Aule the Faded

Aule Eliende Ráviel Astaseul is a princess of the Queendom of Tacua, Governor of Tacua, scholar, botanist, and wife to Ilo Astaseul, princess of Borhammar. Born into the world of Rathnir during the time of warring states in south Syltor (409 ACA), she has since been rebirthed into the world after her tragic death in 427 ACA.

Aule would be known as "the Faded" after her reincarnation in 946 ACA (Jan. 15th), where she was mostly resurrected by Bodynwedd the Firbolg. Due to the death of Bodynwedd during Aule's resurrection, she was not fully reformed and became ghost-like, with a partially transparent body and greyed out features.

Ancestry
Aule was born into the Royal house of Tarmon. Her mother was Princess Ráviel V (later Queen) with the father being Lord Moren of the house of Maxion. Aule had two sisters and one brother, with Princess Ráviel VI being the eldest, Prince Hatea being the second born, and Princess Anon XVI being the youngest.

Aule's grandmother, Queen Ráviel IV, was known as "the collector" for having 5 husbands, each of a different race of elf. Queen Ráviel IV was a racial scientist and studied each of her spouses and how intermingling between the races would turn out. Her five husbands in order of marriage include: Hateith the Nivosus, 'Childless' Elfaen the Teravo, Taritel the Tacuan Noble, Lord Alcon of the line of Picunada, and Nashatei the Ashuran.

The House of Tarmon goes back to King Tarmon I "the Usurper", who overthrew the Kingdom of Almador in the region of Tacua in 1082 BCA. This family would rule peacefully over Tacua from their capital Ardol. This line of succession would pass from King to King till the reign of King Picunada II, who, having only daughters, would change the laws of the kingdom in 126 BCA to allow his eldest daughter, Queen Ráviel III, to inherit. This rule would pass down until the time of Aule, where it met a fateful end.

Early Life
Aule Eliende Ráviel was born on the 2nd of the Sixth Month of 409 ACA in the Tarmon Palace at Ardol. Her hair was a reddish-orange, unlike her two siblings at the time. It was believed to have passed down from her grandfather Hateith, who had bright orange hair and very pale skin. While slightly shunned for this difference by the rest of her family, her grandparents found great interest in her; Hateith for their similarity, and Queen Ráviel III for research purposes.

Her early life was as uneventful as it can get for a child. Aule lived without worry of the wars going on outside the borders of Tacua. During her education, she found she had a fascination with botany and the growing of plants. She was starting her full fledged pursuit of this when the then-warlord Sareariel Lelya-Earcala would begin war upon the Queendom of Tacua in 419 ACA. While most historians believe that Tacua declared war, Tacua still held the belief that Lelya-Earcala struck first.

The Weary Wars
The Weary Wars (as called by the Tacuans) would begin a long and bloody struggle between Lelya-Earcala and the combined forces of Tacua, Hampo, and Ashura. The war between Lelya-Earcala and Tacua would last for 8 years, much of which was held with both sides sending out raiding parties into each other's lands. Aule would live these years somewhat oblivious to the horrors of war beyond the safe sea-walls of Ardol. Her brother Hatea would study as a commander under her uncle and Captain of the Guard Taritel II.

Tacua's part in the war would abruptly end on the 12th of the second month of 427 ACA, when Sareariel Lelya-Earcala would launch a surprise assault upon Ardol and take the capital by force. The Tacuan army, caught unawares, was overwhelmed and defeated within a few hours. The city of Ardol was burned to the ground during this battle and hasn't been rebuilt since, with much of the ruins and lands becoming enveloped by the jungle. The Royal House of Tarmon would be executed there, except for Lord Hateith, who would be kept alive in remembrance of the defeat of Tacua and ending of the line of Tarmon.

Here Aule would meet death, being executed on the Tarmon Palace grounds along with the rest of the surviving family. Aule would then find herself stuck in the Vale for close to 519 years, her soul restless from unfulfillment and uneasy death.

Resurrection
Aule would have a second chance with life due to the works of Bodynwedd the Firbolg. Bodynwedd was a druidic keeper of the forest north of Lhûmar and servant of the goddess Carn Adar. Bodynwedd had extensively studied botany and herbology and had started the creation of an encyclopedia of all the plants and fungi in Rathnir, known as Plantas Mundi Rathnir.

In Bodynwedd's dying moments, he reached out towards the Vale to speak with those already there. Here, Aule called to Bodynwedd and asked that he help her return to the physical plane. Bodynwedd, using the last of his energy, did his best to fulfill this wish and began the formation of a new body for Aule. Unfortunately, Bodynwedd passed before finishing this body, but was able to place Aule's soul inside it.

Aule rejoined the world half alive. She wasn't fully formed, and as such, was somewhat transparent with a grey overtone to her once-colorful body. But, at least she was alive.

Second Chances
Aule, while still shy to the new world, quickly adapted to her surroundings and began work on reclaiming her old city. While sad to hear of the ruins of Ardol, Aule took Governship of Tacua, and by extension, the city of Estecónmar as well. She would begin work on building up Tacua to its former glory. While still not achieved, she hopes to continue to grow Estecónmar into a thriving city again.

Seeing the works of Bodynwedd and his encyclopedia, Aule swore to continue their work and finish the encyclopedia. While simple in nature, the true collection of information on all living plants and fungi in Rathnir is no small task and she continues to work on it.

While working on the encyclopedia, Aule came across an organization called The Gaians, whose goal was to sustain and rebuild the wildlife and habitats of Rathnir and Eldham. Aule, intrigued, joined this group of people and took up residence in Iabet. There, she met Mother Adashi, leader of the Gaians and mayor of Iabet. Aule would grow quite fond of the Bug Queen Adashi, and became more involved with the Gaians because of it. It was through the Gaians that Aule would meet his future wife Ilo Astaseul. Ilo was also a resident of Iabet, and later joint mayor. Being of the house of Astaseul, Ilo was the daughter of Fury Astaseul, Archduke of Borhammar. After the extensive courtship of one date, Aule and Ilo would be married in Borhammar City on the 26th of Febuary.

During the time of the wedding and afterwards would mark an important time for Aule as a governor in Aurlûnor Velande, as the threat of barbarians and religious zealots would march upon the land bringing stress to all involved. Here, Aule would practice being the role of diplomat, going between Aurlûnor and the various groups, communicating wishes, demands, and other requests between each other.

Missing
Aule and Ilo were happily married, having many adventures out upon the seas and exploring things. One such exploration lead them to the finding of a vast wealth buried in an abandoned house by a deceased millionaire. Sadly, things would not last, as during one of Ilo's solo adventures she went missing. This hit Aule very hard and she mourned for months, refusing to leave her house. But, alas time must go on. And so did Aule.

She would continue with her work as Governor of Tacua in Aurlunor, but she was still mourning. She worked very hard to protect the forest north of Lhumar, which her predecessor Bodynwedd has worked so hard to protect before her. In this time of mourning she also continued her work on completing the Plantus Mundi Rathnir (the encyclopedia).

During this time, Aule was adopted by Aster and Oxxy Wayneright, Here she would take on the last name of Wayneright in her second home of Iabet, while keeping her native name in Tacua. She would also have many siblings through the Waynerights, many of which worked very hard to cheer Aule up and encourage her in her grief. (some of those with articles include JP, Rubicundus)

A New Love
Two years after the loss of Ilo, Aule ran into a dashing half-demon man named Noctis Cornaro. Aule rapidly fell in love with Noctis, and it wasn't long before she was married to him. They had a happy wedding in Iabet at the Twin Dragon Temple, and were wedded by Adashi Cornaro (grandmother to Noctis through adoption).

Aule and Noctis were quick to get to work on making children, and within the year they had triplets: Marol Hao Cornaro, Ráviel Fioris Cornaro, and Kuro Moren Cornaro. Two boys and one girl. Things moved quickly for them, and it wasn't long before the children were crawling around and making messes everywhere. Aule did most of the raising and had to spend more and more time in Iabet as Noctis often went on pirate missions and secretive adventures. He'd often come home wounded or hurting, which scared Aule and made her quite worried, but there wasn't much she could do. Or was there...

Witchcraft
Aule had kept many secrets in her life, and still does. One of which was something that would have her be hunted, killed, and more, so she kept it to herself. Before coming to Iabet, Aule had done some travels around Rathnir, seeing how the world had changed since her death centuries earlier. During these travels she came across a book in an abandoned hut in Sørligste. It was a book of rituals and spells written down by a witch named Hazka. Hazka was a void witch, drawing from the powers of the void and void demons (which Noctis's father was) to alter the place and people around them. Aule studied this book long and hard before trying anything out of it. The first spell she tried was to commune with the dead, specifically Witch Hazka herself. Through this Hazka taught Aule the nuances of Witchcraft and the void.

Aule had kept this all a secret for years, gradually learning and practicing, but never really using it until she had to. That day would come when Noctis did not return from one of his mysterious adventures. She waited and worried, but nothing. Eventually she gathered her family, siblings, and friends and began a search party for him. 24 hrs passed and nothing happened. Fed up and scared, Aule gave her children to Oxxy to watch while she went out to search for him. She used some general clues that she'd found and some of her void magic to locate Noctis.

He was found washed up on beach, broken, battered, and nearly dead. Aule panicked, and used a small spell to force him awake, afraid that he was dead. Noctis was alive, but he was seriously injured, with a big gash across his back from shoulder to hip. Aule questioned him a lot, but Noctis being secretive as always, wouldn't share. So, she helped walk him back. Along the way, it got worse for Noctis, much worse. Aule stopped him, and decided to use her knowledge of plants to make a quick make-shift remedy till she could get back home. Aule ran around, looking for various plants and fungi that would be helpful, and in her panic, didn't see a cliff. The cliff far enough to break her legs, hips, and much of her ribs, but not enough to kill her. Here she fainted on impact.

Noctis, worried for his absent wife, searched the forest, following her light footprints to the cliff. There he found her mangled body over the edge, unconscious and leaking what should be blood. Noctis gradually carried Aule back to Iabet. It took a full day and a half to get back, during which time Aule was still unconscious and dying. When they arrived, Noctis brought Aule to Oxxy who set to work on her right away. Within a few hrs Aule was awake, but still close to dying.

Noctis, seeing his wife near death, mangled, and in pain decided to do what he could, no matter the cost. Using his demonic powers, he healed Aule's bones, fusing them back together and reforming those that had been turned into fragments. Now, because of this great draw of power from Noctis, he began to die himself. Now, Aule was not about to let her husband die for her, so here she chose to reveal her witchcraft. Crawling to him, she used her magic to tie their souls and life forces together, binding them as partners forever. Aule, being hasty and forgetting some of her training, used her own life force to do this. (if you wish to know why, look at Void Witchcraft)

Noctis had saved Aule, and in turn, Aule had saved Noctis. This would have been all fine, except that Aule was now cursed, and was destined to be slowly eaten by the void until either one of them died, or her life succumbed to the void.

Life Cursed
Life was different now that Aule and Noctis were bound. Noctis could no longer be as reckless as he was before, as every pain was transferred to Aule too. Life continued as normal as it could even with the curse, with them having another child, being Deidre Cornaro. It was at this time that Noctis came across his long lost sister Ashei Luvire. Ashei was quickly adopted into the family as the aunt to the children and sister to Noctis and Aule.

During this time Kuro (third child), ran away. He was not found for a full year, and when he was, he had fused with a radioactive bone, causing him to transform into a beast child. With much fighting and wounds to both sides, Aule was able to eventually get the bone removed from Kuro at the cost of a hole in his chest. Sadly, Kuro would run away just a year later, having grown uncomfortable with living in society. This time he was not found, and is presumed dead.

Once again, tragedy struck the family when Marol, their oldest, died of illness suddenly when he was 7. This was a great blow to Noctis especially as he had been training Marol to follow in his footsteps.

Death
As tragic as the family story has been so far, it grew much worse. In 962 ACA, 8 years after getting married, and 17 years after being reborn, the worst tragedy hit. Noctis on one of his secret missions, died. Aule did not know how, or why, but he died. When Noctis died Aule was using her trident to give Ráviel a ride around for fun. When the curse hit she felt a searing pain in her chest and watched as the void eaten part of her arm crept up her arm and into her chest. Here she turned to a charcoal-stone mid flight. She came crashing down to the ground, breaking her stone body apart and killing Ráviel.

This left Deidre, who was given custody to Ashei. And so the family of Noctis and Aule fell apart. Deidre, next in line for the Tacuan throne (should it become independant again) would take it, but is too young, still being 4 at this point.

Void
Aule floated again in the void. At least this time she knew it better, and knew how to use it. She really wished she'd been able to study more with Hazka and the book before this, then she wouldn't even have to worry about death, being able to just come back at any point. But she never got that far, and neither had Hazka. She drifted around for a while, unable to do anything. She racked her brain, or what would be a brain, for a memory of some way to interact with the world of the living. Then she remembered. One of the early spells she did was communing with the living, and it worked from beyond the grave. Using this, Aule talked to her adopted siblings Behe, Jp, and sister-in-law Ashei. Here she was stuck, occasionally talking to people, and trying to watch over those whom she loves.

Questionable Choices
Aule woke up. Wait... that's not right, she's dead, right? Well, Behe, adopted sister to Aule, had found the book of witchcraft. And with the help of Cecil, (a mysterious man who helped Behe in the use of this book) Behe brought Aule back from the dead. Sadly, it came at the cost of Cecil's life, poor man was too gullible to see what was coming, but I'm sure that won't have any consequences. But Aule was back! ... again. This time, she was reanimated from the shards of her corpse. With magic holding them together, she quickly found out how fragile she was, breaking a leg off with just a simple fall. But the important part, Aule was back.

After this she met up with Behe, Ashei, and JP to find out what had happened in the 16 years since her death. Here she learned many things from them, including that Noctis's schizophrenia had figured out some way to possess someone else, taking control of them. Aule, being a little confused, and still very odded out by all this, made the mistake of tying Noctis's schizophrenia, named Azazel, to being Noctis reborn.

And thus, Aule began the search for Azazel, thinking he was the same person as Noctis.

Void Witchcraft
Void Witchcraft is very odd. It is witchcraft yes, but it's not too similar to the other types of witchcraft. In Void-craft (gonna shorten it to that from now on) there is one major rule and a few minor ones: ''The Major Rule of Void Witchcraft: For every use of Void magic, something must be brought to the void. The more you use, the more is taken.''

''The Minor Rules of Void Witchcraft:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. Never use void magic against a Void Demon. 2. Never use your own soul or body for sacrificing to the Void for magic. 3. Never do Witchcraft you do not know the outcome of.'' According to these rules, A Void Witch can do anything if they know how to and have the essence on hand to sacrifice. Life essence is usually prefered, as it is stronger than simple matter and will give out more magic per essence taken. Void magic should not be practiced until you have competent knowledge of it, as any mistake can be fatal to you, anyone else around you, or even everyone on your world (if you really screw up that badly).

Family Tree
To the right is a simplified family tree for Aule and her two spouses Ilo and Noctis. Along with is Noctis and Aule's 4 children and Noctis's sister Ashei. If you wish to see an expanded family tree for any side here, feel free to contact ysariell (same name in the stoneworks main discord). Thanks :)

Credits
Special thanks to:


 * Sareariel (Coffeeccubus)
 * Adashi
 * Ilo (Rhea)
 * Noctis/Rozen (Darklight)
 * Behe (Behetee)
 * Aster (FrostyFlavafoo)
 * Ashei Luvire (ElTrojan)

for all the help they have given me on this article :)

(Special thanks to my love R <3)