Aerith Winterlight, Elf Cleric

Aerith was born shortly before the Clouding and the purge of long-lived species, but thanks to her age and her parents' quick thinking, she managed to avoid the worst of the Clouding's effects and survive the purge.

Orphaned and alone, she began wandering until a kind stranger found her and brought her to a temple of Pyorath. She grew up in the temple as an acolyte, but never liked how intent the clergy were on "purifying" nonbelievers in the name of their god.

As soon as she came of age, she decided to leave the temple and go on a pilgrim's journey to discover all she could about other gods and goddesses. On her journey, she took the time to learn not only everything about the gods, but also their followers. She liked the teachings of Sylvaril and Ishtariel, and she appreciated their followers' dogma, but it didn't feel quite right, so she continued her search outside the Elven continent.

After many decades of study and travel, she found a temple in the mountains dedicated to Septur, Goddess of Light and Stars. Entering the temple felt like coming home, but she kept her guard up for a few weeks until she realized the goddess and her followers really were good and kind. She ended her journey there and stayed in the temple for nearly a decade as she learned all the ways she could serve Septur.

Eventually, she became a cleric of Septur and left the temple to spread her lady's healing light across Alar.

Over the last thirty years, she traveled just about everywhere she could feasibly get to, acting as a healer who rarely, if ever, required payment for her services. If she did ask for payment, it was usually in the form of a warm meal, a place to rest, or potion ingredients.

While traveling through Ank'Jir, she woke up one morning to say her prayers and receive her lady's blessing, but instead of the warmth and light she usually felt on the other end of that bond, she found only cold, empty darkness.

At first, she blamed herself, thinking she must have done something to anger her goddess. But after a few days of fervent prayers for forgiveness and examination of her own behavior, she came to realize that something was very wrong. She decided to seek out other followers of Septur to see if they had also lost their connection to her.

Shortly before she left, a small frog appeared at her door with a plea for help. The frog claimed to be a human wizard who couldn't undo the enchantment on his body. Under normal circumstances, she could've used divine magic to heal him, but without her powers, there was little she could do. So she invited him to travel with her to Valla, and then on to Anbaerin.

In Valla, she reconnected with the temple to Sylvaril and Ishtariel, knowing she would need some kind of connection to the divine to help her on her journey. After praying to them for help to discover what happened to Septur, she was visited in a dream by twin moons who offered her divine power in exchange for information on everything she discovered. Aerith agreed and woke up to find herself imbued once more with the blessing of a god.

She's now traveling to Anbaerin so she cant hunt down information and secrets that will forever change the fate of Alar.