Wynn Khajib

The most famous Reaper and perhaps the most important single figure in the history of Genesis and its people, Wynn Khajib was responsible for the Shattering that sundered the Old World from the new. She was a prodigiously talented mage who created fantastic works of magic enduring to the present day, and a fierce defender of both the magical races and humanity in equal part.

Personality

As a young woman, Wynn was well-known for being vibrant, curious, highly intelligent and more than a little headstrong; she had a great passion for life and would pursue anything that caught her interest with dogged determination. Many accounts of her are startlingly human when compared against the legendary Reaper she would later become, speaking of the loving exasperation of her mentor Jhayden Anurios while having to to unravel his protege's latest mischief. Despite her strong-willed nature, however, Wynn is described in largely positive terms. Taking a great deal of influence from her upbringing in Jhayden's care, she's said to have cared greatly for those around her and held a deep-seated love for the land and its people. As she grew into adulthood, Wynn reined in some of the wildness of her youth and learned to balance it with a measure of decorum, becoming a thoughtful and perceptive young woman. In the aftermath of Jhayden's death she sharpened her keen mind to a razor focus and turned herself towards revenge, gaining a harshness that hadn't been there before; though she never truly lost herself to anger, the person that Wynn became was far less carefree and innocent than the girl she'd once been. By all accounts she became a stern, fair, and well-respected Reaper who learned to balance her sorrow and joy in equal measure.

Abilities

Wynn had the Reaper's traditional abilities of seeing the flow of fate, an instinctual proficiency for weapons, fasthealing, and more. She rarely used the Hidewalker's Gift of a second form, but had wings and the ability to fly as a result of her associated raven spirit. Though it's hard to determine what's accurate and what's been exaggerated over time by her legend, it's said that Wynn felt her bond with Fate particularly strongly and that the god granted her access to more of his power as a result. It's also said that this attunement gave her almost a sixth sense edge in battle as she felt the currents of fate around her signaling events a moment before they happened. A prodigiously talented mage, Wynn was primarily a Weaver but had a strong grasp on many forms of magic. She specialized in complex spells with enough strength and stability that they could last near-indefinitely, and learned to tie her creations to the innate magic of the natural world and Otherlands in a way that few, if any, have ever managed to replicate.

Backstory

Originally born under the name Wynnai, Wynn spent her earliest childhood growing up somewhere in the Mongolian Steppe. Though her memories of those years were relatively happy, she was the youngest of an already large family and her parents struggled to provide for their children; when the Reaper Jhayden Anurios came to them and told them their daughter was fated to be his successor, they willingly passed her into his care. Wynn, for her part, embraced the chance for a new life and the chance to develop her already-emerging magic and left her family with few regrets. Growing up in Jhayden's home in the elven city of Silverleaf, Wynn began the long process of honing her natural abilities and learning what her future role would entail. She would often accompanied her mentor on his journeys as the Reaper, and enjoyed the process of travelling and the opportunity to see new sights; as a result, she grew up with an appreciation for the nuanced similarities and differences between places, cultures, and the magical races. She learned to fight with both weapons and magic, received an extensive education, and began attending alongside Jhayden in his formal and ceremonial roles. Though he rarely hid any aspects of what he was from her, the one part of his duties that Jhayden refused to let Wynn witness was active killing. The two became very close, coming to regard one another as family despite formally being teacher and apprentice. One thing in particular that brought them together was a shared love of magic; magical craft had been a lifelong passion of Jhayden's, and in Wynn he found someone with both enormous potential and a burning desire to learn all that he could teach. Though the Reaper was a powerful mage in his own right, within only a few years he found that Wynn was testing the limits of his knowledge and beginning to Weave her own spells. By the time she took up his mantle she would be surpassing him. As she started to come into adulthood, despite her popularity among the similarly aged elves of Silverleaf Wynn had eyes for only one person; her feelings for Jhayden had begun to change, and she found that her love for him had become far more romantic than familial. After struggling with whether or not to keep her feelings concealed, she eventually confessed to her mentor and was heartbroken when he gently rebuffed her and reminded her that she was practically a daughter to him. Though her love for him remained undiminished, Wynn accepted it wasn't to be and never raised the subject again. At the age of twenty-one, Wynn Khajib took up the mantle of Reaper. Jhayden stepped down from his former role to spend his final years in peace, but was eventually ambushed and killed by members of the Seraph family while travelling through the wartorn Holy Lands. Distraught over his death, Wynn's focus as Reaper took a sharp turn; though she remained diligent in her duties to Fate, she turned her full attention to discovering and routing the influence of the Seraphs over the human population. In time Wynn found herself drawn into the ongoing crusades, lending her significant strength to the armies of Richard I of England. Despite making significant progress in diminishing the underlying influence of the Seraphs, she eventually grew disgusted with war and amount of death for what she saw as disproportionately little gain. Already pushed to her limit, she was revolted when she discovered that Richard had grown infatuated with her and had taken the moniker 'Lionheart' in a misguided attempt to compare himself to Jhayden. Wynn abandoned the Western armies as soon as the opportunity arose and returned to a solitary struggle against the Seraphs and those they indirectly controlled, eventually being joined by elven forces in what is generally referred to as the War of Dark Flames. Though she and her allies made significant advances in breaking the family's strength, they also suffered tragedy when a force led by the Seraphs razed the elven city of Starfall in an incredibly bold attack; despite the heavy cost, Wynn eventually succeeded in driving the Seraphs into hiding as their numbers dwindled to near-extinction. Left aimless and disillusioned by the time the fighting was over, Wynn returned to the courts of the magical world to discover that tensions were rising; the magical races were growing unsettled by the violent rise of humanity and the destruction of Starfall, and she began to understand that that unease might soon lead to war that would take an unimaginable toll on any involved. Tired of killing and looking for Fate's guidance, she began to devise her own solution by turning her magic to a plan too ambitious for any other mortal to attempt. It took Wynn ten years to create the framework for what she had envisioned: a way to recreate the world in limited shards from the free magic of the Otherlands, hidden away from humanity, with all traces of the magical races scoured from both the land and human memory. Communicating her plans across the world through the Worldshadow, she spent a year of preparation alongside countless mortal mages before opening herself up to Fate's power and creating Genesis in what would become known as The Shattering. Though she succeeded in her goals, Wynn burned through much of her lifeforce in the process of Genesis's creation; few Reapers would have been capable of the immense feat in the first place, and even her skill with magic could only shield her so much. Greatly diminished, she drew back from the public eye and resolved to devote herself solely to her duties. Over the next ten years she lived quietly, but couldn't help but notice the limitations of the new world she'd created and set to finding ways to resolve them; she finished one last marvelous creation in the form of the Painted Ways to help bridge the distance between the shards, but died before their existence was widely known. In death, Wynn is remembered and celebrated as the creator of Genesis. Stories and songs celebrate the sorrow of her unrequited love for Jhayden, her talent as a mage who wove magic like no other before or since, and her struggle to shape a haven where all the people of the world she loved could live in safety and peace.

Important Relationships

JHAYDEN ANURIOS
Wynn's mentor, friend, and greatest love; though not related by blood they were family in all but name, and Jhayden's supportive presence played a large role in shaping the woman she became. She learned much of her magical knowledge under his tutelage, and the fact that they both shared such a passion for spellcraft helped push Wynn's already significant abilities to great heights. Though he died while she was still relatively young, Wynn never really stopped mourning Jhayden. The spells she wove for the creation of Genesis and the Painted Ways are filled with small tributes to her predecessor, for those who know where to look. ARSHAM SERAPH
The reigning Huntlord of the Seraph family for the majority of Wynn's later life, and her primary adversary during the War of Dark Flames though the two never actually met face to face. Arsham understood the value of secrecy when it came to opposing the Reaper, and acted primarily through proxy rather than leading the Seraphs into battle openly; he fought hard to maintain the family's influence over the human powers of the Holy Land, but was repeatedly thwarted by Wynn's push to destroy their web of allies and informants. He was responsible for the destruction of Starfall, but died in an unrelated skirmish several months later. RIDANE DAWNSBRIGHT
A childhood friend of Wynn's who grew up alongside her in Silverleaf. The son of a prosperous elven family and minor nobility, he had once hoped to court the young Reaper-to-be despite their different races before realizing that her heart belonged to Jhayden; the two remained lifelong friends instead, and Wynn often sought out his advice and familial connection when it came to her travels among the elven kingdoms. KORIAN MORAN
Though the two weren't overly close, Wynn occasionally studied Seeing magic in Starfall under Korian's instruction. The two enjoyed one another's company, and the elven archmage was one of those Wynn mourned by name after his presumed death during the city's fall. SALHI
Though the wings she gained from her second form meant that she had relatively little need for a Reaper's semi-customary nightmare mount and companion, Wynn's early childhood on the steppe had left her with a great love of horses. She named her nightmare Salhi after her father's horse, and would frequently take the opportunity to travel on its back rather than the more efficient journey through the Worldshadow. Her interest in how nightmares materialize their physical form out of the Shadow played a significant role in the way she would go on to form the Shards of free magic.