Lucinda Hartstrong

Lucinda Hartstrong (1298-1357 A.F.) is remembered as a well-loved and accomplished artist, inspiring generations of humanoids from across Aederace to follow their imaginations and passions. This being said, she was known to not have always wanted to run a school. Growing up near Leawater Lake as part of a small hamlet, Lucinda was surrounded by the nearly untouched allure of the surrounding mountains and fields, and many of her early works were inspired by this beauty. In her early adult life, Lucinda left Leawater Lake to become a teacher in the town of Gravesend, where she used her knowledge of the arts to teach young people to appreciate the smallest things in their lives and surroundings. However, Gravesend lacked much of the natural beauty that Lucinda was used to being surrounded by. A series of poems were found in her possessions after she passed away, having never been published or publicised, and they detail her experiences and emotions following her move to Gravesend. Below is one of her shorter pieces that summarises her situation beautifully:

A Summer's End
Though grass doth grow and flowers do bloom,
they are forfeit to downtrodden doom.
Though weary urchins and serfs stride,
they go unseen under beleagured lords' eyes.
For the town doth tax,
And the town doth tax,
And the town doth tax.
The tax demanded is more than gold:
It demands pieces of thine soul.
I've determined to depart this taxing place,
I pray the scars of my toil will fade from my face.
If it takes all my life.

Other more-abstract poems found in her possessions have been dissected for meaning over the years, resulting in a common agreement that Hartstrong felt her teachings were being ignored in no small part at the school there, and that the weight of the gloomy locality of Gravesend was not worth bearing if her presence was not appreciated.

After Lucinda left Gravesend, an aspiring student made to follow her to Leawater and insisted training there. Lucinda was reluctant at first, but caved eventually and saw to the upbringing of her own school in the same place where she herself grew up. Lucinda passed away peacefully in her sleep in 1357 from an unidentified disease. The encircling natural environs have been carefully monitored and managed ever since.