Virwen Galerion

**Virwen Galerion** is a high elf swordmage and a member of the Emerald Caravan. She is played by Kate (@KathleenHenryVO). As of Season 2, Episode 15, Virwen is traveling away from the Caravan on her own, but may return one day.

## Virwen Galerion

Official 2022 art of Virwen, by Lucy (@bluebirddraws)

## Character information

### Family

* Ezara (distant descendant)
* Larrel Ar'Tel'Qessir (father)
* Oprix Ar'Tel'Hyperia (rival)
* Voranil (brother)
* Vanus (brother)

### Connections

* Constance (friend)
* The Emerald Caravan (member)
* Fenris (friend)
* Oleander (friend)
* Soren (associate)

## Description

### Appearance

Virwen first appeared to the Emerald Caravan in the form of a fluffy, pearlescent white cat. Once her true form was restored, Virwen is matches the old descriptions of Alfenheim elven beauty. She is tall and composes herself in an elegant fashion. She has long, wavy white hair that shines iridescent when hit by the light. Her violet eyes are often wide with wonder and awe as she experiences modern day Evarencia for the first time. She wears a long maroon dress of ancient elven style.

### Personality

Virwen speaks in a proper manner and composes herself in such a manner, but she is often overcome with wonder and curiosity for the strange, new world she finds herself in. Her conduct and eloquent way of speaking have made her fast friends with the fellow noble in the party, Oleander. Her bewilderment with the world of today and her uninformed opinions from 6,000 years ago often get Virwen into trouble when she inadvertently offends someone, as was the case with the marid who polymorphed her into a cat. When folk can work past this, they discover that she is a friendly person, despite her station within the heirarchy of the Alfenheim Empire. She has a drive to make her father proud, so she can be the elf to make him proud. Virwen's interest in academia and reading has made her fast friends with the bookish Emerald Caravan.

When pitched in battle, Virwen uses a combination of magic with her sword fighting in the tradition passed down to her from her father. Anyone aware of elven tradition would recognize this as bladedancing, a special art of magic thought lost to the Alfenheim's fall.

If assigned an alignment, Virwen would likely fall under 'neutral good' or 'lawful neutral.'

## Biography

### Background

Virwen is not of the current time of the campaign and originally comes from a period far back in Evarencia's history; approximately 6,000 years prior to the events of *WovenRealm.* She comes from the powerful empire from that time period, the Alfenheim. She is the daughter Godhand Larrel Ar'Tel'Qessir from when he was still alive. She is the youngest of three children, having two older brothers; Voranil and Vanus. With her father being a sun elf from Dragonsand, he proved to be quite adamant about making sure his children were going to be great, powerful high elves in the Alfenheim Empire. Virwen often found herself competing for her father's affection not just with her brothers, but also with his apprentice, Oprix Ar'Tel'Hyperia, and there was some point where he referred to the talented mage as "the daughter he always wished of."

Per elven tradition, Virwen was shown to the Mirror of Selle Esteen and was shown which god she was closest to. During her upbringing, Virwen was instructed in the proud elven tradition of bladedancing that the Alfenheim claimed to have preserved throughout their history. She crafted the Blade of Spring at some point in the past. Before the Battle of the Severed Hand, Virwen was summoned by her father who told her that she was going to be of great purpose to not just the family, but to the whole existence of the Alfenheim. She was to find their descendent, Ezeth 'iv Aurora as she was the key. Virwen was going to preserve their legacy. He was saving her from the destruction of their people that he foresaw. Without another word, her father cast a great time displacement spell that sent her hurdling 6,000 years into the future.

The spell appeared to originally have missed the target as Virwen was transported to the city of Hex. While in Hex, she had inadvertently offended a djinn, who subsequently polymorphed her into the form of a cat to teach her a lesson in humility.

### Season 2: "The Domed City"

Virwen is introduced in S2E9 'The City of Hex.' After the Emerald Caravan was transported to the city of Hex by Elyse Emoti, they lost Ezara and came upon a cat that could talk. This cat was Virwen, who they quickly took into their custody when she revealed she was searching for Ezara as well. She explained to the Caravan how she was from 6,000 years ago and sent forward in time by Larrel. The party, confused and a bit suspicious of this, still accepted her when she aided them in their efforts against the Collector and Vilemaw without question. Having learned her lesson in humility from the Caravan, the marid turned Virwen into her true form. When she first interacted with the esteen blade in Ezara's possession, it sprang to life, revealing itself as her personal weapon she had created, the Blade of Spring.

After Soren's return, Virwen spent several days recovering from the time journey while at the Iris. After learning about her father still being "alive" as a baelnorn lich and still remaining at the Severed Hand Fortress, Virwen took her leave of the Emerald Caravan in order to go and find him, and discuss her purpose and his actions... Perhaps her path will cross with the Caravan's again one day.

## Relationships

### Constance

Virwen finds Constance's earnestness and kindness to be charming and cute. Virwen finds her wonder and awe in the world comforting, especially as she is rediscovering it anew herself. Virwen quickly joined the "Book Club" Constance and Oleander began by sharing some of her ancient Alfenheim poetry.

### Ezara

Things continue to be tense between Virwen and Ezara as the she has been avoiding the elf, knowing she was sent forward in time by Larrel. Ezara was the one who revealed to Virwen that Larrel was still existing in this time period, and that the Alfenheim Empire had fallen right after she was sent forward in time.

### Fenris

Virwen's initial bewilderment of Fenris may inadvertently make the tiefling awkward, as she has never encountered one in her life. Despite this, the two have gotten along well since meeting.

### Oleander

Virwen established the best connection with the fellow noble in the Caravan soon after meeting. Oleander was excited to have a willing and captivated student to educate, and Virwen was an excited student. Virwen was very alarmed with Oleander nearly died fighting the marrow cube, and unleashed an unexpected amount of power to help defeat the creature and save faer.

### Soren

Virwen doesn't know Soren, but her first impression of him was not great, considering her held a gun to the back of her head. She met him during the events of Soren and Isadore's attack on the Lord of Briar, and as the party learned it was Soren who ordered Oleander's death.

## Character Information

### Quests

Virwen has been sent 6,000 years forward from her time period by her father for reasons he did not explain clearly to her. She has found Ezara and needs to determine what exactly must be done.

### Abilities

As a swordmage, Virwen is able to utilize the arts of the sword and the arcane to her advantage of special magics that interact with her sword. She is able to utilize her spells and sigils to command control of the battlefield, and unlike other mages, she is able to take the fight to the enemy in the frontlines with the toughest of them.

#### Weapon Damage

Fighting with a sword sees Virwen dealing normal damage, but she can often imbue it with spells to deal other types of damage. Many of her spells supplement the sword's damage with thunder damage. Her sigils deal magic damage as well.

Worth noting is that unlike other characters who have their weapon attack damage modified by either their Strength or Dexterity scores, Virwen's melee attacks may be modified by Strength OR Intelligence.

#### Sword Mage Abilities

* Sigils
* Blade Magic
* Mage Armor
* Access to Wizardry

## Trivia

* Making Virwen an ancestor of Ezara's and the daughter of Larrel was intended to give Virwen a pre-established connection to the Emerald Caravan.
* Kate was a cast member of *Agora's Bells*, playing Sarryn Calvor who is the archmage of the Order of the Weave in *WovenRealm*.
* Kate also guest starred as Violetta of Selusia in Season 1, Episode 22: this was an instance of Kate playing a former NPC turned into a player character.
* Virwen was meant to be a longer term guest character, but Real Life got in the way; GMs Alex and Chris set up an exit for Virwen that would easily let her rejoin the party someday if possible!