Can you not see? In making this, you have unmade yourself.

♔Character Name: Meric Ophelen (MAIR-ick OWE-full-in)

♔Gender: Female

♔Age: Twenty-five

♔Birthplace: Wicaria

♔Physical Appearance: Meric's most distinctive feature is her hair. Wild and thick, it hovers about her head like a black cloud, smelling faintly of grass and new growth. Her skin is a middling shade, darker in the summer months than it is during Wicaria's overcast winters. Her eyes are dark stars set into a clear face; her brows and lips are full. Something about her seems perpetually sad, even when she smiles close-mouthed. She stands at about 5'9", average height for Wicarian women, and her arms and legs are soft-skinned but solidly muscled. She wears browns, grays, and blacks most of the time, and she favors long, flowing garments that leave her motion free.

♔Personality: Meric gives the impression of a dam, holding back a great many things and allowing little to escape. Outwardly, she is reserved, though her eyes flicker with an intensity that implies her feelings and opinions are strong. When spoken to, she will answer briefly and to the minimum of what is required. Her friends, however, describe a different Meric, whose words gush ceaselessly and whose tongue is sharp and biting. Her greatest character defect is that she judges too quickly and decides without considering all angles. Professors do not see Meric laugh as she used to-purely, and often-but the old Meric still lives, her closest friend promises. Where that might be, no one can say.

♔Background: Meric's mother is not known, but her father is easily remembered. Shopkeepers and bartenders recall a visitor from a few decades ago-jolly, uproariously funny Sir Ophelen frequented Wicaria for its lively music scene, though he paid only one visit to the renowned College of Magic. After that visit, Sir Ophelen was not seen in Wicaria again, and the Feralian order of the college found themselves with a new charge.

Meric grew under the tutelage of religious Feralian women who taught at Wicarian College. The first part of her childhood was spent learning the basics of magic, while the second part was spent rapidly developing magical restraint-her affinity for natural growth magic was such that it would operate at all times, even if she did not expressly wish it to. Dandelions would grow between the floorboards; ivy would overrun the walls. Fearful of the damage she might cause, Meric isolated herself from the college as a teenager, honing her control in the forests surrounding the city. The restraint she learned in magic seemed to effect a personality shift as well-where Meric had once been open and jovial, her teenaged self became reserved and inscrutable. Because of this, her Wicarian professor-family found themselves in the dark on a large portion of Meric's life.

Meric remained secretive into early adulthood, when she chose to formally attend classes at the college. Her magical restraint was now solid, though she seemed somewhat sadder (and physically stronger); one professor insisted that something had happened to her in those forests, something that the faculty had missed. Now that she has graduated, the Feralians who raised her hope that she might pursue the life of a priestess in Feralia, but Meric instead swears that she will move to Erenad. The faculty can only speculate as to why; her father is presumably still alive there, but a fellow student contends that Meric's choice has nothing to do with her family, though the student refuses to elaborate. Meric has also denied any help from the faculty at obtaining a magical position in Erenad, leading some to believe that the job she wants is not magical in nature.

♔Skills: Meric knows the basics of most magical disciplines, with a concentration in and aptitude for natural growth magic. She is also in excellent physical shape, though her fitness may not compare to that of trained knights. Physically, her stamina is her strength.