Calariel Steelfire

Description

A slender woman with a narrow face and sharp features, Calariel is 5'7" with an athletic, warrior's build. She uses her agility and dance-like moves against her opponents rather than her strength but this doesn't take away from her formidability. She has long black hair that she often keeps in a bun or in an ornate fashion against her head. She has fair skin with scars that she hides under long-sleeve gowns. Calariel's eyes are a rich emerald green.

Personality

Easily described as stubborn and sure of herself, Calariel has never been one to not fight for something she wants or believes in. She prides herself in her accomplishments but has the humility to not try to use her status and legend to pressure others into doing something for her - usually. She has a strong sense of morals and how her children should behave in society, especially her only daughter, Irhaaliel.

Abilities

Calariel is an accomplished spellcaster and uses a unique form of swordplay where she can combine her magic and her blade which the elves call a spellsword (or a magus to others).

Possessions

Her most notable possession is her sword, Arìeranta, which she is famous for using in countless battles in the past. Arìeranta, which means 'silver spell fire', is made from a specially forged steel that allows spells to be cast while wielding the weapon in combat. It has the House crest of Calariel's birth House.

Family

Irhaaliel

As Calariel's only daughter, she is very protective of Irhaaliel as her daughter starts to embark on her own. While Calariel would prefer to keep Irhaaliel under her wing longer, as she is very young by elven society standards, Calariel is slowly learning to give Irhaaliel the space she needs to learn about life and love.

Relationships

Ash

Calariel holds little resentment for Ash even after learning of what her daughter endured at the hands of the Republic, directing her anger and hatred to those that imprisoned both and forced them into that situation. In truth, Calariel sees Ash as a son, adopted and possibly in-law in the (near) future and thus has taken it upon herself to help nurture him to be a young man as promising as her three own sons had been. Before the city fell, Calariel and her husband had been aware of the situation, (and his crush on Irhaaliel even if her daughter was oblivious at the time), Ash was in in his father's house and had been trying to extract the boy before he was seriously hurt. The city fell before her husband could pull the necessary strings to do so.

Amarion Ashfalcon (Philippe Ramsey)

In the years prior to becoming a mother and wife, Calariel served under the two Princes of Amaras and was prescient for many military excursions - she knows Amarion very well from this time and continued to remain in his good graces after she retired to the city guard to focus more on her family. She knows his tricks, his moods, and has guards against his wayward charm that he is very well known for. As he respects her, so does she in turn and when they have worked together the relationship feels natural to them. Not that Amarion doesn't need to be smacked in the head at least once...or twice.

History

Calariel was born in Astrael to Valanise Morningstar and Caberon Windshade, the latter being a well known paladin of the city. Her mother was an artisan known as a spellsmith, able to inscribe or imbue magic into armor and weapons. Calariel was quick to pick up on both magic and swordplay, eventually combining the two with the help of her mother who forged the blade with the help of a specialized blacksmith who knew how to form the rare steel that allowed spellswords to perform their unique style.

Calariel met Kreillan Autumnhawk during a campaign in northern Shaor. As a part of the rival side and a man she had personally fought with when Amarion's attempt to settle the dispute led to a skirmish, she was surprised when he arrived in Astrael months later. It would be years before Kreillan won her heart, for he had found her spirit and courage that day beautiful enough to follow her back to Astrael with the (feeble) hope that she had felt the same spark. Kreillan would later become the captain of the North Gate Guards. Soon after his promotion, Calariel and Kreillan wed.

After the birth of her first son, Tyrodan, she took up the position as captain of the East Gate, retiring as Amarion's escort and personal guard. He was happy for her but made light of her retirement, as was his way of things. Saeilan was born when Tyrodan was thirty-eight, and Elrorian nearly forty years after that. Her only daughter, Irhaaliel, came into the world sixteen years before Astrael would fall under siege from Aldralnian forces.

At sixteen, Irhaaliel was not permitted to date yet, but Calariel had started to allow her daughter to attend festivals with her brothers. Not long after one of these events, she and Irhaaliel were in the Harbor Market when Calariel noticed that the boy - the son of Devdan, a fisherman she often purchased fish from - Irhaaliel had tried to get information from had turned bright red and ran without being able to say a word. It was clear to Calariel that the boy liked her daughter, which she considered harmless as he was near Irhaaliel's age and it would no doubt be years before the two even started a formal relationship. However, after speaking to her husband, who did some investigations of his own, they learned that the boy - Ash - lived with a very abusive father. As Kreillan began to try to pull strings to get Ash out of that situation and possibly to live with his family, Calariel began to notice that Irhaaliel was far more willing to go to the Market if the Harbor was mentioned. Clearly, the attraction between the two was mutual which only fueled Calariel's desire to get Ash somewhere safe. A few nights before the city was attacked, Kreillan came home to tell her that the boy was missing, and if what people in the Harbor was saying, he was last seen being dragged down the street by his father who was also missing. Calariel's heart sank but she kept this from her daughter.

During the siege, Calariel and her daughter managed to hide and survive the attack, both answering Amarion's call when he summoned the souls of the people in the city to protect them from the spell that Lord Krelnar had already started the casting of. Her husband and two sons, all three being members of the City Guard, were asked by Amarion to hold back the undead Krelnar had released into the city; all three died defending the gate. Her youngest son, Elrorian, also died but his manner of death is currently unknown as he preferred books and would not have been part of the fighting. Calariel and Irhaaliel both would spend the next two centuries as zombies, their souls tucked safely in the Blood Stone that Amarion had hidden within the palace.

When the Curse was lifted in the event now referred to as the Awakening, Calariel soon found Irhaaliel and searched for the rest of her family. Unable to locate them, except her brother's son, Ellarian, and finding her home in ruins from the attack, Calariel and her daughter moved into Ellarian's small flat in the city, which was barely enough room for one young man much less the three of them. Struggling with grief and depression, Calariel tried to keep her head up, though she often felt as if she was just about to drown.

The day that Irhaaliel did not come home from spending time with her friend, Rissa, Calariel panicked, provoking her to report Irhaaliel's disappearance to the guards that seemed preoccupied with the disappearance of Amarion Ashfalcon as well. As the city and dragonriders from Isla Weyr searched for the missing prince, Calariel searched for Irhaaliel herself, going as far as the Vale and even searching the Harbor District as she knew that Irhaaliel often went there, no doubt searching for the boy that had once lived there. When Amarion was finally located, having contacted his dragon about his dire situation, Calariel was one of the first present when Amarion came back. He confirmed that Irhaaliel was with him when he was grabbed by Snatchers and that she had been with him most of the way afterward. Calariel went to the Republic Complex to look for her daughter, finally finding hours after Amarion had swarmed the place with hundreds of undead in rage at the injustice of the place. In the room Irhaaliel held Ash in her arms, Calariel slowly recognizing the skeletal-thin man as the boy from the market. She begged Amarion to undo what had happened, telling him that she would never ask him to do this for her husband and sons for they had died doing their duty and would never return. It took some words from Amarion's friend M'len to convince him and Amarion told her he would not force Ash's soul back but he performed the resurrection, immediately whisking Ash off to the North for emergency care.

Calariel and Irhaaliel went to Aldraln with M'len, staying several weeks while Ash recovered before going back to Astrael. When Irhaaliel started planning for a baby, the two argued as to what would be best for both Irhaaliel and the child (if she even was pregnant which terrified Calariel). In anger, she told Irhaaliel to leave and her daughter did, leaving her with regrets that settled deeply. Amarion came to tell her later that Irhaaliel was helping the women rescued from the Republic set up a new home in the city and had learned she was not pregnant.

Months later, Irhaaliel came to her and the two reconciled with Irhaaliel choosing to stay with her mother though she often went to visit Ash, who was now at the Meadow Brook Recovery Center in Aldraln for therapy after hundreds of years of neglect and abuse as a slave. Calariel would go with from time to time, quietly pleased that the young man was recovering. She had hope and she was starting to fall away from her depression.

Just before Ash was to move back to Astrael, Calariel and Amarion took a short trip back in time to try to find out where his father was - wanting to prevent the man from being a part of Ash's life from here on out and hoping he was dead. Arriving three days before the city was attacked, the two made their way to the Harbor with a sense of surrealness that was clearly making Amarion uneasy. A group of kids ran by and Calariel was shocked to see one of them was Ash, who only grinned and darted off, not recognizing her because of the spell being used to disguise them. Unnerved at seeing him as he was before his two-hundred years as a Republican slave, she and Amarion found a tavern to stay in and wait until morning, planning to follow the father after he comes back from getting rid of his son. Amarion tells her the truth about what happened to him because of Princess Kistelia and the abuse he suffered which makes her feel sick for never noticing. Unable to sleep, Calariel wakes up early and goes to the Harbor, witnessing Ash being dragged down the street by his father, a fellow fisherman trying to stop them and nearly being killed for doing so, and Ash reaching for her in desperation. She almost intervenes, but Amarion stops her. They then wait for Devdan to return. When he did, the two followed him until he boarded a ship then quickly slipped out of the city. Amarion tells her that the ship Devdan paid to gain passage on was reported to have sank and he hopes that the man was on the ship when it did. Calariel agreed.

Not long after returning from their secret trip to the past, Calariel is pounced on by the crowned prince, Randaril, who offers her a role in the City Guard as Captain, a role her late husband once held. In addition, though not as payment, Randaril also tells her he has offered to help get her old home back up after it was ruined during the Seige. Currently Calariel is working on rebuilding her home and making plans for the future, and Irhaaliel's.

To be continued...

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