow on the path in the woods kept holy
Come slow but do not venture solely
Two are the walkers, by sun and by moon
Two are the walkers at dusk
Three are the walkers by shadow of soul
Three are the walkers still lacking their whole
Then out from that shadow four walkers tread on
Then out from that shadow, shadow fades, new day’s dawn
NOTE: This backstory comes from Aeronwen's Dungeons and Dragons backstory verbatim. Not every element of this backstory will be included in her Twitter Roleplay. For example, the story of the prophecy, or the fact that she left her village with Peach Ears, are NOT canon for the purposes of Twitter, since the characters involved with those story elements are not on Twitter! I include them here both for my own personal reference and because they are important to her as a character, even if they will be missing from some roleplay settings.
If you would like to understand Aeronwen's people, this song and its lyrics are a beautiful representation. In my mind, Aeronwen's mother would speak in a similar way as this song.
LYRICS:
Enter the wild with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river
May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter
May you enter now as otter without falter into water
Look to the sky with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling
Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter
Walk through the world with care, my love
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing
Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home
Credit to: https://www.thelostwords.org/spell-songs/
