Fi

The Gist

Known as Amal Nuala to the common folk and Fi to her friends, Fionnuala passes her years as a travelling hedge witch and adventurer. She's a steadfast companion moved by grand ideas of fate and her own role in it, and enjoys helping common folk for as little as a room and a small, personal token. She works hard to end or ease the suffering of others and takes grave responsibility in seeing those she can't help to the other side.
Backstory

Fionnuala started her life as Rue, an elven child within the forests of Elventree. For the longest she lived a simple life on the the outskirts of the community, working as a rudimentary herbalist. She wed her sweetheart, another wood elf by the name of Eyrn, at a young age, and the two had a child within a decade. Rue took great pride in her husband, her infant son Nel, and the tidy living they made off the land.

Within a year of their child's birth, the outskirts of Elventree was plagued with a mysterious illness that the common folk put to a witch deep in the woods. Rue lost Nel to the epidemic, and her husband followed not long after. With little left for her but a heavy, vengeful heart, Rue journeyed into the forest to find the root of her tragedy.

She found not the source of the plague, but she did find the witch. The markedly older human man offered to teach her how to brew a potion that would heal the others afflicted. When pressed about why he would not deliver such salvation himself, the man spurned even the idea of the city. Civilization, he could do without, but in his old age, he craved companionship. He would give her the potion if she would give her word to return. Young and angry, but with so much more hanging in the balance, Rue agreed. Her delivery of the potion was a godsend to the poor of the city; a bittersweet victory.

For the following years, Rue spent much of her time travelling between the forests and the city, delivering useful remedies and herbs she was taught by her newfound mentor. The man named himself as Morven, a past cleric to the Raven Queen who had since sought solace in nature. He was old and on the way out, and he did not wish to die alone. So the two passed the time by passing knowledge. Morven told his ward tales that stretched back before the time cities stood upon the land, passed on the various secrets and magics of the First Circle, and taught her the many uses of the herbs and fruit of the land; in return, Rue brought him news of faraway places gleaned within the city, traded their herbal creations for useful items (like shoes, Morven, normal people wear shoes), and saw him through the days. What should have been a few months turned into years and then into a decade.

On the day of his death, Morven passed three tokens on to Rue: an enamel raven skull brooch from his youth, a yew and bone dagger from his middling years, and the regret of his elder years in not doing more to help people. His one solace, he confided, was redeeming himself for robbing her of her family with his inaction by seeing her grow into a fine young woman of purpose. Rue dug his grave next to her husband and son. With the ordeal of her childhood finally closed, she took on the mantle her adult name, Fionnuala (so chosen for the weight off her shoulders).

Fionnuala resolved to work hard for the aid of the land and all creatures within it, including people. She traveled heavily, seeking out strife and snuffing it out with her healing touch or, when that didn't work, with tooth and claw. Her steadfast aid throughout the years since the plague that took her family has earned her title among local commonfolk: Amal Nuala, the fair mother.