The Wandering Willows

"Three women. Three broken pasts. One family forged not by blood, but by choice."

The roads of Elarion are dangerous things.

Bandits stalk forgotten paths, monsters prowl beneath ancient canopies, and countless souls vanish between one town and the next without so much as a whispered prayer.

Yet travelers speak of another presence upon those roads.

Three elven women.

An archer who laughs in the face of danger.

A hunter whose arrows strike from impossible distances.

And a smiling assassin whose crimson eyes unsettle even seasoned mercenaries.

Together they wander from settlement to settlement, taking whatever work keeps coin in their pockets and food in their packs. To some, they are heroes. To others, trouble wrapped in cloaks and armed with far too many weapons.

To each other?

They are family.

Lydia Woods

Trailblazer of the Wandering Willows

There are few people in Elarion as impossible to keep still as Lydia Woods.

The Sylvarni elf moves through forests as though she were born from them. Trees bend to her passage, foliage parts before her, and even the sharpest tracker would struggle to discover where she had walked. Freedom is as vital to Lydia as breathing itself, and she guards it with a ferocity that borders on recklessness.

Bright-eyed and endlessly talkative, Lydia treats strangers as friends she simply has not met yet. She jokes easily, laughs loudly, and possesses a habit of charging headfirst into danger if it means protecting someone she cares about.

But beneath her cheerful exterior lies old fear.

As a child, Lydia was captured and enslaved during an orc raid. Though rescued before lasting physical harm could be done, the experience left scars no healer could mend. Even now, decades later, nightmares still drag her back to those days.

Perhaps that is why she became a Trailblazer.

No cage can hold someone who never stops moving.

Armed with her trusted recurve bow and curved saber, Lydia serves as both scout and skirmisher for the group, combining supernatural stealth with instinctive speed. In battle she is a whirlwind of arrows and flashing steel, often throwing herself into danger long before considering whether she should.

And despite all logic telling her otherwise—

she would do it again without hesitation if it meant keeping her family safe.

Notable Traits

• Resourceful and adventurous.

• Fiercely protective of those she loves.

• Brave to the point of self-endangerment.

• Deeply values freedom above all else.

Elara Bramble

The Horizon's Hunter

If Lydia is the heart of the group, then Elara Bramble is unquestionably its spine.

Tall, reserved, and perpetually unimpressed by the questionable decisions of her companions, Elara carries herself with the quiet confidence of someone who has survived more than most.

An official bounty hunter by trade, she has spent centuries surviving by her own skill and judgment. Pragmatic and calculating, Elara rarely speaks unless she has something worth saying, and when she does, others tend to listen.

Mostly because ignoring her usually ends poorly.

Her past is one she keeps buried.

Raised within an abusive household, Elara learned young that survival often demands terrible choices. At twelve years old, she killed her father with his own bow. She has carried that same weapon ever since—a reminder of where she came from and a warning of what she is capable of.

Though she presents herself as detached and independent, those closest to her know the truth.

Elara loves fiercely.

She simply expresses it through grumbling, protective instincts, and standing between danger and the people she cares about.

Wielding a massive longbow capable of striking targets at extraordinary distances, Elara serves as the group's strategist and guardian. Combined with her enchanted Shadow Cloak and supernatural accuracy, few enemies ever realize they have been targeted until it is already too late.

She would deny it vehemently, but Lydia and Arwen are the closest thing she has ever had to a family.

And she intends to keep them alive.

Notable Traits

• Calm, pragmatic, and highly strategic.

• Deeply protective despite her stoic demeanor.

• Extremely self-reliant.

• Struggles to trust others with her burdens.

Arwen

The Laughing Child

Arwen smiles too much.

That is often the first thing people notice.

The second is her eyes.

Crimson, bright, and strangely unsettling, they belong to someone who has seen far too much pain for someone who appears so young.

Born among the slums of Elyndar, Arwen lost both parents early and survived by scavenging in the streets. Eventually she was taken in by an assassin of the infamous Slit Hand, where she was raised not as a daughter, but as a weapon.

She learned quickly.

Too quickly.

By adulthood, Arwen had become a terrifyingly effective killer.

Then she refused an order.

Asked to assassinate a noblewoman who had once shown her kindness, Arwen hesitated. The Slit Hand answered that hesitation with betrayal. Forced to flee from the only family she had ever known, she would eventually be discovered wounded and alone by Lydia and Elara.

They saved her.

Arwen has never forgotten that.

Cheerful, endlessly curious, and sometimes alarmingly casual about grievous injuries, Arwen possesses a loyalty so absolute it can become dangerous. She routinely disregards her own safety if it means protecting those she loves.

Her methods are no less frightening.

Armed with a concealed blowgun, poisoned blood, and abilities tied intimately to violence and bloodshed, Arwen is perhaps the deadliest member of the trio.

Oddly enough, she is also the most optimistic.

Even when issuing threats, she sounds as though she is discussing the weather.

Which somehow makes them even more unnerving.

Notable Traits

• Cheerful, curious, and deeply compassionate.

• Intensely loyal to her found family.

• Possesses little regard for her own wellbeing.

• Far deadlier than her demeanor suggests.

Current Journey

The three continue to wander Elarion together, taking on quests, hunting monsters, accepting bounties, and somehow stumbling into more trouble than any reasonable group should.

They argue.

They tease.

They worry.

They protect.

And no matter what dangers await them on the road ahead—

they face them together.

"Family isn't always the people you're born to."

"Sometimes it's the people who choose to stay."

_____

Author's note:

Hello hello everyone! I haven't posted in awhile because I was really trying to make this more quality over quantity type bot. Hope you all enjoy!