Juniper Erydis

Official image of Juniper, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Juniper Erydis is a Player Character from Arc 9 played by Grace.

## Description

Juniper is a former Fallen Aasimar, now Protector Aasimar, and an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. As of Arc 9, she is 26 years old.

She only has one wing, the other one is missing. In the same situation where she lost her wing, she also lost her wife, and is looking for both since then. While she talks about searching for her missing wing, she avoids the topic of her wife and unsuccessfully tries to act like it is not a big deal, while simultaneously breaking into tears when someone asks about it.

Juniper smokes, especially when she is stressed out.

She carries a greatsword, specifically a remblade, made by Hatebad Weapons LLC. It is the sharpest and most expensive blade they produce, and has two decorative little swords on the hilt.

Her magic item is one of the Partners in Crime Bracers. The other one is worn by her adoptive son Julian, who she loves and cares about a lot. Since he is technically older than her, and has the wisdom of an adult, he also cares a lot about her wellbeing as well. Still, she tries to keep her distress about her wife away from him. She took parenting sessions at a bar and has learnt some basics, but is still sometimes overwhelmed by caring for a child, specifically a 110 year old child.

Her best friend in the crime family is Riot Hallowheart. She regularly seeks comfort from them, and climbs into their bed to cry, which is also how she found out about Riot's secret husband. They are the only ones who know more or less the full story about Juniper's wife.

## Backstory

She grows up together with her childhood best friend Ilsa, and later falls in love with her. The two of them start comitting crimes as mercenaries for hire when they are 15 years old, and get married at age 18.

At 18 years old, Ilsa and Juniper get into a sticky situation where they are trying to steal an important item from the Albion family, a wealthy family of Elves, that is guarded very well. They are taken to court, but do not get a fair trial: the court judging them is getting bribed the Albions. Juniper gets one of her wings cut off, and Ilsa is gone, possibly banished or exiled, Juniper is not told where she is and technically not allowed to look for her. Since then, she is trying to get her wing back, certain that once she has it, she can also find back her wife.

On her search for information about what was taken from her, she murders a lot of people, including the group of criminals that Julian Crimeboy goes with at the time. She adopts him, which takes a lot of lying about paperwork, and becomes his new mother, and he is thankful for no longer having to run with people that exploit him.

After that, Juniper decides to retire from extreme violence, and looks for some new stability in her life. This change in her shifts her from being a Fallen Aasimar to a Protector Aasimar. Around 141 or 142 AE, the two of them join Art's crime family, and become an anchor there while other people come and go from the group.

## Character Arc

In the Feywild, it takes Juniper some time to get accustomed to the new dangers she is in, and before she knows it, she accidentally trades away a moment of her time to Lacewing, in exchange for the Mirror of Homesickness. The mirror shows her Ilsa, and is her first actual clue on the search for her.

When Julian asks her to be more careful and becomes upset about the deal, Juniper tries to downplay the dangers and possible effects of it. She and Riot, not very secretively, roll their eyes behind his back, which upsets him further, since he does not feel like they take him and his concerns serious. She understands that she should not have made that deal, but does not see the point in discussing it when they do not know its effects. Julian, on the other hand, brings it up whenever she wants to call him out for irresponsible behaviour, and refuses to listen to her as long as she doesn't talk about the deal, which frustrates her.

Additionally, she is very wary and mistrusting of Lee, and how fast and close he and Julian have bonded with each other.

Later, when she looks at the mirror again, she sees Ilsa peacefully walking and seemingly having smalltalk with a member of the Albion family, while wearing their colours herself. This upsets her a lot, even though she tries to make excuses and find explanations for this. Riot offers to take the mirror, so she doesn't have to look at it again, and Juniper agrees. Still, finding Ilsa is her priority, and now that she has a clue, she does not really want to be doing anything else but following it anymore.

Contrary to Julian, Juniper actively wants to find a way to undo the curse on him. As part of her morning ritual, Juniper measures Julian every day to find out whether he has grown. When Lee has the ability to talk to all of them and reveals that he will be quite powerful once he has his full body back, Serenity asks him whether he could find a cure for the curse, and Juniper is immediately interested. Only Lee considers asking Julian first, which is how they find out that he is unsure whether he even wants it gone. Juniper, on the other hand, is scared of the idea that she would age and die while he would stay the same, and feels trapped by his curse.

In the body of a boy, Juniper has a hard time seeing Julian as the 110 year old he is, and instead sees him as her baby, which is the main issue of the arguments she and Julian have. She does not know a lot about parenting, and especially not about parenting a 110 year old boy, and has trouble understanding what he wants and needs from her. Their arguments become worse when Juniper tells Julian that she wants to go alone on the mission to find Ilsa, since she fears for his safety and does not want to lose him, especially not in the same spot she lost Ilsa. While the others, especially Riot, are close friends to her, he is the only thing she had when she lost her wife, and will not lose him, too. Julian is upset by this, and refuses to let her leave alone, while she refuses to take him with.

Before they arrive at the mountain, Juniper has a dream in which Render circles and examines her, and then offers her that they could both benefit from Lee's power, if she brings him to him, together with the braid she has in her pocket. Juniper refuses to do so, disgusted by the way he looks at her, and how he doesn't take No for an answer. While she is intimidated by him, she tries to put up a strong facade. Still, she does not tell the others about the braid until the very end, when she gives it to Lee so he can reattach it himself.

Following this, Lee has regained all of his power back, and offers to grant them all a wish each before sending them back. Juniper wishes for her second wing, and regrows a wing that perfectly fits her original one in shape, but is white golden with an almost pink tip, while her original one is blackish blue at the bottom with an ombre white coming up. From what she saw, she is no longer sure that Ilsa would want to be back with her, so that is the only thing she wishes for in that regard, and plans to find her with her own abilities to not take that decision from her.

Julian reacts hurt at the reveal that she respects Ilsa's decisions, but not his decision to not let her go alone. He tells her that over the last few days, she made him hate himself with the way she disrespected his agency and treated him like a small child she had to keep nice and safe. She apologises for hurting him, but refuses to change her decision. He then wishes to become the sun together with Lee. Juniper and Julian have a proper goodbye afterwards, in which Julian apologises for what he said, and Juniper gives her bracelet to Lee, even though she is aware that he won't need it.

As Lee sends them back to the Material Plane, Juniper blinks out of existence for a bit, and then reappears on the mountain in the Feywild from where they left. She realises that this is the moment Lacewing took from her, and flies to his house. This time, she is careful not to walk into a deal without thinking about it, but cannot find a better way to get back than to agree to change from being a Paladin to being a Warlock with him as her Archfey patron. Lacewing sends her back to the Material Plane with a new pact and a tapestry they wove depicting the whole party and Lee on the mountain next to Render's ashes. Juniper reappears in the hut near Qto a few days after going to the Feywild, and six days before the others arrive back. She takes Wilbur the donkey and goes back to Qto, where she is greeted by Landra, and later meets up with the others again before Riot leaves to the Hallowhearts, and she leaves to find Ilsa.

## Trivia

* Juniper is bi (confirmed on Discord by Grace).
* Juniper's current last name is a combination of her and Ilsa's last names before they got married.

## Fan Additions

* Playlist made by Grace: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/28oUxNfT442lP9THpObqN6?si=rPjwmT39QSWJCkjfU5WB3w
* Moodboard of Juniper by Grace: https://www.pinterest.com/graceuhhh/juniper-erydis/?invite\_code=9b7ecbe7114540519fb3d509411c96b8&sender=72972593870687397

## Footnotes

1. ↑ On podcast, Grace said she was an Oath of Redemption Paladin, but she corrected that later on the Discord.