Juniper

Summary

As an adolescent, the village in which Juniper lived and was raised was intruded upon by an arrogant enchanter playing god with the local population. Juniper was instrumental in the eventual routing of the wizard, but the experience has given them a lingering distrust for magic users and the nobility.

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Personality

Juniper is reserved and analytical, but soft-hearted. They try to prepare for any contingency and hate being unprepared. They’re incredibly wary of magic, especially anything that influences the mind or emotions. They enjoy helping others, but are used to their own small community and can have difficulty with crowds and strangers. They dislike the ambitious, the power-hungry, and the rich.

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Backstory

When they were young, the small village where Juniper lived was caught on the edges of a war between local lords. An upstart wizard was sent, ostensibly to enforce the extraction of taxes for the war effort, but more realistically just to get him out of the way while pandering to the lordling's ego. The wizard flexed his burgeoning enchanter abilities by terrorizing the locals, harassing people and seizing resources at his whim. Juniper used their hunting skills to help provide game to feed the village, organizing the sharing of resources while avoiding the eyes of the intruding wizard. Eventually they helped end the menace by being strategically “caught” smuggling torpor-poisoned wine which was seized. Once incapacitated by the tainted drink, the wizard was killed and his body was disposed of. Since the man had been arrogant enough to not bring his own people with him, the town passed off his death as a war casualty.

Though a hero in their community, Juniper - along with many others - hasn't quite gotten over the trauma of the incident, which has exacerbated their feelings of alienation as a half-elf in a populace of humans.