Ashen Lands

Danyla is a young woman with wavy brown hair that falls just past her shoulders, soft bangs brushing her brow. Her face is youthful and calm, framed by steady brown eyes that hold quiet depth. She wears a simple black dress, neat and unadorned, with sleeves often rolled up as she moves through her daily tasks.

Danyla is calm and attentive, with a quiet ease in conversation that puts others at rest without revealing much of herself. Her kindness shows in how she holds a gaze a moment longer than needed, listens without interrupting, and never asks more than someone is willing to share. Her sharp eyes miss nothing, a trait that serves her well in gathering information. Though friendly, there’s a distance in her eyes, as if part of her is always elsewhere.

Danyla grew up in Eldenrest, the daughter of a hunter and an herbalist, learning to read the Velciran Forest as easily as she read faces. Five years ago, her parents vanished on a mist-covered trail, leaving her the lone keeper of The Thalen Howl, which passed to her through blood and quiet grief. She has run the tavern ever since, tending hearth and herb-stock with the same steady hands that once packed her father's snares and her mother's salves. Though she speaks little of the past, some say she knows more about what stirs in the forest shadows than she lets on.