Leif

Leif's "Camp Counsellor" skin

**Leif** is an Elytrian and an Avion. He is the founder and current leader of The Valley and Valley Harbor. He lives in a seaside cave in northern Valley, and runs its nearby post office. He's many things by trade, but also notably a blacksmith with a shop in town that sells special gear.

## Appearance

Leif is a stocky, large bird. He is also a trans man! He is about 6'6 in height, which is surprisingly short for his species, with a wingspan of 30ft.

His limbs are powerful from blacksmithing and axe handling, as well as his sharing of features with raptors. His hands and feet are equally prehensile. He also has extra thumbs. (It's freaky.) His bird inspiration comes from the osprey.

As such, Leif is actually leucistic in colouration - he is covered in off-white feathers on the majority of his body, with notable osprey markings; the breast band, wings and wing bands, diluted into a buff and cream colour. His hair and beard, which are also just feathers, are a similar buff blonde.

He has two types of skin - thick yellow scales present on his limbs as well as as his forehead and bridge of his nose, as well as thinner beige skin on any unarmoured soft open skin.

Leif has a newly acquired red feather marking in the middle of his chest, but largest on the other side on his back. This is a mark of having lost a life to Morgan by being stabbed in the back.

## Personality

Leif is an even-tempered, relaxed old bird who carries himself in the manner of a dear old dad who’s lived for a bit and enjoys the tranquil things in life - fishing, cloud-watching, laughing plentifully and journaling anything extraordinary. Despite his easy-going demeanour, he is a mostly extroverted and outgoing person, more often than not being keen to make the first move when meeting someone new, and never passes up a reason for some silliness. He's also pretty oblivious to boundaries and whether he makes someone uneasy.

He’s quick to offer his friendship, care and trust to any who are willing (and will show the same kindness to people who do not want it anyway) but once his trust is majorly broken, it's unlikely to ever be repaired meaningfully again.

He forgives, in most circumstances, but he does not forget. As such, Leif takes betrayals of trust and any threat to his friends and faction members very seriously, completely capable of near-glacial apathy and great violence in response to such - people may threaten him at will, but he will not stand for others being threatened. He puts people before objects and rules most of all, even if doing so is not the wisest choice and easily breeds mistakes. Most of his decisions are final, and he’s very concerned with the greater good when it comes to people.

In the same vein, Leif is a very paranoid and anxious individual who becomes incredibly defensive and cold in the face of true conflict. This has worsened considerably since his first death.

## History

Leif has been a prominent member of many plotlines and conflicts on the server, and has been a part of... most things.

### Early Life

Not much is publically known about Leif's background, as he rarely talks about it, but he claims to have come from very far away. He has spoken with Weaver and said that he 'does not come from here'.

### Founding of The Valley

Leif founded the Valley in his late 20s, when he found a wonderful coastline and mountain range that he wanted to settle down in. This was marked by an old ruin that he renovated to be a monument for travelers to stop by. He then established the community house and the valley ranch.

In the 50 or so years since that point, the Valley has become a full country and Valley Harbor was established as a port town, and people have come and gone in that time.

### Initial Morgan Conflict

The initial conflict with Morgan came about when Morgan built a house in the Valley. Leif, wanting to greet the cat into the country, offered them some gifts and a mailbox. Morgan did not appreciate Leif breaking into their space, and told him to leave. Leif left, but came back another time with more gifts to apologise for the rudeness, which Morgan understood as another breaking of their boundaries. They then told Leif off again, this time much more distressed, which ended in a confrontation and weapons being drawn, and Leif finally got the message.

To make sure of this, however, Morgan then set up a small redstone TNT trap inside the mailbox, where Leif's gifts would be left in beforehand; if the lever to activate the mailbox was pulled, it would explode.

The lever was pulled by someone else, at one point, which Morgan took as a show of outright hostility, assuming it to have been Leif. They then went to Leif's cave and blew up some TNT in it, but were caught in the act by Fenix, who lived nearby. Fenix told Leif about this, and Leif had deemed this to be an attack on him and his country, and deemed Morgan a terrorist. This is when the conflict became mutual, and Morgan was banned from the Valley.

### Gale and Fenix

Gale and Fenix arrived in Leif's life at approximately the same time. Leif immediately felt a lot of care and compassion for both of the younger birds, taking them in and effectively adopting them. The majority of this was relegated to Gale, since Fenix had moved away to Sundries at one point. Gale became a major son figure for him, and he looked out for him during any conflict.

### The Mosswood Incident

Leif was the founder of the one-week trip to Mosswood during the 2021 Wild Walk event, which went terribly wrong after The Lich, a hostile Remnant took issue with the group building in its forest, and summoned many monsters to storm the settlement. Leif dealt the killing blow, shooting the Lich's head off its shoulders. During this time he got to know Gale and Fenix, who questioned the whole ordeal and ended in a small conflict that was resolved not long after.

### Puffball Conflict: Part 1

Puffball, having lived nearby the Valley, had asked Gale and Leif for help after the Rot had taken over their garden. Leif was distressed by what he saw when they uncovered dark veins under the ground from which radiation roses grew, as he had seen it before in the place he came from. He knew from experience that the only way to get rid of the infection would be to completely destroy it, and the roses, with fire and toss any remaining flora in the vicinity into lava, or else the Rot would continue spreading and eventually kill all plants and animals nearby, dangerously close to a major settlement.

To Puffball, a plant creature, this felt like killing a person, and they resented Leif and Gale for what they had done, telling them to get out and never come back. Leif was completely oblivious to what Puffball meant, and came away from the interaction offput and a little disturbed but nothing else came of it for the time being.

### Inaugurating Gale

After the conflict with Puffball, Leif asked Gale to be his right hand man and his princeps; the vice-president of the Valley. Gale agreed and was inaugurated the same day.

### Puffball Conflict: Part 2

The conflict re-emerged after Puffball had spoken to Morgan, who they regarded as a friend, and heard about Leif from them. They were disturbed further by the situation and left dead, gutted birds in the mailboxes of both Leif and Gale, as well as the notice board in the middle of Valley Harbor, to show them how it felt to have one of their own killed.

Leif had taken this as a clear indication of a threat, a 'you're next', and would have regardless just left it alone until he found out that Gale had received a bird corpse as well. Toylucent had seen Puffball place the corpses, and told Leif about it - until that point Leif had thought that it was Morgan's doing. Threatening his adoptive son and his vice-president enraged him, and things now became flat-out hostile between Puffball and Leif, with Leif considering Puffball a dangerous individual. In addition, he found out that Puffball and Morgan are allied.

### Murder & Burning During The Midsummer Dance

During the Midsummer Dance, a masqueraded Morgan came to the event, which Leif was running. Morgan was angry after Puffball told them what had happened between the two, and attacked him on the stage of the Opera House, killing him and taking his first canon life with a diamond sword through the back. Morgan then fled the scene.

After coming to, Leif was horrified and enraged by what happened, promising to wage war on everything Morgan loved and held dear. This put other guests on edge, most stating outright that they are staying out of the conflict.

Leif then burnt down Morgan's house and put up wanted posters.

### Banning From Sundries

After the Midsummer incident, both Morgan and Leif were banned from Sundries to avoid trouble.