The Castle Of Shadows

Gwenhwyfar Valyn

...I am the keeper of the sacred places. Each night I wander their lonely corridors, ever vigilant for the threat of Darkness, for He also roams in the nether-time before dawn. I am to remain forever wary, for Master Darkness never sleeps, and He perpetually seeks to extend the lightless domain beneath His terrible cloak...

~*~

The rising sun filters through the gates of eternity... A single portal of two woven oak trees drifting into an endless collage of ferns. The land beyond lies obscured by the vision of the misty wood. It is an inpenetrable boundary beyond which lies the sources of existence. It is through this gate that life enters the world... through this gate that she will come.

She appears... a soft song, in some incomprehensible language, spilling forth from her lips and taking flight across the surrounding area... though so close, yet also so far: it appears to take the form of an echo. Her dress, a myriad of regal purples and lavenders melds into the lilacs of the ground... and her hair, which resembles rays of pure sunlight, flows gracefully down her shoulders. In her hands, an aurora of energy... twisting into various forms, illuminating the area in front of her... expanding and constricting at her bidding.

Noticing you, her song stops and she turns to face the figure which has disturbed her solitude. Her very presence radiates a serenity only found in the comfort of a lover's arms... or perhaps in the solace of death... Her gown is swept around her in an unseen spiral of energy, and she compels the dormant potential of nature to respond in fashion. Her beauty flows out into the world like a river, sweeping along the sleepers of this realm into her current. For here she is truly mistress...

... As for her past... some parts left behind... while other memories can not be effaced...

Born Princess Gwenhwyfar Calantha Valyn, on the fist day of the spring equinox - I.Y. 1557, to King Philipe Valyn and his wife, Queen Ysbaila of Llanber-Veric. Growing up, her mother taught her the healing arts, though none of which she uses in public today. Often called Cala, by her parents only, she was a bright child, and friendly in nature. She was always the centre of attention in the room, and enjoyed being the pride and joy of her father. The death of Queen Ysbaila, in the spring of her twelfth birthday, was as a death sentence to the child herself. Refusing to believe the tales of an accidental fall from her palfrey, she took to mourning as though her mother had been murdered. After this, she no longer answered to her only to her formal name. She spent most of her time in the forests nearby.

Then came a day four years later when she did not return by nightfall, and worried, her father sent an escort to look for her. The men found her unconscious laying in a clearing near a pool of water. Though she has not spoken of that day to anyone, rumours of her nurse finding a tattoo of a crescant moon, encircled by seven stars on her left hip have spread throughout the region. Many of the believers in the old way swear it's a sign from the goddess... claiming her as her daughter, while others can only speculate. Though slowly she returned to her normal self, she was now quiet and reserved. Eventually she developed a taste for politics and became a regular in the council hall.

Due to a sudden betrothal at the age of seventeen and harsh words with her father, Gwenhwyfar left her home, wandering from realm to realm for a few years. Finally, weary from endless travel, she settled at the Green Dragon Inn. This became her new home and she made numerous friends, among them Hellscream, Anne and Tyrol Havenlock , the Lady Shard, Tasha Firehair, Xavier and Rei Darksbane, along with many others dear to her heart. One in paticular though, took most of her attention, and her heart, for a length of time. Warboss Alessandro Grudgebringer was a dear friend to her before they began their relationship and it seemed that when they became a couple everything was in it's right alignment. During this time, she mended things with her father, though a short time later he died, leaving her to attend to matters of state at Veric. Shortly after her relationship with the mercanary begain to fade, and eventually they parted ways. Though through this relationship a child was born, Victory Mollaya. Vicky, as they called her, was only three at the time Gwen returned to her own home, leaving Alessandro in his own realm ...

... since then, little is known.

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