Bron

BACKSTORY

Aatto Etch, wasnt In Charge if anyone, per say, but he was a personal protector of a warlord-- specifically Hill's biological mother, Maeve Ragnvaldr. Maeve was a powerful warlord (im using warlord as a placeholder for "person in charge in a hobgoblin community") and Aatto just instantly fell for her. They fell in love, though it wasn't really Allowed. Defenders of warlords (specifically personal protectors) are not supposed to ever marry or be with other people, as their main job is to protect, and if they marry or have children there's have a way of someone getting leverage over them. Warlords are allowed to have children and marry because theyre seen as Very Tactically Competent, and are not easily intimidated. Plus, I feel like in Hobgoblin politics, there's a lot of ways to persuade/threaten people to do what you want, so Aatto being in love with the one hes supposed to protect put him in a Bit of a Bad Spot.

He admitted his feelings none the less, and was met with a HIT across the face from Maeve and being ignored for the full day. Aatto was sure he'd exiled or relieved of duty, but that night Maeve came to him. Expecting to be fired on the spot, Aatto started to beg for his forgiveness, only to be interrupted bt Maeve's laughter. She told him that she felt the same way, but didn't quite know how to deal with it.

Together, they hid their secret love and-- in time-- ended up conceiving a child. THIS was an issue, for many reasons. As a warlord, Maeve was allowed to have kids, but... she had no "actual" partner. It's not uncommon for warlords to have some sort of donor, but it was still strange for Maeve, and people in her inner circle began to suspect something was up. They managed to keep her pregnancy on the dl however, at least for the most part, and then finally, it was time!!

Now here's the issue of having a secret kid with your royal guard-- can't have a lot of publicity over it. There was only really one person they trusted with the secret, and that was one of the Maeve's personal nurses.

They wanted to keep the birth private, but... there were complications, something with the way the child had developed maybe or-- Aatto didn't know. What he did know, however, was that he was holding a his barely breathing daughter next to his the still body of the love of his life. He didn't know how long he waited there, but apparently long enough for the nurse to get some of Maeve's most trusted.

This turned out bad for multiple reasons: When the other officers and generals came to the scene, they saw Aatto, her most trusted protector, covered in Maeve's blood, holding *her* child, and giving one, last kiss to *her* corpse. Absolutely outraged, they accused Aatto of going against his duty and the cause for Maeve's death.

He was set to be executed the next day.

Now disgraced, behind bars, and his child torn away from him, Aatto just waited. Waited for his end to come. Then finally, a large minotaur approached his cell-- one he had never seen, but didn't pay mind to-- and escorted Aatto out of the jail, supposedly to his public execution. Instead, the minotaur guided him to a lower part of the dungeon, and just as Aatto prepared to be tortured as well, he was led to a room with the nurse from before, holding his daughter, and a bag of supplies on a table next to them.

They were helping him escape, the minotaur-- who went by Ferrowmist ("Friends call me Fern.") was a friend of Maeve, and knew something seemed suspicious about the whole situation. Fern had reason to believe the officers and generals had something to do with her birth complications, but that was something for another time. Together, Aatto, Fern, and the unnamed child escaped their previous home to nicer pastures.

Literally. They travelled far from their original home, across the sea even, to not be found by those who wanted Aatto dead. Eventually, Fern and Aatto developed feelings for each other, raising the child-- now named Brunhilde Maeve Etch (F:"Maybe we should change your last name..." A:"Why, its cool." F:"I... Sure.") together.

Bron grew up normal like every other kid-- well, as normal as she could get. There weren't many other hobgoblins, and Bron was constantly aware of her "birthmark", as her fathers called it. Fern and Otto were very encouraging with her, always helping her try her best. As she grew older, she began to have an affinity for crafting and creating, anything from swords made of sticks and mud, from entire forts with working pulley systems. To say she was creative was an understatement, and Bron's parents always had her art and creations on the walls-- usually whether they liked it or not.

Because of her birthparents, Bron was *much* stronger than all of the other children, and even began to tower over them at a young age. This didn't help her gain many friends, and caused her to turn to isolation with her crafts. She began to become a "problem" child, hurting other children by accident and being unable to focus on the task at hand. Fern and Otto, not wanting their daughter to feel outcasted, began to take her to work with them, and started homeschooling. At first, Bron was *miserable* always spending time with her parents and being unable to just *do* things, but after a while, she began to flourish.

At Otto's defense lessons and his legendary Battle of Swords, Bron found her tendancy towards fighting didnt have to be completely thrown out, just put to better use. Otto's training was *hard*, however, as he could not help but see Maeve in Bron, and was determined to make sure Bron was strong enough to protect herself. This set up impossible standards for her to reach, and when she was old enough, Bron simply stopped going to work with her *vati* (what she calls Otto).

On the other hand, Bron *loved* going to Fern's store, *The Golden Sage* (F: "Get it? Like sage the plant *and* I'm basically a sage myself." B: "You're not but, close enough.") It's much smaller than Otto's workplace, but is always comfortably lit and cozy. Bushles of herbs and spices hang from the ceiling as ivy's grow over bookshelves of potions and tinctures. There's always a little haze of smoke in the shop, either from incense or...yknow ;). This is where Bron created most, having a small desk in the back office of her own for whittling, metal bending, leatherworking, you name it. She would love making glass bottles for her pa's solvents, as well as the leather pouches for his herbs, or crafting new tools for his shop. Almost everything in the *Golden Sage* has been crafted or repaired or refurbished by Bron, and for a good reason.  Fern knew it would be a great way of getting all her energy out in a positive way, as well as making her interact with customers.

Once she was old enough, Bron did end up going back to school. She was actually able to make friends! Her insecurities were at least covered by a facade of self confidence, which she believes is very much real. Then, everything went to shit when she went to Moondrop.

They did finally tell Bron about her past.... right before she started her freshman year of college. Fern had wanted to tell her sooner, but Aatto had wanted to keep her safe by not telling her. This, for obvious reasons, upset her deeply, and she left on bad terms to Moondrop Academy.

BRON'S ILLNESS

Bron wasn't always as rough and tenacious as she is now-- In fact, Aatto suspected she wouldn't see her first sunrise.

As we know, there were... complications with Bron's birth, resulting in not only the death of her mother, Maeve, but also in some sort of terrible illness. Almost the entire right side of Bron's small (VERY small) body was covered in a dark, oil-slick tinted patch. The skin was leathery and frail, like she had already passed and left to decompose. It wasn't dead skin, but it did make Bron very, very weak.

Luckily, Ferrowmist got to her before the infection could take her life. Using a great deal of magical power, Fern was able to siphon some of illness from Bron, leaving only a final, garish patch across the right side of her face, covering her right eye. This turned her sclera a similar iridescent black, and the pupil a bright orange-- her natural eye colour.

The illness didn't effect Bron much physically, but instead plagued her sleep with terrible nightmares that she couldn't explain. Since this started at a young age, Bron was able to make a salve that she could apply to help soothe her "mark", as they came to call it. She's been practically using it ever since, and has made it so she only sometimes has weird dreams. She also gets migraines easier than everyone else, so that sucks.