Kestral
- Father: Dearg Seabhac ; Status: Unknown
- Mother: Alainn Demopoulos ; Status: Deceased
- Shapeshifting
- Magical Spell Casting
- Hex Work
- Teleportation
- Minor Elemental Magic
- Major Old Magic Abilities
- Siren Abilities
- Uniform
- Genius Level Intellect
- Mental Training
- Guru of Magic
- Photographic Memory
Her life did not simply start with a birth. It started with something much more magical, much more complete than such a simple thing as a birth. It started with a story; a story that is passed down from generation to generation amongst the Aeraies. The story begins on a mountain; a mountain the people lovingly called An Nead, or The Nest. There, at the very top of the mountain sat the small village known as Gaoth (Wind). Its people were a peaceful people with their fair skin and varied skin tones and hair color. All of them so normal looking and calm. It was a Utopia, pacifistic and happy.
But peace can only last so long. Peace only lasts as long as the people allow. There is always something that comes in and corrupts all that it touches. One such individual was known as Dearg Seabhac. Stories say that he was a man of great stature. They told stories of his bright red eyes and equally red hair. The stories told that he was a man with long red and black wings that you could hear the wing beats from miles around. The stories say that he was a generous man, one who was loved in all of the village of Gaoth.
The stories continue to express how he lived among them and fell in love with one of the residents. Her name was Alainn. They said that she was a woman of great beauty, as per her name sake. They had a long courtship that lasted two years before he took her as his wife; his ‘mate’, he called her. As per her custom, she exchanged her vows with him on the day of their mating; the Aeraies always giving a vow of love and devotion on such a day.
“I will love you till the end of time, and even then I will love you far past that love.” The stories say that Alainn spoke to him on the day of their marriage. The stories also say that he had a response to her vow, one that is still being thought of on to this day. It was cryptic, vague and almost lined with a dark undertone of frightening insanity.
The stories say that after his mate spoke her vows to him that lightning striked across the land in furious waves. The people of Gaoth were frightened and even began to flee into their homes. Dearg would not have this and called all of the people back out into the open, claiming that none of the lightning around them would hurt them. He then turned to his wife, who was scared beyond all reason and whispered his vow.
“I will love you like a lightning strike… Hard, quick and painless.”
However, a happy life was not his to hold. His future held a different pathway that was yet to unravel. He was drowning in a different light; a different perspective. This perspective changed him from the generous man that he was into a man filled with greed and anger; an anger that spread and corrupted all that he came into contact with. It started with a few. Men who had been docile at first became ravaging men who destroyed their homes and families. What was once a Utopia had quickly become devastation; a rip in what everything was. A few turned into ten, ten turned into twenty and then soon it was spreading to half the population of Gaoth.
The stories say that this perspective came upon the day of mating with his wife; that something in him changed the moment the vows were spoken and he had taken her as his and his alone. The stories go on to tell that it was almost as if something in him snapped, or broke apart. He stopped smiling that day, this once generous man turned anger filled. It was almost as if the very love that he held was pulled out of him and thrown onto a fire of hate so hot that nothing could touch the surface.
Alainn did not approve of this change. She despised everything that he was becoming. But what could she do? She could not go against him; he was her husband and mate. She could not go with him because what he was doing was wrong. She had grown up amongst the ideals of peace and harmony with all living beings that came to Gaoth. She also faced a dilemma that had her hurting inside.
She could not leave him for she was pregnant with his unborn child.
She burned with this knowledge and kept it away from him, not wanting his anger to lash out onto her. He had not become violent with her, but he had made threats. Threats to hurt her beat her, kill her. That was enough for her to lose her trust in him, as well as her love. She finally made the decision to leave; to start her own clan of Aeraies; to begin anew away from his corrupted soul. She didn’t want her child to be corrupted like it’s father.
She set out the very next day. Needless to say he was not pleased by her disappearance. He summoned every man and woman of Gaoth that he had corrupted to go after her. Oh, but these were not just any men and women. They had been altered, their eyes a blood shot red, wings had sprouted on their backs a blood red color mixed with black taint. Their hands ended in raptor like claws and their voices had been changed to that of screeching caws that could be heard for miles. They were known as the truaillithe. The corrupted. They were those that had fully given themselves to the Red Hawke, as was the name he gave himself for the English Language.
“Find her, my children,” Dearg told the creatures that he had control over. “Find her and bring her back to me. She is mine and what is mine will stay mine until I am done with her.”
Still, she ran. She ran till she could not run anymore. Her feet bled with the amounts of rocks and wear and tear that she went through. She finally found a silent grove hundreds of miles away from Graoth. She rested against the ground and curled into a ball, holding her stomach in a protective way. Nothing was going to harm her child. Nothing. The pureness of her heart is what brought her form to light, changed her like it did the people of Graoth. Instead her change was different.
She did not grow wings, though her eyes turned a pure white, her body turned frail looking, small and beautiful. She was fairer, more of a shape and body of that of what one would imagine an elf would look like. Her hair was a mousy brown, her skin just a lighter shade of that. When she woke up the next morning, she was surrounded by birds of different types, all had gathered around her to shield her. Hawks, crows, ravens, blue jays, mockingbirds, any kind of bird one could think of was there.
And then they shifted to that of humanoid forms. They looked just like she had become; all had bright white eyes. She quickly became the leader of the new Aeraies, for they had no other name but that. Her mate never found her, as far as the stories go, and his legion of truaillithe were not seen. She created a system. It was love that started it at all, so she erased it from her mind. She became animalistic and promoted that ideal to all of her people. If they were to come together to procreate, it would be for procreation sake. You would take a mate and form a clutch. If love should come at that time, then it was welcomed. But no child would be born out of love ever again.
“Love will not corrupt you,” she told the new race of Aeraies that was around her, “it will not consume you. It will not control you. It must not. You must not let it take hold of your heart and burn away everything that is precious to you. Do not let it, like a lightning strike, force you down to the ground in ash and rain. Have faith in your bird and it will guide you towards the light.”
Alainn gave birth to her child. A beautiful girl who was beautiful beyond imagination. Her skin was a soft white, and her hair as crimson as the sunset she was born under. Her eyes were more vibrant emerald than any of the others. She was revered as special amongst her new family and people. Though her mother feared what her child would become, she loved her just the same. She named her Ariah.
She was special in every single way. She also possessed abilities that could only be described as innate. No one knows whether or not she got them from her mother, or her father. All that her people knew was that she was a creature of grace that could be rivaled by none. She was happy to live amongst her people and be everything that her mother wanted her to bed. She was set to be the new matriarch of the village. She never took a mate, even though her mother pressured her to find one so the family line could continue. But she had other things that were on her mind at the time. She felt awaken.
Something called to her.
