The Masters of the Sword

As a young child Elandra was encouraged by her father, a Nobleman who helped train some of the Town Guard, to learn the art of war and how to defend herself...as well as go on the offensive herself. Her mother, a Healer Magician, was based in the Magicians Guild so they did not see each other much. Indeed, Elandra was steered away from the art of spellcasting by her father, who wanted her to concentrate on her swordplay. So by the time she was a young teenager, she was highly proficient - almost a prodigy - in both melee and ranged weapons.

She was sent to train with the Masters of the Sword, a highly talented group of warriors based in Imardin, but still she felt that something was missing. It was on one day of rest, when she had sprained her shoulder in a vigorous training exercise, that she was exploring the areas in Imardin and came across the Magician's Guild.

Perched on top of a high brick wall, looking down into one of the training courtyards, Elandra knew without a doubt that she belonged there, like her mother. She went and consulted with her Weapons Masters and they got in a representative of the Guild to ensure that her inherited magic skills were strong enough - as they had not been developed. She was described as having a surprising natural talent in all areas, even given the fact that her mother was a strong Magician, but it was when they asked her to try enchanting a dagger from the Armoury that her true talent was shown.

It was still with weaponry that her talents lay, and the Guild representative looked at the almost invisible, piercing-enhanced dagger with awe and announced her acceptance into the Guild there and then.

The Magicians Guild

So at fifteen Elandra became an Apprentice at the Guild. It was almost reluctantly that she learnt spells for healing, enchanting animals, mesmerisation and other less war-based magic: unless it could relate to weapons, she wasn't interested. Of course, her mother managed to convince her of the importance of being able to heal yourself quickly and efficiently in a battle situation, so Elandra threw herself into those spells with almost as much enthusiasm as that for her weapons...but nothing kept her away from her fixation.

She advanced up to Novice and then to Adept quickly, gaining much respect in the Guild and the ability to summon her familiar, a Great Giant Lion named Alden. She gained renown by adapting other spells, such as Illusionary, Elemental or Healing spells and adapting them for use in weaponry. She developed one of the first Changed-Length morningstars, where the chain seems to all but the wielder to be shorter than it really is; Sonic Arrows that could stun a small group of enemies with just a couple of shots; and Regenerative Thievery rings that draw on the life force of an enemy for a short while, meaning that whenever you injure someone, any injuries you have will be healed some.

This skill put her apart slightly from her peers, in that the other Magicians her age were mostly all Novices, and her fellow Adepts were all years older than her. One other Adept felt occasionally cut off also, though for different reasons - the werewolf caretaker Lycan Wolsey - and they made a tentative friendship which only grew when he returned from Outpost Kalsho, having impressively defeated three Drow.

When trouble first started brewing with the Dark races, Elandra was one of the Magicians sent out into the field to deal with bands of trolls, gangs of demons and the like. This quick gaining of experience, and natural ability to fight and to lead, meant that she became one of the youngest Elders in the Guild at a mere 25 years. And along with her increase in rank with time, came a closer and fulfilling friendship with Lycan.

Elandra, once she was an Elder, could have a personal weapon, one that meant something to her and responded well to being in her hands. She started enchanting a longsword she smithied herself, enchanted it with Fire and with Acid, then was called out to a road on the way to Yurick Virg Mackz to investigate a distrubance. When she was camping in the night, a Drow attacked her. In the fight that ensued she gained the scar on her face, but won when she killed the Drow, just as he was casting a powerful spell at her. Her sword took the brunt of the magical attack though, and something strange happened. She killed the Drow but was blasted backwards as well, hitting a tree hard enough to make her pass out. Her sword was changing.

Throughout the following day she was unconscious, trapped in a feverish sleep. Amidst the hazy dreams came a clear name, Theron. Her sword. When she awoke, burning with a fever and the wound on her face infected, she found her horse, dragged herself back to Imardin and was healed...but she still remembered 'Theron'. The sword had altered forever also. When she held it, when it was in her posession, it glowed fiercely with a fiery glow, flames seeming to lick off the end when she swung it. But when someone else held it, when it was more than a few metres away from her, it acted like a completely normal, unenchanted longsword. It was a true blood bond.

When she had recovered from this, her fierce determination was turned away from making another personal sword to defending Imardin and training more. However she still found time to start enchanting another identically made longsword, but with different enchantments. She started with an strong Ice enchantment, and a Sonic enchantment, then one that she developed herself: the Glowing Sword enchantment. This was a truly powerful sword...though there was no connection, not like between her and Theron.

Then she was sent to Outpost Poroda for a short while to study strange movements of wildlife in the Ruby Mountains. She took with her both of her longswords, and camped with Alden in the wild. No more than three or four days in, however, she was attacked again by a Drow...this time a female. They fought and it seemed destined for the same thing to happen as the first time, although Elandra's improved skill, and her having Theron to fight with her, meant she avoided getting a matching scar. As before, Elandra attacked the Drow as she was casting a spell and was blasted into unconsciousness by the magical surge. This time however, she woke within minutes, and the Drow had disappeared. She clutched Theron in her hand, and seemingly from the blade distinctly came the word, "Leora".

At first she did not understand. She rolled the word around in her head and made no connections, nothing. She was still pondering when she was knocked out by a powerful disease spell from behind.

The next day she was found by two ground troops, led there by a bright white light glowing in the distance. In Elandra's hands were clutched her two longswords...the second one glowing almost painfully bright with uncontrolled magic energy. Beside her was a dead Drow, run through with one of her weapons. They took Elandra back, a Healer restored her to full vitality, and she had gained another personal, blood-bonded weapon - Leora.

When she returned to Imardin after this, Lycan told her that his feelings towards her were more than platonic...she surprised herself when, after looking inside, she discovered that she felt similarly. Their slow-growing relationship was halted, however, by his elevation into the High Council - they agreed that it was less than appropriate between people of differing ranks.

The War against the Dark Alliance

When the war first started, Elandra had been an elder for almost three years; she was experienced and very skilled, even compared to other, more chronilogically advanced Elders. So when the Warrior on the High Council, Owen Ledyard, was killed, ambushed by a half-dozen Drow, Elandra was elevated to fill his position. She was only 28 years old.

Given her experience in the geographical area, she was firstly given control over the Outpost Poroda, in the Ruby Mountains, and during that time she explored the volcano there, staying in the wilderness again with only Alden as company for long enough to capture, tame and train a Phoenix enough to bring it back to the Outpost. Her relationship with Lycan restarted also, and she revelled in the new security it brung.

A year had passed and the leader of the Magicians, Craxus Nec'roy recognised Elandra's power and strategic capabilites and quickly ingratiated her into his inner circle; she ignored the mutterings from other Guild members and threw everything she had into defending Imardin itself from the Dark Alliance troops.

Her part to play before the breaking of the main gate at Imardin was commanding the Warrior Magicians from atop her Phoenix, Ninian, and firing enchanted arrows and bolts down into the throng of spellcasting Drow. Alden was left unsummoned, until more close-range fighting was needed.

After about two days of the siege, the main gate was opened by Craxus in a sneaky strategic move and the Dark army surged into the city. Elandra summoned her familiar, and rode Ninian out of the gates into the throngs of evil, too fast to be seriously hurt, but she brought destruction upon the enemy.

Lord Craxus performed a spectacular spell, destroying a large fraction of the attackers, and Elandra finished off the few remaining ogres that were at the entrance to the city - her Warrior status that she was not hindered by ogre hides being immune to magic, as she did physical damage more than magical most of the time.

Her still-considerable magic skills she used when the remaining Magicians pulled together to create a comet-storm to destroy the remnamts of the Dark army. As rocks fell from the sky, Elandra pulled the comatose Craxus into safety in the magically protected Guild building, and Healers attended to his exhaustion.

Elandra Pawel, as the Warrior of the High Council, readily accepts her responsibilities in training more recruits and existing, surviving members quickly and more importantly *well*, to ready the Guild for the battle against the rest of the Dark Alliance. Her determination and loyalty to the High Lord Craxus is unwavering, her skill unquestioned, and her thirst for battle unquenched.

Additional

Elandra has deep reddish brown almond-shaped eyes, with gold flecks. Her hair is shiny, pure black, cut into a simple bob at her chin; her pale, smooth skin is marred by a still-livid scar stretching from below her right eye, over her cheek and down her neck slightly, ending below her right ear. Besides that, her face is elegant and strikingly attractive. She is about 5 foot 11 inches tall, and very lithe. She is very muscly but athletically built, keeping a strong but graceful appearance.

Normally she wears a form-fitting but flexible red catsuit; the shoulders, wristbands, belt and outside leg are black. Attached to the belt are various weapons. When not training she wears over this black robes, with a red sash. In battle, she wears light armour and foregoes the robes.

Her extra abilities are that she has Military Training, is an expert Blacksmith, a survavalist and is strong willed.

Elandra's status as High Warrior means that as well as her two personal longswords, she carries a number of other weapons that she has enchanted herself: an Invisible Scimitar with anti-coagulant properties, a custom made magically enhanced longbow with variously enchanted arrows, and a Changed Length morningstar.

Also with her at all times is her Amulet of Magic Power, which she developed herself.