Ayalen
| Ayalen Jora'eluris | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Race | Elf |
| Gender | Female |
| Guild | Cleric |
| Instance | Prime |
Ayalen Jora'eluris is an Elven Cleric whose allegiance belongs firstly to the Immortals, secondly to her people, and lastly to herself.
Description
Ayalen has an angular face, pointed ears, and deep-set steely grey eyes. Her ash-blonde hair is long and wavy, and is worn tied back in an intricate five-stranded braid. She has fair skin and an athletic figure.
She is tall for an Elf.
She appears to be young.
She is wearing a flame-colored tiger lily, a cambrinth-beaded clerical cassock, a pilgrim's badge, a spidersilk tote depicting an artistic rendering of the provinces, a segmented leather weapon harness studded with cambrinth-inlaid steel scales, an oilcloth rucksack, a wide leather belt decorated with engraved cambrinth plates, some sardonyx prayer beads carved into miniature panthers, a simple belt knife, and some high-heeled slouched leather boots.
Notes
- Ayalen appeals to Damaris and his aspects, Dergati and Phelim, due to their influence over dreams. For similar reasons, she is also intrigued by Moon Mages' proclivity for visions and their ability to predict the future.
- She was betrothed at an early age (as is common among Elvenkind) and has yet to meet her future mate.
- She is uncharacteristically wary of healers and tends to mask her deeply-rooted bias with extreme courtesy.
- When the subject of her heritage is broached, she is quick to correct common misconceptions about her people.
- Her family name, Jora'eluris, can be translated as "friend of the snow-born" in the Common tongue. Ayalen's matriline can be traced to the end of the Time of Sorrows, when her people made their ascent into the mountains. When the first female child was born, the family name was changed to Jora'eluris, and the previous name was wiped from history.
Background
The following passages are recorded in a nondescript leather-bound journal.
I 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," my people are generally assumed to be vicious, barbaric, and intolerant of other races and cultures. What ridiculous notions! Although, I admit, there is some limited truth to latter description, my family's existence has been neither short nor cruel and most certainly not "savage." We ensure our survival by exercising caution, not wild abandon. In fact, there is a saying among my people, who do not the benefit of a trained clergy: It is impossible to learn from one's own fatal mistakes.
Yet, contrary to the notion that we have time for little else beyond survival, I have never wanted for art, leisure, or love while living among my family. I have attended lavish wedding ceremonies during the long Winter months, sipped icewines made from rare alpine fruit, and reclined beside the hearth fires listening to the tales of my beloved foremothers. Perhaps in an earlier time, before we had adapted to our harsh environs, life was more frenetic and less diverse. We still count each moment as a blessing, to be sure, but our actions are not guided by desperation. If we hunted our prey savagely, as if each moment were our last, there would soon be nothing left for us or our children. With all due respect to the Matron, times have changed.
Because of the extremely limited nature of alpine resources, we Snow Elves spend most of our time in small groups of kin, in ancestral places where shelter and resources are reliable. Families will occasionally trade locations, 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, but it also allows for the continued maintenance of local alliances. I myself 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 according to my people's standards, owing to the craft for which they are well-known: both men and women in the family have long specialized in the production of rare, exquisite tapestries. These are woven from mountain goat fibers, dyed using natural red pigments harvested from alpine plants, and can require a decade to complete. Such textiles are not only beautiful but offer an extra layer of insulation for the home. Very rarely, the Jora'eluris will travel down into the valley and barter with Traders in order to obtain goods from the outside. We never expected anyone to come to us.
I have always known vivid dreams and equally vivid nightmares. Ever since I was small child, I would wake from them in the dead of night, shaking violently from some terror I scarce had the words to describe. The bouts were relatively infrequent in the beginning, but they grew worse with time. My family, in its concern for me, sought advice from numerous healers, each of whom created various theories to explain my "illness." Some said the cause was of the body, some said it was arcane or ethereal in nature, others argued it was hereditary. Consequently, I was exorcised, given draughts, hypnotized, and endured a variety of spells over the years, none of which were particularly effective. But all of that changed when the Missionary arrived.
There have been few outsiders to ever make the journey to our settlement high in the mountains. But the one to do so in my lifetime--an elder of the Wind Clan--was able to convince my family that my visions were beyond the help of mundane remedies and that I would need to seek help from the gods themselves. With no other recourse, they agreed that I should leave to pursue the Gods' will, on the condition that I should return once I had found peace.
And so it was that I left my home among the icy peaks and joined the races below...
Roleplay
RP Profile:
- Roleplay Stance: Heavy
- PvP Stance: Open
Roleplay and opportunities for character interaction and development (both spontaneous and planned) are welcome.
Recommended Reading:
Portrait
Portrait drawn by the player.
