August Heartwood

HOLY DAHSKJDHASJK I LOVE HER STORY SO MUCH THE CAMPAIGN ENDED AND IT MADE ME CRYYYY ILL EDIT THIS LATER TO GIVE THE FULL STORY BUT I ADORE HER

August Heartwood - she/her 

Reborn Barbarian (Revived by a dying god) - 226 years of age, 26 years at the time of her death

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August's life was one of hope and joy, spending her childhood excelling in school, and worshipping Sindria, the goddess of nature, alongside everyone else in her village, Averell. Everything her community did was to favour Sindria, and August was always more than happy to participate, devoted to nature and to her family, who owned the largest orchard in town. She was married off to her best friend, Tucker, the son of those who owned the Averell's largest barn and livestock count. The arrangement was made by their parents, but August only ever complained to Tucker, putting on a happy face and eventually finding love in her lifestyle, hoping the gods had placed her on her rightful path.

Tucker and August loved one another, though never expressed this aloud, growing to build a family of their own with two children– their son, Quince, who was four years of age, and their daughter, Pepper, who was two. They lived a simple, yet fulfilled, life together.

Until the village was attacked by wolves– the embodiment of Sindria– during their harvest festival, and August was killed. In her last moments, her only thoughts were of hope that her family were able to survive the slaughter.

 ❁

CW: Body Horror

August awoke in a domain unlike anything she had ever seen– its walls appeared to be made of flesh, though covered in a holographic sheen that made it dazzle in morbid beauty as she walked up the stairs, through what was beginning to become clear to be a temple, although it was fractured. She spends the journey worried for the fate of her family; It didn’t matter what had happened to her- if this was the afterlife, she prayed she wouldn’t see them here.

Eventually, she reached the top, and was met with a colossal being of flesh and eyes which seemed to move with fewer frames than usual, nothing about its form was identifiable as anything natural. It introduced itself as Vanazel, and explains that 200 years have passed since her death. It continues to speak, offering her a deal; it will reunite her with her family and, in turn, she will kill it. As it turns out, Vanazel was an attempt at manifesting a god of hope, although hope as a concept was too fickle and subjective to ever fully form into a being, so it was abandoned and left to suffer in a half-created state of pain. August, empathetic and willing to do anything to see her family again, accepts the deal and is returned to the mortal plane, clawing out of her own grave to a world where the sun only shines for two hours a day, and with the mission to find a glowing green amulet and use it to kill a god.

And this is where the campaign begins.



Her arc in the campaign has since ended, but I do not have the time to write out the entirety of what takes place. It involves friendship, being torn between morals, the loss of humanity, the keeping of secrets, and the revealing of truths. I have so much love for this character and I hope you do too.


DESIGN NOTES/TRIVIA:
- The fleshy/eye effect is what happens when she activates the rage mechanic as a barbarian! It takes over one side of her face and down towards her dominant hand, extending onto the weapon she carries. This is due to Vanazel's influence and aid!

- The large scars shown on her reference are from the wolf attack, including the bite on her leg and the mark on her hand. The smaller ones are from her revival, where she pulled herself out of her grave, tearing out roots and brambles that had grown into her while she was buried.

- The teardrop shapes in her design are a reference to the goddess Sindria! Feel free to hide them in your art if you'd like!

- Her favourite flower is yarrow, even if it counts as a weed.