Cimmerii Acanthus

**Cimmerii Acanthus** is a female half-drow ranger/barabarian of Bronzewood Lodge, located in the Cairn Hills near Diamond Lake.

Cimmerii is a founding member of the Steelfire adventuring band, formed Reaping 1, 595 CY on the outskirts of Diamond Lake.

Cimmerii was portrayed by Emily Sullivan.

## Description

Cimmerii is the half-human, half-drow offspring of her mother Cartissima Acanthus, a human ranger from the Bronzewood Lodge, and her father, the drow known as Fear. Cimmerii has inherited the dark skin and violet eyes common among drow, but also has her mother's raven hair. She is considered exotically beautiful by some, but her personality tends to get in the way of her looks.

Cimmerii stands 5',6" tall. She is lean, but rather broad shouldered for having drow blood. She is well proportioned but not busty. She has long, board-straight hair that is so black it almost refuses light, which she lets loose for the most part, or pulls back in a loose ponytail with rawhide strips. Her skin, a few shades of darker gray, covers wiry muscles. Numerous small scars, barely visible, cover her arms and legs. She has violet eyes that almost seem to radiate when she is angry, and a mockingly friendly smile. High cheekbones and slightly pointed ears come from her fathers side of the family, and a thin scar travels from the outer corner of her eye almost to the corner of her mouth on the left side of her face, a remnant of a childhood fight that almost killed her. Her hands are rough, calloused from her archery and otherwise roughing it in the forests. Her nails are short, and she often pulls out her knife to clean under them, especially when she is in a foul mood and wanting to put the knife to better use. She is considered exotically beautiful by some, but her personality tends to get in the way of her looks.

If one could see her without her shirt, they would notice a raised scar underneath her right arm near her chest, a legacy of a fight that ended with her first occasion of killing a man. Her voice is smooth, deep, and husky, and rises into a powerful roar when she is angry.

Her normal garb consists of dark colors: blacks, browns, greens, blues, and grays. She almost refuses to wear light colors as they draw too much contrast to her skin (though her formal dress of white trimmed in black is especially stunning). When she must go to town, she often dons a cloak, with the hood pulled up. She does not wear jewelry (except for her magical items), but collects it so that she can take it out in private and look at it, half daydreaming about being normal. She does not consider herself beautiful, even though her features are very striking and have drawn the attention of many men, but this self-deprecation only heightens her enjoyment of the things she considers beautiful, like jewelry. She carries a battered leather backpack that has been mended so many times it is more like patches of leather sewn together, a remnant from her mothers travels in the Pomarj.

## History

Cimmerii was born Midsummer’s night Richfest 4, 575, under the full light of Oerth’s two moons, Luna and Celene. Her mother, Cartissima, gave birth to her while taking refuge in the Downs, a village in the northeastern portion of the Pricipality of Ulek. Of her father, Cim knows little, only that he was a dark elf named “Fear,” and that he was a member of a slaving organization in the Pomarj known as the Nine, which had captured Cartissima in 574 CY while she was adventuring on the Wild Coast.

When Cartissima became pregnant, she feared for her life and that of her unborn child because Fear’s paramour and fellow slaver, a sadistic drow witch named Edralve, would surely tear the child from her womb. Fear helped her escape to a druidic conclave in the Pomarj headed by a man named Dallic Clay. As the Pomarj was no place for a woman with child, Dallic and his companions escorted her to the Downs, where she gave birth to Cimmerii in the Happy Farmer Tavern.

A few years later, when Cim was old enough to travel, Cartissima brought her home to the Bronzewood Lodge community, about three hours northeast of the mining town of Diamond Lake in the Cairn Hills. Like her mother, Cim was trained as a ranger at the Lodge, which never had an issue with her drow heritage, though she would receive raised eyebrows and stunned looks occasionally from visitors. Outside the Lodge, however, acceptance was not always so easy.

One of Cim's most traumatic experiences occurred in 590 CY, when she was but fifteen. She was on her way back to the Lodge from Diamond Lake, alone, when she was attacked by four adolescent boys, three humans and one elf. She managed to fight them off long enough to escape, but to this day she bears a scar on her face from that encounter.