Avril

.:Basic Information:.

Name: Genevieve
Character Name: Avril Navarre al Castile
Alias/Nickname: Avi
Race: Celestial
True Age: 200
Apparent Age: 25
Sex: Female
Height: 6'
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair Color/Style: She has long, slow waves of blonde hair that she often keeps tied back simply.
Eyes: Green.
Marks/Scars/Tattoos: A small scar across her left eyebrow left from the demon attack when she saved Gunnar.
Physical Appearance: Avril would be a subtly radiant beauty if she didn't have a pale, sickly tinge to her. Her skin is a delicate red-brown hue that is dulled by a green pallor. She is lean and strong, but at times stooped as from an unseen weight. Her matte hair looks almost dirty blonde and her brilliant green eyes cloud at times with red ringing them. She is occasionally wracked by coughing fits or shaking hands that she struggles to steady.
Occupation/Class: Swordsage/Vagabond

.:Secondary Information:.

Philosophy: "If my love is true I will someday find my inamorato again."
Magic Schools: Fire and spirit.
Carried Possessions: Avril wears a entwined heart necklace that is broken. It was given to her by Gunnar when he proposed and broken in two when he was taken from her. She does not know where the other half is, but hopes that he has it. She also carries a bag given her by her mother and a twisted metal bracelet crafted by her father that they gave her before she left. She keeps possessions to a minimum but in the bag she often has food or medicines to give to needy people she encounters.
Clothing and Armor: Avril is relatively well-dressed despite her wandering as she does not refuse the small gifts of those she has helped. She dresses in a white toga over which she wears a simple red hued breastplate with a star and heart symbol, bracers with the same symbol, and a short banded leather skirt. She also has a deep burgundy cloak that has been fashioned to accommodate her wings. The two plied cloak has a heavy outer layer that can hide Avril's wings and a lighter lining that can accommodate use of her wings. When the outer layer is detached the cloak allows full use of her wings. She also wears a pendant of spirit magite. Despite her martial attire she does have an aura of kindness and compassion that balances her appearance.
Weapons: She has an elegant looking rapier forged by her father. In the pommel is a fire magite stone.

.:Personal Information:.

Likes: Friendly people, birds, a good joke, love, pure hearts, a good fight
Dislikes: Cruelty, demons, lost love, being dirty
Merits: True love, charitable, agile, quick, resourceful, observant
Flaws: Gullible, uncontrollable ills, judgmental, curious, proud, idealist, trusting
Worst Fear: Dying before finding her true love.
Personality: Avril is a model in contrasts. She can be startlingly intense while also having a easy smile and friendly demeanor. She is caring, helpful to those in need but fierce against evils. In her search she has touched many lives often staying to help out those in times of need, but eventually she always continues on. She prays to Evithanon, Fanamek, and Kagetsu that she might never lose faith that she will someday find her love. Yet despite her personal quest she has never been able to turn her back on others' pain and plights and she expects a purity of purpose as her own. She always expects the best from those she associates with and can at times be judgmental, yet she also seeks to guide and help those who have good hearts but stray from the path.
History:

Occasionally something beautiful arises from something tragic. Such it was for two Celestials in Calamia scattered across this foreign world, far from home and separated from their own.

Garoth Castile al Lefebvre had been a young blacksmith in Moonspire when Derrek had first declared war on the Celestials and from then he had taken up the sword as many had. He found the best teacher he could and learned to fight. He fought in many skirmishes against the Athdraki and was defending Moonspire on that fateful day in 880. Melinthe Navarre al Gagnon had been aiding the injured the whole long day when she came upon the squad of soldiers taking advantage of a brief pause in the battle. A new wave would arrive soon so they were clearing bodies and making ready as best they could. She had been moving amongst the soldiers when the panic had erupted. The city was falling and chaos crashed in like a breaker wave. Soon, they appeared to be attacked on all sides as rivlets of people flooded through the streets in confusion. A young soldier had dragged her around as they ran and defended, and ran some more.

Neither of them knew quite how they had gotten to the gate, random luck, a voice calling out, but Garoth and Melinthe had been some of the lucky few to escape Moonspire that day. They had crossed the portal desperately clinging to each other, never having even gotten the other's name, when the gate's magics tore them apart in an instance to drop them in a foreign land each alone.

It would be many, many years before they saw each other again. They made their way in this new world using their individual means. Garoth's anger at the Athdraki betrayal and its demon hordes led him to pursue a life of martial training. He traveled joining with the native races in common cause against demons. He pursued training of many different styles of swordsmanship until he began developing his own based in the flickering fires that heated his forge, Transcendent Flame style. From then he traveled testing its merits and refining it. Melinthe for her part settled in the town of Uppsala in Thelahar becoming a teacher and healer. It was no less an arduous journey than Garoth's as she built friendships amongst sometimes distrustful races and aided the community in their struggles against deshiven and demons and all sundry dangers. Never pursuing the spotlight or ambition she was one of the rocks that the community came to accept as part of their town.

The two were finally reunited when he was brought to her gravely injured after an expedition against a demon horde that had been threatening several towns in the region. An alliance had formed to repel the demon threat and Garoth had been one of the many casualties in the maneuvers. Garoth was a much harder man now than way back in Moonspire, but that shared moment so long ago helped a bond to form and eventually the two had a child, Avril Navarre al Castile.

Avril was a headstrong, curious youngster that delighted the community with her zeal. While a good student she preferred the arts of her father and showed promise as a swordswoman. The stories of demons fired her passions and she sought to help defend against the hordes that would wreak havoc. She trained diligently as one of her father's students and lackadaisically under her mother's tutelage, but she took to heart the histories her parents taught her of Moonspire, of demons, of their lost home, and of their new home. When she was old enough she joined the town watch.

It was a bright clear day when she had pulled duty in one of the remote scout towers. She had been alternating between identifying plants for her mother and preparing for her sword lesson on the morrow. She desperately wanted to impress her father with a new strategy. Slightly distracted she had hardly noticed the clouds brewing overheard and it was only the loud thunder that finally caught her attention. That was when she saw the commotion. No thunderclap, it was some kind of attack. Cursing herself for the lapse in attention she quickly sent off the watch bird that would alert the town to the threat and then set off to get a better look.

By the time she arrived closer the blood was pounding in her ears as the adrenaline before battle peaked. She saw the two demons hounding a small group of humans. A moment's indecision, she realized they would be slaughtered without help and noone else would arrive in time. Springing out she engaged one demon in a flurry of strikes and counters. Then suddenly both demons were on her and she was hardpressed. Dispatching one she had left herself vulnerable to the other, but then it too fell. Startled she looked around, quietly she saw the man's arm fall limp in injury, his staff rolling away. Only one of the humans had survived, she guessed that the second demon had thought him killed when it came to attack her. Such was her introduction to Gunnar.

He was taken back to the city and nursed back to health in the home of Melinthe under the curious eyes of Avril who suddenly became much more a student of healing than previously. Gunnar was a young sorcerer out on expedition when his party had been overrun. Idealistic, excitable, friendly and worldly he fascinated Avril and in turn he was captivated by the first Celestials he had encountered up close. He said he stayed to hone his craft, but whatever the reason he stayed in the town well after his recovery. A love was forged between the two, such that their hearts entwined to beat as one.

The day before their wedding Avril awoke to find Gunnar gone and only a half of the two heart pendant he had given to her. It soon turned out that a rival of Gunnar had fancied Avril for himself. Jealously and rivalry had spurred the antagonist to a desperate ploy. Ranting and raving, delirious in his power, he never revealed exactly what he had done and then he too disappeared. Rumours that this adversary had been seduced by demons and dark magics abounded, but that did nothing to lessen the pain of the loss.

Avril was crushed. A search of the town and the surrounding region was conducted by Avi and friends, but little trace of either Gunnar or Robert were found. It was as if they had both vanished. Not knowing what to do she sequestered herself for a great while to try to master the emotions, loss, rage, desperation, that sought to overcome her. She threw herself into training with her father with an intense focus to channel the emotion into a new beginning. Yet her heart would not mend nor forget, it tore at her every day that she stayed at the town. She could feel her inamorato out there somewhere in the world, still alive. It was Melinthe's counsel that finally revealed the depth of Gunnar's and Avril's bond and that it was not to be denied.

Avril realized that she could no more stay cloistered than forget her love, and so she set out. As her father had done she wanders Calamia. She hopes to find her true love again. The love and loss are a powerful combination. Avril has a great capacity for caring and fierce determination. She hones her sword skills against the mettle of the demons and other evils she encounters and the shared meditation of other sword practitioners she meets along the way. For many, long years she has searched, wandering place to place, helping people she encounters, trying ways magical or mundane that might locate him, always searching. She knows she must find him before he dies because their lives are linked. In finding him she hopes she might break the spells that have kept them apart so long.

From the Obsidian Keep to Faldarin, she began her search eventually moving out into other places even farther from home. In those early years she exhaustively pursued every lead she could come up with and along the way met many people, but then the leads vanished. And her search became a wider endeavor. She learned a lot about traveling and more about people. In the city she had been surrounded by friends, old and new, that accepted her parents and then her as part of their community, but now outside the walls those old ties were nothing. Every day, every week she met new people and needed to make new alliances and friendships. People's fears and prejudices are a driving force.

Avi often travels with small groups with variety of interests as long as the path takes them to places she might find something new, she is always hoping the next stop will reveal some more information. She has no leads at this point, so she seeks out bums, mages, sages,fortune tellers, and scholars anyone who might have information that can help. She obsessively hones her sword skill in anyway she can as it is the only distraction that can the dull the pain of her heart temporarily. So she is often willing to take up a good cause that will give her a chance to fight. She is not involved in anything particularly noteworthy. And so the search continues.