Legends of Belariath
Annwyn
Annwyn Anrithar
Age: 20
Height: 5'6"
Bust: 34D
Waist: 22
Hips: 36
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Symbol: A blazing sword, downturned before a golden disc
Born into the Anrithar household, a lesser noble House at the edge of the Empire, Annwyn was the youngest of four sisters, the next oldest 5 years her senior. Her upbringing was common for a nobleman's daugther, the young girl recieving proper training to guide her to be a true noblewoman. She was close to her sisters, despite the age gap, the four of them often spending hours together doing as they wished, very few cares or responsibilities in their lives. As they grew, while her sisters became the sort of proper noblewomen that her parents had hoped for, groomed for marraige to some rich nobleman, Annwyn became increasingly dissatisfied with the future they had planned for her. She became rebellious, throwing aside much of her instruction with the unconscious goal of antagonizing her parents and shocking her sisters. Rumors even arose that made the young woman seem a lightskirt, and sleeping with village boys no less, though she firmly denied them, and still will to this day. Things became increasingly strained, until finally Annwyn decided to leave home shortly after her 18th birthday. The young woman, quite by chance, encountered a Lord by the name of Turin while traveling. He seemed enchanted by her beauty, and made several bold passes at her, which only served to amuse her. During her rebellious days she had taken up playing at the sword, so she quite laughingly challenged him to a duel, if he so wanted her. They fought, with the Lord going easy on her...and much to his dismay found himself beaten, though he would have won had he not thought her little more than a simpering noblewoman. Impressed by her bladework, rudimentary though it was, he offered her a place as one of his knights, and the training to improve her skills. Intrigued, she accepted, and soon found herself among his squires. The other squires seemed to resent her, though, thinking her nothing more than the Lord Turin's plaything, some lightskirt of a barmaid he'd managed to pick up in his travels and had stuffed into a squire's uniform in order to keep her close. Perhaps there was some truth to that, aside from the whorish barmaid part, but Annwyn meant to prove herself. A year into her training, when she was 19, news arrived of a plague that had swept through her former home, her entire family numbering among the dead. She was the last of House Anrithar, a displaced noblewoman playing at being a knight. This seemed to spur her on, though, and she poured her gried into her training, redoubling her efforts. Within the year, her training was complete, and by her 20th birthday she was a Knight, placed above many of those that she had squired with. This was the last straw, to them. They could put up with having to train alongside the Lord's little toy, but being ranked below her was something else entirely. A group of them took her by surprise, and by the time the other Knights came to her rescue, she had already been beaten and raped, reduced to a whimpering, trembling ball in the middle of the barracks floor. The attackers were punished, stripped of their ranks and exiled, but Lord Turin could not ignore the danger to Annwyn, whom he had grown fond of. Despite his desire to keep her close, he dismissed her, allowing her to retain her rank and title, left to wander as a Free Knight, Lordless, and to her mind, without purpose. Since coming to Nanthalion, her life has changed drastically. Forced to take part in a twisted tournament where the losers were raped by trolls, Annwyn came out on top, walking away with a cash prize, a strange metal dildo, and her freedom, though the guilt of her win haunts her to this day. It was not long after that she met L`aquera, a moriel pyromancer and consort to the emporer himself. The knight managed to impress her with her respectful manner, and L` even helped her acquire a job as a tender at the Inn's bar. Later, rumors of a plague in a village called Farrel's Ford began to circulate, and the knight found herself among the party that travelled to the village to investigate, in the company of the Troll Kuromaku. It was discovered, after venturing into the Murky Maw, a swamp near the village, and a trip to the village's original site, where it was discovered that the plagued villagers were living out the rest of their days, that the mayor of the village had an artifact that had been stolen from Starfall Lake, which once stood where the center of the Maw was. They confronted the mayor, and retrieved the item, which cured all those sick with the plague. For their efforts, she and the others were rewarded handsomely. Things went smoothly for the knight, new friends and powerful allies made when she is still so new. But things do not always stay quiet. On a trip into town, the heat in the area suddenly rose to nearly scorching temperatures, the source of it a man carrying a strange, burnt looking staff. This staff held a great, and evil power, and Annwyn pledged her help to the elf Harmonia to defeat the man carrying it. She and the others fought bravely, though Annwyn's sword was reduced to little more than slag. Before she managed to purchase a new one, a man wearing Harmonia's emblem approached her, the day after the battle, bearing a new sword for the knight, a gift from Harmonia. And the sword came with a note: “Annwynn, may this serve you well as it served Turola, faithful warrior and heroine of the Battle of Eloc. Guard it well, for it is a honored blade”
Moving on and learning...
Things have begun to change in her life, though. In her search for a new purpose, she became interested in the study of magic, finding bits and pieces here and there to study and augment her martial training with. In the meantime, she also began to search for a new job, and found it at the local Bath House, where she met India. With her new job as a Bath Attendant, she soon came to love it, assisting people while bathing, and indulging in more physical pleasures should the customer desire. The job nurtured her more hedonistic side, and she slowly became more and more open with herself, indulging her desire for sex more and more often outside of her job. Despite this, she still made time for her studies, eventually learning some rudimentary spells. Slowly, she strengthens her magic as well as her capability in battle, working toward a balance of the two, though she has a long way to go still. In the future, she hopes to be able to meld the two arts as she has seen others do, leaving her knighthood behind and taking up a new mantle. She lives at the Inn again, having not heard from Lady Morrigan, her teacher, in some time. Her love, Aednat, has left on a journey bearing a keepsake from Annwyn, the knight's leather choker, and the knight has had a second made, this one inset with a ruby rather than a sapphire, to give to her love as a gift upon her return. So she waits, training, and interacting with those she calls friend, though she has not seen many of them in some time. Alone again, she only hopes to see her love once more, and to finally find her true place, though even that seems a long way off. Still, she has hope, and she keeps moving, knowing that, someday, all will be well. Her solution is to keep busy, the knight joining a select group under the command of Shogeton, as well as setting out to hunt a killer bent on “freeing” all of the slaves in the land by killing them, as well as their masters. To further her magical training, she approached the powerful mages of the tower of Unigo, one of which called her his Champion, and had even sponsored her in a tournament, though she had lost, much to her own disappointment. She became an apprentice there, hoping to augment her physical training with the Lady Morrigan with magical training from such powerful figures as Halfmoon, Headmaster of Unigo, and Aramis, his assistant. It was there that she heard of a plan put forward by a stranger, to erect a portal between Belariath and Valencia. Many seemed in favor of the plan, though an equal number seemed to not trust this strange woman, who was more powerful than even Headmaster Halfmoon. Halfmoon was for the idea, though, and though she was against the idea herself, and didn't trust this newcomer, Annwyn offered her meager assistance in opening this portal. The day came, and they all assembled in a field several miles outside of Nanthalion. The spell was cast, and a strange, jeweled obelisk appeared, though things quickly spiraled out of control. Demons appeared...only a handful, three in number, but still three too many. Halfmoon was knocked unconscious, and it was left to Annwyn, Ray`el, Scathien, and several others that had remained to work the spell to drive the demons back. They succeeded, but Annwyn's worries were proved true. She hardly trusts the portal, and waits for the day when something worse may happen, though she knows not when that will be...
Changes...
With her lover gone, Annwyn began to become more withdrawn emotionally, less and less herself, and far more wanton than before. It wasn't until she met two new friends...a human priestess of Ishtar named Keaira, and an elven beauty, a bard, named Kerianna. She bought a plot of land, building a cabin on it, and invited the two to live with her, hoping that the company would help to fill the aching void in her heart. She ended up getting more than she had even hoped for, as the two soon became her best friends...and it wasn't long before Kerianna became something more. Keri was able to fill that void, and though she would always miss Aednat, she began to feel rejuvenated by the elven woman's mere presence. Still...she began to worry that, as a human, she would likely die long before her new lover...a thought that she could hardly bear. Her hopes were soon answered, though, as she neared her 21st birthday...it seems that her parents had lied to her, and one, or both, wasn't her true parent. She began to change...only slightly, but still change, elven traits beginning to assert themselves in her appearance. She was half elven, much to her own surprise, and it didn't take long for the changes to finish, leaving her a slightly different woman now. She has adapted quickly, though, and no longer thinks much of it, enjoying her new, changed appearance, and her better life.