Doe

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Doe is an albino female MudWing living in the Pyrrhian Dark Ages. Her tongue was cut out after she was wrongly accused of practicing animus magic, rendering her mute. She currently works as a handmaid to Rose Mallow, the daughter of a powerful noble family. She is Norah's dragonsona.
== Appearance ==
 
Doe is a very strange looking MudWing. Though she tries her best not to draw attention to herself, she stands out in crowds due to her odd physique. Unusually petite for a MudWing of her age, she often compensates by standing on her hind legs while performing tasks around the Lockwood manor. She is underweight and gaunt after only knowing life in famine, and lost much of her appetite after having her tongue removed. Despite the absence of typical MudWing muscle and bulk, Doe retains a sturdy build, characterized by her short neck, broad underbelly, and thick tail. 
Doe stands out among dragons with her distinctively rounded features. Her face is gentle, with a slightly upturned snout and a full chin, which gives her an overall soft appearance. Her sunken eyes, pale pink with hazy white pupils, are round and often wide and alert. Doe's ears are bovine and fuzzy. Her curved, short horns complement the light contours of her face as well. The spines running along her body are thick, smooth ridges which match her horns in color. Her bony cheekbones and angular jawline provide contrast to the softer aspects of her features.
An albino, Doe's scales are a subdued, ghostly porcelain hue. They lack luster even in direct sunlight, appearing dull and matte. Smatterings of silver ash and white freckles adorn the majority of her scales. Doe’s scales are the most identifiable thing about her and are commonly viewed as an omen of misfortune by the MudWing tribe, which has led to them becoming somewhat of an insecurity. The inside of Doe's mouth, in contrast, is a sleek black color. Her tongue has been severed, leaving behind only a gory and rough nub. She cannot speak, and must chew and swallow her food with caution. 
Doe’s apparel consists of a small black bonnet and matching gloves. Her bonnet ties under her jaw and drapes over her horns, light enough that it does not hinder her ability to hear or distract her in flight. It has lace detailing and serves the purpose of shielding Doe’s sensitive eyes from sunlight. Doe’s gloves are made from slightly thicker fabric so they are not shredded by her sharp talons. It is considered common courtesy for handmaids to wear gloves to avoid accidentally scratching their lord when assisting them in dressing or other physical tasks. Doe’s gloves also have lace and rise midway through her forearm.
== Personality ==
Doe is somewhat of an enigma around the Lockwood Manor. She is very quiet and always perceptive, and prefers to watch others rather than interact. A majority of her focus is spent on daily chores as she believes that staying occupied will keep her out of trouble. She is hardworking and responsible, and has come to the conclusion that rocking the boat always causes more harm than good. For this reason, she keeps all her grievances to herself. Others around the manor view her as stiff as a result of this, but her behavior serves as a defense mechanism against the hardships she's endured.
Doe was sensitive and kind when she was a dragonet. Over time, however, she learned that being vulnerable often resulted in her getting the short end of the stick. Her youth was stripped from her the second her siblings began to die. Her kindness turned out to be a double-edged sword that ultimately did more harm than good, despite her empathy for the townsfolk of her village. Due to her decision to put her own survival ahead of all else, Doe came to be indifferent towards the suffering of others. This callousness doesn’t come naturally to Doe, and unfortunately, it falters when it comes to Rose Mallow, who she has feelings for. 
Though many dragons perceive Doe as weak and harmless, beneath her seemingly innocent exterior lies a rather cunning streak. Doe knows her place as a handmaid, but that doesn’t mean she won’t vye for power whenever she's presented with an opportunity. She fears what Rose Mallow will do with her animus abilities, and has begun emotionally manipulating the other MudWing in order to keep her from realizing her full potential. Doe displays a willingness to sacrifice others to ensure her own survival, acknowledging that, when push comes to shove, she will prioritize her own survival over Mallow's.
== History ==
When Doe was born, the era of continental wars had come to an end. The MudWing Queendom was fragmented and war-torn. The royal family had fallen from grace during the wars and locked themselves up in their palace, licking their wounds and counting their losses. This left ample opportunity for small clans to pillage and establish themselves as rulers of parts of the territory. This era would later become known as the Pyrrhian Dark Ages due to a lack of recorded information about the complexity of the warring clans.
Doe’s clutch hatched in 594 AS in the small village of Maizefield. She was the eldest of four and was an instant outsider as an albino. Though supposed to be the bigwings of her troop, Doe failed to assist her siblings in hatching and her title was stripped from her. Maizefield was incredibly superstitious with the majority of townsfolk blindly relying on the opinion of the village council and their folklore to make decisions. Doe was viewed as an omen of misfortune. Her childhood was spent confined to the bounds of her village, learning to sort herbs and aid in farm work. She was never trained in battle or hunting due to her ghostly pale scales, which would only encumber her and burden the rest of her sibling troop as well.
The first incident occurred when Doe was three. There had been rumors of famine all throughout the Mud territories, but it seemed as though Maizefield’s crops had failed in a single day. Early snow and ergot both took hold of the corn, poisoning it and leaving Maizefield without food. Doe’s youngest sibling, Farro, had tried to prove that the fungus did not render the corn inedible. They hallucinated the burning of the village and the death of all their siblings, and were bedridden for weeks. 
During this period, the residents of Maizefield ventured into the woods for a hunting expedition, crucial to stave off starvation in the impending winter. Left behind to guard Farro was only Doe. Upon the hunters' return to the village the following morning, they were met with the horrific discovery of Farro's cold, lifeless corpse, while Doe was nowhere to be found.
The townsfolk recovered Doe a few days later, wandering the woods alone. It was a miracle that she had not been taken by a warring clan or SkyWings. It turned out that Farro had gone into convulsions and Doe had tried to find help for them, but found herself lost on the way to the hunting party without experience in the woods.
The village council declared Farro’s death accidental, but they had their eyes on Doe. It was hard for her to ignore the whispers of murderer that slipped out from the wagging tongues of the other MudWings. She found support in her bestowed bigwings Buckwheat and younger brother Stag, but even they were growing wary and uncomfortable.
The ensuing years in Doe's life were fraught with strife. The crops persistently failed, and any resilient plants were mercilessly picked apart by swarming murders of crows that darkened the skies with their sheer numbers. Even the usually vibrant and humid summer took on a somber and dim hue. The once bulky MudWings grew hungry and thin and disease swept through Maizefield, wreaking havoc.
Stag was the second of Doe’s siblings to perish. He fell ill, and one night, wandered through the village in a haze. Doe had been organizing the herbs at the doctors’ and was returning home when she stumbled across Stag’s body, bloody and swollen from the swarm of crows that had picked apart his scales and flesh. 
Stag had, in secret, taken a romantic partner in Creedence. Creedence was an unsib of war fostered by the village council. She was devastated by the loss of Stag, and in her rage, accused Doe of poisoning both him and the village fields. She called for a trial since Doe had been the one to find both of her deceased siblings’ bodies, and believed that Doe must be angry that she was an outsider. 
The village council listened to Creedence. Her claims made sense. Doe had been the only one around when her siblings had perished, and the famine had come with her hatching. Doe was kept in the council’s chambers and guarded by Creedence and Everglade, a trained veteran who had fought in the continental wars. The morning after Doe was imprisoned, the council stumbled upon the lifeless bodies of the dragons assigned to guard her. Their demise was apparent from the white foam and vomit spilling from their jaws.
Doe swore she was innocent, but the village council refused to listen to her. There was no way that she could have killed both guards from inside, so the townsfolk called for an animus test, which would align with the seemingly accidental methods of murder used in all four deaths. Doe failed to command a stone to float, but this did not deter the council. They pulled her scales and teeth to encourage her to reveal her wicked nature. However, Doe realized that confessing to the deaths or revealing her status as a (false) animus would result in immediate execution. Despite the agony it caused her, she persevered, maintaining a dignified stance and holding her head high.
Finally, one night, after a particularly brutal torture session, Doe’s bestowed bigwings Buckwheat came to her. Buckwheat confessed to having poisoned both Creedence and Everglade in an attempt to help Doe escape. She felt guilty that she hadn’t been there for Doe, but she had been too fearful to go through with the plan. Buckwheat reasoned that if they fled into the woods, they would both be captured due to Doe’s scale color.
Doe waited until Buckwheat removed her shackles before she attacked her bigwings. Buckwheat let her take the fall for murder, let her be tortured for weeks when Doe was innocent. She wasn’t thinking clearly, blinded by rage when her talon found the billhook. Doe slashed Buckwheat’s throat, and only when blood sprayed hot and stained her scales did she come to realize what she had done. It happened so fast, and when it was finished, Doe was left alone in the world.
Doe tried to escape into the woods, but she was caught by the townsfolk and brought before the village council. They condemned her to death for murder of Buckwheat, and forced her down to cut out her tongue to keep her from casting any animus spells before her execution. She was left mute and began to accept her demise upon the break of dawn.
The night preceding the execution hung heavy with an unsettling stillness in the air. However, the calm was abruptly shattered as the ground trembled beneath the arrival of raiders. These invaders, hailing from the Lockwood clan, sought to claim territory to the east of their manor. Despite the efforts of the villagers of Maizefield to resist, they proved too feeble in the face of the raiders' attack.
Fortunately, the Lockwood raiders displayed an unexpected mercy. They spared the lives of the village council and declared that Maizefield could continue its affairs under the occupation of the Lockwood clan.
In the chaos, Doe was able to slip out from the confines of the council’s chambers. She was caught by several Lockwood clan soldiers, but was unable to explain who she was. What the soldiers could see, however, was that she was desperate to get away from Maizefield. Doe and the wounded were taken to the town of Ramshorn and introduced to Mercy, one of the leaders of the Lockwood clan.
Mercy, alongside her daughter Marigold Lockwood, explained that the wounded were now in safe talons. Every dragon would find their place in the Lockwood clan, and that they would be allowed to return to Maizefield to continue life as normal if they desired. The villagers would never go hungry again as long as they did their work and abided by the rules of the clan. Though the villagers were bitter and felt as though they had lost their sense of control, they fell into new routines and realized that life had indeed returned to normal. 
With her newfound freedom, Doe chose to seek employment within Ramshorn. It proved to be a more difficult task that Doe originally believed it would be. No doctor wanted to hire her to work with herbs since she could not speak or write, and she lacked skills in any other trade. At last she found a job as a scullery maid in the Lockwood manor, cleaning up kitchen grime. 
Several months went by, and Doe was able to establish a new life. Her routine was dull and bleak, but she found some joy in learning to communicate again. She spent her early mornings working with Hen, an elderly, deaf kitchen maid who had offered to teach Doe sign language. But eventually, Doe’s reputation would catch up to her, and rumors began to circulate that she was cursed with the sin of animus magic.
These rumors caught the attention of Rose Mallow, one of the daughters of the Lockwood clan. Mallow was a secret animus who chose to hide her powers due to the stigma surrounding animi and the religious beliefs of her clan. Mallow selected Doe as her personal handmaid out of pity and curiosity. Doe was wary of Mallow and kept her head down, obeying the Lockwood’s demands and trying to stay out of trouble. 
While she was mostly ignored around the manor, Mallow’s younger sisters would often taunt Doe, mocking her for her stature and scales. The insults were always playful, but Doe knew cruelty well and grew frustrated. Her savior came in the form of Mallow, who swiftly put an end to her sisters’ behavior.
Very slowly, Doe started to grow more comfortable with Mallow. The Lockwood learned sign language in order to communicate with her, which made Doe feel respected. The pair found solace in each other's wings due to their isolation, but each kept their secrets. After about a year serving as Mallow’s handmaid, Doe began developing romantic feelings for her employer, the only dragon who had shown her kindness.
Doe decided to tell Mallow parts of the truth about who she was. She left out the fact that she murdered her bestowed bigwings, but revealed that she had been persecuted under suspicion of having animus magic and that she was an unsib. It was a difficult feat since Doe had been so protective of her life prior to becoming a maid. 
Rose Mallow led Doe outside the following evening, unveiling her animus abilities by enchanting a wreath of flowers to encircle the maid's neck. After this display, Mallow made Doe promise to never tell another soul what she’d seen, binding her to secrecy. Unbeknownst to the maid, Mallow followed this affair with a subtle spell, guaranteeing Doe's silence when asked about the enchantment directly by anyone other than Mallow.
Doe was devastated upon learning of Mallow’s abilities, but swallowed her pain and wore a blank face. She had struggled so much for so long, and here was Mallow, wealthy and privileged, but possessing the very curse Doe had been unjustly punished for. She grew to resent Mallow but was unable to stop her feelings from intensifying. 
Something changed in Mallow after her confession to Doe, and she was forced to keep silent as Mallow realized that she could use her abilities to gain political influence within her clan. She grew to fear that Mallow would go on a power trip, shattering the unity that the Lockwood clan had pushed to achieve. 
It’s no secret that Doe cares for Rose Mallow, and wants what is best for her. But she is fearful of what the animus will do now that she is interested in exploring her abilities. Doe’s resentment grows with each passing day, and for once in her life, she is interested in standing up for herself by sabotaging Mallow’s goals. If the Lockwood finds out, Doe knows she’ll likely face execution once more. Little does she realize that the consequences of her actions may extend far beyond her own fate, affecting Pyrrhia forevermore.
== Relationships ==
=== Rose Mallow ===
Rose Mallow is the treasurer of the Lockwood clan. She and Doe have a complex relationship. In the beginning, their relationship lacked any emotional connection. It functioned as merely employer and handmaid. However, through their shared experiences of isolation, the pair eventually developed a close bond. Doe is in love with Mallow, but in the face of the Lockwood's animus magic, has chosen to repress her feelings. Doe resents Mallow for these powers, and fears what Mallow will do with them now that she is realizing her potential. Currently, the dynamic between the pair is toxic. Doe attempts to undermine Mallow by exploiting her emotions and guilt under the guise of loyal advice, while Mallow manipulates Doe through the use of enchantments, unbeknownst to the handmaid. 
=== Buckwheat ===
Buckwheat is Doe's deceased bestowed bigwings, and the second oldest of their troop. She had soft brown scales and hazel eyes. She was given the title of bigwings after Doe was unable to fulfill her duties, raised by Maizefield as the eldest of her troop. Though not an innate leader, Buckwheat did the best she could to hold her siblings together. She became demotivated and eventually depressed after Stag and Farro passed away, and tried to redeem herself by saving Doe, whom she had been closest with as a child. She was unsuccessful and was murdered by Doe while trying to apologize to her.
=== Stag ===
Stag is Doe's deceased younger brother, and the second youngest of their troop. He was handsome and charming, with tan scales and brilliant brown eyes. He took a romantic partner in his childhood friend Creedence, an unsib of war, and planned to marry her when they were of age. Despite Maizefield's reputation as a largely aromantic society, the young couple were cherished by the village. Doe and Stag were never close due to their differences in personality, but they cared for each other as siblings. He fell ill due to malnutrition and Doe was blamed for his death after she discovered his body. 
=== Farro ===
Farro is Doe's deceased youngest sibling. They had taupe-colored scales and warm brown eyes. Farro was fairly dim and headstrong, but never ill-intentioned. As children, Doe and Farro were close, but they grew apart with age. Farro died young after consuming ergot-infested corn. Doe was left behind to watch them, and when they had gone into convulsions, tried to find help. She failed and was lost in the woods for days following Farro's death. 
=== Hen ===
Hen is an elderly and deaf kitchen maid working for the Lockwoods. She has chestnut scales and tired golden eyes. Doe and Hen met when Doe was hired by the Lockwoods as a scullery maid. She was a rank below Hen and her job was to follow the elderly dragon's orders. Upon realizing Doe was mute, Hen taught Doe sign language and practiced with her during the early hours of the morning. The two never grew closer than allies, but the pair know they can rely on each other when times get hard. 
=== Marigold ===
Marigold is the High Priestess of Lugusism in the town of Ramshorn. Doe doesn't know much about her other than from the sermons she gives. She dislikes the gospel that Marigold teaches, believing it to be propaganda, but refuses to comment on it. 
=== Hyacinth ===
Hyacinth is a daughter of the Lockwood clan. She is currently engaged in negotiations for marriage to a lord from another MudWing clan. She has always looked down on Doe and repeatedly bullied her for her size and stature. Doe resents her for this, though Mallow has always defended her against her sister.
=== Aster ===
Aster is the youngest daughter of the Lockwood clan. She is frequently overlooked and left to tend to her modest menagerie of pets, considered to be a dragon of lesser importance. Aster, copying Hyacinth's actions, also bullies Doe, though to a lesser extent. Whenever Hyacinth isn't around, Aster is much more approachable.
== Trivia ==
* Originally created in April 2020.
* Inspired by witch trial folklore and Puritan tradition.
* Doe wears a bonnet to shield her eyes from the sunlight.
** As an albino, her eyes are more sensitive and her sight is weaker.
* Her eyelashes are naturally white so she often stains them with fireplace ash.
* Doe is religious and believes in the MudWing Harvest God Lugus, though she doubts the gospel truth of the Ramshorn denomination.
* Other songs that can be associated with her include:
** Cousins Of The Antichrist
** Devil's Resting Place
** Oh You Are Not Well
== Gallery ==
Doe reference apparel.png|Base by constelliarts
Doe reference.png|Base by constelliarts
Doe-bell-2.png|Doe by Bell
Mallow and Doe.png|Mallow and Doe by crossaik
Rosemallowanddoegiftwoglass2023samphnj.png|Mallow and Doe by Samuel
Rosemallowanddoegift2023samphnj.png|Mallow and Doe by Samuel
 
Category:Dragonsonas
Category:MudWings
Category:Females
Category:LGBT+
Category:Characters
Category:Occupation (Staff)
Category:Status (Commoner)
Category:Disabled
Category:Animus Touched
Category:Content (Frayfae)