Lady Aviary

Aviary is the smartest person around her in any given situation, and she knows it. Some would call it conceit, but she would call it confidence in her own abilities.She is passionate and driven almost to the point of madness. She will do a lot to ensure that nothing gets in her way, and she is not an exception to the trend of wizard hubris.

She cares a lot about the people that have found their way into her heart, though she struggles to show it. Betrayal is the worst crime you could commit against her.

Early Childhood

People in my D&D party- if you read this, I will find you. You're not allowed. Thanks :)

Aviary- born Lynette Vernier - was always a very quiet baby. Her parents were so proud of their well-behaved little girl... until she got a bit older. She never babbled or baby talked. She was quiet until the age of 3, and then she talked in full sentences right away. And once she was talking, she didn’t make conversation like normal. She just watched everyone and everything with her pale, bright eyes, like a bug under a microscope, then ask questions that showed just how much she knew. Stuff that they didn’t always want noticed.

They hid her away, telling the other nobles she was just painfully shy. They had other children- Celina and Estelle, the twins, normal in every way- and mostly tried not to think about their mistake.

It was a great shock to everyone when they found her, only five years old, in the library reading chapter books. No one had taught her. She had simply watched the nanny read picture books to her sisters and taught herself the rest. Then, they knew they had a prodigy on their hands. They hired a private tutor for her (and technically, the twins as well, but everyone knew the focus wasn't them), and she learned with impressive speed.

The novelty of a genius child had slightly worn off by the time she was 12, but she shocked them again when they caught her staying up late to read by the light of a small, magical light (the dancing lights cantrip). The tutor had seen her promise and started to teach her about magic. Her natural curiosity got her the rest of the way to actual practice.

They got a new tutor after that. They didn't want their daughter to be more powerful than she should be, and although they didn't outright ban the spells she learned, they didn't encourage her casting. Their daughter being a prodigy had been good enough news to outweigh the embarrassment that was her apparent inability to speak, so they had liked her for a while, but they hated the magic, and now they hated her again.

Aviary Tower

Despite this, she continued to teach herself magic over the years. Not being encouraged never stopped her from learning in the past, and books were always there. Her parents hated it all, especially the raven familiar she'd conjured herself the second she learned how. Familiars made it even easier to observe and learn, and they got even more uncomfortable around their daughter. She didn't need their approval to be happy, though- she only needed her own.

Her parents did not like this. They hated that the oldest- their heir- was an odd, precocious, curious and questioning magic girl. A wizard, for god's sake. When she was 16, they decided they had to get rid of her. They decided they would kill her. Not with an assassin- too many loose ends. They’d handle it themselves.

Her father snuck into her room in the dead of night, ready to slit her throat and be done with it. Unfortunately for him, she was smarter than him. She was expecting something like this, had been for a while, and she was ready for a fight. He managed to get the knife in her neck, but it cost him his life.

Aviary made sure the scene looked how she wanted it to before she screamed, calling the servants. For all intents and purposes, this had been a break in, and her father had tried to save her and died in the process. That was the story the servants spread around once they found her- just like she knew they would.

She pretended to be utterly devastated at the funeral. Her poor father, who died to save her. Her mother confronted her afterwards, of course. But Lynette knew that while her mother accused her of murder, she was admitting that the story Lynette told was false. And why would Lynette lie and put her father in a good light? and so Lynette had her mother trapped.

Her mother told her in no uncertain terms that she was not welcome at home, and she wanted the twins- light of her life, and actually 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭- to inherit. Lynette agreed. she'd never wanted all that land anyways. She made her mother sign a contract- the twins got the inheritance, but Lynette kept her title, and an out of the way part of their land was permanently signed over to her.

Of course, her mom and sisters spread a different story to save face. “Lynette gave up the inheritance because, after her father died, she went mad with grief, poor thing. She’s better off in the country. The air is better out there for someone in her state.” It wasn’t true, of course, but Lynette did not care in the slightest. She even played into it. After her father's funeral, she never stopped wearing mourning clothes. People thought she was crazy, so they left her alone out of pity.

The nice thing about mourning black, though, is that magical experiments won't stain the fabric.

She had a tower built on her land that was part her house, part giant library of magic, and part aviary- for her raven familiar.

Her familiar, which was how she learned to speak again. Her own throat would not produce more than a wheeze, now, so her raven gave her the voice that she had lost. She became known as Lady Lynette of Aviary Tower, and the townsfolk began affectionately calling her Lady Aviary.

Three Rein

She spent a few years in her tower, learning magic and becoming a bit of a crazy wizard hermit under the thin pretense of being a prim and proper lady stricken with grief. One day, she got a letter from her childhood tutor- the only person who had ever encouraged her and pushed her to be more. They wrote, hearing of her new circumstance and abilities, and asked her to visit them. She left her tower and joined an adventuring group to make her travels safer. She came up with the party name Three Rein for them all after they completed their first adventure together.

They are an interesting bunch. Thing is a goblin druid with a chaotic streak, and Ivaylo is a rogue who wears a mask always and keeps his past a mystery.

A couple months later- The group has changed a lot since they started. There are now 5 members of Three Rein- something that makes her laugh. The two new members are Eira, a tiefling cleric who is only sometimes with the party, and Lochlyn, a sorceror naiad who is both silly and probably haunted by her past in some way. Plus, Ivaylo doesn't always wear the mask anymore- they found out he was a werewolf and watched the moment when he realized he was cured. Thing left and then came back (with a lot of ensuing drama). They also made friends with the king and queen, took down a dragon, and put the most evil man in history in jail.

Aesthetic