Celdea

Special Equipment:



Appearance:

A strikingly beautiful woman, elegant as the very moon. She is about thirty years old, though as lithe and agile as a child. But she is sad, and in her soft black eyes is worry and fear. Slight downy hair covers her body, so she wears long clothes to cover it.

Background:

Part I: The Birth of Aera, Dazzling as the very Sun, her mother

And Aera was betrothed to Skundaak before she was born. The Lord of Chaos in His orbs had sought long for the most beautiful woman ever to be born, as dazzling as the very sun itself, and He saw it would be Aera and He lusted after her. Thus He came to her father, Sitran, and demanded that he surrender his first born daughter to Him and He would make her His IMMORTAL BRIDE. Cowering in the darkness of His presence, Sitran agreed and promised the Chaotic King his unborn daughter.

But Sitran was wedded to wily Casta, who also knew her daughter would be the most beautiful woman ever to be born, as dazzling as the very sun itself, and dreaded surrendering her to Skundaak for her beauty to be defiled by chaos. So when she felt the pangs of labour she went out into the forest and bore Aera there, leaving her covered in moss in a hollow, still fresh with her mother's blood and ate the afterbirth to hide all traces of the event.

Weeping came she home to Sitran and told him there had been a miscarriage. He was grief-struck and terrified also of what Skundaath would do. And rightly so, for he came there shortly after and divining Casta's deception he slew her and Sitran both and left their house in a bloody mess.

But Skundaath could not divine the whereabouts of the most beautiful woman ever to be born, as dazzling as the very sun. Perhaps her mother's love had clouded his vision like magic and he knew not that she lived in the forest with the deer.

Part II: The birth of Celdea

And Aera was raised by the deer, whose King was Celdan. They knew she was beautiful and adopted her as one of their own to dance through the forest with them and to rest in the cool glades with them. When she came of age, she took a husband amongst them, Cerl son of Celdan, Prince of the Deer. He was kind and delicate and powerful and their daughter inherited that. She was called Celdea and was the second most beautiful girl ever to be born, elegant as the very moon, lithe as a deer but with the body of a woman.

But Seria, the daughter of Kale Queen of Deer hated Aera and her beauty and her human form, hated her having married Cerl her brother, hated her child, and so crept off to the edge of the forest where she sought Skundaak to tell him where to find his precious strumpet, dazzling as the very sun.

Skundaak was seized by jealousy and vowed to slay all the deer. He first slew Seria who gasped and repented her treachery as she lay bleeding on the ground. Then the ran among the woods, slaughtering the quiet herds, slashing with his blades and hurling his maces turning the tranquil forest into a Chaotic spray of blood.

He found the lovers, Aera and Cerl, in a glade and his ire and angry jealousy intensified when he saw how beautiful she was and how calmly they awaited their fate and how sadly. In a single roaring swipe he cleaved the heads off them both, then raped their bodies and left them utterly dead.

But Celdea had fled, swift as a deer, and Skundaak in his rage had not noticed. For she was now his Betrothed, now that her mother was dead he desired her most, elegant as the moon.

And still she wanders the world of men with her secret, forever fearful that she will be taken by Skundaath when he finds her. And Skundaath, obsessed as he is, spends his every minute seeking her.

Roleplaying Notes:

She is a quiet, reserved woman and seems always to be troubled, even when she is happy. In any relationship she is slightly distant, knowing that at any moment it might end in disaster. She dreads the thought of bearing a child, in case she passes on the curse of Skundaath to her young.