Mina Strauss

The fringe colonies of Baldur were dreadful places for orphans, yet for Mina and her brother Henrik it was the only place they could afford to live within the kingdom. Mina gave no contribution to the upkeep of their meager household for so much of her life was spent bed-ridden with a mystery illness of which no tonics nor healers she could afford that would cure.

Her brother spent days and sometimes weeks away working for a logging company and with rumors of a vengeful forest spirit in the woods she would often fear he would never return. Longingly she would stare from the window into the heart of darkness beyond the thicket. To Renmaeth she would pray for mercy from the spirits, her heart filling with joy each time she saw her brother returned for his days of rest before his next expedition. In the times spent between, she would feel overwhelmed in loneliness, deprived of any usual childhood one might expect, she had no chance to socialize with other children nor even adults for her reputation as one touched by disease.

When her brother woke her one fateful night as her illness had a murderous clutch on her, returned a week early from his trip with icy cold skin and eyes glowing like amber, Mina knew something was awry. He offered her a cure for her illness and without hesitation she took it. They knew quickly the curse the brought upon themselves, but saw it as a gift for a new life free from poverty and illness. They held a code of only feeding off animals and people who deserved it, targeting bandits, criminals and highwaymen. The coven they founded shared these ideals, yet still was destroyed by Erdrydion’s Hunters who saw them as abominations regardless of creed.

When Mina was returning from a hunt she saw large conglomeration marching towards their home within the forest. Unable to warn them in time herself, Mina could only watch on in horror as radiant flames began engulfing the cave they made to their home. After only an hour it was done, and as Mina inspected the interior all she knew had turned to ash, though she felt none of which belonged to Henrik. She slaughtered the entire chapter of the hunters a few days later in hopes one knew something of Henrik or they held him prisoner, yet nothing.

So for centuries she wandered Tharador in search for him, whilst dedicating herself to the Tharameni as her real mortality was felt once again. Only by chance in a pilgrimage to the north did she discover her brother when she heard of a reclusive Duke Strauss who ruled over the duchy of Strassen. There she finally reunited with him and took his side in overseeing the dedicated populace he had molded in his time there.

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