Luin of Caledor
Luin is one of the oldest surviving companions of Dîmeril Laeghartha, a Wood-Elven warrior who has followed her since long before Merilrond existed and before Dîmeril became the almost legendary figure she is within the Golden Woods. He is an accomplished swordsman, an exceptional horseman and a capable archer, although he remains very definitely a warrior rather than a ranger. Lean and powerfully built for an Elf, Luin usually dresses in mail, leather and the woodland greens of Merilrond. The dark branching tattoos across his face are considerably older. They are traditional markings of the reclusive Wood-Elven people among whom he was raised in the depths of the Caledor Woods of Goerath, received upon reaching adulthood and worn ever since.
Luin's people had deliberately kept themselves apart from much of the wider world. When he first encountered Dîmeril and her companions in Caledor, he was therefore young by Elven standards: physically mature and already a capable warrior, but emotionally inexperienced and romantically naïve. Dîmeril was unlike anyone he had ever known. She had travelled widely, fought in wars, commanded soldiers, crossed into another world and returned accompanied by extraordinary companions. More importantly, she treated the young Wood Elf she encountered in Caledor as an equal.
For Luin, Dîmeril was the dawn. He fell hopelessly in love with her. Dîmeril, unfortunately, did not fall hopelessly in love with him. Luin nevertheless became a friend to Dîmeril and her companions, spending a happy winter with them in Caledor before choosing to follow when Dîmeril accepted the Border Lordship of Ardenfell. What began as youthful infatuation was consequently tested by years of considerably less romantic reality. Luin saw Dîmeril frightened, exhausted, angry and wrong. He endured the desperate early years of Ardenfell, the deaths of companions and the succession of dangers that followed her increasingly improbable life. When Dîmeril eventually surrendered Ardenfell and rode away, Luin was still beside her. He has remained there ever since. The young Wood Elf's idealised image of Dîmeril did not survive those years. His love for her did.
Dîmeril
Luin is no longer the romantically immature Elf who once secretly hoped that sufficient patience might eventually cause Dîmeril to notice what was directly in front of her. He understands the path she chose. Dîmeril's lifelong chastity is part of her life as a Unicorn Rider, and Luin accepted many years ago that the relationship he once wanted would never exist. Acceptance, however, is not quite the same thing as indifference. Luin has built a life of his own. He has friends, lovers, children, responsibilities and interests that do not revolve around Dîmeril. His loyalty is no longer offered in expectation that one day she might reward it with love. He remains because Merilrond is his home, because these are his people and because, after everything they have endured together, leaving Dîmeril simply because she would never become his lover would strike him as remarkably foolish. Deep within himself, however, Luin has never entirely stopped loving her. He knows this. Dîmeril probably knows it. Most of Merilrond knows it. They are generally polite enough not to mention it.
The Flowering
Luin's continued love for Dîmeril has never made him celibate. He participates enthusiastically enough in the social life of the Golden Woods and has had relationships with other women over the years, particularly during the annual Flowering Night of Ehlonna. Within Anwyn tradition there is nothing scandalous about this. The Flowering celebrates fertility, love and life; unattached adults may freely take partners, and such unions carry no expectation of marriage or subsequent attachment. Children conceived during the festival are traditionally regarded as particularly blessed by Ehlonna. Luin has attended many Flowerings and has fathered three children, each by a different human woman. He acknowledges all three without hesitation.
His eldest is Seraphine Valecourt, born Poppy Fenwick thirty years ago to the human ranger Mara Fenwick. Seraphine loves her father dearly while remaining convinced that he has spent far too much of his life in Dîmeril's shadow. Luin has listened patiently to several lengthy explanations of this opinion before replying, on at least one occasion, simply: “No.”
Seraphine has subsequently expressed her disagreement through music. Her repertoire includes a romantic ballad concerning an unnamed Elven warrior condemned to hopeless devotion to an unattainable Half-Elven paragon of virtue. Seraphine insists that the characters are entirely fictional. Luin dislikes the song enormously, but complaining too vigorously would require explaining precisely why.
His second daughter, Lethiel Aranel, followed a path much closer to the Golden Woods. A Half-Elven ranger and one of the martial Sisters of Anwyn, Lethiel inherited her father's love of woodland life but developed into a considerably better tracker and wilderness specialist than Luin himself. Father and daughter remain close and still enjoy disagreeing over tracks, weather, horses and which of them has selected the better route through the forest. Lethiel is also extremely perceptive where people are concerned and understood the nature of her father's feelings for Dîmeril considerably earlier than Luin would have preferred.
His youngest child is Corin Rowan, nineteen-year-old son of Elspeth Rowan. Corin principally lives with his mother rather than at Merilrond, but visits his father and his extended family there. Luin has never regarded the circumstances of any of his children's births as requiring apology or explanation. They are his children. That is sufficient.
Warrior of Merilrond
Although Luin grew up in the forest and possesses considerable woodland experience, he is emphatically not a ranger. His profession is war. He is surprisingly strong for his lean Elven frame, extremely quick and possessed of the toughness of a veteran who has survived considerably more fighting than appearances suggest. He is an experienced archer, but his principal weapon is Calenmegil, the Green Blade, an ancient and exceptionally dangerous vorpal longsword given to him by Dîmeril early in their relationship. With Calenmegil in hand Luin is a formidable close-quarters fighter, relying less upon elaborate technique than upon speed, strength, experience and an exceptional mastery of the fundamentals. His established abilities reflect that emphasis: Strength 18, Dexterity 17 and Constitution 16 make him a remarkably physical combatant for an Elf.
Luin is also one of Merilrond's finest riders. He does not fight as conventional heavy cavalry and has little interest in lances or spectacular charges. Instead he rides as a Wood Elf: rapidly through difficult woodland, beneath branches and across broken ground that would slow less experienced horsemen, dismounting whenever circumstances make fighting on foot more sensible. He consequently spends part of his time teaching riding to the younger inhabitants of Merilrond. Luin is a patient instructor but an unsympathetic audience for excuses. Horses, in his experience, generally have perfectly good reasons for doing whatever embarrassing thing their riders are complaining about.
Character
Luin is not scholarly, eloquent or particularly interested in complicated theories. He is quiet, observant and possessed of extremely sound judgement. His Wisdom considerably exceeds his Intelligence, and this distinction describes him unusually well. He rarely explains a problem at length. He notices it. A broken branch, a horse behaving strangely, a bird that should be singing but is not, an unfamiliar track amongst familiar ones or the sudden silence of someone who had previously been talking can attract Luin's attention before anyone else has realised that something is wrong. He is comfortable allowing more eloquent people to do the talking while he watches.
This reserve should not be mistaken for solemnity. Luin has lived among Dîmeril's companions for too long to possess much dignity that has not already been comprehensively tested. He enjoys company, riding, wine, women and the festivals of the Golden Woods. He can be dryly funny and is particularly adept at puncturing excessive drama with a short observation—which may explain how he survived raising Seraphine.
His tribal tattoos remain perhaps the clearest visible reminder of the person he once was. Luin has travelled far beyond the secluded Wood-Elven society into which he was born and has no desire to return permanently to that life, but neither has he rejected it. The markings identify his ancestry and his people. They belonged to him before Calenmegil, before Ardenfell, before Merilrond and before the young Elf standing beneath the trees of Caledor first saw Dîmeril Laeghartha approaching through the forest. Much of Luin's life began with that meeting. He is old enough now to understand that it did not have to end there.