Azuralaen

Azuralaen Thren Vaszjraelle is a Tideweaver Cleric, Deputy of Alexandria and the current Captain of the Blue Team and the Alexandrian war vessel The Vaszjraelle.

Given life on the Flotilla, Azuralaen was inducted into the ranks of the Tideweavers to serve her people, protect the Flotilla and worship the Depthmother. This education and spiritual charge, coupled with her natural propensity for stoicism, tradition and tempered will brought her into the employ of the Alexandrian merchant vessel The Austrabohr as a navigator and chaplain prior to her calling to the Deputies of Alexandria.

Following the events of the Braeburn Campaign and the Night of Champions, Azuralaen was made aware of her past life as the Mahla by the Tideweaver and lover in a former life, Corsell, a revelation that has redefined her relationship with and understanding of herself, coupled with her sense of duty to her people to undo the sins of the past.

Appearance
Azuralaen stands tall and lean with a statuesque, upright posture and disciplined poise. Her skin and hair are shades of dark to medium blue, coupled with blue eyes, typical of Water Genasi. She wears her hair typically in neat braids hung over one shoulder or tied up and out of her face; a byproduct of working at sea in storms and wind.

Her face is taught, with little in the way of feature lines or expressions outside of conversation or battle, reflecting her need to be unshakeable and ready in the face of danger or despite comfort. Her eyebrows are thin and commonly seen to be furrowed as she observes a room or ponders a response in conversation, and lips almost always pursed or pulled into a half frown or contemplative slant.

Her civilian dress consists of an open chested white sailor shirt, paired with high waisted trousers, knee high boots, a simple pauldron over her left shoulder and a blue tricorn hat, coupled with her iconic Navigator's Bell acting as both a staff, tool and warhammer should the situation arise.

Her Tideweaver dress which she adorns following becoming captain of The Vaszjraelle consists of a tall, rounded hat with blue and purple cuttlefish motifs, nautilus styled pauldrons, a long blue robe with purple trims and embroidered runes, decorated with sewn pearls and shells, puffed sarouel style blue trousers adorned with long tabard belt and topped with repurposed waveplate waistguards, tall knee high boots and a waveplate chestguard concealed underneath a white sailor shirt and a new bell, Tidesong, courtesy of esteemed artificer Donovan.

Personality
Azuralaen is a stoic and measured individual who often comes across to strangers as serious, stoney, overly responsible and quick to the point. She is polite, patient, plainly spoken and yet ruthless in battle, preferring efficiency and effectiveness to showmanship and showboating.

Her discipline can often lead to her lacking charisma outside of commanding respect or providing straightforward advice, though through her adventures with Moot and Tjiorno, she has began to come out of her shell, going as far as to openly entertain their antics, take part in festivities and referring to her crew upon The Vaszjraelle as her friends and allies, not her subordinates.

Azuralaen's need to be a leader has long kept her disciplined and reserved, but through her adventures she has learned that by trusting strangers and opening up, the weight and burden of the past and present can be shared. This is especially prevalent through her discoveries of her past life as Mahla, which weighs on her mind and spirit in equal measure, but through her adventures she has learned that power and the past need not corrupt or shape one's path, as we all have and make choices, and it is through those choices that we truly forge our way.

Azuralaen's journey from reserved and stonelike to open and free is slow and steady, alike the melting of a glacier, and usually comes in waves or in sudden shifts. She remains uncomfortable with close emotional connections, but through her friends and experiences is becoming desensitised and more accepting of allowing outsiders into her sphere.

Biography
Azuralaen was given life on the Flotilla 78 years ago and raised by the community, as is common in Water Genasi society. Showing prowess and sustained interest in the spiritual arts, she was inducted as a Tideweaver when she came of age at 24 and trained for 24 years in the art of healing, combat and leadership as well as general Genasi and Alexandrian education. Following her completion of her studies, she set her sights on exploring Tessia and sought to persue experience outside of the Flotilla, forgoing her inauguration as a formal Tideweaver until she felt experienced enough to bear the mantle.

Before departing to foreign shores, she trained as a navigator and cartographer, valuable and often sought after skills by Alexandrian captains who saw having a Genasi on board as a good omen, first gaining experience on several small Flotilla vessels before leaving for Alexandria to find a permenant position on board The Austrabohr at around age 62, working on board for 16 years prior to her calling to become a Deputy.

Inauguration as a Deputy
Azuralaen was inaugurated alongside Amora "Moot" Rockmore and Psychs Ealdarkin, colloquially referred to as "Blue Team". While regarding this as both a great honour and privelege to be chosen, she found her co-horts to be inexperienced, disrespectful and unfit for the burden that was to be placed on their shoulders, demonstrated first when Psychs felt it pertinent to antagonize Red Team, consisting of Mantis, Rosso and Cassandra, and later when Psychs antagonized, robbed and humiliated a bard in a small hamlet on the road to Orekansas.

Orekansas Campaign
Initially viewing the Orekansas campaign as a simple vermin control problem, Azuralaen was quickly thrust into leadership by Martial Boone, who informed her of the unique nature of the vermin problem and the connection to the Beddingfield Mines. Being abandoned by Psychs left a hole in the party's resolve but alleviated tensions between the two and allowed her a more clear head, filling the gap with the adoption of Orekansas native Tjiorno Stillstone into the party as a trusted guide and ally.

Orekansas however, was not so straightforward, with Azuralaen having to balance care for her cohorts, political corruption, vengeful heirs in the form of Brianna Beddingfield, the rescue of Tjiorno's parents Drayden Stillstone and Damara Stillstone, a Water Nymph within the mountain threatening to flood the valley if mining operations continued in the Blackwell Mine, coupled with the discovery of the Muiridae and their war with the Rat King and battle over the Everstone, a piece of which also resided in the home of dictatorial mayor and brother to Brianna, Daveth Beddingfield.

The fires of the political intrigue, numerous threads and potentially disastrous consequences tempered Azuralaen's resolve and honed her abilities, teaching her diplomacy, negotiation, compassion for the aggressor and strengthened her relationship with the Depthmother through regular meditation and prayer regarding the situation. This meditation brought several visions to light of a past of violent retribution, vengeance, burning hatred and unchained tempests bringing ruin wherever they blew, coupled with scenes of a Water Genasi village in flames, a broken bond with a loved one and a crew of zealots setting out to make a pact with storm deity Kasham.

Braeburn Campaign
Assaulted on the train by vagrants and international bounty hunters, Azuralaen learned how to tap into the elemental aether to summon her own elemental servants, an ability that while effective in combat, also grounded the train to Rockmore in Braeburn. Chosing to relinquish a cursed chalice from a passenger on board and entering the town to inquire as to the town's recent problems, the party were faced with a feuding family, ancient evils bubbling up from within the earth and the importance of sacrifice, coupled with revelations on her own people's relationship with Alexandria after witnessing the now neutered power of the Goliath and their crumbling kingdom, now reduced to an enchanted palace and mud laden town of rotted earth and corrupt druidic magic.

Night of Champions
Heralded as a hero for her work in Orekansas and Braeburn, Azuralaen sought to work seeking out a Tideweaver to explain her peculiar dreams and growing powers beyond that of what was taught in the academy. Exploring her past through induced visions with Tideweaver Corsell, she was revealled to be Mahla, a scourged villain of their people responsible for countless atrocities on a quest for vengeance after a Water Genasi settlement was scoured on the now extinct Lyral Sea. Distraught and emotionally wounded, she left to ponder her fate at the docks, before returning to reconcile with Corsell, promising not to be defined by her past, but to attone for it.