Young Writers Society

Full Name: Erevan "Van" Lalian

Role: He's a fighter. He specifically fights with a plain shortsword, though he's good at using anything that falls under the sword classification.

Alignment: Slightly Neutral/Mostly Chaotic Good

Race: Drow/Dark Elf

Gender: Male, he/him.

Age: 542 years old.

Appearance: Traveling the world as a drow has an unfortunate "perk" - the sunlight causes his weak skin great irritation. Because of this, he's almost completely covered by cloth or bandages. The few areas that aren't covered are his eyes and hair - his eyes are blue and his hair is long and white. Though his hair is usually down, he typically has braids or some other adornment in it.

His outfit looks like this, though he only has one sword instead of two and it's a simpler design. His shoes also don't have the little points coming off of them.

Personality: Though he's a drow, Erevan tends to be well-liked by anyone who meets him. No one's quite sure why - maybe it's because he's charismatic, or kind, or something else. The few that he's met in the capital city have already taken a liking to him, thanks to his politeness and willingness to help out random people on the street with mundane tasks.

He does have a more casual side to him as well - he's been known to joke around, and can be incredibly friendly. It's very easy to forget that he's a drow, or even an elf in general, and people are often shocked when they hear just how old he is.

But Erevan does has a tendency to keep to himself, and is unlikely to call most people truly close to him. The only exception would be his friend Nakhem, a bard he met during his travels. If someone wants him to truly trust them, they would have to work especially hard to gain that trust.

He also does have a tendency to go against rules he thinks are unjust, with varying amounts of success depending on the situation.

Brief History: Like most drow, Erevan grew up in the Underdark - an underground part of the world few ventured to. Though he was told it was his nature to hate the surface dwellers, he found himself intrigued by the stories he heard of them. When he finally arrived at adulthood and was given his name, he left the Underdark for good and embarked on a journey that has taken him the past 442 years.

He's traveled the world, learning about people's cultures and customs. When possible, he would help them with their troubles - whether they were hordes of monsters, a missing pet or dealing with unjust councils.

He arrived in Itozan a little less than three years ago, but has only just left the rural areas for the capital. Hearing of and seeing the destruction caused by the Slime King first hand, he decided to assist in the quest to defeat him.

Talents: Besides being an excellent swordsman, Erevan's talents mainly lie in his ability to get along with almost everyone. He's also a brilliant strategist in almost every situation; he can usually come up with ingenious ways to get around troubling situations.

Last - and certainly not least - Erevan is great out in the wild. It's a perk of traveling so much. He's the experienced sort of guy anyone would want on their quest.

Other: As mentioned before, his only and true friend is Nakhem. Even while off on travels, he frequently communicates with him through a variety of means. Nakhem prefers sending a bird with a letter attached to it (something Erevan regularly teases him about) but Erevan prefers the more trustworthy approach of using a magical artifact he was gifted with during his travels.

It works a little like texting, but with a longer time in between texts. The users of the stone tablets write messages with a special instrument (like a stylus) addressed to the other stone's owner, and the recipient will see whatever is written as it is being read.

The message will disappear once a new one on either tablet is started. There's usually a wait time of at least half a day before new messages can be made; this is to prevent any accidental erasures of messages when they're being read.

Full Name: Madre Tove Goatsknee
Madre for clients and Tove for friends. Sometimes Madre Tove.

Role: A full-fledged woodwitch with specialties in herbs and curses.

Alignment: True Neutral/Neutral Good

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Age: Indeterminate. Could be anywhere from 30 to 70.

Appearance: Most of Madre Tove’s body is hidden under layers of moss, dark fabrics, and animal bones. She wears a massive goat skull on her head, including the jaw bone. Feathers and beads hang from the horns, which make clicking and clattering sounds whenever she moves. Her boots are warm deerhide, and her cloak is made from wool, fur, leather, and other materials. Protective spells are woven into it. Underneath the cloak is a simple hide tunic and trousers. She carries a large elm staff decorated with carvings, beads, bones, and feathers at all times and there’s a satchel she has under her cloak that carries her important physical materials.
Madre Tove also wears the claws of an unknown creature sewn into her leather gloves, which serves to make her look even more intimidating.
If you strip all that extra stuff off, though, you’ll see a very muscular woman about 6 feet tall with pale skin and unnaturally green eyes. Her face is squarish and angular. She has a couple scars here and there, but nothing too prominent. Her chestnut hair is cropped short and pulled back in a Sokka-style ponytail.
Personality: Madre Tove is generally a very friendly person, and she’s got both flair and pragmatism. Her temper, when it rises, is hot and nasty, and she’ll become vengeful if someone wrongs her enough. She’s empathetic for the most part, though she can set that aside when needs must. Her overall appearance is very offputting, but she makes up for that with efforts to get to know whoever wanders through her woods if they happen upon her. She has heavy prejudices against goblins and has vexed the fae plenty of times, which comes back to bite her on occasion. She can be short with people when she’s stressed, and she has almost no concept of authority because she’s been living in the woods on her own (mostly) for most of her life.

Brief History: Madre Tove is one of the many unfortunates of her village to have been replaced by a changeling. She learned magic from her adoptive fae colony and became quite adept in witchery, which vexed the fae to no end due to an ongoing rivalry between witches and fae in general. Something about too many fae going missing and coming back with fewer limbs and tongues than they started with. The fae gave her the gift of long life and raised her from infancy to teenhood, at which point Tove grew curious about the whereabouts of her biological parents and set out to find them. She found their village, but the villagefolk chased her away before she could find out which of them were her parents, attempting to burn her for witchcraft before that. Hurt and embarrassed, Tove cast a curse on the village: Every seventh year, their crops would yield nothing and their men would be rendered sterile. Tove fled after that, wandering for twelve years until she came to another village surrounded by a dark forest. The forest was where she made her permanent home, and over time she became well acquainted with its inhabitants. On occasion she offers her services to the village, but for the most part she keeps to herself.

Talents: Witchcraft of any kind, though she specializes in herbal concoctions and curses. She’s an excellent cook and decent in hand-to-hand combat, though she prefers a hefty axe over fists. Madre Tove is also decent at spinning, cobbling, ironwork, and woodcarving, but she's terrible at the magic of contracts. She has unusual proficiency with animals as well.

Other: Madre Tove almost always has some animal draped or perched on her shoulder or hidden somewhere in the folds of her cloak. She keeps tidbits of food in her satchel for them.

Madre in this case is pronounced like so: MAH-dre without an "ay" sound where the e is. More like an "uh" sound.