Played by: M Cerys Jenks
Name: Ylsa Stormherald
Gender: Female
Lifespan: 235 – present
Race: Ulven
Occupation: Lorekeeper, trapper
Known Skills: Dual Wielding
Birthplace: The Stormherald family lodgings, at Griogair’s Pass on the eastern reaches of the Great Wolf’s Hackles.
Bio:
Ylsa collects stories. She began her collection with the story of grandmother Bloodskin and the Great Squirrel-Cache Caper, and learned what the runes carved across the lintel of Coywolf longhouses promised, and eventually was told the story of how the Coywolves came to be. The stories in Ylsa’s collection, like the people of the world, do not exist in self-contained little bubbles. She takes them out, holds them side-by-side, to see how they work together. She finds the little loops and hooks and forgotten fragments that connect one tale to another without the teller even realizing. She connected a little girl finding a stash of nuts in winter to a band of stranded adventurers far more easily than her family would have liked.
The stories of the Ulven were not enough to satisfy her curiosity. She was still little more than a child when the truce between Ulven and colonists was called, and at her first opportunity, Ylsa began to follow the Humans and Syndar around, pestering them with questions about Faedrun and everything else she could think of. Come to think of it, she pestered everyone who would hold still long enough. She had to find their stories, you see. Eventually, she realized that silence often yielded better results, and learned to be quiet (an old Lorespeaker named Lygari claims full credit for teaching her this lesson, although by her account she figured it out on her own). She still follows the Humans and Syndar around when possible, though. Their stories are newer, and they do not describe any life quite like the one she has lived.
Which is not so say she lost her interest in stories of the Ulven. Her mate, veteran warrior Rhodi Vakr, first drew her in and away from the Coywolves’ holdings by telling her tales of his glory days with the Tundra Wolves, and kept her with crazed yarns that generally start in a tavern and end with either dead Mordok or traumatized livestock (occasionally both). She strongly suspects that any story out of Rhodi’s mouth is at best only two-fifths true, but she writes them down anyways (and then asks his brother and mate-sister about them).
The news of strange idol in the woods near Daven’s Reach made her thirst for an even newer tale, a first chapter in a whole new book of Ulven and Human and Syndar living side-by-side. A chapter that demands investigation only the unhealthily curious can bring. So far, learning this new tale has proven beyond dangerous, bringing Ylsa face-to-face with things Ulven would have been happy to live in ignorance of. But Ylsa has never been one for ignorance, and the only thing better than hearing a good story is being in one.
Relationships:
Mate of Rhodi Vakr
Great-Granddaughter of Branwen Stormherald
Former student of Lygari Lore-Speaker