Taenya Ne'riralae the Grand Mistress of Changelings, Breathless Audient, Sunwarden of Thar-Eris

Title History

Role

Chapter 7

Taenya stood beneath a waterfall, her eyes closed, feeling the water rush over
her body and hearing the voice of the water whispering sweet words. Ever since
she had allowed the voice to flow through her to others, it had become
clearer. She was learning to trust her interpretation of that voice more and
more, translating images and feelings to poetry. She had never felt so
focused, so pure in her embrace of Thar-Eris. She opened herself more fully to
the voice, composing the words in her mind. Then, she heard another voice
cutting through... not even really a voice, but a sound like... a whinny?

She opened her eyes and turned toward the sound to see a horse standing at the
edge of the mountain pool, drinking. The sun was low in the sky behind the
animal, silhouetting its form against the sunrise. Taenya took a step toward
the horse, and it raised its head to look at her, blocking the sun that was in
her eyes. She saw then that it was not just a horse at all! A twisting, silver
horn protruded from the creature's forehead, and its mane also glinted in the
sunlight like gleaming metal strands. A unicorn! Taenya gasped in
astonishment.

Teanya took another tentative step toward the animal, and it looked back at
her calmly, tossing its head. She moved closer, fascinated but also wary of
the creature's sharp horn. Finally, Taenya was only feet from the unicorn,
standing below the creature, knee deep in the mountain pool. She reached her
hand out and the unicorn bent its head down toward her. Then, just before her
fingers touched the animal's nose, it lowered its chin and instead touched her
gently with its horn. Taenya felt an energy spread through her, overwhelming,
and she fell to her knees in the water, closing her eyes.

The voice of the land was amplified. The water, the wind, the rocks, the trees
sang. When she opened her eyes again, she had no idea how much time had
passed. The unicorn was gone. But the music she had heard echoed in Taenya's
mind. What did it all mean?

Role

Chapter 6

Taenya looked up to see her old friend, Lyria. Taenya had not seen Lyria for
many years now. She had assumed the woman dead, for she was not young even
when they first met and Taenya was just a girl. But here she stood, looking
not a day older than that first meeting. But Lyria was different. Gone was the
humble clothing of an herbalist, the unkempt and dull hair. She stood in a
light green dress, shimmering with an inner light even though it appeared to
be crafted from the very leaves and grasses on this foreign forest. Her hair
was interwoven with flowers, falling in a graceful braid in front of one
shoulder.

"Stand," Lyria repeated. Taenya obeyed, getting shakily to her feet. "You have
come a long way, child. I knew you would."

"Who... are you?" Taenya asked.

"Do you not know?" Lyria responded. "I think you do."

"Thar-Eris," Taeya whispered.

Lyria, or who Taenya had always known as Lyria, smiled. "You are the Sunwarden
now. You have always heard my voice, Taenya, but now you must grow to be more.
It is not enough to hear my voice; you must become my voice. You have longed
your whole life to hear the poetry more clearly. To hear the words. But there
are no words, not in what you hear. The words are in here." Suddenly Lyria was
right in front of her, touching the side of Taenya's head gently. "In there
they must not remain.

I have guided many to where you are now, Taenya. Most do not know they have
been guided. Most are not like you, as sensitive to the music of the land. But
as much as I love you and am proud of you, you are not enough. You must be
more than you have been. It is not enough even to lead your branch, to teach
from within The Refuge. You must take those words, and spread them like a seed
across this land. Be my voice."

With a kind smile, Lyria began to change before Taenya's eyes. Her hair became
a hundred butterflies, her face a pair of doves, her body millions of insects,
her clothing a tangle of garter snakes. The creatures flew and scurried,
scattering in all directions, leaving Taenya standing alone in the fragrant
forest. Taenya did not feel alone. The voices, as always, whispered beneath
the birdsong, the wind, the chirping of frogs and crickets. And Taenya knew
the words to that song.

Role

Chapter 5

Taenya sat in the middle of the plains, the tall grass around her rippling in
the gentle breeze with a dry, rattling sound. She closed her eyes and reached
out her senses, hearing the poetry of the wind. It was almost like words, the
patterns of the blowing grass coalescing into imagery. She saw in her mind the
flies that flitted from blade to blade, pollinating, the sprouting of seeds,
the thatching of dead foliage, the... suddenly a clear voice whispered in her
mind:

"FLY!"

Almost unconsciously, she transformed her body into the graceful form of the
Couatl, red and orange and yellow and blue feathers glistening in the early
evening sun. Spreading her wings, she sprung into the sky, gliding and
sweeping low over the fields. "HIGHER!" the voice whispered. Taenya beat her
powerful wings, lifting higher into the air. From this height, she could see
the sweep of the land spread beneath her, from the ugly bulk of Galadon to the
south all the way to mountains of Udgaard. "HIGHER!" the voice urged again.
Taenya found an updraft, and beat her wings again, lifting even higher. Now
the land below looked dizzyingly vast. Voralian City to the east was a small
but glittering white circle set as if a jewel in the green band of forest that
surrounded it. The mist clung low over the swamps to the west. Clouds obscured
her vision to the south, for now she was above the lowest of these.

"HIGHER!" the voice urged again.

"I can't!" Taenya thought, emitting a hissing as she beat her wings,
struggling to combat the strong winds that buffeted her at this height.

"YOU CAN. HIGHER!"

Taenya gathered all of her strength, then with powerful strokes lifted higher
and higher, heedless of the currents of wind that pushed her in many
directions. She pushed higher. Up here it was cold, very cold. She could see
nothing below her but a rippling expanse of white and grey cloud, dazzling her
eyes from the sunlight. A strong gust of wind overpowered her. Her wings were
not designed for this altitude. She struggled, but found herself falling,
falling, falling. The clouds, the vast land, the plains, the forest rushed
toward her, disorienting. At the last moment, she righted herself, spreading
her beautiful wings to slow her fall. But it was too late. She crashed through
the branches of a forest she did not recognize, bouncing hard to the ground
where she transformed back into her half-elf shape. She lay on the forest
floor gasping in pain, small cuts lacerating her bruised body.

"Stand," a familiar voice said, very close.

Role

Chapter 4

Over the years, Taenya saw Lyria many times. Lyria was impossible to seek out,
but always found Taenya. They spoke on many subjects, and had much in common.
Both heard the voice of the land. To Taenya, that voice sounded like music. If
she focused really hard, sometimes it even spoke words to her in a secret
language, poetry that she could never quite translate in her mind. Lyria told
her that some day perhaps she might. The more time Taenya spend in the wilds,
the clearer the voice became.

Lyria taught Taenya about Thar-Eris, what she called the lands. It was that
voice that they heard, Lyria said. She taught Taenya about how Thar-Eris had
been twisted and had suffered, and how the Ancients sought to restore Her to
Her rightful splendor. Lyria said that there were those who sought this
restoration by destroying that which was not meant to be Thar-Eris, but that
was not Taenya's path. Taenya and those like her were rare and gifted instead
with words, and a desire to protect the pure parts of the word, to restore
those parts that were tainted.

"You feel a connection to the living things on the world, do you not, Taenya?"
asked Lyria.

"Yes, yes! I always have! Even when I was very little, it was as if the
flowers spoke to me, the birds recited poetry to my ears," said Taenya. "And
the life flourished when I was happy, when I focused my joy outward. Does that
sound strange?"

"Not to me. I think you will find yourself even more connected to the life of
the wild as you grow. And I sense in you... something more. Something special.
Try focusing that feeling inward, what do you see?"

Taenya closed her eyes and focused, drawing in the energy of the forest around
her. An image began to swim into focus in her mind. It was a great serpent,
but like none other she had ever seen. It had feathers and in fact wings! It
emitted a pure and radiant light. Taenya knew that this creature was somehow
her destiny, and that with this connection she would work to restore Thar-Eris
to its rightful state.

Role

Chapter 3

Taenya, now a young adolescent, walked with her empty hand cart along the
outskirts of Galadon. She had just finished delivering some milk and cheese,
and had decided to take the long way home as she often did. The trees of the
Feanwyyn Weald waved in the gentle afternoon breeze. The birds called. The
sound of the river could be heard in the distance. Taenya closed her eyes,
letting the sounds wash over her. She had always been drawn to the wild
places, for as long as she could remember. It was peaceful and beautiful...
but there was something more than that. It was as if she could-

"You hear it, don't you?"

Taenya was startled by the voice of a woman, very close to her though she had
not heard anyone approach. She jumped and opened her eyes to see an unassuming
middle-aged human woman standing a short distance away. She held a bundle of
herbs in one hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the woman. "I did not mean to startle you. My name is
Lyria. I was just out gathering herbs." The woman smiled, nodding at the
plants in her hands. "You do hear it though, don't you?"

"It?" Taenya asked, knowing but not knowing what the stranger asked.

"The song of the wind. The poetry of the water. The music of the mountains,"
Lyria said, smiling. "It is the voice of Her. I hear it, too."

Taenya looked at the woman in wonder, for she had never known anyone else who
heard the voices, the song. "The voice of... Her? The voice of who?"

Lyria laughed, a beautiful and carefree sound. "You have much to learn. We
have much to speak of! But not right now, I am late as it is." And in a blink,
the woman was gone, as if she had faded away into the very foliage of the
forest before Taenya's eyes, leaving behind her only a whisper that said
"Taenya." She was certain she had not told the stranger her name.

Role

Chapter 2

"Do you hear the song, Mommy?" Taenya asked.

Saffine smiled at her young daughter, watching her dance and twirl with her
little arms out toward the sky. There was no song that Saffine could hear,
only the wind across the plains and the distant cawing of a crow. But she
loved her daugher's imagination. Her husband, Ranmorn, and she worked on
replacing a broken spoke on their wagon on the road between Galadon and
Tir-Talath. Painted on the side of the wagon in bright colors was "Ne'riralae
Deliveries." They took supplies from their home in Galadon to the outlying
towns and farms, returning piled high with trade goods.

Finishing with the repairs, they called to Taenya come along. The little girl
bounded over to the wagon, waving goodbye to some unseen friend. Her father
smiled down at her and ruffled her hair. Had anyone been looking down from a
bird's-eye-view as the wagon resumed its journey toward the city, they would
have seen that the plains where the family had stopped was just a little
greener than the surrounding land.

Role

Chapter 1

BACKSTORY SUMMARY

* Able to hear the voice of nature, of Thar-Eris, as song, poetry, and music
that calls to her
* Met an herbalist in her youth that mentored her in the ways of Thar-Eris, guiding her to become a Warden
* Able to impact the energy of the land, and have that energy impact her
symbiotically
* Sees a vision of a great winged serpent and knows that it is her destiny somehow

CHARACTER GOALS
* Join Outlander
* Become Sunwarden
* Follow Rarywey as one of the Breathless

CHARACTER TRAITS

Taenya can come across as naive because she is so open. She does not really
conceal any thoughts or feelings she has. She feels very connected to life and
the world around her, and does not believe in wasting a moment. She wants to
feel, she wants to understand and connect with those she meets. She does not
feel anything like hatred for anyone she has met, though she does understand
that many harm the land to an extent that they must be destroyed. This is not
out of hatred, but rather out of a greater love for the life of Thar-Eris.
Taenya does not believe in needless conflict, and will avoid the evil dwellers
of the Tree if she can rather than fight them. She does not see a point in
weakening the Tree by hunting from within. But if pressed, she will do as she
must.

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