All of Mirkwood was in mourning; Elerrian, beloved wife of King Thranduil, had been ruthlessly murdered by the Orcs of Gundabad. Novyandowen, her daughter, had narrowly escaped the same attack that killed the Queen. Left emotionally scarred, the young elf withdrew from the public eye as the elves of Mirkwood demanded answers; why had the royal women been travelling without an escort? How did they come to be captured in the first place? Why did their princess hide when her people needed her the most? Thranduil eluded their questions, offering little to no explanation as to what had truly transpired.
The King loved his daughter very much, and worried about her safety after the events that took his wife from them. Taking advantage of her "shut-in" status, Thranduil all but imprisoned her within his halls in an attempt to shield her from the outside world. In his grief, he didn't see how their people perceived his actions as a punishment on Novyandowen, and that they believed she was responsible for Elerrian's death. The princess was treated as an outcast after that, her few public appearances being drought with tension and shame. Her only friends during this time were her brother, Legolas, a soldier assigned to Thranduil's guard named Tauriel, and her bow. The princess often snuck out into the woods against her father's wishes, honing her skills with the bow as she hunted. Novyandowen was a free spirit, dreaming of the day she could escape her father's borders and the nightmares that haunted her there.
Hundreds of years passed, and life did not grow easier for the princess. Thranduil had tried to teach her the way of being a Lady of the Court at one point, in hopes of marrying her off to one of the finer nobles of his house after the shock wore off. It became apparent that Novyandowen was considered "tarnished goods'' and "bad luck", and that the only way for her to marry was to leave Mirkwood. Thranduil would not let his daughter out of his sight due to the circumstances, and gave up on both finding her a husband and turning into a lady as graceful as her mother was. Truth be told, Novyandowen was more like her father, with the heart of a warrior and the desire to see the world. She viewed marriage as an abhorable fate, thinking it just another way her free spirit would be crushed in chains to someone else who would just be in danger knowing her. The princess found herself sneaking away to hunt more often, hoping to escape her overbearing father. She even began building her own house on the far northern borders of the wood, staying there for days at a time before returning to report to her father that she was still alive. It was here that Legolas found his sister one fateful day...