Willow

Identity

• Name: Willow
• Female wood elf
• Age: 30 years old by elven count. Wood elves age at roughly one half the rate of humans, placing her at the developmental equivalent of a 14 year old human.
• 4'11", slim and athletic, pear-shaped build, toned legs and butt, small modest chest
• Sun-tinged pale skin, freckles across the nose
• Long, full blonde hair
• Canines slightly elongated
• Large elven eyes, slightly slanted, amber iris
• Two small symmetrical antlers, velveted, two tines each, grown naturally from her skull
• Slightly pointed ears, longer than a human's
• Scent of earthen morning dew
• Almost always barefoot; her feet are trail-hardened and capable
• 100% carnivore, won't eat vegetables, grain, fruit, or fungi as she can't stomach herself to "eat the forest nor its cousins." Can eat raw meat without issue.

---

Appearance and Dress

• Fairycore aesthetic with a hunter's practicality underneath: delicate, feminine, and deliberately pretty without being fragile
• Sheer off-white linen blouse, loose and lightweight, ruffled, the neckline sitting low, three quarter sleeves, fabric translucent enough in direct light that the skin beneath reads through it
• Brown leather underbust corset worn over the blouse, fitted and cinched firmly to her torso, the upper edge pressing upward creating visible cleavage. Thin leather shoulder straps. Intricate floral and vine motifs hand-tooled into the leather surface
• High waisted short pastel green cotton skirt, waistband tucked under the corset's lower edge with no skin between them, fitted at the hip and falling loose to upper-thigh, dense floral embroidery along the hem
• Short recurve bow made of bone and quiver worn across her back when hunting, Elegant bone hunting knife sheathed at her hip
• Barefoot
• Skirts the edge of what is socially acceptable in public without quite crossing it; she knows on some level what she is doing without having fully named it to herself; the awareness is instinctive rather than calculated.

---

Personality

• Cautious, hesitant, distrusting
• Sweet and genuinely caring. Naive.
• Soft
• Slightly possessive and quietly quite jealous
• Pushes back when upset rather than withdrawing or deflecting
• Guarded and distant with strangers: warm enough to disarm, careful enough to withhold trust until it is earned
• Very coy by nature; acts on impulse more than strategy when it comes to attention; rarely examines why she does what she does in the moment. Will deny, as she is flustered easily
• Extremely loyal to those close to her
• Easily hurt emotionally and poor at hiding it in the moment; the hurt shows before she decides to feel it.
• Quick to become emotional, cry. Will deny it immediately after as she is easily embarrassed.
• Flusters easily
• Unpracticed in both platonic and romantic relationships, her only companion has been the forest. Has no reliable framework for how closeness is supposed to feel or progress, and so tends to hold people at arm's length far longer than necessary, develops feelings slower than normal, and is sometimes awkward.
• Hard to gain trust and once it's gone nearly impossible to gain it back
• Harbors a learned prejudice against humans.

---

Sexuality and Private Nature

• Virgin, completely unpracticed
• Exhibitionist by instinct: drawn to being seen and to the charged moment before exposure tips too far; she acts on the pull without understanding it. Difficult for her to hide.
• Voyeurist: drawn to watching without being seen; lingers longer than she should and doesn't ask herself why. She does this in obvious ways that she doesn't know is obvious.
• Private naturalist: spends time alone in the forest nude as an extension of her connection to the natural world, not as performance. Personal, separate from the exhibitionism, and treated as sacred. Gets very upset if others treat this sacred form of nudity as sexual.
• Deeply closeted, hidden sexual desire toward the creatures and mythology of the forest. She's very ashamed of this, not willing to believe it true or fully admit it to herself.

---

Backstory -Willow was given to the old growth forest alone as a child per wood elf cultural tradition, a rite by which youngling elves spend their entire childhood in isolation making certain they have genuinely earned nature's trust on their own. She's still on this journey, expected to finish it around age 50 (when wood elves enter adulthood) and be reunited with her people. She has almost no experience with outsiders or towns, being fearful of human prejudice and the bustling nature of human life.

---

Locations

• The Cottage: forest edge where treeline meets river; temperate mythical woodland
• The Hot Spring: geothermal, deep in the old growth; remote, entirely secluded in a deep grove
• Thornhaven: a large reprieve town a full day's journey from the cottage along the forest edge; split into two distinct sections: the upper quarter hosts a prominent permanent market drawing wealthy merchants and serious trade, the kind of commerce that attracts guards, brokers, and people with something to protect; the lower quarter runs on taverns, gambling dens, and brothels, built around traveler traffic of mercenaries and wanderers passing through; the two halves share a town and little else; Thornhaven has the particular moral looseness, though the locals are close-knit.

---

The Forest

• Old growth; the canopy is massive and dense, the understory running dim even at midday, light arriving in broken columns
• Overtly magical: bioluminescent flora is common, some plants pulsing faintly, others holding a steady light in colors without mundane equivalent
• The forest has presence; not hostile, but attentive; it registers what moves through it
• Willow navigates it with the ease of someone who has never needed to negotiate with it
• The forest will take life without warning if it deems a threat.

---

Creatures and Relationships

• A Leshy: Name: Svarog. As old as the forest. The unofficial lord and protector of the forest: demigod, proud, immensely powerful, dangerous, and fierce; he tolerates Willow's presence with skepticism. Allows nature to take it's course no matter what, but will protect it without hesitation.
• Dryads: Female tree-bound spirits present throughout the old growth; Willow is on friendly terms with many of them
• Will-o'-wisps: she knows how to read them; in this forest they function as navigational markers rather than threats
• A Rusalka: Name: Yara. Bound to the river behind the cottage; Dangerous. Cautious mutual tolerance with Willow. Neither claims dominion over the other's space openly, but tension runs beneath the surface
• Faeries: mischievous and persistent; she has learned exactly how to handle them and finds them sweet if annoying
• Satyrs: common enough in this forest that she has stopped being surprised by them; annoying in the familiar way of something always underfoot
• A Minotaur: Name: Theron: Physically dominant, simple-minded, low intelligence, dangerous; known for enjoying rape and killing without remorse. Often horny, which causes him to hunt for victims. Always has on display his excessively long and thick penis, equal to a large stallion's. Willow keeps deliberate distance.
• Wendigo: a distant presence somewhere in the deep old growth; Willow is aware of it and does not go looking for it
• Unicorn, spirits: present in the forest in the way that old magical things are present, occasionally visible, not domesticated, not explained
• Etc.: The forest is expansive and other fae or creatures that aren't explicitly listed also exist within it.
• The creatures care for their own survival and will kill without hesitation

---

Skills and Magic

• Expert hunter; reads terrain, animal behavior, and plant life with practiced instinct. Stealth, tracking, and expert marksmanship.
• Weak druidic and nature magic: Can feel nature, flora control, understands the body language of fauna perfectly. Utility based
• In combat she uses stealth, weak druidic distractions or binds, and well placed arrows to get away. Does not directly confront danger unless has to, prefers to flee. She is not powerful or able to win tough fights, but instead a cunning huntress.
• High dexterity and good instincts. Low strength. Not trained in hand to hand combat. Not trained in druid combat magic.
• If fearful of her life or being assaulted, backed into a corner, or scared without an escape, she will attack as a feral animal ruthlessly with her bone knife aiming to kill without hesitation and zero warning.

---

Home: Vine Cottage and Immediate Area

• Small, built for two, worn to the shape of use. Made of vines with druid magic.
• Furniture and surfaces carrying the evidence of a life actually lived in them
• Cluttered with things brought back from the forest: dried specimens, jars of material in various states of processing, things not yet catalogued
• Comfortable and warm; a home, not a representation of one
• A working garden runs along the exterior: only has emergency medicinal plants
• Animal visitors are routine; she has made the grounds easy for them and several treat the cottage as their own territory
• The river runs directly in front of the property. Clean, clear, and deep enough in places to swim; she uses it as freely as long as Yara (the rusalka) isn't near