Fhey Stormraven

NAME: Fhey Stormraven

RACE: Human (Illuskan)

HEIGHT: 5'4"

HAIR COLOR: Blonde

EYES: Blue

CLASS: Druid

LANGUAGES KNOWN: Common, Druidic, Dwarvish

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral

About:

Personality: Fhey Is mischievous, intelligent and spiritual. She can seem mean-spirited or rude at first glance, but playing pranks and being brash is her way of getting a read on someone's personality. Fhey is playful and often sarcastic, but this does not stop her from being a loyal, kindhearted companion on adventures. She will protect those she cares for with her life.

Ideals: Fhey is strongly religious and diligent in giving thanks and prayer to her gods of choice. She desires to be a powerful druid, with much knowledge and ability in magic and animal communication, and often pushes herself past her limit. She is very critical of her skills and improvement and can belittle her accomplishments to the point of despair. Fhey often needs reminders that she exceeds at her skills and is improving at a steady rate.

Flaw: Fhey is overly critical of herself and can lose sight of everything if she feels she's fallen behind or become weak.

Bond: Her bond is to her childhood best friend, Brohnagh Ravenheart, a dwarf who died in an unfortunate incident at the age of 16. Fhey was with her when she was injured and blames herself for Brunea's death.

Backstory:

        Fhey grew up in the small village of Eirnden, a peaceful druidhome secluded in the forest of ________. She was an only child, with no siblings, but had a bestfriend that she might have referred to as one. Brohnagh (pronounced Broh·nuh) Ravenheart, who was born just two days before Fhey. From the time they first saw each other, they were mischievous pranksters and often made their own fun, much to the despair of the other village folk. Brohnagh's family was Dwarven, outcast from their birth clan (For reasons unknown to even the elder druids. When the family first arrived in Eirnden, they were bedraggled and desperate; the elders took pity on them and let them stay.), but full of love for the place they now called home. Fhey would often visit them and have dinner; they shared stories of the dwarven lands and taught Fhey the Dwarvish she knows today. 

    On the eve of their 'right of passage' ceremony, the pair snuck out of the village to have one last night of fun. Unfortunately, their fun brought them to the den of a mother brown bear. The bear attacked and the pair barely made it out with their lives, running frantically back to Eirnden. Fhey was badly injured, and left with a scar scoring the length of her chest from her left shoulder to her right side. Brohnagh, however, was mortally wounded and passed the following morning. Overcome with grief, Brohnagh's mother blamed Fhey for her death and called for her exile from the village. The village elders convened and decided to bar Fhey from her right of passage for two years, where she would serve as the lowest form of occupant for the term. She was scorned daily by Brohnagh's parents and they often threatened her; far from the kinship they had shown her before. Fhey also felt responsible for Brohnagh's death though, and punished herself daily, praying to the gods for death in her sleep, or otherwise, as payment for her friend's precious life. Fhey had her right of passage at eighteen. She was to "witness" and sacrifice an animal spirit. Fhey spent one month in the woods in search of her spirit. The day she finally witnessed was a life-altering event. 

   "I came upon a clearing, bright and full of life. Birdsong in the trees, the grass lush and full. The air carried the scent of sweetgrass and lilac. There in the clearing I saw it, finally, standing before me as if it had walked down from the heavens themselves: an enormous white stag, its antlers nothing impressive, but glorious none the less. I had never seen such a creature before. And there before me in the eyes of this creature, I could feel the heart and soul of Brohnagh. I stood there in silence and shed a tear; it was as if Brohnagh had come to me from a new life. She was here to tell me I was forgiven, that I wasn't responsible for her death. As the stag moved on in the clearing and looked away from me, I climbed up the oak tree beside me and drew my bow. Though the creature had shown me something I would carry with me always, I knew what must be done. I felled the great beast with a single arrow that pierced its right shoulder and found its heart."

When Fhey returned to Eirnden with such a sacred beast, the elders had no choice but to recognize the sign. She passed into the teachings of the elders themselves and studied for the respectful 2 years. She chose to keep the stag's skull as a testament to her witness. After her two years of study had been fulfilled, Fhey was still full of grief. She had never forgiven herself for what had happened, despite the deer, and so she chose to leave the village in search of repentance by the gods. Before she left, she had the skull bound to hers out of shame to show her face. She gilded the antlers and was on her way.

The closest town according to the map she had been given was a solid two days' walk through the forest and then through the outskirts of said town. She walked the whole way, stopping just once to pray for safety from her gods and was exhausted when she arrived. Fhey spent one year at a monastery to renew her spirituality and is now in search of a way to better her skills as a druid. After her time of worship, she no longer feels broken, and her sense of humor, mischief and light hearted joking is restored. Her new purpose is to live a life that Brohnagh would be proud of. To become strong enough to protect those she cares for...

The flow of life in Eirnden:

From birth to age sixteen, tenants of Eirnden are considered children and treated as such. As they approach sixteen, they are still looked at as children, but are given more important village tasks, such as caring for livestock, helping the elders with gathering supplies for rituals and other spells, etc. The children also attend a sort of makeshift schooling. Here they learn of the gods and what prayers to give to each.

At age sixteen, children go on a hunt, referred to as a 'right of passage'. On this hunt, the goal is to "witness" an animal spirit. There is no one way a spirit can be witnessed and it is never explained what it means to witness, so the hunter must use the gods to guide them in the right direction. However, once the spirit has been witnessed, its life must be taken. This is considered to be the animal spirit giving its life so that the child may pass into adulthood. They child passes into adulthood the moment they witness. They then return to the village with the whole of the animal and choose one part to keep as a reminder of the gift the spirit has given them. They take their full adult name and, based on their spirit, receive a tattoo (placed where the death blow was dealt. I.e. if the animal was a sparrow, and the blow was dealt by way of stone to its skull, the tattoo would be of a wing/leg/beak/bird head/etc. on the head.) and a profession. The person will study the given profession for two full years. A white animal spirit is considered a spiritual omen of the highest degree and the receiver of the spirit studies to become a druid under the elders. An all-black animal spirit (non-natural coloring) is considered a heinous omen and punishable by exile, death, or forbiddance of completion of the right of passage. Being forbidden to complete your right of passage is considered worse than death.

At age eighteen (or two full years after a successful right of passage) the student is given the option to further pursue their given profession or leave the village in search of a new purpose, given exclusively by the gods. They are forbidden to return until they have done so, but retain their status in the village.