Vault: On the Druidess: 1/3

Larya Nuptuel's life began in a rough region to love nature in: The Sagebrush. A chilly, arid desert just west of the Kingdom of the Chosen, the Sagebrush is largely settled by two mortal groups: The native skittergoblins and a loose confederation of copper mine towns. The latter hail from a great exodus many years ago, when the God of Copper, Thundersnow, and Honeymoons guided a large population of Westerners and Southwesterners to the region. For this rather irritating reason, the Sagebrush residents largely speak a mix of Western and Southwestern—despite being in the Central section of the continent.

Larya was born to a pair of silver miners, and learned from an early age to trust in teamwork and cooperation. Her family was very tightly-knit, and her community as a whole was self-governed—a common practice in the Sagebrush. As a young girl, she helped polish copper extracted from the mines. As a teenager, she even assisted with carting the silver out, though she was never allowed to actually join the miners on the digs.

She learned the reason the day the mountain caved in. On the same day, Larya lost both of her parents. On the same day, a flock of bone wraiths awoke in the Sagebrush.

The ensuing struggle would transform Larya's community forever. Other mining towns became involved in the struggle, and her village grew into a small city of nearly a thousand. Blood, steel, and bone dust became the three most common sights. Leaders were selected for the community—military leaders who would come to rule with iron intent. Rangers and mages arrived, some to help, some simply to study. Many of Larya's friends left town as refugees.

Larya never did.

And when the dust had settled and the last bone wraith was sealed back into the stone, Larya watched the community that had built up just... fade away. Those few faces Larya recognized from the old days left town, to rejoin their families in new towns, to find new life and new work. The lingerers were strangers. Mercenaries and volunteer soldiers from far-off. Some were kind, and many were not. Many were just there to loot the remains of the mines, as well as those lost within them. Larya came to hate adventurers during this time, and this was a hatred that would linger for many years after.

Larya never left. Despite it all, she retained a strange connection to the land. This was the place she'd grown up in. These were her sands, her sagebrush shrubs. She knew every fissure, every dune, every captor cactus.

The city steadily shrank back into a village as livelihoods dried up, and Larya had to resort to some desperate measures on occasion. The presence of undead had crippled the land's fertility, making it harder and harder to simply provide for herself. She worked as a washer, a scavenger, and, at 20, an escort. It was under the employment of her madame that Larya developed a very strong sense of the rules of consent, as well as a healthy understanding of her own sexual proclivities. But soon, even that work dried up.

And so it came to pass that Larya took on a job, at 22, as a mage's apprentice. The mage was not pleasant, nor was he particularly likable, nor was he that helpful as a mentor. But Larya saw in him an opportunity to learn more about the world, to achieve something close to a true education.

Solus had other plans.