Ayalen

Ayalen Jora'eluris
Status	Active
Race	Elf
Gender	Female
Guild	Cleric
Instance	Prime

Background

Ayalen was born mid-Winter in the year 379AV, to Zerora Jora'eluris and Rimefyrn Gesarin of the Snow Elf Clan. Due to Matron Selidhn's popular account, "The Elven Folk," Snow Elves are generally assumed to be vicious, barbaric, and intolerant of other races and cultures. Although there is some limited truth to latter stereotype, Ayalen would say that her family's existence has been neither short nor cruel and most certainly not "savage." The dangers of the tundra may indeed require hasty decisions, and a strong will could very well mean the difference between life and death in a blizzard, but Ayalen would argue that experience is far more useful, and one does not acquire experience if one does not exercise a certain level of caution. In fact, there is a saying among the Snow Elves: It is difficult to learn from the mistakes that kill you.

Yet, contrary to the notion that Snow Elves have time for little else beyond survival, Ayalen has never wanted for art, beauty, culture, or leisure, and indeed, her childhood possessed ample amounts of each. She has attended lavish wedding ceremonies, gazed upon brilliantly painted works of traditional art, sipped icewines made from rare alpine berries, and lazed about hearth fires, listening to tales about her foremothers. Likewise, she has stood before glacier lakes bordered by alpine wildflowers and set against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains. While there are few outside of her clan who could boast of such a sight, anyone who has made the trek knows that it must be earned. Life among the icy peaks may be difficult, but it is not without its own rewards.

Because of the extremely limited nature of alpine resources, Snow Elves spend most of their time in small groups of kin, in ancestral places where shelter is relatively consistent throughout the year. Families will occasionally trade places, in order to secure a marriage or gain access to different resources for a time, but it is not uncommon for a family to communicate through their neighbors to families much farther away. This system is not only much more convenient (and safer) than travelling by foot to deliver a message personally, it also allows for the continued maintenance of local alliances. Ayalen was the result of one such alliance, between the Jora'eluris and Gesarin families, in the tradition of Bile Janis oc Hul Haizeani.

The Jora'eluris are considerably wealthy, owing to the craft for which they are well-known among Snow Elves: both men and women in the family have long specialized in the production of rare, exquisite tapestries. These tapestries are woven from mountain goat fibers, dyed using rare but natural pigments (usually bright reds) harvested from alpine plants, and usually require a decade to complete. Such textiles are not only beautiful but offer an extra layer of insulation for the home, which is useful throughout the year but most especially during the Winter months. Very rarely, the Jora'eluris will bargain with traders and exchange one of their priceless tapestries for a shipment of goods from the "outside," such as fine steel tools. However, they would never have agreed to hand over a daughter if the circumstances had not become dire.

Ayalen had always been plagued by nightmares. Ever since she was small child, she would wake from them in the dead of night, sobbing and shaking violently from some terror she scarce had the words to describe. The bouts were relatively infrequent but seemed to follow no specific pattern, such that during some months, she would experience them for several weeks in a row, whereas during others, she might go a whole fortnight without a dream at all. The family, concerned for their daughter, sought the advice of numerous healers. Those healers created various theories to explain her "illness"--the cause was spiritual, physical, environmental, hereditary, mental, or magical in nature, and she was exorcised, given draughts, hypnotized, bled, and the recipient of numerous spells. However, none of the remedies were particularly effective. Her illness was simply "managed," until Ayalen entered her second decade, when the nightmares began to occur almost nightly, and Ayalen herself had taken to walking and performing actions in her sleep. Fearful of what might happen and unwilling to treat her as a prisoner in her own household, the Jora'eluris matriarch did the unthinkable and called upon an outsider's aid.

The outsider convinced the Jora'eluris that Ayalen's nightmares were beyond the help of mundane remedies and that she would need to seek help from the gods themselves. With no other recourse, they agreed to allow her to leave, on the condition that she should return once a cure had been found. And so it was that Ayalen left her home among the icy peaks.

Appearance

Ayalen possesses her mother's pale grey eyes and oval face but received her ash-blonde hair from her father's line. As is common among her people, she is fair-skinned and somewhat shorter than average for her race. Contrary to the popular stereotype of her people, she does not dress in layers of hides tied together with sinew. Rather, as with most Elves, she appreciates finely made textile clothing in attractive, pleasing colors. Among her people, clothes are often quilted or double-layered and accented with artfully-crafted mantles made from pelts or furs that are anything but "barbaric" or "savage" in appearance.

Other Information

- Ayalen arrived at the Crossing in the Autumn of 405AV, at the young age of 25.