Backstory

Kaylessa Yaeldrin was raised in an elven mansion by her parents who had gotten rich through trade on the high seas. Her father, Vanuath, was a strong-armed barbarian who accompanied her mother, Shanairla, as she used her bardic talents to become a well-known trader. Her younger brother, Laucien, studied magic and also had a love of the outdoors like his older sister. However, it was this love of nature that led to disaster for the Yaeldrin family.

While out hunting on the family estate, Kaylessa and Laucien discovered a “thin place” where the evil goblin fey were tearing their way into this world. Not having the sense to leave quickly, they were surprised when goblins burst forth from the rift. While Laucien fled, Kaylessa stayed to cover his retreat and was ensorcelled by the goblin fey and enslaved. For 5 years, she sought an escape from her imprisonment and then spent another year seeking a way out of the fey wild and back to her home world. During that time, she honed her skills as a huntress and warrior.

One night while hiding from her pursuers, Kaylessa received a vision. In it, she was in the deep jungles surrounded by swirling ethereal draconic wyrms. It seemed to her to be a sign of something important, but she still does not understand its significance. It was while she was having this vision that the goblin fey caught up to her and found her so entranced as to be defenseless. Unaware of her immediate danger, a spirit leopard appeared and defended her. When she awoke, the goblin fey hunting party lay dead at her feet, and she had a new companion in the form of a magic infused leopard that followed her everywhere as a guardian.

Weeks later, Kaylessa still had not found a way back home and her food supply was running low. She had found another “thin place” in the fey wild but did not know how to push through the veil. She must have stayed in that place too long because the goblins came for her shortly after. Even with brave Taji’s help, her spirit leopard, the goblins were overwhelming. She took a spear in her bow arm and knew all was lost. In desperation she cried out to Obed Hai, the god of the forest, for help.

That was when she heard the shriek. A large spirit hawk brimming with magical power dove down from the skies and pierced the portal between worlds allowing Kaylessa to leave the fey behind. Thus, she returned to her home with yet another spirit companion, Ollea the spirit hawk. Unfortunately, time passes differently in the fey realm, and when she returned, it was to a different world.

Her estate had grown over into a jungle with only the ruins of her great mansion left. Eventually, she came across other elves who told her that the Wigoma Wilds had encroached quickly on the lands that were once civilized. It seemed that the fey influence had leaked out into the world and corrupted it, including the local goblin-kin, the orcs.

The Wigoma Orcs had been twisted by the fey magic and now had only minds for chaos and death. It was as if they were automatons, not even capable of sentient thought. Worse yet, they carried with them a deadly disease that killed most elves within days. Just the slightest touch of a Diseased Orc was a death sentence to an elf. Kaylessa did the only thing she knew how. She fought. She saved travelers. She searched for her family. It was during this time that she found out her mother had died nearly 50 years previously, wasted away by the Disease. Her father had survived the Disease but had since been ensorcelled by the Wigoma Orcs and now served them in every way. There were rumors that her brother, now her elder brother by many years, had escaped into the wild and lived a life on the run.

Fighting her way out of the fey, she suffered a grievous injury to her bow arm. Although the wound healed, it still pains her from time to time.

Kaylessa now protects those few elven settlements she runs into or travelers in the wilds from the Diseased Orcs. She is often low on food, low on hope, and low in the new social order of elves. She hopes to one day find her brother and perhaps even save her father by the Wigoma Orcs. If only her arm would let her get some good sleep…

Taji

Spirit leopards are said to have been created during a war between the gods and the fey as servants of the gods. Now, they are generally found by those in need of protection as a blessing from the gods. They demonstrate a level of cunning, loyalty, and courage that far surpasses that of any mere animal. They are generally corporeal creatures but become ethereal and return to a plane of spirits when brought to the brink of death on the material plane only to return days later fully healed.

Ollea

Spirit hawks are said to have been created during a war between the gods and the fey as servants of the gods. Now, they are generally found by those in need of guidance as a blessing from the gods. They demonstrate a level of cunning, loyalty, and courage that far surpasses that of any mere animal. They are generally corporeal creatures but become ethereal and return to a plane of spirits when brought to the brink of death on the material plane only to return days later fully healed.