Yoxxel, also referred to as Paela Alexander and Ilewalyn Ellarian, is a half-elven wizard, a former apprentice of the Council of Dreamers, and an heir to the throne of Ethrel. While gifted in magic, she has a short temper and is quick to start a fight. She is the daughter of Inglis Alexandar and Phaelnah Ellarian, and the former student of Deowyn Centhos, who she once idolized.
Description
Yoxxel is a beautiful but rough-looking half-elf. She has vibrant red hair that is cut short, shaved on the sides, and is flipped to the right, tending to falling just above her ear. She has dark blue eyes and fair skin, as well as long elven ears. Yoxxel stands around 5 foot 9, and her muscular body is peppered with light scars, mostly from burns. She wears her own rendition of the Dreamer's traditional green and purple robes, having ripped off the sleeves and bound the skirt of the robes into makeshift pants, secured to her legs by various bindings. A tome of some sort is bound to her back by ropes. She is missing one of her back teeth, visible when she smiles wide.
Yoxxel is stubborn, rambunctious, energetic, and loud. She is quick to take offense and anger, and she prefers to settle arguments with her fists. She is quick to shy away from heartfelt gestures and prefers to hide her feelings.
Skills and Abilities
While not blessed with social graces, Yoxxel is an abundantly capable warrior, even without her special brand of fire magic.
Toned Brawler
From her constant training, Yoxxel is extremely fit. She is capable of impressive feats of athleticism, and is quite light on her feet to boot. She is very good in a fist fight.
Magical Apprentice
As a wizard, Yoxxel studies a wide swath of various magics, many of which she learned from her former mentor, Deowyn Centhos. Due to her impatience, however, she tends not to remember spells that aren't outwardly violent.
Fire Evocation Prodigy
Yoxxel has an innate understanding of fire magics, and has crafted a few spells of her own that utilize her talents. Among these include the ability to create an arena of flaming thorns, and to augment her punches with explosive fire.
Natural Connection
Yoxxel uncontrollably weaves natural elements into her spellcasting, affecting the appearance of her spells. Her conflagrations will culminate in fiery explosions that resemble an opening flower, and much of her conjuration is interspersed with vines and thorns.
History
Yoxxel, originally named Ilewalyn Ellarian, was born to Phaelnah Ellarian and Inglis Alexandar in the kingdom of Eresain, the product of a relationship forbidden by the kingdom of Ethrel, Phaelnah's home. A technical princess to the throne of Ethrel, Phaelnah and Inglis endeavored to keep her life a secret, so Phaelnah returned to Ethrel shortly after her birth, leaving Inglis to raise her on his own. In order to make ends meet, Inglis began work as an "arbiter of justice", rooting out evils in the world and surviving on the kindess of others to get by. The adventuring lifestyle was difficult on the young Ilewalyn, and her heritage and identifying red hair was a constant source of worry for Inglis, who feared she would be found out. When Yoxxel was five, Inglis granted her the name Paela Alexander, and had her hide her pointed ears with cloth.
Ilewayln, now Paela, traveled across Atavar with her father, accompanying him on his adventures and learning the art of the sword. On more than one occasion, enemies of her father would use Paela to attack him, such as when she was possessed by a demon of shadow. Inglis fought through the Beasts of Raav to retrieve the legendary sword Valefinger, using its radiant light to cure her affliction. Paela accompanied her father when he met with and cured the Alltree from rot, as well as many other adventures across the continent. Paela grew up close to her father, and learned many of his fighting techniques; however, she had a particular affinity for striking with her fists.
Paela accompanied Inglis up to Gessaria and eventually Sanaris when the latter became aware of the threat of devils in the area. During their campaign through Sanaris, Yoxxel was once captured and held hostage by a particularly powerful devil. Inglis managed to save Paela yet again, chasing the devil that held her away, but also reinforcing the helplessness and feelings of inadequacy that had begun to consume Paela. When her father disappeared into hell for a period of months to chase the devils, Paela took the chance to reinvent herself, renaming herself Yoxxel. She was soon discovered by Deowyn Centhos, who took an interest in the girl as a possible hostage against Inglis, but began teaching her in earnest after finding she had a natural aptitude for magic.
Even after Inglis' return from hell, Yoxxel would still continue to apprentice under Deowyn Centhos, becoming the first half elf to technically enter the ranks of the Council of Dreamers. Yoxxel continued to study with Deowyn well into 951, as the disguised devil would take every opportunity to fill her head with lies about her father. Inglis, noticing that Yoxxel enjoyed learning magic, left her in Deowyn's care as he went off to fight the devils, an act that Yoxxel eventually came to see as him abandoning her. Her opinions about her mother began to form around this time as well, and she became resentful of the parent she never knew. However, the wizard Ryla Mulaweyrn, a high ranking member of the Council, sought to fill that role for her and helped to keep her grounded as Deowyn would encourage her more destructive habits. Yoxxel would also make friends with another apprentice, Yuleyan, but soon distanced herself from her after Yuleyan became obsessed with her father's crusade against the devils. As word of the Divine Branch spread through Sanaris, Yoxxel became more and more resentful of her father.
In 951, Yoxxel took on a mission from Deowyn to clear out a settlement of raiders. She met the adventuring party the Peas in the hamlet of Odavyn, where she was surrounded by hobgoblin raiders and beaten severely. The party assisted her in dispatching the raiders, and she showed her gratitude by buying the party a few rounds in a tavern the next town over. While drinking with the party, she told them of her connection to the Council of Dreamers in Hymathel, and discussed her mission to curb the presence of the raiders in the area. The party agreed to accompany her to the edge of the Taerin Ucarin mountain range to find and route the hobgoblins. Later, she fought Grognock in a fist-fight and lost, impressed at the half orc's technique, and eventually convinced Tyerjon to fight, emerging victorious while dishing out some heavy damage to the formidable dragonborn. She imparted that Tyerjon would be a great brawler if he practiced his technique a bit more. All through this time, she made a considerable effort to ignore the elf of the party, who she recognized as her mother, Phaelnah Ellarian.
Yoxxel led the way to the hobgoblin encampment, taking the Peas into a mountain pass with tall cliffs on either side. The raider guards noticed their presence and began firing at the group, prompting them to run, as Yoxxel was hit a few times by the incoming arrows. The group made it to the encampment, and while Yoxxel received heavy damage, she managed to dish out a decent amount of pain. She went off chasing the fleeing raiders as the group engaged a group of incoming Aeltran zealots, members of the Divine Branch. She eventually returned and attempted a flying fire kick against the leader of the zealots, but he easily caught her and knocked her out with a large vine he manifested from the ground.
At the zealot camp, Yoxxel remained unconscious for a time. When she awoke, she recognized the half-elf watching over them as Yuleyan, which put her in a sour mood. Yoxxel accompanied the group out of the camp and to a Zadaran temple, introducing the party to Yankaffa, the keeper of the temple. The next morning, she stayed with the party, journeying with them to Hymathel. Along the way to the city, Yoxxel assisted the Peas in battling members of the Darkheart, dealing significant damage to Yyk Sen in particular. She took the party to meet Deowyn, as they were to deliver the Sallow Stone to him.
Phaelnah Ellarian soon reached out to her daughter, attempting to connect with her. Yoxxel was curt with Phaelnah, angry at the mother she never had, and the father who left her. She left rather abruptly, finished with the conversation, and seemingly disinterested in further communication. Phaelnah would slowly make more attempts to wear Yoxxel down, but she was adamantly against a deeper connection.
Yoxxel came with the Peas when the group was tasked by Deowyn to deliver supplies alongside a caravan to Peralas. Yoxxel helped the adventurers fight both the Champion Valka as well as the agents of the Divine Branch outside the border of Fystral Mol. On the way, Yoxxel did some sparring with Grognock, attempting to avoid Phaelnah over the course of the journey. During this time, Seamus McHammerface's alter ego Murica fell in love with Yoxxel, but she remained completely oblivious to the fact. After a battle with the Divine Branch near Peralas, Yoxxel rushed off into a forest to track down a runner, but got lost and beat up by the forest's thorny, poisonous vines. She begrudgingly allowed Phaelnah to heal her afterwards.
Yoxxel decided to spend some time in Peralas when the Peas went off to visit Lake Faelance to seal Tarisi. On their return, she was convinced to come out to the lake with the inkling that there might be another demigod to fight, but was largely disappointed when she did not find one, swimming far out into the lake in her search.
Yoxxel eventually accompanied the Peas back to Hymathel, but was kept from entering the demonized Nevald District at the behest of Deowyn and Ryla Mulaweyrn. After the Bottle Demon's defeat at the hands of the Peas, Yoxxel remained in the Council of Dreamers towers, avoiding her mother. The Peas moved on without a goodbye after a few failed attempts by Phaelnah to connect with her daughter, which included sending her drunken poetry through Sending.
Weeks later, Yoxxel eventually came upon Mange, Seamus' dog that had become lost around Peralas. Despite Deowyn's objections, she took the dog in, and attempted to care for it for some time.
Deowyn's obsessions with Yoxxel finally hit a boiling point after his acquisition of the Sallow Stone. He kidnapped Yoxxel and placed her in his experimental prison, the Unknown, using the stone to clone her multiple times and place devils with the empty bodies. One of these bodies, piloted by the devil Shastalith, was used to bait the Peas into coming to Deowyn's office in a trap engineered by Gaval'sar Gasvado. As the Peas attempted to rescue the clone, Yoxxel was becoming the subject of one of Deowyn's experiments as he filled her soul full of tortured, pained spirits in an attempt to turn her into a devil. With her mind being fried by the process, Deowyn used her suggestible state to turn her against her parents before he was eventually ambushed by the Peas and whisked away to the Nightblight by the Nightseeker.
Deowyn eventually escaped the Nightblight and returned to Yoxxel, taking her to Grudesh. Deowyn continued to corrupt Yoxxel's soul, but did not push her over the edge, hoping to delight in the despair of her parents by forcing her transformation into a devil when they inevitably found her. When Phaelnah, Inglis, Tyerjon, Ryla, and the wizard Iratha eventually arrived to confront Deowyn, he burned Yoxxel into a crisp, creating a new erinyes from her corpse, and completing his twisted experiment. After Deowyn's defeat, his magic destabilized, and the devil Yoxxel had become fell to ashes. Her soul, not yet completely corrupted, was nearly absorbed into the Soulcaster, but was rescued by Iratha just before. Iratha noted that her soul had been inundated with the souls of devils, but there was hope that she could be restored, with enough time and money.