Briar White
Beware the witch with the blood of the lion and the wolf
-Meridiana, "A Discovery of Witches"
Appearance
Briar has long, wavy hair the color of soil, and her eyes are the pale blue of a cloudless sky. She has a slender nose, full lips, and a heart shaped face. She is strong (especially in her legs), and able to move quickly through the trees. She has a sort of 'pear' body shape; the widest parts of her body are her hips and her thighs, and she has narrow shoulders and a smaller bust.
She wears varying dresses, usually ones in the colors of the woods- grays, greens, browns, and blues. She keeps her forearms in wraps, hiding the sigils she marks on her arms for various reasons. She either wears handmade sandals that band around her thighs or goes barefoot.
Skills and Abilities
Killing: Despite her innocent appearance, Briar is no stranger to murder. She is good with a various assortment of weapons, including but not limited to: bow and arrow, daggers, axe, scythe, and cleaver. Her weapon of choice is a bow and arrow.
Dark Magic: Life and death are eternally connected and Briar can use this connection to her advantage. She is training in the art of necromancy, but in a different form than raising the dead- she can perform a ritual to put a soul in a tree- both as a punishment or reward. A Wood Clan witch who has lived a long and respectable life can have the honor of having their soul in a tree- becoming part of the woods forever. But, the Wood clan witches can be bond someone to a tree while still alive (either inside of it or outside of it) as a form of eternal punishment.
Leadership: Some have said Briar is a born leader. Her coven is extremely dedicated to her, and would lay down their lives for her. She inspires a sense of power and purpose in those she leads and rarely steers them wrong.
Personality
Briar has been trying to please her aunt from a young age- she believes to prove herself she must be cold and fierce and strong, no matter the situation. She has been taught that emotions weaken rather than strengthen, and so after her time with the Nord man, she returned back home feeling ashamed and weak. She told no one about what had happened.
She is very interested in soul magic which has made her more vulnerable to emotions but her aunt has made sure she was trained not to feel, or at least pretend she can't.
She is quite close to her second, Penny Mossriver. The two have been near inseparable since they were children, and even though attachments and love are forbidden both of them sort of pretend they don't love the other (or at least Briar does). Briar feels as though Penny is her sister, and not just because they are both witches in the same clan.
To those in her coven, she is a brave, fierce warrior. She always has a plan and she's ambitious in the sense that she wants to prove herself. She is witty and sarcastic. She is more turbulent than assertive, meaning she's more of a perfectionist and self-conscious.
She's a good actor and hides all her inner turmoil very well, so that others only see what she wants them to see. And what she wants them to see is a confident, powerful, unfeeling witch.
Biography & Lore
Right after her birth, it was expected that Briar would be the next Wood Clan Heir Daughter. Her mother, the previous Heir Daughter and sister to Lady Mother Willow Farbranch, died giving birth to her, and the mantle fell to baby Briar. Her aunt took her in as her own, training and raising her to be a powerful, fearless witch. But though her aunt took her in, she never replaced Briar's mother, and never tried to, reminding Briar constantly that she was a mother-killer. Not as a punishment or scolding remark, but as a compliment, to remind Briar who she was.
When she was 18, she left the forests of the Wood Clan for the first time to see a bit of the outside world. While travelling, she met a Nord man named Gunnar and laid with him, thinking if she were to become pregnant, her child would be fierce, and she could make her aunt proud. She spent a few weeks with him, and she only left because her aunt called for her return. She left, but promised she would return. She had grown fond of him, but attachments and love was forbidden for the witches- it made one too weak.
Upon her return, she prayed to The High Mother that she would be blessed with a child but no such thing came to pass. Furious with herself for letting someone in so easily and with nothing to even show for it, she has yet to leave the forests once more, partly in fear that she will find the man she had almost loved.