Early Life in the Moonwood
Long ago, Silwe’s elvish kindred dwelt in the perilous Moonwood; far to the north in the Silver Marches. Silwe was always headstrong, and never listened to the wise council of her father Melendil or her mother Eonwe; two elven clerics of Corallon who were accounted both wise and powerful amongst the Elvish host.
Silwe was their youngest daughter and one they oft worried about, for the girl wandered the land by moonlight, called by fey voices to explore the benighted forests of her home. Silwe always claimed she could ‘hear’ strange singing; something her parents dismissed as foolish vanity, for no other elf could hear it. Silwe grew annoyed and would often run off for days without explanation, following these voices; so that her kindred regarded her as an oddity. After many years, Silwe began meeting with those afflicted with lycanthropy and also with the human wood-folk who lived on the southern margins of the Moon-wood. To these humans she seemed both wise and fair, and the Elvish maiden, not yet accounted full grown as elves measure such things, did foolishly enjoy the attentions that she had never warranted from her own people.
Eventually Silwe fell in love with a man called Tarek; the son of a woodcutter. The issue of their love was a half-elven child and Silwe was banished by her own people for this trangression against their ancient laws.
So Silwe, weeping and wretched, left her home in the Moonwood and wandered the land with Tarek. Her father took charge of her son and she never saw him again. For a few years Tarek and Silwe lived in peace in the northern vales of the Silver Marches; but fate took against the pair and Tarek grew sick.
Captured by Drow
Despairing of Tarek dying, Silwe determined to return to her people and beg for her son and for healing for her husband. However, on the journey home both were captured by Drow during one of their many surface raids, and dragged down into the Underdark. In the lightless depths, Silwe managed to escape from the Drow before they had journeyed far into the earth; for the Dark Elves who had captured her were ambushed by a rival house and Silwe ran off in the confusion of the attack. Sadly, Tarek was left behind.
Skullport
Tired and hungry, Silwe fell straight into the clutches of Duergar slavers before she could reach the surface. After a year of travel in the crushing depths of the earth, she reached Skullport with the slavers and was sold. For the next five years, the elven girl was a drudge for The Xanatar thieves Guild, working as one of the Eye’s minions; learning to brew foul poisons for the infamous beholder or watching or stealing from his enemies. During this time, Silwe learnt much about the evil denizens of the Port of Shadows and an unreasoning hatred for them began to build in her heart. Alas for Silwe, her fear and rage were channeled by the Eye and he used her to wreak havoc on his Drow enemies as the elvish girl delighted in their slaughter. Indeed, so feral did she become that for a time she lost all reason as the Eye taunted her; promising to rescue Tarek if she would but do his bidding.
Eventually Silwe was rescued by the followers of Elistraee and finally learned that not all Drow are evil, though it was only through supreme self-will that she was able to control herself in the presence of Dark Elves, good or evil. Eventually, the Dark Maidens managed to smuggle Silwe out aboard a slave ship passing by the Murkspan Birdge; she then dived overboard once the ship emerged on the surface and began sailing close to the shores of Waterdeep.
Waterdeep
That was 3 years ago and Silwe has been living in Waterdeep; having no where else to go, feeling tainted by all she did and never wanting to see the censure in her father’s eyes. The elven girl was quickly befriended by Abbot Gudrun Thorunn, of the Order of Many Moons; and he healed the madness that had afflicted her whilst she was below, showing her how to calm her mind. Yet Silwe now hates the Xanatar Guild and the Shadow Thieves with a passion and tries in her small way to thwart these evil scum whenever she can. To this end, Silwe has always watched Balthorr Olaskos; a low level fence and leader for the Shadowthieves, who revealed many of their activities simply because of those who visited him.
Silwe has established a secret roof-top eyrie that she calls home; an old battered pigeon coop on top of a burned out tavern in Dock Ward on the Street of A Thousand Kisses, near the edge of the infamous ‘Warren’. There Silwe watches the world go by as she looks up at the moon or walks the rooftops of Waterdeep, seeking for any sign of her enemies and their foul schemes and also stalking the depths below when she dares, looking for news of Tarek and of the Drow of Menzoberranzan who captured her all those years ago. Her lonely existance has recently been tempered by the arrival of Tulkos; a highly intelligent Raven that lives with Silwe in the coop. The animal seems friendly, and Silwe has been feeding the bird, in the hope that he will stay. Silwe also numbers innumerate cats as visitors and friends.
Recently, Silwe has gained an interest in magic after stealing a spellbook and wand from a Shadow Thief she followed from Olastros’ shop. Silwe is now intent on becoming a mage and using her power to find Tarek, or at least bring his bones back to the home of his people. It is already clear to her that the voices she once heard are magical and she earnestly desires to discover their true nature through arcane study, hoping that they can aid her.
Personality
Silwe would seem to others to be an aloof and unemotional elven woman; only her eyes occasionally reveal her true intensity. She is still consumed with rage but hides it well and fears herself more than she fears death. She tries to remain cool and detached as the Abbott taught her, for it was through rage that the Xanatar once controlled her mind. She says little, save at great need, but is always watching and studying. Trusting few until she has watched from afar for a while, Silwe seldom ventures into the streets by day; or if she does it is always in one of her many guises.
She delights in robbing from the rich and avaricious and giving the gold to those in need; though seldom to those who ask. Indeed she is a kind of ‘guardian angel’ for the small area of Dock Ward near where she lives, for she spends many hours peering in at windows; watching a family at life and work that she can now never know. Silwe knows most of the people in her area by name, though they have no idea who she is; and their troubles are almost a part of her.
Though she is good, the elf girl has suffered much and now knows few moments of joy. Much of what she feels inside, she must battle against or fall again into the savagery she knew in Skullport, and this is her greatest fear. She often visits the Abbott who calmed her mind, for he is perhaps the only person in Waterdeep she truly trusts; his present predicament is likely to result in an extreme response, for Silwe sometimes feels that everyone she has ever loved has been taken from her and she will not let that happen again.
Thorn and Bright-Nail
Another thing that drives Silwe are her two rapiers; Thorn and Bright-Nail were forged long ago, during the terrible wars with Hellgate Keep. Both blades were once powerfully magic, as both elves and dwarves had a hand in their forging, but both were sundered in that dark conflict. Silwe’s grandfather reforged the blades but lacked the magic to imbue them with their former potency, and though the Eye sold them when she was captured, the elf girl soon tracked down their owner and stole them back from him. As her grandfather, Celebringol, was one of the few elves who understood Silwe, she fiercely desires to return both blades to their original power, as he so dearly wanted.
