Basics: Arianna is a small, delicate young woman with long black hair. She always attempts to look her best and will be typically seen in medieval-esque dresses and cloaks. Often her dresses have flowing sleeves and hoods built into the dress.

Her native language is Wyrd-spiel, the official language of Pendrakken and the most common language in Midworld. She also understands smatterings of Shensai, one of the languages of Kenrei.

History: See information on Pendrakken and Witches.

Arianna was born before the Vagnarian rebellion into House Vard as the second daughter of the heir. House Vard is well-known for its magical prowess and she was chosen by the spirits at birth like her siblings: Arturia, the eldest, wielded frost and flame as a Dark Witch, Gwydion, the power of the earth as a Gray Witch, and Arianna was thus left with water and wind as a Bright Witch. Together the trio of siblings could have risen to the top ranks in their respective disciplines and led House Vard’s Witches into an era of prosperity.

However, this was not to be. Arianna’s father and sister went to war to take back the Throne of Scales in the name of the rightful heir. They both fought bravely against the forces of Tristram Vagnar but both fell in the attempt to retake the capital city of Lutherion by the Lake. All of her grandfather’s children were wiped out in one battle or another and the House was decimated. Arianna was left with her grandparents, mother, brother, the occasional aunt who possessed no ability to aid the war effort, and a smattering of cousins too young to go to war. She was only seven and her brother at ten became heir apparent.

When Arianna was about ten and political conditions in Pendrakken had calmed down, she was sent to the royal court at Lutherion for further etiquette training. While she enjoyed the chance to meet people her age from the other noble houses, she missed her family terribly. After returning home when her training was complete, she continued correspondence with several of her friends, though this has become much more sporadic in recent months.

About a two years ago, Gwydion’s company disappeared on a patrol near the neighboring country of Gotterdammerung. Arianna took it upon herself to search for him; after all, soldiers will draw attention that a lone physic will not. She took her most trusted servant, Lena, and hid the fact that she had any sort of supernatural power during her search. The necromancers who had kidnapped her brother were thankfully planning to use them for fleshcrafting experiments and kept them alive, though this made them sloppy and relatively easy to track. Arianna and Lena followed them into Gotterdammerung and made the Blood Rose Inn their base of sorts. During this time, Arianna witnessed a young Cambion (half demon, half human) child named Verda enslaved by her family and subjected to abuse after abuse. Now, few people in Midworld really want a Nightkin around, but as Arianna had learned as a child by watching the Vagnarian children fostered in Lutherion and the nobles’ courts, it is wrong to hold a child responsible for the crimes of their parents. After some observation (with help from Lena), she determined that the child’s mother seemed to want to stop the abuse but lacked the power. So when Arianna approached her with an offer to buy Verda, take her somewhere safer, and free her, the mother accepted. Getting Verda’s stepfather to agree, was another matter entirely. On one hand, he hated Verda and wanted her out of his sight. On the other, he hated what her mother had done and enjoyed using Verda’s pain as a way to strike at her. He wavered and refused to give her a definitive answer, though while Arianna was there, the abuse temporarily stopped- damaged goods won’t sell as well, after all. But Arianna and Lena discovered Gwydion and two of his men also tracking the rest of the knights; they had in fact been saved from kidnapping by being away gathering proper firewood. Together they were able to rescue the others and then Gwydion metaphorically dragged the entire party back to Pendrakken and barely stopped to allow them to rest.

A year later, Arianna heard in passing stories of a girl matching Verda’s description in Freehold, as well as rumors that the few friends she had made among the disgraced Vagnarian children had been given leave to do as they would with their lives. Despairing their chances of a life without prejudice in Pendrakken, they had left, possibly to seek their fortunes in Freehold. So Arianna obtained permission for a visit to make sure everything was all right under the supervision of her cousin the envoy. Freehold is a neutral territory among the seven kingdoms of Midworld, though each has a hand and a stake in forging it. So being in the company of Pendrakken’s envoy would be proper for a noblewoman of Arianna’s standing; the king would not appoint someone of questionable morals. Unfortunately, he disappeared soon after her arrival along with several of the other envoys. He was assumed dead and another envoy from a different house was appointed several months later…only for her cousin to miraculously reappear! Though House Vard is angry at House Rayne for “stealing” the envoyship, Arianna does her best to keep the peace and back the new envoy despite hints that she should be trying to make his life difficult.

Verda is much better, having found family of choice who actually care about her, so for now Arianna is really staying in Freehold to protect what remains of her family’s interests and to wait for her friends. And with a set of immortal brothers breaking free from their ancient seals and seeking to either control or destroy all of Midworld, she’s got her hands full enough without having to worry about either of them.

Personality: Much of Arianna’s nature is due to having been forced to watch as body after body was carried back from the battles. She and Gwydion are fiercely loyal to each other and woe to anyone who dares so much as distress his little sister. Arianna also possesses a caution that many warriors mistake for cowardice because she hates the idea of unnecessary slaughter or acting when she lacks information. Of the Seven deities worshipped by Pendrakkens, Arianna has taken the Seer as her patron aspect, so she treasures knowledge even if it is only for knowledge’s sake. She likes to have a clear plan and several layers of backup plans just in case something goes wrong, because battles are too unpredictable to be left to chance. Real-time tactics are not her specialty; she manages to stay out of trouble well enough but is still working on being able to read and anticipate the direction of a battle.

She is polite to almost everyone regardless of social standing; Arianna will always choose to be loved over feared or awe-inspiring. And many a clever noblewoman knows that good, loyal servants are irreplaceable eyes and ears. Lena was invaluable in Arianna’s search for her brother and she has never forgotten that. She even works in the Inn despite that being, well, work. It can be a loose analogy to running a household and it gives her a sort of semi-invisible quality. People do tend to flap their mouths while they wait for food, and she’s learned quite a bit of valuable information this way. The main exception to this rule is the Chainers of Jotunbrud as she has little love for slavers. They will find themselves either ignored or met with a wall of frigid indifference or snarking if she must deal with them. She's grown up around too many Dark Witches to have not picked up a little of their sarcasm.

She shares her gifts of healing freely, and has saved many a life for no more than a “thank you.” But when physical danger is involved, she expects some portion of the spoils to cover the costs of components and training. She is not always assertive in claiming her share and won’t start a fight over it, but should she be deliberately slighted, Arianna will not join an adventuring party with the offender again if she can help it. That may not seem like a punishment, but as one of the best healers in town, it can be a significant blow if the group gets into heavy combat.

Abilities: Arianna is a Bright Witch, meaning she has been chosen by the Maia and Muses, spirits of the water and wind respectively. This means she has tremendous healing powers, able to heal battle wounds, restore lost body parts, lift curses, diseases, or poisons, and even revive the dead. From the Muses she gains her ability to send lightning bolts at her enemies. However, any Witch can attempt to gain the favor of the other elemental spirits who did not choose her at birth. Arianna also communes with the Wisps, spirits of shadow, ice, and starlight. While this sounds like it would provide her with dark powers, it does not. Wisp spells tend more towards utilities such as turning into a flock of ravens to escape an opponent or warding a building so those without her favor cannot enter.

Several of her spells require a component for their casting. The warding spell always requires one and the spell that removes diseases, curses, or poisons can depending on the strength of the ailment. For example, she would be able to cure a common cold without one, but something like vampirism would definitely require it.

Arianna also possess an incredible amount of willpower bolstered through her magic; attempts to possess or magically force her to act against her will or charm her do not work. There is a magical price to pay for this, of course, and while it may have been negligible at home, it probably will not be in Marina. For example, she would probably be able to resist the Geass, but it might come very near to killing her (maybe not to the extent that bringing someone back to life would, but.).

On a less magical note, her "profession" in the game is a physic/doctor. We had to choose one, so I have interpreted this as a mix of training the future lady of a house would have received mixed with skills she was taught just in case she was in a situation where using magic was not an option.