Ilva

## History

Born to the village healer, Ilva spent her entire life immersed in medicine. Folk would come in, pustules and shrieking, and would come out bandaged and relieved. Enamored with her mother's work, Ilva endeavored to learn the arts. At first, just a young girl, holding jars while her mother poured salve, but she eventually began training in earnest.

One night, mashing herbs for poultices, twelve year old Ilva asked her mother how tallow would help a wound, and Agna replied by putting her own hand into the hearth. She emerged unburnt, and explained, as she had before, that everything in this world had spirits. Spirits you could commune with, spirits that had energy, spirits that could help or harm others. As a shaman, her mother gently took the energy from sacrificial rituals, and spun it into healing those around her. Satisfied with the lesson, Agna went to bed, and Ilva shoved a disbelieving hand into the fire.

She knew nothing of the spirit, but they were quickly introduced as she was badly burned, searing pain and the fire screaming in triumph in her mind. And yet, when the fire let her remove her hand, she was unburned.

When Ilva went to sleep that night, she found herself on the sea, staring into the stars, and Tidus spoke to her. The god claimed Ilva as one of her own, and pushed her under the waves until the water filled her lungs. Awoken by her mother, she was initiated as Tidus' chosen that morning; an honor not seen in multiple generations. The people of Eiri don't necessarily know what it means, and neither does Ilva, but she feels they treat her well enough at arm's length.

## Appearance

Ilva is a stocky young woman; short, stout, and seems like she can take a punch to the gut. She can't, though. Not suited to combat, but determined to be useful, Ilva is as squishy as a viking could conceivably be. But her hands are steady when holding salves, and her mind is well-versed in the ways of the spiritual world.

Her hair is straw-like and yellow, suggesting a weaker link to the Vargnir bloodline than most of the village.

Ilva's eyes are moss-green, and plain, but the way she sets her brow implies a predisposition to giving bad news.

On her face is a rune she has painted in blue, as she has done every day since the day of her initiation as Tidus' chosen: the rune depicting "candle". Ilva amuses herself by telling people it means "table" or another mundane household item, but when she calls for light on her axe, and Tidus grants it to her, it's very literal. Any deeper meaning about bringing enlightenment to the masses is a little too heavy for her, so she puts it out of her mind.

## Relationships

### **Tidus**

Between her initiation and her time as a raider, Ilva had very little interaction with Tidus. With one exception, on her fourteenth nameday. Sunna, a village bully around age 18, was whaling on Jyk, a boy she allegedly fancied. Inna asked Ilva to interfere on her brother's behalf, and she did. Ilva attempted to attack Sunna, and was quickly knocked to the brink of consciousness. Right before everything went dark, Ilva felt her body grow hot, and Sunna reacted as if she had transformed into something horrific. Instead of seeing the young upstart who challenged her, Sunna saw something else, and looked right through Ilva before turning tail and fleeing. Ilva recovered, and took this incident as Tidus' intervention and protection. This instilled a sense of pride in being Tidus' own, and a tendency for reckless behavior, because 4 times out of 10, it works out.

Aside from that day, ages 12-16 were... uneventful in terms of religion. She made her offerings, sometimes on behalf of a particularly sick patient. Sometimes Tidus granted them reprieve, others He refused. Casualties in medicine happen, so Ilva was never particularly offended when a patient died as a result. She sent them to His eternal seas in peace.

When she began raiding, Ilva started calling upon Tidus frequently, and was surprised at how often she was heeded. Surely, this means she's doing something right.

When the party stood on the shores of the lost outpost, and her holy symbol began to burn at the thought of leaving, that was the strongest sense of purpose Tidus had ever given her. It wasn't interpreted kindly by the rest of the party, but Ilva took it as a sign that grave things would occur if she left. Not to her, she would likely survive, but because of her inaction. Tidus rarely cares about individuals, what are single people to a god? But He takes interest in the bigger picture, and leaving the Noekken would have had consequences in that respect. Ilva failed to convince her comrades that this burning was for the best, but they decided not to leave her behind regardless.

Ilva communicates with Tidus through her "holy symbol", which is actually just a sand dollar skeleton she found and has dipped in many coats of varnish. Tidus has never directly given His opinion on her beach trash relic, but it works, so she assumes it's not offensive. Regardless, it means a great deal to her.
### **Freya**

> *Bond: Freya Fanclub President: What was once dependency has turned to hero worship! I am enthralled by the gore that has surrounded Freya, the famed Mansplitter. I want her to continue doing scary things and grow to be a legend. When people are sick in the clinic, I tell tall tales of Freya cleaving people in twain to inspire them. Some of them are lies. But the enthusiasm with which I tell them, it almost convinces anybody.*
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When the Far North Raiders initially set out, Ilva found comfort in Freya's willingness to help her. Unsteady and reeling from a doctor suddenly becoming a warrior, Ilva was saved from getting dashed upon a rocky cliffside, trapped in a rock upon climbing said cliffside, and swept away into the gaping maw of a twig monster, all from Freya. But then Freya started gaining a reputation: in the heat of battle, she's been cutting people in half via axe. Frequently. And Ilva is *amazed.* People respect her. Fear her. Enemies rise against the party, and they do not even fall with dignity. No amount of healing can change a bisected body. It's resulted in an admiration for Freya and a craving to see her become a tavern song.

### **Svartbrand**

> *Bond: Svartbrand Should Value Me: Svartbrand... doesn't get hit very much. I haven't saved his skin enough. In fact, he thinks he's saved me. From a situation I had handled. He denounces Tidus openly, encourages razing everything we come upon, and doesn't seem to value my opinion. Should I try harder to prove myself, or withhold Tidus' blessings from him out of spite?*
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Ever since they met, Ilva and Svartbrand have butted heads. He resented her god, she resented his unwillingness to sacrifice. He insisted they get reinforcements, she insisted they throw themselves into a suicide mission. Ilva originally wanted to convert Svartbrand to worshipping Tidus, to prove to him that He is worthy of their devotion, but she's given up. It would be a long, hard battle for a believer that would never be pious, indifferent at best. Instead, Ilva's decided to settle for a normal raiding party. One that doesn't leave a path of destruction wherever they go. It's also a long, hard battle. But the stakes are significantly higher, so it's one she'll be fighting.

### **Ashaldi**

> *Bond: Wary of Ashaldi: Ashaldi' s connection to nature and my ritual sacrifices to Tidus will inevitably cause tension, I think. I still like her though! We're the mystics of the party, and there's a kind of kinship in being Viking raiders that don't actually want to be hit too much. Tidus brought her back, so there has to be something great in store for her!*
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Ashaldi and Ilva haven't had much interaction beyond cool camaraderie. Looting towers together, healing, forming a back line, but nothing personal. Ilva would push to understand Ashaldi, as a purveyor of the forests herself, but she goes into the forest to hunt. To ritualistically kill its creatures, in exchange for Tidus' blessings. Dreading the conflict that might arise from that, she avoids the topic entirely and attempts to hide her activities from the druid.