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The Birds and the Bees in Bron Eron History of the Huntress
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True Name:
Juno Drace Knowledge/Skills:
Hunting, tracking, healing, mending, magic lore,
animal lore, weapon lore, battle lore ( hand to hand, bladed weaponry,
blunt weaponry, missile weaponry, etc) | |
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Image copyright by JunoGraphics.
She doesn't look that old, does she? And she certainly doesn't act like her age either. You would think that even a half-elf of her years would be a little more well grounded. A little more sensible. But if you've met her, you'd know she's a bit less practical and a lot more unruly than people who are one-eighth her age. Juno's wild mood swings and overly-roguish behavior would be confusing to anyone who didn't know her past... The kind of people she's been around. The life-style she chose to live.
Are you curious?
Let's start at the beginning... | ||
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A few centuries ago, when the High Elves of the Sylvankind forests were still sheltered in their little world, locked away from most of the outside, they received an unusual visitor. A human huntress by the name of Eloré Caprinn happened to stumble onto the village of Bron Eron. Now normally, Caprinn wasn't the kind to stumble into anyplace. And the Elves weren't normally the type to accept visitors with open arms. But, it seemed the Huntress Caprinn had taken a pretty nasty hit from a arbelog beast. Oh, sure, she'd beaten it -which wasn't easy- but not before it nearly removed half her thigh and her left arm. So you can imagine that by the time Eloré reached the village a day after the battle, she was in a terrible state. When the Huntress collapse in the village center, the elders pretty much voted to have her body dragged out into the woods. They didn't want to have to deal with outsiders... Especially humans. But, not all the Elves of Bron Eron were snooty, closed-minded xenophobes. A well respected village member, named Lazhin Drace, convinced the Elder's to let him care for the strange human woman. So, this Lazhin fellow took the woman to his manor to have her tended to by himself, the village healer, thinking her would be harmless ... Was he in for a surprise. A few days later, Caprinn woke up in a place she doesn't know and she couldn't remember who she got there, or how she'd been wounded. Well, being as Caprinn wasn't used to anyone's hospitality -and not to mention she was a little delusional due to the lose of blood- she automatically reacted in self-defense... and broke a water pitcher over poor, unsuspecting Lazhin's head. Lazhin managed to stay conscious despite the concussion, and eventually, after a few more things were broken around the room, Lazhin was able to calm his new huntress friend down and explain things to her. She wound up agreeing to let him help her... and later agreeing to stay and help the Bron Eron Elders understand humans better... and finally, as they had been growing closer that whole time, Eloré accepted Lazhin's proposal of marriage. It seemed the elf was smitten with the lovely huntress. I mean, hey, she had a pretty good right hook! From there, it's pretty easy to guess what happened. The two paired up and over time Eloré gave birth to three daughters. Miyabi, Delia and Juno... | ||
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Of course, as you would expect, the village wasn't too keen on the fact that they had half-breeds amongst them. The young Draces were quick to pick up that they were being shunned by the other children, and belittled for what they were. They were treated like a weaker, slower race. Left out and looked down on... Which of course made them all the more determined to prove their stuck-up peers wrong. Miyabi very easily picked up her father's gift for magic and healing. Delia showed that she could think just a quickly, and fight just as well as any full-blooded elf. But Juno... Well... It seemed that Juno had been born
more human than her sisters. She was stronger than the average Elf-girl
her age, but she was slower, her senses were duller, and she was clumsier
with magic. It was her mother's idea that Juno should be infused with
enchantments and spells of enhancement. She was taught the spells that
would give her at least a little more of an advantage and her father saw
to it that she was trained in hunting and fighting. Encouraged by her
family, Juno Before long, the Draces became much more respected, even looked up to by the village. Things had changed. Not only had Eloré shown she could be an excellent citizen, but her and Lazhin's children had shown the city that race wasn't everything. | ||
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It was a fairly long time before the Draces began to notice another odd trait about Juno. Her aging was going too fast. Granted Juno wasn't aging as fast as her human mother had. But as time passed it was becoming noticeable. By the time Juno was reaching the age the Elves considered to be adulthood, Juno looked a fair amount older than her sisters. It had been Juno's obsession to be more Elven for so long that this discovery weighed heavily on her. Juno had had trouble coming to terms with her mother's timely death. It frightened her to think that she would reach a physical old age, and possibly die, before she could reach Elderhood. She panicked. Knowing that nothing could be done for her by the Sylvankinds of her land, Juno left Bron Eron, following the rumors that there were other beings in the outside world who had mastered spells of immortality. Her travels took her to the realm of Ayenee where she learned of the magic the Drows used to stop the effects of aging completely. She spent several years trying to find out this secret method. Finally she heard about a Drow clan that was known to accept alliances with surface dwellers. Despite the fact that the Drow clan's leader had a reputation of treachery and cruelty, Juno went to House Yeog'il'rymmin and offered her services as an ally in their war against neighboring clans in exchange for the secret of immortality. After passing several tests of strength and skill, the House master, the Jabbuk, accepted Juno's offer... though his intentions were not pristine. For over two decades Juno fought along with the Yeog'il'rymmin clan, becoming their eyes in the surface world and a great assassin both above and below the surface. She befriended one of the adopted clan members, a Drow female near her age who was also looked down on for the impurity of her bloodlines. Kier'helsa Yeog'il'rymmin was a sorceress of the clan, and a powerful one at that. One of her ancestors had mated with a Lamia demon, giving Kier the skills equal to a draconic mage. Their shared persecution allowed Juno and Kier'helsa to become steady friends and Kier was happy to teach Juno magics that would further improve her senses and skills. It was also during this time that Juno began to develop a love of battle. The Drow are known for their insatiable blood lust and volatile tempers. The more time Juno spent around them -learning their ways, living like them- the more she began to display their darker views and heartless attitudes. (Fun, huh?) When the wars finally ended and House Yeog'il'rymmin was victorious, Juno came to the Jabbuk expecting him to fulfill their agreement... But as Juno had come to learn, the Jabbuk was not a man of his word. Instead of giving Juno what she'd rightfully earned, he asked her to carry out "one last task." She was to go to the Underground kingdom of the Pretas Elves, to the city of Valdaray, where she would find Jabbuk's traitorous daughter, and then Juno was to assassinate her. Juno knew better than to think she wasn't getting used, but she didn't know any other way she could stop her aging than by the magics that the Jabbuk claimed to have, so she agreed. Entering the city was going to be difficult. The Pretas were recovering from their own, brutal war against the Mages of the Underworld, and they were a bit edgy about visitors. So Juno arranged to have a horde of Jabbuk's men chase her through the boundaries of the Pretian Kingdom, making it look like she fleeing an attack. Juno foolishly bet that the Pretas were the "foe of my foe" type and even though they gave her asylum against the Drow, they still took her prisoner. She was taken to Valdaray, a huge city surrounded by massive walls that stemmed out from an equally huge Palace. There, she was supposed to undergo judgment, but while she was there she earner the friendship of the very young Pretian Empress just by sheer luck and a series of very unusual events. It was during this time that Juno developed her odd personality quirks that would tag her for centuries to come. When she'd arrived in Valdaray, she was really a very grumpy woman. Her time with the Drow hadn't been the greatest and it left her kind of bitter and often very unfriendly. But one day, after almost a year among the Pretas, she woke up quiet different. Juno wouldn't find out for several centuries, but it was the young Empress, Aubrianna Demetri, who decided Juno could use an attitude make-over, but the spell she used wasn't quite cast properly and it wound up creating a sort of split personality for Juno. She didn't really schizophrenic, but her mood swings were often uncanny. When Juno finally did find Z'ress, the run-away daughter of Jabbuk Yeog'il'rymmin, she could no longer bring herself to fulfill her task... not to mention she'd finally decided she'd had enough of Jabbuk using her for his dirty deeds. She confessed her true reason for being there to both Aubrianna and Z'ress, expecting to be hang before the next morning. Instead, Aubrianna's childish belief that there is good in everyone saved Juno once again... and earned her the immortality she'd been seeking. It turned out that Z'ress was the one that possessed the knowledge of the rituals, runes and spells needed for immortality. That was the reason Jabbuk had wanted Z'ress dead. If the knowledge couldn't be spread, then Jabbuk would be the only one to have such a power. Z'ress agreed to perform the rituals and spells on Juno, but only with the exception that Juno stay in Valdaray and help the Pretian's finish rebuilding from the devastation they'd suffered during the Mage Wars. With nothing left to lose -but her life, anyway- Juno agreed. Almost fifteen years later, Juno re-emerged into the sunlight of the surface world, a little paler, but no longer troubled by the advances of time... | ||
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From Aging to Ancient... When she returned to Bron Eron, Juno discovered that she couldn't exactly fit in there anymore. Her father had died sometime after she'd left the first time, her oldest sister, Miyabi, had left on her own quest, and her other sister, Delia, had become a member of the Counsel. Juno had changed far too much. Between the awkward Spell of Cheer cast on her by the Pretian Empress, and the unpredictable battle-lust of the Drow, Juno was dramatically different from the girl she'd been when she'd left the city. While the people of Bron Eron didn't just cast her out, Juno could still sense the unease the people had around her. So, Juno left Bron Eron once again, this time in search of a place she could belong. She'd learned of the Paladin city of Shaadray from an old friend in Bron Eron. Leila Dalit had told Juno that her brother, Tamar Dalit, (also Juno's old flame) was in service in the city. Getting in wouldn't be easy, but Leila gave Juno the instructions needed to gain access and find Tamar. What Leila didn't know was that Juno planned to settle an old score with Tamar. See, Tamar and Juno had planned to marry... Granted they were just kids when they made this pact, but when Tamar up and split on Juno before she first left, Juno took it to heart. Upon reaching Shaadray and finding Tamar, Juno proceeded to kick his arse, only to be stopped by Tamar's cousin, Anha. Anha (once called Ana Dalit) was one-quarter Drow and turned out to be a fair match for Juno. After nearly two days of fighting, they came tot he agreement that they would make better allies than enemies. Juno would leave Tamar alone and Anha would become Juno's new sparing partner. Anha herself had been trained by her Drow relatives, but had left the Underdark due to the prejudice against her mixed heritage. While in Shaadray, Juno trained with the Paladin's the Shaadrian Sorcerer-Priests. Learning new magics and fighting techniques. After about a year, Juno decided to move on again. She still didn't feel at home in a religious city. It was on the road in the vast country of Ayenee that Juno made her first bounty. Actually, she had no idea she was doing it at the time. A well known thief was had been spotted in the area. Bounty Hunters and local authorities had spent days searching for him when, by sheer coincidence, Juno caught the thief robbing her room at an Inn. She took the man out with a single, then dragged him to the local guard house. When she realized that the ecstatic guard was babbling about, Juno was pleased to discover that her capture brought her both praise and a fair sized reward. The Captain of the Guard then asked her to help with other bounties and she accepted. Time after time, Juno's hunting, fighting and 'persuasion' skills proved to make her an exceptional Bounty Hunter. She began to travel, taking bounties in Ayenee, Thoire, Parne, Valdaray, and the hidden city of Therama....
The rest is still being written... | ||
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"An Elf Sorceress is like a good mead: They grow more potent with age..." Just how old is Juno? Well that depends on when you've met her. Juno first left Bron Eron and traveled around the realms when she was in the age of what the Bron Eron elves consider adulthood... That's 132 (physically 18-ish) to be exact. A little over 25 years later she took service under the command of the Jabbuk of House Yeog'il'rymmin. She fought with them for 27 years until she was sent by Jabbuk to find and kill his fugitive daughter. Juno found her among the Pretas elves, but instead befriended her and began 16 years of service in the Pretian kingdom. She finally returned to the surface world, having gotten her immortality (finally!) and made the fun trip into the fortified city of Shaadray to hunt down an old flame. She only stayed around there for 1 year before she got bored and took off to wander the Realms. It wasn't until about 22 years later that Juno 'accidentally' made her first bounty and decidedly dove head long into the world of Bounty Hunting. (Hey, it paid the bills.) Then, 7 years after that Juno had the odd fortune of joining a group dubbed 'Friends of the Circle.' It was another 12 years after that when she began her service (and romantic relationship) with the heir to the thrown and king of Zephyra. Nearly a century and a half later, Juno returned to the city of Shaadray (with a side trip to the newly forged, Underdark city of Ched Shebalin, where she adopted the twins, Lykes and Ofelia) and also met the 'wandering warrior', Damien Leithe. That was around the time that she was starting to get a little power hungry, and during her 5th decade among the Paladins of Shaadray, she was banished to the "silent word"... only to return 2 and a half centuries later when she was needed in the Great War. That lasted for 300+ years until the Veldrinian forces were squashed and sometime after that that Juno finally decided she'd been around long enough and...well, that's unimportant at the moment. So how old is she? You do the math. ^_~ | ||
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All of these links will open in a different window | ||
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The Elven Woods - Home of the Circle of Friends |
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| Valdaray - The Imperial City of the Pretas Elves | ||
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Ched Nasad - Dark Castle of the Yeog'il'rymmin Drow clan |
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| Ayenee is...- Juno's old stomping grounds | ||
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Ladies of Ayenee - Some of the Women in Juno's old stomping grounds... |
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| Delia Drace - Jackie's old homesite... yeah, I'm surprised it's still running, too. hehehe | ||
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Crane Milahn - Read the journal of the guy who plays Juno's faaaavorite Ranger! ^_~ |
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pushed herself to become better, to be more like an elf. She
engaged herself in friendly competitions with the other young Elves of
Bron Eron, learning how to best them or match them in anything and
everything. She was tired of being the 'weak one' and she wouldn't let
anyone tell her she wasn't as good at they were.