The Journey of The Broken Arrow Sept

[sandman]

Hi all, im new to the forum and fairly new to woodelves (although not to fantasy). I thought id show you all the fluff ive written for the army, the armylist is going up in the army list section soon although its far from complete. So without further ado (sorry if its hard to read, paragraph spacings got removed in the copy some how)

The Summoning

“Avainya, Avainya, please wake, I must speak with you”
Avainya jolted herself upright. She had been woken by her dream of the great treeman Uldersia asking her to come to him. She quickly dressed and gathered her belongings before running down the track which lead to the treemans grove. Upon arriving she found Uldersia surrounded by his dryad maidens, her eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright glow of the sprites surrounding the treefolk. When they did she noticed Uaiuch stood beside him, the mighty dryad was whispering something to him with a stern look on her face.
Uldersia turned to her and smiled, “Avainya, Thank you for coming so swiftly. I’m sorry to have awoken you from your sleep but I have a matter of some urgency. I’m dying, I have contracted an un-natural plague which has infested my mortal form.”
Avainta gasped, to hear of a treeman dying outside of combat was unfathomable, the pains of grief were already manifesting themselves. Uldersia had befriended her when she was less than 50 years old, she regarded him as a living god.
“What can I do to aid you?” Avainya asked
“It is said that the children of the old ones have been found, deep in the jungles known as Lustria. It is said they have the strongest link to the magical currents of this world. I believe only they may be able to save me. I must journey to this land and seek their aid, and that is why I call you here. I seek your assistance to aid me on my journey.”
Avainya let out a breath she had not realised she was holding. Uldersia was asking for her help, specifically her, this was an honour she had never hoped to achieve. If only it could have come about in better circumstances, she was almost in tears imagining the pain her old friend must be feeling.
She responded in firm words “I shall do anything I can to aid you on this journey. I pledge myself and my battle sisters to your cause. The sept of the Broken Arrow will not fail you”
Uldersia nodded, pleased with her response, the sprites circling him began to glow brighter, vibrating with what could only be described as glee. It was then Avainya noticed Uaiuch stood beside her. The dryad gripped her before she had a chance to move and before she knew it the sprites which circled Uaiuch were engulfing her vision, dancing all around her. A sharp pain gripped her right wrist and then as quickly as it begun it faded. The dryad released her grip and Avainya gasped, her arm was decorated with an intricate pattern but there was something more, she felt the warm glow of a spirit around her, “An old friend of mine has joined with you, he will protect you and ensure you can carry out your duties. Heed his wisdom for he has lived longer than any of your people”
With that Uaiuch herded Avainya away, telling her to make haste in her preparations. Avainya ran all the way to her septs dwellings, calling her sisters to raise from their long winter slumbers and to ready themselves for the journey ahead.

The Journey Begins

2 days after Uldersia’s council and the sept of the Broken Arrow was ready to begin the journey to Lustria. It was then that Aerwllyn showed himself to Avainya, “Greetings Noble Lady, may I ask why your sept has awoken from its slumber so early?”
Avainya sniffed at the comment and the assumption that she should answer to him “The Broken Arrows business is for The Broken Arrows alone!”
“Ahh come now Avainya, there is truly no need to be koy, I only came to offer you the services of my rangers on your journey to Lustria” To Avainya’s annoyance she found herself dumfounded by his knowledge, “Oh come now, you cant have expected to keep such things secret from me could you? No of course not.”
“I’m sure your well aware of The Broken Arrows rules and guidelines Aerwllyn, no man has ever joined our sept and I don’t intend to make an exception for you” Avainya turnt away from him, not wanting to let him see her smile, did he have to be so beautiful?
“Ahh a point well taken, I guess it’s a good thing I have no intention of joining your sept, simply accompanying you on the journey. What a thing to have done, travelled all the way across the oceans to the new, or should I say old lands of Lustria. The experience alone is worth it, by the way how do you intend to cross the ocean?” Again he had dumfounded Avainya, she had not considered how they would secure passage.
“That is Broken Arrow business Aerwllyn and I’m not sure I want you accompanying me, the honour of Uldersia’s escourt is ours and ours alone. No Red Wolves will take that away from me.” Replied Avainya, making sure to face him and look him in the eye as he said it, however pretty he may be she would not let herself be tricked by a man into betraying her sept.
“I have no intention of stealing your honour, infact I intend for myself and my most trusted to follow you in complete secrecy. We shall fly no banner and show no allegiance except to you and your kin.” He stood and stared deep into her eyes “On this you have my solemn word.” He knelt, drew his dagger and slashed deep through the palm of his hand, barely wincing as he did, he offered her the bloodied knife and pressed the point to his chest “If you believe I lie, then spill my blood and let the shame be mine alone. If you believe me to be true, which I pray you do, then seal with me in an oath of blood and I shall surely follow you.” With that Avainya took the knife and swept it down her own palm, embracing his after and allowing their blood to clot together.
She let out a long gasp and whispered “So it is done!”


as you have probably guessed the army is going to be comprised of all female models except 1 6 man squad of glade guard scouts, accompanied by a highborn with BoL. The army will be an almost 50/50 mix of forest spirit and elf. The story will progress through a campaign that my store is running to celebrate the new rules so each battle I play ill write a report for and advance the story (unless of course my entire force is wiped out, that could be tricky to explain). As you can probably tell there will be somewhat of a love interest between Avainya and Aerwllyn, the idea is that he is a higher ranking noble, but due to the position the treeman has put her in and the fact that he deeply cares for her, he is quite happy to serve under her (no pun intended) and they will slowly gain great respect and love for each other (unless of course they both die horribly in battle)

[Schmeag]

An interesting read, to be sure. I was just wondering why you specifically chose sept as the "group" word.

[sandman]

I used sept because it is a phrase more used when refering to different family groups and the idea is that the all female sept have very close bonds to each other and dont cluster by their chosen kindreds or upbringings but rather all live, work, fight and die as one family unit.

If youve read any of the Wheel of Time books then some of the ideas im having are influenced by the Far Dais Mai (Maidens of the Spear)

[Schmeag]

That's exactly what it reminded me of; the I think I can only recall hearing of Septs in regards to the Aiel, although I think the Tau in Warhammer 40k also use that terminology too.