Name:
Aidanna Shidao

Position:
Artificer Trainee

Age:
18

Sex:
Female

Race:
Human, of Kale’da’in descent

Physical Description:
Aidanna stands at 5'2", and her slim figure weighs 120 pounds soaking wet. She has dark violet eyes that flicker when she feels intense emotion. Her complexion is a soft golden tone, but is marred by burn scars overlain with bizarre patterns from the ritualistic torture she endured as a child. Long, curly black hair with red highlights cascades down her back, and is nearly impossible to contain in ponytails or braids.

Personality / Attitude:
Though still plagued by nightmares from the trials she endured as a child, Aidanna has grown into a strong-willed young woman with a fiery exuberance for life. Extremely independent and determined, she won't tolerate anyone controlling her, indeed finally growing so fed up with IceHeart's overbearing ways, she moved out of the Adept's household, choosing instead to share a commoner's flat with her lover, Kregan. She can be capricious at times, and has a temper that can flare at the barest provocation, but it generally cools just as quickly.

History:
Aidanna was the daughter of a prosperous jewel merchant of White Gryphon, and as such was given an exceptional education, and was being groomed to take her place in her parent's business. She was an exuberant and very joyful child, and loved learning. On her tenth birthday, her parents decided she was old enough to accompany them on their latest trading venture.

Then tragedy struck. On their way to their destination, they were ambushed by a band of brigands led by Memnar the BloodPath Mage. All but Aidanna were slain, Memnar having special plans for the girl and her then-quiescent Fire Starting ability. The torturous rituals Memnar used on her triggered her gift prematurely, resulting in a fiery inferno the Blood Mage was not prepared to counter, consuming all of the bandits, and nearly Memnar and Aidanna. Memnar escaped.

Aidanna was found a day later, barely clinging to life, by a troop of Silver Gryphons on their normal patrol. She was rushed back to the city, where healers did everything they could for her. During the healing process, her gift manifested a second time, nearly consuming her and two of the healers working with her. Some of the more mind-talented in White Gryphon were able to contain her, but barely. In the end, they had to resort to going to the priests of the Haeileigh, to ask them to remove her gift. The priests tried. To their horror, they were only able to lock it down, not excise it. They demanded she either be fully trained, or be removed as a possible threat to all around her.

In desperation, White Gryphon sent her north, to Valdemar, where magic of the mind is a science. To protect her, and prevent her from falling into hands that might further harm her (Memnar had thus far evaded capture), she was sent incognito, with a group of merchants / adventurers already headed to Valdemar, led by Serende SwiftBlade.

Once in Haven, Herald-Trainee Lissa was instrumental in the first steps toward reigning in Aidanna's gift. The young girl was well on her way to healing and making decent progress in her training, when Memnar struck a second time, stealing Aidanna from under her gryphon protector's very beak. Later that night, Memnar hired Anakerie to murder Serende in an attempt to slow the hunt that the blood mage knew would follow.

Despite the death of the ex-Silver, a city-wide investigation, spear-headed by Vassilis and Lissa, swiftly uncovered the beast's lair, and Aidanna was rescued, though Memnar escaped yet again. While the Healers worked on Aidanna, they discovered a taint to her aura. Mage, healer and Herald alike worked on Aidanna then, and discovered that the blood mage had left traces of him throughout the girl's aura. It proved a simple matter for those with mage sight to detect and track down those traces, both forward and backward along the blood mage's trail. Several disappearances and mysterious deaths in Haven were solved as the result of this, each poor mangled body that was discovered adding furious determination and righteous wrath to capture this madman and see justice done. A hunting party was assembled, of a team of Heralds and squad of soldiers, and Kali as an advance scout, though they have returned just recently empty-handed. Memnar had escaped justice once more, fleeing so deep into the Pelagirs the hunting party was forced to turn back.

The remainder of SwiftBlade's band is now led by the mage IceHeart k'Leysha, and have remained in Haven creating one of the premier exotic trading companies in the city by securing some of the most physically exhausting and dangerous (and profitable) trade routes to far-distant lands, dealing in all manner of alien and exotic goods.

Goals:
Memnar is long dead, but she has never forgotten how vulnerable she was to his magics. Even though she is a powerful firestarter in her own right, having finally gained near-perfect control of her abilities, she doesn't trust to just that ability to keep her safe from other predators. She is driven to learn as much as she can about magic, and how a "normal" person can defend herself from a mage, as possible.

Recent events (starting at post 8964 and onward) have deeply shaken her self-control, and she is striving to regain her sense of self and her place in the world.

Gifts/Talents:
Firestarting; rudimentary Mindspeech