Vierwyn

Wise Woman of Mill Creek, Deer Pooka of the Emerald Boughs

Overview

Long spoken of in stories whispered along trods near the Lakefront, Vierwyn is a Pooka of deer mien, recently returned to the mortal world after a long and winding exile within the Near Dreaming. Her arrival near Mill Creek Falls—quiet and strange, like mist parting for a morning sun—marks the end of a decades-long absence few even knew to mourn.

To those newly acquainted with her, she appears as a gentle, slightly bewildered figure with luminous eyes and a voice that drifts like the wind through high leaves. To the old Dreaming, however, she is known as the Mirror-Keeper and a former confidante of the apocryphal White Rabbit.

Appearance

In her fae mien, Vierwyn bears the tall ears and soft features of a deer, delicate and alert, with white-flecked fur and hair that flows like river grass. Her mortal mien is harder to place—often flickering slightly in the presence of Glamour—as if reality is uncertain how to pin her down. She dresses in layers of scavenged cloth and living foliage, rarely seen without her mirror slung over her shoulder in a bundle of moss-strapped bark.

Personality

Gentle, eccentric, and unsettlingly timeless. Time has worn her thoughts into spirals; she often forgets how long a moment lasts, or whether someone she loves is dead or only just away. Her words are poetic and dreamlike, sometimes misleading, but always spoken with genuine feeling. While her manner is that of a peaceful forest witch, she retains a deep fear of modernity and the “hunters of ash and steel” that once nearly ended her tale.

Background

• Former Dweller of the Near Dreaming Woodland, a chimerical realm tucked along the hidden veins of Cleveland's trods. She was stranded there sometime in the 1940s, after being attacked by the mortal Grays militia—an event she remembers only as a blur of “exploding magic and iron thunder.”
• Ally of the White Rabbit, with whom she shared riddles, tea rituals, and long walks along paths that never stayed in place. His recent silence prompted her to abandon the safety of the Woodland in search of news—an act both brave and bewildered.
• Sustained by the Emerald Leaves of the Woodland’s deep groves. These leaves slowed time for her, allowing her to live for decades without aging, but also deepened her Bedlam. Though she was once lucid, the years have left her perception patchwork—stitched together with dreams.

Vierwyn's Mirror

A curious Treasure, lovingly called Vierwyn's Mirror, allows its wielder to see through illusions—fae or mundane. In Vierwyn’s hands, it served as her window into the real, anchoring her to sanity. Now, she has entrusted it to those who led her back to Concordia.

The mirror can:

• Reveal the true miens of Kithain
• Glimpse past magical disguises
• Occasionally reflect memories of the Dreaming, if stared into too long

Current Whereabouts

Vierwyn has taken residence near Mill Creek Falls, living in a thicket that tangles with both the mundane and the magical. Her presence has quieted some chimera in the region, and a few changelings speak of chance meetings with her under moonlight. She can often be found sitting cross-legged near the water, humming old songs or asking strangers curious questions about the present day, but seeming rarely to retain their answers.

She is still adjusting to the noise and pace of mortal life, but her heart is open. She welcomes kind visitors, especially those who carry stories or secrets—especially if they remind her of someone lost.

Legacy

• She may know a safe path between the Near Dreaming and the Lakefront trods, but the memory is tangled and requires ritual or kindness to unlock.
• The White Rabbit’s absence weighs heavily on her—those who earn her trust may hear his name whispered in longing or fear.
• Her mirror, now in the hands of a Moondog Barony motley, may reveal dangerous truths if used carelessly.
• Denizens of the Dreaming still remember her. Some with fondness. Others with unfinished business.