Just some stuff I need to get off my chest about Mirezur, because I’m a little upset and need to defend my fictional character’s honour.
So, at D&D last night, I don’t remember the context, but Samara, Mirezur’s daughter, somehow came up, and like - apparently this was a surprise for most of my friends?? Like, not even for their characters, who would definitely not know about her, but the actual real life people? My dudes, I never made a secret of Samara, I talk about her relatively frequently, she’s a large part of Mire’s backstory, she’s mentioned in multiple short stories, and every other picture of Mire I’ve ever drawn has her in it. Like, the very first picture of Mirezur I drew has Samara swaddled in the corner for a size reference. She was not a secret.
And then they were like, “You have a daughter?? What are you doing adventuring! You’re a bad mother!” and I just... guys. Mire’s a player character in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. She literally has to be adventuring. If this was an actual story, she would have turned around and gone home at the first mention of an evil five-headed dragon goddess - in fact, would probably have done so well before that point. This was not her choice. She wants to be at home with her family and not worrying about fucking Tiamat. What was the other option? Bring an (approximately) seventeen year old with her through all of this? And that’s a High Elf seventeen year old by the way, so still nowhere near age of majority (though how does that work, anyway? Is that just a societal thing or are below-hundred-year-old Elves genuinely unable to take care of themselves? Anyway). She’s being the best mother she can be in a fucking terrible situation.
And I guess the insult stung more because I haven’t fully sorted out their stories yet, and I kind of don’t know where Samara is. She’s either with some distant blood-relations, with the Firebird Syndicate (who raised Mire thanks very much, give those criminals a bit of credit, they know what they’re doing), or with the Ilmatari at the monastary, and I just need to buckle down and sort out which option I’m going with, but at the moment I feel bad that one of the people who is crucial to the stories of two of my characters is unnaccounted for, and that my friends called me out on it.
Ugh I feel like this post has gotten off track, if I even knew what the track was in the first place. It boils down to the following points: Mirezur loves Samara with her whole heart and would do anything to protect her and care for her and give her a good future. I cannot emphasise this enough. Also, Mirezur does not want to be here. She’s my only character that I’ve inflicted my total lack of wanderlust on, as I’ve mentioned before. She’s doing what she’s doing out of duty and lies awake every night wishing she was somewhere else. She’s already seen plenty of death and dying, and wants to get back to the Firebirds where at least she can be around her family. In the meantime, she’s done all she can to secure Samara’s safety and happiness. Mire had no idea she’d be gone so long.
Mirezur is, I think, my oldest child - the first Dungeons and Dragons character I ever fully made. (I’m excluding Deeric at this point. Sorry Deeric.) I had no idea what I was doing when I made her and her backstory - which Samara has always been a part of - and didn’t know what playing a full D&D campaign was like. If I had, would I have taken Samara out of her story? I honestly don’t know. But she’s there now, and I’m doing my damnedest to make sure everyone finishes their story with a happy ending.