Anisven

Anisven
Status	Retired
Race	Unknown
Gender	Unknown
Guild	Warrior Mage
Instance	Prime
Relatives	Unknown

Anisven's Autobiography

I was born in the third month of Lirisa the Archer in the Year of the Silver Unicorn, 301, somewhere on the dusty roads of Zoluren.

My father was an artist, a lifesculptor in Leth Deriel, by name Raelesvaan Varanor. I never knew him - he and my mother met and parted tempestuously and I was the memento my mother carried away with her. I am his only child.

My mother is an itchy-footed elf named Gaeniad Farsinger, with a taste for wandering and not much maternal aptitude. The wisest parental decision she ever made was to foster me with Andiar and Laethorin Rowanburn, Human farmers with a home in the fertile lands north of the Crossings.

My foster family was not unkind - they raised me well, discharging their duty to the alien child left like a cuckoo's egg in their comfortable nest. I understand, all these years later, that my mother tried, but her feckless nature simply wasn't able to cope with the demands of the small child nature had saddled her with - finding those good farmer folk, and being in funds (a rare enough occurrence, as I remember), she left coin to pay for her daughter's upbringing among humans.

That caused problems, in the end - as I grew from child to youth all was well, my height and elven features making me a bit of a curiosity but never giving rise to any ill treatment. It was only as I reached adulthood and never changed that my foster family began to grow cool, uncomfortable with the knowledge of the long lifespan natural to the elven kind. I began to spend more time wandering, travelling further afield in search of my own path. Each time I returned, my foster family greeted me with affection tinged more and more with unease.

In the course of those aimless travels I came across my mother once more, finding her at that time settled in Stone Clan, the harried wife of a dwarf and mother of a new family. It was not a happy meeting, and we parted with courtesy but no great regret. I have heard since that she has left and now wanders the lands once more - I think perhaps this restlessness is a family trait, the legacy of a Sand Elf lineage. (Some sensible ancestor decided to take his or her fierce, passionate nature and enjoy it someplace where the sand didn't blow into every available crevice, and where the long natural lifespan of an elf might have a chance to flourish. Blessings on that ancestor is all I can say.)

At some time during my own wanderings I found myself in the Crossings, where all travelers seem to end up sooner or later in their journeys. Amazed by the size and the noise of the town, I stood gawking like a true country bumpkin, interfering with traffic and earning a number of harsh words. Fortunately for my continued good health a passing War Mage took pity on my obvious confusion and took me in hand. Within the space of a couple of anlaen and at the end of a whirlwind tour of the town, I found myself shang-hai'd into the War Mage Guild.

I had never once given a thought to joining the War Mage Guild, considering them grim and dark and much too dour for my taste. This was before I met my casual patron, who flashed and shone like a flame, dazzling me, enchanting my eyes and then vanishing about her own business, leaving me with a new weapon by her generosity, and a new profession courtesy of her force of personality.

Although a War Mage by accident, I soon found that the profession suited my inclinations, and for the next several years I wandered the lands, learning my art, exploring and growing stronger and more capable, if not necessarily wiser.

During that time, messengers found me, set on my trail by the father I had not known and sent to me with the tale of a duty he had laid on me before his death. I went with them to Leth Deriel, where I met family I'd not dreamed existed, and learned of the promise made by my father in my name, that I would journey to distant Theren, there to study and learn with the sons and daughters of fourteen other families of Leth Deriel.

I felt the weight of this dead man's desire like a geas, binding me to his will, and so I went to Theren, telling myself that one place was as good as another. It was here I met my fellow students, bound by the will of their families just as I was. We studied and grew to know one another, learned to work, and to play together. This group became the founding members of the Order of the Black Fox, and to this day I still owe duty and affection to the Order, and all who belong to it.

My life has been simple, I admit it - no great events, no enormous tragedies or overwhelming sorrows. I am blessed - I have friends, family, folk who care for me as I do for them. And I have work that fills the need to return some of the fortune that has favored me. I wish you all such favor and fortune - may your paths be fair and open, and may life give you what you need as much as what you want.