♛ → THE RIVERLANDS presents FIADH VANCE, the LADY of WAYFARER’S REST. when the dragons danced in the sky they thought the BLACKS would still fly, but in the blink of an eye, they would all die. the TWENTY-SEVEN year old CIS WOMAN who was OPTIMISTIC & AFFABLE before they saw the first of the flames, is now UNREALISTIC & EASILY DISTRACTED after seeing the last. they’re often associated with the opening notes of a song you haven’t heard in years, a dog-eared journal with flowers pressed between the pages, shades of copper and gold ( ellie bamber )
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history.
the middle child of house vance, fiadh vance was a curious, easily distracted child, often found chasing the things that caught her attention - a song she’d never heard before, a flower she just had to stop to pluck, a stone she just had to turn over. always talking and rarely still, she would follow her family members and other members of her household, always asking questions or repeating stories she had heard.
the second of three children, and the classic middle child. fiadh has always looked up to her older sibling, and been endlessly proud of her younger brother, hugo.
for as long as she could remember, she’d nursed a love for stories, her favourite being those rooted in the history of her lands and people. there was a sort of magic to them, the tales passed through generations, told to children by their parents over hundreds of years.
Her childhood was an idyllic one, but the dance of the dragons brought with it hardship, shattering her view of the world and, for the first time, bringing a sense of uncertainty to her world - and when she needed it the most, it was to her stories that fiadh turned as a form of escapism.
it was around this time that her passion for tales turned into a purposeful hobby, and she began committing pen to paper. the war brought with it many terrible things, but it also brought movement, knights and travellers congregating before dispersing once more. she listened to them, carefully copying down what they had to say.
it was an encounter with an elderly clover woman that first cemented in her mind what it was she wanted out of life. it was the first time she had encountered someone who loved stories as much as she did, and was happy to pass them on to fiadh, but their work would not be completed, the old woman dying before she could finish writing everything down.
the woman’s death opened fiadh’s eyes, realising that everything the women knew had died with her, forever lost to time. it was then when she knew she had to write down as much as she could, a way of preserving the culture of the clover folk for generations to come, and in the years since, she’s made that her calling.
division would come to split house vance, with hugo and their eldest sibling coming to disagree with one another over political differences. fiadh has not taken a side in their argument, instead opting to act as a mediator and peacekeeper between the two.
personality.
basics.
fiadh is a naturally optimistic person, and inclined to look on the brighter side of things where possible. she looks for the silver lining where she can, even in the bleakest of moments.
part-historian, part-entertainer, she is an obviously creative person, drawn to the written word as much as she is performance and music. she is passionate about storytelling in all its forms, and she sees herself as both a preserver of the past and a source of lighthearted distraction in hard times.
she’s a cheerful sort of person and incredibly chatty, able to make conversation with anybody, but she is quite a good listener, too, attentive to others when it is their turn to speak.
she’s a hopeful sort of person, and at times, that can border on idealism. she’s quick to overlook that which she does not want to see.
one flaw she has harboured since childhood is the inconsistency with which fiadh can concentrate on a task. when it is something she’s interested in, like her writing, she’s able to stay on track, and think of little else, but when it comes to other pursuits, she’s easily sidetracked. she has never once in her life finished her needlework.
at her core, fiadh is a big old nerd, someone who knows a little about a lot of things, who did well in her studies, and values others for what she can learn from them.
goals.
her primary goal is to continue her writing, and to publish the tales she has collected in her manuscript.
however, she doesn’t want to spend her entire time copying down other’s words. there’s stories inside her that are completely her own, never told before, and she wants to get them out into the world, too.
closer to home, she’s steadfast in her duty to her family, and wants to support her siblings - particularly hugo, given his role as sentinel.
rumours.
tbc
fears.
fiadh’s biggest fear is of change and loss. she’s a sentimental soul, and this makes her resistant to change, even when it could possibly be for the better.
not all stories have happy endings, and this is something fiadh is similarly reluctant to admit.
other.
fiadh is an irish name meaning little deer and it’s pronounced fee-ah.
fiadh is known as a bard to most of the realms, and fili within the riverlands. the primary instrument she uses is her lute, which she hand-painted with little flowers, but her favourite to play is the harp. however, her harp is huge, taller than she is and difficult to move, so it's song is only ever heard within wayfarer's rest, whereas the lute goes with her wherever she goes.
she can be quite scatter-brained, and is frequently misplacing things. if she has visited you recently, expect to find something she’s left behind.
while her manuscripts are well ordered, the journals that contain her initial drafts are not, the pages littered with rambling tangents, shorthand that only she can understand, half-formed ideas and copious doodles in the margins.
she likes the idea of needlework, of creating something that can be worn or gifted, but she’s absolutely terrible at it, and never manages to commit herself to finishing it anyway.
she’s an early riser, often up with the dawn, and usually spends the first part of her day outside in the morning air. she’s fond of wildflowers, and her rooms are decorated with bouquets she picked herself on these morning walks.
