Sabine Thornmere (Half-Elf Ranger, Senior Martial Sister)
Sabine Thornmere is one of Dîmeril's oldest companions and among the most experienced Martial Sisters. A Half-Elf of about 87 years, although appearing closer to a human woman of fifty, she is an accomplished ranger, scout and cavalrywoman whose friendship with Dîmeril stretches back many decades. The two women first served together in the Copper Crests, where Sabine became one of the officers who remained personally loyal to Dîmeril during her increasingly difficult relationship with the regiment's senior command. When Dîmeril eventually resigned, she persuaded Sabine to remain behind rather than damage her own career out of loyalty to her. Sabine did so. For a while. Eventually she too left the Copper Crests and went looking for her old friend. By the time she found Dîmeril again, their lives had changed considerably, but the friendship between them had not. Sabine subsequently followed Dîmeril through many of the events which eventually brought them to the Golden Woods and became one of the people upon whom she most completely relied.
In her younger days, Sabine was deeply in love with Dîmeril. Whether Dîmeril ever returned those feelings in quite the same way is something neither woman discusses. After so many years, it scarcely matters. Sabine long ago moved beyond waiting for something that could never be, and what remains between them is in many ways stronger: a friendship built upon decades of shared danger, loss, arguments and absolute trust. Sabine has always blamed Dîmeril's Fey blood for at least some of it. In her opinion, Dîmeril possesses an indefinable quality which draws people towards her, — something in the voice, the eyes or simply the way she carries herself that is easier to notice than to explain. Dîmeril dismisses the suggestion as nonsense. Sabine, having watched friends, followers, wards, unicorns and assorted woodland creatures attach themselves to Dîmeril over the years, considers the evidence firmly on her side. Whether there is genuinely something supernatural about Dîmeril's presence or Sabine has merely found a convenient explanation for an unusually charismatic woman is another matter entirely.
Sabine now shares her life with Amara, and is entirely content to let the passions and uncertainties of her younger years remain where they belong. Amara has never been expected to compete with Sabine's history with Dîmeril, nor does Sabine pretend that history never existed. Sabine's temperament remains rather less forgiving than Dîmeril's. Where Dîmeril may attempt diplomacy or offer somebody another chance, Sabine is more inclined to remember exactly what they did with the previous one. She is also one of the relatively few people who can tell Dîmeril plainly that she is being an idiot and have a reasonable expectation of being heard. Today Sabine commands the northern outpost, watching the approaches towards Mort Swamp and maintaining one of the Sisterhood's most important defensive positions beyond Merilrond. She retains her old Copper Crest war-helm, now known as the Copper Crest of the Hunt, a magical item closely associated with her abilities as a tracker and scout.
Megilindir (Half-Elf Ranger, First Ward of Merilrond)
Megilindir holds a unique place within Merilrond. She was Dîmeril's first ward, arriving at Rose Hall when she was not quite ten years old after her Elven mother asked Dîmeril to care for her for a few days and never permanently returned to claim her. What began as a temporary arrangement quietly became a family, and through raising Megilindir Dîmeril first discovered both her aptitude and her desire to provide a home for children who had nowhere else to belong. Now around thirty, Megilindir is no longer simply one of Dîmeril's wards. She is an accomplished ranger, adventurer and Martial Sister in her own right, equally comfortable moving silently through deep woodland or spending an entire day in the saddle. She fights with sword and bow, wears enchanted mail and favours mobility, judgement and practical experience over elaborate displays of martial prowess.
Those who know both women sometimes remark that Megilindir was cast in the same forge as Dîmeril. There is no blood relationship between them, but twenty years as Dîmeril's daughter have left their mark. Megilindir is confident without being boastful, naturally protective and accustomed to taking responsibility when others hesitate. She is particularly good with frightened or vulnerable people and possesses much of Dîmeril's instinct to place herself between danger and those unable to face it themselves. There are differences. Megilindir is rather less forgiving.
Where Dîmeril sees somebody frightened or desperate who has made terrible decisions and wonders whether they might yet be brought home, Megilindir is more likely to ask what harm they have already caused and who now needs protecting from them. The difference has produced some serious arguments between mother and daughter, although neither has ever doubted the other's love because of them. Megilindir also possesses something of Dîmeril's natural gift for command. She rarely announces that she is taking charge; when circumstances become dangerous, people simply begin looking towards her for instructions. Dîmeril recognises the quality very well and probably worries about it rather more than she admits. She knows exactly where that particular road can lead. As a young woman Megilindir eventually left Merilrond to adventure, just as Dîmeril had done before her. She earned a respectable reputation of her own and, importantly, did so without Dîmeril beside her. Her scars, successes, mistakes and stories are hers rather than borrowed from the reputation of the Heryn. By chance, Megilindir was visiting home when the Golden Woods were transported to Warlderia. Whatever plans she had for further adventures were immediately abandoned. Her family and people had suddenly found themselves in an unknown world, and Megilindir saw no question about where she belonged.
Since then she has become one of Dîmeril's most dependable lieutenants, scouting beyond the Woods, organising patrols, escorting travellers and responding to threats. If Dîmeril increasingly serves as the heart of the community, Megilindir is one of its swords. Her relationship with the younger wards remains equally important. They tend not to regard Megilindir as simply another of Dîmeril's children. She is their elder sister, and to some of the youngest almost another parent. Megilindir remembers every frightened child arriving at Rose Hall because she remembers being the first frightened child to arrive there herself. Dîmeril is the woman who tells a newly arrived child that they are safe. Megilindir is living proof that she means it. She is also fiercely protective of her mother and has very little patience with anyone who exploits Dîmeril's generosity.
Explore: Wards of Merilrond
Lethiel Aranel (Half-Elf Ranger, Martial Sister)
Lethiel Aranel is a Half-Elven ranger of the Golden Woods and one of the younger Martial Sisters. She is one of several children fathered by Luin during celebrations of the Flowering, her mother being a human woman who had settled among the woodland communities. Her parents never married, nor was there any expectation that they should, but Luin acknowledged Lethiel from birth and remained a constant presence throughout her childhood. Lethiel consequently grew up knowing both parents and surrounded by the wider community of the Golden Woods. She has never regarded the circumstances of her birth as unusual and accepts the somewhat sprawling nature of Luin's family with characteristic good humour. From her father she inherited a deep love of the forest. Luin taught her much of her early woodcraft, and Lethiel became an accomplished tracker, scout and archer before eventually joining the Sisters of Anwyn.
She is cheerful, practical and easy company, with an irreverent sense of humour and little interest in appearing more solemn than circumstances require. Her relaxed manner can be deceptive. Lethiel is considerably more perceptive than she initially appears, particularly where people are concerned, and has an uncomfortable ability to notice feelings and tensions which others would prefer to leave unspoken. In danger her humour quickly gives way to calm professionalism, and she is regarded as a dependable companion on patrol. Lethiel is frequently accompanied by Bracken, her cooshee and devoted hunting companion. She insists that Bracken is impeccably trained, despite considerable evidence that the great green hound has instead trained Lethiel to provide food whenever he looks sufficiently hopeful.
She remains very close to Luin. Lethiel calls him Father, teases him without mercy and is one of the few people capable of telling him outright that he is being foolish without causing offence. She is also well aware of her father's longstanding affection for Dîmeril and realised its nature considerably earlier than Luin suspects. Wisely, she has never attempted to interfere. She does occasionally give Luin a knowing look when Dîmeril enters the room. He dislikes this enormously. Among the younger wards of Merilrond, Lethiel has acquired another useful role. She remembers sufficiently well what it was like to be young, adventurous and convinced that adults worried unnecessarily. Younger wards will therefore sometimes admit things to Lethiel which they would be reluctant to confess directly to Dîmeril. Lethiel then has the considerably less enviable task of deciding exactly how to begin the conversation with Dîmeril. For all her humour, Lethiel is a dedicated Sister of Anwyn and fiercely loyal to Merilrond and its people. She seeks neither command nor renown and has no great tragedy driving her. She simply loves the Golden Woods, is very good at protecting them, and is content with the life she has chosen. For Lethiel, that is more than enough.
Grashka Bloodfang (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue, Martial Sister)
Grashka Bloodfang is perhaps one of the less likely women ever to have become a Sister of Anwyn. Before coming to the Golden Woods, she fought on the wrong side. Grashka served amongst the humanoid forces of the old rulers of Harmonias, fighting against those who eventually overthrew them. She makes no attempt to disguise this part of her life or to claim that she had secretly opposed her masters all along. She fought for them. She did things she now regrets. Then her side lost. During the final collapse of the humanoid forces, Grashka fled. She was not seeking redemption, nor had she experienced some sudden revelation about the cause she had served. She simply did not want to die. Her flight carried her into the recently arrived Golden Woods of Anwyn. She entered the Woods exhausted, filthy and wounded, still carrying weapons and wearing equipment which made it perfectly apparent which side she had fought for. When she encountered Tathiel, one of the Wards of Merilrond, Grashka expected pursuit, capture or death. Tathiel looked at her and asked: “Are you going to fight me?” Grashka considered her injuries, the armed woman standing in front of her and what remained of her prospects. “Not if I can help it.” Tathiel gave her water. Grashka has never forgotten it.
There was no immediate conversion. She did not suddenly embrace Ehlonna, renounce everything she had previously believed and become a different woman before sunset. At first she remained in the Golden Woods for the considerably simpler reason that she had nowhere else to go. What changed her came afterwards. In Merilrond she encountered people who knew perfectly well what she had been and nevertheless judged her increasingly by what she did now. In the wider Golden Woods she discovered communities such as Green Hollow, where families of Half Orc, Half Goblin and Half Hobgoblin ancestry lived without being treated as enemies merely because of the blood they carried. Most importantly, nobody required Grashka to pretend that her previous life had not happened. She could regret it without rewriting it. Gradually she began accompanying patrols, initially because an experienced fighter was useful and Grashka understood the tactics of precisely the sort of enemies the Sisters sometimes faced. Temporary assistance became regular service. Regular service became loyalty.
Somewhere along the way, Grashka discovered that she was no longer remaining in Anwyn simply because she had nowhere else to go. She was staying because Anwyn had become home. Remarkably, only four months after Tathiel found her, Grashka asked to join the Sisters of Anwyn. Even Dîmeril questioned whether she needed to make such a commitment so quickly. Grashka's answer was characteristically straightforward. She had spent years becoming very good at fighting for the wrong people. She wanted to discover whether she could be equally good at fighting for the right ones. As a Martial Sister, Grashka brings very different skills from many of the rangers who patrol the Golden Woods. She is a tough and experienced fighter, but also possesses the wariness, cunning and less honourable collection of skills acquired during a life in which survival often mattered considerably more than playing fair. Grashka sees no contradiction in this. If picking a lock, approaching unseen or putting a blade somewhere particularly inconvenient prevents one of her Sisters from being killed, she considers the matter settled. She has little patience for romantic notions of redemption and even less for anyone attempting to portray her as a misunderstood victim who had always possessed a secretly noble heart. She hadn't. She made bad choices, served bad people and survived long enough to make different choices. That distinction matters enormously to her. It has also left Grashka with an unusual degree of sympathy for frightened people making poor decisions, although sympathy does not make her gullible. She knows from experience that offering somebody a way out can change a life. She also knows that they still have to choose to take it.
Tathiel and Mortwatch
During the six months since their first encounter, Tathiel and Grashka have become surprisingly good friends. Tathiel has taken considerable pleasure in introducing Grashka to the customs of the Golden Woods and has appointed herself her unofficial instructor in manners and woodland etiquette. Grashka has learned that threatening troublesome Fey is generally unwise, that not every question requires a completely honest answer and that there are apparently several different ways of behaving at a dinner table which everyone except Grashka somehow already knows. Progress continues. Grashka, in return, has introduced Tathiel to several rather less respectable skills and expressions. Dîmeril probably prefers not to enquire too closely. Grashka is presently stationed at Mortwatch, serving with the small force that watches the approaches to Mort Swamp. She volunteered for the duty, as she has developed an unfortunate tendency to volunteer for precisely the jobs everyone else would rather avoid. Wet patrols, unpleasant watches and dangerous investigations invariably seem to attract Grashka's attention.
Those who know her increasingly suspect why. Grashka was accepted remarkably quickly by people who had every reason to distrust her. Although nobody at Merilrond requires her continually to prove that their trust was justified, Grashka still requires it of herself. Mortwatch therefore suits her rather too well. She regards it as an opportunity to repay some of what she owes. The Sisters increasingly regard it as proof that she owes considerably less than she thinks she does.
Rallientha Quiphiner (Elven Cleric of Ehlonna)
Rallientha Quiphiner is an elderly Elven priestess and one of the oldest Spiritual Sisters associated with Merilrond. She represents an older tradition of Elven devotion to Ehlonna which predates the distinctive customs that have developed within Anwyn. Her long life and experience make her an important source of religious memory, particularly concerning practices which might otherwise have disappeared. For much of her life Rallientha was a wandering priestess and preacher. Rather than attaching herself permanently to a single temple, she travelled between small Elven settlements, isolated woodland communities and scattered households where no resident priest was available. She conducted marriages and funerals, blessed children and animals, tended the sick, taught the faith and carried news between communities separated by many miles of wilderness. Consequently, Rallientha's religion has always been a practical one. She is perfectly capable of discussing theology, but considers a priestess who can explain the mysteries of Ehlonna yet cannot comfort a frightened child, tend an injured animal or help bring in a harvest to have rather missed the point.
She arrived in Anwyn around twenty years ago, initially intending her stay to be temporary. Instead she became increasingly interested in the religious community developing around Lusara Elmare and Dîmeril Laeghartha. Not everything she encountered met with her immediate approval. Some of Anwyn's customs were unfamiliar to her, while others represented developments of Ehlonna's worship which had occurred long after Rallientha's own understanding of the faith had been formed. She was particularly wary of allowing local enthusiasm to become mistaken for ancient religious authority. Lusara, rather wisely, never asked her to. The two women developed a warm relationship founded partly upon their willingness to disagree. Lusara values Rallientha as someone capable of saying “That is not how this was traditionally done” without insisting that tradition must therefore never change. Rallientha, in turn, has come to respect Lusara's ability to allow the faith of Anwyn to grow without severing it from what came before.
Within the Sisterhood, Rallientha has consequently become something of a keeper of religious memory. Younger Spiritual Sisters seek her out for old prayers, forgotten ceremonies, interpretations of scripture and stories concerning Ehlonna which have survived principally through oral tradition. She is also an accomplished preacher, although her sermons are rarely grand affairs. Rallientha prefers stories, questions and observations drawn from ordinary life to lengthy declarations from a pulpit. She has been known to interrupt her own teaching because a bird has done something which illustrates the point better than she was managing to. Age has slowed her, though considerably less than humans generally expect when first told how old she is. She travels less widely than she once did and now spends much of her time in and around Merilrond, teaching younger Sisters and assisting Lusara with the spiritual life of the community.
Rallientha has no difficulty accepting Lusara as High Priestess despite being much older than her. When somebody once delicately asked whether this troubled her, Rallientha reportedly replied: “My dear, if age alone conferred wisdom, ancient dragons would be running the world.” She paused. “Actually, perhaps that was a poor example.”
Telemna (Three-Quarter-Elf Cleric and Scholar)
Telemna is a three-quarter-Elven priestess, scholar and historian originally from Erdian, the world now sometimes called the Other Place. With one Elven parent and one Half-Elven parent, she is predominantly Elven in both appearance and upbringing and is sometimes mistaken for a full Elf. Dîmeril first knew Telemna many years ago during her time in the Perpetuity of Ilyr Vael, when Telemna was already a learned young priestess with interests in history, theology, old languages and the traditions of the Elven peoples. Of all her scholarly interests, however, none fascinated her quite so much as the mysterious veils between worlds. Telemna collected old accounts of places where reality seemed thin: travellers disappearing into the Fey World, paths which supposedly led somewhere other than their geographical destination, sacred groves which seemed larger within than without, and people who vanished only to return having experienced the passage of time very differently from those they had left behind.
Many scholars regarded such stories as folklore. Telemna did not. Consequently, when Dîmeril later disappeared through one of those veils, Telemna tried to follow her. This ought to have been the moment when years of scholarship proved their worth. They did not. Telemna successfully passed through the veil, which she would later insist was itself a considerable academic achievement. Unfortunately, knowing how to cross between worlds proved considerably easier than determining where one was once the crossing had been made. She emerged into unfamiliar country with no reliable map, no clear route back and only the faintest idea where Dîmeril might have gone. For all her academic knowledge, Telemna was completely lost. What followed was considerably less elegant than the scholarly expedition she might once have imagined. Telemna pieced together Dîmeril's passage from whatever traces she could find: rumours, descriptions from people who had encountered the Half-Elf and her companions, signs of their travels and the occasional consequence of Dîmeril having passed through somewhere shortly before her. In effect, one of Erdian's more knowledgeable students of dimensional crossings spent a considerable period following Dîmeril's trail and hoping it eventually led somewhere useful. Remarkably, it did.
Telemna eventually caught up with Dîmeril in the Celador Forest, considerably wiser about planar travel and rather less confident about the practical value of several books she had previously regarded very highly. The experience did nothing to diminish her fascination with the veils between worlds. If anything, it made matters worse. Telemna had now proved three things to her own satisfaction: the veils were real, they could be crossed deliberately, and scholars understood considerably less about them than they thought they did. The third discovery has occupied her ever since. Her subsequent experiences have provided no shortage of material. Dîmeril and her companions themselves passed through the Fey World, while the entire Golden Woods of Anwyn were eventually displaced from Erdian into Warlderia. What had once been an obscure scholarly speciality had become an observable part of Telemna's own life. She now studies the boundaries between worlds with considerable determination, attempting to understand why such crossings occur, why certain places become thin, what role powerful Fey may play in them, and whether apparently separate incidents are manifestations of the same underlying phenomenon.
Telemna is particularly interested in places where the veil appears naturally weak. Such locations are not merely magical curiosities to her. They may be doors, and a door which can open in one direction might, under the right circumstances, open in the other. This occasionally makes perfectly innocent conversations with Telemna rather more involved than expected. Someone may casually mention an oddly shaped ring of mushrooms, a familiar path which somehow seemed different, or music heard in a part of the forest where no musicians could possibly have been. Telemna immediately wants precise details. Where was it? At what hour? Was there mist? What phase was the moon? Did time appear to pass normally? Were animals present? Was running water crossed? Had anything unusual happened there previously? She takes notes. A great many notes.
Her scholarship nevertheless extends far beyond her fascination with dimensional boundaries. Telemna is knowledgeable in theology, history, old languages and religious practice and is particularly interested in the ways beliefs change as they pass between peoples, cultures and generations. The distinctive Anwyn Sect of Ehlonna therefore fascinates her in its own right. Telemna does not regard Anwyn's customs as corruptions requiring correction against some supposedly authoritative older form of Ehlonna's worship. Instead she sees them as an example of a living religion, shaped by the experiences and needs of the people practising it while remaining recognisably devoted to the same goddess. This sometimes produces interesting discussions with Rallientha Quiphiner. Rallientha knows many ancient practices because she has actually lived them; Telemna approaches similar questions as a historian and scholar, comparing texts, traditions and surviving accounts. They generally arrive at similar conclusions. They do not always arrive there by the same road. Telemna's learning also makes her particularly valuable to High Priestess Lusara Elmare, especially when questions arise concerning obscure religious practices, ancient accounts of Ehlonna or traditions brought to Merilrond by newcomers. Lusara has never expected Telemna to abandon the beliefs and practices she brought from Erdian in favour of complete conformity. That is rather the point.
Despite her scholarly temperament, Telemna is not merely an academic who happens to wear a holy symbol. She remains a dedicated priestess of Ehlonna and takes her pastoral responsibilities seriously. To Telemna, knowledge has value because it can be used: to teach, preserve memory, understand unfamiliar customs and protect people from dangers they do not yet comprehend. Among the Spiritual Sisters, she consequently occupies a distinctive place. Rallientha remembers. Lusara leads. Telemna studies. And increasingly, what Telemna studies is the space between worlds.