Naeli Velbottis's page

Naeli read the letter once more.

“Daughter—“

She knew right then he wanted something of her.

“Daughter, please return to the city. Your family needs you. Armin has gone missing these past two weeks. Lady Velbottis—“ And that was all would call the woman if he wished to remain on Naeli’s good side. Not mother. Never mother.

“Lady Velbottis thinks he’s run off with some gold-digging floozy, a Petrell or a Narvestori maybe. And with these troubles in the city after dark, the talk of night beasts and such, she fears the worst. But I know better, and I know your brother. He’s fallen in with a suspicious crowd lately. Some group calling themselves “Freedom’s March” or some such nonsense. No doubt he’s trying to prove some point to me. How he is too good to take up his family’s name and place at court. This group is known to have involved non-humans. I am even told that some of those of your…nature are involved.

“I know I haven’t written much recently. Have I missed letters from you?” She rolled her eyes. “We need your help. You two were always close, regardless of how heated our own arguments were. He trusts you. You can bring him back to us. Please don’t let my past sins damage this family more than they already have. Please come home.

“P.S. My Lady Velbottis has repaired to our country villa early this year. The heartbreak has been too much for her, I’m sure."

Naeli leaned forward and rested her elbows on the edge of the parapet, tugging her ever-present hood tighter over her head. I’m your past sin, father. And the damage has already been done. She studied the night’s darkness, hanging heavy over the forested hills below. Waiting to hear some clear answer, some path laid out that she had only to follow. But as always, all she heard were the whispers. The dark designs and deadly promises. The sweet sayings and barbed insults. The voices of Hell courted her and reviled her all the same.

Home, she thought. Naeli turned away from the edge suddenly, leaving the letter to drift away in the breeze.

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Naeli Velbottis is the secret shame of the Velbottis family, minor nobility in the Chelxian city of Westcrown. Her father, Artem, was once an influential mage, with political, social, and economic contacts that stretched all the way to the capital of Egorian. In his pride, he gambled it all on an illicit rendezvous with an infernal power. The product of that rendezvous, Naeli, is only the most visible result of his fall from grace. Born a Tiefling, being a member of the nobility did little to shelter her from the bigotry and discrimination all her kind face. If anything, it concentrated and empowered that approbation, as she was viewed as a black mark upon all the nobility of the city, and a symbol of all that Egorian’s current rulers had wrought on great Cheliax. Most aggrieved was Artem’s wife, the Lady Wilhemina Velbottis, who never accepted Naeli and eventually succeeded in driving her from the family estate. Artem and Wilhemina’s natural born son, Armin, is two years younger than Naeli and now heir to the family.
Through her father’s intervention, Naeli found placement in a school for the arcane arts, but soon wore out her welcome. She came to rest at the Whisperwood settlement of Senara, a collection of outcasts much like herself – where her father’s letter finally found her.

At times impetuous and fiery, Naeli can just as easily command a room as fade into the background. Her experiences and the abuse of her father’s wife have left her angry and bitterly sarcastic, rather than beaten down and shy. She knows the power she can command and is not afraid to use it to protect herself and those she cares for. Her ability and willingness to go incognito as an elf or half-elf has gained for her an assured self-confidence, although at times when she has pressed her luck she has found herself in situations that have led to bloodshed. She often willfully antagonizes those uncomfortable with her appearance or heritage. Still young at 22, she finds herself adrift and in need of a direction for her life.

Naeli’s infernal features are atypically mild for one of her heritage and temperament. With only small forehead horns, and the delicate features and swept back ears more reminiscent of a half-elf, with some creative hairstyling and other such measures, she finds it easy in many cases to pass as an elf. Her reddish hair and ruddy skin present as a native of the warmer latitudes – perhaps Rahadoum or Qadira. If you don’t notice the subtle leopard-like skin patterning that runs from the small of her back, up over her shoulders and the sides of her neck (readily concealed by makeup), the only feature that might give the unobservant pause are her eyes – a brilliant amber that at times seem to sparkle with an inner fire. As for the tail, well, that is easily if uncomfortably tucked away when needed.