The Origins of Anda the Wood Elf

When Anda (or Andaleafonia, to use her full name) was an Elfling, she discovered she liked the taste of fruits and vegetables. This was potentially catastrophic for a Wood Elf, especially since her family (dad, mom, two brothers, and a sister) lived in a glade where most elves were strict followers of the Green Pact.

Anda's parents—who were not Green Pact devotees—tried to wean her away from her awful habit but no matter how many prime ribs, T-bones, bacon slices, pork chops, and blood sausages they plied her with, she would continue to nibble lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, etc. Her father once discovered her behind the barn indulging in a Caesar salad.

In despair, her parents decided she should emigrate to Cyrodiil before some Green Pact neighbor did away with her. Anda did not mind. She was eager to see something other than trees. And her other objectionable habit—opening every container, box, urn, and trunk she could find to see what was inside, for she was a very curious elf—had also caused her some difficulties.

Shortly after her 19th birthday, when her family was making preparations to see her off, a letter arrived from a lawyer in the Imperial City reporting that Anda's uncle, Garbulus of the Big Tree, who had moved to Cyrodiil many years before and done quite well running a sawmill—he wasn't a very normal Bosmer either—had passed away and left his house west of the capital* and all it contained to his younger brother Bordonk (Anda's father) provided that Bordonk, or someone from his family, claimed it by September 3. (Otherwise it would go to Garbulus's friend, a bowyer.) Anda said she would certainly claim the house. Her father happily signed it over to her, since he was not planning to leave Valenwood.

So it came about that Andaleafonia happily departed the family tree and headed north to the Imperial province on June 10. She reached Leyawiin on June 15. But while she was practicing archery in a nearby forest, a Ranger arrested her for poaching. This charge was wrong: Anda loved animals and would never harm one unless it attacked her, but the judge was unsympathetic. She was sentenced to six months in jail.

Anda arrived at the Imperial prison in the capital on June 18. She was still there—even skinnier than usual, and scared, and tired, and depairing of ever claiming her house—on August 27, when a group of Blades and an aged man in sumptuous robes entered her cell at 1 AM.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

* A Simple Cabin, by Envoke