Silverleaf Family

The Silverleaf family, otherwise known as the Mithlasse Clan, is perhaps the largest family of characters I have created. At the very least, it is the largest number of family member characters that I have had a hand in playing. While in the Blackwood Family, Gwennod Family, Sacristan Family, etc., I have only had a hand in a single character here and there, the Silverleaf Family is a family I have built by stringing several characters I have played into a cohesive family unit. As such, I have played nearly every member of the Silverleaf family. Get ready for a journey!

## Personal Backstory

The Silverleaf family is a royal family of Elves in the city of Evergrove. From Evergrove, they rule over a whole kingdom and are responsible for the diplomatic ties to other Elven groups in the southern ends of the continent. A brother-sister pair of these elves had close ties with a human named Aleksandr Zachery, and were responsible for the main ties into their involvement in greater, world-spanning concerns which resulted in their journeys into the kingdom of Haven to aid in those issues.

### How the Story Continues...

Each character has their own individual history, none of which began from the story presented above, but that is the core story I have made this family's story in the writing I took part in back in 2011. From that point in the story, they follow Aleksandr's story, and in some points there are some deviations where there are concerns among other Elven species, issues with Orcs to the east, and a grander world-spanning threat to deal with.

However, to really get into the story of the characters, I have to dive into them each, individually, and I will be doing that. Links for each character will be listed in the Family section below.

## Continuity

As is the case in most of my writing, I favor a medieval setting rife with magic and mystery. I prefer that kind of a setting, whether it's in D&D or not.

#### Video Game Renditions

The origins of the family begin in the game Shadowbane, where I first made the character Aleksandr. I also made the first of this family there. At the time, I did not have an extensive knowledge of the meanings of words in Tolkien's elven languages, so I just wanted to make a name that sounded Elvish and specifically, like the Elvish in any of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion books. So, to my grand success, I thought of the name...

Elvulith. Genius, really.

To my surprise, as was often the case when creating names for this family, I more than once actually came up with names that meant something. In this case, I was only half successful. The -lith ending does indeed mean Ash, as in the Ash tree. It took many years, but I eventually changed Elvulith to Tavarlith, which means Ash Wood. I've used this name for two different characters in the end, but the main one, and the one that holds this name for the most part, is Tavarlith Silverleaf.

He was the closest friend of Aleksandr, and that has remained true throughout every adaptation of the character. It was this closeness that inspired me to think about his family, because if he was such a close friend to Alek, then surely Alek would know about his family. Tavarlith definitely knows about Myst, and in fact, due to Elven nature, probably knows more about Myst than even Alek does. Maybe.

After Shadowbane, there was of course, World of Warcraft. In World of Warcraft, I really began to expand on the family. So, characters like Astalder, Alastriel, Istalindir, Dorenduil, Arauka, Valaya, and Sindariel came to be. They were my characters, on a server where I basically only played Blood Elves, though their story was not that they were all Blood Elves. I'll go into their specific histories and characteristics on their individual pages.

They of course show up in my personal writing.

#### New/Recent D&D

In some cases, these characters have shown up in D&D, and while I will discuss their individual D&D escapades on their own pages, there was still, nevertheless, some more development of family in D&D. Specifically, in my own personal campaign, I referred to them as the Mithlasse Clan, of Bosmer in my Elder Scrolls story. There, I added a few more names to flesh out the family tree, and of course, one of them gets married and starts their own family during that campaign. In campaign 2, of that story, that new family will get some face-time.

## Appearance

A family trait I have sort of decided upon for the family is that they all have white blonde hair, and blue eyes. There are of course exceptions to that, but the main through-line of the family is that connection.

## Family

Without realizing it, at first, the main group of characters from this family; Astalder, Istalindir, Dorenduil, and Arauka, were modeled in a way after my own, real life family. This posits that Dorenduil is essentially, my paternal grandfather. While the association to my own family ends there, with that generation being my grandfather and his siblings, it is still interesting to me at least. However, recognizing that fact did, in some way, facilitate further expansion of the family tree to continue to accurately model my own family tree.

   For further looks into the individual characters I have played, look to the following links:

Astalder Silverleaf

Istalindir Silverleaf

Dorenduil Silverleaf

Arauka Silverleaf

Tavarlith Silverleaf

Valaya Silverleaf

Kennaryn Hawthorn

Kynnara Hawthorn