Aela was born deep in the caverns below Kal'varoth. Her mother was a scientist and mage studying the depths and her father was a miner excavating them. She has lived a vast majority of her life deep within underground tunnels, and has seen very little of the outside world. Her father died in a cave-in when he was very young. Her childhood was lonely with only his mother around, obsessed with studying some strange fungus deep within the caves. Her mother clearly studied some sort of magic, but refused to teach Aela anything about it. When Aela was 17 she was exploring the caves with her mother when they were attacked by a giant spider. She fought bravely, but was unable to overcome the beast and was grievously wounded and left to die while her mother was carried off. When she awoke, blood running from a massive gash on her face, Aela knew that she needed to act quickly. Using the skills her mother had taught her she started a fire and cauterized the wound messily, knowing that it would scar her terribly for life. She then picked up her pickaxe and went down into the cavern to find her mother. Climbing down an increasingly dark crevice, Aela's well-trained cave dwarf eyes spotted the giant spider's web where it had bound up her mother. The spider was nearby, quickly approaching the dwarven woman. Quickly and silently Aela leapt into the crevice onto the back of the giant spider, knowing that she would only get one chance to surprise it before she would be done for. She slammed his pick into it again and again, forcing it to fall from the web and land at the bottom of the crevice. The creature took the majority of the impact, curling up and dying soon after.
The young dwarf rarely speaks of this event, but it was then that she decided that he needed to leave the caves, and see the greater world. She nursed his mother back to health over the next several months, and on her 18th nameday left the caves for Kal'varoth.
Aela looked up at the strange man. Normally she would not pay the man any mind, but she figured she could use all the help he could get in such a foreign land.
"I seek knowledge. For all my life I have known nothing of the world, been kept ignorant of its workings and its magics. That ends today. I will find teachers in your city, academics and explorers who will tell me of what I have been denied for so long."
Aela walked up to the man, reaching out a hand as if to shake.
"The name's Aela of the Depths."
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