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♦ Birth Name: Runa Tove Helvig
♦ Titles: Druidess of the Cat ; High Druid of the Green Enclave ; Keeper of the Tranquil Pools ; Freewalker of Eldath
♦ Origin: Bryn Shander, Icewind Dale
♦ Age: Early to Mid Thirties
♦ Birth date: Kythorn 9th, 1326 DR
♦ Race: Human (Illuskan)
♦ Gender: Female
♦ Patron Deity: Eldath
♦ Favored Deities: Silvanus, Mielikki, Selûne
♦ Alignment: Neutral Good
♦ Classes: Druid/Cleric
♦ Profession: Healer, Herbalist & Priest
♦ Languages: Illuskan (Mother Tongue), Common, Druidic, Sylvan, Aquan.
♦ Height: 5'11 (~1,81m)
♦ Weight: ~138lb (~63kg)
♦ Build: Average to thin
♦ Hair: Extremely long, curly auburn hair
♦ Eyes: Dark green
♦ Skin: Fair, with freckles across face and shoulders
♦ Distinguishable Marks: Tattoo of a Cat on left clavicle ; Deep scar (healed) on her left palm
♦ Posture: Poised, calm
♦ Voice: Soft and breathy, middle-range pitch
♦ Theme Song: AURORA - The River
Layout pretty much stolen from Rhifox / Nyssis
Portrait from Lao Bai 老白 |
Appearance
Of fair, pale skin dotted by freckles that run through her cheeks and nose, Runa is a tall woman of Illuskan heritage. Her strikingly long, curly auburn hair that extends down to her hips frame her slender figure well, though it is usually only seen in strands as the druid often wears a green hood when outside, where she seems to spend most of her time judging by the dirt on her clothing and flowers and leaves that even seem to adorn her hair.
Her laugh lines and some wrinkles around her dark green eyes may betray in telling that she seems to be in her early to mid thirties. Nonetheless, her expression is gentle, warming and often welcoming and approachable, characteristics supported by her soft and breathy tone of voice. One can easily see Runa has a pleasing face, though it is also obvious that she pays little care to her appearance.
Usually seen in dark greens and browns, her clothing choices reflect her focus on function rather than aesthetics, though her slightly heeled boots might in a way contradict that perception. Antlers carved of wood adorn her hood, and she often wears gloves of light tan leather, along with a backpack and pouches she carries pretty much everywhere.
Runa's posture is quite firm and poised, usually with a lifted chin and retracted shoulders. Those with attentive eyes and perhaps a familiarity with nobility see in her a higher class upbringing, her vocabulary extensive and educated demeanor helping reinforce that, though much of it has been noticeably shed by years spent in the wilderness.
Personality
In a few words, Runa is kind, calm and wise. During first impressions, one would usually see a quiet but very polite woman, with graceful movements and always with a gentle expression on her face. When she speaks, it is easy to assume her to be naive, and while that may be true in some regards, in deeper conversation she proves to be quite perceptive and worldly.
For those who spend more time with her, she is always friendly and not afraid to act on that. She has much love and affection for those she cares for and for the world as a whole, especially its aspects of nature. Altruistic, she often seems to put others before her own well being, sometimes to her detriment, and her hopeful, positive nature gives her strength to always keep moving forward.
Runa is extremely self aware of her flaws, but also understands well her strengths. She embraces who she is and doesn't doubt her beliefs, the years of alone, quiet introspection visible in her perspective of herself and the world around her, be it people, nature or the divine. She never imposes herself on others, and is usually just fine with blending in the background. She has a love and care for plants and animals, a product of her druidic path and in general being prone to interact with nature more than people.
Background
Runa was a lucky child, the youngest girl of three in a family of well-off merchants. She wanted for little, as her parents gave her whatever she wished. Born in the wintery lands of Icewind Dale, inside the stone-walled city of Bryn-Shander, her first years of life were met with much love by her older siblings and her parents.
She was raised in a big home of stone and wood, with many halls to run and rooms to play hide-and-seek in, though her childish behavior was sometimes met with an angry tutor or two. But that hardly mattered, as Runa grew just as astute as she was hyperactive, and was fond of finding ways to work around her tutors.
Close to her tenth birthday she was given a brother, and alongside her oldest sister and a nursemaid, she pretty much raised the boy, giving him all the love a sister could. The following years were filled with joy, and laughter often echoed through the halls of the house, but as it does in stories like this one, that was bound to change.
As she aged, Runa was more and more pressured by certain expectations to fill a role set before her. Due to being the youngest sister, she had evaded her mother’s thoughts, but around her fifteenth year she was to act like a lady and be handed to marry in the interest of their family’s business.
That, along with many arguments with her family and a heartbreaking distance she was forced to keep from her younger brother, caused Runa to retreat within herself. She found comfort in being alone, and often started to roam the outside of the city walls. The cold air gave her solace, and in the forest’s wildlife she found a strange kinship.
The few following years saw her growing even further apart from her family, the fights were constant, the screams loud enough for the neighbors to hear. No longer laughter was heard in the halls of that old home, and with that thought Runa was doomed to fully isolate herself. She still had a heart for her family, mind you, she yearned for those younger years, for her mother’s hug and her father’s encouraging words, but no longer she found them, and she understood they would not come back.
She was around seventeen when she ran away, a decision she spent weeks mulling over as her parents had found a suitor for her, but a decision she never regretted. She took little with her, it would have weighed too much in her mind if she were to steal from her family, but in the woods, where she had spent most of her past few years, she found more than necessary to live.
Winter was rough, though. Frozenfar is not a land that loses its white snow to summer, but come winter it was particularly difficult. And yet, Runa endured, and she always looked forward to the turn of the season, when the rivers would run once more, and the waterfalls would thaw and flow.
It was on one of those days that she met with the glory of her goddess for the first time. Peace like she never felt before, a harmony that filled her with love and hope, things she had been starved of. Through speaking with the wilds and pulling from any sliver of knowledge she retained from her times being tutored, she had encountered the goddess that once more gave her a path, one that she wanted to follow.
For almost a decade she travelled the Icewind Dale, never straying too far south, but her mind wandered far. She found happiness in her ways, and learned more each day of her path. Much time she spent without even speaking a word, and in her silence she truly connected with her own self, with the forest and the wildlife, with the rivers and waterfalls, the night sky and the rain.
Took her almost ten years to find herself going south, but whatever ill thought she might have had, it was now filled with hope and purpose. Runa understood she still had much to learn, but she was set on spreading peace and finding a place where she was needed.
Immediate Family
- Mother: Olga Dal Helvig
- Father: Haldor Ohlsen Helvig
- Oldest Sister: Lyric Haldorsdottir Helvig
- Oldest Brother: Eiric Haldorsen Helvig
- Older Sister: Brenna Lind Helvig
- Middle Sister: Daila Dal Helvig
- Younger Brother: Ulfen Leif Helvig
- House Cat: Yola
Runa's main goal is simple: she wishes to spread the peace of her faith through both her actions and her words. She wants to nurture and care for what she sees as needing it. She doesnt care for power nor wealth, and lives a humble life, as she believes it is the best way to follow her Goddess' teachings.
To guide, to heal, to aid, to nurture. To create lasting moments of peace for both her environment and those within it - be it men, beast, flora or any fauna.
Ultimately, Runa will leave this Realm peacefully when her Lady deems it time.
Faith & Deities
Of unfaltering faith, Runa's worship of Eldath is everything to her, as it has guided her path for over a decade. Still, having come across many different faiths and beliefs, Runa, as any mortal, is bound to have opinions on the many Gods of the Realms. She tries not to spend too much time dwelling in thought of deities beyond the ones she truly worships, and is usually successful at that, but it is still important for one like her to study and understand other faiths, for the time comes when churches simply intertwine in their efforts, either as friends or as foes.
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| Primary Deities |
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Runa has a strong faith, highly valuing Eldath's teachings. As a druid of the Mother of Waters, Runa has a powerful connection with the peaceful side of nature, and is prone to the element of water. Her faith hardly if ever falters, and she acts in the complete belief that she is on the path that her Goddess has set before her, to the point that her actions are fueled by her desire to make her Goddess proud, along with her own wish to be kind and selfless. Runa often calls Eldath by the name "My Lady of Waterfalls", an unofficial title, due to the first time she had contact with her Goddess' domains, through the thawing of waterfalls. |
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A sister to Eldath, Mielikki is a god Runa often prays to in conjunction to her own patron. Having spent most of her life inside the walls of a city, Runa might be more connected to civilization than most druids, likely more than she even cares to admit, and either consciously or subconsciously, she's drawn to Mielikkian views of balance and coexistance.
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A faith that grew in Runa's travels, her prayers to the Moonmaiden come from a place of solitude. Runa spent much of her life alone wandering the natural world of this Realm, and as such, she found much needed guidance in Selûne. She also appreciates the Moonmaiden's views on tolerance and understanding, linking it to her own views as a druid of the peaceful Eldath.
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A deity that Runa doesn't as often pray to. To Runa, Silvanus is the rawest aspect of nature, the beautiful and the ugly, and as such she fully understands how necessary he is. Though she carries Eldath as her patron, Runa understands the natural need for balance, and that part of her is the one that allies itself with the Oakfather. Even if she is more malleable than his dogma expects, she holds him in high regard.
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| Favored Deities |
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Runa hasn't actually had much contact with the faith of Chauntea, as she lived in the frozen northlands and often saw little mention of the goddess there where the cold never gives way to agriculture. Still, Runa admires and allies herself with the ideals of Chaunteans, to help all living creatures, to tend, plant and nurture wherever possible.
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One of the goddesses who's faith she got in contact with through her time at the Halls of Inner Light. She has spent hours reading on Lady Goldhart's dogma, as well as hearing the preaching of Tia'tae, a faithful to the goddess. Though she doesn't care much for mortal love, Runa deeply appreciates the benevolence of the faith, and sympathizes with its need to nurture what is beautiful.
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Another she met through the Halls, Runa sees Peryroyl as an extension of Nature's reach. Also a goddess of love, though Runa focuses on the Green Sister's domain over nature and agriculture that she shares with many other powers that Runa prays to. It is also through Peryroyl that Runa keeps in her thoughts Priestess Lily, who lost herself in her own mind after the calamity of 1358.
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A deity Runa came in contact with through her own study of hoping to learn more of ancient dwarven rune magic. Perhaps strangely, during Runa's visits to Kraak Helzak she found herself enjoying the contact with Marthammor's church, finding in it the teachings of harmony between races and a hopeful outlook for life, and through it she grew interested in the faith. Though now her visits to Kraak aren't as frequent, she still maintains the teachings of Marthammor with her.
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| Other Deities |
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Maybe more than most druids, Runa understands Auril. She was born and raised in a place where winter ruled, where it never gave an inch, and through that experience she fears the Frostmaiden. More recently, she was reminded of this fear and of the strength and relentlessness of the goddess during the Aurilite War, when she helped locals recover from the frozen summer.
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Unknown to her until her time in this region of the Coast, Runa has a newly deep seeded fear and animosity for Garagos. She saw with her own eyes a fight between powers of Silvanus and Garagos through their followers, and was deeply scarred by it. She understands him to be against all she stands and lives for.
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Runa came to know Ilmater quite early in her life, through the temple dedicated to the Triad in her home city of Bryn-Shander. Of the three, Ilmater drew Runa in a way no other god had done so far. She understands him a force of good, she found in him support to endure pain and suffering, and though now she finds her support in other deities, she forever will hold Ilmater's faith as dear to her heart.
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Through her worship of Eldath, Runa found herself close to the elemental aspect of water. She holds Istishia as water itself, from the flowing currents to unrelenting rain, and as such pays tribute to the water god. During her Pilgrimage, Runa stayed within a Temple of Istishia, where she further understood his teachings to the faithful and came to connect further his ideals of Cyclical patterns to the Cycles of nature itself.
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Though she has had little contact with her faith, Runa understands Lurue as a symbol of joy and hope. Patron of intelligent beasts, Runa believes in the goddess as a beautiful part of Nature, one that brings joy and laughter. In a way, Runa doesn't take Lurue too seriously, seeing her as more a distant friend than a true deity.
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Runa sees the Beastlord as an enemy to peace. She many times fails to understand his place in nature, seeing only his chaotic tendencies for conflict and bloodshed, both in civilization but also in the natural world.
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In a similar way as to the Beastlord, Runa sees Talos as naught but a destructive force. She understands him as an enemy of peace, with little care for the natural world. She's afraid of him and his followers, as she's seen how little care they have for everything Runa holds dear.
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"Through unity and diversity there is strength", so says the teachings of the Triune Goddess. Mention of the faith came to Runa through her study at the Halls and her contact with elven culture. Though she doesn't pay much tribute to the deity, Runa holds dear respect for her and her position within the Seldarine, valuing the work of the faithful as healers and helpers of their elven communities.
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A fearful, petty deity, Runa has had very little contact with the oceans and it is maybe a fear of the unknown that fuels her apprehension over this goddess. She abhors Umberlee's doctrine of fear and needless sacrifice.
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The Prince of Lies is a figure that Runa doesn't often think of, but whenever she does - or sees the work of his faithful -, it evokes within a sense of dread. A dangerous deity who commands dangerous faithful, and she believes it must be part of her duty to spread peace as a means of combating against the work of gods such as him.
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A complicated but positive relationship. Runa met the faith of Sune through the Halls of Inner Light, and at first saw it as vain and selfish. She first understood Sune as exclusionary, but later through quiet reading and conversations with friends, she came to see a side to Lady Firehair that spoke of beauty within. Now, though Runa doesn't often pray to her, she has newfound respect for some aspects of Sunite faith: to seek and awaken love in others, even if Runa understands love to be not just between two mortals, but also between ideals, nature and faith.
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Runa mostly came into contact with the faith through the works of Candlekeep, where she came to appreciate the deity's doctrine of giving to the less fortunate and teaching to all that are willing to learn, a thought akin to Eldath's ideals of preaching peace to those that welcome it. In her pilgrimage, Runa stayed at the Deneirrath Temple in Berdusk, where she further learned of the kindness carried within the faith, and thus learned to appreciate it even further.
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Runa respects Tempus, even if her own faith and that of Tempus are opposed. She appreciates the honor of the God's faithful, and their understanding that peaceful times are necessary.
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It is expected, within the Eldathyn faith, that to be a truly complete priest of the Goddess of Singing Waters one must travel to nine of her Sacred Fastnessess and spend time in prayer and meditation. As Runa began a transition from being a Druid to also being a fully realized Cleric, time came for her to also take this journey, and so she did.
Stopping by every sacred shrine along the way, Runa traveled from the Reaching Woods to The Grove, in Cedarsproke, and deepened her knowledge under the wings of the most Exalted within the church, she partook in many rituals and learned from the most wise, she feasted with her peers and she herself taught what she learned to those that listened. It was here that Runa truly became a Cleric of the Goddess, wielding her divine clerical blessings along with those granted by Eldath through the natural cycle. Thus, Runa was named a Freewalker.
As she returned to the Reaching, also passing by all shrines along the way through the Quiet Forest, she felt renewed to guide those willing to hear into a path of peace and understanding, and to aid those in need with the blessings her Lady provides her.
"The peace that mankind seeks calls from within each one of us, it does not call out."
- Shemratha Callingowl, High Priestess
A Faithful’s Lament
To cry on a mother’s tender lap;
And to a dream one woefully grab;
To see through a child’s point of view;
And to observe the world in dimmer hue.
As seasons change and the frost bites;
As snow falls through the colder nights;
The ponds are black and trees are bare;
And danger crawls with little care.
To whom shall I now give my prayer;
Beyond dirt, stone and every layer;
Through mind and body, soul shall fade;
Now mist and twilight, forever shade.
