The Lands of Warlderia

Dîmeril Laeghartha, Heryn of Merilrond

Dîmeril Laeghartha is the acknowledged leader of Merilrond and one of the most respected figures amongst the people of the Golden Woods of Anwyn. To most who know her now she is simply the Heryn, the Lady, a warm, wise and deeply maternal Half-Elf whose home has become the centre of an unusual extended family and whose counsel is sought far beyond Rose Hall.Yet there was a time when Dîmeril was known by very different titles. She has been an adventurer, Unicorn Rider, mercenary captain and Border Lord. She has commanded cavalry, crossed between worlds, fought monsters and hostile Fey, and survived enough adventures to have become thoroughly suspicious of anyone who describes an expedition as straightforward. Beneath the kindly mistress of Rose Hall remains a formidable warrior. She simply has considerably less desire to prove it than she once did.

From Adventurer to Heryn

Dîmeril was born in the ancient Veyrwood of Goerath, the only child of the Wood-Elven Laeriel Saelwyn and the human ranger Edric Laeghartha. Her mixed ancestry was nothing particularly remarkable in the communities where she grew up, save for the spurious rumour that the Laeghartha line was fey-touched. Her childhood was largely a happy one. Her father and the centaur Caerodan taught her much of the woodland lore, horsemanship and ranging upon which she would later build an extraordinary career. After Edric's death, Dîmeril left home as a young ranger simply intending to see something of the wider world. She succeeded rather more thoroughly than expected. What followed included years of adventuring, command of the Copper Crests, her bond with the unicorn Aelheryn, travels into Erdian, service as a Border Lord, and eventually the long chain of events which brought her to Anwyn. Those years profoundly shaped the woman she became, but they are no longer the life she principally wishes to lead.

Explore: The History of Dîmeril Laeghartha

The Whisper of Fey Blood

There has always been something about Dîmeril which even those closest to her struggle to describe. Animals trust her unusually quickly. Fey creatures pay rather more attention to her than seems entirely normal, and more than one old woodland spirit has looked at her with unmistakable recognition before refusing to explain why. Somewhere within Dîmeril's ancestry lies a trace of Fey blood. It is distant enough that she is unquestionably Half-Elven rather than Fey-touched in any ordinary sense, and Dîmeril herself has shown remarkably little curiosity about tracing the family line responsible for it. Whether that ancient inheritance still exerts any influence is impossible to prove. Few people believe it matters. Sabine Thornmere disagrees completely.

Merilrond and Rose Hall

Dîmeril never really set out to become the ruler of Merilrond. It simply happened that when something needed doing, people tended to ask Dîmeril. When neighbours quarrelled, she could usually find a settlement. When danger threatened, she knew what to do. When someone needed help, Rose Hall's door tended to be open. Eventually Heryn, an Elven title meaning Lady, became the usual form of address. It is as much a term of affection and respect as a formal title. Her authority remains remarkably informal. Dîmeril has little interest in regulating the ordinary lives of those around her.

Merilrond operates largely through custom, mutual obligation, persuasion and common sense rather than an elaborate system of laws. There are nevertheless boundaries upon which she is uncompromising. Most notably, magic used to charm, compel or otherwise dominate another person's mind is forbidden within Merilrond. For a community containing so many Fey and people touched by Fey influence, the prohibition is significant. Whatever else a person may be in Merilrond, their will is their own.

Explore: Merilrond, the Settlement

Dîmeril's Family

Rose Hall is Dîmeril's home. Precisely who constitutes her family is rather more difficult to establish. Old adventuring companions, wards, retainers, friends and assorted people who appear to have moved into her life without anyone formally deciding that they should have accumulated around Dîmeril over the years. The distinction between her household and her family has consequently become decidedly uncertain. At the heart of that family are the Wards of Merilrond. The tradition began almost accidentally with Megilindir, whom Dîmeril took into her care as a child. Others followed. Some of the Wards were orphaned or abandoned. Some came from unhappy or dangerous circumstances. Others have loving families of their own but nevertheless found another home at Merilrond. Dîmeril does not expect them to become copies of herself.

Some become rangers. Some are drawn towards the Sisterhood. Some hope to follow the Path of the Unicorn. Others will undoubtedly discover lives which Dîmeril has never considered for them. That is rather the point. What she offers is a home, an education, protection and the opportunity to decide for themselves what they wish to become. Dîmeril refers to many of the Wards simply as her daughters, and within Rose Hall the distinction between ward, foster-child and adopted daughter has become considerably clearer in law than it is in practice. Of all the achievements of her long life, this sprawling and unconventional family is probably the one of which Dîmeril is most proud.

Ehlonna and the Sisterhood

Dîmeril is both a ranger and a cleric of Ehlonna, and her understanding of the goddess has been shaped particularly by wilderness, guardianship, animals and her long association with unicorns. She is one of the foremost Martial Sisters of Anwyn, but she is not the spiritual leader of the Sisterhood. That role belongs to her close friend High Priestess Lusara Elmare. The distinction suits both women.

Lusara is particularly drawn towards Ehlonna's associations with fertility, family, healing and new life, while Dîmeril's faith tends to express itself through protection, ranging and the defence of the living world. They occasionally disagree. Neither considers the other's devotion less genuine. Dîmeril's former life as a Unicorn Rider also remains important to her, although she is careful not to suggest that other women ought to follow the same path. The chastity practised by the White Wards belongs to that particular tradition and is not a general requirement of Ehlonna's faith or of the Sisterhood.

Explore: Ehlonna — The Anwyn Sect • The Sisterhood of Anwyn • The Sisters of Anwyn

The Woman Behind the Heryn

Kindness is probably the quality for which Dîmeril is now best known. She is particularly gentle with children, patient with people who have made mistakes and sympathetic towards those who do not quite fit anywhere else. There is usually food for a hungry traveller at Merilrond and somewhere for the unfortunate to sleep. Dîmeril understands failure well enough not to condemn it quickly. That does not make her naïve. She has spent too much of her life amongst soldiers, adventurers, mercenaries, Fey and politicians to mistake kindness for an obligation to believe everything she is told. She will frequently offer someone another chance. What they do with it matters.

Dîmeril is unusually fortunate in having retained friendships across much of her adult life. Luin, Sabine Thornmere, Maeriel Thornbow, Jonas Tench and others knew her long before she became the Heryn, and their presence at or around Merilrond provides something that titles and authority cannot. They remember the young ranger who made mistakes, became lost, argued with her companions and occasionally had no better idea what to do than anybody else. Dîmeril values that enormously. Around her oldest friends she is not the Heryn, the protector of Anwyn or the woman to whom everyone looks for an answer. She is simply Dîmeril.

Explore: The Companions of Merilrond

She also possesses a dry sense of humour which becomes considerably more apparent amongst people she knows well. Dîmeril is perfectly capable of solemn dignity when circumstances demand it, but those who live at Rose Hall know that the Heryn is equally capable of teasing her daughters, laughing at herself and making thoroughly irreverent observations once formal company has departed.

Dîmeril at War

Dîmeril is not harmless. Age has made her remarkably difficult to provoke on her own behalf. Insults can usually be ignored. Challenges to her authority may be laughed away. Even enemies sometimes receive considerably more patience than they deserve. Threatening those she loves is another matter entirely. The mother and the warrior are not really separate aspects of Dîmeril's character. They arise from the same instinct: protect what is hers.

When violence becomes unavoidable, those who know only the Heryn of Merilrond can find the transformation unsettling. Dîmeril does not become enraged or reckless. If anything, she becomes calmer. The warmth disappears behind the cold decisiveness of the old cavalry captain. Dîmeril's present wargear reflects the long and varied life she has lived. She normally wears enchanted mithral chainmail, carries a magical composite longbow, a magical longsword and a finely balanced enchanted dagger. The old two-handed sword she carried in her youth survives as a treasured relic rather than her preferred weapon.

Among the most significant possessions she still carries are the Standard of the White Unicorn, the Shield of the Far Road, the Copper Crest of Courage and a pair of magical Sending Stones shared with trusted companions. Dîmeril would very much prefer not to need any of them. That should not be mistaken for inability.

Dîmeril Today

Dîmeril is now an older Half-Elf, appearing much like an attractive human woman in her early fifties despite the considerably greater span of years behind her. She ordinarily dresses simply and carries herself with little of the ceremony one might expect from someone addressed as Heryn. There is comparatively little about the woman walking through Merilrond, speaking to children, tending her roses or discussing somebody's troublesome horse to advertise the celebrated adventurer she once was. That suits her perfectly well.

The greatest upheaval of Dîmeril's later life came when the Golden Woods themselves were transported into Warlderia. Trees, creatures, settlements and people crossed between worlds together. There is a certain irony in this. As a young woman Dîmeril wandered across worlds searching, without entirely realising it, for somewhere she belonged. Eventually she stopped wandering. She built Rose Hall. She raised children. Her friends settled around her. Merilrond grew beyond her doorstep and the Golden Woods became home. Then the world moved around her. But this time Dîmeril was not alone. Merilrond came with her.

Her roses still grow around Rose Hall. Her old companions remain nearby. Her daughters still have their home. Hundreds of people throughout the Golden Woods call her Heryn. After all those years of wandering, Dîmeril finally knows where she belongs. Wherever her people are, she is already home.

Being home, however, has brought new responsibilities. The Golden Woods may have survived their passage into Warlderia intact, but the world surrounding them is very different from the Fey realm in which Dîmeril spent so many years. Beyond the trees lie kingdoms, armies, ambitious rulers and conflicts capable of engulfing entire provinces. Dîmeril understands such dangers rather better than she would like. She has commanded cavalry, defended a frontier and watched peaceful communities discover that somebody else's war has suddenly arrived upon their doorstep. She therefore worries increasingly about whether the informal arrangements which protected the Golden Woods in the Fey World will be sufficient in Warlderia. Merilrond is far from defenceless. Rangers patrol the woods, the Sisters of Anwyn include experienced warriors, powerful Fey and woodland creatures regard the settlement as their home, and hostile strangers would find it remarkably difficult to approach Rose Hall without being noticed. Dîmeril nevertheless believes that more is required.

She has begun quietly considering how the Golden Woods might be better organised for war without transforming them into a militarised state. Patrols can be coordinated. Rallying places can be agreed. Supplies and weapons can be prepared. Messengers can know where to ride. Those capable of fighting can know whom to follow before an enemy is already amongst them. Above all, Dîmeril wants any serious threat confronted far from Merilrond itself. She has no desire to build walls around the life she has created. She intends instead to make certain that those walls are never needed. Friends Beyond the Woods

Dîmeril's preparations are not entirely military. She has also begun doing something which the younger Dîmeril Laeghartha was considerably less inclined to do. She is building political relationships. She has established friendly relations with Lady Virago Termagent of Steelrayn and with the Sorority of Picayune. The latter friendship contains an irony which Dîmeril appreciates: during her adventures in Erdian she fought against the ancestors of some of the very people whose descendants she now regards as potential allies. Old wars, in Dîmeril's view, are poor reasons for beginning new ones.

Her knowledge of the Fey World has also made her useful to the neighbouring Duchy of Everwatch. She advises Maelara Grausam, a Ducal Knight of Everwatch, and her uncle Edelmir Grausam on matters concerning the Fey inhabitants of the strange Silver Woods of Puevon.  Dîmeril knows better than most that dealings with the Fey require more than strength. Hospitality, promises, gifts, insults and obligations may possess meanings which are not immediately apparent to outsiders. Sometimes knowing when not to draw a sword is the more valuable expertise. Recognition

Most importantly, Duchess Katalin Valdid, the de facto ruler of the western shore of the Divine Empire, has recognised Dîmeril's authority within the Golden Woods. Dîmeril has spent much of her life acquiring positions of authority without particularly wanting them. Recognition by the Duchess nevertheless matters. The Golden Woods are no longer merely a fragment of the Fey World unexpectedly deposited in Warlderia. They have a place within its political landscape. Dîmeril has no desire to involve herself unnecessarily in the affairs of the Divine Empire, but neither does she intend the Golden Woods to remain politically isolated. Friendship with neighbouring powers provides a protection which even the finest Rangers cannot.

The old cavalry captain understands alliances almost as well as she understands fortifications. Both are most valuable before the battle begins. There is perhaps a final irony in Dîmeril's story.  For much of her life she resisted authority whenever it was placed upon her. She resigned from the Copper Crests. She became Border Lord reluctantly. She entered the Fey World determined never again to acquire territory or followers and then spent years insisting that the community growing around Merilrond did not make her anything resembling a ruler. She no longer bothers arguing the point. The Golden Woods contain the people she loves. Her friends live here. Her daughters grew up here. Hundreds of people look to her for protection. Dîmeril finally understands that accepting responsibility for them does not mean surrendering the life she wanted. They are the life she wanted. And now that she has found it, Dîmeril Laeghartha intends to make very certain that nobody takes it from her.