Tel'Mithrim - Coriadae Draugenmith

History - Coriadae did not start life as the elf she has become. She was born in a quiet elven village tucked in the depths of the High Forest on Toril. Even as a child she was oddly out of sorts with the unchanging life her village offered. Dearly loved as an only child, she was most likely spoiled, or as much so as an elven child could be. Her mother was quiet and gentle, always aware of her place as the village healer. At a young age, Cori (then known as Malori, as that was the name she was given at her Naming) spent her days learning her mother’s craft. Quick to learn, the girl showed a gift for healing, though no real interest, as she was more curious about following her father’s trade. Often ignoring her mother’s teachings, Malori would follow her father doggedly. He was a merchant, one of the few in her village who ventured forth into the world for dealings with humans. On the very rare occasion Malori was allowed to accompany her father, the noise and bustle of the city stunned and delighted her. They had traveled to Waterdeep, on the coast of the Trackless Sea. Barely into adolescence, the young elf knew this was where she would find the excitement her little village was lacking.

Upon their return home, Malori brashly told her parents that one day, she would leave their quiet village to seek her place in the world. In her mind, she knew her destination would be Waterdeep, that wonderful city full of excitement. As most parents would, hers accepted the child’s declaration as just that...a child’s declaration. But to Malori, it was prophecy. For many years she led the life expected of her; dutifully learning her mother’s craft, showing the proper interest in the young male elves, making a fine pretense of considering the future and her place within the structure of her village. But it was a ruse. She was biding her time, until one day. The day she felt she was ready.

When that day arrived, Malori again told her parents that she was leaving their quiet village. This time, her declaration was met with stunned silence. Kissing both her parents farewell, she gathered the belongings she determined she would need, and set off to find her place...not in her little village, but in the world that beckoned to her like the song of a Siren. Waterdeep.

It was as loud and bustling as she remembered it. For months she just wandered the city: learning the odd speech of the humans, the singsong of the street vendors, absorbing the life around her. It was an exciting and dangerous time for her. She made few friends; the humans looked upon elves with a deep-seated suspicion. She slowly discovered that as well as being elven, having no true skill was a detriment to finding employment. And as time went by, having no means of support became a detriment to eating and survival. Unwilling (and in her mind, unable) to return home, she turned to Maxim, one of the few humans who she knew. It was he who taught her how to survive in a city that didn’t offer much survival. In the darker places, with a darker purpose, she evolved. Casting off the light pastels, the innocent High elf ceased to be as a skilled thief took her place. No longer ignorant to the ways of the world, no longer unable to exist in the darkness...the shadow, cloaked in purple and silent as the night, crept along the alley ways in search of her place.

It was a time she recalls in Reverie, almost as if it were another elf living in the shadows and lurking in the dark doorways. A time like a whirlwind, quickly accepted and just as quickly cast off. As she became better at her chosen “craft”, it also became more dangerous for her to practice it. To wait out a particularly wonderful farce, she took a vacation. North to Neverwinter, it seemed as good a place as any to wait out the storm her playful looting invoked. Compared to Waterdeep, Neverwinter was a backwater town with little to offer other then a tavern at the four gates. But like most things that happen in life, it was where you least expect to find what you seek, that you stumble over it. It was in Neverwinter she met her future, and erased her past. It was in Neverwinter she found a place among her kind, a society of elves who accepted the city as home, who worked with the humans and not against them. It was in Neverwinter she found Tel’Mithrim, and through them, Thranduil. Hiding her past, she took a name suited to her, and the elf changed again.

A final, lasting change. Coriadae was the end of her maturing process. Able to lean on the wisdom of her husband, and still find her own way, she has become the elf most know today. Still fun loving, utterly nonconformist and a flirt of the highest caliber, she has also seen the wisdom in her mother’s teachings, again reviving the knowledge of her youth to become a healer. And a merchant, as she so wanted to be in her childhood. Among other skills she is finding necessary in the wilderness, skills she never dreamed about. Trading the dagger of a thief for the kryss of a pseudo-warrior, Cori stalks the woods to protect her home. A home different from the one she first found with Thrand, but where he goes, she knows she will always follow. Tel’Ruid may be a different world, but it is home.