She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspecat and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron (1814)
Description
Arionrhod is a petite 5'1" tall human. She has very long, thick copper red hair which falls to her waist, slightly slanted deep green eyes, and ears which are just pointed enough to betray an amount of Elvish in her ancestry (in fact, her mother is a half-elf). She tends to dress very modestly (the picture above not withstanding!) in blue velvet robes which cover her from neck to ankles, and are richly embroidered with magical and Egyptian symbols. She loves jewelry and wears alot of it - rings on every finger, several different necklaces, toe rings, bracelets, and ankle chains. Her right ear is pierced in two places and her left in three. Much of her jewelry is magical in some way. When travelling, she wears a closefitting skullcap of polished silver.
She carries many bags and pouches concealed in her robe. Under the robe she favors light silk or linen dresses in blues and greens. At all times, even sleeping, she wears a set of heavy wrought, crossed silver belts, which allow her to have the scabbards of a dagger at either hip. These daggers are NEVER off of her except when she is in the security of her own home. Upon occassion when it has been required for concealment, she has moved the daggers to thigh sheaths under her dress, but this is very rare.
Arionrhod has an 18 charisma and comeliness relative to males and a 15 relative to females. This is due to the special properties of one of the daggers she wears - the Witchblade. She rarely plays upon her looks, however, since she knows the enhancement is due to magic and not actually due to her real appearance. She tends to be fairly serious most of the time, except when in the company of her close friends. She is bitingly sarcastic when riled up, and has a ready temper when opposed. Lately, however, even her friends have noticed a distinct air of bitterness and preoccupation about her.
As far as my eyes can see, there are shadows surrounding me --
And to those I leave behind, I want you all to know,
You've always shared my darkest hours, I'll miss you when I go --
And oh, when I'm old and wise;
Bitters words that tossed and blew me, like autumn winds will blow right through me,
And someday, in the midst of time,
If they ask you if you knew me, remember that you were a friend of mine;
As the final curtain falls before my eyes;
Oh, when I'm old and wise.
-- "Old and Wise" by The Alan Parsons Project
Biography
Arionrhod was born on Darkhold just outside the small town of Joe's Place, north of the Protectorate of Keeli. The middle of three sisters (all of whom look similar enough to pass for each other to people who don't know them well), she showed a talent for magic at an early age. Her older sister, Kira, left home at the age of 16 to begin formal training as a witch, and Arionrhod decided to follow suit soon after. Unlike her sister, who followed their mother's Catholic religion, Arionrhod had always been a student of the Egyptian religion followed by their father. With her parents blessing, she joined a coven of Egyptian witches not far from Joe's Place, and began her formal training.
Arionrhod studied long and hard in the coven. Due to the somewhat untamed nature of the local area, it was relatively easy for her to quickly achieve several levels of proficiency in her craft while helping out many of the local residents. The Witches of Isis of her clan are the main source of healing and nature magic in the area, and her first several years were very busy. Upon reaching 7th level, however, the Witch Mother of her clan encouraged her to broaden her horizons, to travel and pick up new skills which would benefit the clan at a future date. With some trepidation, Arionrhod set out for Keeli, the major port city to the south.
Strangely enough, it didn't take long for her to fall into the company of an elf named Shadowspawn, and the group of adventurers that he was assembling. It was with this group, which eventually became known by the self-described name of "The New Balance", that she was to adventure for the next 15 years, ranging across Darkhold, Earth, and several other worlds and different planes. She and her companions undertook the quest to attain the Witchblade (twice!), and walked the Road of the Dead. They adventured to the far eastern Kingdom of Katana, and spent time on the magic-poor world of Earth during several different time periods. Arionrhod advanced as far as 14th level, but several times lost a level through various calamities and had to regain it.
In her late twenties, Arionrhod met and married a thief by the name of Anton Zvedzy, a charming rogue who was born in Deerhart but on the run from the evil rulers of that country. She continued adventuring, while Anton was content to remain at the group's stronghold in the town of Mordentshire, helping manage the by-now large estate that the group had managed to build from the profits of their adventuring, seeing his wife during the increasingly frequent hiatuses she took from her travels to manage the group's magic shop.
It was on one of her infrequent forays outside of Mordentshire, however, when things happened which were to many years later cause some rather dramatic changes in her life.
During an adventure on Earth, which led the group through many different eras of time chasing a group of evil Egyptians, Arionrhod was captured. She was rescued by her comrades, having been kept comatose most of the time. It was not until several years later, after her return to Darkhold, that she noticed something rather strange - she briefly, for no explainable reason, seemed to "lose contact" with the ground very briefly. This petrified her, for one of the things the group had learned on Earth was that the evil Egyptians they had dealt with had the ability to make a kind of clone, called a Ka, of anyone they captured. And one of the things that happened to Ka as they aged was that they because lighter, losing contact with the ground as the magical energy which fed them caused them to be repulsed from the Earth. With a sickening feeling of doom, Arionrhod prayed to Isis for information, and discovered that yes, indeed, she was not the "real" Arionrhod, but a Ka created by their enemies.
Needless to say, Arionrhod's mental state of health was seriously affected by this knowledge. What had happened to the "real" Arionrhod? What did this mean for her marriage to Anton? Was "she" actually married at all? And what in the world was she to do about it? Arionrhod became obsessed with one thing - returning to Earth to discover the truth, find the last of the perpetrators (one of whom was still alive on Earth into the 20th century), and destroy that person and every vampire she could lay waste to. Her party was opposed to this plan, and refused to return to Earth.
Arionrhod retired from adventuring, and currently resides in the group's Keep in Mordentshire. She has grown distanced from Anton, who doesn't know how to handle this situation himself. Her days are spent in devising her plans for returning to Earth and wreaking vengeance on those who, in her opinion, have destroyed her. She has started to focus every ounce of her power and will to achieve her goals, even if it means her destruction, for she, as an Egyptian, knows something that her party members don't get seemed to have grasped - that Ka have no soul. To her, the end of her life is the end of all things, for Ka have no afterlife. And her determination is to send as many of her enemies as she can to eternal damnation before her own death.
"You're looking like a fish to me!" -- Arionrhod
"You're *NEUTRAL* Good????!!!!????" -- various members of the New Balance
