"I am a mortal - my will is my own. The path I tread is of my own making. I grew up believing in Falandine's tenets of knowledge and learning, but I let myself be carried away with vengeance. Going on this journey, this search to know what Dorland was after, it's given me a greater appreciation and curiosity for the mysteries of this world."
Phaeydra Longstride, Captain of The Defiance, is an aasimari sorceress and a godtouched of the reviled god Falandine. Born in the Fjallur and taken from her parents to Daria as a baby, Phaeydra initially joined the crew of the Splintered Survivor to gain vengeance upon the Listener cult who stole her away from her home. After regaining her divinity and being appointed captain of the Defiance, Phaeydra joined the rest of her crew in dismantling the admiralty of Daria and kickstarting the Second Darian War of Independence against Calindra.
History
Born in the Fjallur to a tribe of Borsimeri worshippers, Phaeydra, born as Helle Jorvandsdottir, was prophesized as a herald of Borsimer's coming, the elders unaware of her true nature as a godtouched of Falandine. Though she brought her parents great pride and joy, rumours of her divine heritage spread through the isles, and Phaeydra was soon discovered by an extreme sect of the Darian Listeners, the Cult of the One-Eyed Kraken: The night she was to be blessed for good fortune and a healthy life, the cult snuck into the village and stole her away from her crib, spiriting her to the Kahra'Alani to raise her as their own.
For the next seventeen years, Phaeydra remained a hostage of the cult, raised in the ways of the Listeners and kept away from the world at large in a secret underground compound somewhere in the Kahra'Alani, losing her divinity in the process and being branded with shadow powers through constant experimentation. She was treated with cold indifference at worst, and petty cruelty at worst, often being locked in a cage for longer periods of time and not allowed to see the sun or the outside world, only knowing of it through pictures and books that she was given. It was only on the night she was set to be sacrificed to the Lurkers below that she managed to escape, heading to Daria on a stolen rowboat.
In the decade that followed, Phaeydra turned to Daria's criminal underbelly, making a living through smuggling whilst simultaneously planning her revenge on the Listeners for her plight.
It was at the Two-Copper Inn where Phaeydra eventually met with the group that would become the Fleet of the Nerve, banding together for survival in the aftermath of the Black Sails' attack on Derelict Row, and taking on a salvaging job for Jurek Silverhand, a captain of the Greens. Whilst salvaging one of the old destroyed boats at the harbour, the group eventually discovered Dorland's map, and resolved to keep it secretly for themselves, deciding out of curiosity to follow Dorland's footsteps and solve the mystery of his disappearance. Acquiring enough money for a ship of their own, the group set off to follow each of Dorland's marked points.
After numerous adventures throughout the archipelago, Phaeydra and the crew eventually came upon the Vault of Falandine, where she met the god of fate himself and learned of the true nature of her birth; That she was instead one of his godtouched, that she was intended to fall to prevent the One-Eyed Kraken from learning all of Falandine's collective knowledge, and that she could rise again with his power. Choosing to rise once more and regain her divinity, Phaeydra became a Protector Aasimar again.
Armed with the truth behind the Curse of Falandine and knowledge of Dorland's true whereabouts, the Aasimar set off back with her crew towards the Kahra'Alani, allying with the local Hoan population. Following the crew's victory against Fion the Red, Phaeydra joined the rest of the fleet captaining The Nerve, helping to kickstart the Second War of Darian Independence.