Willowsong }{ 1st Character - Selkia Forest Witch

[Willowsong]

Known Names:
Willowsong (Humans), Sha'ira (Elves), Dursa (Dwarves)

Age:
Unknown, but she is at least over twenty years old

Gender:
Female

Race:
Shapeshifter

Myth and Origin:
Willowsong, as humans call her, is an enigmatic witch. She resides deep within Selkia Forest, preferring to avoid the company of large groups of others.
It is said that she can shift her form into those of animals, but in truth, she is not even sure what race she actually is. Locals tell the tale of her falling victim to the seduction of evil arts. However, Willowsong herself remembers growing up in the forest, fighting for survival and managing well, considering she could change forms at will.
The myth tells of the witch living in a cave that attracts hapless wanderers on their search for civilization. But this is where the horror story begins.
According to the tales of the denizens of some villages, Willowsong would lead a male, weak-willed to her cave by spreading these smells, but this is where the myth varies. Other say that she takes on the form of a tree and confuses the wanderer by always singing, trapping the wanderer in hallucinations and loss of orientation until he either falls victim to the animals of the forest or starves to death. This is where her human name originates from, as she never knew of her real name.

Other tales speak that once Willowsong has led a wanderer to her cave, she poisons him and then eats him alive. But the most common tale is that she possesses a gift, that proves to be a curse to others. It is said that weak-willed men, who follow her to her cave, become obsessed with Willowsong's beauty and slowly transform into an animal of the forest as they try to approach her. Women or strong-willed men are said to be immune to this, however.

The few that did see her cave and live to tell the tale, spoke of a disturbing fact: in front of Willowsong's cave, there is a small field of graves, with improvised crosses for each. There don't seem to be many, though, but there is still space for a lot more.
The inside of her cave is supposed to hold some piles of old, broken books that seem to have been picked up of the ground and read through again and again.

One that no one doubts however, is that she does sing beautiful songs when she thinks to be alone. Willowsong also appears to be in control of some animals in the forest, most notably spiders and wolves. Villagers believe these animals to be the poor men she has transformed.

Physical Description:
Willowsong normally appears as a young human girl with long, black hair and ivory skin. She has bright green eyes. In other forms, she is known to the colour black and brown on her. Even though she is thought to be powerful, she looks rather fragile and weak. The most unsettling about her might be her long finger nails that would remind one of claws. However her strengths lie in magic, or shapeshifting in general.
She wears little to no attire, preferring to stay as close to nature as she can manage. In case she has to shapeshift, Willowsong wears a single long and wide fur gown with no sleeves. She is also always barefoot, and her feet are often red and bloodied from walking over stones and other rough ground.

Personality:
The very few that did speak to her described her as an innocent, yet somewhat awkward young girl, that seemed to long for company. When asked to follow the adventurer to a village, however, she quickly became reserved and scared like a trapped animal.

What few know is that she is very open to races that remind her of the forest. She even loves werewolves, allegedly having some kind of spell that can control the lycanthropic curse at will. Once Willowsong senses a werewolf near-by, she appears to activate this spell if the werewolf is in human form, as she is rather scared of humans. In fact, Willowsong appears to be afraid of most humanoids, such as humans or dwarves. She tends to be more open to elves, though.

[HoudiniDerek]

Approved.