Compendium: Nyrva Dragonwood

Compendium: Cast of Characters

Nyrva Dragonwood

Brief Bio Data:

• Name Nyrva Mariah Dragonwood
• Gender Female
• Sexual Orientation Heterosexual, strict
  
• Race Elf
• Height 60 inches tall
• Weight 135lbs
• Birthplace Riverwood, Oslaania
• Tribe Dragon Wood Elves
• Clan Wood Elves of Oslaania
  
• Date of Birth 3rd Day, 7th Month (called “Targus”) 1735A.O.M. (Age of Messiah)
• Age 124 Yarr. This is roughly 124 earth years old. But she is the physical, emotional, and mental age equivalent of a 25 to 29 year old human female as elves age about one human year for every 5 Earth years.
• Occupation Innkeeper’s Cook, Barmaid
• Religion Messianich Protestant
• Social Disposition Socially conservative, traditional girl.

Basic Background Sketch

Nyrva Dragonwood was born into a critical and dangerous time in her country’s history. Oslaania is a nation of Elves and Felinians (a race of people with cat-like ears and tails, but very human-like otherwise) in addition to humans. She was born roughly two Centyarr (200 Yarr – the equivalent of two Earth centuries) after the Reformation of Aegis that brought Religious and Political Freedom to her land. Her people have a general belief in the Great Messiah (“Christ”, the “Son of God” in their world) who came to their world 17 Centyarr before her time and was killed on a wooden stake by his own people before His ressurection as prophesied. After the fall of the Rahm Empire the Church took power. But it’s Patriarchal leaders oppressed the people for many centuries. Nyrva’s ancestors rose up after receiving news of a Great Reformation arising in a neighboring country. The power of the Church was threatened and the Oslaanians revolted, overthrowing the power of the nation who controlled them at the time called Archania. The Archanians are staunchly loyal to the Church, swiftly destroying anyone who stood in the way of the Church’s or their power. Because of the revolt sparked by the Dragon Wood Elves (aka “Dragonwood”) the Archanians decreed that all members of this Elf clan and tribe must be destroyed at all costs. None were ever intended to survive.

(In case you were wondering, yes, I have based this somewhat on elements of real human history in a parallel fantasy story setting. Melchizarius 20:45, 18 April 2011 (PDT))

Hidden by her parents and sent to a distant land to friends of her father for over 25 Yarr, Nyrva survived. She also grew up largely without any knowledge of other members of her family- as the survivors of the Dragon Wood Elf Clan (“Dragonwood” in their earlier Elvin toungue) were well scattered throughout the land. The Dragonwood Elves were one of 7 Elf Clans that belong to the Wood Elves of Oslaania- which the Archanians wish to completely eradicate and destroy via genocide. Nyrva only knew of her father and mother, but not of any siblings, and she barely remembered anyone else from her clan. After the rise of the Efrin Revolution (equivalent to the French Revolation) that crippled the Church, and with the newfound freedom of the Oslaanians to govern themselves freely, both religiously and politically, Nyrva returned to her country vowing to find any surviving members of her Clan and her family and reunite with them. But by this time, many of the Wood Elves of Oslannaia, especially the Dragonwood Elves, have already been destroyed — Men, women and children alike have all fallen at the hands of Archanian butchers.

Nyrva’s desire to reunite and restore what’s left of her family and her people will be a difficult task. And she has enemies. Unfortunately for her the Archanians have discovered her existence and have spared no cost or expense trying to exterminate her. In spite of their efforts she survives. The story involves her struggle to survive and to find her family and clan and escape with them, if at all possible. But since the Archanians also have word of other Dragon Wood Elves in Oslaania, they will be relentless until every single Dragon Wood Elf is destroyed. They have managed to completely wipe out two smaller Woof Elf Clans — the Darkwood and Greenwood elves are said to fully extinct. Little is known about how many of the Dragonwood elves are still in existence. Nyrva’s quest is far from hopeless though- she has learned of a young sister born to her parents secretly and hidden away as she was. And rumours abound of members of her family still being in existence. Will she find them and be reunited with them? Or die trying?

Origins of the Character

by Melchizarius 21:32, 18 April 2011 (PDT) – This is derived from previous writings I have written for this character.

Nyrva Dragonwood is a fictional female wood elf character I created in 1997. She was originally a character in a fan fiction I was writing at the time and has since undergone a few last name changes. However her first name “Nyrva” was always a constant. And she was originally written as half-breed (half human, half elf). I continued to develop the character and as such I liked the character well enough that I took her from the fan fiction and decided to put her into her own fictional universe. It became a question of what her surroundings should be, also who the other characters and people who surrounded her should be. Obviously a backstory for the fictional universe she was to become a part of needed to be developed.

This was also at a time when my longtime interest in Japanese Animation was resparked by the availability of some new cool anime at the time. (I grew up with “giant robots” as the central concepts in most anime) The new anime at the time was not shy about having female lead characters in an action-filled adventure and so I adapted that idea for my own work. I decided to make Nyrva the lead character as opposed to the typical role of being a supporting character behind a male lead. I figured there could still be enough action and intrigue to make the story interesting.

I spent several years developing the backstory. But because I have rewritten my fiction story several times, the backstory itself is currently getting a major overhaul. This process will redefine Nyrva’s entire background and the world she comes from – instead of my original idea of making an “alternate universe” of Earth with people like Nyrva in existence, I am making her world a whole other world with a history that in many ways parallels real human history in our own world. But with the creation of a whole new world for Nyrva and her fellow characters of course it gives me full license to do whatever I please. My original idea kept me paying close attention so that the events of Nyrva’s people would not affect the flow of real history. (Hard to explain, even harder to write that way!) So I am creating a whole new backstory with many parallels to real human events in our own world. Her world has its own Moses. it’s own Christ, it’s own “Napoleon” (for that matter) and many other parallels of events in our real world. Once I have things as I like them I am hoping the next rewrite will be more of what I want the story to be.

Nyrva Dragonwood reading the Oslaanian Scriptures revealing God while laying on a large rock – she finds herself surrounded by Unicorns.

Artwork

by Jade Dragon 22:23, 18 April 2011 (PDT)

About the same time the development of my fiction was underway, I had also rediscovered my love of drawing and cartooning. And while my skills at the time were rather shoddy at best I have spent well over a decade working on development. But because I work full time I could not spend more than a few hours a week on this new hobby- and to this day this has not changed. So I do the best I can with the time I have available. But as a result of my growing and changing drawing skills, Nyrva’s appearance has also changed. Even some of her defining characteristics, particularly with respect to hairstyle. She used to have a dome headed long hairdo with hair down to her knees in the back. I grew weary of the difficulty with drawing that so a couple years ago I made the hair go down to her butt instead. I also added spikier sideburn hair and a couple of hairs that managed to stick out the top of her head like two bug antennas. I have also adapted and changed a few of the other surrounding characters in the same manner. And changes have come also as I have sought to refine my technique. And since I am largely self-taught, and given my time constraints, it has been, needless to say, a slow process.

In spite of other galleries I may have on the web, Oslaania.Net is the OFFICIAL website page for this character! All other information can be quickly dismissed. This page contains artwork and all information currently available about the character.

Added 9-October-2011 by Jade Dragon:

Aside from these dangerous encounters of Nyrva’s – much of her story surrounds her search for any surviving members of her family and her lost elf tribe. Will she ever find the surviving Dragon Wood elves? Or like her lost tribe will she become yet another extinct member?

June 28, 2012 | Categories: Almaya, Anime-style Art, Character Discussion, Female Wood Elf, Forest, Jade Dragon Original Art and Fiction, Manga-style Art, Melchizarius, Nyrva Dragonwood, Shadowmere, She-elf, Unicorn, Wood Elf, Wood Elves, Woods, Xelizarios' Original Art and Fiction | Tags: anime, arrival at riverbane, black unicorn, blue eyes, brunette, character discussion, compendium, dimension zero, dimensional guardian, dragonwood tribe, elf tunic, embraced. captured, fantasy, female elf, female wood elf, forest, green tunic, jade dragon, jadedragon, jadedragon72, manga, melchizarius, metagil, myriah, nyrva dragonwood, nyrva vs shadowmere, nyrva.org, oslaania.net, poster girl, Shadowmere, she-elf, site mascot, stallion, trees, tunic, valley of the unicorns, white unicorn, wood elf, wood elf female, woods, xelizarios | Leave A Comment »