Earthmother Elsi Greyroot

# Elsi Greyroot

**Elsi Greyroot** is a character played by Austin

## History

### Childhood

Elsi was born to two loving parents on the 27th of Rova in the year 1956 of the Age of Dynasties, her mother was a Human and her father was a mostly Human Oread. Elsi herself is Human, and only carries just enough of the blood of the Plane of Earth to hear the murmurings of Guj-Annara when she visits the Corpse. She was born in Greenhill, and lived an early childhood fairly typical of her people.

She was trained in herbal medicine initially by her mother, but one day in year 1969 while out gathering herbs her mother disappeared. A search party was sent out and determined that she had been killed by a pack of wolves, not long after the funeral while out trading with a neighboring tribe, her father found himself caught in the middle of battle as another tribe attacked. Her father was killed in the fight. While she became more or less a child of the village, with everyone doing what they could to help her out, Elsi was for the most part taken in by the Hands of the Centertree, a large group of Druids who worship the Centertree while dedicating their lives to the healing of the sick and injured.

She spent much time around Druids who worshipped the Centertree, but she also felt a strong bond to her Oread ancestry and so formed a very close bond with the Church of Guj-Annara. She quickly became a highly competent healer, through her hardships gaining wit and wisdom beyond her years. The people of Greenhill pitied her for her hardships, and admired her for her ability to grow from what she'd been through. She always seemed to have a knack for saying what people needed to hear, and wound up being friends with most everyone in the village.

### Becoming the Earthmother

Early in the year of 1984, the fighting between the tribes surrounding Greenhill was beginning to slow down as the tribes simply lacked the combat-capable manpower to continue the battles. With many having lost their homes in the war, several tribes appealed to the village of Greenhill to aid them in rebuilding and in healing their injured and ill. The Tribal Council of Greenhill decided that they would not be aiding the other tribes, as they could not do so while maintaining the neutrality they had managed to preserve for hundreds of years. Elsi was furious with this decision, seeing the act of standing idly by and watching as people starve and succumb to their injuries as a disgusting policy. She convinced the Hands of the Centertree and the Church of Guj-Annara to support her in convincing the people to stand with her outside the doors of the Council Hall, where she proposed to them that they take in the injured and heal them. She pointed out that many would have nowhere to go once their wounds were tended to, and so the majority would likely remain in Greenhill. This, she suggested, would lead to Greenhill increasing rapidly in size and power and would enable them to do many things previously impossible for the small village. The Council held a vote, and agreed to allow Elsi to lead the efforts to bring in the sick and injured to Greenhill, heal and house them.

Suddenly responsible for a massive undertaking, Elsi quickly got to work sending delegates to neighboring tribes to bring the injured from across the Annara River Region to Greenhill, where Elsi organized healers (many coming from the Hands of the Centertree). She impressed everyone with her ability to organize such a massive triage, but soon tensions would soar as so many people from tribes who had so recently been fighting viciously were brought together. The young Greyroot impressed everyone yet again as she managed to elegantly keep the peace, always seeming to know what to say to convince people to put the past in the past and look forward to a brighter future. Just as Elsi had predicted, many of the injured remained in Greenhill after they were mended, and so the remaining populace of several entire tribes which were larger than Greenhill functionally merged into the small village, increasing the population more than tenfold.

Elsi never really wanted power, but it was not long before the Hands of the Centertree began speaking openly about how admirably Elsi had performed in her position overseeing such a large organized effort, and when the thousands of people whose lives she had been directly responsible for saving caught wind of those discussions they quickly began suggesting that perhaps she should be in charge of Greenhill itself. With tensions still extant between former members of rival tribes, the Council decided that if anyone would be able to bring the people together and keep the peace, it'd be the person who had been managing to do so from the beginning. Greenhill went from a tribe ruled by council to a town ruled by one elected official. Elsi worked with the Old Council to produce the new system of governance and power was handed off to Elsi Greyroot, who gave her position the title of Earthmother, and to this day remains in power.

### Being the First Earthmother

Under the first Earthmother, Greenhill has thrived. She is rather single-mindedly focused on the good of her people, and believes firmly that a group can only thrive if it brings out the maximum potential of its individuals, and that the only way to bring out the maximum potential of the individuals is to focus on improving one's self. Her policies over the last two decades have brought much progress to her people, who adore her and respect her leadership deeply. In her time as Earthmother she has written a book entitled Doctrine of the Earthmother, in which she details her personal philosophy that guides both her and much of her policy. She does not require in any way that her people read her book (much less follow its doctrines), but most everyone in Greenhill has at least read the book, and most follow the Doctrine at least in some capacity. She works very hard to ensure that where her personal philosophies have guided her policy, she is aware of it and makes it known to the people, but so far it hasn't really bothered anyone because policies come to vote by elected officials anyways.

## Appearance

Earthmother Elsi stands at 5 feet 4 inches, and weighs 140lbs. She's built on a light frame, but makes up for her evident lack of physical strength with agility. Her eyes are a deep green color and her hair has been white for as long as anyone can remember. She dresses modestly, making a point to not flaunt the privilege of her position.

She always wears a very old leather medicine pouch that was passed from her great grandmother to her grandmother, from her grandmother to her mother, and from her mother to her, though she's modified it some to better suit her own medicinal practices. She usually has her hands wrapped up so that her skin doesn't get too brutalized by the work she does in her herbal gardens, and also to help avoid bloodying her knuckles in the event she has to defend herself. Usually she wears her green hooded cloak outside, she feels more secure in it because she's never really been naturally extraverted, making her popularity and position of power quite awkward to her.

## Personality

A warm presence to all who know her, Elsi has many friends despite not being all that naturally charismatic. She owes the charisma that people associate with her to her wit and wisdom, so people see that she seems to always know what to say. She cares very deeply about the people around her, and is a strong believer in the virtue of self-improvement to the end goal of realizing as much of your potential as you can so that you can give as much as you can back to the community that supported you in that journey.

## Friends

THIS SECTION TO BE UPDATED WHEN I HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THE MOUTHPIECES, THE HANDS OF THE CENTERTREE, AND THE CHURCH OF GUJ-ANNARA

## Goals

As the First Earthmother, Elsi wishes to usher in an age of immense peace and progress for Greenhill. She wants to see Greenhill grow into a much larger town, and perhaps even hold colonies and land elsewhere to further grow the nation. She is also deeply interested in the mysteries of The Green Hill, The Centertree, where the Shaitan went, and Guj-Annara herself, and is always looking for information on those things that have been lost to the past. She wants to preserve those historic mysteries, and would fight to the bitter end to ensure that in another two thousand years they are still around for people to see, marvel at, and hopefully learn the secrets of.