ZincAlloy » Lair » Gwenith

Gwenith

(#8644679)

Are you sure you're deserving of all that coin?

Huayna

King Parda

Energy: 48/50

Personal Style

Apparel

Skin

Scene

Physical Attributes

Battle Stats

Measurements

Length

1.14 m

Wingspan

1.61 m

Weight

1.89 kg

Genetics

Jade
Iridescent

Leaf
Eye Spots

Shadow
Circuit

Hatchday

Dec 15, 2014
(9 years)

Breed

Adult
Fae

Eye Type

Arcane
Unusual

Level 25 Fae

Max Level

STR

126

AGI

DEF

QCK

INT

VIT

MND

Lineage

Parents

Offspring

Biography

Gwenith
Thief
Chaotic Neutral

Gwenith is a thief, using her small size and nimble fingers to pilfer various supplies from rival clans, adding them to her own private hoard. Some of these treasures even find their way into the clan's communal stockpiles, and the other clan members have quickly learned not to question where they come from. It's simply rude to pry into another dragon's personal business, don't you know?

While Silas is aware of her unsavory profession, the idealistic clan leader believes her to only steal from other criminals and the clan's enemies. While this is partially true, Gwenith won't be the one to tell him where the rest of her loot comes from.

Originally, Gwenith lived alone in the Starwood Strand, relying on nobody but herself for survival. Stealing from anybody who passed though the area, and making longer trips to steal from various Arcane clans, Gwenith's part of the woods developed a reputation for hosting a whole den of thieves, rather than the one thief that actually lived there. Due to said reputation, travellers began to avoid her neck of the woods, and she quickly found herself without anything to steal. For that reason, when one of her past victims came looking for her, claiming to lead a clan, but also to be looking for help breaking into his own vault, she saw no choice but to accept his odd request.

Gwenith tends to keep to her own devices, and doesn't really believe herself to be a true member of the clan. She's only sticking around until her deal with the clan leader runs out, after all. If the others look down on her for being a bandit, that's no scales off her back. Might be some treasure out of their hoards, though, when she does eventually disappear into the night. But, although the vault job's long since been complete, that probably won't be for a while yet. Silas still has some need for her particular skills. Even if he hasn't realized it yet.

Those scars come from some of her less successful raids. When cornered, she'll fight to her last breath, and even though she might not be large enough to strike down a larger dragon, the poison on her blade can do quite a number. It never seems to kill, but it can even put a guardian out of commission for a couple of hours. Perhaps this is on purpose - while Gwenith will steal every last coin a dragon has, she'll never let anyone die as a result of her actions... unless it's absolutely necessary.

Arcane magic is useful for a thief; from unlocking things to invisibility to getting in and out of places that should be physically impossible. That last one isn't always magic. While she might barely recognize some of her clanmates, Gwenith has unsurpassed knowledge of the secret rooms and passages to be found within the fortress. Not even Minya knows about some of the odd tunnels that were probably dug by bored spirals that she's found. She can and will use this knowledge to appear from out of nowhere and startle other dragons.

Gwenith has always secretly hated her circuit patterning, believing it to look absurd. However, as she always tries to act as if everything goes just as she wanted it to, she just claims it helps with camouflage instead. Admittedly, quite often things do go just as she planned, but Gwenith will not show anything that could even be tangentially described as a weakness. The emotional displays of her crests are so subtle that no non-fae has any chance of reading what she feels. Even skydancers struggle to sense her state of mind. Though, at least according to Belonoir, that's only because other perpetual negative emotions overpower everything else.

Gwenith wasn't always clanless. Her birth clan was on the Focal Point, on a cliff overlooking the mainland. Under the Arcanist's protection the clan flourished, and yet Gwenith was never satisfied, even as a hatchling. For the dragons' lives there were governed by a despicable tyrant, or at least that's how Gwenith thought of him.

And as far as Gwenith is concerned, the purpose of a tyrant is to be overthrown. Thus she and her two closest friends, a pair of twin pearlcatchers, hatched a plan to free her clanmates from oppression. It involved a knife, some wooden planks, a couple of rhodochrosite cranes, and an excessive amount of cerdae dust. It was completely flawless.

Well, except for the fact that the three of them weren't even fully fledged adults at the time. So they hadn't quite thought everything through, especially the part where they were carrying two angry cranes stuffed in a sack. Instead of causing a distraction, the birds led the guards right to the trio, and they were forced to flee. Gwenith's small size allowed her to escape, while her two friends were quickly captured. She fled to a safe point away from the clan, and managed to swear to free the twins before she collapsed from exhaustion.

When she woke up, it was past noon, and Gwenith was ready to save her friends in the name of freedom. She flew as fast as possible, thoughts of releasing the others, bursting into the throne room and dethroning a tyrant filling her mind. Her charge stopped once she reached the clan, and transitioned to a sneak, taking to the shadows to avoid being seen. Gwenith crept her way to the front of the tyrant's lair, just in time to listen to the end of the speech he was giving to the assembled dragons, and watch as he swiftly executed the two.

It was a sight that's been burned into her dreams ever since.

She fled to the Starwood Strand, knowing that there was nothing left for her in her own clan. There, she took up the life of a brigand, not even caring about the consequences. After all, she was already an outlaw, so how could things get worse? Even so, she did make the occasional trip to her old clan, though she was never able to bring herself to show her face to anyone. Instead, she visited only to secretly leave a sack of coins along with a note with nothing but her initials in the lair of her deceased friends' family, in an attempt to somehow make up for her sins. Still, Gwenith knew it'd never be enough.

^{close friend}

^friend

Gwenith's claws flipped through a small leather bag, counting out her dwindling supply of coins. As the weather got colder there'd been steadily fewer and fewer travellers in this part of the strand, dragons and beasts alike choosing to take another route. A quick glance over at her other supplies told the same story.

Again, Gwenith's thoughts turned towards leaving this place. As a clanless dragon, there was absolutely nothing holding her back. She'd even done it before, and yet...

Her crests perked up with resolve. There was no way she'd be running away this time. She'd show them! Her home would be among the branches of these trees, where nobody would be able to touch her. A claw checked her blade was solidly attached to her hip. It was strapped on tight, a fine dagger she'd stolen from a larger dragon, and as such more of a sword in her claws.

With defiance on her mind, she dove from the branch she was perched on and let her wings catch the air. Behind her, the leaves shimmered with the magic of a weak illusion. Gwenith was proud of that one; relying mostly on natural camouflage for her hideout meant it'd be hard for someone magically attuned to sense, while the illusion warded off anyone with keen eyes.

As confident as always that nobody would find her stash, Gwenith left to seek targets. As always, she began by skulking along the edges of the paths the beastclans carved through the forest. They rarely carried anything of much value, but pickpocketing from a centaur patrol's bags always turns up at least a few coins.

As she flit from tree to tree, Gwenith's skills and practice meant not a single soul saw her. At least, she believed that would have been the case if there were any travellers. As nobody was around, she took to risk to leave cover and inspect the path.

She didn't even have to land to be disappointed. The trail was as she expected, littered with unbroken twigs, fallen leaves, and not a hoofprint to be seen. It clearly hadn't been used in days, maybe weeks.

But that didn't matter. Gwenith was after better targets than centaurs anyways. While dragons obviously skipped using the paths because they could fly, they did have to land eventually, whether to camp or just to take a short rest. And throughout the Starwood Strand, there were a number of clearings that looked like the most promising spots to a tired dragon. With a bit of luck, she'd be returning from one of these with more treasure than she could carry.

A short flight took her to the first clearing of the day, which was as empty as the trails. Full of outcroppings of pick chalcedony, it had never been a popular campsite, since the glow made it hard to sleep. Gwenith wasn't surprised, and didn't bother to stop to check for anything left behind in the area. There had only once been someone here, but as it was quite close to another clearing, it was worth a quick check.

The flight there brought the same picture. A much more open clearing than the previous, it was once again empty, but this time had remnants of previous occupation. A circle of rocks outlined what had once been a campfire, the remaining ashes the only trace left.

Gwenith couldn't help but smirk. The owner of that fire had been a pearlcatcher, travelling to who knows were. But in this clearing, he'd woken up to find Gwenith, and his pearl levitating beside her. If he'd been able to read fae crests, he'd have seen that she was enjoying this spelled out all over her face. All it took was a couple of threats, and he gave Gwenith everything he owned in exchange for the safe return of his pearl. The pearlcatcher was surely fine, from what he'd been carrying he was clearly some merchant, and must have had more treasure at home. He probably even came from a rich family. She was far more deserving of his coin than he was.

With that, she moved on. The sun passed its highest point, and Gwenith still hadn't found anyone. During a quick break, she'd seen the shape of an imperial flying far overhead, but there wasn't much chance of catching them.

The thought of raiding one of the clans in area came to mind, but she quickly discarded it. Most of them already knew her face and were too dangerous to approach, and the few that didn't she couldn't risk stealing from. She had to keep somewhere that she wasn't a known criminal and could safely spend her stolen treasure. The forest was still her best bet.

Within a hour or two, Gwenith found someone. The only notable feature in this clearing was a large boulder in the centre, on top of which perched a fae. Wearing purple robes that screamed wizard, the fae was pouring over the contents of a book, oblivious to the surrounding world. A worn bag sat beside them. Not the quite easiest mark , she'd have to strike without giving the mage a chance to notice her.

With a few quick claw movements, Gwenith silenced the sound of her wings, and went to work. A few quick circles to gain height, followed by a dive. Right before the dive reached the other fae, she pulled back, alighting directly behind them on the rock. Her target clearly felt the air pushed by her wings, but didn't have time to react before feeling the point of her sword touch their back as well.

"No quick movements.", ordered Gwenith. "And don't try any magic either, I can unweave it before you can finish casting." That was a bluff, though she'd probably be skilled enough at counterspells to buy herself enough time to flee.

The wizard didn't respond, but the sound of a gulp told Gwenith they'd believed her.

"Good. Now put that book down and go stand at a distance. If you hang around, I might even be kind enough to give you back what I don't want."

The fae slowly placed the book on the stone, and then carefully took to the sky. As they took to the air, Gwenith glanced at the cover of the book. Elementary Theory of Magic was printed across the cover in golden script. She'd been worried about nothing.

Not even waiting to see where they'd gone, Gwenith began rifling through the bag. At the top were a about week's worth of simple rations, which she set off to the side. As she did so, she caught the purple fae out of the corner of her eye.

Gwenith reached for her sword, but then relaxed. The fae's crests showed his fear as clear as daylight. He wasn't trying to fight back, he just hadn't gone very far, betraying that there must be something valuable in the bag. Though considering the book and how young he was, it couldn't be that valuable. An apprentice mage generally doesn't have that much.

Gwenith went back to searching through the bag, but quickly stopped. Did he? She looked back to the fae. Instead of the pink of Arcane, the fae had bright blue eyes. That was a surprise; it was a long ways to here from the Shifting Expanse. Either there was more to this fae than he was letting on, or he was a lucky idiot. Well, it couldn't hurt to ask.

She turned back to the bag, not even bothering to make eye contact when speaking. "So, how'd you make it this far from home? It's quite the dangerous journey from the Expanse."

While Gwenith couldn't see it, the fae's crests changed from fear to confusion. "What? Er... I don't think I did anything special, I just avoided trouble as best I could."

"Really? Didn't run into any problems at all?"

"Well, yes, but things had a way of working themselves out..."

Gwenith shook her head. A lucky idiot then. Not that she'd expected much more from the owner of this bag. She'd managed to fill her pockets with a couple handfuls of coins, but most of the bag seemed to just be filled with wires and chunks of metal. Maybe they'd been some of the Lightning flight's innovations at one point, but now they were nothing but junk.

Finished looting, she went to throw the bag back to the fae, but then paused. The was no guarantee this fool even knew how to hunt for himself, let alone where he was going. And despite all evidence to the contrary, she really didn't want his blood on her claws.

Sighing, she put about half the rations back in the bag. "You'll want to travel to the southwest. The clans there are smaller, but they'll be more accepting to a traveller with no money," Gwenith said.

"Thank you?" The fae's crests somehow showed even more confusion than before.

"You'd better be grateful. You owe me one now. Don't forget that, because I sure won't." With that, Gwenith tossed the bag back towards the fae, letting it roll to a stop at his feet.

The fae opened his mouth to respond, but Gwenith had already turned her back. She took to the air, flying above the treetops while the other fae watched. Assuming he made good time, Gwenith reckoned, he'd reach the southwest clans before he began to starve.

As she flew, she tried to estimate how much loot she'd made off with. There wasn't much, probably enough for a week by her reckoning, and she wouldn't even get to keep much of it. Who knew trying to pay for past mistakes would be so expensive?

Image credits: Eylim, Nioell, DeviBrigard

Image Credit: Appendagechild

Image Credit: RubieKanary

Image Credit: Cnida

Image Credit: Llanai

You do not Believe any care about You. She does not Believe she deserves any care. Together, may You overcome Belief.

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Click or tap a food type to individually feed this dragon only. The other dragons in your lair will not have their energy replenished.

Exalting Gwenith to the service of the Arcanist will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.

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