Gwen was born to a human mother and dark-elven father in the late days of Atlas, only a year after the 3rd Coalition War, in 1693. She was born out of wedlock, out of a single, especially curious night of passion.
Her childhood was quiet, filled with days of farming and meditation. Her mother, Agatha Manset, was strict in her piety; though, her target of worship was the concept of balance. In her eyes, both the Aenguls and the Daemons are necessary. They are both forces of change, and all must be present for life to progress. The gods aren’t inherently evil nor good; they are reflections of ourselves. She cautioned constantly against the devotion to a single deity or way of thinking. Even Eshtael, Aengul of Balance, is subject to this idea, though she most closely represents these beliefs. Her personal beliefs as a result are different but not wholly incompatible with most faiths, though she lacks the same reverence for her ancestors that most dark-elves have.
Despite what her belief in balance may suggest, Gwen personally finds suffering abhorrent, a perversion of the pursuit of balance. Balance is just as easily achieved by everyone living happy lives. Her own conviction and moral compass would have her try to better people rather than cast them down.
At the passing of Atlas, as its people voyaged to Arcas, Gwen and Agatha parted ways. Agatha trusted Gwen to make her own path, and set out to find where she would spend her remaining life. Gwen joined the elves on their journey to Arcas, learning small bits of lore of her heritage and just enough ancient Elven to form a name for herself to travel under.
She chose Avelari, a mixture of avern and lari; for wanderer and woman. She set out into Arcas with the intent of finding somewhere to belong, and somewhere to better people.
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Gwen has most of the trappings of a dark elf, at least in physical appearance and tone. Her biggest give-aways as being of mixed heritage are her ears, which are shorter and significantly more rounded than those of her pure-blooded kin, as well as her brown eyes, a definitive mark of her human heritage. She wears a rough-sewn cloth undershirt beneath a worn blue tunic, worn loose like a gi. Her pants are of the same cloth of her shirt, held in simple leather boots at her feet.
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As far as other interesting facts go (that aren’t interesting enough to be actual “Interesting Facts!”)
- Her speech in ancient Elven are alike a child struggling for words. She lacks a significant amount of vocabulary, and is more likely to just respond in common if she can manage to piece together the meaning of what someone says. (She likely won’t.)
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She is a pescatarian (eats only fish and plants). I guess this is interesting enough as a dietary restriction, but it didn’t strike me as... “Interesting Fact!”-worthy.
- As far as reasoning, aside from being for my personal amusement at what it might cause at feasts, I’d honestly just write it off as some tenet of her mother’s teachings, arguing it easier for fish to replenish themselves than animals.
- As an extension, though, she holds nature in high regard. Not as much as a druid, but certainly higher than most.
- She loves spicy food.
- Her weapon-training is very strictly limited to the quarterstaff, weapon of the commons. She’s not a fighter by any means, but she’s at least far from defenseless. (At least it mostly transfers to spears.
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