Wyllia McConnelly

Wyllia is generally in good health and hardy. She has only been sick twice in her life, and both cases were mild. She attributes this to the supernatural characteristics of her werewolf heritage. Her general hardiness is also the reason she survived her poisoning during her infancy.

Wyllia has a range of special abilities. She is talented with herbs and flowers, able to make countless salves and potions. She is talented with druidic magic, though she has far more to learn. Then there is her signature ability of transforming into a wolf, which has opened up more of the world that many will never experience.

Her current attire is her field attire, which is an odd collection of loose clothing that is all designed to break away quickly when she turns into her wolf form. Her field attire also includes a large leather coat with plenty of pouches and pockets for herbs and flowers. That jacket almost always has a permanent scent of dried flowers. Her normal public attire was just a simple skirt and shirt with a belt pouch. Her home clothes are usually barely more than pajamas.

Her field pack includes a large assortment of alchemy equipment made for processing herbs and flowers that are too delicate to wait until she gets home. She also carries a boline, a specialized herb gathering dagger, that is made of a repurposed ivory handle and brass blade.

Wyllia McConnelly was a child of misfortune who blossomed into a beacon of strength and hope for those around her. Poisoned by her own mother before her birth in an effort to save her from a much worse fate, she arrived to this world alone. Later she was adopted into and grew up in a remote timber village in Æggland’s edge against the Wildlands.

She was blessed with a wonderful childhood of adventure and personal growth, with her friends Anders and Casdarin. Their adventures and time together are some of her fondest memories. With their help she learned to balance herself between the worlds of nature and man.

She also was fortunate to have just the correct people in the small village to help foster her talents. Her father was able to develop her talents as a healer and an apothecary. The village magister and Casdarin’s father, Fillian was able to give here a foundation in magic. Though her magic still comes from her connections and attunement to nature. Her attunement is probably the only skill she possesses that is still fairly obscure and under-developed.

However an idyllic life always comes to an end, and Wyllia’s childhood was no exception. However, the change in her life was slow. Starting with the arrival of Ten, whom she found and saved, and later would begin a relationship with. His arrival was the start of the schism and dissolution of her tight friend group. Casdarin left shortly afterwards after getting into an argument with Anders. Anders would become more distent after starting to work at the lumbermill and became involved with a local girl.

This drove Wyllia closer to Ten, a man with many mysteries and similarities with herself. While their relationship has many unique bonds, it isn’t easy for Wyllia, as Ten is stubborn and completely uncivilized. The last of her idyllic livelihood ended the day, bandits or raiders attacked the town looking for easy supplies during a harsh winter. Ten revealed himself, and it led to their departure of the village.

These hardships are starting to shape Wyllia, and how she will be in the future is still undetermined.

Wyllia’s accomplishments are nothing profound, but have had a large impact on her personality and sense of growth.

Incredible Early Development:
Rupert didn’t know what to expect of Wyllia when he decided to open up his home to her, but he was quick to notice that she was always aware of the presence of those around her. As soon as her little body would allow it, her head would follow people as they moved, soaking up every sight and sound they made. Rupert did all he could to give her more to soak up, when not conversing with her directly. He would think and talk out loud, he would read to her, and he would try to keep her in the parts of the house where either himself or Krenedine were at all times.
These early interactions paid off when Wyllia learned to speak and read well above her peers, and once she could absorb knowledge on her own, her father’s personal library became fair game.

Aptitude for Magic:
While Wyllia’s magic is sourced from her connection to the Call of the Wild, she still has spent time studying magic formally under the magister Fillian Hiusp. She did this because it personally challenged and excited her, and to spend time with one of her closest friends and a mind even brighter than her own, Casdarin. They were rivals of sort as well, with each of them trying to achieve over the other.
While she eventually wouldn’t be able to keep up with Casdarin, she gained knowledge that many who use divine magic never obtained. She has also found ways to mimic some spells normally out of reach for casters like her, just to show off to Casdarin and his father, which is probably her biggest magical achievement.

Early Apothecary Success:
While Wyllia was studying magic formally, she was always watching and studying the techniques her father used to provide for the town. As soon as she was able to support her father, he took advantage of it. Simple tasks at first such as stirring and timing, but it would become more complicated such as measuring and following formulae.
It was no surprise that she would start trying to make her own formulae and use the lab on her own. Her father let her work on her own, though the first few he remained in the lab working on something for his own, just in case.
Her affinity with the Call of the Wild, has allowed her to look at alchemy in a different perspective and she has found great success with that approach.

Finding and Saving Ten:
Her finding Ten in the Wildlands when she was out looking for herbs, was the beginning of her transition in life. Her finding a wolf that was found near death and getting closer by the moment, caused her to act instinctively and use her magics to stabilize the dying wolf. When the wolf was stable, she moved him towards the river to clean up and care for him.
The worst of the wounds were taken care of, but the wolf was far from better. However, She saved him, and that moment still sits strong with her by knowing that she had become fully capable as a healer.

Taking over her father’s role:
With her newfound confidence and the dissolution of her friend group and childhood, she moves fully into her role as a healer at a young age, and begins providing routine care for the town. This opens a lot of time up for her father to work on his own projects and continue to master his craft, which he shares with his daughter when he makes discovery or breakthrough.
Before she knows it, a few years have passed and she has become the focal point of care in the town. While it isn’t something she thinks about regularly, it has passively shape her confidence and cemented her capabilities in herself.

Broke Anders Arm:
Wyllia and Anders have known each other since infancy. Both were rambunctious children and would rough-house regularly. Why Anders would grow to be stronger than Wyllia, during childhood she was already blessed with her supernatural strength, while Anders was still developing.
This strength disparity lead to Wyllia applying too much strength when rough-housing and she ended up breaking Ander’s arm. Now that she is older, she doesn’t think about it much, but for years early on, she was worried about hurting her friends and family. She views interactions with people with a sense of caution, even ones that don’t have any physical component. She also doesn’t touch people unless absolutely needed.

Sleep Issues:
Wyllia’s number one enemy has always been her sleep. Her wolf side has had the worse influence of her sleep. She tends towards being a night owl, and her sleep is polyphasic like that of canines, which is something no humanoid experiences naturally. She has worked as much as she can around this, but there have been situations that have been hindered by this.
Until Fillian fully understood this trait of her, he though she was lazy and didn’t have the mental fortitude to study magic, but her work ethic, and progress proved otherwise. The years softened him enough to adjust his teaching to work around her, though he put more self-study requirements on her to overcome.
However, her biggest skill doesn’t allow for this flexibility and she has suffered a few missteps when working with alchemy. Alchemy that has a long run time or cure time, are the hardest for her to make as she either has to time a nap or force herself to remain awake.
This has taught her to have a better forethough of her sleep levels and to improve her alchemy techniques to mitigate long development and cure times.

Failed to integrate into the village:
While Wyllia was welcomed in the village, she never made friends with many of the other villagers. She missed out on a lot of social development, especially among girls and women. She never learned hair style techniques nor any standard role as a young woman. She was lucky to be able to latch onto Krendine as a mother figure, but she always had her hands full dealing with her own son during their early development.
While this improved when she moved into the role of her father as the town healer, it still didn’t open any friend groups for her. This made it easier for Wyllia to leave the village to go after Ten when the time came.

Wyllia has had many challenges, but they never left her with trauma. The trauma’s she carries were sourced from things beyond her control.

The loss of her friend:
Much of her childhood was idyllic and despite her unique situation she couldn’t have had a much better childhood if she tried. The adventures with her close friends Anders and Casdarin are some of her fondest memories, so the day Anders and Casdarin fought, ultimately ending with Casdarin leaving the village, hit Wyllia hard. If she hadn’t just brought Ten home to take care of, she would have left the village that day to follow after Casdarin.

Anders never told her what they fought about that day, nor why Casdarin left. It didn’t help that Fillian stopped all lessons now that his son was gone, and he left shortly afterwards. His last comments towards Wyllia was blaming her for him leaving and faulting her for not going after his son, and her friend. She assumed he was lashing out, but there was more truth to his words than she knows.

She has never had closure, and often wonders whatever happened to her friend. It also didn’t help that Anders became involved with a village girl and began working at the mill. Making him unable to spend time with Wyllia. Him moving out of the house also hit her hard. Other than Ten she was starting to fill alone and alienated in her own village.

Ten’s Reveal and Their Departure:
The most recent events of Wyllia's time in the village was the attack thwarted by Ten and the other villagers. However, Ten had to reveal his monstrous hybrid form, which is wildly different than Wyllia’s. It was something that even caught her off guard, as she didn’t know he was capable of it. What made it worse is that he went feral with it. She had to interfere to get him to stop after the threat had been routed. That obviously scared the villager, and before any action had to be decided by the village, Ten left the village.

Wyllia followed shortly afterwards, She couldn’t lose someone again like that. What hasn’t been resolved is that Wyllia is scared of Ten’s transformation as well. They haven’t had the chance to reconcile those events, and she is worried that he could cause problems for their travel as they seek out their new place.

Wyllia is thoughtful and contemplative in almost every aspect of her life, especially in situations or tasks that have an intellectual bent. She also loves to read… anything, from books to fliers to signage. A trait that was developed very early in her life by her father always reading to her.
She also tries to be experimental when there is capacity for it, with alchemy, magic, or just about anything. However, she is not experimental with cooking or food. She has also applied this to how she traveled the Wildlands, trying to find optimal ways to get to different areas. Though she knows there is a time and place for experimentation. Unless novel, most injuries and illness are usually solved with rote knowledge.

Wyllia’s morality and philosophy are heavily influenced by her work as a healer and how she has interpreted her role from the Call of the Wilds.

Her personal philosophy is to always strive for growth and knowledge and she sees it as the highest gift one can bestow. It is why she spends so much time trying to teach Ten. She has been shaped by knowledge, both given by those around her, and what she has sought out herself. She has much more to seek out, and learn, a desire feuled in part by her high respect of knowledge.

Beyond growth, she seeks to bring good to those around her. She isn’t looking to make life easy for everyone, as challenges have made her the woman she is today. Challenges have also made the village strong enough to exist on the border of the Wildlands and excel, but challenges can be endured and overcome together, and Wyllia is a firm believer of that. Her role as a healer is an extension of the idea, that community can overcome all hardships.

She is still coming into her own role as her journey is just beginning, but from the time that Ten and her have been traveling, she has had to step up as a leader, even though she doesn’t have a clue as to where she is going or what their destination even is.

Wyllia’s current situation may have not been the most thought out choice of her life, but it is predicated by her motivations.

Grow as a Healer:
As much as Wyllia was comfortable with the village lifestyle, she had just about learned everything there was to learn from the village. While learning under Fillian, she learned of healers that could mend ailments that she could never treat with her current capabilities. While not her current focus, she hopes she will grow as a healer once she gets established.

Support Ten:
Her love for Ten is the primary driving force in her life at the moment. His departure was the catalyst for her to leave the village as well. Something she couldn’t do when one of her closest friends left a few years earlier. As much as Ten is established with his way of life, Wyllia has spend much of her spare time trying to catch up and develop the missing skills of Ten. She only wishes that it wasn’t such an uphill battle at times.

Exploration:
Much of Wyllia’s recreational time was spent in the Wildlands, exploring each nook and cranny she could find. The further she traveled the more wonders she would find. Her magic is the same way, with each spell she cast she learns more about her magic. Her leaving the village is a chance to experience and grow so much more. Though she hasn’t quite gotten to that view point, she still has her doubts and bouts of homesickness.

Find her origins:
While never an immediate goal, she has spent more time than she realizes trying to find her origins. When she was older she went back to where Rupert found her. She didn’t know what she would find, but she was hoping for something. She never found anything. No remains, no sign of remains, nor anything manufactured. She was hoping for something that would help towards closure, but she has no answer of who her mother or her father were. The description she got from Rupert, and her own appearance are the only things she has to go off of for what they may have looked like.

Most of Wyllia’s savvies come from her dual nature. Her senses are far sharper than humans. Her attunement to the Call of the Wild has allowed her to come to handle animals with ease. While her experience with wild animals is far lower than dealing with domestic animals, she has been able to extend her healing to far more of the residents of the villages, particularly those that don’t normally have a voice.
While she can be very empathetic, her biggest problem socially is being too trusting and naive to the way of the world. She has a lot to learn about the way of people beyond her life in the little village.

Wyllia loves to sleep. Not necessarily an irrational like, but an instinctual weakness. While she works hard and is diligent, she also finds her self falling asleep often even when doing what she loves such as reading, studying, or working on alchemy. She thinks it has to do with her wolf side. It also occurs polyphasically, where she gets her sleep through out the day in bits at a time instead of all at once at night.

As much as she loves plants and flowers, she does not like to eat them. It takes a lot of will power for her to eat fruits and vegetables. She only really tries new plants, only to identify them or know what they taste like to tell others. She isn’t experimental with food or cooking.

She hates wearing shoes. Her feet are tough enough to not need them for most outdoor environments, especially when in wolf form.

The village only had one church, but they had no official clergyman stationed there. The abandoned church originally of Abadar, had been repurposed to be used as a general location for the common pantheon. While much of the town is still reverent towards Abadar, and some have stepped up to continue the works of a clergyman or cleric. However there isn’t the economy to sustain it as a full-time job so most clergy just do what they can.

Rupert wasn’t particular devout to any deity, so he never imparted a particular belief onto his daughter. Neither of her friends were religious either, though Anders would have been the closest. The lack of religious structure probably left Wyllia open for the Call of the Wild, that she would eventually revere.

She isn’t sure what the Call even is, but she hears it on the wind, sees it in the leaves and clouds, and feels it in the earth under her feet. She knows it is some force of nature, maybe even nature itself. It helped her understand more about her wolf side, and how to transform into it. She would even learn to harness her magic from the Call.

She was lucky to have many unique and rare sources of knowledge in her small village, but no one was able to help her understand this Call. She was hopeful Ten was able to hear and feel it, but if he does, it isn’t like Wyllia’s connection. She knows she has more to learn from the Call, but her mind is frustrated not knowing more about the Call.

While never integrating fully in the town, Wyllia had never-the-less learned to be social far beyond her friend group. In all circumstances she tends towards being a listener. She is empathetic and supportive when working as a healer. When she is among people she is comfortable with she can be more talkative. She is introflective with new knowledge when working towards academic pursuits, in otherwords she is more likly to remember information pertaining to magic or alchemy. However she is always trying to learn more, more about people, more about ideas, and more about various knowledge topics in general.

Her mannerism is one of the few areas where her dual natures don’t seem to blend. The contrast of her wolf features to her natural “hybrid” form and how she behaves can be startling. However many people will never get to see that side of her, just as much as she can shift to a wolf, she can shift away her wolf features to appear human.

Her small stature and wolf features don’t come off as feral, but have an inexplicable softness to them. Something like a pet. Her experience in the village has prevented her from gaining an understanding of how her appearance would come off to others.

She has a poise and air of structure and discipline about her, that seems alien to something as wild as a wolf. Though a few areas her wolfish side mesh well with her human nature are her cunning and perceptiveness.

Wyllia's well-educated upbringing is reflected in her speech. She can use a broader vocabulary and employ more formal language when discussing intellectual or magical topics. Even when using normal language tied to her roots of the village, she avoids speaking with a strong accent or using slang.