A witch whose life was always defined by others, but not anymore…
My first ever pathfinder character, Fayera Delarosa, the fickle, sharp minded changeling witch!
She’s quite a crafty woman, bending and harnessing elements and necromancy to her will, under the guidance of her patron. She was my first ever pathfinder character for the Campaign Runelords. While the campaign is on a current hiatus, my friends and I left off at book 3: The Skinsaw Murders, and hope to return to it someday.
She’s quite the morally trouble woman, not evil, but far from a hero. Anytime she does something good, it’s out of a beneficial gain more than anything, money, reputation, or simply because it’s what would be socially acceptable. There are times she can go on a bit of a… sadistic streak, her spells and hexes coming from intense feelings of hatred, fear, or spite, borderline enjoying some of the suffering she causes, at least when she thinks the people deserve it. On a regular basis however, she’s decently friendly, yet a bit fickle, enjoying teasing and tricks.
Story:
As all changelings, her mother had left her on the doorstep of some poor soul to raise, said soul being a young archivist/librarian of this small, semi superstitious town. With no kids or partner, he took Faye in and raised her as his own, giving her the name as to him she looked, to quote, "as fair as a feyborn." Sometime down the line, after reading a few books, he realized she was a changeling, the daughter of a hag. Did this deter him? No. Maybe it was living alone for so long, but he'd be cruel to turn her away for some she had no control over. He’d be the only one to realize this fact.
But as she grew older the more attention she got, and it wasn't long until the town also started noticing things about her. Her dark hair, her heterochromia, her pale, deathlike skin, her lean frame (despite the fact she ate quite healthy), but it wasn't until a couple of. incidents that really brought out suspicions from the villagers. Once during a horrible bout of sickness, despite all odds, Faye was mostly fine. Another time she was helping her dad and some others with scrolls, only to tear the paper with her nails, which had seemingly sharped into claws. She'd complain about hearing something, causing her to zone out and become distracted. Some people commented about being attracted to her, not just in admiration, but described it as an almost.. supernatural feeling. The worst incident however was what sealed her fate.
One night a little girl had gone missing, Faye along with some of the other villagers went out to look for her, but it was ultimately Faye who found her first, offering to escort her back to the village. When her and the child approached the river to cross the bride back to town, the eerie call decided to ring in her head, disorienting the woman as a more... sinister feeling sinister feeling filled her head. Her grip on the child's arm tightened, her claws digging into the girls arm as she flinched back, clutching her arm as blood soaked the surrounding fabric. Her body moved on its own towards the child, causing the cowering girl to stumble back towards the river, her foot snagging on a root. That was the moment sense snapped back into Faye, snatching the girl by the collar of her shirt. And it was that moment the rest of the villagers found them, with Faye holding a trembling girl by her shirt over the river. She had tried to save her, at least.. that's what she thought had happened, but what she thought was a rescue attempt was interpreted as attempted murder. That was the last straw. A trial was held for assault and attempted murder of a child, with the revelation of her being a changeling being spilled out in the open. Despite the fact that changelings weren't inherently evil, or inherited their mother's desire to commit infanticide, despite her own account of what happened, and despite her father's insistence and pleads, Faye's argument did little to sway the superstitious villagers to her side. Worried of the harm she could cause, or may bring in the future, she was exiled from the town and warned to never come back.
However, only a few miles out, a maimed fox had approached the girl, the same one that she had taken in and healed before releasing back into the wild, although it didn't seem in a hurry to leave. Even after she got it to leave she sweared she saw glimpses of it, hanging around in the nearby woods. And now here it was, leading her to a secluded clearing, only to speak in her the native tongue, revealing its identity as Pandora, an elemental patron and spirit of chaos and karma. Faye’s read about patrons, other worldly entities of various domains that entrust a familiar, and with them a fraction of their power, to witches and warlocks alike. They share little about themselves or their intentions, often only referred to by their domains. They give the woman an offer; take a fraction of their power and become a witch, and all they ask for in return is the ability to observe, to travel along side her through the eyes of her familiar, longing to see not just what the world’s become, but to see what Faye becomes.
Now, taking this deal would only solidify the townspeople’s rumours, but did she care? No. Not anymore. She was given a choice, for the first time in her life, she could decide what becomes of her life, who she becomes.
And her first goal? To sever the chains of the ones who deprived her own choices- her own life.
Starting with her mother.
