Thousands of years before the human race dominated the mortal world the immortal Fae claimed both sides of the veil for themselves. They were diverse in nature with many different powers, appearances and such between them only the most powerful were the rulers of the Fae at the beginning, these were the Tuatha Dé Danann. They were powerful spirits that embodied various forms of nature magic, they ruled the mortal realm from what would become present day Ireland. At the time what small number of mortals that existed worshiped them as gods. Nothing however, not even the immortals can truly last forever.
The Tuatha Dé Danann were arrogant and bold and this would be there downfall. The Fir Bolg (Bag Men), another race of Fae who had inhabited the mortal realm far before the Tuatha Dé Danann wished there lands returned to them. A great war began between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolg. Though the invaders were eventually defeated and driven off the face of the mortal world The Tuatha Dé Danann suffer a heavy price for this war.
Their mortal pets had now seen that their gods could bleed and the Men of Bags had shown them the metals that could dispel the Tuatha Dé Danann. Over the next hundred years the mortals mined and forged in secret till they had an arsenal of cast iron weapons with which to oppose the Tuatha Dé Danann. Faced with an enemy that might well and truly destroy them the leaders of the Fae led their people in a great exodus of the mortal world, retreating back behind the veil and sealing the portal at Stonehenge to prevent themselves from being pursued.
With this retreat the Tuatha Dé Danann had shown their people a great weakness and the outraged Fae called for the heads of their leaders. All but a very small number of the Tuatha Dé Danann were executed and those that survived lived in hiding for many many years. With The Tuatha leadership destroyed the Fae Kingdom splintered into two courts, the Seelie and Unseelie and within a hundred years had splintered again into four. The fall of the Tuatha Dé Danann heralded the fall of the Fae as a unified people.
Though today it is not illegal to be a descendant of the surviving members of that tribe of Fae they are spit on in civilized society unable to gain any sort of respectable position in any of the courts. A defining mark of the Tuatha Dé Danann are bright violet eyes that after their fall identified them to all fae and prevented them from ever going unnoticed.
Raven carries an air of calm collected aggression. Nothing she ever does could be qualified as hostile but with everything she says she gives people the very subtle inclination that she is challenging them. Raven is fearless and though she is slow to anger she is never afraid to fight. It is not easy to draw any kind of emotional response out of her. Even if you have offended her greatly she will simply bow and speak politely meanwhile thinking of a way to stab you in the back.
Raven's childhood was not a happy one. The only real friend Raven had in her life was her baby sister who went by the name of Dawn. Dawn unfortunately did not possess the guileful spirit or skills of deception that had kept the dregs of the Tuatha Dé Danann alive for the last few thousand years. However her skills lay in other areas. She had an unbreakable spirit and always knew what to say to instill hope in her older sister. Despite this Dawn was not stupid or gullible. She was fae born after all and while she might not have been talented with the ways of deception she was more than able to identify them.
Raven and Dawn were born to two surviving members of the disgraced tribe of The Tuatha Dé Danann which in the world of the fae was synonymous with "worthless". Though both she, her parents and her little sister had strong magical skills only the very desperate and very greedy would be seen to associate with them. This meant one very simple thing for Raven's parents her mother
Ayanna and her father
Kementh did whatever job they could acquire for themselves most of these were to put it plainly assassinations. Neither of them cared particularly for their children and most of the time left them to their own devices. When Raven was two hundred thirteen and Dawn was eighty seven Ayanna and Kementh were caught on one of their jobs and executed by the King of the Autumn Court leaving the girls to fend for themselves. Though their lives were not pleasant before that they deteriorated far more drastically afterwards.
Being homeless in the Realm of the Fae was far more dangerous and difficult than being homeless in the human world. There was no such thing as charity or kindness. Anything the girls needed or wanted they had to get for themselves. Unlike other fae with nothing the girls could not barter their services or allegiance to a more powerful fae for the color of their eyes identified them as members of the Tuatha Dé Danann which no respectable Fae would ever associate with. Faced with the same situation that their parents had been thrust into Raven and Dawn had no other option but to immerse themselves in the criminal underworld of the Fae. Thankfully in that realm power was all that meant anything. Though they had no status and no reputation power was something that Raven and Dawn had always known. As members of the Tuatha Dé Danann Dawn and Raven were some of the only living creatures who could tap into an ancient reservoir of nature magic which was so powerful it occasionally manifested in the sky of the mortal world, The Aurora Borealis. Tapping into this force granted Raven and Dawn powerful control over nature magic but it was also a very dangerous endeavor. In ancient times those that performed this act might have undergone decades of training before they even attempted it. The girls didn't have this luxury. Like human sorcerers that attempted to tap the power of the spirit world every time either Raven or Dawn accessed this power they were under the very real danger of over exposure. If they tried to channel more of the energy than their bodies could handle the magic would burn through their bodies in an amazingly destructive act.
Living the life they had chosen both Raven and Dawn were aware that they had an expiration date. It was a fact of being born to the tribe of the Tuatha that every member knew they would die. This was a hard truth of the mortal world that very few of the Fair Folk ever had to consider. As immortals Fae only died when they were killed, and every one of the Tuatha Dé Danann knew at an early age their lives
would be extinguished. Not one of their members had lived to see two thousand since the Courts had come into being and most did not live half that long. Dawn and Raven's parents had only been eight hundred when they died.
What the sisters had always expected though was that they'd die together. Whatever or whoever it was that finally killed them would kill them both. Unfortunately for Raven that wasn't the case. Raven and Dawn had been called on for an almost impossible task: To steal from the vault of the Winter Court. It was foolish, but both siblings were young and cocky, Raven was just rounding eight hundred on the verge of officially becoming an adult and Dawn was only a hundred and fifty years below her. They had powerful magic on their side and had conquered many hardships to get where they were. They had become reckless. The fate that befell them was not an unexpected one.
Such was the skill of the sisters that they penetrated the halls of the Winter Court and stood before the doors to the vault before they were spotted. Knowing they could not complete their task Dawn and Raven made a run for the exit. Using their ancestor's magic they escaped the Winter Court and into the air, they did not make it far. Archers wielding arrows with heads of iron fired at them as they made their escape. Though Raven was only skimmed her sister was cut deep in the stomach by one of the fatal weapons. The air fell from her wings and she plummeted towards the town below. Raven caught her sister as she fell and they crashed into an alley below as the rain poured down all around them. The iron arrowhead had cut Dawn deep, it did not stick in the wound and Dawn's luminescent opal blood flowed freely mixing with the water that soaked the alleyway. Tears fell from Raven's eyes, though love might be foreign to the fae the familial bond holds strong and true. Raven felt a sharp enduring pain in her chest as her sister passed from this world. She may have knelt there forever if not for a sound that shook her from her sorrow. "FIND THE INTRUDER!"
Raven looked down on her sister's body and knew that she could never give her a true burial, so instead she reached round Dawn's neck and detached a necklace from her sister's throat. It was the only heirloom they had, the ornate
symbol of their tribe hung on a silver chain. "I'll carry you with me always sister." Raven said to the last remaining member of her family before she ran for her life.
Raven disappeared for the next hundred years, no one knew exactly where, nor did anyone really care at the time. Later when she made her name known to the four courts some would speculate that she had hidden herself in the Far Lands, the wild places beyond the borders of the kingdoms, others believe she went to the mortal world to look for traces of her legacy. Whatever the truth was when she returned she made her presence felt.
Fifty or so years ago Raven entered the meeting hall of each of the four courts one at a time. At her hip was a beautiful sword, its blade forged of diamond, and its hilt encrusted with ivory. Engraved in the diamond in the oldest of Fae runes: "Cuir a-steach am facal a tha thu a' lorg",
The Torch of War Lights the Way. To each of the Courts Raven made this proclamation: "I greet thee my Lord and Lady with the utmost respect and call upon thee to bear witness. At the beginning of this era the foolishness of my ancestors pushed us from the mortal world and splintered our people. I am here today to tell each of you that the debt the Tuatha Dé Danann owe to the rest of the Fair Folk has been paid in millennium of our sweet, toil, suffering and blood. I claim the rights the Tuatha Dé Danann have to the land we now stand on and that in possession of the other three courts. By proof of my blood I wield this sword of diamond and ivory. One of the four ancient treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, The Shining Sword of the Isle Findias, Claíomh Solais does proves my birthright." On these words Raven drew the diamond sword for all to see before she continued. "I do not call your leadership into question for I am not here to make enemies, simply to make you aware that I walk each of the four lands freely and without restraint. As such my services are open to any that cares to avail themselves of them. I answer to the name of the Raven, I am the Lady of Silverlight." With those words Raven lifted the blade of the diamond sword into the air. Channeling her own magic through the crystal, a great light shot through the blade and into the ceiling where it formed an Aurora that danced majestically over the court as Raven vanished from sight.
After that display Raven was fairly sure the only reason she did not end up dead was because of the diamond blade she wielded. According to legend any that held Claíomh Solais in their hand could not be defeated in battle. Since that day Raven has been employed by various courts as a diplomat, messenger, spy, scout and more that her special tool set could provide. Though none of the kings or queens trusted her any more than they had to they also knew full well that the same was true of the other kings and queens.
-Raven is an expert violinist.
-Her violin was sung out of the finest Hawthorne tree and strung with silver spun strings.
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