Eiferra Deahln

Born in Gornenshire before the beginning of the civil war, Eiferra is the daughter of Eafa, sometimes known as Weasel, and Elena, the widow of Sir Tannon. Eafa was unaware that Elana was pregnant and it is thought he did not know of the birth of his child.

Eiferra's early life was quiet and uneventful. As a young child, she was unaware of her special lineage and that she would have abilities that humans do not have. She lived with her mother on a small estate on the coast of the missing sea in the county of Bilon. Her mother was well known for her views on literacy and the young Eiferra learned to read Adelan and some older scripts at an early age.

The civil war that destroyed the power of the dukes would be fought for many years, and Elena kept herself to their estate or just travelled south to the fishing port of Len Hoe which was unaffected by the unrest.

Elena died of an infection when Eiferra was only seven years old. Two casual workers who worked in the olive groves on the small estate took the child in and sent word to the Lady Evana and Lord Seran in the capital of Tesson. Evana brought the child to live at Fere Foren and put in managers to look after the estate until the child was of age.

The civil war continued to plague the West until Eiferra was eighteen years of age. Although she took no direct part in the war, Lord Seran gave her the task of constructing accurate family trees of the twelve dukes of the Monarchy of Heinelina, as the Western Kingdom was known.  The history of the Dukedoms was one of many alliances and allegiances and Seran and Evana needed to know if any ancient promises and oaths would come into play. As a consequence, Eiferra built up an unrivalled knowledge of the twelve families and was able to show that they had few if any blood connections to the ancient Heinela Cwendrin empire, something her father had always suspected.

First Centuries

Eiferra always joked that she first realised that she was different to others when as a young teenager she worked out how to see in the dark. She used this ability to sneak around the castle of Fere Foren which brought her into conflict with Elena. Lady Elena started telling Eiferra more about herself and about her father, and that he was something called an Ancient who had lived more than a thousand years. At this time in the Civil War, many refugees had fled to Gornenshire, including some knights who had seen their duchies collapse. Some of these had fought against and later with Pree and General Farthing and had known Weasel. They were able to tell her much of the history of the war and the part her father had played.

When she was twenty years old, Eiferra moved back to the villa on the coast, taking with her the book and notes left for her by Senn-Liana, her grandmother. She quickly realised that much that was written did not fit with what she was experiencing as she began to understand her own abilities. Additional notes in the book made by her father and mother confirmed her suspicions.  Eiferra was left with many puzzles, but she had no one who she could ask and did not know where her father had lived or anything about her grandmother; Senn-Liana had died just a day after arriving in Gornenshire.

Eiferra had an interest in herbs and was able to use her abilities to become a healer. The years following the Civil War had left much of the Western Kingdom in an impoverished and broken state, especially in the north, and she took to travelling through Hellian, Carlathenshire and North and South Loden in a wagon, using her skills as a healer. During these times she would rent her villa out to itinerant farmers. 

She continued to work as a healer through the following centuries as the West was time and time again riven with strife. On one such trip when she was 189 years old, she met Sir Urvan, a man in his forties who was helping rebuild the government in Hellian after a farmers' revolt. The two of them moved to his estate in Ladenshire on the river Sellon and lived there for thirty years. Sadly, Eiferra did not fall pregnant, and Sir Urvan did not get a long life. He died in his early sixties. Eiferra still looked twenty.

Eiferra did not restrict herself to the West. She was uncomfortable in revealing her real age and only Urvan and a few trusted friends ever knew the truth. From time to time, she would rent her villa to a family for many years and travel in the south of what was now called Preland. Here she discovered a small fisherman's hut in a forgotten cove in South Ham. She adopted the property and converted it into a small cottage. Although very primitive, Eiferra loved this tiny home. She always commented that though the Villa would remain her first home, the home of her birth, this little cottage was just hers and had no history. It had never been used as a dwelling before and the nearest village was four leagues away up the small river.  Eiferra returned to this cove infrequently in her first five centuries, but when she did would stay several years.