APPEARANCE
Full reference

Breed: sturdy, hairy - Gypsy Vanner breed / Arborun (tree) Lignea
Eyes: green
Coat: silver black, moss growing around flanks and withers
Markings: green swirls like vines around her eyes
Mane: flaxen with green frosting on top and willow vines mixed in
Tail: flaxen with green frosting on top and willow vines mixed in
Hooves: normal, albeit large
Plant: weeping willow - changes with the seasons
Other: ermine companion usually in tree somewhere

PERSONALITY
Willow is a very patient and placid mare that has a knack for healing. She's well versed on a variety of plants, particularly herbs, and hopes her increasing studies will eventually grant her the ability to magically heal others.

She is very scholarly by nature, willing to learn all she can about the lands she travels to so she may better understand the working world outside her very sheltered home, Prim'sylvia - eventually she will take all she's known back to her homeland and hopefully inspire new thought in them, for she sees that understanding and change are the natural progression of the world and one cannot simply block out life to sufficiently survive.

Although generally kind and well mannered, there is a passion which can drive Willow to be very brave and bold, often causing her to act out of turn if she feels it justified by her notion of maintaining peace and balance. She is firmly against fighting and selfish causes and hopes to teach the new generations and even the old, towards a greater future where everyone helps each other.

She is a religious sort, believing in the two gods of her homeland, the Animal God [Corocottas] and the Plant God [Nepenthes]. She thinks them the maker of the whole world and the true holders of knowledge, life, and death. She understand that each is powerful but neither more so than the other, and that living and dying are the natural cycle. Life hangs in a balance, and she and her kind serve as one of many ways to maintain the order of the world.

She will connect strongly to Helovia's God of the Earth, as she understands different cultures believe in different things and to truly understand them must immerse herself in their ways entirely. She's also found that gods may be distant if there is no belief in them, or that they choose to appear in all sorts of manner. For her, the Gods of Helovia are still her two gods, but designed by the minds of Helovians and thusly they appear as such to this plane of existence.

HISTORY
.PRIM'SYLVIA.
-- Sprouted in Prim'sylvia under an autumn moon, with her soul plant taking root in a distant grove on a far away continent.
-- Grew as normal, doing well in her studies and making friends easily. She always leaned towards an herbal side of her studies, which at times earned her disfavor among the Herbanus lignea. She'd always had a strong affection for mending and healing.
-- Started to become very political and active following the end of her youth. Her kind, gentle nature was fed by an inner passion to attain tranquility and peace. This often left her butting branches with her peers and certainly the elders, once they began to notice her. Many ignored her though, due to her youth.
-- Eventually she made it onto the guardian squadron, a common place for arborun, which allowed her to patrol the grounds of Prim'sylvia and maintain protocol and balance within her home. She often found injustice and terrorism however, which didn't suit her and got her into trouble if she voiced it.
-- Learning how to keep silent, she let her eyes take everything in and finally, scouring enough evidence, approached the elders by sneaking in on a political meeting. Rather than heed her evidence they were outraged by her audacity and claims and put her to trial. She escaped with little consequence due to her youth.
-- Finding her homeland cowardly and blind to the truth she left it, deciding the true world must be explored if she was ever to understand and to help restore balance.
-- She's been traveling through foreign lands ever since.

.HELOVIA.
-- |grow| ~~ Arrives in Helovia's Threshold, Orangemoon year 1 (age 23). Greeted by and follows Poppy, who becomes a good friend of hers.
-- Glory ~~ Follows Poppy to the Windtossed Foothills, settling in during a herd meeting led by Paladin. Asks for, and receives the Storyteller rank.
-- EQUINE :: Cross Country Race, Round ONE ~~ Competes in the Equine Cross Country Race with Poppy.
-- EQUINE :: Cross Country Race, Round TWO ~~ Competes in the Equine Cross Country Race with Poppy.
-- EQUINE :: Cross Country Race, Round THREE ~~ Competes in the Equine Cross Country Race with Poppy. Wins!!
-- How soon is now? ~~ Chats with Riccardio in the waterfalls of the Foothills.
-- take a breath ~~ Helps herbally heal Evangeline and Validino's premature foals in the Foothills.
-- |learn| ~~ Seasonals summons of the Earth God at the Foothills pool for the Storyteller. Query joins. Asks the Earth God about himself.
-- It's beautiful... ~~ Meets Virva in the Deep Forest while collecting herbs.
-- |frost| ~~ Returns to Helovia after a disppearence where she hid during winter. Meets Cyrus, rejoins the Foothills.
-- If it's not with you ~~ Herbally heals Jackal in the Foothills, the new leader via challenge who summoned a herd meeting. Takes up healer rank, her dream job.
-- what wound did ever heal but by degrees ~~ Meets with Jackal in the Foothills. Wants to convene with the healers of the other herds, but asks for information about the other herds and their relationships first.
-- |reach| ~~ Goes to the Veins of the Gods to pray to the Earth God for wisdom. She's worried about her lack of magic, so he grants her a quest. Quest is for her magical ability: (Earth .. Able to move tendrils on body, serving as hands or fingers might, or even as a bind when used all together). She must find three specific plants, and bring them back to the Earth God (Within the waters grasses stir, and yet they are called a weed. Close to Heaven a yellow-weed grows, releasing its many seeds. And finally you must seek to find, within the woods, a vine to bind. These three plants, you must bring to me.).
-- Unknown history is doomed to repeat ~~ Speaks with Paladin, the new Foothills storyteller, and asks him to tell a story about his homelands.
-- |summer| ~~ Convenes with Dragon's Throat healers Onni & Cirrus, along with her apprentice Nadira. Xylia also arrives.
-- |autumn| ~~ Convenes with World's Edge healers Torasin & Smoke, along with her apprentice Nadira.
-- |winter| ~~ Convenes with Aurora Basin healer d'Artagnan, along with her apprentice Nadira. Argetlam and Aaron serve as protection. Arah and Mauja also approach. It is hostile.
-- We are The Grey ~~ Taken captive by Phaedra of The Grey on her return home. Aaron and Argetlam attempt to rescue her. Phaedra, Ophelia, Apollo, Archibald, Ktulu, and Peixos discuss plans to invade the Foothills, the reason of their holding her prisoner.
-- |wither| ~~ The Grey invades the Foothills and wins. As promised they released her, and their other captives, in the morning, so although Willow does not see the invasion, she feels her healing magic leave her body. Depressed and upset she leaves Helovia in what she thinks is for good.

LINEAGE
Dam - Weeping Willow [bay tobiano - green markings]
Sire - Weeping Willow [silver black - bronze markings]

Siblings - None to take notice, but there are many full, many half, and many cousins.

COMPANION
ERMINE: 12+ months .. normal companion

An ermine (like a weasel) that bonded to her in the equivalent of Frostfall (winter) year 1. She found him on her travels when he was starving and injured. She took him in an sheltered him under her tree and fed him nutrients she could find.

Ermine has a mischievous attitude and can often be found playing tricks or thieving from others, especially food as he seems to have a bottomless stomach. He's a tough little critter that doesn't often back down from fights he should, which is likely a point of pride in him. He's helpful to Willow but is suspicious and generally rude towards others. Ermine spends a lot of time in Willow's tree but leaves to forest for small rodents, insects and plants as a diet source - he never eats anything from her body. In the summer season Ermine is a tawny and white shade with the lighter color being his underside, but he shifts to all white during winter, save for the dark points around his eyes, snout and tail tip.

MAGIC
Earth .. Able to move tendrils on body, serving as hands or fingers might, or even as a bind when used all together. [Upgrade: + Light .. tendrils can begin to glow and create a healing effect on those who are touched, curing minor ails and injuries.] QUESTING

Wishes for healing based magic as well.