[img]http://jp23.r0tt.com/l_118ecdd0-710a-11e5-8d7d-3f3922400023.jpg[/img]
[sup]art: [url=http://www.deviantart.com/art/Ragnhild-501145582]Ragnhild by Even Mehl Amundsen[/url][/sup]

Name: Ildbewoor "Ildie"

Abstract: An old woman who is not generous nor kind, but lives according to balance and understanding among all things.

Detail: Ildbewoor was born on the sea; she grew up among the sailors and seawater, gutted fish and hard tack, working songs and gunpowder. She was quick up and down the masts, knew a hundred and eleven knots, and had eyes sharp as an eagle for the pinpoint sails of distant ships. This all ended one stormy night when the ship drifted into kraken territory. The harpooners managed to slay and secure the beast, but too many lives were lost and the ship was too damaged to continue. They weighed anchor alongside an island, hoping to gather wood and supplies to repair the ship -- instead the captain and the remaining sailors fell prey to the horrific swarms of monsters that inhabited it. Ildie only survived by abandoning her fellow shipmates and perching in the treetops to watch them be devoured. To this day she wonders if there was something she could have done.

Eventually she learned the habits of the creatures and was able to walk along the ground without harm. For years she lived here alone, until she built her own small boat out of pieces of the ruined ship and set off to discover new lands. She found civilization, but found that she no longer cared for friendship or empathy with other people, as curious and interesting as they were. She bored easily. Even living alone in the woods wasn't as challenging or rewarding as the constant threat and chaos of the island or the sea -- so she traveled.

For most of her life, Ildie's heart was in exploration and observation. She embraced every technology she encountered, asked too many questions, adopted a plethora of pets and mounts and children along the way, only to leave them at stable homes as she carried on alone. One such child happened to be a lord's daughter who might have been eaten by a toglosnap had Ildie not been present to frighten the mangled beast away. She delivered the child to her home safely, and the lord convinced her to stay awhile.

The widower lord, the child's father, impressed Ildie with his warm heart and fierce devotion to the sea -- and she must have made an impression on him, as well, for he asked her hand in marriage. Together they ruled one of the wildest of realms, with a reputation for being strict yet fair and more than a little eccentric. After a great many years, the lord's mind began to fail him and he saw visions more often than he recognized his own daughter. The daughter, having by then come of age, took the lordship while her father lay dying. The old lord was buried at sea.

The fae of the woods that bordered the realm were angered by the lord's death; they threatened a war that the new ruler was not equipped to face. Ildie went alone to the edge of the woods to act as ambassador and guardian between the two peoples. There she cared for the beasts of the woods as well as for the people of the realm, and to this day acts as an advisor to her daughter-in-law and an anchor of peace between the chaotic wilds and the human civilizations.

But Ildie is getting on in age, and both the fae and the people of the realm have begun to spread whispers of what will happen to the balance of peace when she passes.