Merenia Aujiraesthyr
Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 11:09 pm
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Merenia appears at first glance as a beautiful, young, human woman with black hair, tan skin and green eyes. Up close, her skin is more clearly revealed to be many, smooth bronze scales, and the green of her eyes glowing faintly in the dark. As a half dragon, she also has fangs that are visible when she smiles, as well as claws on her hands, though she keeps them neat, making them perhaps less blatantly obvious at first - they are definitely visible and she doesn't hide them, but she also doesn't draw attention to them.
As she entirely willingly and deliberately started the path turning her into a half dragon, she also knew that her apotheosis would come with physical changes. She is not ashamed of them at all, and is not covering up her visage, preferring to dress in clothes that display and emphasise beauty.
Psychological description:
Merenia is a city girl at heart, though with the changes to her body as a result of her apotheosis, she has resolved to stay away from cities for the most part, lest she frighten the inhabitants. As her changes are quite recent, she is still busy experiencing what changes her ancestry has on her mind, though she notices an interest in warfare that was not there before, as well as a strengthened sense of justice. And while her family never had any pets, she finds she has developed a fondness for animals, and now insists on never injuring an animal unless given no other choice - she would rather cast a blinding or sleeping spell on them if they should attack her.
Much to her embarrassment, she also has started noticing that she craves treasure. This is something she is conflicted over, because she genuinely has no interest in wealth for the sake of being rich, but gems and gold are always welcome. When presented with gems especially, she finds it difficult to not get greedy. She recognises this immediately, and gets embarrassed about it.
Religious views:
| God | Attitude | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Tamara | Patron | While there are similarities between Tamara and Ilmater, Merenia finds the former's approach to mercy and healing to be more reasonable. She believes Tamara recognises that you can best heal and help others from a position where you yourself are healthy and well cared for. She also deeply appreciates Tamara's more firm stance against evil. Redemption is all well and good, but some things cannot be redeemed. |
| Ilmater | Reverence | Merenia was raised Ilmatari, and all of her family remains of that faith. She greatly respects her brother for choosing to become a monk of Order of the Yellow Rose. So she still reveres Ilmater deeply, and values much of his teachings. Her chief objection is to what she views as a glorification of suffering. |
| Mystra | Reverence | As a sorceress, Merenia reveres Mystra greatly and sees great wisdom in all of her teachings. The only reason Mystra is not her patron, is that the values of Tamara - light, life and mercy - stand higher in Merenia's value hierarchy. |
| Null (Chronepsis) |
Respect | As she's become dragonkin herself, Merenia recognises the importance the Guardian of the Lost will have on her existence and death. She is still learning about the draconic pantheon, but Chronepsis is one of those that intrigue her the most. |
| Null (Falazure) |
Hate | She deeply dislikes the Reaver, the other aspect of Null, for his destruction and undeath. It is confusing to her how Null can have two such different aspects. |
| Io / Asgorath |
Respect | Merenia has only heard of Io from her ancestor, as a mention of the shaper of the world and creator of all dragons. After the Godwar and the revelation of Ao, Merenia suspects the World Shaper is of similar power. |
| Lendys | Reverence | Merenia's bronze dragon blood makes her keenly interested in the concept of justice. Lendys being the draconic god of exactly that, makes him a god deserving of respect and interest. Lendys' close relationship with Tamara also strengthens this respect to reverence. |
| Tyr | Respect | Like Lendys, Tyr is a god of justice, and also one of the Triad along with Ilmater. Naturally, Tyr receives great respect from Merenia. |
| Torm | Respect | Being the one who Merenia interprets to deliver Tyr's justice, Torm receives some respect. |
| Chauntea | Respect | Born as a commoner, Merenia sees value in the Grain Goddess. Her recent aquaintance with a priest of Chauntea has strengthened this respect. |
| Deneir | Respect | With both her mother and sister being teachers, Deneir is a god that shows some value to Merenia's family. Merenia's own interest in lore and knowledge means the Lord of all Glyphs and Images receives her respect. |
| Eldath | Neutral (slight dislike) |
As a goddess of pacifism, Eldath is viewed as naïve and a little bit apathetic by the bronze half dragon. Merenia views pacifism as cowardice or complacence. |
| Tempus | Neutral | The other side of the coin on war, Merenia also is less impressed with, though at least Tempus is willing to act. She doesn't like war, though she finds warfare interesting. A war must have moral justification. |
| The Seldarine | Curiosity | Merenia has only recently started to learn about the gods of the elves, having never really had much contact with elves before. With her extended longevity as a half dragon, she now perhaps hopes companionship with elves may help her find a way to manage the centuries. |
| Tiamat | Hate | As the patron of all evil dragons, Tiamat is perhaps the chief enemy of Merenia's own patron. Merenia thus despises Tiamat for all the evil she stands for. |
| Loviatar | Hate | As Tiamat is to Tamara, Loviatar is to Ilmater. Merenia deeply hates Loviatar and will likely never forgive anyone who willingly serves the the Maiden of Pain. |
| Talona | Hate | Another goddess who, like Loviatar, causes a lot of misery and suffering, Talona is viewed with the same contempt by Merenia as Loviatar is. |
| Cyric | Hate | As the new god of the dead and death, Cyric still has to make a great impact on the world, but from everything Merenia hears about him, he appears to be even worse about undeath than Myrkul was before him. This earns him Merenia's contempt. |
Arytekepeskvaericaex, male ancient bronze dragon. Ary, as he presents himself to the small-folk (though he insisted that Merenia pronounced his full name, as a matter of practicing draconic), has served the armed forces of Impilur and Damara several times over the centuries. Once, several human generations ago, he fell in love with a human woman and they had a child. Since that time, he has kept a distant eye on his bloodline, feeling responsible for any magic that may spawn from his ancestry. Merenia is the first descendant thus thus far to have manifested sorcery, and so he wished to make sure the young girl could control and wield her innate magic safely and responsibly.
He insists however to remain distant and not interfere with the lives of his descendants beyond simply making sure that any magic manifesting from his bloodline does not cause harm, and instead indeed is given a chance to thrive and do good. He is hoping if any further descendants manifest magic, that perhaps Merenia will take a similar responsibility, allowing him to remain distant.
Biography
Family
| Relation | Name | Age | Alignment | Occupation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Father | Egor Charmetsk | 61 | Lawful Good | Carpenter | Spends more time teaching young carpenters the craft than actually doing carpentry himself. |
| Mother | Ylga Charmetsk (née Nladruv) | 57 | Lawful Good | Teacher | It is the Nladruv's bloodline that carries dragon blood. |
| Brother | Tregior Charmetsk | 37 | Lawful Good | Monk of the Yellow Rose | Is rarely in contact with the rest of the family. |
| Sister | Ava Stanov (née Charmetsk) | 33 | Neutral Good | Teacher | Married to a Knight of Imphras II named Ovan Stanov. They have two daughters: Ylgana (age 7) and Elena (age 4). |
Merenia's family were commoners, though quite well off economically, as commoners go, and so they never truly struggled, and instead spent much of their excess on charity, as faithful ilmatari. She was born almost ten years after her youngest sibling, making the gap quite significant. She was still very definitely a child when her brother departed to become a monk, and even when her sister began her practice as a teacher. Indeed, before both of these events, when just a few tendays before Merenia turned five years old, her magic manifested. Her body had been starting to spark electric arcs whenever she got any kind of emotional, occationally shocking family members and other bystanders, though not causing any real harm at first. However, the strength of the electricity was clearly building.
Within a few days, an old man presenting himself as Ary came to visit. At first, he asked for charity from the ilmatari family, which they gladly gave. Soon after, he revealed himself to be the bronze dragon Arytekepeskvaericaex. Merenia's mother Ylga had known of their draconic ancestor and his name, but not that he still lived or even was close. So while his visit was a surprise, it was a welcome one. He had come offering guidance to the young sorceress, to make sure her magic did not harm innocents and that she could not only learn to live with it, but indeed view it as a great gift.
Ary stayed for about a tenday, practicing with the girl, but also leaving instructions to her parents on how to continue the practice. He insisted that he wanted to remain distant so as not to interfere much with their lives. From then on, Ary came by to visit once every year - and only for a few hours - until Merenia was 16, when he instead invited her to his lair, alone. There she would begin more indepth practices of magic. She was presented with books on the Weave, on metamagics and on various languages of magic. He also presented her with the path of the dragon disciple - to consider. She didn't stay there long, but instead was sent home to practice. Ary had also arranged for her to receive some tutoring from Nova Gielnev, a middle-aged wizardess (LN) living in Lyrabar.
Nova and Merenia got along fine for the most part, though the wizardess' studious approach to magic didn't match Merenia's intuitive and emotional approach well. For the most part, however, Merenia didn't require much tutoring in the basics of magic, so their sessions generally focused on metamagics and languages. Ary had insisted that the next time they met, they would speak only draconic, so Merenia had to learn a lot of that complex language in just a year.
A year went by and she visited her dragon ancestor again. He had been impressed by her proficiency with the draconic language, as it was clearly something she had decided to focus on. Indeed, Merenia had already decided: She wanted to take the path of the dragon disciple. And so began the training, and embracing of her heritage. She returned home after just a few days with instructions for her path and a more rigirous training than before.
Still, she was a young human woman, and as the bronze blood started to affect her psychology, she began gaining new interests that mixed with her young human interest for love. She found herself spending time near the barracks occasionally, watching and flirting with the young soldiers there. But it wasn't just to spend time with "the boys", she actually felt drawn to matters of soldiering. Warfare and martial matters. And so her boyfriend at the time - a sergeant a few years older than her - somewhat reluctantly agreed to teach her how to wield various weapons. The relationship didn't last more than a few months, but by that time, she was fairly proficient with both sword and axe.
This time it would take three years before she again visited Arytekepeskvaericaex. By this time, her path into embracing her heritage had started to change her. She had grown claws and fangs, and her her skin started to be covered in smooth, bronze scales. Now, she spent a whole tenday with her ancestor, but there was not much left for him to teach her. Certainly, he insisted, there was much left to learn, but only matters she could learn on her own. He advised her then to journey, take a new surname - not to dishonour her family, but to not draw attention to them - and to travel the world, for there was no better way for her to find her place in it, both as dragonkin and sorceress.
Emotionally reluctant, but accepting the wisdom of her ancestor, Merenia agreed. After going home to spend another month with her family and tell them of her plans, she set out and travelled first towards Cormyr, where she spent some time. After the Godswar, however, she moved on towards the Sword Coast.
Future
Merenia is looking for purpose and her place in the world. She doesn't yet know what the future brings, but feels her gift of magic should be used for good.
Heirloom item
Arytekepeskvaericaex' Guidance
This ring was crafted for her by Arytekepeskvaericaex, to aid her on her path to find her place as a sorcerous half dragon in the world. The ring is made of entwined bronze and mithril, as if a braid. There is no gem attached to it, but the braided metals ends in something resembling tiny sparks of lightning, forming something that could function like a socket if a suitable gem was ever found.
Plot hooks
- Another descendant of Arytekepeskvaericaex requires training, and Merenia is called upon to aid.
- Evil threats, particularly draconic, Loviataran or Talontar. Or pirates.
- Magical things!
- Encounter with her monk brother, perhaps trying to get help for some ilmatari mission.