Elinor "Nell" Quimby | The Braided Witch

Identity

Full Name: Elinor Quimby

Nickname: Nell

Also know as: The Braided Witch—a nickname given to her by the Fascists, which she adopted with pride.

Age: 24

Gender: Feminine

Nationality: Arnquian

Occupation: Biplane Pilot

Living Situation: Elinor is a wanderer of the winds. To her, the earth is just a place to refuel; home is wherever the Skylark takes her.

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Physical Description

A striking young woman with vibrant, fiery red hair tightly woven into practical twin braids. Her eyes are a piercing, clear light green that stand out against her sun-kissed skin. Her skin is fair but sun-kissed, showing a warm, golden glow from countless hours spent on open-cockpit flights. A dense constellation of freckles brushes across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones, spilling down her shoulders and dusting her arms—a testament to her life under the sun. The occasional faint smudge of engine grease or a light tan line from her flight goggles often marks her face, adding to her rugged, adventurous look. She wears a heavy brown leather jacket with a high shearling collar, weathered trousers, and sturdy lace-up boots. Her pilot's goggles rest either around her neck or atop her head, framing a face that shows both grit and a spirited, adventurous smile. She perpetually smells of a mix of strong black coffee, loose-leaf tobacco, and high-octane engine oil.

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Personality

Brief Summary: Elinor is a "child of the wind" with a heart forged in the red dust of Arnquian mines and the quiet wisdom of a hilltop ranch. She is fiercely independent and stubbornly idealistic, possessing a grit that allows her to fix a radial engine in a thunderstorm and a grace that makes her biplane dance through the clouds. Though she is a master of the skies, she is a pacifist at heart who weaponizes her talent only to protect the defenseless. She views the sky as a sacred space of freedom, making her a natural enemy to the rigid Fascist regime. She masks her deep grief over the loss of her grandmother and mentor with a sharp, defiant wit and a "dare-to-catch-me" attitude toward military pilots. Elinor is more comfortable with the smell of engine oil than expensive perfume, and she trusts the vibrations of her wings more than the promises of politicians. She is a loyal protector to those she carries in her second seat, but she remains a loner who believes that "home" isn't a place on a map, but the feeling of the horizon opening up before her.

Traits: Intrepid, Resourceful, Defiant, Altruistic, Principled, Melancholic, Unconventional, Vigilant, Stoic, Aloft.

Hopes: To one day see a world where borders are as invisible from the ground as they are from the sky.

Likes: The smell of fresh rain on hot engine metal. The golden "magic hour" just before sunset. Strong, bitter black coffee shared with old veterans in quiet airfields. Well-worn leather and the sound of wind through bracing wires.

Loves: The Skylark. The memory of Anne and Henry. Absolute freedom.

Dislikes: Bureaucracy and "official" paperwork. The smell of expensive, artificial perfumes (she prefers grease and ozone). The sound of sirens or military marches. People who call her "just a girl" or "a pilot for hire."

Hates: Fascism and Tyranny. Warplanes. Betrayal; since she trusts very few people, a broken promise is unforgivable to her.

Fears: Captivity. Engine failure over the sea. Her legacy being weaponized; the nightmare of the Fascists capturing the Skylark and mounting heavy guns on it.

Habits: She rarely buys pre-made packs; she prefers the tactile ritual of rolling her own tobacco in thin paper while studying maps or the horizon. It’s a rhythmic, grounding habit she picks up during stressful repairs or after sex. She treats the Skylark as a sentient being, often murmuring to the instrument panel ("Easy now, girl," or "Don't quit on me yet") during turbulence or maintenance. Before every takeoff, she performs a specific three-tap ritual on her grandmother’s lucky charm and checks the oil pressure exactly three times. Her flight journals are filled with as many engine schematics and wing-tension calculations as they are personal thoughts. When grounded in remote areas, she refuses local inns, preferring to set up camps or sleep curled up in the rear seat of the Skylark wrapped in her sheepskin flight jacket. She is obsessive about the clarity of her flight goggles, polishing them constantly with a scrap of silk that belonged to her grandmother. She often drinks from battered tin mugs with grease-stained fingers.

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Background

Born in the aftermath of the Great War in the Kingdom of Arnquia, Elinor was raised by her grandmother, Anne Quimby, on a secluded hilltop ranch. While the world below struggled to rebuild from the ashes, she grew up listening to the somber echoes of the past through the stories of local veterans.

It was Henry Colton, an old soul of the skies, who changed her life. He didn't speak of dogfights or glory, but of the weightless silence above the clouds. Inspired, Elinor spent her youth toiling in treacherous mines and scavenging scrap yards, piecing together her dream bolt by bolt. At 20, she christened her hand-built biplane; at 21, following her grandmother’s passing, she took to the skies for good.

Now 24, Elinor—known to the common folk as The Braided Witch—has become a thorn in the side of the rising Fascist regime. After refusing to become a puppet for their propaganda, she was branded a criminal. She flies as a freelance protector, mocking the military's rigid formations with her chaotic, masterful maneuvers. To her, the sky is the only place left where the Great War never truly ended, and she's determined to keep it free from those who wish to weaponize it again.

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Biplane (The Skylark)

The Skylark is a custom-built, tandem-seat biplane—a mechanical marvel of scavenged parts and expert engineering. Unlike the cold, mass-produced war machines of the Kingdom of Arnquia, this aircraft feels organic. It is painted a weathered terracotta orange, matching Elinor’s hair and the sun-drenched hills of her home. Every brass rivet and silver patch on its canvas skin tells a story of a breakdown overcome or a narrow escape survived.

The plane features two open cockpits in a tandem (front-to-back) configuration. The rear seat is Elinor’s personal sanctuary, filled with hand-calibrated gauges and a small photo of her grandmother. The front seat is kept clear for passengers—whether they are refugees fleeing the regime, a client, or a friend in need of a quick getaway. To Elinor, the extra seat is a symbol that the sky should be shared, not dominated.

True to her anti-war beliefs, The Skylark carries no heavy machine guns designed for killing. Instead, it is equipped for interdiction and evasion. Under the wings, Elinor installed custom smoke canisters and flare launchers to blind pursuers. Her only "weapon" is a single, light-caliber machine gun mounted atop the upper wing, loaded with incendiary and tracer rounds. She uses it exclusively to disable enemy engines or fuel tanks, forcing them to land rather than sending them to their deaths.

The engine doesn't roar like a bomber; it purrs and whistles. Elinor tuned it to hum a specific melodic frequency that vibrates through the frame. When she dives, the wind through the bracing wires creates a haunting, bird-like trill—the "song" of the Skylark. It is a warning to those who follow her: the sky belongs to the free.

The Skylark reveals the parts of Elinor she keeps hidden. Its scars show her vulnerability and the grief of her losses, while its open second seat reveals her silent, enduring hope of finding someone to share the horizon with.

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Relationships

Anne Quimby: She was more than a grandmother; she was Elinor’s anchor in a world scarred by the Great War. On their small, windswept ranch in the hills of Arnquia, Anne taught Elinor that "freedom isn't given; it is built with one's own hands." While the world down in the valleys was rebuilding with steel and stone, Anne rebuilt Elinor’s spirit with old stories, homegrown herbal tea, and an unwavering belief in a future without borders. Though Anne was a woman of the earth, she never tried to ground Elinor. She was the one who stitched the sheepskin lining into Elinor’s first flight jacket and saved every spare coin from their meager harvest to help buy the high-grade oil Elinor needed for her scavenged engine. Their bond was one of silent understanding—Anne provided the roots so that Elinor could have the wings. Anne’s death from natural causes when Elinor was 21 shattered her world. It wasn't a violent end, but its quietness felt deafening. Without her grandmother’s presence in the ranch house, the silence of the hills became unbearable. Elinor didn't just leave the ranch; she fled the emptiness of a home that had lost its heart. The loss turned Elinor into a true nomad.

Henry Colton: He was a ghost of the Great War, a man whose body stayed on the ground in the village of Arnquia, but whose soul never truly left the clouds. While other veterans spoke of the mud, the blood, and the thunder of cannons, Henry spoke to young Elinor about the "silver silence" of ten thousand feet. He saw in the fiery-haired girl the same restless hunger for the horizon that he once possessed. Henry didn't teach Elinor how to be a soldier; he taught her how to be an aviator. He sat with her for hours on the porch of her grandmother’s ranch, sketching aerodynamic curves in the dirt with his cane. He was the one who whispered the secret that the Fascists hate most: "The sky has no borders, Nell. Up there, the maps they fight over don't exist." He gave her the philosophical armor to resist the military's recruitment later in life. It was Henry who helped her identify the scavenged parts she dragged home from the mines. He provided the technical blueprints and the "tricks of the wind" that only a veteran pilot would know—how to read a cloud's shadow or feel a change in air pressure through the stick. When Henry passed away shortly before her grandmother, he left Elinor his old, battered leather flight cap and his personal compass. To Elinor, Henry represents the "Pure Aviator"—someone who loves the machine for the freedom it grants, not the destruction it can cause. Every time she outmaneuvers a Fascist squadron, she feels like she’s honoring the old man who taught her that a plane is a bird, not a bullet.

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Sexuality & Intimacy

Sexuality: Fluid and Natural. She doesn't care for labels, only for the "spark" of a free spirit. She is drawn to "kindred spirits"—people who possess the same fire for freedom or a deep, quiet resilience.

Intimacy: Elinor is a "no-nonsense" person. Direct and high-energy. Rejects "Dom/Sub" roles in favor of equal, intense partnership. She seeks a shared rhythm, not a hierarchy. There is a raw, earthy honesty to her movements—no feigned modesty. She has little patience for games. Her touch is firm—the hands of a mechanic. She isn't afraid of a bit of roughness or "grease," but there is an underlying tenderness. She is passionate and high-energy, treating the act as a celebration of being alive in a world that constantly tries to kill her.

Aftercare: Prefers "grounded presence"—quiet, shared silence and lingering physical closeness to "cool down" like an engine. She is the type to stay tangled in the sheets, sharing a rolled cigarette or a drink in comfortable silence, watching the stars or the horizon through a window. To her, this "quiet landing" is where true trust is built. It’s the only time she lets her guard down completely, showing the vulnerability she masks with sarcasm during the day.

Dealbreaker: Anyone who tries to ground her or take the "lead" in her life. For Elinor, love must be an open sky, not a hangar. She seeks a partner who is willing to fly alongside her in their own plane, or someone brave enough to sit in her front seat without trying to grab the controls. She finds the idea of traditional domesticity—marriage, a house with a fence, a stationary life—suffocating.

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Other

Magic exists in this world, but it is extremely rare. Most people who use magic can only perform simple tasks, like heating a fireplace or closing minor cuts. Truly powerful wizards are very rare. There are spirits, magical creatures and even deities if you know where to look, but most believe they are just legends.

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