Aderyn Teak

Basic Information

Name: Aderyn Teak
Type: God-Blooded
Player: NPC (Controlled by Dan H.)
Concept: Healer and right-hand woman
Political Affiliation: Peleps Kya, the Immaculate Order
Actual Age: 25
Languages Spoken: River Tongue (Native), Low Realm, High Realm
Primary Virtue: Compassion
Secondary Virtue: Justice
Likes:
Dislikes:
Aderyn: Character Sheet

Summary

Aderyn (pronounced uh-DARE-in) Teak is Peleps Aramida Valkya's retainer, close friend, and confidant. Formally, Kya hired Aderyn away from the Immaculate Order as a physician, and while it isn't unusual for Dragon-Blooded Dynasts to maintain personal doctors, Aderyn's duties are significantly broader than her job description implies.

History

Aderyn is the child of a human mother and a wood-elemental father. She was born in a forest settlement outside the satrapy of Greyfalls. By the age of six, the occasional lock of hair terminating in a branch or leaf gave Aderyn away as God-Blooded, and Immaculate Monks had forcibly spirited her away to the local temple for a proper upbringing.

Aderyn was adequately, if distantly, cared for by the Order's monks. She did not want for food or shelter and was taught to read and write (mostly through Immaculate scripture). As she got older and her restorative supernatural gifts began to manifest, the monks' tutelage expanded to include Essence manipulation, healing, and survival skills. As a young adult, the Order pressed Aderyn into service as a healer and midwife for impoverished peasant communities throughout the eastern Scavenger Lands and later, the Blessed Isle. Travel was difficult, frequent, and almost always to bleak locations, but the nobility of her mission kept Aderyn motivated throughout. She only resented that her aid was conditioned on participation in a faith she never chose for herself or anyone else.

Eventually, Aderyn befriended Kya, then a senior student at the Cloister of Wisdom. The two worked together on several assignments related to public health in rural areas of the Blessed Isle. After Kya graduated from the Cloister of Wisdom, the two seemed destined for different paths when Kya did not choose to take the vows of monkhood. However, a little over a year later, Kya sought out Aderyn's aid in a remote Isle village. Kya feared herself infertile, and given the intense pressure to sire children faced by Dynasts, was afraid of divulging it to anyone known to her family. Aderyn was not able to detect in Kya any capacity for bearing additional living Essence, seemingly confirming Kya's suspicions. Uncomfortable leaving behind the only person who knew her secret, Kya instead opted to bring Aderyn with her and persuaded the local abbott to release Aderyn from her service to the Order so that Kya might hire her as a personal physician.

Aderyn returned to the Imperial City with Kya and quickly established herself as a critical member of Kya’s retinue. Aderyn had a great deal of experience training midwives and healers in remote villages, and proved vital in enacting several philanthropic community projects that Kya led during her time after secondary school. By virtue of being an Essence wielder, a quick study, and calm under pressure, she quickly established herself as Kya’s second-in-command and was trusted to make decisions in Kya’s absence. Furthermore, a reasonable survivalist and passable fighter, she also became Kya’s traveling companion, accompanying her to places where Kya’s more bureaucratic staff could not or would not go.

Today, Aderyn continues to provide healing services to Kya and her staff when necessary, but she spends more of her time aiding Kya directly with whatever project or mission is at hand. She always relishes opportunities to help the downtrodden, and seeks them out whenever possible, knowing she has Kya’s blessing to do so.

Personality

Aderyn grew up in rural areas around Creation, where the delicate social hierarchy of the Dynasty was the stuff of distant fairy tales and mockery. Furthermore, most of her life was spent being raised by and working for the Immaculate Order, one of the few institutions that places mortal and Dragon-Blooded members on (mostly) equal footing. As a result, Aderyn’s more genteel colleagues describe her as “rough around the edges”. Indeed, Aderyn can have a shockingly informal demeanor with Dynasts and Dragon-Bloods, often bypassing decorum and lacking the manners of those raised in polite society.

To those who know her better, her authenticity eventually becomes charming. Kya in particular appreciates Aderyn’s fearless willingness to keep Kya honest. More surprising to those who know Kya is Aderyn’s lack of respect for Immaculate doctrine. Despite (or perhaps because of) being raised by Immaculate monks, Aderyn is skeptical of Immaculate scripture as anything other self-serving parables built on a sliver of possible truth. Still, Aderyn is mostly able to set aside her philosophical objections to the Order, as she still considers it Creation’s single greatest force for the weak and impoverished. Aderyn holds the Order in high esteem for this reason alone. Kya, for her part, actually appreciates Aderyn’s stark theological differences; many a lively debate has drawn them closer.

Aderyn is fiercely protective of those she deems to be “good people” and anyone who cannot look out for themselves. She is universally disgusted by oppression of the weak by the strong, and will often act impulsively to fight that perceived oppression, even to her own detriment. To those she provides care for, she is equal parts empathetic and realistic, with a dry sense of humor that adds levity to often-grim situations.

In keeping with her elemental affinity, Aderyn makes no secret of her love for life’s pleasures. She vastly prefers the freer lifestyle of Kya's employment to the restricted living of the Immaculate monks. Despite her spartan upbringing, or perhaps because of it, she now partakes liberally in the fine food and wine that Kya’s employment affords her. She has trouble prioritizing quality over quantity, despite Kya’s frequent assertions that this behavior is uncouth.

Powers and Abilities

Aderyn is a talented healer. Trained in healing and midwifery by the Immaculate Order, she is skilled in translating the scientific medical practices common on the Blessed Isle to the folk medicine found in most of the places Aderyn has actually worked. Her own practices reflect a blend of these styles, but tend towards herbalism and more intuitive approaches. On top of her conventional training, Aderyn’s God-Blooded heritage endows her with some abilities in excess of any mortal healer. Aderyn is capable of sensing, and to a lesser extent manipulating the qualities of Wood essence. By tapping into a patient’s Essence, Aderyn is able to sense illness and other medical complications much earlier than a physician restricted to mundane means of diagnosis. Furthermore, with great effort, Aderyn can strengthen a patient’s flow of Wood essence and speed up the recovery of wounded or sick patients, although this effect is generally not large enough to matter for the Exalted, who already heal with startling rapidity. The Immaculate Monks who trained her theorize that intense training might someday allow her to close wounds even more rapidly, although Aderyn has not yet prioritized additional training in Essence manipulation.

In addition to the healing arts, Aderyn’s interest in herbalism and rural upbringing necessitated reasonable survival skills. She is skilled enough in navigation, tracking, and hunting to undertake solo missions to isolated wilderness areas and knows enough about the dangers of the Wyld to avoid it. Mostly by virtue of needing to hunt, Aderyn is a reasonable shot with a longbow and level-headed enough to provide ranged support in combat situations should Kya or her friends require it.

Appearance

Aderyn is of average height and has an average, slightly stocky build. Her skin is surprisingly fair, but branches and leaves in her hair, as well as unnatural chlorophyll-green eyes give her away as something other than mortal. Her hair is long and relatively unkempt, and she tends to wear durable clothing decorated with various Wood-aspected motifs. Her native tongue is River-tongue, though it is not her most commonly used language. While she speaks both High Realm and Low Realm, she prefers to converse in Low Realm and speaks both languages with a heavy Eastern accent.