"I enjoy being underestimated. It makes it easier to hit your shins"
-Rhiannon Stirling-
Biography
Rhiannon Stirling spent a lifetime searching for her brothers, missing in action, and instead found a Brotherhood in the Cast. All of that time scouring her homeland led her to see the impact of the aftermath of a magical war on the common folk. They deserve a say in the world around them and Rhiannon is determined to give them a voice.
Born in the coastal trade city of Tier to a wealthy merchant family, Rhiannon Stirling was a newborn babe as the world started to collapse into the war of the Last Battle where the forces of the Light fought the Dark One. When her talent for magic made itself known, Rhiannon's family tried to hide her to protect her from being dragged into the war. Discovered by the Aes Sedai, magically talented women who could touch the Source, Rhiannon was taken to their White Tower for training to fight, and likely die, in the Last Battle. Her three brothers had already been recruited to the war effort and one happened to be at the White Tower when Rhiannon arrived. She rose from Novice to Accepted and was given the Aes Sedai serpent ring as a sign of her station. Battle came to the Tower and Rhiannon's brother found her, put her on a horse, and sent her galloping out of the city while he stayed behind.
Rhiannon returned home by pretending to be a full Aes Sedai to make passage across the country. Her parents did not know what to do with her upon her return. Dangerously undertrained, her parents begged a contract for her amongst the Sea Folk and Rhiannon spent two years learning to use the Source to manipulate the winds and waves to the favor of a sailing vessel. When Rhiannon came home, the Last Battle had concluded, the Light had won, and her brothers, alongside millions, were listed as missing. Her parents immediately assumed them dead and placed the mantle of the family sea trade business upon Rhiannon. She acquiesced if only to use the trade routes as an opportunity to search the world for her siblings.
Many years of work passed. On a return route home, Rhiannon came across a caravan that had been beset by thieves with murder on the mind. One man remained alive and Rhiannon, skilled with magical Weaves of Water and Air but not Spirit, attempted to heal him. She succeeded not only in healing him, but in bonding his soul to hers in the process. Dane McKaelish became her unwilling Warder. Her parents, always uneasy with Rhiannon's magic, could not comprehend what happened and unceremoniously disinherited her. She was given the evening to gather her belongings and leave. Weighed down with frustration and sorrow and the objects of hers she could carry, Dane and Rhiannon embarked on an uneasy friendship. Time brought them into something stronger but never stated. After years of traveling with each other, when the world seemed fully explored, a portal appeared and Rhiannon ran through it, Dane running after her.
Now in New Ravenfall, Rhiannon keeps her hope for discovering her brothers tucked away. She found a purpose in Eponore and a Brotherhood there in the Cast: a group committed to helping the people of Osterra and supporting each other as they do.
Personality
Rhiannon is a generally congenial person. She is fiercely loyal and holds to her promises. She's willing to talk first and fight second but she instinctively approaches encounters with a defensive air. If you cannot find her on the battlefield, you’ll likely find her at The Cinnemon Stick helping to bring knowledge to any and all Osterrans.
Rhiannon considers herself a battle mage. Her magic focuses less on offensive spells but instead on-the-fly repairs of her well armored allies who she fights alongside on the front lines of encounters. She fights for what she believes is right, even if the means to accomplish it demand more shades of grey than black and white.
Her magical bond with Dane remains strong even after traveling through their portal. He is a member of the Grove and she thinks of herself as an honorary sister to their members and will defend any of them with the same intensity as she would her fellows in the Cast. Dane is hers and she will die over and over again to keep him safe at Haven with his herb garden.
Appearance
Rhiannon is a tall, sturdily built female with pale, freckled skin and brown hair. A floral tattoo runs up her left arm and a bee sits below her right elbow. She wears the thickest armor that her spell casting will allow. She is almost always wearing blue in addition to her faction's other colors: black and yellow. She wears a conical blue hat that curls backwards and she occasionally enchants it to light up. She wields a staff crafted of driftwood and is always willing to take the field.
Recent Events
The Painting of He Who Eats
At the Rites of Spring 2025, Rhiannon found herself in a place she never would have predicted for herself: a Sneaky Auction. When a painting of He Who Eats, the planet eater that seems on a singular course towards Osterra, came up for auction, Rhiannon bid and won. She wanted to keep it out of the wrong hands. She immediately sought to place it far away from any prying eyes but as time went on, she was unable to release the painting from her possession. Even covered, its influence seeped into Rhiannon. She became untrusting of others, obsessed with the possibility of viewing the painting herself, and prone to chaotic behaviour. At Autumn Adventures 2025, Rhiannon could no longer resist the call to look at the painting. Unwrapping it seemed to summon several Slaad, chaotic reptile-esq creatures, who stole the painting from her hands. Rhiannon was despondent and angry. She dropped every obligation to pursue the painting. Even after being bound in manacles by Imra, Master of Elixers, Rhiannon pursued the Slaad. She found them and together they all found neutral footing in an equitable awe of the artwork. She was content to stay in the company of her new allies as long as she could continue to gaze upon the visage of He Who Eats. Many adventurers tried to defeat the Slaad and destroy the painting. It was Dane who eventually threw Rhiannon over his shoulder and carried her kicking and screaming to a jail cell in Confluence. There, Dame Terra alongside a contingent of Healers cooperatively cast a spell to destroy the painting and the hold it held over Rhiannon. Dame Terra fashioned a bracelet that Rhiannon now always wears. It allows her to Divine the magic she encounters and if that magic is chaotic in nature, it prevents Rhiannon from engaging with it any further. Rhiannon no longer feels a siren's song towards the Chaos of He Who Eats, though she's rarely known a true night of rest since the destruction of the painting.
Winter and the Morrigan
Rhiannon pledged herself to the Cast at Winter Council 2026. She was immediately thrown into the needs of the faction of Eponore as an unnatural winter took hold of all of Osterra. Her steady hand as forces mustered at New Ravenfall that then had to radically pivot to fight instead against the Morrigan, Winter's rage-filled daughter, earned her the moniker "the Patient" from Sir Tanos. She served as his right hand for much of the encounter and their fraternal bond solidified through the experience. During the Nightmare Siege, Rhiannon took to the root of Castle Stronghold to reinforce its walls as the battle raged on above. There she discovered the ancient rock the Castle had been built upon and a strong magical signature surrounding it.
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