Academy Anthology: Hail and Well Met

Basic Information

• Character Name: Wren
• Character Pronouns: She/Her
• Player Name: Gabe/Hazel M.
• Player Pronouns: They/She
• Character Class: Wizard - Bladesinger
• Species: Elf (Mechanically Fairy¹⁾)
• Level: 6

Appearance
Wren stands around 5'8'' and appears almost identical to a typical elf with the main exception being two large bird wings protruding from around her shoulder blades. The feathers on her wings are black at the top, blueish grey in the middle, and blue at the tips. She has long tangled brown hair hair that flows down her back with otherworldly looking plants, small twigs, and clumps of moss caught throughout. She commonly has a flower tucked behind her ear from a recent adventure or a gift from a friend; when she has spares she adds them to a satchel she carries with her that she stores all of the flowers, berries, and any useful herbs in, all of which appear not to rot or age at all while inside the satchel. Wren also has multiple unhealing scars from what appear to be spiked vines, poisonous plants, miscellaneous fauna, as well as other unrecognizable causes which all appear to be from flora and fauna of the material plane with key differences that set them apart.

Wren's clothing consists mainly of intricately designed leather armor with designs from both the seelie and unseelie fey courts intertwining in beautiful ways. She also wears a sort of dress over most of her armor made of an unknown fabric which is actually a living plant that was formed as a gift from her caretaker which mends itself if damaged, while in a specific archfey's domain it blooms in countless tiny flowers which move throughout the dress to make a moving display of natural beauty. She also has two scabbards, the scabbard on her left hip has many seelie, estival, and vernal designs with the hilt of the sword in that scabbard having many of the same, the scabbard on her right hip has many unseelie, brumal, and autumnal designs although the scabbard is left empty until she casts shadow blade in which case the sword appears in the scabbard and looks identical to the first sword although it has unseelie, brumal, and autumnal designs instead.

Personality
Wren is typically pretty shy especially with people she's just met because of her childhood spent deep within the wilds of the feywild with no humanoid connections other than her caretaker. Although once she considers someone her friend she becomes very protective of them and will often give them plants she finds pretty or that fit them as gifts, but even if she considers someone her friend she still struggles to share her ideas or to add to conversations but she's slowly getting better at it. Wren is also incredibly knowledgeable about plants as well as magic especially of fey origin but knows very little about the history or customs of the material plane. She also loves to teach people things or help them figure something out even if she doesn't always know exactly what to do, although she frequently seems patronizing while doing this even if she isn't trying to be.

Backstory
At the beginning of the age of Elven Dominance Wren's parents where attempting to emigrate out of the feywild when they were caught between a conflict between the seelie and unseelie courts which caused her father's death along with her getting left behind as her mother ran to save her own life. After the conflict she was found by an archfey known as 'ollddail or the archfey of seasons who brought Wren into their own domain where the seelie and unseelie courts held no sway and the only life was non-sentient flora and fauna that Wren grew up along side her entire life. This archfey was the caretaker that gifted Wren her magical satchel, dress, familiar Hajhund, and bird wings. As Wren grew older she became more accustomed and knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the feywild as well as becoming skilled in the art of Bladesinging with the teaching of 'ollddail. Eventually Wren decided to adventure away from 'ollddail's domain where she stumbled upon the battle field where her father died and she was abandoned the only reason it was recognizable as this was her father's lingering spirit in the form of a will'o'wisp and 'ollddail waiting there to inform her of its significance figuring she would end up there after adventuring into the greater feywild. The archfey told Wren of the battle, her father's death, and her mother's abandonment but neglected to inform Wren of the differences in the movement of time between the feywild and the material plane. After learning that her mother had abandoned her in attempt to enter the material plane Wren decided to head there in hopes of finding her which leaves Wren to where she is now, becoming stronger while searching for a mother who lived her life many eras before her daughter.

Hajhund [HI-hoon]
Hajhund is a unique species that is a mix between a shark and a dog that was created for Wren by 'ollddail and is the only one of its kind in existence. Hajhund has two forms, the familiar or bound form and the fey spirit or unbound form. In its familiar form it behaves like a standard house pet and has the abilities of a familiar summoned from the find familiar spell. In its fey spirit form it behaves like a mix between an angry shark and an angry wolf attacking enemies viciously while teleporting around enemies in sync with Wren's own movements and has the abilities of a fey spirit summoned from the summon fey spell.

'ollddail
'ollddail is an archfey that has control over the seasons and doesn't belong to either of the fey courts but instead chooses to remain neutral. 'ollddail mainly worked to dissipate small skirmishes between the seeie and unseelie courts which is where they came into contact with Wren on the battlefield she was abandoned on. When the archfey brought Wren back to their domain her name was unknown to the archfey and possibly even to her own mother so they named her after the fairywren which seemed particularly attracted to the child. Wren was taken in by the archfey only because they believed they could train Wren enough to assist them in their endeavors to stop the conflict between the courts and eventually take over their position as they were growing exceptionally old for an archfey.

Image Credits:
Elf design by Faebelina
Shark dog design by Nekoama
Wings design from D&D MoTM Aarakocra
Leaf bird design from Pathfinder Leaf Ray