Childhood:

Therrilliar (which means River Dancer in her native tongue) was born on the Isle of Onlor, a large peaceful island under the protection of Faenella and Glythtide. She was born in the Forests of Relum in the eastern portion of that fair land to two important Elvish rangers, man and wife, and Therrilliar was their only child.

At first Therrilliar grew up wild and free under the eaves of Relum and reveled in the freedom allowed her by her parents. She explored the wilds of the forests, dallied with the nymphs and pixies thereof, and got into no end of mischief and trouble.

Eventually, as her parents were called away to duties throughout the forest kingdom, Therrilliar was kept in reign under the watchful eyes of her halfling nanny, Bronga. Bronga raised Therrilliar with care and with love, and as her own parents were called to leave home more frequently and for longer periods of time, Bronga became, almost defacto, Therrilliar's mother.

It was on a stormy spring day that news was brought back that Therrilliar's parents had been killed. How and by whom Bronga would not tell Therrilliar, though often throughout her lifetime she would inquire of her halfling matroness. Bronga, taking pity on the 10 years old Therrilliar, took her into her own family (after raising the roofs on their hole) and raised her as her own. Therrilliar grew into adolescence in a halfling household, and after a time began to think of Bronga's children as her siblings and Bronga's husband as her father.

It was Bronga's husband, old Jungo Hollowbottom, who first taught Therrilliar to play an instrument, in this case an old, battered tin whistle. Therrilliar caught the musical bug and seemed to take to instruments like a halfling to food.

Therrilliar also picked up other halfling traits as she grew older. She learned to smoke and drink strong drink and gained a halfling's earthy sense of humour. Nevertheless, Therrilliar preserved one Elvish trait that was common for her people...she never ate meat.

Still, although her childhood existence was idyllic, as Therrilliar grew into womanhood, she grew restless. At first her adoptive parents thought this was loneliness for the company of other Elves, but for Therriliar it was that and something else besides.

It was during a long trek to the centre of the Isle that Therrilliar chanced upon the elusive and sacred Mere of Onlor. There, she gazed into the still, magical waters of the Mere and saw the face of Faenella. The goddess reached out of the placid pool and touched Therrilliar's brow and uttered the words "Wander child...be thou carried upon the wind as a refrain". From that moment on, Therrilliar was infused with the affliction known to bards as Wanderlust.

It was not too long before even the Isle of Onlor could not contain her, and so, at the age of 40, Therrilliar packed up her belongings, strapped on the shortsword Jungo had given her as well as his tinderbox, a pouch of his best tobacco, and some silver coins, and boarded a ship for far off lands.

Pre-Elanthian Wanderings:

Therrilliar travelled far and wide, trekking across barren wastelands, through dark forests and across snowy peaks, all the while singing and dancing and telling and learning tales, songs, and customs of the world.

In far off Imtorr she was almost forced into marriage of an aging archduke. In the wastes of Wylag she sang for her life in the lair of a blue dragon, singing so beautifully and passionately that the dragon consented to let her live.

Finally, her wandering brought her to Greywood, one of the oldest and greatest forests of the world. And there, she was attacked by a slavering band of goblins. Long and hard she fought, and long and quickly she ran, but eventually, the beasts caught her and dragged her down, and as she prepared to meet her end, out of the trees came a handsome young Elvish Paladin. The Paladin, his gleaming longsword flashing like argent fire in the dark of the forest, cut through the goblins and drove them howling back into the woods.

The Paladin brought the stricken Therrilliar to his village and introduced himself as Thilissal. For three months Thilissal tended her wounds, several of which were poisonous and infected by foul goblin venoms, and during that time, the two got to know each other and fell in love. Love turned to passion, and passion to long nights entwined in the other's arms.

But eventually, Therrilliar's wounds healed, and as they did, Faenella's Wanderlust came upon her, and she knew she had to go. So she asked Thilissal to accompany her and marry her, and she told him of the adventures that awaited them as they travelled the world together. But Thilissal could not come with her, for he had recently pledged his service to an elite company of the army of the Elvish King of Greywood, the Silver Helms, and his term of service was for 50 years. As a Paladin and a man of his honour, he could not break his oath of service.

Therriliar was heartbroken, and Thilissal begged her to stay with him, but Therriliar explained that the Wanderlust was both a gift and a curse, and it could not be denied. Thus did she prepare to leave Greywood and her beloved. But on that last morning, as they prepared to depart, Thilissal came to her and pledged that he would remain true to her and, in 50 years' time, if she would have him, he would marry her and travel with her forever. Therrilliar was overjoyed and agreed. With that, Therrilliar left her beloved, with a heavy heart, but with the promise of bliss after a long, dark wait.

From Greywood, Therrilliar traveled south into the great archipelagos, and during this time was shipwrecked on an island. She and her crew encountered a deserted village of tribespeople, all of whom had been brutally slaughtered. Investigation showed this to be the work of an evil spirit which had possessed one of the tribeswoman. Therrilliar and her companions exorcised the spirit and Therrilliar, in a pique of sympathy, killed the young woman to spare her the agony of remembering what she had done to her tribe.

Soon after, Therrilliar's ship landed at the quay just outside of Crossing and she entered the land of Elanthia.

First Elanthian Visit:

Therrilliar arrived in Crossing and quickly began to explore its mazy streets and many buildings. She found the bard guild, which had opened but 2 weeks earlier, and joined, there making the acquaintance of many of the bards now renowned throughout the lands.

Therrilliar had her first taste of death while hunting in the Forest of Night. It was night time, and she heard the voice of a child calling out for help, saying that she had lost her mommy. Wanting to help the poor child, Therrilliar came upon a shifting wall of mist, from which the child's voice pleaded for aid. Therrilliar stepped through the mist, and was transported to a haunted land filled with evil grey death spirits. These swarmed over her, rending her soul with their ghostly claws. All went black and but for the favour of Faenella would she have perished in that haunted land.

Therrilliar was brought back at the Crossing Temple, naked and alone, and she quickly ran back to the Forest, to find all of her possessions stolen by scavengers. Slowly, over the course of a year, she and her friends bought back, coerced back, and begged back all of her most valuable possessions.

But Therrilliar's troubles in the Forest of Night did not end there, for it was another time while she was hunting Nyads in the riverbank when a fearsome howling and screaming erupted. Out of nowhere appeared blood wolves and wolf spiders. They tore through the unsuspecting hunters there, and as Therrilliar tried to drag a paladin to safety she was leapt upon by a blood wolf and a wolf spider sank its fangs deeply into her neck.

Therriliar died that day, and as she lay there, the ravens of the mad mage of the forest came and pecked out one of her eyeballs. The ravens then took her eye into the trees and taunted her with it before flying off with it. When Therrilliar was resurrected, her eye remained missing, and she has worn an eyepatch over the missing eye ever since.

Therrilliar spent several years rising up through the guild ranks, eventually becoming one of the most respected and highest circle bards of the time. She was known as a teacher of many and was instrumental in guiding young bards up through the ranks of the guild. She even penned a guide to the bard guild which is well known and respected throughout the land.

At some point in time, Therrilliar earned the enmity of a Gor Tog named Dragongrogg. This Tog had entered the bard guild to settle a score with a bard named Joad and had ignored the pleas of the bards not to defile their inner sanctum with bloodshed. Therrilliar was instrumental in rallying the bards against Dragongrogg, and Dragongrogg never forgave her for that, and he carried his threats and enmity against Therrilliar to his dying days.

Therrilliar only ever killed another citizen of Elanthia once. This was a bard named Metel, who had come into the guild sanctum and began to harass, physically and sexually, an innocent empath. Therrilliar repeatedly admonished the foolish lad and dragged him out of the guild, but he kept returning. When he struck the empath with his fists, Therrilliar determined to drive him away with a blow. She dragged him out and took one swing at him. Alas! For her strength, newly trained, was formidable, and the single blow chopped off Metel's head. Therrilliar was immediately arrested and charged a huge fine. It was only through desperate gathering of funds and generous loans from friends like Brigannia and Valeiria that she was able to pay her fine minutes before her possessions were to be auctioned off.

Therrilliar was present at the opening of the Deobar Gate and the reopening of travel into the province of Ilithi. She was aboard the gondola when Gabriel the Paladin fought Sidhlot and slew him, and she was one of the first people to enter Shard. In fact, she, Darkel, and Agraynel were the first bards to set foot openly into Shard in many years.

Therrilliar's only other death during this period was when Migbluc sent huge streaming balls of lava hurtling across Elanthia. One of these struck Therrilliar as she camped by the side of the road and killed her in her sleep. While dead, scavengers again looted her body.

Towards the end of her stay, Therrilliar was privileged to be one of three judges for the first ever grand Bardic Tourney of Elanthia, and she was proud to have had a part thus in forming the Troupe of the Four Winds.

Peaceful Interlude:

Nevertheless, despite new adventures and new friends, Therrilliar grew lonesome for Thilissal, and she tried to defy her Wanderlust and settle down with him at his barracks. For a time they were able to enjoy each other's company, and Therrilliar cast aside her lore and bardic ways and immersed herself in love's pleasures. For 8 months she did so, and then war began in Greywood, and Thilissal was called away. Therrilliar was again ravaged by Thilissal's call to duty, but Thilissal soothed her heart by formally pledging his troth with an Elvish engagement complete with rings. Thus did Therrilliar leave Thilissal once again and sailed back to Elanthia.

Second Elanthian Visit:

Upon her return to Elanthia, Therrilliar had lost her standing in the bard guild and had to rejoin as a novice. In addition, she found that she had lost much of her lore and her bardic touch. So, she endeavoured to work hard, even though now many of her students had surpassed her, she welcomed the chance to learn from them those skills she had taught to them previously.

Through perseverance and hard work, Therrilliar eventually equalled and then surpassed her earlier standing within the guild. She fought in the Gorbesh Wars, helping to watch Faenella's holy lute in the Crossing sewers while battle raged above. She was also present when the lute was finally stolen by the evil Ponlakh.

Therrilliar competed as a contestant in the Third Bardic Tourney, but did not place very well. By the time the Fourth Tourney rolled around, she took third place and was invited to become a member of the Troupe of the Four Winds.

Therrilliar was also invited by the renowned scholar Pentaith to become a council member and Teacher for the Hounds of Rutilor, a group dedicated to the defense of Zoluren.

When the governments finally allowed it citizens to purchase land and dwellings, Therrilliar picked up a cozy little cottage in Chelsea Overlook, close enough to Crossing to be convenient, but far enough away for some peace and quiet. Nevertheless, given her Wanderlust, she rarely stays more than a night or two at a time in her abode.

Therrilliar undertook a voyage to the Isle of Taisadon and met with many adventures thereon. She eventually escaped unscathed and returned to the mainland to continue her career. When the new fourth province was opened to travel, she visited once, but did not return.

Tragic Interlude:

While resting in her cottage one night, Therrilliar received a knock on her door. There was a messenger, informing her that her beloved Thilissal had been gravely wounded in battle against fell creatures and was abed. Quickly, without a word to anyone, Therrilliar shuttered her home and took the first ship east, past Ratha, and arrived at the Greywood. There she journeyed with all possible speed to reach her beloved ere he passed, but she was exhausted from her journey, and not wanting to present herself as a disheveled mess to him, she chose to rest a night in a nearby inn before arriving at Thilissal's home the next morning.

Alas...for that delay cost her, and she arrived at Thilissal's home just minutes after he had finally walked the Starry Road. Her delay had cost her any chance of ever saying goodbye to her beloved and of telling him one last time that she loved him.

Therrilliar was bereft, and went mad, somehow blaming herself and her delay with his death. The local Hodierna priestess set guards upon the now raving Therrilliar to ward her from harm, but using her considerable wilderness experience, she escaped them.

Therrilliar, blinded by grief, fled to a pool deep in the forest. This was a special pool, known by the elves as Ty-namaril'ne or The Pool of Souls. Herein there dwelt a powerful spirit of the forest, birthed it is said from a satyr and a hag. It was known that one could enter utter oblivion by pledging one's soul to the spirit, who would then absorb or consume it...which of the two it was not known. And Therrilliar sought utter annihiliation of her soul, for she could not bear to look upon Thillissa in the afterlife, since she felt that she had betrayed him.

So Therrilliar stripped off all of her belongings and cast them into the pool. She then uttered a chant invoking the spirit of the pool and, pledging her soul to the spirit, leapt naked into the pool.

The spirit came and sought to devour Therrilliar, body and soul, but the Hodierna priestess was wise beyond her years, and she had foreseen this action that Therrilliar might take, and so she had woven a spell upon her during her ravings and madness...a spell which protected all of her soul but a portion. This one portion of her soul was the part that held the most intense feelings of love and betrayal and grief for Thilissal. The spirit ripped this from Therrilliar and feasted upon it, casting the bardess and the rest of her warded soul out of the pool.

Rent and torn, physically and psychically, Therrilliar was retrieved from the pool by the minions of Hodierna and nursed back to health over the course of a year The priestess explained to Therrilliar that it was desirable, though unfortunate, that the spirit of the pool take a piece of her soul, for with its purging from her, the loss of Thilissal was not so keenly felt. In fact, to Therrilliar, his death, though intellectually she knew it was only a year and a month before, seemed twenty or thirty years distant emotionally. Thus was Therrilliar made able to live with her loss.

But, there was a price, for her love of barding and the bard guild was almost as strong as her love for Thillissa, and it too was rent asunder by the spirit of the pool, and this, along with Therrilliar's long trauma and recuperation, caused her to forget all lore of music and chant that she had ever learned.

So it was, that another year passed, and she regained herself, and finally, as an inkling of the old Wanderlust rekindled in her breast, she resolved to return to Elanthia. The Hodierna priestess blessed this decision, for she told Therrilliar that her reft soul would eventually heal, and in time she might regain her lore and bardic skills as well as the ability, perhaps, to love another man in place of Thilissal. But, the priestess warned, she must proceed cuatiously, for the wounds were still fresh.

One autumn day, Therrilliar set sail for her return to Elanthia.

Third Elanthian Visit:

Therrilliar returned to Crossing by boat and immediately restruck old acquaintances. She was given a gift of funds and instruments by the bardess Kithria, and in a sad happenstance, was given a bastard sword by the bard Demevil, who was leaving the lands forever. However, Therrilliar could not shake her ennui and the loss of her love, and some time later she donated her possessions to the bard guild in Crossing, made her goodbyes, and was last seen sailing out to sea on a small fishing boat heading into a storm.

Fourth Elanthian Visit:

Therrilliar wandered for decades, seeking to put her past behind her. She visited many strange lands, and spent years as a virtual hermit in meditation and contemplation of her life. Eventually, she felt that all of the hurts and pains of her former life had been not simply internalized, but accepted, absorbed, and reconciled, and so she at long last returned to Elanthia, where she found many things changed, and immediately earned the emnity of the vile necromancers who now plagued the land.

The Ballad of Therrilliar and Thilissal

Introduction: This song tells the key event in Therrilliar's life. You can view the script for this song here.

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