Appearance

Apparel & Accessories

Her sturdy leather armor and traveling clothes are accented by brass buttons and fittings, and an embellished belt buckle displays the insignia of the Dragon Riders. A checkered blue and white scarf is partly tucked under her jacket.
She carries an elegant rapier and a pair of daggers at her side and a shortbow at her back, along with various tools and miscellany squirreled away on her person.

Mentality

Personal history

Welphina remembers little of her life before the Dragon Tower. Rough cloth and soft furs, stories by a blazing hearth, meandering forest paths and wild skies, and a scruffy gray beard that hid a smile and a warm laugh-- this is most of what she remembers of the old hunter who found her and took her in; a tiny gnome infant left on his cabin doorstep one summer evening. She remembers the day they entered a city for the first time; reaching out to the chaos around them from the safety of strong arms, awed and overwhelmed but excited beyond words, wanting to see every corner of this amazing place, one unlike any she had seen before.
 
Then, at barely three years old, there came the summons to the Dragon Tower for the Choosing. An egg hatched for her, the little steel dragoness Miirthana, and Welphina's life was changed forever.
 
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Welphina was not the sort of dragon rider anyone expected.
 
Irrepressibly exuberant and always seeming to be up to some sort of mischief, she hardly seemed the kind to become a stalwart protector of the realm, and routinely threw both guardians and teachers for a loop. Her curiosity knew no bounds-- she was eager to learn, often to the point of obsessive focus on her latest interest, but neither would her restless need to explore be constrained or denied. She would just as often distract and elude her minders on a whim as spend ages devouring books in the library or working tirelessly on a project.
 
Miirthana, too, was quite agile and stealthy, unusually small for her kind; she enjoyed using her skills and cunning to aid her rider's shenanigans-- even if she did not fully understand the impulse behind many of them-- as well as relishing the sense of freedom in their wanderings.
 
In defying expectations, Welphina found a degree of kinship with the recently graduated dragon rider Valera Eenalla, whose rare white dragon-- a kind more known as a vicious foe than an ally-- also set her apart. In time they discovered that they could give an unexpected insight into each other's dragons, with outside perspectives and an understanding of their contrasting natures.
 
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One day an adventure led them into more serious trouble. They had discovered tunnels beneath some nearby ruins and had found a few abandoned trinkets already, including a little portrait of a goblin that she still puzzles over. But, on pressing further, Welphina triggered a hidden trap, and she was hurt and badly poisoned. They made it out in time and she recovered in the end, but from then on she had a new determination and drive, seeking to learn how to counter such dangers in the future and protect her dragon and friends. And one day, she hopes, she'll go back and find all the secrets and stories left behind in those tunnels.

Known Languages

Common, Draconic, Dwarvish, Gnomish, Thieves’ Cant, Speak with Small Beasts

Personality

Social

Birthplace

Alzram Empire, presumed to be within the Magical Wood, where she was found as a baby

Current Residence

The Great Dragon Tower, when not traveling

Contacts & Relations

Miirthana, her bonded steel dragoness

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Dragon Rider of Nocarro

Religious Views

As a Dragon Rider, she serves Bahamut and the Deities of Purpose.