Serena Cardain
Warden, First Apostle Serena Derynia Kai- Cardain
Serena Cardain was an influential figure in the history of both of the first two sages. She was rescued by Elsiar and taken to Sarah's Orphanage, where Serena and Elsiar (whose mine was degraded to that of a child) later became close friends. At the Orphanage, she was taught pacifism, which would later play a large role in her actions and values. Being saved by Elsiar, she held a great amount of respect for the sage, as well as gratitude. Serena was strongly affected by the Sage's death.
When, shortly after, a child was found on the altar of Thame's Temple, this boy was brought to the Orphanage. Serena was one of the handful of people privy to the knowledge that this boy was most likely the next sage. She became Thomes Tillain's friend and mother figure, but the two had their differences. At 18, Serena becomes initiate to the Wardens, then joins the Wardens officially at 20. When Thomes was abducted, Serena went out with Thomes's best friend Galend, and Thomes's teacher to find the boy, but ultimately failed in recovering him.
During the search, Galend and Serena had a falling out after Galend killed someone in self-defense, an act which by the tenet's of Sarah is never an option, causing Serena to never see Galend the same way. Serena, after continuing the search for a while, gave up and settled down. She married, but never lost the guilt of her failure. Though Galend never gave up, it was Serena, by coincidence, who found Thomes in the arenas of Nerys. With the help of the Light Elves, she managed to contact Thomes. However, it was too late. Thomes was already scarred by his experience as a gladiator. He'd been taught to fight, to kill, and to use his powers for combat, strongly diverging his world view from hers.
Her failure to protect Thomes was the inciting factor for Serena's founding of the Apostles, an order of people working to find, protect, and guide the Sage throughout their lives. Due to Thomes's long life, the order had little to do and mostly disbanded. It's through Ilyreth that the order survived to find and protect the next sages.
Serena's relationship with Ilyreth was complicated. They met when she was a child, but never saw each other again until much later. Serena found Ilyreth's interpretation of Sarah's will to be twisted and decadent. The light elves's lack of modesty, materialism, and semi-isolationism were her biggest issues. Eventually, they learned from each other. Ilyreth founding the Mother's Hand Order to open her peoples up to the rest of the world, and Serena letting go of her dogmatic and prudish understanding of Sarah's will.
Serena died of orc fever at age 63, leaving behind four children and an order that would eventually change the world.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Serena was relatively attractive, but certainly no light elf. She'd been taught how to stay fit and ate well, causing her to be a healthy condition and weight.
Facial Features
- Almond-shaped eyes
- A slightly stern look
Special abilities
Serena had some healing abilities. Magically she was average by nature, but loved by Sarah and taught well.
Mental characteristics
Sexuality
Serena started out with a negative view of sex, being taught by the Wardens that sex is unbecoming of a Warden. And sex for sex's sake, like the light elves did it, was the domain of Rose, not Sarah. Sarah supported sex out of true love. Sarah supported closeness and trust, but lust was unclean to Serena.
Education
Education at the Orphanage was around about the best on Bocklynn. Serena could read and write, and was educated by high dwarves, perhaps the most advanced race of her time. She was well versed in religion, magic (both mostly surrounding Sarah), the workings of feelings, history (of men, dwarves and elves), and even knew some things about other sciences.
Employment
Serena worked as a warden for a short time, until she went on a quest to save Thomes. She never took up the mantle of warden again, partially because she didn't think herself worthy of it anymore. She was a housewife for some time, until, when her children had left the nest, she founded the Apostles.
Failures & Embarrassments
Serena's failure to protect Thomes never stopped haunting her.
Mental Trauma
Serena's life was rife with trauma.
- Starting off, she lost her parents very early on, which caused her to cling to every other authority she came across in the rest of her childhood. Elsiar and the Wardens were the foremost example of that, but Sarah could be considered one too.
- Elsiar's death broke Serena's heart. It was the third parental figure she lost in life. This caused her to cling to Thomes as Elsiar's replacement, hoping to repay Elsiar for saving her by protecting Thomes.
- She ultimately failed at that, causing her to feel guilt not only towards Thomes, not only towards the Wardens, but also towards Elsiar and the entire world. This guilt and sense of failure never went away. In fact, it became worse after finding out Thomes had been raised to kill, and even worse when Thomes continued to betray all the values she'd have taught him by waging war all across the world. Serena never trusted herself with any responsibility over children until she had her own and learned to trust herself again. She remained an overprotective mother for all her life. A more healthy way she channeled her guilt was by founding the Apostles to prevent this situation happening in future.
Intellectual Characteristics
Serena wasn't stupid, and she was well educated, but she was more disciplined and dedicated than she was intelligent.
Morality & Philosophy
Serena was a dogmatic Elstiarist, influenced strongly by the high dwarven understanding of Sarah's will. Different from the Light Elves in this, she believed in purity. She wasn't offended by nudity. Sarah was known by the dwarves too to support trust and openness, but the elves's openly sexual nature was a perversion of this to her. Sex was the primitive, animalistic domain of Rose. Sarah's physicality was simple, trusting touch, embraces, closeness. In this sense, only sex out of true love was of Sarah, not sex for sex's sake. Later, Ilyreth and her own husband taught her to be more open, and Serena's religion became something in between Light Elven, Human and High Dwarven Elsiarism.
Serena's priority, and here she was similar to Ilyreth, was peace, as Elsiar would have wanted it.
Taboos
Lust and violence were taboos to her.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Serena's motivation is largely driven by a perceived debt to Elsiar.
Hygiene
Serena is always groomed as well as physically posssible. On her journey to find Thomes, she had a lot of trouble with the lack of hygiene.
Social
Religious Views
Elsiarism
Social Aptitude
Serena had trouble letting loose, always thinking about her responsibilities. This caused her to come across as unfriendly, boring, grouchy, or even arrogant. She was trained to raise children, which gave her the habit of treating adults as such, telling them off or being too caring. Her popularity suffered because of this.
Relationships
Species
Conditions
Church/Cult
Honorary & Occupational Titles
- Warden
- First Apostle
Circumstances of Death
Orc fever
Birthplace
Lorellain
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Sex
Female
Eyes
Light brown, almond-shaped
Hair
Brown, usually braided meticulously in some way (showing her perfectionism and disciplined grooming)
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Belief/Deity
Hyghlynn Elsiarism
Aligned Organization
- Angelish
- Nerysian
- High Dwarven
Comments