Merielle
The Underdark
Food was scarce in the underdark. Survival was hard, and it turned the drow cruel. Anything that made a drow different, special, or disabled made them a potential target and so when Merielle was born albino her parents decided it would be best to just leave her in a tunnel where one of the beasts of the dark could simply take her away. Instead she was found by Palantir, a much more open-minded and transgressive druid. Palantir raised Merielle in a small cavern away from the rest of the drow. He taught her the ways of the druids, he told her the true history of the world, he taught her about the divine power of dragons, and he taught her how she could earn the love of her people. She needed to save them from themselves. Food, comfort, lives in pursuit of something more than wickedness. In stories the surface was such a place, but the drow had lived in the dark for so long that they could not see in the bright light. If Merielle could blot out the sun then her people could live and thrive on the surface. As to how she could accomplish this, Merielle spent her youth studying and searching. Her druidic research brought her back around to the dragons, who's mere presence shifted nature around them. The blue dragon, Cerulean, was also called the storm dragon for wherever she went rain clouds would follow. With Cerulean Merielle could save everyone. But the dragons had been put to sleep centuries ago. She would need to find Cerulean, and Merielle couldn't do that from her little cavern.Mörko
In the dead of night, without telling Palantir, Merielle packed a bag and made for the long climb up to the surface. She spent days in the byzantine tunnels of the underdark, never sure if she was heading for a dead end or her final destination. She fought monsters and nearly died in the process. Merielle didn't so much as reach the surface as she collapsed onto it in the overwhelming light of day. She could feel her skin burn under the hot light of the sun. But she as found by a kind group of wood elves from the village of Mörko. Palantir always taught Merielle that the elves of the surface were pure evil. They chased one form of divine being away in the Pantheon in Absentia and then imprisoned another in the form of the dragons. When Merielle came to in their care she reacted with fear and rage. Merielle attacked, and when she killed she discovered how good it felt to just make a problem go away. Mörko burned, and Merielle walked into the night to find her way on the surface world.The Cult of the Dragon
Merielle journeyed the country they called Bonner. She researched their history, how little of it they actually managed to keep, and went to many druidic circles of the land. Her alabaster complexion hid her true race from any curious elves. In fact it seemed the existence of drow was completely forgotten along with dragons. So long as she kept her skin out of direct sunlight she could pass as a phantom through the world. Beautiful and ethereal, she found she had a commanding presence among some, and when Merielle told others about her ideals, they wanted to join her. Merielle began hosting meetings to talk about dragons and discover their whereabouts. Her message spread and she began forming a map. The last dragon they needed to find was Cerulean, and the last place to check was Hearthstone City. Merielle traveled there herself under the guise of a tutor to the prefect's son so she might discover the lair of her destiny. Franklin Aarden was a trying child. He was spoiled and Merielle had little patience for him. His father Lawrence was a pathetic fool as well. He had never had a hard day in his life and was given everything by his father, a real hero. She felt she was watching a House lose power in real time. But during her time Hearthstone Merielle discovered the lair of the blue dragon under the westernmost village of Rainfall. She got herself invited along on a family trip there only to learn from three strangers on the side of the road that she was too late. They had accidentally awoken Cerulean and she had destroyed all of Rainfall. She looked into the halfling bard Daryl Berry's eyes and saw a vestige of the dragon. Something strange and new was happening. That night she summoned a Galeb Durr to attack their camp. Before it could kill Daryl for her, she saw his eyes glow blue. The matching dragon descended from the sky to kill her monster itself. Merielle took this moment to disappear into the night. She needed to understand. Merielle soon learned what was happening from some of her followers in Bard's Haven. They told her of an elderly elf who claimed to have mixed blood with a dragon and formed some kind of mystical bond with them. Before she could meet with her followers to learn more she was informed of their collective demises. They were killed by the same three adventurers from the side of the road, and a new fourth member. Daryl Berry, the half-elf rogue Mirian Fireraven, the half-orc barbarian Danger Grassyash, and the elf druid Indigo Fury. Who were they? Were they hunting her? She knew they were traveling to Hearthstone City and so, despite herself, Merielle returned there as well. She didn't have to wait long to run into her four stalkers. In fact they came to her in the market. It turned out the elf Indigo came from Morko. He was seeking revenge for the people she killed. The others hated her for the violence perpetrated by her followers. Merielle had almost forgotten to hate the surface but they were helping remind her. She wanted to feel it too. She needed it to be real. Daryl had bonded with the blue dragon. They were in each other's heads. He had the power to do everything she came to the surface to do. He stole it from her. Merielle took Franklin to the top of a building somewhere in the city with the adventuring party hot on her heels. She used a secret power taught to her by another druid to draw a mark of the nine hells and sacrificed Franklin over it. She summoned a single devil to fight the adventurers and made her escape.The Black Dragon
Merielle ventured into the Hazard Swamps to find the lair of the black dragon Sable. She fought the lizardfolk that worshipped him to wake him up and pledge her allegiance. She asked to exchange blood with him to form an everlasting bond. He decided to test her. Sable asked Merielle to kill all of her followers. His lizardfolk would serve her now. Merielle agreed and they performed the rite. Merielle watched her skin slowly turn black the more she used Sable's power. She cried tears of joy at the sight. Merielle sent out word for her followers to gather back at Bard's Haven and magically turned Sable into fog to mask her arrival. Still when she did arrive she found her followers in conflict with Lawrence Aarden and Daryl, Danger, Mirian, and Indigo. Seeing them made her blood boil. While the lizardfolk massacred Merielle's followers, Sable decided to extend their destruction to the entire town. When he asked Merielle to ride with him she said yes. Truly, this was the moment they fell for each other. Then Indigo stopped their flight with a well placed moonbeam and Mirian, face half acid-burned away, shot an arrow directly into Merielle stomach. Sable took the moment to get her out of there. Sable had never had to save a life before. He took her to the cave mouth where she had first emerged onto the surface and roared into the dark for help. A group of drow scouts near the surface found them and, not recognizing Merielle, they brought her back below with them while Sable waited above ground. Again Merielle was nursed to health but this time she awoke with Palantir next to her. She apologized to him and begged for his forgiveness. She thought she knew how to change the world and it had all fallen apart. Merielle asked what she should do. He walked her through the drow capital. Merielle saw others wave to her and give respectful nods. Weak street urchins cowered before her. A House Mother greeted her by name. She had become a hero to her people as an impure being who went to the most dangerous place on Loom and purified themself. Only Merielle knew the truth, that her connection with Sable would kill her if she allowed it to change her any more than skin-deep. Palantir took her deeper underground than anyone dared to go and showed her an ancient outpost that felt somehow more advanced than anything she knew. He told her of ancient times when gods walked the earth in great cities of their own design. When they left, they left behind relics of their power. With one such relic, a tree that was said to be made of time, Palantir theorized they could halt the heavens and create an eternal night for their people to live in. Merielle proposed the idea to the House Mothers of the underdark. She knew of an upcoming solar eclipse she could freeze in place for all eternity. The House Mothers all approved. Merielle was granted the title of War Mother. She would take a small party to the surface with her to seal the sun while they prepared a direct route to the surface for their army to use. Merielle left the underdark once again, this time celebrated as a hero. If you had asked, Merielle never would have admitted that she based her own party makeup on that of her enemies; The Bonner Boys. Maybe subconsciously, but in truth their names have been long lost to time. There was a barbarian wielding a spider totem, a bard trained in lore, and a rogue scout. She could use the help in a fight but they were not integral to her mission. Merielle discovered a strange cave in the Outlands where time stood still so dinosaurs could still roam. They travelled there, found the tree of time, and took it with them back to Morko. There they planted the tree and, on the day of the eclipse, they activated it on the moon. The eclipse halted in place. Bonner became shrouded in darkness. The drow began marching on the surface. The armies of Bonner gathered against them. Merielle stayed to guard the tree with her party, sending Palantir out to battle on Sable's back. It was the last time she saw him. Merielle could only stand and hear reports from the battlefield. The blue dragon had arrived to help the forces of Bonner. Palantir was killed in battle by the Bonner Boys. The Bonner Army had learned to weaponize magical sunlight against the drow. Then the reports stopped coming and the Bonner Boys marched out of the darkness in front of her. Except something had changed. Daryl was no longer merely a halfling, he had been reborn in the image of Cerulean. Some kind of new impure thing. Merielle knew this was her last stand against them and led her party to battle. They fought valiantly, but were overpowered by the new and improved Bonner Boys. Daryl pinned Merielle to the tree of time with an arrow and, together, they burned Merielle to death.
Species
Age
24
Life
30
6
Circumstances of Birth
Born unnaturally albino
Circumstances of Death
Impaled by the Bonner Boys and burned upon a divine tree
Birthplace
The Underdark
Place of Death
Mörko
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Pronouns
She/Her
Eyes
Red/Black
Hair
Long, messy, white
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
White/Black
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