Evelyn Wilder

Character Portrait by Grovite\_Hawk

### Home

In Life: Everdeep MountainIn Death: Body currently somewhere on the Tamaki-Nedrara border

## Biographical Information

### Parents

Birth Parents (Deceased)William Straeson (Deceased)

## Physical Description

### Height

5 ft 6 in

Evelyn Wilder was a human archbishop and minister-in-training who works at the Official Pentawardism Association in Bravos. They once resided in the nation’s capital, before moving to the Everdeep Mountain. When appearing on the server, they were played by Grovite\_Hawk / hawkley1621.

## Personality

Evelyn Wilder was a nerdy perfectionist who tries to see the good in everyone, despite their own troubles with trusting other people. This extends to other races as well, although she still retained the Bravosian fear of demons. They enjoy reading, drawing, sewing, and organizing inventory as well as walks around town.

## Life

### **Childhood**

They were born to a wildling tribe in the summer of 976 AB. Six years later, the tribe was attacked by another wildling tribe and as far as they knows, they are the only survivor and thus left their birth name behind. They spent two years traveling until they end up in the mountains by the wildlands. A guard spotted them at the opening of a cave. The territory was dangerous for a human, let alone a child, so the guard brought the child back to his camp then later to the Bravosian capitol.

The guard’s name was William Strayson, and he would become the adopted father for them. Over the next year, William would leave service in the military and transition into being a blacksmith while the child, now named Evelyn, would begin their studies in both Pentawardism and general education.

### **Late Teens**

Evelyn would have their oath ceremony in 992 AB alongside their friends Julie, Zoe, and Cade. Zofia ‘Zoe’ Codittor would marry Julie Gredman, and the two newlyweds would leave the city to found an inn for travelers. According to their letters to Evelyn, it’s going well enough to be surviving, but not well enough to be thriving.

In 995 AB, Cade Mulrian would end up leaving the city as a sailor, although the Mistley, the ship he was on, would go missing in action. Popular theories include death by the Southern Raiders, death due to a storm at sea, and a potential lack of proper navigation. Cade’s disappearance would not be the only loss for Evelyn in that year. Her father was hardworking but stubborn to a fault. He worked himself ragged to supply weapons and army to the warfronts against the Mountain Orcs and the Southern Raiders. Despite their best efforts to help, Evelyn’s father would fall ill due to self-neglect. Evelyn would skip the duel between the Undefeatable and Yolen in order to spend more time with their father before he passed. Her father would pass away on the winter solstice of that year.

With the loss of connections and with their wildling heritage, Evelyn would be worried about the random raids happening around town. They were lucky to not experience one, although they still aren’t quite sure why they got overlooked while also speculating that it may have something to do with the paperwork they had to submit regarding William’s death in preparation for his funeral.

### **Their Twenties**

In late 997 AB, Evelyn would gain their archbishop’s license as well as begin a position as the vice archbishop to Mother Elaiya Astley of the Knowledge Path. In late 999, they are selected as the next minister, as the new year begins, so does their Minister Salokena. They were 24, with their birthday being celebrated on the summer solstice at the time of the server opening.

Evelyn would go onto join Project Everdeep, headed by a Brynvar Kanvic. They would tend to farms in Ferngully, accomplish maintenance on the OPA tunnel that ran through the Everdeep Mountain, and construct a railway between the upper and lower portions of Halleby. They also gave two elves a tour of both Bravos proper and the Cathedral, although they would themselves talk about how awkward they had been.

### **Demonic Encounters**

One day while gathering resources to transport from the OPA Cathedral over to the project center, they thought they saw a demon.

At first, they didn't believe it. They grabbed their bow from their bag, but when they looked back, they didn't see it anymore. So they decided to be on high alert as they completed their task. That was until they saw a couple demons peaking out from the edge of the cathedral building. Evelyn shot at them, but was also scared and thus retreated to the tunnel. They wanted to get a record but paused to write in their journal. If there were demons and they weren't going to survive, they were going to write about it.

They stopped jotting down notes when they noticed the demons had followed them. Through a short conversation with the demons, they discovered that one was more of a fighter than the other yet expressed limited knowledge of Common. Evelyn continued to fall back, hoping to get the attention of a guard, but it appeared that the watchtower they tried to enter had a blocked door. One of the demons had split away from the other, and although spoke simply, did not choose to fight. Evelyn remained hostile toward the demon, as they knew all demons could hurt humans if they really wanted to. But this demon was strange. When asked, it explained why the demons were there. It was to find out who had beaten up the blonde-haired demon, and for both of the demons to find out about that shipwreck from when a human noble destroyed a demon vessel more than a century prior. Eventually, Evelyn scared it off but the reverend had one more encounter with the robed demon in the tunnel. Evelyn was quick to realize that the demon did not attack them until she did, but after it began using some form of fire magic, the reverend retreated to the cathedral and found Mother Janet there. They then reported the incident.

It wouldn't be the last time they saw the blonde-haired demon. It would return with gifts such as a white crystal from the nether. Apparently it wanted to be friends, but Evelyn could not have that. Why would they choose peace against a demon when all the demons do was kill and invade? All they were was an abomination to life, monsters from another world likely wanting to corrupt it. They did bring up the situation with Mr. Bryn, the head of the Everdeep Project. But they decided not to officially report the incident. Instead, they planned to torture and kill the demon upon its return.

They were further convinced of their plan after their time at the tournament. The bake sale went well and Evelyn honor Rayjoy through a victory in a jousting round. But after hearing Lord Torrin's speech, they couldn't let the demon live. It was their life or the demon's. It was just a fact of life. They brought this up to their friend Rosie P. Winkle later, who helped them build the torture chamber. While the demon was distracted by a chest of porkchop, Evelyn would drop them down in a chamber prepared with a powdered snow dispenser.

The day came and like the time before, the demon came prepared with gifts. Apparently this was going to be a reoccurring problem, although it was interesting to see how close the demonic world was to the overworld in some aspects. The demon's home realm had grass and stone, although red in nature. Like the overworld, there were red mushrooms that could turn into giant tree-like stalks if cared for properly. They also had to admit that the glowing light block the demon showed was quite interesting. A glowing organic material would be very useful in building project Everdeep. Fuel could be redirected to smelting ores and stone instead of using them for torches. Then the demon pulled out a black flower that inflicted pain, at least according to the demon. Evelyn chose to stay away from the flower just to be safe. They also learned of a strange black alloy from the demon realm, although at this point in the conversation they had begun redirect the conversation to their own 'gift'.

The trap went as about as well as it could have. During the torture session, Evelyn learned about the death of demonic noble, the fact the demon did not have any other 'friends', and the fact that the demon thought Evelyn was its friend. Obviously the reverend corrected the demon, stating how they were not friends and would never be friends. The demon then asked why the reverend would hurt it even though the demon itself did not hurt Evelyn. This bothered the reverend so much, that it was the primary reason Evelyn let it go. After all, how could they justify harming an innocent? They did not want to believe the country they loved and was loyal to was wrong, but if they killed a person who did not fight back, then wouldn't that make them a monster as well?

### **Bad Decisions Result In Death**

Evelyn Wilder had originally planned to go to the Tamaki play with their friend Mr. Bryn. But something came up with his family forced him to be delayed, and so they watched without him. Afterwards, they were present during the lighting of the Arbitrator Tree. They weren't sure how to feel about the tree being set on fire, but did have another encounter with the blonde-haired demon. Evelyn avoided it as best as possible and even chose to go a roundabout way back to their home since it took the regular bridge from the island in the middle of the Tamakinese lake.

This path would lead them to their demise. They were walking on a paved road, and recalled seeing a map a scout had made of the area. Wasn't there a mesa nearby? The terracotta would be good for Project Everdeep, after all. But they did not realize they were going into demonic territory. They thought they heard voices, but didn't believe they were trying to call out to them so they went on their way. But then a demon rode past them and blocked their path, along with another demon on foot. Evelyn recognized the demon on horseback, as it was the fighter from their first encounter.

They explained to the two demons they weren't in Nedraran territory, but rather Tamaki or unclaimed territory as far as they knew. They weren't well Evelyn wasn't fully used to global common and thus was slow to explain how they were just trying to get terracotta. But before they could fully explain themselves, one of them said the fateful words "We'll give you ten seconds."

So Evelyn ran. They tried to stray from the path and into the woods but the jungle terrain was much different from the forest back home. There was a large hill that Evelyn knew she couldn't climb and survive at the same time. After all, surely the demon following them would kill the reverend once it caught up to them. They had been given a staff by one of the OPA members for safety and tried to fire on the demon. Their spell hit the demon, but the demon's armor defended against the attack. Evelyn's armor, however, was not as strong and thus died to an arrow shot by the provoked creature.

### **Death Aftermath**

Later, one of the demons would taunt Brynvar with their death and the dwarf would try to avenge the reverend. This would not go well, and the dwarf would be captured. The blonde demon, who had only wanted peace, would be chased out of its home. It still felt for Evelyn, and would later be murdered by Waylar Vance in Bolton's Bay while trying to mourn their friend's passing. Rosie would hear from Elder Serena about the friend going missing and having been assumed dead. And an old friend would have a vision about the death and have a renewed desire to travel back to Bravos.

Who knows what would have happened if Evelyn had chosen a different path? Would it have ended up the same, causing them to share the fate of another historical figure whose death fueled the sparks of war? Or would it have been different, causing them to be a friend to the blonde demon and betray their country? Regardless of the outcome in that other timeline, this Evelyn's time was cut short in the realm of Okan and death is not something that cannot easily be undone. One can only hope that the members of their home can reclaim their bones and do a formal funeral, lest they return as a troubled spirit intent on causing harm on their homeland.

## Trivia / Extra Information

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Everdeep Mountain sits at the end of Bolton's Bay, with Ferngully being the farming community at its base and Halleby being inside the mountain and the current center of the Everdeep Project.
2. ↑ A Salokena is a religious period of community service. For more information, please reference the Salokena section on the Pentawardism page.