As before, click on the link on my hompepage to find the illustrations that accompany this series (it will take you straight there now). Some will be revised/new ones added quite soon as well.
Baldur's Gate Heroes
Secret Files & Origins:
Aerie
"What do you fear, my lady?"
"A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valour has gone beyond recall or desire."
-The Two Towers, by J.R.R Tolkien
Name: Aerie
Occupation: Crime fighting adventurer.
Nationality: None. She's from space. Whilst various nations might claim to own bits of it, currently these claims are not acknowledged by the peoples who actually live there.
Hometown: None (Originally from Faenya Dail, an Avariel City Ship).
Height: 5'3"
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Interesting Factoid: Aerie is made from 100 per cent natural ingredients.
Whilst on Earth man was still racing for the moon, far away across the galaxy the Avariel City Ship, Faenya Dail, along with its fleet of escort ships, slowly trawled across the depths of space as it had been doing for at least ten millennia.
During their voyage, the Avariel intercepted transmissions between the ships and colonies of a less advanced but still space faring civilization. They discovered the homeworld of this species was under attack by an unknown but clearly more technologically advanced species; unknown to them that was. It did not take the Avariel long to identify the aggressors; their old enemies the Drow engaged in piracy.
Although the Avariel valued their peaceful isolationism, on this occasion they decided to intervene since the Drow looked certain to exterminate or enslave this entire race. Warship's moved away from Faenya Dail and swiftly fell upon the invaders. After a bloody battle, the Avariel successfully liberated the homeworld. Then, as was their way, they left without saying a word.
Of course, the Avariel had suffered casualties. Every resource on board a city ship is carefully rationed and balanced, including the Avariel themselves. A vacuum cannot be tolerated for very long. And so, even as they mourned the deaths of sisters who had fallen, the City's Mother Computer set to work growing a new generation to replace them. First splitting and randomly recombining the original gene pattern (that of the first Avariel, Aerdrie Faenya) then nurturing the young ones within it's artificial wombs, feeding them the vast sums of knowledge contained in it's database as they grew… until finally they were ready.
It was as Faenya Dail had stopped near the star Alshain to replenish its stocks that Aerie was 'born'. She was assigned to the Meneluin (sky blue) chapter, and an older Avariel, Fayanna, was assigned to teach and guide her (for Avariel were born with vast sums of knowledge already, but still they lacked experience).
Young Aerie was kind and pleasant and full of questions and an intense curiosity about, well, everything. So much so that before long, life on the City Ship began to bore her (incidences like the battle with the Drow before she was born were extremely rare, happening only once every few hundred years). And so she looked to the stars.
The galaxy was teeming with life; the Avariel observed and documented all they could from their safe home far out in space. But, having grown fearful of contact with others rarely set out to meet any of them. In the past it had been different; the Avariel had been created to serve and protect the races as yet too weak to protect themselves. And their were still peoples under threat from more powerful civilizations or whose homeworlds were ravaged by diseases the Avariel could easily cure.
Aerie debated the matter with her teacher, Fayanna, saying that they should be exploring the galaxy, learning about other cultures up close and using their knowledge to help others when they could. The older Avariel, ever patient with her, tried to explain how the galaxy had changed. How others would fear the science and technology of the Avariel, or covet it for themselves. By interfering too often they could make things worse. Aerie regarded this as a rather defeatist attitude and besides as things were the Avariel's whole culture was growing stale; eventually other races would catch them up and they'd no longer be safe in their City Ships.
Despite her best efforts, all Aerie's arguments were rejected by her sisters. Her discontentment grew; besides, she didn't believe that evil really existed anywhere. If they showed people their intentions were peaceful they would have nothing to fear from anyone.
Feeling she needed to shake them up a bit, she went to the docks and stole a scout ship. She intended to bring it back of course; maybe visit the odd moon or two that seemed interesting… she wondered if she would be punished when she returned. Would her sisters even know how to punish her? She was probably the first Avariel in many centuries to commit a crime on Faenya Dail. She found that rather… exciting. Exhilarating even…
While Aerie was tearing through space for the joy of it, she received a distress signal. It made her jump. Her first thought was to go back and inform her sisters… but then, she knew they wouldn't do anything. She on the other hand could not abandon her own principles, whatever the rest of them thought. She found herself setting course for the third planet around a yellow in an as yet uncharted area of space.
As she drew closer, her excitement grew and grew. The ships computer intercepted and descrambled all sorts of transmissions coming from the world… very primitive radio signals but still she amazed to find that the inhabitants of the world seemed to closely resemble her own kind. Except there were males of the species as well. They were not any kind of ELF (Engineered Life Form) that she knew… it occurred to her that she may have discovered Tellus. The mythical world on which the Seldarine created the first Avariel.
Still, she didn't forget why she had come. Although she couldn't a precise lock on the signals location (she had already the dismissed the possibility that it came from any of the local inhabitants of the planet… the technology used to transmit it was far too advanced for them), she found the area and quickly landed her ship as close as she dared.
Aerie took an atmosphere reading – the gravity was a little greater than on Faenya Dail and the atmosphere heavier, although not as rich in oxygen. She would be a little slower, weaker and have far less stamina than she did at home but it was well withing tolerable limits. So then, she stepped onto service on the planet she would come to know as Earth for the first time.
She never did find where the distress signal was coming from, and in her eagerness to help she had neglected to take thorough scans of the area before touching down on the surface. Aerie had landed in Arizona, where the US Army was engaged in manoeuvres.
A barrage hit the scout ship and although it survived perfectly intact, the Armed Forces were alerted to her presence and immediately started a search. Aerie managed to elude them for several days, but was unable to find any way back to her vessel.
Alone in an alien environment, increasingly hungry and having no idea if anything around here was safe for her to eat… and above it all, Aerie was very, very scared. She cried for hours at a time and wished she'd listened to her teacher.
Even so, when, on the sixth day, she encountered a small human (she'd never seen a child before but that's what it was), being attacked by several much larger humans her natural instincts took over and intervened to save the small boy. After driving the assailants away, Aerie was completely exhausted and collapsed. The authorities soon arrived and took the alien, too tired to resist at all, into their custody.
Naturally, she soon passed into the hands of the military who fed and clothed her, for which she was very grateful; but it wasn't long before they started interrogating her. This was fruitless at first since she didn't a word they said and they didn't understand a word she said. She could tell they were very angry but had no idea why. Neverthless, it was Aerie who solved the communication problem and slowly started learning their language. This they were very grateful for, since now they could extract some useful information.
A scientist named Sorel took charge of questioning the alien and analysing her spaceship. He was not a nice man; he was positively twisted and employed the most barbaric and cruel methods of torture to get any information he wanted out of Aerie. Much of what she knew was beyond the scientific understanding of humans, but he wrote it all down anyway.
He turned his attention to her ship and its power systems. Although Aerie was not allowed access to her vessel for fear she might pull some kind of trick (which she had to admit she would of), she got wind of his experiments and begged him to stop since he didn't know what he was doing. He ignored her, and went on to cause an explosion which crippled the ships faster than light drives and the navigation system; most crucially he'd destroyed the Lanthorn, putting an end to any hopes Aerie had of ever returning home. Since Avariel city ships were always on the move, smaller vessels belonging to each one were equipped with this device which locked to each City Ships unique signature enabling them to hop back to it through hyperspace at any time. Only the most senior Avariel on board each City Ship knew the signature however, and so without the Lanthorn the odds of ever finding Faenya Dail again were trillions to one.
Sorel himself was badly injured in the explosion, losing an arm and much of his skin was almost completely burnt off. However, he had prepared for such eventualities and replaced his arm with a mechanical one and gave himself a new skin made of steel. As the years passed, he replaced more and more of his human components with machine parts until very little of his humanity was left… although it was debatable whether any part of him was ever truly human anyway.
Sorel renewed his torture of Aerie appropriate machine like relentlessness… he didn't even seem interested in learning anything from her anymore. And then, suddenly, the torture stopped.
Unbeknown to Aerie, Sorel's higher ups had learnt of his methods and had him removed. But Aerie didn't care anymore. She lay on the floor in her cell and never moved. She thought about things sometimes, like her home Faenya Dail. She'd completely forgotten why it was she'd ever left.
Outside it seemed the rest of the world forgot about her too. The new people in charge had decided the alien technology was too dangerous right now and so it was best things under wraps. Of course, it left the question of what to do with Aerie… fortunately for the alien before they had decided anything the base was attacked. In the ensuing chaos she and a few other items were stolen, thus the militaries problem solved itself.
Aerie was now in the possession of a secret research institute owned by De'Arnise Industries. At first not much changed; the new cell wasn't much different and she remained motionless and unresponsive to any stimuli. Her physical condition had deteriorated so much that it was impossible for her to move at all under her own power.
Quayle arrived then, taking it upon himself to nurse Aerie back to health and eventually he succeeded in getting her to open up to him and in time to leave her cell. Through his many acts towards her, Aerie slowly got healthier and more like her old self… even in her interest in exploring outside began to return. Of course, that would never be allowed since she was too valuable to the company. But, having developed genuine affection for the alien girl, Quayle knew that she would never be happy so long as she remained confined in this place.
In the end it was Kalah, a rival of Quayle's, who provided the means for Aerie to leave. His misuse of alien technology resulted in him being possessed by a creature from another dimension, a Rauko, which slew almost everyone in the research facility. When a band of mercenaries showed up and with Aerie's help defeated the creature, they were able to fake Aerie's death so that she could leave with them.
Today, Aerie is Imoen's most loyal and trusted companion. Although physically weak, the Avariel is extremely determined and will do everything within her power to ensure the well being of her friends. In fact, Aerie is a more skilled fighter than Imoen but it's her very poor stamina that lets her down.
Still, the Witch Crystal gives Aerie seemingly magical powers and as a scientist and researcher Aerie proves excellent, despite her poor self confidence and image.
To Imoen, Aerie is also the perfect best friend. Good, kind, loyal, and will do almost anything the red head asks no matter how crazy it is.
As for the Avariel, she finds the planet Earth strange and rather frightening… but also exciting and wonderful. But she still misses her homes and longs to see her sisters once again, even its just to explain where she's been and at last say good bye to all of them.