Aja

Aja was content to serve as a midwife to the villages that border the north shores of Dawn Lake when she found herself inexplicably called to the aid of Dame Imokan. Initially intrigued by the story set forth in Hursing's Journal, she has subsequently grown to care deeply for her traveling companions.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Sylphs tend to be thin to the point of appearing delicate, but their slender forms are often more resilient than they look. Many Sylphs can easily pass for humans with some effort, though the complex blue markings that swirl across their skin reveal their elemental ancestry. Sylphs also bear more subtle signs of their heritage, such as a slight breeze following them wherever they go. These signs become more pronounced as a Sylph experiences intense passion or anger, spontaneous gusts of wind tousling the Sylph's hair or hot blusters knocking small items off of shelves.

Body Features

Long, white hair and dark brown skin.

Facial Features

Aquamarine-colored eyes that at times appear to glow. A prominent blue swirl decorates her left eye.

Identifying Characteristics

Due to her Sylph heritage, her skin is prominently decorated with aquamarine-colored swirls. She makes no effort to conceal these markings.

Physical quirks

Left-handed, easily distracted by daydreams.

Special abilities

Water breathing, flight (via witch hex), spontaneous healing, speak with animals, speak with plants

Apparel & Accessories

She does not wear a tremendous amount of armor, or even clothing. A 9-foot, scarlet cord is wrapped several times around her waist. A small athame hangs from her belt, although you have never seen her use it in combat.

Specialized Equipment

Aja is in possession of the Sparrow's Sprig, an artifact of great power that seems particularly attuned to the elements of water, earth, and electricity.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Much of Aja’s life has been shaped by her unique parentage. Xevellius was a Sylph Druid living in the jungles surrounding Dawn Lake and tending to the beasts that made the forest their home. He came to fall in love with a human woman named Eram, a midwife who had strayed into his chosen preserve while seeking heliconia to treat a local village woman. Never having encountered a Sylph and unaware of their biological differences, Eram fell for Xevellius’ beauty, wit, and deep knowledge of the forest and its inhabitants. When she eventually learned of the difference in the life expectancy of humans and Sylph, she was already too much in love to give Xevellius up. A few blissful years later, Eram and Xevellius were overjoyed at the birth of their daughter Aja. The blue runes that swirled down the newborn’s arms and legs as well as the distinct azure glow of her eyes made it obvious that the Djinn blood had bred true. Although completely enamored of her wide-eyed Sylphani infant, Eram knew with an impending sense of dread that she could not hope to live to see her daughter grow to womanhood. Over the next several decades, Xevellius loved and cared for both mother and daughter, and the little family lived happily in an airy home suspended above the jungle floor. Xevellius tried to train his daughter in the wisdom of the Druids, but the Djinn blood was strong in her, making it difficult for her to commune with any but the winged beasts who dwelt in the forest canopy. Indeed, Aja was an eccentric child, even for a Sylph. Her thoughts had a tendency to wander far afield, and she was often given to daydreams. She was constantly misplacing things, and Eram had to carefully oversee her alchemical exercises lest she inadvertently harm someone she intended to help by mixing the wrong ingredients or in the wrong amounts. Aja’s airy nature and whimsical spirit made focusing on the rigors of shapeshifting impossible: she could not focus on the essence of any one creature long enough to make the change. Even healing magic – among the first things taught to a new Druid – proved challenging for Aja. Although she dutifully learned the practices of midwifery from Eram, she was unable to cast the simplest Cure spell that her father attempted to teach her. The wisdom required for curative magics was incompatible with Aja’s understanding of the world around her. It became clear to Xevellius that his daughter would be unable to follow in his footsteps as a Druid. At the human-equivalent age of 11 years, Aja was out gathering bromeliads for one of Eram’s healing tinctures when she heard a plaintive squeaking nearby. She followed the sound to find a small bat, almost invisible against the mottled forest floor, gravely wounded by what appeared to be a snakebite. The squeaks were faint and growing fainter, and Aja knew the animal would not survive long enough for Aja to carry him to her father. Aja cradled the small mammal in her hands, her vision blurring with tears of frustration that an innocent creature would die because she was unable to cast such a simple orison. As the rise and fall of his chest grew weaker and slower, she saw what appeared to be a purple smoke drifting from his small mouth, away from his body and toward the shadows of a nearby fallen tree. Instinctively, she reached out with her mind to grasp at that energy, gathering it up and forcing it back into his body. The little bat opened his eyes, meeting Aja’s for the first time, and it was as if the entire forest quieted. In that profound silence, Aja gained an understanding of life and death – one significantly different from that of her father – that had for so long eluded her. Wrapping the still weak bat in a kerchief, she carried him back home to her parents. Unable to articulate what she had experienced, she kept the earlier events of the day to herself, telling them only that she had found the bat hurt and asking for help to heal him. Xevellius was surprised and overjoyed when – while reaching out with his own curative magics – Aja was, for the first time, able to add her own magical powers to his. He noticed that her magic had a very different, almost coppery “taste” to it but did not comment, not wanting to risk discouraging his elated daughter. Once fully restored, Aja attempted to return the bat to where she had found him, hoping he would know the way to find his own kind. Nonetheless, he persisted in following her, chirruping at her happily no matter her efforts to shoo him for what she believed to be his own good. She eventually resigned herself to having a new and constant companion who she named Gigi, after the sounds that had first drawn her to him when he had lain dying. With her newfound understanding of life force and healing, and under the tutelage of her aging mother, Aja developed a reputation for being a particularly gifted “baby catcher. ” In a world with high infant and maternal mortality, it was remarked by many villagers that it was almost miraculous how no mother or babe ever died while Aja was present. At age 73, having grown too old and infirm to make the journey herself, Eram tasked her daughter to deliver a number of crafted remedies to the nearby village of Khreal. It was in this village that Aja encountered a traveling elven merchant named Uxmail. Having heard that Aja was a gifted healer, the merchant begged her aid in healing his wife Eona who had long suffered from a skin disease which kept her shuttered in their wagon. Ignoring conventional wisdom about only treating potentially contagious patients from afar, Aja entered the small wagon with Uxmail to find his wife abed, her skin covered in shingle-like lesions and clearly in great pain. Aja laid her hands upon the woman’s brow and stomach. Almost immediately, the affliction appeared to withdraw and abandon Eona’s body in favor of Aja’s. Crumpling to the floor of the wagon, Aja lay for more than an hour in wracking pain before the disease gradually dissipated, leaving both women fully restored. So grateful were the merchant and his wife that they allowed Aja to choose any two books from their meager but wide-ranging collection. Aja first selected first a leather-bound treatise on anatomy and healing. For the second, she found herself drawn to a well-worn, illuminated volume on X’tie’s study of the veil that separates life from death. The book explained that what she had seen with Gigi all those years ago was, in fact, his life force crossing over the veil and into the Shadow. This process was described as the natural order of things with no representations as to morality or evil. The book explained that there were some gifted individuals who could learn to interfere with this process but warned that doing so would risk permanently entangling one’s soul with that of another. She was immediately struck by how attached she and Gigi had instantly become to one another and realized that she and Gigi must have become soul bound in the moment she had saved his life. The text went on to suggest that two such individuals could use their bond to commune with one another and that such a link might also allow the persons to interact directly with the Shadow that entangled them. The text included a strongly-worded proscription against doing so as it was postulated that one might inadvertently pierce the Veil, killing one or both parties. Perhaps too curious for her own good, Aja set out to commune with Gigi. This was no small task as Aja herself was not a particularly focused individual, and Gigi was even more easily distracted. It took several sessions (admittedly of short duration to account for their limited attention spans) before Aja felt the deepening of her connection with Gigi that signaled successful communion. It affected an almost immediate difference in Gigi: his near-constant squeaks slowed to a gentle rhythm of soothing chirruping, and he stared back at Aja with concerted intensity. She sensed his great love and trust for her, and she reflected those same feelings back to him. Over the course of weeks, reaching this communion state became easier and easier for the two, and Aja found that doing so heightened her magical awareness, leading her to further insight. She was unable to convey this insight to her druidic father as it was fundamentally different from the source of his own magic. She began to secretly experiment with and employ new cantrips and orisons, spells she sensed derived from or at least touched upon the Veil and Shadow. Despite Aja’s healing gifts and burgeoning understanding of the Veil, Aja could not prevent the ravages of time from exacting their toll on her human mother. At age 83 – long-lived by any measure – Eram passed peacefully with her husband at her bedside, he still resplendent in the prime of middle age. Aja mourns for her mother but quietly celebrates her mother’s life and its end as part of the natural order. She knows that someday – hopefully not in the not too near future – that she will rejoin her mother beyond the Veil that now separates them.

Introductory Hook

Over the past few months, as Gigi chirps and squeaks away, you started to hear a repeated message in his noises. This mostly occurred at night while you were just about to descend into sleep, or possibly right after you had fallen to sleep. Imokan? Is he repeatedly saying Imokan? But then there is something else - Wine Hollar? Surely not, yet over and over. You wake up alertly, snap to, and its just the same coos Gigi always makes when content. As annoying as this gets, you start asking around. Wine Hollar? Imokan? Could it be the grizzled old wizard Imokan? someone says. But that's in the city. You've never ventured into the city, at least not by yourself. Prodding around more, venturing closer to the city, you find out that yes, indeed there is a wizard by the name of Imokan. And what do you know, he has a residence near the Wine Hollar, a series of streets known for their wineries and breweries. Yes, you must investigate further, and now it seems the only thing left to do is go knock on the door of a Mr. Imokan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppLsu5Z2Np0

Education

Aja was primarily trained by her mother Eram who also served as a midwife. She has acquired a great deal of field-medicine through recent travels with her companions.

Employment

Among witches, there are those who devote themselves to the care of others and restrict their practices to the healing arts. They often take the place of clerics in rural communities and may wander the countryside servicing the needs of several small communities. More specifically, Aja is an accomplished midwife.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Aja supported her teammates in their efforts to defeat a Banshee spider named Silvashe, although she herself was eventually defeated and cast out of the dream realm before her companions were successful.

Intellectual Characteristics

Creative, Linguistic, Dreamy, Pensive, Detached

Morality & Philosophy

Wisdom Begins in Wonder

Wealth & Financial state

Aja appears to have little in the way of material wealth, having only recently been exposed to fine jewelry and expensive clothes. Before joining the service of Dame Imokan, she had no permanent home, being provided for instead by the villages for whom she served as midwife. She now has a large room at the estates of Dame Imokan, although she has made substantial changes to its interior.

Children

Gender

Female

Eyes

Aquamarine

Hair

Long, sleek, snow white

Height

5'1"

Weight

105 lbs.

Known Languages

Common, Chennari (Genie-kin), Kahndu (lower-class common), Toreagadu (Treant), Vegat (Vegapygmies), Spradea (Faery), Tree Chant (Jungle Elves), Orcish

Character Prototype

Luna Lovegood of "Harry Potter" renown.