Aderyn Verchtegid
Aderyn was born to a family of Empathic witches and continues their traditions, as well as adding new components to it via her musical talent. What she lacks in capability to engage in real combat, she makes up for with her capacity to heal, calm potential assailants, and if needed use her Empathy to move fast and strike hard with whatever happens to be at hand.
Appearance
Aderyn is a short, curvy, red-haired, pale-skinned, freckled woman most often seen with a knowing smile on her face and garden soil under her fingernails. She typically wears dark but multicolored dresses, often with expensive patterns whenever she can afford such luxury.
Common accessories she carries with her include various crystals on leather strings and a belt with a variety of little bags and vials, all carrying important ingredients for her practice which she might need while away from her home.
Skills and Abilities
Empath
First and foremost, Aderyn is innately talented in an Empathy-based school of magic. She was taught by her grandmother and aunt, who were respected Empaths themselves in the Shallows, and who were also continuing their long family line of treating the physical and mental ailments of their community.
She channels her magic through various items including crystals, essential oils, herbs of many varieties, and incense. Other methods she employs include a form of acupuncture, cupping therapy, massage, and music therapy via her instruments.
Due to her overwhelming belief that her abilities come from her various tools and techniques, she has a difficult time employing her magic unless she can somehow justify it to herself within the bounds of her practice.
Musician
As a very talented musician, Aderyn is active in her communities in multiple ways, always finding places to perform when her healing practice is not needed. Additionally, she wraps her music into her skills with Empathy, often treating the psychological issues of many people at once.
She can play many instruments very well, so long as they are small and can travel with her easily. Her favorites include different varieties of flute and violin, as well as singing. She is also an exceptional drummer and hosts drum circles during various full moons.
Aderyn is also a proficient music teacher, and attempts to teach children wherever she is, believing fervently that music is good for the soul and will help keep people in good health.
Improvisational fighting
It is unlikely that Aderyn would ever fare well on the battlefield, but growing up in the Shallows she did learn to be scrappy. She makes up for her smaller size by having a good idea of what around her would work well as a weapon, and employing it effectively.
Unbeknownst to her, however, this is less because she actually is a fit fighter and more because her innate usage of Empathy often gives her access to a well of emotion which can amplify her strength, speed, and her tolerance for pain. If she lacks emotions to tap into, she is at a serious disadvantage to any trained fighter.
Lacking any formal training, she is better off being handed a glass bottle than a sword.
Personality
Aderyn is kind and extremely sure of herself and her beliefs. She will not hesitate to argue when doubt is thrown on something she deeply believes in, but otherwise is generally caring and invested in helping those around her.
As a musician, she is focused and determined while playing, often blocking out any and all distractions. In the rare cases that a heckler has been present in the crowd and has successfully broken her concentration, she has been known to shout them down and even threaten to fight them. Only on rare occasions, however, has the heckler taken her up on it, though every time they have regretted it.
Biography & Lore
Born in the Shallows to a mother who worked in a brothel cooperative, Aderyn did not know her father. Her mother was, however, a very successful woman and dealt largely with higher class clientele, often taking trips in to the noble quarter of Alliria for business. When she was very young, however, her mother became sick and had to stop working, bringing Aderyn back to her grandmother's medicine shop. There, after it was discovered that Aderyn had a powerful talent for Empathy, she was trained to unlock the most of her potential to care for her mother and eventually to take over the role of community witch.
As a teenager, Aderyn applied to the magic college in Elbion, but upon learning that she would have to travel to Elbion to interview and could be away for as much as a year before knowing if she was accepted, she knew couldn't attend, at least not until her mother passed. By the time her mother died, however, Aderyn was a fixture in her community alongside her grandmother, who passed shortly thereafter.
Instead of indulging herself by obtaining a formal education, she dove deeply into her practice of music and finding it to align well with her continuation of the family business expanded her services.