Teia

## Application Sheet

Teia was a pale gray she-wolf with piercing blue eyes, who served for several years as Aryn's trusted Grand Vicar, steady through the war with Vektren. When her life was threatened by Raphael during the Inquisition, Cassandra took her side and protected her in the sanctuary of the Old Rowan. She was created and RP'd by Fireshrike.

## Personality

* ***Motherly (if a bit Nosy) and Cheerful.*** Even if she is sad, Teia always has a bit of a smile for someone else, even if it is maybe not as wide as it usually is.  When push comes to shove, her priority is the welfare of her friends: all the Great Spirit’s children.
* ***Calm and Mentoring.*** Teia loves to teach, and will pass on wisdom to her brothers and sisters joyfully and eagerly.  She especially loves pups and those who are young and bubbly like herself.  She has a playful spirit.
* ***Teasing, Playful, and Silly.*** Teia can be somewhat vain and silly sometimes – it’s hard not to with a fluffy coat like hers.  But deep down, she really does have a caring heart, and if she makes a mistake she’ll regret and make up for it. Usually. Teia loves to laugh and can be quite sociable and friendly. She loves her packmates and will always greet them with a wide smile.
* ***Shy.*** Teia’s darker side is one she tries to repress.  Deep down, her turbulences with the war she endured through her childhood still seems to haunt her.  Though she had prayed throughout her life for the One to heal her wounds, somehow, they never seem to have.  It tears her apart inside, but the longer she tries to suppress it and put on a pretty face for her packmates, the more deeply rooted it gets.  In fact, Teia’s faith is not always as strong as it seems – or rather, as she tries to pretend it is. However, in the end her faith may prove to be among the strongest in her pack, against all her fears.
* ***Patient, but Privately Serious and Insecure.*** Though outwardly a bit silly, Teia actually harbors a much more serious side.  She is more than capable of reason and serious diplomacy when the need arises, and has seen more than her fair share of hardship – she wants no more of it, and so will do whatever it takes to see the end of it.  Even though she places so much care into the wellbeing of her pack, deep down Teia still has her own pain that she has been suffering for years, scars from her past that will not heal on their own. Teia keeps these to herself, fearing that she may weigh down her pack – but more truthfully, that she will be rejected for not being nearly so selfless as she pretends. She fears she is selfish.  She still has her own concerns and fears that if she shows this side of herself, she will be a bad person – and this fear, along with the remorse and turmoil leftover from her past, tears her apart.  So she hides behind a wall of exuberant smiles and bubbly cheeriness, hoping that side of her will never have to be shown to the world.  Right now, as it is, only her closest friend the Great Spirit knows of this pain, as any who might have experienced it with her are long gone.  A close friend may become a confident, but it is her darkest secret and she shares it with few. Her turbulence is something she shares with the Great Spirit often, desperate for some sign of forgiveness for a flaw she doesn’t have. Though she can seem a bit immature at times, and really can be, this belies an interior that can be quite grave when the moment really calls for it. Teia is not as innocent as she seems.
* Overall, Teia is a deeply flawed wolf struggling to be who she’s supposed to be. She wants nothing more than to be a good person, and she hates every part of herself that isn't. She is sorry, and hopes the world can forgive her.

## Pre-Group History

Many years ago, there were two great packs - one called Asherone, the pack of the faults, and the other called Calradan, the pack of the great forest. They lived at the base of a great mountain range, called the Valley, and were the largest of many wolf packs that scattered the region. The Valley was a place of hope among its other packs and wild animals, but its two giants were a different story - they made sure that peace was never allowed to prosper.

Tensions always ran high between these two behemoths, the two packs that dominated their region. All the other wolves feared them for their turbulence and capriciousness. Asherone and Calradan stayed in constant tension, neither wanting to relent power over the Valley to the other. The other packs of the Valley hid with baited breath, knowing open war could never be far from the horizon. It was only a matter of time.

Eventually, war broke out, as predicted. The Valley was abandoned as Asherone and Calradan blasted each other with everything they had, wreaking havoc across the whole region. Prey was killed in excess. Water was polluted with the blood of fallen wolves.The young, old, and weak were hunted down for sport and conquest. There was seen no more mercy in that time.

The years went by, and the war showed no signs of lessening. The ecosystem was failing due to overhunting - no animal that escaped dared to return. The packs were starving, their populations crippled. Neither showed signs of relenting - both were blinded by their foolishness, but most of all, their hatred. If it came to death, these wolves wanted the others taken down with them.

Near the end of this time, as both packs struggled tiredly to battle for dominance after years of war, an Asherone wolf named Teia came of age. She was one of the few young wolves born during the war to make it to her age. But she had grown up surrounded by fear, pursued and hated at every step by a relentless enemy. She had known fear and hatred all her life, as had every wolf born during that time - as well as her brother, Candral.

By this time, the other wolves had begun to filter back into the Valley. Years had passed and they wondered if perhaps the two behemoths were beginning to lose their spark. As it turned out, they had - but not completely. As the other wolves and animals began to return to the Valley, hoping to heal it and see it prosper into what they'd hoped for, Asherone and Calradan grew even more furious at their *nerve*.

In truth, Asherone had begun to grow tired - but Calradan was only just beginning. This new resurgence of the other wolves - the sight of their peaceful, free lives without Calradan's control - and the decline of Asherone, only gave them a second wind, and the feeling that victory might be just around the corner after all.

Asherone was unprepared for the lethal assault that struck them with the force of an avalanche. Calradran's incensed victory was immediate. The weary forces of Asherone, beginning to consider the flaws of their ways, were crushed instantly - many had given up before the first blood was drawn, even if others tried valiantly to fight. Teia barely escaped with her life, but Candral was captured as collateral when the Calradan realized one of their fallen enemy had escaped. They wanted their victory to be absolute - so as a result, they trapped Candral in their grotto den and sent messengers to find Teia, with a proposal -  Candral would be returned to her safe and sound. Calradan would, this time, be so merciful as to allow such an ending to take place - but with one catch: if she so agreed, they must leave the Valley and never, ever return.

Teia was given the unthinkable choice. Let her brother die, or let the Valley be returned to a cruel oppression. The life of her dearest friend and only surviving family, her rock, her beacon - versus the hopes and dreams of an entire valley. The fate lay on her shoulders. But in the time of greatest need, as Calradan sneered down at her, one of the only remaining wolves of the beaten Asherone: gentle, quiet Teia - ran away. She could not make the decision. She could not kill her brother, she could not kill Asherone, she could not kill her home - but she could not brutally, ruthlessly slaughter the hopes of thousands. The needs of the many outweigh the few, but her heart could not take it.  So she fled.  Far into the mountains, to a holy place of Asherone - a group of juniper trees clustered around a small pool - she finally came to a rest.  Her guilt, and fear, and trauma overcoming her, she fell down and cried at the edge of the water, her tears creating rivulets into the pool and disturbing its tranquil cover.  As she cried Teia a deep fatigue overwhelmed her, and her sobs began to die away into shudders and her tears into dampness. She started to fall asleep.

But as Teia drifted out of consciousness, through the narrow borders of her vision, a wolf appeared over the edge of the hill on the other side of the pool. Teia opened her eyes slightly wider, apprehension filling her. The wolf was white, whiter than any wolf she had ever seen, and seemed exude a light around their fur, like the sun. She stumbled to her feet, afraid, as the wolf did not stop at the edge of the pool, but instead began to walk across the water - only coming to a halt in the center of the pool, which filled with the light and refracted it across the mountainside. Teia started to retreat, engulfed by fear at this immeasurable stranger, and then the wolf spoke - but the wolf's voice was unlike the terrifying majesty it radiated. Instead, it was deep, calm, comforting, and most of all, kind. As the stranger spoke, His aura seemed to change - no longer terrifying, but rather comforting. Confused, Teia didn't move - but her fear began to disappear. The wolf called her "child", and spoke to her without words, in a way she could not explain. Her soul seemed to stir, as the wolf began to describe to her what she must do.

Teia returned to the valley from the mountains, her head bowed.

Three days later she returned to the Calradan den, walking slowly through the forest.

Her home was destroyed, her family lost. There was no more place for her here.

Before she entered the grotto where the Calradan doubtless had given up on her, called their victory already - she paused to let the wind of the Valley flow over her fur one last time.

The Calradan guards sprang to their paws in shock as the white and silver wolf with deep blue eyes slowly stepped into their camp. The alpha was hailed, the warriors burst from the den, and the wolves jeered in spite but mostly reeled at her return - and how. Teia stood before them silently, as the Calradan advanced...but while they hissed and spat and cursed her, they made no move to harm her. Secretly, they were shocked - why was this wolf, the last remaining Asheronie, the one who had fled and left her brother to die - back? And why, most of all, did she not flinch at their aggressions?

Though they mocked and taunted, Teia stood her ground, her expression forlorn and sad. She had lost her home, her pack, her brother, and now...she was about to do it again.

As the Calradan started to hesitate, their jeering subsiding into uncertain whispers. But before they could do any more, hordes of wolves suddenly piled over the edge of the grotto - the wolves they and Asherone had kept oppressed for so long.

The Calradran were swarmed by their victims, hopeless against the furious, determined onslaught. Taken by surprise the Calradran fell or fled, the rebel wolves chasing in hot pursuit until they were out of sight.

The battle was fierce but ended swiftly - Calradran had been on the end of its life, exhausted from its war with Asherone, and the rebels had merely been the final push to its deathbed.  But when the rebel leaders, surrounded by celebration and rejoicing from their packmates, tried to find Teia to thank her for her help, she was nowhere to be found. In the heat of the battle she had slipped away. She knew her brother was dead - the white wolf had told her, and though she grieved she was not truly surprised - the Calradran were ruthless and had no expectation that she would return, nor any intent of following through on their bargain.  She had no reason to stay any longer, and the words of the wolf still hung in her head. She could not bear to accept the rebels' gratitude, when it came with the price of her dead family, nor live in this place any longer with the memories of her dead past hanging over the trees and canyons.

The white wolf had spoken to her of a place, far beyond the edges of the Valley, where she would find something that had been set out for her..."from the beginning".

So she left the Valley - heading west toward the setting sun, and her only hope of a new life.

In late winter, she found her way to the Domain, and became Aryn's Grand Vicar - guided solely by the words of a Great Spirit she had met one day in the mountains.

## Group History

Although initially fairly nervous when she arrived in Aryn, Teia was welcomed by her packmates. She became one of the Three Bodies of Aryn - a part of the Arynian governing council alongside Lady Athena and Lord Alcatraz, and the Rah'at.

When Raphael was little, and very ill, she did her best to keep him company and heal him, though her efforts seemed futile. She also attempted to help Raphael feel...normal, taking him on short jaunts outside of the camp - they were traveling together when Raphael first learned about butterflies! Teia also befriended Raghaalr, meeting the dark-furred she-wolf at the Firewater Flats.

Teia knew she couldn't take care of Raphael, and so Athena went to Fellfang to ask for aid. Fellfang granted aid, and while the packs were interacting, Teia was approached by Embla. Embla was seeking help for her fertility, as she struggled to conceive. Teia suggested that clover would help, and Embla was relieved to have something she could try.

Due to her place as Aryn's Grand Vicar, Teia was involved in Teva's trial, to decide what kind of punishment would need to be brought upon the young she-wolf after she led to the death of Vasilis. She believed that Teva had to be punished, though her opinions on the punishment's type and severity was uncertain. She didn't really know what the best course of action was, but supported whatever the other two Bodies decided.

Teia loved snow, and often played in it by herself, and with other wolves - such as Amara.

Teia taught Shoshana more about the Arynian religion while showing her around the pack's lands, when the young she-wolf arrived. She also provided guidance to Nero, who struggled with feelings of bloodlust, and spent some time reflecting on her own past, and the circumstances she was raised in.

These issues arose when Vektren declared war on Aryn. Teia needed to reassure her packmates, take care of them as they underwent physical and spiritual crises.

She continued to support Raphael as he struggled with Merrill's kidnapping. Raphael had a nightmare about the Old Rowan burning down, and Teia, seeing him awake in the middle of the night, went to him to offer some guidance and reassurance.

Things grew darker in Aryn, in more ways than one; for the Grand Vicar, the handling of Athena's illness feels like a betrayal of Aryn's core values. How can they still claim to value honesty and brotherhood when, in her eyes, the truth of the situation has been smothered? The placement of *caution* over what Teia perceives as *faith* ate at her like a plague, and with this she feared Vektren may have already won.

When Athena and Alcatraz were killed, and Raphael took over as Lord of Aryn, Teia supported him initially. But when his paranoia and Inquisition escalated, she joined with Cassandra in protesting Raphael's actions. Their appeals fell on more and more hostile ears, as Raph could only interpret their concern as the sound of dissent, and his inquisitors whispered of danger at every turn.

Finally, Mother Teia confronted Raphael openly and demanded he cease his crusade. He'd gone too far, she insisted - he was a danger to even himself. Passive in her encouragement before, Teia refused now to be dissuaded. He accused her of treachery, too, and had her taken into custody. After a hasty trial, the Grand Vicar was sentenced to death. This became the tipping point - the pack split. Teia's flock, including Cassandra, fortified themselves at the Old Rowan and refused to give her up, while Raphael and those who still followed him pulled back into the Grazelands. Aryn was torn in two.

Raphael set the Old Rowan ablaze, and Teia managed to escape with her life. Raphael was believed to have died, and Teia was critical in guiding Cassandra as the new Lady of Aryn. Once Cassandra was established, Teia stepped down from her position, and she left Aryn, to find another place where she could live peacefully.

## Quotes

* "By the spirit of the laws of Aryn, something must be done. E-even if it’s just clean-up duty for a week, we can’t let this go with nothing but a reprimand. Teva should be forgiven, that’s what the Great Spirit does, but she can’t be allowed to do this again.” (on Teva's punishment, *Teva's Trial*)
* “You have not disturbed me! I couldn’t sleep, dear child; and when I saw someone leave, in the dead of night..." (to Raphael, *Blackroot*)
* *"She offered Sisterly love so freely. Without judgement or question."* (Raphael's thoughts on Teia, *Blackroot*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Fireshrike's deviantART Gallery