Pahhu: Backstory

Pahhu’s story begins in 1473 DR, an abandoned roughly half-year old baby left at the stairs of the Bound Hands Orphanage in Secomber. The child was half-elven, with deeply tanned skin with coarse dark hair, and the marked features of a Wood-Elf. The child’s only belonging was an unusually styled beige and blue blanket, decorated in a repeating triangle motif in which she was swaddled. Stitched into the blanket written in a poor handed Elven script was ‘Pahhu Kilaniu.’ The name meant nothing in any Elven dialect, and betrayed no city or tribe. Likely abandoned as a half-breed, or an accidental child born of an affair she was adopted with no questions asked by Quinton and Imna Arnjaunor.
 
Pahhu's early childhood was a mixed experience. While universally beloved by the other children for her entertaining and interesting behavior, she was often treated with disdain or disgust by many adults due to her unpredictable and inexplicable nature. Pahhu had a tendency to make a mess of things, whether that be the books on a bookshelf, or even the story inside the books. Things were always placed out of order in her mind, with cause and effect transposed, past, present and future occuring at the same time in her memories. She struggled with proper tenses in language, and was considered one of the if not worst students by the teachers and caretakers.
 
And then there was the actual mess she made. Pahhu lacks any sense of cleanliness, and seemingly conjures dirt and dust from nothingness. Starting as an infant when sand, dirt, dust and even small stones would appear in her crib, through her toddler years when any contact with dirt would seemingly stick to her she would constantly trail dust, dirt and debris.. Despite intense supervision and many many baths she always managed to accrue a fine layer of earth. They simply began dressing her appropriately, and Pahhu herself began to wear a small face scarf, in part to keep the grit out of her mouth but also to hide her striking buck teeth which drew teasing from the other children.
 
Pahhu’s early to late childhood saw her grow into a small weed of a girl. Lithe and light of built, if not downright runty she failed to meet averages in physical size, mental progression and social maturity. She slowly struggled through her schooling, lagging years behind her peers in progress. With little to offer prospective parents but deficiency and a dirty home Pahhu would reach adolescence in the orphanage, a child wanted by no family, and loved only by the grace of Ilmater.
 
Upon reaching the end of her childhood Pahhu had little to offer as an apprentice. Quick on her feet, and small of body the only work she could find outside the orphanage was the dangerous and unusual work of helping to maintain the clock tower. Capable of crawling through the gears, and being gifted with nimble fingers she was able to do much which her old Master was unable to do in his advanced age. Pahhu found the clock tower comforting, a place where the rhythmic ticking helped her stay predictable and focused.
 
During adolescence Pahhu began manifesting some minor magical abilities. Always quick on her feet she sometimes found herself running so fast that the wind whipped through her hair. She began to feel a thrum in the earth beneath her feet, and when she glanced around at times it seemed like motes of dust paused in the air as she watched. Pahhu began to be able to perform small magical effects, such as increasing her running speed and even shaping small mounds of earth. She began to experience shocks when she’d touch objects, simple static pops that she grewed used to, but made her a menace in a game of tag with the younger kids.
 
Her early teenage years saw her begin to fill out. While she never grew to a height worth mentioning she also never gave up, always assuring herself that the dirt she endlessly accumulated would let her grow like a good stalk of corn. After all, all the farmer said tall and big things grow in good soil. Her agility had sharpened considerably with all of her time slipping between cogs, and wheels and up and down chains of the clock tower had made her a natural tumbler. The endless rhythm of the clock itself had given Pahhu an uncanny sense of rhythm, and when put together she made for a passable drummer and even dancer. She favored the drumborine, much to the annoyance of the Ilmateri sisters of the orphanage.
 
Pahhu’s late teenage years saw her magical power continue to grow. Where before she manipulated bits of dust she was now able to drag trenches of earth, with a touch she could seemingly empower a man with the trotting speed of a horse, and even more strangely almost turn back time, reversing the wear on things. The only link to her heritage, her prized blanket which she still slept with every night never faded, the tassels never frayed, and was seemingly restored over and over. She began to repair tools, help farmers plow fields and even helped courier horses make haste across the countryside. Mysteriously as her magical powers grew the endless dust only seemed to grow, and the occasional static shocks grew in intensity.
 
Pahhu’s life began to change in 1493 when a devastating thunderstorm struck Secomber. Fearing damage to the clock face, Pahhu used all of her speed to make it as quickly as possible to the clock tower, trailing dust in her wake despite the beating rain. She shocked herself as she touched the door handle, but pulled the door open and rushed up the tower. Reaching the mechanisms she opened a panel on the face and leaned out into the storm as she tried to lash down shutters to shut out the wind and rain beating on the delicate machine. At that moment lightning struck the minute hand of the clock face, the energy channeled through the mechanisms before exploding outward in a wave of concussive force. Flung from the tower as it crashed down around her, Pahhu’s vision began to go dark as she hung in air briefly, before slowly fluttering to the ground. For the first time, Pahhu had seemingly slowed time. She landed on the ruins of the clock tower, before blacking out.
 
She awoke the next day in her bed, having been brought back home by Quinton. Though she would try, the tower was unsalvageable. She chose to take the scorched minute hand, and the stubby hour hand as souvenirs from the wreckage. With the rhythm of the tower lost to her, and work to keep her hands busy Pahhu floundered for purpose in her days.
 
The devastation of Secomber by the storm left the orphanage in dire straits; Quinton chose to take contract work with the nearby Hawthorne Guild of Lerwick. As the relationship blossomed, and Pahhu’s listlessness intensified she started to follow Ed as he began to work small jobs with the guild as well. Soon relocating the orphanage to Lerwick, and moving into Hyssop Home. Her strange talents have proven helpful, and her continual magical growth has made her a useful if not unpredictable ally.
 
Pahhu’s continued magical growth eventually reached a level where she was generating small chaotic effects. Outpourings of dust and earth, sudden blasts of chilly dry wind, static shocks and even a dusty fog. Dimension Doors left strange tears through which dust poured momentarily, shields of dust suspended in the air seemingly frozen and as hard as steel, and even rendering foes lost in loops of time where they seemingly experienced the same moments over and over.