Zisel Nordstrom's page

Zisel was raised by Ulfen peasants in the harsh wintry lands of Irrisen where the descendants of Baba Yaga reigned supreme. Her life had been filled with hard work for as long as she could remember; chopping fire wood, scrapping ice off the door frame, helping harvest the seeds and bark of the witch-trees... It wasn't an exciting life nor did it leave much free-time and Zisel longed to see the exotic lands beyond the powder-white boarders of Irrisen.

As she approached adolescents her vision, which had always been poor, took a turn for the worst. Darkness clouded the edge of her sight until she could hardly see across her own front yard. To make matters worse her skin turned pale and cold to the touch, though Zisel assured her parents she was quite comfortably warm. Local healers examined her and declared there appeared to be nothing physically wrong with her aside from the cataracts slowly taking over her eyes.

The cruelty of the Winter Witches was infamous, but concern for their daughter's health quelled any fears her parents had about approaching them for their aid. The only witch to respond to their plea was a minor noble from a long-gone Queen's bloodline. The witch examined the girl for only a moment before a wicked grin split across her face. The witch instantly saw the signs of Zisel's hag heritage and had mistaken her cold skin and resilience to the arctic weather as a sign of her potential to become a witch herself.

The witch declared Zisel to be healthy and well, aside from her sight, and that Zisel was to remain here with her indefinitely. Zisel and her parents both erupted in protests; how could she think she could just take their daughter like that? But protests were quickly cowed as several guards burst into the room and beat down her parents while the witch held Zisel back to watch. "Now, now," the witch whispered to her. "You wouldn't want to cause a fuss and make me do that again, now would you?"

Left with no other choice in the matter she hung her head in defeated compliance, allowing the witch to lead her off. What followed was years of torment under the tutelage of the witch. She was flogged for mistakes, she was flogged for not doing well enough, and she was flogged for good measure.

After three years of getting nowhere in her arcane learning and being beaten for the failure the witch had finally had it. In a furry of screaming the witch lunged at Zisel with an icy dagger. Zisel met the witch's shriek with one of her own, though instead of rage hers was filled with terror. She struck out at her attacked with the only thing she had; her nails. Zisel isn't sure she'll ever forget what it felt like when her fingers sunk into the witch's eyes. Warm and gooey was as close as words could get. The witch's wrathful scream were replaced with ones of agony.

Zisel panicked. Blood streamed from the witch's face and she could here the guards stirring in the level below. For once she felt cold, but it had nothing to do with the frigid air that seemed to be picking up speed around her. Had she not been in shock maybe she'd have realized wind inside was not natural, and even less natural were the razor sharp flakes of ice that whipped through it as the wind continued to pick up. Before she realized anything was wrong, a full blown blizzard was swirling around her. Shouts rose from the guards as they came up the stairs.

Then Zisel fled. The white-out conditions she had conjured indoors gave her the cover she needed to make her escape. Concerns of safety dissipated as she through herself out the second story window, landing with a crunch in the fresh snow below. The shouting of the guards echoed behind her and she picked herself up and kept running.

She knew she couldn't go home; Zisel had become terrified of what she was and what she would become. The witch had spent painfully long amounts of time telling stories meant to inform Zisel of the gruesome nature of her true hag heritage. She was a monster, or close enough to. Instead she started the long trek towards the southern boarders of Irrisen. She was finally free, and she was going to go see those exotic warm place she had dreamed of.

Since leaving Irrisen, Zisel has grown into her rather new and exciting powers, preferring to use her divine magic for healing unlike her witch mentor who had used her arcane magic for torture. Zisel's journey has been a slow and winding path in a literal sense; she's unable to decide exactly where she should go so she's opted to try a little bit of everywhere. Despite a constant tickling that has recently developed in the back of her mind that tells her to go north, she's decided to defy those unwanted thoughts and marked her next destination as Qadira, a land completely opposite from her northern wasteland home. But... that's a long ways away, so for now she'll stop somewhere along the way.

Despite her fairly average height, Ziesel cuts a striking figure. She stands hale and hearty with curvature made to catch the eye. Milky white skin and mismatched eyes stand in stark contrast with long, jet black hair that flows in even the slightest breeze. Dark rouge tints her lips and kohl gives her eyes a darker backdrop to shine from. Although she rarely needs it, her parents' insistence about dressing warmly for cold weather has stuck with her. She wears a thick, fur-lined cloak and sturdy boots made for long journeys through snow. Her dress is of equal quality, although perhaps a touch more ornate than strictly needed for traveling. Her like for blue and white is evident in the way she dresses. From the deep, rich dark blue of her cloak to the spotless white of her dress, she looks like she belongs in a wintry landscape.