Art credits: Myself
Name: Vaelia Saelanor
Race: Sun Elf
Age: 147 years old
Status: Commoner
Height: 5ft 3 inches
Class: Cleric
Background: Nurturer
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Positive traits: Fun loving, optimistic, polite, soft spoken, incredibly caring, enthusiastic, patient, loyal.
Negative traits: Skittish, coddled, oblivious, slightly childish, fussy, a hint of snobbery, could be perceived as cowardly.
Likes: Grapes, cheese, cats, rabbits, worms, snails, chocolate, warm weather, evening hours, cold potatoes with cheese.
Dislikes: Any livestock up close, millipedes, cold baths, olives, senseless violence, Drow.
A lineage of cheese and wine
Backstory Subject to change (IE help with dating things, any inconsistencies, etc. Any lore overhaul will be made clear!)
Vaelia Saelanor comes from a long, long line of artisans - products from the vine and the udder supporting her lineage for almost ten thousand years. The family business (originally a variety artisan goods store) first established only a few years after the sun elves' arrival in Evermeet; though plans for such business had been been in the works about 100 years prior. The Saelanors took the opportunity of a fresh start head on, with strong optimism in each stride...no matter how unsettling and difficult it had been to flee from their once beloved home.Grateful for this chance, and taking it as a sign for new endeavours, the Saelanors found success almost immediately. Providing a homemade (and, rarely, imported) goods, the sun elves local to the store found comfort in the wines, the jams, the cheese and anything else that was stocked.
Once the founders of the store had spent around 300 years in the business, they decided to pass it down to their children in pursuit of arcane study full time. Comfortable with the initial profits, they were content enough to live out the rest of their days surrounded by excellent wine and the best cheese one could ask for at the time; all while knowing their legacy will be continued on by their children.
This pattern repeated for three more generations of Saelanors - only after two generations, the store began to focus on wine and cheese production. Jams and spreads were moved to just one display now to facilitate the large production and storage of the better selling products. During this generations time, they had made great acquaintances with the local vineyard owners (and eventually family-in-law after a beautiful wedding), where both parties have enjoyed discounts and a mutualistic relationship ever since.
Very little changed from this point on.
The family gained popularity and wealth over time, sitting comfortably in the middle-class range.
Once time had rolled around to Vaelia's generation, she was welcomed with open arms by her family and local community. As she grew older, she gained more and more pride for her family business and lineage, often swapping family-achievement stories with other equally proud children.
Her upbringing was somewhat lax and slightly sheltered; being in a middle class family meant she needn't worry where her next meal would come from, and that thought had never once even crossed her mind. She was supported by any endeavour that she set her grubby little mitts on, and eventually found herself happiest in wine making... naturally. Perhaps it was the time she could spend sat by her mother, her grandmother and great-grandmother. Maybe it was the irresistible aroma the grapes produced when squashed, and even better the occasional theft of a few freshly plucked grapes here and there. From a very young age, Vaelia has always found the best in anything and everything.
Alongside the business, the Saelanors were of course deeply religious. Worship happened each day and praying was encouraged at every meal. Anything Vaelia found joy in, she thanked Corellon Larethian for.
This touched every aspect of Vaelia's life, including the spellcraft she fell in love with.
While most of her family preferred the arcane arts, Vaelia and a few others (Mother, grandfather, great-grandmother, so on) preferred healing and blessing. She took great pride in studying this more devoutly than arcana and was always the first one rushing to help should an injury ever occur. To heal is to protect, and to protect is to be compassionate.
But, despite all of her studying and hard work, there came a time where she was unable to repair. Even at the shaking hands of her venerable great-grandfather.
It was a simple, normal day for the family. Early rise to begin preparation for what they expected to be a busy rush; brand new samples of cheese was finally ready. Just as the stock had been laid out, Vaelia's mother glanced out of the window, admiring the townscape beyond the store with a smile - until the youngest cousin of the family was spotted being carted up towards them. They were barely recognisable. Vaelia's mother didn't even realise they were carrying an elf to begin with.
cw - Child death and depiction of gore
The child was immediately brought inside of the store and taken into the back rooms, placed upon the preparation table. Limbs missing. Almost all four of them. His face was disfigured beyond recognition and what remaining fingers he had were almost completely flat. He couldn't scream properly or cry. No matter what the family healers (including Vaelia) pumped into him, it made little difference. Every inch of him had been utterly obliterated by stampeding cattle. It was clear that, even if they were to continuously heal him for hours and hours on end - even days - he would only suffer. He would have little quality of life and while his heart was still barely beating, it was clear that he had passed on.
The grief shook the family to its very core.
The store never opened that day, and instead locals provided silent aid where they could once hearing of the boys death.
Vaelia watched as her parents desperately tried to console the boys grieving father (her uncle) to no avail.
To show responsibility and independence, Vaelia's brothers decided to open the store the very next day after recovering it to its previous state. Vaelia went along with her mother, other cousins, aunts and grandmothers in deep prayer during the days leading up to the funeral.
Even after four decades, Vaelia's uncle never seemed to return to be anywhere close to who he once was. A once jolly and loud man could be found sat silently on his rocking chair, staring out into seemingly nothingness. He ate whatever was put in front of him, drank whatever was put in front of him, and slept when the sun fell from the sky. Her father lost a part of himself seeing his brother in such a state - a bizarre sense of grief despite the person still very much being alive.
After the incident, and after her uncle's state worsened, Vaelia's parents kept a tight leash on all three of them. Vaelia was not allowed to be anywhere near cattle or livestock no matter how much she loved seeing the cows. Her brothers (especially the youngest one) were applauded for their decisive thinking and maturity when taking up the business, so were given the keys early on the promise that they would not pick up the dairy ingredients themselves. Like Vaelia, they were forbidden from being around animals, and instead had to hire a delivery boy to bring the milk to and from the farms.
Despite her older brother being a fully matured sun elf and herself and her younger brother being close, they were coddled even more by the parents.
Their parents had taken up arcane study as per tradition while also caring for the grief-struck uncle at the side, and had seemingly fallen into their old ways of parenting as if looking after toddlers once more.
Truthfully, Vaelia didn't mind that much. She had to stare at what was left of that boys body for well over an hour. Long enough to burn an imprint into her brain and strike a deep fear of cattle into her core. Because of this, she stuck to remaining firmly inside of the local town area and would always refuse to go to the market with her friends.
As life moved on, Vaelia found herself at the local clinics and house of worship most days. In the evenings she would relieve any stress by pressing (and eating) grapes. Her divine studies had landed her a job at the clinic that she proudly took for herself, and after entering adulthood she (and her parents) began looking for a suitor. While it wasn't particularly high priority, Vaelia wanted for herself what she had seen in her parents and grandparents for so long.
Eventually, darkness appeared in the form of The Longest Year, eradicating magic.
In a family, in a culture, and in an occupation, so reliant on magic and its properties left entirely without it caused chaos for some time - at least, locally.
Many volunteers were needed to manually carry out tasks that were once taken for granted thanks to arcana, and those already in priority jobs (such as Vaelia at the clinic) had to learn more "primitive" ways of performing those tasks.
Because of this, Vaelia learned the art of mending and botanical healing. Her divine power had left her fingertips so instead they found heavy bandages and homemade antiseptic.
The store suffered from this, too. The grapes were protected by the brothers magic from insects and small critters alike; so they woke up to a ginormous shock once they discovered half of the vineyard had been nibbled away, and the wines having their fermentation accelerated now sitting idle in their containers. Schedules had been completely tossed out of the window and while the store had plenty of profit from previous seasons to fall back on, it was finite.
They found comfort in citrus based pesticides and scarecrows to help with the grape issue, but the wine fermentation process was still an issue. Regardless, not a single elf was alone in this sudden shock, so at least they could take comfort in that.
Once magic began to slowly return, Vaelia's parents called their children for a meeting - accompanied by all living members of the family.
A task was presented.
Find a grape worthy of self-sustain and the wine it makes must be of high quality with a short fermenting period.
Happy with her place in the clinic, Vaelia didn't exactly jump to take the place. Instead, her younger brother stepped up to the table and put himself down for it.
After an hour or so of deliberation between the older family members, they denied him. He was too integral to the business. Both of the brothers were. They knew every inch of that store, whereas Vaelia's time outside of it made her wiser than them to other life. Plus... if one of the sons left, she would have to take his place and learn everything in a short timeframe to be able to keep up. It wasn't fair on any of them.
So, Vaelia was chosen.
She was to leave Evermeet and travel - bringing back a fine selection of foreign grapes and recipes.
