Overview
SPECIES: Ivrin (Ivory Fey)
GENDER: Female
AGE: 215
HEIGHT: 5’4″
OCCUPATION: Apothecary
Background
Nilva Laedrin was born in the war-torn, fey-ruled lands of Astralaan, where she lived for the majority of her life. Her parents were both apothecaries, and she learned her trade by helping them at their shop in the village where she was born.
Although her early childhood was relatively peaceful, it didn’t last. When she was fourteen years old, her village was destroyed during a fight between the warring fey courts of Summer and Winter. Her parents were killed in the chaos, and Nilva would have shared their fate, had she not been rescued by a mysterious group that called themselves the Shadow Court. Their goal was to save Astralaan from the destructive wars between the Summer and Winter Courts by covertly dismantling both opposing forces, then taking over Astralaan in their absence, unifying the whole continent under their banner. As someone who had just lost everything she’d ever known to Summer and Winter’s wars, Nilva was swift to ask if she could join their ranks. She was accepted as an apothecary and, for many years, she worked alongside the Shadow Court, making medicines and creating concoctions and poisons that aided the Court’s cause.
During her time with them, she met Vorn Gazdar, an ivrin assassin who worked for the Court. They worked together on numerous occasions and, over time, fell in love with one another. Eventually, they married,
The two of them were together for almost seventy years before Nilva found that she was with child. By that point, both she and Vorn had gradually come to realize that the Shadow Court’s attempts to overthrow Summer and Winter were only adding to the problems in Astralaan, and they both wanted out. When they tried to resign, however, they were denied; Nilva’s skill as an apothecary was unmatched in the Court, and they couldn’t afford to lose her.
So Nilva and Vorn made plans to escape and flee Astralaan altogether in hopes of finding better lives for themselves and their unborn child. When the time came to put their plans into motion, however, they found that the Court had learned what they were hoping to do and made preparations of their own, setting up a trap. Nilva managed to escape and find a ship to Durnia, but Vorn was killed by the Court.
Nilva arrived at Highwater City only days before giving birth. Not knowing where to go in the strange new city, she went to the Temple of the Balanced Scales in search of sanctuary. High Justicar Atreus Guardianshield took pity on her and let her stay at the temple to give birth. The baby—who she named Xieraine—was stillborn, but given life by the magic of the High Justicar.
She didn’t initially plan to remain at the temple, but the knights, who believed that Atreus’s successful efforts to give life to Xier was a gift from their goddess and had to mean that Xier was something special, encouraged her to do so. She took on the role of a temple apothecary and soon began to settle into her new life.