Aettrynne, High War Mage of the Eravisci--The Firth Witch

 

If there ever was a human that came close to immortality, it would be Aettrynne of the Eravisci. 

Aettrynne is ancient, older than even the oldest historically known settlements. She came from a world before the current known world--a civilization doomed by its own intelligence and hubris. She's the last of what is called Portalborne, a line of children who were specially bred for supernatural abilities to work natural magicks with their technologies. When it became clear that their civilization was doomed, it was Aettrynne who was the sole survivor--sent into the future to hopefully discover a way to return and save them from their fate. 

She arrived in the land of the ancient Celtic tribes. Having been taken in by members of the Tencteroi tribe, when they were slaughtered in battle with advancing Roman armies, the young Aettrynne was wounded and again left on her own. But now, she had a new focus for her rage rather than her own inability to save her people. If she couldn't bring back her civilization, she could at least destroy the Empire's. 

Little is known about where Aettrynne went after the Tencteroi massacre. When asked, she would only respond that she "went home." But she reappeared years later as a young woman flush with magical abilities. She arrived at a challenge to become the Eravisci's new war mage--as the previous one had been killed in battle with the Romans. She bested all contenders, easily becoming the clan's youngest ever war mage (and one of the few females in the role). She was now in a position to wage war against her enemies and gain vengeance for all the Celtic and Gaulic tribes they had slaughtered. 

So she could work with powers away from the prying eyes of civilians, she set up a bivouac on an island far away in the northern ocean. The freezing conditions should have been too much for any kind of population, but Aettrynne knew how to harness the volcanic energy present on one side of the island to make it an otherworldly Eden for the army she was amassing. The sea voyage to the mainland also should have taken days--yet Aettrynne could somehow move her army from place to place faster than what should have been humanly possible. When asked, her fighters could only describe a large "door" that was a circle made of light--it would expand, engulf the group, and when they could see again, they'd be somewhere else. While they fought under the Eravisci name, her warriors were from multiple tribes and clans--many of them had surnames that had been almost wiped out completely. All had a similar hatred as Aettrynne and, through her, they hoped to wreak their own vengeance. 

However, brute strength could not seem to give Aettrynne her desired revenge. It was as if something always got in the way of a full victory. Full of frustration, she began looking for ways to gain more power. It soon became an obsession. First, it was legendary and mythical artifacts. Having the past that she did, she knew that often myths are rooted in reality and often used her warriors to slaughter anyone who got in her way of digging down to discover the potentially very powerful truths. 

Her spellwork and working with magical and technological artifacts had unforeseen repercussions, however. More and more, she looked less human, her eyes turning completely black and her skin a gunmetal grey that sometimes when wet, shone like silver. The war marks she regularly smudged on her face became permanent. In effect, she was becoming a vengeance daemon. 

But it still wasn't enough--she was unable to get her decisive and complete victory. She moved from artifacts to collecting magical beings. In a fit of what she believed to be genius, she dreamt up an idea of a coven, comprised of the powerful daughters of immortals and demi-beings. She set about using the technological magicks of her youth, portaling through time and gathering her quarry--Aeval-Leigh, the estranged daughter of the Sidhe queen Aoibhealle, beansidhe of the O'Brien clan; Dhampir, half-breed Fomorian daughter of Eravisci royalty whose mother, Gundhrama, was a powerful witch in her own right but unable to protect herself from the invading monstrous horde; Dantae, daughter of the fae queen Mab by Geoffrey, Archdderwydd of the Durotriges tribe; and Neraida Grafea, a wind nymph construct created by Boreas, the North Wind himself, as a gift for the famous chronicler Pausanias to accompany and protect his niece Ariadne on her voyages.

Though the young women who were initiated into her coven were not necessarily violent, Aettrynne required them to be blood bound to her and proceeded to groom them to become the means of annihilation she'd hoped for. Soon, her armies, along with her coven, were doing the exact same thing to Roman-occupied territories that Rome had done to Gaul. In effect, they'd become what they despised. 

More and more, the coven members grew uncomfortable with their position--but they would not or could not go against their mentor. It wasn't until Aettrynne discovered a mystical sword--one that was said to not only kill with one slice but also collect the talents and knowledge of all who had fallen to it. The legend stated that if one were powerful enough to withstand a slice from the sword into the heart, they would be endowed with all the energies that the sword had gathered. Aettrynne couldn't resist. She cast every protection spell and resurrection spell she could and had her coven circle around her to provide her with their power. She then ran herself through with the sword. It didn't go according to her plan. Aettrynne began shrieking as energy flowed into her. From the vantage point of her coven, shafts of light and energy rays came pouring out of the Witch's eyes, nose, mouth, and then her skin began to crack under the intensity. Instead of aiding their mentor, the coven sisters fled, making it out of the ruins that the ritual was taking place just in time for the place to be rocked by an explosion. 

Aettrynne was finally dead, it seemed. They were free. 

So it seemed...