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[Laufey]

Evil Aerie Biography

As you first ask about her past, Aerie gives you a freezing look and asks if you would like to have your lower lip nailed to your eyelids in order to shut your mouth. Then however, she seems to change her mind, and says that since you know part of the truth, you may as well hear her story – that you may serve her better.

Aerie, or Cirindaeriella as she was known then, was born in the city of Faenya-Dail, home of the Avariel, the winged elves. Her fondest hope was to become a powerful priestess of Aerdrie Faenya, as her mother before her. Yet this hope was denied.

The goddess rejected her, on her own mother’s advice, for there was a darkness in the young elf, and a ruthless hunger for power, that her mother knew might well lead her down dangerous paths, and corrupt her utterly. Now, Aerie knew herself to be clever and skilled, and the refusal gnawed at her soul, fostering resentment and bitterness against her people, and especially against her mother, who she felt had held her back out of envy of Aerie’s blooming gift for arcane magic. Eventually she ran from her home, screaming her frustrated rage at the heavens as she flew far from Faenya-Dail.

It was then that Aerie had an encounter that would forever change her life. She spotted a battle below her on the ground, a lone woman attacked by several bandits, who nevertheless slew them all, lashing them with terrible spells that made them scream like infants from the pain. Here at last was true power, and Aerie was quick to join in, seeking to ally herself with this powerful woman. As the Avariel killed for the first time, melting the skin off a screaming man’s face with her fire magic, she felt the strongest exhilaration of her entire life, an emotion stronger than anything she had ever felt. This, the stranger noticed, for she was a priestess of Loviatar, Goddess of Pain and Revenge, and she was eager to acquire a potential acolyte.

And so Aerie secretly grew in power, learning the ways of Pain, until the day when she returned to her home, invisible and unseen. Her vengeance was complete as she tied her own mother down with strong spells, and then forever took away her capacity for sight, hearing or speech, in ways that could not be healed. Never again would the woman who spurned Aerie worship the Goddess who rejected her, and as the young Avariel felt her mother’s blood on her face she knew that she had found her way. She had another mother now, her Goddess, and her she would serve forever.

Loviatar is a cruel mistress, delighting in the pain of her followers as well as of others, and Aerie knew what kind of sacrifice she would approve of. So it was that the Avariel gave up her beautiful white wings, severing them herself, willingly binding herself to a life on the ground. In return, she became a highly favored servant of the Goddess of Pain, spreading pain and misery wherever she went, frequently hiding her razor-sharp cunning and keen insight behind a façade of naïve innocence adopted to fool her victims. On what purpose she has come to Athkatla she will not say, only that she craves vengeance for some past slight, involving pain to make even the bravest howl their lungs out. Her blue eyes take on an icy look as she says this, and a small and cruel smile plays around her rosy lips. The terrible determination in her voice makes you very relieved that you are not the one who has so provoked her wrath.