Lady Tarlina
I guess every story begins at the beginning, even my own; and in the beginning a young elfin empath fell in love with a wounded human warrior while she was healing at the front lines of a war. There was prejudice on both sides of the family, and they finally found happiness in a little house outside of a small village. She healed and he farmed, and not too many months passed before she gave birth to a female child with her mother's red hair, and her father's green eyes. Me.
I remember we were all very happy in our little cottage, I was secure and loved. I had not yet started to take an interest in healing when my father was again drafted into the army. He swore it was the last war he would go to and he didn't know how right he was. When my mother received the news she simply stopped. She stopped eating, drinking, healing, and not to long afterward, she stopped living. I watched my mother die of a broken heart.
I could have gone to live with my mothers family, or my fathers, but that would have been a living hell. There was simply too much elf in me for my human relatives to accept, and to much human for my elfin relatives even though they would have tried to do right by me. There was only one thing left for me to do, I gathered my few belongings and set off on my own.
I drifted from town to town, making just enough money to keep a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and some food in my stomach. I had been working in a bar and one of the patrons decided to become more than my friend. I slapped him, and he slapped me back. That was when a rather imposing Giantman grabbed him and threw him across the room. His name was Urion. He took me home to his wife, an empath, and began training me alongside his son Fyreblayde as a warrior. I grew to consider them my family.
I would like to be able to say that they are still alive today, but there was a raid while both Fyre and I were away. We later discovered that it was a nearby band of Hill Trolls that killed Urion and his wife. Fyre and I separated, he went into training and I went to the town of Icemule Trace, the town where I was born.
I found a trainer in the Trace and seriously set about being a warrior, doing the duty all young are given, getting rid of the rat population. I absolutely hated every moment of it, but I worked doggedly at it. It was then that I first heard a voice in my head. It was a strong, feminine no-nonsense voice. "Tarlina" it said "You were not made to be a warrior, You are a healer, it is time you acted as such. It is time to change your training. Go to the Whenimer's Landing, become an Empath." How could I not obey the voice I have come to recognize as my goddess, Imaera?
When Fyre learned of change in professions, he gave me the name of an Empath in the Landing, Lady Bethye, and she took me under her wing. She told me everything I needed to know to get started, and I took to life with a new fervor. I didn't see her for nearly a year afterward. In the meantime, I had settled happily into my new career, and was seeing a nice young sorcerer. Another, older sorcerer had taken my guardianship, and I thrived living above the wayside inn with my new father. Thralkin.
It was around my fourth training that I heard Imaera's voice again. Somehow or another I missed the fact that all empathic healing left scars, and while I ignored the battle scars on my arms and legs (not to mention the cheapness and availability of cactacae spine) The scars on my face and neck distressed me to no end. I had finally finished healing down, spent (what seemed to me) a fortune on herbs to clean me from head to toe. The futility of it struck me with a poignant resonance. I knew I would have to heal again, I would get these scars again, and I didn't have the money it would cost to keep buying herbs to keep myself scar-free. The scar cleaning spells were years in the future. I sat on the throw in the garret and cried.
"Tarlina" said the voice in my head said. "This is the price you will pay for your profession." I truly tried to ignore it. I didn't want to listen, but its very heard to not listen to a voice that is coming from inside you. "you have a choice. You can give up healing, or you can give up your beauty. That is your choice." I couldn't bear to stop healing.
A young ranger had noticed my distress, and offered to keep me in herbs for the rest of my life. The young sorcerer I had been seeing had disappeared from my life. The ranger finally persuaded me to at least go hunt with him. He still keeps me in herbs. His name is Lanvaal Dumnonian, and he is my husband.
Lady Bethye returned to the lands after a years absence, and took over my guardianship from Thralkin, who cared for me so well in her place.
I am a proud member of the House of the Argent Aspis, a loving wife, and mother of more children than any couple on Elanthia should have; and I love them all dearly.
Lady Tarlina Eldermoon-Dumnonian