"The Talessra Metamorphosis"
Long ago, during the Dawn Era when the world was still new and wild, Calorba and her twin sister Talessra went hunting for deer at the foot of the Celestial Mountains. While hunting, Talessra disappeared. As Calorba looked for her, she saw a beautiful white doe and a handsome black stag rutting together. Calorba, having been sent hunting for food, threw two spears at the doe and the stag. The doe transformed into Talessra and the stag became Ókan, the Beast In Shadow. Ókan was injured but managed to flee. Calorba rushed to her sister and did not pursue the Beast in Shadow.
As Talessra lay dying, Calorba shed a single tear under the light of a full moon. The Old Magic was strong that night and Talessra lived though bound in a half-beast form. She sprouted proud antlers like those of a mighty elk. Her torso grew soft deerskin fur and she stood as a centaur with the body of the limber doe and the breasts and arms of a mortal. Her face was speckled in spots like the newborn fawn. Her eyes were cool as if drawn from a woodland pool and her hair became a tangle of moss and vines. From then on she became known as Acien Tali; the Lady of All Wilds.
But the injured Ókan was watching from a nearby tree and using that same Old Magic, he cursed Calorba, causing her to always see Acien Tali as a monstrous lycanthrope in need of slaying. Calorba, with tears in her eyes, drove Acien Tali from the Celestial Mountains and out of the pantheon of the Heavenly Council.
Calorba then vowed to become a watcher of the wilds and hunt down any monsters she encountered, and to one day slay the Beast In Darkness himself. Calorba now hunts the Material Plane, the Haunted Wood, and the Golden Boughs; but always with the fear that any beast she slays with her mighty Lycanlance will end up being all that remains of her sister, Talessra.
After her rape at the hands of Ókan and her transformation from Talessra, Acien Tali vowed watch over nature in all its forms so that it would not fall to ruin at the hands of the Unspoken or by the machinations of civilization. She comforts the orphaned creatures of the wood and sows seeds and cones after a wildfire. She shelters the lost and provides mortals with wood and medicine from her branches. Yet she also seeks vengeance against those that would abuse her gifts. From the Material Plane to the deep paths of the Feywild to her home in the Golden Boughs, Acien Tali now resides in all places where wild things dare to grow without restraint.
Date of Setting
Dawn Era
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