Surprisingly, Tayna came from a big family. Not by human standards, but by elven standards.
An elder brother by 260 years and an elder sister by 190, Tayna was likely her parents' final child. They were quickly approaching 500, quick enough that she took them by mild surprise. It was her thirst for life that brought her about, they exclaimed. With a bright laugh ringing out from her days after her birth, they gave her the name Tayna. It was one of the few Ancient Elven words her parents had learned together on their travels.
The family lived on their own, not within any village and away from most folk. After the rough few pilgrimages her family had experienced, multiple times, they'd gotten a little socially over taxed even by other elves. Their home was carved into the base of a small mountain, a natural cavern procured for their use. It's where Tayna spent the majority of her elven youth, where she learned most of her skills and had the majority of her education. It was her elder sister her eventually suggested that Tayna start traveling with her or their elder brother on their trips. One sea voyage from Arcas could hardly be considered worldly experience! Their parents agreed easily enough, and in her 60s Tayna began to experience the wider world for the first time in nearly twenty years.
And thought she left the comfort of home, she learned what she was missing out on.
So new! So exciting! Tayna took in every bit of the world she could, eventually beginning to keep journals and even developing her artistic skills. There was so much of the world to know and see. History, medicine, cooking, crafting, magic, alchemy - !!
Her family had no idea what they had unleashed.
It only took ten years of traveling with her siblings to find her calling, and her wish to spread out from her family's simple and solitary life. She quickly set about getting herself a formal education before turning to self study. Now she finds herself living at the very edge current civilization, her focus on herbology and plant life. The howls of the wolves a night give her comfort, reminding her of the many wooden carvings of Luara her mother had created over the years. A touch of home, but in a different way.
