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As a High Elf, Sephrenia grew up in the glorious walled city of Quan’rath, on the continent of Tawaim. Quan’rath was surrounded by an immense forest known as Skytree Forest, said to have been blessed by Nifika, the goddess of Magic and Elves.
Outside the glorious beauty that was Quan’rath was the very forest that the High Elves believed to have been blessed; but closed their doors to. The High Elves, who were generally arrogant and called themselves “The Children of the Goddess” had grown tired of dealing with marauding orcs, goblins and even humans, who would attack their tree homes.
The High Elves used their magic that Nifika had infused them with and built towering walls to keep everyone and everything else, outside. Realizing that this would also cut themselves from observing the beauty of the woods, the High Elves took to making everything inside the city walls elaborate and eloquent. In the center of Quan’rath, a magnificent temple to Nifika rose above it all, like an arrow piercing the land, to ensure the goddess that she remained the city’s prime focus; no matter where you were in the city, no building obstructed the view to Nifika’s temple.
For Sephrenia, though as a Cleric, she followed Nifika, and paid her homage and donations to the exuberant temple of Nifika; there was something about the walls of Quan’rath that had made her feel like a prisoner when she was there.
She also learned that there’d been Elves, who long ago, did not agree with the idea of secluding themselves behind a wall and turned their back on their own kin. Those Elves simply learned to continue living in the woods and became known as The Wood Elves (though the High Elves often slandered that by calling them Wild Elves). Tension between the High Elves and Wood Elves escalated, mostly due to the High Elves looking down at the Wood Elves. The High Elves believed that the temple of Nifika in the center of Quan’rath brought them closer to their goddess than living in the woods, supposedly blessed by her. The Wood Elves meanwhile, believed that because the High Elves had cut themselves off from the very woods Nifika blessed, that the High Elves had lost focus on appreciating true concept of nature.
Sephrenia felt the pull to explore the world outside. Her mother and father were aghast at the notion, but when she told that it felt as if it was Nifika’s calling to do so, they quickly hushed and accepted it.
As if it had all been planned, news of a newly discovered continent reached Quan’rath. There’d been discussions of going to explore it; but it was quickly shot down as no one seemed to think this was a good idea. Sephrenia stood and spoke, “I will go.” Her voice could have shattered the halls of the great temple, because they broke the chilling silence. All turned in shock to face one of the youngest members of the Temple.
“There is great danger beyond our walls,” one of the elders said.
“There are also those who may not know of Nifika and her greatness,” Sephrenia replied. “I will be her arrow that strikes the new land.”
None opposed her; her words cut into them, as if Nifika herself was daring them to speak up against her.
When Sephrenia stepped outside of the great wall of Quan’rath into the world beyond was the first time her heart was gripped with fear. She’d never seen what the woods looked like; and the trees were tall, almost as tall as Quan’rath’s walls, and invoked such darkness and shadow, unlike the brilliance of Quan’rath where shadows dare not tread.
It was a day of traveling in the Skytree Woods, where Sephrenia first met the Wood Elves, and made sure to call them as such, and not the slanderous term her people often referred to them. She explained her mission to them, and though they sneered and spit at her feet, they escorted her through the woods, where she was able to book a wagon to Moontide Port. From there, she successfully booked passage aboard the Minotaur ship, The Eagle’s Talon. Within ten days of travel in the open seas, another experience she did not care to repeat too soon, she arrived at the Ivory Coast and was soon caught in the bustling, growing town, that was full of Elves, Gnomes, Humans, Dwarves, Half-Orcs, and races she’d never seen or heard of before.
She had heard that Ridgecrest, a major city, was where she could find out more about the new continent – but there was something about Spire’s Edge was felt in her heart she would need to investigate first…