Aoife, the Feathered Lady (finished)
Jan 2, 2014 18:24:24 GMT -5
Post by Harbor on Jan 2, 2014 18:24:24 GMT -5
Full Name: Aoife An Adia
Other name: Feathered Lady
Race: Elven
Side: Varden
Birthplace: Silthrim
Age: one hundred forty-two
Gender: female
Birthday: 5 August
Eyes: grapefruit pink, used to be light brown
Hair: light gray, used to be dark honey
Weight: About thirty-five pounds
Height: At present, about three feet, six inches, but growing slowly
Magic User: Yes
Preferred Weapon(s): None anymore
Appearance: By day, Aoife is cursed to wear the skin of a demoiselle crane, a slender bird of long legs, a long neck, and gray plumage, with black feathers from the head to the breast, black tail feathers, and white feathers at the back of the head. Its beak is ivory, and its eyes are a moderated red. By night some of Aoife’s humanity returns to her, and she retains an elven body similar to the one she had before she was cursed. She is only a little taller than the crane, which is just under three feet tall, and her hair is the same color as the crane’s plumage, which turns into a gown of plumage grown directly from her skin, the feathers lengthening until they form a knee-length skirt.
Personality: Aoife was always a quiet child and a quiet woman, which made her even more intimidating as she was fighting off marauders with a consistently calm, often pleasant and sometimes furious expression on her face. She has always adored animals and living things, and spent more time with her animals and her garden than with other elves. She gained a reputation as an introvert and a hermit by the time she was twenty years old, reveling in the accomplishments of her hands and shying from the company of others. She rarely spoke unless she was doing magic, which tended only to happen when she was fighting. She's still quiet, answering questions when she's asked but not elaborating. She's more known for simply smiling and walking away. It takes a special sort of person to give her a reason to speak.
--->Likes: Peace, music, the water, fish, other birds, going unnoticed, the quiet, watching people, being able to help, especially if she can do it without anyone noticing
--->Dislikes: Calamity, stress, loud people, being chased, the thought of being shot for food—which is why she stays in Du Weldenvarden, where she’ll be left alone—never having her rightful body back
--->Strengths: The ability not to despair in extended solitude, having intuition in regards to others’ future, her own peace
--->Weakness: Crowded places, the inner city, an inability to cope with fear
Family: Mother and father both alive, still in Silthrim, to the best of her knowledge.
History: Aoife decided when she was young that she wanted to do well by her people. While elves were not prone to religion, Aoife firmly believed that she could only truly be called a living creature if she assisted in the lives of others. She rode out more than once, when she was younger, to the aid of humans far from their homes and families. Her parents rolled their eyes and thought her terribly conscientious and just a little interfering, but since she rarely put herself in the path of direct harm, they never spoke a word against it.
When Aoife was about ninety years old, however, she rode out to assist against the sacking of one of the border towns next to Du Weldenvarden. Not realizing that there were two magicians aiding in the plunder, she exposed herself as a magic user without considering the consequences and fought back the invaders. When the magicians managed to kill her horse, she was so enraged that she took a running start and threw herself off the front wall at them. She flew more than forty feet, defending herself magically as best she could, before their magic overwhelmed hers and she abruptly banked and flew away without magic, trapped in the body of a crane.
Her mind was so overwhelmed by her body’s sudden change that for the next decade she couldn’t remember that she had ever been anything other than what she’d become, and she lived in seclusion, always unable to find other birds of her kind to live with. Eventually her mind began to return, and the magic began to wear off. For the last forty years, for increasing spans of short time her body painfully returns to her, though of comparable size to the body of the crane, and then is snatched back from her as if on a whim. After fifty years a crane, she now wears an elven body during darkness and is forcibly returned the that of the crane as soon as the sun rises. While she was still relearning the habits of her body to change, and how to use her elven body again, she gained a reputation as the Feathered Lady, as she was prone to appearing and then seemingly vanishing. An unprecedented side effect of the magic has been her ability to tell people whether or not they are making the right decision, even when they don’t ask her the question, and she is almost always right. By now she has returned to Ellesmera and is living in some lord’s backyard at the pond. She doubts he knows what or who she really is, and is content that way. On occasion when she takes a vacation out of the city an elf will wander upon her as she rests on some shore and ask her whether they are making the right choices in their life, and to do her part to best the world she always answers.
Anything extra: It’s about time she was found out. She’s been out of general elven contact for fifty years, and has become quite shy of her own people, especially if they recognize her as having been stolen of her rightful form. But she needs friends.
