Priestess of Dariun
Aeryn was born the daughter of Kellan, an elf of noble lineage (he was 117th in line for the throne), and Elisabeta, a human woman. The two met while Kellan was out hunting in the Great Forest, and Elisabeta had come to the source of the River Yann on pilgrimage, and were instantly smitten with one another. Against the advice of some of Kellan’s more conservative relatives, the two were wed shortly thereafter, and set up housekeeping in the palatial estate Kellan had inherited from his parents. The rest of Kellan’s family was scandalized that he had chosen to bond himself so completely with a human rather than with any of the noble ladies of the elven court, but when their hints that his affair with Elisabeta was just a passing fancy were met with firm declarations of his eternal love, they reluctantly let the marriage stand.
Aeryn was the third child born to the couple, and their only daughter. From a very early age, she turned from womanish pursuits to the warrior’s arts, honing her skills at sword, knife and bow until they rivaled those of her brothers. Her mother and nurse were scandalized, but her father and brothers were indulgent toward the growing girl and allowed her to continue her “unwomanly” ways.
Shortly after Aeryn’s sixteenth birthday, Tanthalos, one of Kellan’s distant cousins, made an offer to arrange a marriage between Aeryn and his son, Caddaric. Defiant, Aeryn rebelled against the idea, not wanting to lose the freedom to which she had become accustomed. Her family tried to make her see the merit of the offer, but when she threatened to disguise herself as a male and join a mercenary company, her father offered a compromise -- she could decline the marrriage offer, but only if she entered the priesthood. He did, however, leave the option of deciding which clergy to join up to her.
For Aeryn, there was never any doubt. She chose to dedicate herself to Dariun, god of war, and entered the temple as a novice priestess within a tenday. She was happy in the church, perhaps even more so than she had been at home, for her skills were the pride of her instructors and the envy of some of her fellow novices. No one told her to trade her sword for a distaff, or her comfortable shirts and trousers for hampering skirts. And always, there was the dream that someday she could be as great as the heroes of the church.
She completed her novitiate in record time, and became one of the youngest priestesses in the history of the church to make her final vows. With the blessings of her superiors, she set off on the path of the adventuring warrior-priestess....
Aeryn stands around five and a half feet tall (tall for an elven woman, but not out of the ordinary for a human one), and has a slim but muscular build (again, she’s slim for a human, but more muscular than an elf). She has fair skin and fine features (a legacy from her elven ancestry). She has straight raven-black hair, worn in a single braid, and wide-set silvery-gray eyes. She dresses in the customary clothes of a wandering priestess of Dariun -- a gray tunic with full sleeves gathered at the wrist, cinched at the waist with a black leather belt, its clasp cast in the shape of a raven with wings spread, and black trousers and boots. In combat, she wears a suit of chain mail over this ensemble. Whether in battle or not, she always carries the sword given to her at her initiation, its guard fashioned into the likeness of a raven with wings spread. This same design forms her holy symbol, which she usually wears on a chain around her neck.