salamanderfantasy

From a young age, Reed chose to think with her fists. Born in a good sized Heartlander city, Reed never had any close connection to higher class life, or to more traditional elven culture. Both her parents were harsh, owning a small firm manufacturing spinning wheel components and other mechanical implements. Despite being well enough off, they held a deep jealously and longing towards those living in human nobility. They had never managed to reach the heights of elfen society, their meagre family line having been displaced from the cavern cities of Magarlarin long ago, and so sought to climb upward amongst Heartlanders. After a few generations apart from larger elfen society they failed to integrate properly at the end of the following wars, and so chose to aim towards the heights of the human society they were born in. Reed was raised always preparing for the title that never came, so with her hotheaded nature apparent even then, it was no surprise that the moment she grew able to listen, she grew able to ignore. Nearly any knowledge of noble etiquette Reed learned at that time was either forgotten immediately, or forgotten later, following several strong blows to the head. Rather than thinking around a problem, she would go through a problem without thinking. Though her elven adolescence was fairly short, she lived the most of it with bloodied knees, nose and knuckles, picking fights with any other child who would take her. With no siblings to weather her nature, she made and lost friends on a regular basis. Towards her maturing this lifestyle was curved, with a manual labour job at her mother’s factory, following an outstandingly messy end to a shortlived paperwork job. This occurred around age 16. Making few friends amongst her supposed “peers” in the offices, she thrived on the factory floor and coped fairly well with the loss of her wildling days. It became apparent around these days that Reed held entirely opposite views on near everything that her parents wanted from her, perhaps resulting from her growing resentment of them. A growing apathy towards keeping up appearances to name one, often coupled with a light distaste to feminine apparel and airs. Despite managing as well as could be expected in her job, her relationship with her matriarch began to reach a tearing point partly due to this, and her years of fisticuffs on the streets proved to be more useful than any number of lessons on one final event. This event left Reed with 3 fewer teeth, an elbow that still twinged when fully extended all those years later, and being completely written out of will, but left her mother with a good few bruises. And so, Reed left her home at age 21, in doing so leaving behind everything in her life to be considered interesting. Years of roughhousing and strong liquor dulled where she went then over the years, until it became easy to forget what had sparked the monumental fight; even the name of the town Reed wandered from that summer day. With time, Reed even chose to forget the name she walked out with. And from there, Reed wandered for a good 150 years, staying in place where she chose, until she fancied another. In some cases she became involved with the wrong people, often acting as a poor influence to richer folk’s daughters, and was chased out, but made a rule of thumb to stay uninvolved with crime. 13 years on the coast had Reed pick up the fishing trade, which she then became her livelihood, alongside general mooching. She assumes this is around where her name came from, but honestly couldn’t tell you exactly when or why. Reed focused entirely on putting her past behind her even as it occured, and enjoying the freedom she had found, scarcely talking about the life left behind. Exceptions were made for drunken complaints and bragging, of course. Now, at age 178, Reed has a deal of experience under her belt, but is still considered young by elfen standards. She intends to live out the rest of her live this way, seeing where it takes her, and is content to know little about anything except where she can find a warm bed and good food for a night. Her travels have taken her to Haense, where she intends to stay put for the time being, and see what comes her way.