Lynela Rosliana

Nihlessian Ascendancy

> *"It all feels so distant, you know? Like it all happened to somebody else. When I think back to it, I feel nothing -- not that it doesn't make me feel anything, but more that there's a... void... where I know the sadness should be. Does that make sense?"*
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> --Lynela Rosliana to Alaris Cainlin, about her inability to process grief from the destruction of Trallus
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**Lynela Rosliana** is a deuteragonist and occasional POV character throughout the Parables of Nightshade series. After spending years training as a paramedic, she found herself a refugee from the destruction of Trallus, having been rescued by Verael Oseren's Aerium Inquisition in exchange for a vow of faith. She often struggles with anxiety, social interaction, and the processing of emotion, falling somewhere on the autism spectrum. In addition, she exhibits strong negative reactions to loud noises, flashing lights, and the discharge of weapons, suggesting that she may also experience post-traumatic stress disorder, likely rooted in being present during Trallus's destruction.

## Background

### Early Life

Lynela spent much of her early life in the shadows of her peers. In a society that valued workmanship and merit over most else, many of the skills and interests she fervently attached herself to were considered to be less than useful. She struggled with making meaningful relationships beyond fleeting friendships, and while her family loved and cared for her, they found many of her habits strange and difficult to deal with. Struggling on a fiercely competitive world, it was not until she saved a life through quick intervention that she finally felt she'd found a calling. After completing her mandatory schooling, she applied to the Arrachon Medical Institution in the city of Sed Neattti, and was quickly accepted.

### Arrachon Medical Institution

While Lynela excelled at the practical aspects of emergency medical training, there were others in which she did not, particularly written examinations. This resulted in passable but unspectacular grading, and for a while it seemed highly likely that she would achieve her dream.

### Destruction of Trallus

Unfortunately for Lynela and millions of others, prosperity was not to last. In the year 1 BFBE, the Aerium Imperium, upset by the Nihlessian Ascendancy's breaking of a Trallan treaty forbidding either side to establish a base on the planet's surface, fired an experimental weapon of mass destruction at the illegal Ascendancy base. In one of history's greatest disasters, the weapon ignited Trallus's atmosphere, spreading across the globe at an alarming rate. The ranking Aerium official in the area, Grand Inquisitor Verael Oseren, quickly scrambled his entire fleet and began a mass evacuation of the surface.

Lynela herself was still in Sed Neatti at the time of the incident. When the evacuation shuttle, helmed by Vhala Naitira, arrived in her area, she was able to climb aboard as waves of fire began to rain from the sky. She was made to swear an oath of faith to Castatheos, whose pantheon she fortunately already worshipped, and was promised a place on the Aerium homeworld of Virium. In an effort to return home undetected, however, Oseren made the decision to lay over at an Aerium geological research outpost on a near-unknown planet, Cohnae. It was here that Lynela slept on the floor of a dirty, crowded room for over a week, praying for safe passage.