Ellythcyll of line Predith

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Character Name: Ellythcyll Predith

Race: High Elf

Age: 27 – Born on Menelya, 13 Ringare, 91 AW.

Gender: Female

Character Description:

Ellythcyll is a 6’ 11” tall High Elf. She has cobalt blue eyes and long, candy apple red hair that naturally falls into loose curls. Her face and body is spattered with freckles that are a bit darker than her pale peach skin, and are most pronounced under her eyes and on her shoulders. Her facial features are on the softer side for a High Elf, but not abnormally so.

Ellythcyll’s voice is quite noteworthy. Her natural alto speaking voice is warm and pleasant, and she constantly uses her wide vocal range to playfully adopt different tones, pitches, and accents for her storytelling, singing, and other entertainment purposes. 

Character Occupation/Skillset:

Ellythcyll is a trained translator, mediator, and price negotiator who can fluently speak Common, Elvish, Dwarvish, and Orcish. She has a keen ear for auditory details and excellent mastery over her voice, so she’s quite talented at doing voice impressions and other general mimicry of sounds. She’s also a skilled dancer, storyteller, singer, and actress, though she’s never been employed as such.

Character Personality/Traits:

Ellythcyll is an eccentric, spirited girl. More often than not, she’s reading the room and adjusting the way she speaks and acts in order to best entertain others, which can make it difficult for others to pin down what kind of person she really is behind all the acting. At her core, Ellythcyll is a willful, friendly, and outspoken person who wants to travel and talk to interesting people; singing, reciting poetry, dancing, and telling stories everywhere she goes. In her opinion, the most important things she’ll ever own are her ears and voice. She has a strong belief in mutual respect and understanding across the races thanks to her father, so she’d happily spend her whole life sharing what she enjoys with people of most any kind. Despite being a social butterfly, Ellythcyll struggles to feel any real attachment to people ever since her father and twin sister died.

Her other likes include dressing up (for any and all occasions), sweet foods/desserts, and cozy weather (which is any weather where she’s able to stay comfortable– winter storms included as long as she’s enjoying it from the inside of a warm building). She generally dislikes poor listeners/audiences, and can grow exasperated when faced with someone who’s tight-lipped about a subject she wants to hear about. Ellythcyll would prefer to not put herself in situations where her life might be at risk, though she’d really like to watch important events unfold with her own eyes. She’d also much rather have a conversation about a topic than read a book about it, heavily favoring social interaction whenever possible.

Character Biography:
Heddwyn of line Predith –a light brown haired and cobalt blue eyed High Elf boy– was born in Silivrenmir in 40 AW. His father was a poet, and his mother was a dancer. Both of them were dreamers, and they’d long wanted to see the world beyond Manadh Calad together despite the isolated society they’d grown up in. Their wish was granted in a most cruel fashion; Silivrenmir fell just a year after their only son was born, forcing them to flee to Barkamsted. While their dreams of a world where they could travel seemed to have been destroyed, they still found some joy in talking with the Humans and Dwarves in the city. They swapped stories, discussed cultural differences, and made friends with those who were open to it. Because of that, the two of them became very invested in helping everyone reclaim the ancestral homes they’d lost. They shared hope for a future where Elves, Dwarves, and Humans could travel to one another’s homes and mingle as friends. The couple trained as soldiers while raising Heddwyn to appreciate their poetry and dance, praying that their son would never need to learn to wage war, and that the three of them would be able to safely travel around Saphriel together one day. Heddwyn’s parents took part in the battles that brought an end to the Pact War, and they died fighting side by side during the reclamation of Falkvard in 71 AW. 

Heddwyn was raised to be a talented poet and storyteller thanks to his parents. And courtesy of his parent’s Dwarven friends, he’d been fortunate enough to learn the Dwarvish language during his upbringing in Barkamsted. His parents were gone, but he was a 31 year-old adult now, and they’d left him with skills, ideals, and dreams. Following in their footsteps after the conclusion of the Demon Gates incident, Heddwyn quickly made new friends of his own. These friends were Orcs, and his eagerness to make that connection had come as a welcome surprise to a few of them. Those friends taught Heddwyn the Orcish language, which just so happened to make him one of the first High Elves to be fluent in Orcish. As a High Elf fluent in Elvish, Common, Dwarven, and Orcish, Heddwyn would have been a valuable tool as a translator for many Elven Houses. In 74 AW, merchant House Driscolbor extended an offer of employment and marriage to him.

The High Elf girl Aoibhe was born in Barkamsted in 47 AW to House Driscolbor; a merchant house like any other that lost practically everything during the fall of Silivrenmir. Their surviving members took refuge in Barkamsted, and they begrudgingly –but quickly– adapted to business with the other races of the Alliance. Aoibhe, a lovely girl with candy apple red hair and eyes, was taught from a young age how to negotiate prices, draw up contracts, and otherwise be a successful merchant. Her parents were pleased to be of service when the head of House Driscolbor instructed them to offer Aoibhe’s hand in marriage to Heddwyn of line Predith, a skilled translator who would be useful to the merchant house if they could make that connection.
Discussions between Heddwyn and House Driscolbor were brief. Heddwyn would benefit from direct employment with the merchant house, and his marriage to Aoibhe would ensure that connection remained. He’d be able to travel the land under their employ, and he didn’t mind one bit that it would be as a translator. He agreed to House Driscolbor’s offer, and he and 27 year old Aoibhe were engaged to be married. The couple got to know each other in the three years before Aoibhe came of age. Heddwyn fell for Aoibhe because of her sharp mind and gentle heart, and Aoibhe grew to love Heddwyn as well; finding him to be kind, charming, and exciting. They were very in love, and Aoibhe soon shared Heddwyn’s dream to travel. They were officially wed when Aoibhe turned 30 in 77 AW, and they travelled for work together from then on.

It was one hardship after another over the next 14 years, but they were happy together and lucky enough to avoid many various disasters during that time. They hunkered down in Falkvard for a while in 78 AW to wait out the Void Tears crisis, saw many people suffering from the spreading Plague and Curse in 81 AW (though they didn’t have to worry about contracting it as High Elves), weren’t in Barkamsted when the Ca’Liar attacked the city in 82 AW, and were far from the Mesas when war broke out there in 88 AW. The two of them mourned the loss of Chieftain Oomjor quite a bit. They’d done business with the Orcish leader’s tribe over the years prior to his death, and Heddwyn had even shared friendly words with the man on a couple of occasions. They both respected Oomjor quite a bit, so it was hard on both of them to see the conflict after he passed, which was made all the worse by the involvement of the Cult. The Mesas were deemed unsafe for trade by House Driscolbor for some years after the conclusion of the Mesa War, and Aoibhe never got to travel there with Heddwyn again. Two years after the King Regent’s Royal Wedding, Aoibhe was finally with child. Twins, in fact. While it should have been a joyous time for the couple, Aoibhe was never in very good health during the pregnancy. Being pregnant during the Farm Blight of 91 AW was bad timing, and having to eat lighter meals that year may have contributed to her already less-than-ideal health.

Rhosyn and Ellythcyll were born in Barkamsted as identical twin sisters near the beginning of winter in the last month of 91 AW. The only visual difference between the two newborns were their eye colors; Rhosyn had candy apple red eyes to match her hair, and Ellythcyll had her father’s cobalt blue eyes. Unfortunately, Aoibhe wasn’t in good health at the time of the delivery, and she’d even suffered some blood loss during the twins’ delivery. Weakened and exhausted from the experience, she was ultimately unable to recover. Aoibhe passed away a handful of hours after giving birth to her children, and Heddwyn, heartbroken, was forced to find a wet nurse for his newborn babies the very same day he lost his wife. House Driscolbor provided.

Heddwyn stayed in Barkamsted for a few years to help take care of his newborn children, doing his work as a translator within the city during that time. The year-long winter struck in 94 AW, and the father was grateful that he wasn’t on the road when it happened. The family of three was fortunate enough to survive the phenomenon without much difficulty, but when spring finally overcame winter, House Driscolbor told Heddwyn to begin traveling for his work once more. Heddwyn loathed the idea of leaving Rhosyn and Ellythcyll behind while he accompanied merchants on the road as their translator, but he knew bringing the toddlers along with him just wasn’t reasonable. Heddwyn requested to remain in Barkamsted and do his translator and negotiator work there for a while longer, but House Driscolbor was very insistent that he accompany their merchants as they travel in order to make the most of trade being restored after the year-long winter. He relented to their pressure, but also made known his intention to have his children accompany him on future business once they were old enough to officially become his apprentices.
The young twins spent the next nine years being raised in Barkamsted under the care and tutelage of merchant House Driscolbor. Two years after their father began traveling between the cities and towns of Saphriel, the Sons of Itiris assaulted Falkvard and abducted children during their attack. Everyone in Saphriel seemed to hold their children closer following that tragic event, which caused the twins to be quite isolated from others during their upbringing. This was further cemented by the Cult cutting off magic in the region of Barkamsted and the followup attack on the city in 99 AW. Growing up without having their parents or other children their age around was lonely for the girls, and they were inseparably close and emotionally reliant on each other because of it. Heddwyn loved his children, and though it wasn’t often, he visited them as much as his work allowed, sharing new jokes and songs he’d heard, poetry he’d written, and what stories he knew. The girls always looked forward to seeing their father again, ever anxious to travel with him and experience exciting things. That had a different impact on each of the twins, however. Rhosyn thought that the fastest way for them to join their father was by being obedient and studious like a real grownup, which would certainly make their father happy as well. Ellythcyll thought she and her twin sister didn’t need to work so hard, and that they could have their own fun adventures by getting into mischief while they waited to be old enough to join their father. Some days, the twins were hard at work practicing math, learning about the Gods and magic (which neither of them had the gift for), and listening to lessons on history since the advent of the Pact War. Other days, the sisters would shirk their lessons and homework to play as the children they were; dancing, exploring (getting into things they shouldn’t and/or attempting to sneak out), or playing make believe that they were in their father’s entertaining stories. They loved each other deeply, and everything they did was done together.

The twins turned 13 years old in the final month of 104 AW, and Heddwyn believed that the time had finally come to take on his daughters as proper apprentice translators and have them travel with him. The girls had learned quite a bit from House Driscolbor’s teachings despite the trouble they’d often gotten into, and they’d developed fine foundations to become skilled negotiators for mercantile transactions. The twins and their father spent the three months of that happy winter together at last as a family, expecting to finally begin traveling together once spring arrived. Spring, however, didn’t come for a long time. The Long Winter had taken hold of the world, and it didn’t let go for three years. The three of them made the most of those cold and unforgiving years, though. Heddwyn taught his daughters how to read and write in both Dwarvish and Orcish in preparation for when the Long Winter would finally end, but that was the only “work” the family of three did during that time. Despite the frightful weather outside and what it could’ve meant for their future together, life for the family of three during that cold and unforgiving time was full of singing, storytelling, poetry reading, and dancing. It was a relief to all of Saphriel when spring finally overcame winter, and House Driscolbor was anxious to have Heddwyn and his young apprentices depart at once to make the most of trade following the Long Winter, much like after the year-long winter ended thirteen years prior. In spring of 108 AW, the sixteen year old girls and their father began to travel together like they’d wanted to for so long.
The Mesas, Thonduhm, Falkvard, Barkamsted, Tenifae, Crowsport, and the little towns between them all became a blur over the next ten years. Rhosyn and Ellythcyll’s language lessons from their father paid off, and they were soon fully fluent in Dwarvish and Orcish along with the languages they’d been raised on; Elvish and Common. They learned that good translators could quickly and accurately convert the words of one language into those of another, but that great translators could also provide context for the significance of specific word choice while doing so in order to give insight into cultural terms and expressions, and to help convey the emotions behind words. Heddwyn was undeniably a great translator, and he did his best to pass on his skills to his children. Heddwyn had learned quite a bit about being a merchant from Aoibhe, and he’d had many years of experience witnessing price negotiations and the drawing of contracts besides. Rhosyn and Ellythcyll gained real experience as well over those years, and that experience combined with what House Driscolbor taught them and their father’s input resulted in the two of them becoming skilled price negotiators and mediators. They were lucky enough to avoid trouble on the roads for all that time, and were thankfully not in Falkvard during the Cult’s attack in 114 AW. That good fortune eventually came to a sad end, however. 

There was a rise in highway banditry in 118 AW, and traveling merchants were understandably more cautious because of it. It was nearly summertime, and the family of three was traveling with a merchant and his wagon, and had just finished doing some trade in the Mesas. They were en route to Angel Creek to do some more business before heading to Barkamsted, which would have been their final destination for that particular business trip. The merchant had hired a mercenary to accompany them in order to deter bandits and provide protection should any problems arise, but that proved to be insufficient. They were about halfway between the Ravine Fort and Angel Creek when they were suddenly ambushed from the treeline on either side of the road. Ellythcyll was sitting in the back of the wagon between her sister and father when she heard the crossbows fire. Their mercenary guard gasped for air, then fell dead in the road with multiple bolts protruding from his chest and neck. Their driver –the merchant they were accompanying– took a bolt to the head and died instantly. Those sudden deaths hardly registered for Ellythcyll though, because she’d been sitting shoulder to shoulder with Rhosyn and Heddwyn, and she’d felt the impact of the bolts hitting their bodies from either side. Rhosyn was struck in the side of her upper torso by a single bolt which plunged between her ribs, and Heddwyn had suffered one bolt to his upper arm and a second one to his lower side, the latter of which sunk deep into his stomach. There’d been no warning signs and no time to process the situation, leaving Ellythcyll in complete shock as her mind tried to catch up. Each with their own life-ending injuries, Ellythcyll’s father and twin sister turned to her and simultaneously gave their last words. Rhosyn’s voice was wracked with pain, but full of hope and affection. “Go on. Live.” Heddwyn spoke in a strained whisper, but with the unyielding tone of a determined father. “Run now, love.”
Rhosyn collapsed as her life slipped away, and Heddwyn rose to his feet with a defiant cry. Ellythcyll lept from the cart to flee as a second volley of crossbow bolts were fired at Heddwyn, who’d successfully drawn the bandits’ aim and given Ellythcyll a chance to escape. She ran as fast as she possibly could, eventually making it to Angel Creek alone. She’d been focused solely on getting away with her life like her sister and father had told her to, and in her shocked state, it hadn’t even crossed her mind to report the attack to the guard. She didn’t see the point at the time since her family was already dead. She walked from one side of Angel Creek to the other in a daze, then sat under a tree to cry. Overcome with grief and exhaustion, she quickly passed into sleep. She had the presence of mind to realize that she should tell the guard what happened when she woke up again a few hours later, but as she was approaching the guardhouse, she overheard someone else already in the process of reporting the attack. Four bodies peppered with bolts had been found stripped of their belongings and hastily dumped on the side of the road. Her stomach turned. She didn’t want to hear more. She didn’t want to have some stranger grilling her for the painful details of her family’s death. She didn’t know anything to help the guard find the bandits, she hadn’t even seen them. It was all sinking in now, and for once in her life, she wanted to be alone.

Ellythcyll made her way to Barkamsted. She vaguely remembered meeting her grandparents from House Driscolbor once when she was little, so she knew she had some extended family she could try to contact if she wanted to. She never got to know them though, and honestly, she never really cared for anyone in that house. She never cared for anybody like her sister and father. What was she even supposed to do now? She spent a couple months grieving, staying in Barkamsted’s inns and keeping to herself. Then one day, she heard music and laughter out on the streets. She looked out her window and watched a familiar troupe of Dwelves doing a street performance. She’d seen them before a couple of times with her family. They were dancing, singing, acting out funny scenarios, and smiling. They were having fun, and so were the people watching and laughing along. She envied them. But then, why should she have to? She could be happy like that too, and she knew that her family wouldn’t have wanted her to stay sad like this. In fact, they’d want her to go out there and enjoy the show like they used to together. Ellythcyll strode down from her room and out into the street. She smiled, laughed, sang, danced, and made up her mind to move forward in life and continue to do the things she enjoyed. She missed her sister and father greatly, but they would live with her in her songs and stories until it was her turn to pass on and join them. She loved life just like they had, so she was going to do her best to enjoy it enough for all of them. For a change in scenery, Ellythcyll took the next ship ride to Falkvard.

Other/Extra:

Character images! Credit to heroforge.com. (Colors aren’t quite accurate. Curse you, traitorous screenshots…)