Legends of Belariath
Morrigan Steel
Dame Steel's Bio-Up until Now
Those of notable honor, or notable darkness, have seeds planted long even before their births that will play an important part despite influences, environments, opportunities and/or obstacles that fate has sought to place before them. It is these types of notable warriors a vision of distinct honor and dishonor dangle before them and the knowledge that the twain shall never meet lest it rend destruction provides a more than fertile background of lifelong struggles that only the truly called, to either side, arise to a level greater than themselves. The lives themselves are tales within tales that eventually may become legends, though, that is for you, the reader, to decide. Herein, is a morsel plucked from such an intricately woven tapestry and offered for your pleasure.
Angus Steel and his twin sister, Aoife Steel {Aoife standing for beauty} were born to a poor farmer whose wife and third child died during childbirth. The farmer was devastated and unable to raise the children and work the farm too, so he apprenticed them at an early age to Sir Ralston Wolf as pages, then later as knights.
Aoife never married, though it was rumored her distinct beauty more than caught the eye of Sir Ralston Wolf, but that is another tale that will be uncovered in Morrigan's adult life. When Morrigan was born she so resembled Aoife she was named after her but never used her full name of Aoife Morrigan Steel. Those from Cutter's Pass, Morrigan's homeland, who knew Morrigan well realized this young woman wished to earn her own greatness and not fall under the shadow of her Aunt Aoife and so, even her aunt, never questioned her reasons to be called Morrigan, or to her friends, Morri or Steel.
While serving under Sir Ralston Wolf, Angus met and later bonded with Grania Istan. Grania was a farm girl he chanced by on a return journey to his Liege's holdings from one of his many missions he served for Lord Wolf. Grania didn't live but a half day's journey from Wolf's Castle, if that, so it was easy enough for Angus to find ways to always have his journeys way pass by her farm. Her parents eventually approved of the young up and coming knight and within little after a year of meeting they married and began life on a small parcel of land bestowed to them by Lord Wolf.
Life was hard and many suffered hardships of one sort or another but the Steels were survivors and always managed to find a way to surmount almost anything. After a famine devastated Cutter's Pass and began to ease, the Steels found they had a new mouth to feed-Morrigan. Despite the hardship, the Steels were happy, though the difficulty of the years of famine had left Morrigan's 'mother' sickly and barren in its wake.
While Morrigan's mother grew weaker, Morrigan herself grew strong, sharp and extremely curious about anything and everything and would sit at her father's feet upon his return to listen with wide eyes and deluged him with pockets' full of questions about every quest he was upon. She also shared the Steel birthmark with him and her aunt of a strawberry colored birthmark upon their left arms.
She treated Eric-their farmhand- in the same manner, dogging his footsteps at every chore. Always inquisitive as to how anything was done from plowing to blacksmithing and shoeing the horses. She wasn't afraid to work hard and didn't view herself as some delicate beauty, though many of the passing knights and village boys she came into contact with would have gladly treated her as such.
When she neared her 19th summer, her mother was slain by a thief who had entered their home and stole a family chalice. He had apparently believed it was of great worth and killed her mother for it, not knowing its only value was that of the sentiment attached to it. When Morrigan arrived home from her day at Lord Wolf's, where she too had been apprenticed, she came across her mother's body. Heartbroken, she went in search of Eric and summoned him from the field as her father was away upon a long foray. Word was sent for her father from Lord Wolf's estate and her mother was later laid to rest under the large oak tree that headed the golden pasture at the top of Cutter's Pass.
Yet more trials awaited. When Angus had returned upon the news it was found he had also been seriously injured to the point he had lost a leg. He became angry, sullen, grief stricken and so Morrigan set out after the thief with the intent of recovering the family heirloom as well as bringing justice to the thief once she found him.
She managed to trace the thief to Nanthalion and thereupon began to search for him there by any means possible. Many would say it was here that the testing of true honor and mettle began and would continue for the rest of her life.
Her beauty caught the eye of a dark elf while on the quest for the family chalice in Nanthalion. Twas the death of innocense and the birth of a calling to later help those in need that was suffered at his cruel hands and contrivances. It was the birth of a knight, the tempering of a paladin yet to be. During her captivity to the dark elf she managed to escape a few times. On one such escape she eluded him long enough to return home, and hopefully, to safety. Her joy was shortlived as the dark elf found her, though he permitted her freedom for a few days in order to say goodbye upon her word. It was a puzzle why he did such a thing, yet perhaps even he could see the honor this woman had, even then, and so accepted her word she return to him.
Her father never knew of the tortures and burden his daughter was suffering at the hands of the dark one, for he died that night, embittered and bedridden, while Morrigan had succumbed to the sleep of exhaustion beside his bedside upon the floor.
Grief stricken, Morrigan and Eric buried her father next to her mother under the large oak that overlooked the golden meadow at Cutter's Pass. The dark elf waited, and watched and always seemed to be right at her back at the edge of the shadows, like a vulture waiting for death to come in order to feed. Heavy hearted she turned the land over to Eric and set out to keep her word to the dark elf.
The dark elf recaptured her at the end of her family's land and set to haul her back to Nanthalion to make her his slave, but when Nanthalion finally came in sight several days later, he inexplicably let her go. Was it watching her bury her parent's bonding rings? The vision of the wild passionate spirit akin to a wild creature she possessed dying in his captivity? Whatever it was, only the dark elf knows. She again regained her freedom and settled in Nanthalion, her very essence thrust back into the fires of hardship, her character tempered by such.
Branded, pierced, ravaged and suffering horrors beyond which any should bear have continually been thrust upon this young knight and only time will tell what path her spirit will take, whether good or ill will be served.
Mindset: A blond, well muscled beauty with sizzling green eyes and stands around 6'6" of sheer stubborn will. Her demeanor can be cold as ice or hot as a noon day sun, depending. She is strong of conviction, once her mind is made up. Usually she dresses in a long black coat, black leather pants, white shirt and a silver ear cuff that peaks from her golden mane. Her family crest of arching crossed blades atop a wolf signifies loyal warriors to causes and the mark of her liege, Lord Ralston Wolf.