Luvera And Her Gift

The Stormwind kingdom was hidden away deep in the Elvridge forest. There were many elvish kingdoms, villages, and colonies in these woods, but the Stormwind kingdom was farthest in these woods. While most elves, high, wood, and eladrin alike, know of the Stormwind-Broderick family alliance, and the Stormwind kingdom, not many creatures outside of those who were raised in or currently live in the woods have any knowledge on the family.

The families made sure of this in any way they could. When the king and queen got married, King George Stormwind, made sure his wife and future family would be safe inside his kingdom, whether they were in their elaborately built castle home, or roaming the village on market days, getting to know their subjects. The King refused to let anything happen to Queen Sheila, the love of his life, and when the two found they were with child, he decided that his unborn child, first-born heir to the throne, would never have to worry for their safety. So he built 20 feet high stone walls around his land, and instituted a ban on leaving the land unless approved by his royal highness himself. All trading and distribution of trade items, had to be run by him before it was done. All imports, mainly from untrusted areas of the Elvridge forest, or outside of the woods would have to be requested by a subject who lived inside the walls.

When the princess was born, the kingdom was ecstatic. Everyone was excited to finally know the name of the new royal. The rulers had kept the news of her name quiet, and very few knew her name, so the day the princess was born the villagers were buzzing with excitement. The King had planned to make an announcement the day of her birth, which everyone in the kingdom showed up too. They all stood outside the gates to the giant castle, waiting to see their King show his face from the balcony of his office, and address his subjects. Murmurs and whispers thundered through the streets leading to the gates. Babies cried and children giggled while they ran through the crowd, blissfully unaware of the extent of this important date. Then the rain of excited voices slowly quieted into silence, the subjects all turned their attention to where the king’s guard were standing proudly next to the royal advisor. When the man was sure he had most of the crowd’s attention, he loudly introduced the King. The advisor didn’t need to introduce his highness, of course, everyone knew his name and title, it was purely traditional at this point. A routine to keep the kingdom feeling free, and the royal staff adhered to the traditions of normal royal society easily.

The King walked out onto his concrete balcony, the handrail around the edge adorned beautifully in ivy, ferns, and moss. Had the villagers not seen the stone since the beginning, they may have thought it was placed there purposely. The long vines with small shapely leaves grew so perfectly around the bars of carved stone that it looked almost stereotypical. Like the King chose references out of children’s story books when advising the castle’s building. Most of the stone towers and cone shaped roofs gave the same impression. A whimsical feeling was endlessly endowed into the souls of those who took time to admire the stone buildings, carved walls, windows, and endorsements. The paved streets of the town gave off a similar feeling. Rounded gray bricks placed in perfect patterns, to carve out paths through different parts of the village. The small buildings and houses that adorned the sides of these streets were perfectly placed as well. When the horse drawn carriages, and carts were pulled through the streets, and twisted back alleyways of the small town, the sound of the horses feet hitting the hard stone underneath them, vibrated off the walls of the surrounding buildings. Creating a constant beat to the music that was often played in the town square. Fiddles, flutes, guitars, and old barrels fitted into drums were the choice of instruments the townspeople tended to gravitate towards. When the melodies were not being played in the middle of the village, they were played in the popular Hogshorn pub the older townspeople enjoyed frequenting. So the dull sound of music and laughter would almost always accompany a person as they walked throughout the town, doing their daily chores.

But right now, as the King stood above his subjects, looking at them like a man on a mission. There was no music, or laughter, or voices of happy people having happy conversations, or horse drawn carriages. There was only silence. Though in this moment the silence was filled with content. It was not angry silence, or scared silence either. It was silence out of respect for their ruler. Silence to show they were listening, to show they would wait for as long as needed, as long as he would address them with the same respect. Of course King George delivered on that quiet agreement when he spoke.

“My lawful subjects, I thank you all for taking valuable time out of your days to come listen to this old man talk” the King started, quiet laughter erupted and died down in anticipation of King George’s next words, “As you all know, Queen Sheila, my beautiful wife, birthed our first-born daughter earlier today. The heir to the throne and your future leader. Of course, as promised I am now standing here to tell you the name of our daughter.” The crowd broke out into excited applause, but quickly died down when the king raised his hand to quiet them. “Thank you. Thank you. I am just as excited as you are. Now, please let me tell you her name.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “Our daughter, our heir, has been named Princess Luvera Aura Stormwind.” The crowd roared with excitement. Their princess, their future Queen, now had a name. Her adult name would be Luvera, a name from ancient Elvish literature, meaning a strong, and intelligent soul. Her childhood name being Aura, meaning brightness and happiness.

As the years went on and the princess got older, she did indeed live up to her name’s meanings. For her first 180 years she was a bundle of rambunctious cheerful energy, and she used that energy to her advantage quite well. She read every book that lined the walls of her home’s private library, even donating some to the village. The princess learned many instruments, most of which were used frequently by the townspeople. She also learned to hone her singing voice. Along with these talents, she had picked up the ability of hand to hand combat. She would sit in the training arena many days a week learning by visual. Luvera had become so in tune with how to fight she started to give the young soldiers she was watching some tips. She would tell them what she had observed, this foot was too far back, this hand left your side open, and so on. To the soilders surprise, she gave pretty good advice. The captain of the training group had soon realized that Luvera could be extremely good at combat, and if she was trained in said combat she may be so tired out that her daily shenanigans would trickle off.

The captain brought this idea up to the King, hoping he wouldn't get his head lobbed off for the suggestion. The King did not agree at first, but when Luvera spoke up and practically begged her father to let her start these training days, the King reluctantly allowed it. Soon after, she started her lessons, her teacher was a strong solider her age. Named Cedran Drax Bark.