 About LidstromDescription:
More often than not, it is difficult to describe Lidstrom – as she is covered from head to toe in winter clothing and furs. And the furs are typically local to the north, so their pale colours provide camouflage against the snow and ice. When indoors or the rare occasion she’s in warmer climes, she dresses in hide trousers and shirt and her hair is long, blonde and tied in a ponytail. Her high cheekbones reveal her Jadwiga heritage and her lithe and muscular frame point to her Ulfen roots. Her eyes are a very dark shade of blue – almost indigo and her skin is pale, like so many from the north. Background:
Passion brings its own rewards but sometimes there is a price to pay. A chance encounter between a Jadwiga woman and a handsome Ulfen skaldic wayfarer produced a child that provided an equal measure of both before it was even born. You see, when the woman in question is a White Witch and is a granddaughter of the Witch Queen Baba Yaga, the prospect of an offspring that is not pure Jadwiga is not tolerated. Despite her evil heart, Lidstrom’s mother cared too much for her unborn child to terminate the pregnancy. Instead she hid away until the baby was born – refusing to even look at her child – or know the sex, less she fell in love with it. It transpired the baby was a girl and she was spirited away to Algidheart and raised, like other Ulfen people, subject to the cruel whims of the Jadwiga nobility. They say the handmaiden that took the baby from the witch was killed a matter of hours after she handed it over in case she ever talked. And the guard that killed the maid was in turn murdered by an ice giant as he returned to Glacier Lake. The little girl was named Lidstrom by her adoptive parents – a caring couple with little money but plenty of love. She never knew her mother or father’s name, though by the age of ten, she had managed to deduce from overheard conversations how and why she had ended up in the city. Did she hate or love her true parents? Sometimes these emotions crossed her mind but as she got older, all she felt was curiosity. Did they even know she existed? Would they come looking for her one day? Would her mother one day become queen? Unlike typical Ulfen, she lived her life with just the one name – Lidstrom. Traditionally a boy’s name, she deduced that her parents called her that to ensure she wasn’t found by anyone who came snooping. Anyone looking for a young girl would not look twice at a young boy. And she was dressed and raised more like a boy than a girl – learning to hunt and use a bow from a very young age. With no official mother or father she could not take the traditional byname (typically derived from one or other of her parent’s names). Nor did she take a second name based upon any of her features. Nor did she feel comfortable considering a Jadwiga name – despite being officially a member of the Elvanna. And as she grew older, she learned to love her unusual name – it was different, just like her. Her childhood years meant she would never assume the role of a White Witch – and she never missed what she didn’t know – but it spurred her to hunt down and destroy what she couldn’t become. Deep down she hoped she would have shunned the life of a White Witch – she could never be evil. But at low moments, she wondered if she would have had the same outlook if she’d been raised in the palace? Could she have become what she so despises? There but for the grace of the gods go I,” she would regularly muse. In her homeland, those who can survive nature's icy ferocity are held in high regard. For Lidstrom it was always a surprise that it should be so, as it came so naturally to her. Survival in these harsh climes wasn’t easy, but with precautions it was relatively straightforward. Extreme cold can be a killer but equipping yourself with a cold weather outfit and furs helps stave off all but the worst the winter can throw at you. Moving on ice was similarly easy if you understood you couldn’t perform acrobatics. Cleats were a real boon and wearing simple Boots of the Winterlands was over half of the battle. Lidstrom grew up knowing that her people were slaves, at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, existing only to serve the Jadwiga and the Jadwiga's monstrous allies. So when she was old enough to fend for herself, Lidstrom left the family home. It was a wrench to leave her adoptive parents behind – they had invested all of their love in her and she had loved them in return. But she could not remain in a life of servitude and feared that her sense of injustice would one day spill over and that could only risk the lives of the people closest to her. So, using the skills she’d largely taught herself she headed off into the wilderness – deep into the province of Bleakmarch – framed by the Iceflow and Rimeflow rivers to the west and south, Glacier Lake to the east, and the Winterwall Glacier to the north. Once Lidstrom spied the Glacier Lake, a huge expanse of ice – well over 100 miles wide. On the cliffs of the lake's north-eastern shore, was Queen Elvanna's Royal Palace – situated atop a 200 - foot-tall ice spire rising up from the lake it self. She wondered if her mother was in that palace – and if she ever thought of her. She moved from settlement to settlement, spending little time anywhere populated – in case the local White Witch became aware of her and set some terrible creature on her. Instead she picked up essential rations and spent her time tracking and killing the snow goblins and winter wolves that plagued the locals. Lidstrom’s story:
More recently Lidstrom travelled the northern reaches of Avistan from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings in the west, through her homeland of Irrisen – the land of Eternal Winter, to the Realm of the Mammoth Lords in the east. Recent frigid temperatures coupled with howling winds and deep snowfalls that had even buried a village she passed had taken its toll on Lidstrom’s health. Permanent winter can be unforgiving to the health of those who must live in it, and Lidstrom knew she’d contracted Chillbane Fever. Fortunately not the far more potent earlier strain that swept across Bleakmarch during the reign of Queen Velikas, the infectious disease was characterised by the sufferer's constant shaking. And so it came to pass that she happened upon a clearing in the middle of a neat circle of barren and blackened trees. And in the centre of the clearing were a man and a woman. A witch-hunter and a White Witch. Lidstrom didn’t know why she knew who was facing off in front of her – she just knew. The witch was taunting the man facing her and he was wielding a sword as large as she’d ever seen – and wondered how he was carrying it so lightly – as he clearly needed both hands to wield it. She didn’t even consider the possibility that she could be seen, she was mesmerised by the dance that was unfolding in front of her. It was, sadly, a short dance. The witch cast a spell the man failed to avoid and the sword tumbled from his hands. Lidstrom cried out and ran forward and was immediately hit by a spell herself. The witch fled – leaving her for dead. Yet Lidstrom wasn’t dying. She didn’t know why, but the evil witchcraft that touched her failed to kill her. Perhaps it was her White Witch blood? Maybe she was blessed by a goodly spirit or just doggedly determined not to die. But it was clear she had some resilience against the power of the dark arts. The man did not fare so well. She never knew his name – his dying words were too precious to share this information. He begged her to kill the witch and use his sword to avenge his death. He also pressed a nail into her hand. It was thick, 6-inch-long and forged from cold iron. ”Keep it close and it may help you.” And with those final words he died. Lidstrom tracked the witch for months and practiced with the greatsword as she travelled further and further south. It was awkward at first and at odds with the grace with which she carried her bow – but she grew to like the power it offered as it tended to end a fight a lot quicker than the many small cuts her daggers usually inflicted. So she followed the witch all the way to Southern Taldor and finally defeated her in a hideout in the Border Wood – using that sword and claiming retribution for the death of the unnamed witch hunter. Lidstrom would have liked to have found out what she was doing there but the witch died before she could interrogate her. And that is how Lidstrom ended up in a small village named Heldren and found her way to its single inn, called the Silver Stoat, for some hot food and a welcome draft of ale. Personality:
There are two words that sum up Lidstrom more than any others. Caring and dogged. She’s always had a way with animals and has regularly put her life on the line for strangers she knows nothing. And her pursuit of the Winter Witch was a case in point where her determination to see things through was most evident. Lidstrom’s Sayings:
Any troll’s arm comes off
Go sow the whitecaps!
He’d scare the sea away at low tide
A pass is best seen from the top of the mountain
Crunch:
(Irrisen) Female Ranger 1
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