As we continue our week of exploring
Snowcaster Elves we come to the background for our
58th Random Rolls and first of 2017. Our snow
elf comes from a dishonored family, is fascinated with magical items, was
mentored by an undead, has a true love, and seeks justice. Linking all that
together with her stat array which includes no stats under ten but a midrange
dexterity, intelligence, and charisma left me with some tough choices.
Firstly I narrowed down my
class choices by eliminating divine classes. I did this both because of the
average wisdom score and an idea that instantly popped into my head when I saw
the background rolls. Although she liked magic items I found her conflict
subject being a spellcaster as a reason to rule out an arcane caster as well,
even with the decent intelligence. Eventually I narrowed my choices down to
investigator or cavalier and I went with Cavalier. I specifically
choose the Order of the Seal, although that too took a lot of back and forth
with the Orders of the Land and Penitent being in the running as well.
Now without further ado I
present this week’s character.
Malbranchalianna - She of the Blinding Snow
Among the Snowcasters,
both family and honor are among the utmost importance. Although with tribes of
the artic elves being small, dishonored family members aren’t outcast, they are
just stricken from the families records. Children of the dishonored bear no ill
from their parents misdeeds, but they may never pass their parents name down
through the ages to their own children. This is the family that
Malbranchalianna was born into.
The young Snowcasters great
grandfather was an architect considered a chosen of Findeladlara. He built some
of the very few grand structures to honor the goddess. Her grandfather was a
cleric and a high priest of Findeladlara. He was one of the council members of
the tribe before he let the position fall to a younger elf so he could live out
his twilight years. Her father was on track to become the honored staff, the
highest rank of warriors tasked with defending the holy places of FIndeladlara.
He was however disgraced.
Although her grandfather
still has a place of honor among the tribe, Her father has been excommunicated
by the church. Still in possession of his granted abilities from their patron,
he was given the position of twilight speaker. The position is a dubious honor
that sets the speaker apart from the tribe by making them the face of the
Snowcasters to the outside world.
Malbranchalianna grew up
hating the church and not understanding why her father still put faith in a
goddess who would allow his chosen to fall in such a way. How could the elders
not see that if Findeladlara didn't stripped him of his power then his crime
obviously couldn't have been so bad. For his part her father never spoke of his
wrong doing and like most Snowcasters faced his fate with icy determination.
Much of her father’s work
was trading with the Ulfen tribes to the west. The family ranged between the
mountains of the Crown of the World to the wind blasted plains of the Land of
the Linnorm Kings. She grew up in the saddle of one of the great reindeer that
many of her people used as mounts and beasts of burden. Being on the back of
one of the creatures was as natural to her as walking.
Because the dishonor of a
family member only effects that person – there are few offense extreme enough
to outcast an entire family – Malbranchalianna was afforded every right of a member
of the tribe. As she grew older she would spend a season here and there not
travelling with her family. Many thought she would take up the mantle of her
father or grandfather and become a member of the priests of Findeladlara, but
she turned down every opportunity offered to her.
The daughter of the
dishonored found much of her solace in solitude. She would take her mount out
into the tundra and ride for hours on end. It was during these excursions that
she found her mentor. In one of the lesser used mountain passes she came upon a
man – a human man – who seemed lost and confused. She stopped to help the
seemingly freezing man, but it turned out he was beyond help.
The human was dead but
his soul was still tied to this world because he had died before completing his
mission. He was a member of an order tasked with protecting a place called the
Temple of the Frozen Heart. Followers of the Empyreal Lords (link tag) Tolc
(link god article) and Pulura (link god article), as well as some Snowcaster
followers of Findeladlara believed the temple housed a ice like crystal thought
to be a piece of the heart of the Demon Lord (link tag) Kostchtchie (link god
article). Not trusting Baba Yaga, long ago some of the Demon Lords essence from
the Torc of Kostchtchie was syphoned off into the crystal to be hidden away.
The man’s task was to
return another sacred object a stone that granted its possessor the ability to
protect one from any physical harm for short periods of time. He could sense
the stone nearby but his body was lost to the ice and snow. His spirit being
attached to his body coupled with the fact that in the centuries since his
passing the terrain had changed and he didn’t know if the temple still stood
meant his mission would forever be a failure.
Malbranchalianna's sense
of justice – not law which failed her father but true justice – could not let
this pass. She swore to help him complete his mission. She would return to him
often and allow him to ride her body in search of this Temple of the Frozen
Heart. In this time he trained her in the ways of his order and the use of the
protective stone. She became a fierce warrior and her childhood on the back of
the tribes reindeer served her well.
Her time was not always
spent with her mentor; she would also use her growing abilities to aid her
tribe. Her strength of arms got her noticed by many but there was only one
whose sense of right and wrong matched her own. She knew she was in love with
him very soon after hearing him speak the first time. But her mission came
first, she could not fail the man in the ravine.
Despite this her mission
couldn’t stop her from seeing justice done among her people. When her young
love was brought before the tribe for the crime of theft that she knew he
couldn’t have committed, she had to stand up for him. Her undeterred pursuit of
the truth discovered that another young elf had framed him because he too was
in love with Malbranchalianna. The snowshaper – one of the iceblooded sorcerers
the tribe would spawn from time to time – used his magic to make her love
appear guilty. With no recourse she pretended to fall for the caster and
tricked him into admitting his wrong doing. She used his admission of guilt to
save her love, in the process destroying the casters reputation.
Even though she proved
her love she could not yet take him fully into her heart. It would be a decade
more before Malbranchalianna found the Temple of the Frozen Heart. And to its
protectors she would return the stone even though it had shown itself to be
useful. Although she could not return her mentor’s body she could feel his
spirit fade from her body on completion of his mission. She was offered a place
among the order which she gladly accepted.
Now that she is prepared
for her own mission in life, she has embraced her feelings for her true love.
She will defend the temple, her love, and her tribe with all her heart. The
only thing she yearns for is the return of her father’s honor. But now she may
have the means to do that, if she can figure out what his crime truly was.
First character of the
New Year and she came out quite well. Although I’ve given my reasoning I’m sure
there were hundreds of directions this could have taken. What class would you
have chosen? Who would her undead mentor have been? Why was her family
dishonored in your mind? So many possibilities what were your choices?
Like building a
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The character illustration was created by Luis Perez. You can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and on Instagram at luisperezart.
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