Ailsa de Paor

Biographical information

Birthplace Fal'Addas Born Died Age 200 Home Nomadic Sexuality Pronouns

Physical description

Race Elf Sub-Race Gender Female Height 5'5 Mass 140lb Hair color Red Eye color Grey Skin color White

Political information

Affiliation(s) Occupation Herbalist, Scholar Clan(s) Caste Domain Masters Apprentices Alias(es)

Out-of-character information

Writer Created on Avatar

Ailsa casts a short and unimposing figure. In fact, her hair alone marks the only notable feature of this otherwise unremarkable woman. Rich and vivid scarlet in colour, it parts neatly either side of her face and falls endlessly to her waist. Her eyes, the only other feature visible beneath her clothes, sit quietly in her face small and angular crowned with a dull grey iris. When visible her face, equally as average as the rest of her, rests a small stub nose, thin pale lips and a crooked smile.

Her clothes, upon first glance, appear muddied and faded but closer inspection reveals them to be of the finest elven fabrics and one begins to wonder if this scruffy appearance is deliberate, allowing her to better walk the forests she adores undetected. Around her waist is a worn herbalist belt, full of pouches and endless pockets that enable her to safely store all her precious herbs. Similarly, at her side rest two contrasting satchels. One beaten, muddied, scuffed that keeps her survival gear, rations and any precious items safe while the other, pristine and flawless, keeps her precious salves, poultices and potions safe.

In terms of armaments, across her back - always ready - is a simple, yet effective, elven bow that she is more than familiar with alongside an accompaniment of equally well-made elven arrows. Finally, while not combat weapons, she maintains an alarming stock of polished and sharpened hunting, butchering and general survival knives that, if need be, she could find her way around.

Ailsa is a woman of knowledge and strives to understand the natural world around her. In her pursuit of this goal, she has come to gain a deep appreciation for the effectiveness of flora that inhabits Arethil. Her skills as a herbalist are not limited to healing salves, but instead, extend across the discipline and she finds great satisfaction in finding new, ingenious, poisons, explosions, antidotes and anything else she can muster. Furthermore, her recipes and concoctions are all explained and reported in detail in a vast tome she carries with her, not only enabling her to remember, but also to teach and share these breakthroughs with anyone who wishes to learn.

In line with her scholarly interests, she has a deep understanding of anatomy, humanoid, non-humanoid and beasts which, coupled with her knowledge of natural remedies, has led to her being quite an effective physician - although she would be quick to clarify she is not. This knowledge enables her some other benefits, such as being quite a skilled butcher and, not something she is necessarily proud of, poisoner.

Moving away from the world of books and knowledge, Ailsa is a skilled survivalist and hunter. Having roamed the world for half a century, she has honed her skills in archery and stealth to a fine degree and often finds herself with the ability to simply walk away from trouble before it has even realised she was there. Although, when the time has called for it, a few arrows let loose have often worked just as well.

There is, perhaps, a glaring weakness of Ailsa that she refuses to see as such. Namely, magic. Despite evidence that she possesses some innate ability, at least when she was younger, she grew bored with the concept and has simply closed herself off to that part of herself. Her extreme disinterest in the topic does, often, cause some tension when she meets a talented sorcerer - but she remains steadfast.

Ailsa is an open book, both to strangers and to friends. While often found travelling alone, musing her thoughts out loud, she is certainly not adverse to any company. In fact, some might say she revels in it. Outwardly very friendly, although scatty and somewhat eccentric, she has a very welcoming demeanour and tries her best to remain civil with even the most trying of people. To her closest friends, Ailsa possesses an acerbic wit and revels in sarcasm and merriment - however she rarely displays this side of her with new people around.

In line with her pursuits of knowledge, she is a very meticulous and perceptive individual able to quickly pick up the subtleties or nuances of things within her vicinity. Furthermore, her interests bleed into every part of her life and people meeting Ailsa may soon find themselves learning quirky, fascinating and, unfortunately, endless facts about the various plants and concoctions she has studied.

With that in mind, it should be noted that her years of travelling alone have left her table-manners and etiquette somewhat diminished and those accustomed to elven culture may be shocked upon meeting this curious character. That said, with all her eccentricities and quirks behind, she rarely means any ill will to the people she meets.

Ailsa was a bored child. Her family, distantly related to some important figures within Fal'Addas, lived exceptionally comfortable and there was nothing that she could not have. However, with wealth comes rules and expectations and Ailsa from, from a young age, hated the etiquette, the pleasantries, the status and everything associated with her and her families position. Upon reaching her first few decades in the world, her innate talent for magic became apparent and with it came the home of freedom and an escape from the caged life she lived.

Or so she thought. Magic came with rules, it came with restrictions, it wasn't guaranteed and there were more hierarchies than she could bother to count. Soon that too became boring, she'd grown up around magic and been exposed to it - however, she did enjoy the studying. The freedom to research and pursue things, learn and grow off one's own back - that was what she wanted. As her studies into non-arcane subjects grew and her interests diversified, her magical expertise dwindled and faltered, less and less time was spent and soon her teachers gave up on her.

It wasn't until this point that she became free. One particular subject had stuck with her and she decided to devote her efforts into studying namely herbalism. Learning about the nature of the world around her, the variety of plants and species and how they came together to create untold effects created a sense of endless, limitless, combinations - she would never stop learning. With that realisation, she was off, travelling the world, occasionally popping back to see family, but her trips home never lasted long - the wild was always calling to her.