Age: 25 years old
Starting Level: 4
Backstory:
Aasimars were humans who carried the power of the Upper Planes. Where Serena was born, this made them perceived as harbingers of the angels and revered. But as usual, to be admired is to have expectations placed upon you. For the Aasimars of Serena's hometown, home of the largest temple for the God of Change and Growth, who encouraged constant change and growth in its followers, they were expected to be the most faithful of their community as envoys of their God.

Serena did not follow this expectation.

In fact, she hated it and everything that came with it.

She hated having her wardrobe changed every month.
She hated spending hours with the hairstyle just to find the style she hasn't tried yet.
She hated the disorganized schedules that were constantly rearranged as often as the sun shone during the day.
She hated the "friends" who do nothing but abandon her in favor of more interesting, "less stagnant" people.
She hated the weekly sermons she was forced to attend in hopes to inspire change in her.
She hated the adults constantly nitpicking her "sameness" everyday.
She hated how her family looks upon her with nothing but disappointment and shame.

The one time she was celebrated by those around her, it was when she changed to go by she/they pronouns, and even then she hated it.
She hated how the people only began paying attention to her again because of that.
She hated how they stopped doing so when it didn't seem like she was going to change something about her again.

She hated it.

So when she learned of an academy for adventurers overseas, she saw it as an opportunity to escape from everything once and for all. She would learn magic and become an adventurer.

It was the only way, she thought.

And so for months, day and night, she endured everything all while secretly studying for the upcoming entrance exam. She pored over books, practiced spells in the dead of the night, learned what spell components could be found in the nearby forest, and enjoyed herself far more than she did in her performance of a "life".

She was so engrossed that she stopped properly paying attention to the people around her.

By the time she did, it was already too late.

Near her hometown was a forest that was forbidden for any to go to. The town had been plagued historically by undead originating from it, with the town having built-in emergency protocols in case of another infection outbreak. Spotting the signs of an infection was a must in the town's education, perhaps second to that of change.

Their parents had been showing signs of it for weeks. Had she paid attention sooner, she could have helped them before it got worse.

But fate was rarely that forgiving.

When she came home that morning, brimming with confidence at finally mastering a spell, she was, to her shock, greeted by the zombified figures of her parents devouring their next door neighbor.

Everything went downhill from there.

Her parents weren't the only ones infected. The entire time she was gone, her parents had fully zombified and infected the neighbors already. When she ran to sound the alarm, panic ensued immediately. The town went on lockdown, the uninfected evacuating to emergency underground shelters while the defenders kept the infected at bay and the priests contained the virus to the best of their ability.

Down in the shelter, Serena was met with the wrath of her siblings who blamed her for her negligence, her selfishness for prioritizing her own wants over her family. Hate for her mistake was so high that no one cared that she was chosen to represent her family to help with the undead clearing. The fact that she had little training in harboring divine magic was of no importance. No one cared if she died trying.

But Serena was not interested in dying for a community who has done nothing but gave her hell.

The instant she was outside, she immediately booked it, with no one bothering to call after her. She dodged the sight of undead to her house where she packed everything she could to make her escape. She didn't spare the people fighting for their lives behind her another glance, unable to bear the guilt of her abandoning them as she fled to the forest.

She spent her first few days constantly on the move, stopping only to find food and rest for the night. By the second week, she was lost and could barely tell what was left and right. By the third week, her resources were becoming depleted and struggled to forage with her limited knowledge nor hunt with her little strength. By the fourth, she was starving, aimless, and utterly alone. For the first time since her escape, she stopped in her tracks when she then took the time to look back on what happened and just what exactly she walked out on. Not helped by her physical state, she was overcome with despair and lost the will to keep moving, even so much as wishing for her own death.

Then something happened. Something, to this day, she's unable to fully explain. A dream. A vision. A hallucination. Whatever it was, she heard a voice in her head, murmuring soothing words that she no longer remembers. And the next thing she knew, she woke up fully healthy, with no signs of her earlier starvation at all.

And held in her hands was an amulet. Her mother's amulet. She never brought it with her when she fled and no logical explanation could explain how she ended up with it.

Only one possibility remained... But there was no way.

After all, why would the God of Change help her, of all people?

With that uncertain thought in her head, the only option was to keep moving. And so she did.

Serena learned more about the forest than she's ever had in all her sixteen years in life. It was there that she learned peace for the first time; watching animals roam about in their natural habitat, learning about the surrounding flora, and studying the nature of her surroundings. For once, her thoughts were calm and she could simply be, the thoughts of escape no longer in her mind.

As the months passed by, she learned to appreciate the beauty of nature around her. The way trees shed their leaves for the winter and revive again in the spring, how wildlife came and went during the turning of the seasons.

Change. When her community showed her nothing but oppressive obligation, nature showed her the beauty of progress and continuity. For the first time in her life, without her parents's constant lecturing ringing in her head, she understood the true value of change and found herself looking back on those teachings that's been attempted to shoved onto her since childhood. To view it without the lens of shame and obligation.

It was then she realized that she never hated the religion.

It was never about the religion.

And now freed from her constraints, she resorted to make up for the lost time. From scratch, she recalled everything she's ever been taught about it, taking the time which was scripture and which was the people reinterpreting or pushing extremes. In mere weeks, she completely reconstructed the religion in a fresh worldview, free from the biases and extremes that twisted it. For once, she felt proud of calling herself a follower and spent the next weeks of her life reintegrating the religion back into her life. Documenting every change she encountered enthusiastically, whether her own or of her surroundings, and praying in the form of reflections.

She didn't even notice how her mother's amulet, which she now wore around her neck at all times, had started occasionally glowing, especially during said prayers.

Within a year, she was nearly unrecognizable from the Serena who shunned by and served as the black sheep of her home.

Her life living in the forest suddenly ended when she encountered a man collapsed in a clearing, having been attacked by a wild animal. In her attempts to save him, divine power coursed through her and to her and the man's absolute astonishment, she closed the man's wounds in a flash of bright light.

Serena brought the man, whom she will later learned to be named Rhydon Lhue, back to his house per his directions where she then cared for him until he could walk on his own. In return, Rhydon took Serena in and explained the phenomenon the pair had witnessed during their first meeting.

Serena had been blessed with divine magic. Rhydon would know this, for he was a retired adventurer who has met his fair share of clerics and even personally witnessed many's first discovery becoming one. After learning of Serena's story, he took it upon himself to train her regarding her newfound power and so began Serena's life with her new caretaker. As the younger of the pair, she undertook the shopping trips in the nearest town which helped reintegrate her to society and rebuild her social skills. She also helped Rhydon with chores and ended up developing something akin to a father-daughter relationship with him, though Serena had been reluctant and distant regarding labeling it as that, still harboring guilt towards her family.

At some point during her stay, she revealed her original intention to attend an academy that would allow her to become an adventurer and to her surprise, Rhydon revealed to have been an alumnus of that same academy. With his help, her original goal was revived and she once again studied hard for the upcoming entrance exam, though the goals she carried were now far different from before.

This wasn't for freedom anymore. The world was so much bigger than the one she grew up with and had many more experiences to offer. And after seeing a glimpse of exactly that, Serena found that she wanted to see much more. She wanted to grow past the cage she has spent half her life in. To change.

Serena has long since graduated and has been adventuring for a few years now. She stumbled into Altharion... mostly by chance. But hey—an adventure's an adventure!
Background: Custom
Origin Feat: Healer
How You Rolled: https://discord.com/channels/1417076658460033077/1417136305535451137/1514264934765166702