Mini Monday: Rayla Bardon, Druid Queen Of Spores
“Tread lightly while you traverse my grove, or your corpse shall be composted to feed my children.”
Backstory Of The Mortal Sovereign, Queen Of Spores, And Witch Of The Wood
Upon the day of her birth, Rayla's father gifted her the sweet mercy of death. A half-elf, and a woman, she would be a pariah amongst the patriarchial elven society of her hometown, and therefore her death made things less complicated for her father. Rayla's mother, who had hidden her pregnancy for its duration, was a slave of the noble house of her father and murdered alongside the baby, the birth having been witnessed by a servant loyal to the lord. With a quick knife between the ribs, the pair were unceremoniously dumped on the edge of the wood that hemmed in her lord father's land. However, that would not be where the infant Rayla's story would end.
Muricia, a sentient spore creature known as a Myconid Sovereign, found the dead pair and took pity on them both. In an act of blasphemy, Muricia used her considerable druidic powers to raise Rayla from death and attempted the same for her mother. Yet, the woman's soul was mature and unwilling to return to the land of the living. Thus, Rayla was reborn, abandoned by her parents, and her body infested with spores that drove the corpse to life. Muricia then adopted the baby Rayla, taking her under her wing and raising the child as she could not have her own. Rayla grew up amidst mushroom-like telepathic humanoids that were an extension of Muricia's consciousness and learned the druidic arts from her surrogate mother.
Soon, by Myconid standards, Rayla mastered the magics of life, death, earth, and storm, quickly surpassing Muricia in her powers. Yet, at age twenty, she lacked the wisdom to wield it and inadvertently called down a supernatural plague on her home wood. Desperate to save those who had adopted her into their society, she joined an adventuring group, spreading her spores throughout the land in search of a cure for the blight that slowly and methodically took the lives of every fungal body in the forest.
There she met her best friend and lover, Arkhan, a paladin of nature and hero of the ancients. Together they researched and uncovered ancient magic to reverse the blight. Yet, as is characteristic of powerful magics that reshape nature, there was a catch. The pair could cure the forest but only with the sacrifice of Arkhan's body.
Grieving the loss of her lover and witnessing her father's men burning the weakened forest, Rayla unleashed her full power, wiping out her father's lands in a storm and flood of awakened plant life. Then, she bound the spirit of Arkhan to a reanimated dire wolf and took Muricia's place as the Spore Queen, ruling over her wood and taking her place as the rightful heir to the lands of a family which rejected her on principle.
Roleplay:
Rayla is an archdruid in control of a small army of Myconids and awakened trees, and while she allows travelers to settle on her lands, she does not suffer any who seek to harm the woods of her home. She has created a small enclave of other spore druids that follow her as their mentor, and she commands respect from any who tread too close to her grove lands. She is reserved and comes off as emotionless, primarily due to her consciousness being spread amongst every plant in her domain. However, her rage is legendary, as any slight against her or her kin will often incite Rayla to call upon her potent connection to the lands to devastate those who dare insult the spore queen.
She should be played as aloof and can even be an ally to adventuring parties, so long as they accept the rule of the forest and live in harmony with her lands. Otherwise, she does not suffer intruders and will send her hordes of plant monsters after anyone who breaks her rule of law. She will often not communicate with words, preferring to speak telepathically to anyone who has inhaled the spores which permeate the wood like a living fog.
