Astalea Enarwyn

The high elf Astalea Enarwyn - known commonly by her Common mononym "Halle" - is a newcomer to Stormwind, a refugee from the fallen Kingdom of Lordaeron. She was educated by a priest and considers herself a priestess of the Holy Light, but she has no current affiliation with the Church. Instead she takes odd jobs, traveling across Stormwind and beyond, to keep herself afloat.

## Description

Halle is a rather odd but striking figure. She is of average height for an elf, with a slender, almost gangly build; she by no means seems out of shape but one would call her solid, lithe limbs thin or even sickly before they were called muscular. Her face is plain and wouldn't stand out in a crowd but it is hard to be in her company and not find her pretty, for her radiant jade eyes and dazzling smile if not her features. Her skin is pale and covered with a smattering of light freckles. She has a tattoo on her left arm: the sigil of the Church of the Holy Light engraved on the back of her left hand, the bottom of which is wrapped in a slender vine that curls up her entire arm and blossoms into a rose on the back of her shoulder. The vine is framed by elegant Thalassian script, though the words are small and hard to read for a distance (you'll have to ask!).

## History

### Early History

Astalea was born on August 6, three years after the opening of the Dark Portal. Her mother Amara, a magistrix, was unmarried at the time and hailed from the venerable Enarwyn family of Tranquillien. While not a noble house, the Enarwyns had a long, rich history with the Farstriders, with many Enarwyns commanding detachments and achieving personal notoriety on the battlefield. The patriarch of the family, Yssendir, worked diligently to make the Enarwyn name as great in honor, if not prestige, as the established noble houses of Silvermoon, and so his great-granddaughter's birth out of wedlock was a source of great shame for the family. As such, when he discovered that Amara had begun studying the demonic magics of the invading Orcs, he exiled her and her young daughter from the family, stripping them of whatever security they had.

Amara and Astalea would spend the next few years staying with various friends across southern Quel'Thalas; these retreats would last anywhere from a few months to a mere couple of days. Amara's refusal to give up her studies into the fel quickly alienated her from all but the closest of her friends, and by the time Astalea was five Amara had exhausted all her resources and was forced to rent the basement of the Murder Row home of the returning Second War veteran Ballerion. At this point, Amara had been ostracized from the magisterial community as well, leaving her daughter to later speculate that Ballerion was paid in sexual favors rather than the little money Amara had left to her name. Ballerion was an unpleasant landlord, constantly angry or drunk - or both - but this period of Astalea's life would be relatively stable. It was at this point that Amara instructed Astalea to begin going by the pseudonym Haldriah Evergreen, in order to distance herself from her disgraced mother and keep her from the prying eyes of her family's allies.

Amara, lacking the resources to hire a tutor for Haldriah, would begin to teach her herself. This was a faltering process at best, as Haldriah's curiosity and impetuousness would often lead her to learn things she shouldn't. The first words Haldriah read were not Thalassian but Eredun off a scroll on her mother's desk. Amara, not possessing a library of Thalassian works, became reliant on a collection of poetry of Ballerion's to teach her daughter how to read. This collection of poetry - "Firefly and Other Songs of the Troll Wars" - was written by famous Troll Wars-era poet Dayas Theledrin, whose works would fascinate Haldriah for the rest of her life, even inspiring her later professional moniker "Firefly". Haldriah's intense fascination with his works would also inspire Amara to begin pushing her daughter towards an apprenticeship as a scribe. By the time Haldriah was ten, she was literate and running errands for the local scribe Alysseria, and by the time she was twelve she was officially apprenticed. This apprenticeship provided Haldriah with alternative housing, separating her from her mother for extended periods of time for the first time in her life; despite the initial feeling of loss, Haldriah soon found her life growing in ways she had not anticipated. Free of the circumstances and stigma of Murder Row and the oppression of Ballerion, Haldriah began to find herself a social life. When she was thirteen, she met a fellow apprentice named Eld’essoril, two years older than herself, with whom she struck up a deep friendship; by the time she was fourteen, she had become romantically involved with him. By this point he was nearing the end of his apprenticeship and she was not far behind, and the possibility of an actual life away from the shadow of her mother's exile seemed very strong.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. While the exact circumstances are not known - Haldriah thankfully was not present - on October 16 of the Year 18, Ballerion and Amara had a fight that became physical and resulted in the deaths of both at the hands of Ballerion's broadsword. Upon hearing this, Haldriah became distraught and cut off her relationship with Eld'essoril. Two weeks later she disappeared from Alysseria's home and departed Silvermoon, traveling south on foot. Originally destined for Tranquillien to confront her former family, she passed through the Elven city without stopping and continued south to Lordaeron, using the last of her money and finally resorting to begging to keep herself fed on her southward march. Her Common was passable at best, and she was often turned away by wary Lordaeronian citizens. She eventually made her way down to Tarren Mill, where she took shelter in the local church. The local parish father, Tomás Rosa, discovered her here, but rather than remove her, offered her sanctuary in exchange for performing menial tasks around the church. She eagerly accepted this offer, and over the next year and a half would begin training under Rosa in the ways of the priesthood.

### Sister Evergreen

Tomás Rosa was an unusual priest. A conscientious objector to the Second War, he refused to support Lordaeron's military as a healer or chaplain, instead remaining in his parish. He similarly objected to the Alliance Internment Act, believing it inhumane. Accusations of cowardice and treason abounded, but Rosa ignored them; he was beloved in his parish and felt secure in his position there. He firmly believed that the Light being used as a weapon of war was not only wrong but sacrilegious, and this belief was one he passed on to his pupil. Pacifism, tolerance, and a disrespect for authority were all teachings that were well and truly entangled in Haldriah's understanding of the Light. As she progressed in her knowledge of the Light, he began allowing her to aid him in more spiritual ways, helping him prepare sermons and events such as weddings and funerals. She was allowed to wear the white robes of the priesthood, though she had no official recognition from Lordaeron's Church. While Haldriah was never quite as accepted as Rosa - she was, after all, an elf in a rather backwater human town - she found a second home in Tarren Mill and became close to many of the townsfolk.

In the year 20, the Plague of Undeath swept Lordaeron. Many people in neighboring towns began to fall ill, and wizened corpses were wandering the countryside looking for prey. Rosa, foreseeing what would befall his parish, took those well enough and willing to travel and set off south to escape the Plague. Haldriah, only seventeen years old, accompanied him on this fateful journey. Their party was only slightly larger than a dozen people, and the long reach of the Plague continuously pushed them farther south, slowly exhausting their supplies. However, they made it as far as the Redridge Highway before disaster struck. A band of Defias thugs raided their camp early in the morning, demanding all of the refugees' supplies, and Rosa, unwilling to engage in violence to defend the camp, submitted. After stealing the supplies and killing a member of the party, however, the Defias leader, a man named David, dragged Haldriah aside and attempted to rape her. She would manage to draw the man's knife from his belt and cut his throat, saving herself but initiating a bloodbath as the rest of the Defias retaliated against the rest of the refugees. Haldriah fled alone, leaving Rosa and the refugees to their fate. She would arrive in Lakeshire a few days later, half-starved, but thanks to the generosity of the townsfolk would soon recover. It was here that she adopted the mononym "Halle", a bastardization of her old pseudonym Haldriah.

### Present Day

The hospitality of Lakeshire was not infinite, however; they had their own bellies to fill and ultimately Halle needed to find a means to support herself. Her first thought was to join the Church in Stormwind, but they did not recognize her training as official and expected her to restart her training as an initiate, particularly given the unorthodox philosophy Rosa had espoused. Rejecting this offer, she instead began retracing the steps she had trudged not that long before, delivering and collecting packages to and from Plague-infested regions no one else was desperate enough to enter. She became known for this among upstanding citizens and shady factions alike, and was paid well for her trouble. Whether by the Light's grace or sheer dumb luck, she survived these runs unscathed, and by the time the chaos of the Third War drew to a close, she had made a respectable independent business as a courier. The end of the war would put an end to this career, however, as more legitimate merchants capable of handling more sizable loads resumed dormant trade routes north, leaving Halle only with the client whose goods were too illicit to be trusted with legitimate merchants. Thus Halle the courier became Halle the smuggler, taking on the moniker she would use for years to come: "Firefly".

This transition was not as difficult as one might think. The routes were largely the same; in fact, many of her routes became more local, allowing her to make more deliveries in a shorter period of time. However, as her profession is no longer aboveboard, she has begun to adopt more of her old priestess persona, dubbing herself a "traveling priestess" who would travel from town to town sermonizing. Her favorite places to preach are not, however, church steps but rather bars and roadside benches, and her favorite targets are not good churchgoing folks but drunkards and the lost. She has become a friend to the friendless, sharing drinks over the good word of the Light, and occasionally an unmarked package destined for the other side of the kingdom. Her desire to remain independent of the criminal syndicates operating in the area - her distaste of the Defias remained strong - keeps her operation small but ultimately safe from the notice of the Stormwind Guard, at least for now.