Name: Zelda Species: Elf Age: Nineteen Occupation: Unemployed / beggar FC: IU
In the Terwyn Wood, it is hard to tell the difference between community and claustrophobia. While many elves are content to live amongst their own company, Zelda’s mother was not one of them. Upon her marriage, Anju convinced her husband Ishei to take a house close to the edge of the wood, where they might be able to venture into the kingdom. Ishei humoured his wife, but never saw her dream to venturing beyond the wood realized – a proud and vain man, he challenged another elf to a duel under the pretence of him attempting to entice Anju into an affair, believing his fighting skills would ensue him a swift victory. His arrogance was not supported by talent, and he swiftly met his fate in the form of a dagger to the chest, leaving Anju to grieve and raise the infant Zelda. While many sympathised with her mother’s loss, there was a common consensus that it was better to have lost Ishei than Anju, to which the woman took great offence. As a result, she withdrew almost completely from Elfin society, and so Zelda grew in the company of her mother, and no-one else.
Knowing nothing else, Zelda grew up as a happy and content child. Her mother cultivated a large garden in which she often played, and though she knew of the other elves who lived in the wood, very rarely did she ever see them. Her mother taught her to be self-sufficient, to make her own clothes, grow her own food, and over the years, spun her tale after tale of what life would be like outside the wood. Zelda grew to be just as curious as her mother, and one night, it was decided. Anju packed up their belongings, and when she felt the opportunity was right, spirited Zelda away under the cover of darkness. To this day, Zelda has no idea how they left the wood – she was asleep on her mother’s back the entire time.
At first enchanted by what she saw beyond the wood, Zelda very quickly came to realize that all was not as her mother had hoped. The two faced curiosity and prejudice, abuse from some, and for a long few months, found themselves homeless and wandering, the humans and the fae as suspicious of the elves as the elves had been of them. More and more, Zelda wished they would return to the wood, but it wasn’t to be. Disappointed that her dreams had been shattered, Anju entered a state of denial, and refused to return home. She would rather have wandered the kingdoms than admit the tales she had told her daughter were little more than lies. The two suffered as the cold set in, but still, Anju refused to see sense – and then, at last, came a man who offered them the shelter they so desperately needed. Anju was triumphant. The world was finally conforming to her dreams. The man was kind, courteous, and more than willing to take them in, provided they worked for their keep, and obeyed his rules, and his only. Anju agreed. At the age of eight, Zelda was inducted into a cult.
Had she been younger, perhaps it would have been a smooth transition. But Zelda remembered the wood, and remembered how they had been treated, and couldn’t find comfort in the cult. The leader, a human man named Kostyvin, would regularly preach to his congregation about the coming saviour, who he sincerely seemed to believe would manifest within his daughter when the time was right. The girl was no older than Zelda, and the two became fast friends, watching as Kostyvin’s influence grew, as more and more people joined the cult. Those who broke the rules lost a finger as punishment, as a warning to both them, and others. Those who tried to leave lost two. It was a far cry from the peace of her childhood, and Zelda grew resentful of her situation. Her only solace was Kostyvin’s daughter, Alina, whom she considered a best friend. And as they grew, they became more than that, until the day Kostyvin caught the two in an embrace.
Outraged at the behaviour of both Zelda and his daughter, the two were brought before the cult for punishment. Anju’s pleading that both be spared fell upon deaf ears. Alina’s eyes were put out, for daring to look at another girl in a romantic way, Zelda held down and forced to watch. When it came to her, Kostyvin declared she would be punished for daring to lay a hand on their future saviour, and so he took them both from her. The cult had a healer who could have used magic to heal the bloody stumps of her wrists, so that smooth skin would be left behind, but Kostyvin denied the mercy, and so Zelda was left with her wrists sewn up, to wait for the weeks it would take for the wounds to heal and scar. The hands they had taken from her were pierced through with a chain, and laid about her neck – a reminder, Kostyvin had said, for her sins. Anju was denied the opportunity to see her daughter, to comfort her, and so for the first time since she had entered the cult, Zelda was left alone.
In a fit of what might have been madness, she fled.
It has been six months since Zelda freed herself of the cult, and once more, she has found herself homeless. She wanders the kingdom, looking for any who might help her, if only to free Alina from the grip of her father. Hearing news about a blind seer who has appeared has done nothing but cause her worry, as she fears it may be Alina, made a puppet of her father, but it is hard to attract people to a cause when all they see is a mutilated cripple. While there are times she feels she may give into despair, Zelda refuses to give up. There is little else that can be taken from her at this point, no pain that could be as great as what she has already felt. She will rescue Alina and her mother from the cult, or she will die trying.
Zelda and Alina had kissed before they were caught by Kostyvin – their romantic relationship had been slowly developing for two months at that stage.
Though she knew that life in the cult was different to her life in the wood, Zelda has little to no memory of actually living with the other elves. Her distrust of Kostyvin and his followers comes more from remembering how she felt while living in the wood compared to how she felt while living with them, rather than any concrete memories.
Before the loss of her hands, Zelda had learned to play the lute and the ocarina, and was fairly talented in playing both. Now, though she doesn’t hate music, Zelda has a hard time listening to it, especially if its performed on the aforementioned instruments.
Though her only love interest so far has been female, Zelda is bisexual. She just hasn’t been given many opportunities to explore her sexuality.