Books:Annaïg Hoïnart
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Race | Breton |
Gender | Female |
Born | 4E 23 |
Featured in | The Infernal City Lord of Souls |
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Annaïg Hoïnart (a.k.a. Thistle or Nn), a pale seventeen-year-old Breton girl with dark curls and gray-green eyes, lived in her father Taig’s villa in the hills of the old Imperial quarter of Lilmoth, Black Marsh, four decades after the Oblivion Crisis. Her mother passed away, and her father’s estate was looted when the An-Xileel Argonian political party defeated the Imperials and took over Lilmoth. Mere-Glim (or “Glim”), an Argonian, was her friend and partner-in-adventure.
She was somewhat of an alchemist, though her potions were often being tested on herself or Glim, sometimes with less than desirable results. During a normal evening of talking and drinking her father's wine after an adventure, Glim told her about the stories his sailor cousin told, of a large island floating in the air with a city atop it (Umbriel), heading toward Lilmoth.
While speaking with her father about Umbriel, he accidentally suggested that the city tree might not be as connected to the Hist as others. He told her that he was sending her to Leyawiin, and though she didn't argue she decided to go see Umbriel. She sent Glim to see what the Psijic priest Urvwen had to say about the matter, while she went to Hecua to fine-tune her potions. There, she took an ingredient she believed to be the key to her flying potion, which Hecua said came from a man who found it in Oblivion.
At her home, doing virtue tests on the unknown ingredient, she realized Glim had been gone an unusually long time. She called on Coo, a magical metal bird given to her by her mother, through whom she could communicate with others using a magical locket. She sent to bird to find Glim, and then met with her father who wanted to speak with her about her trip to Leyawiin. When she resisted being immediately taken to Leyawiin, an Orc who said who owed her father took her forcefully to a ship with an old Argonian captain. Through Coo, she spoke with Glim, who rescued her from the boat. After their escape, they witnessed Umbriel moving toward the city. Glim was transfixed by it, and seemed to be unable to stop himself from moving toward the ground underneath it. She used her flying potion on them both and tried to pull him away from it, but couldn’t, so compromised by pulling them toward the mass itself, into the deepest crevice she could see.
On Umbriel, they watched below as Umbriel’s forces battled with and killed Lilmoth residents, and then as the dead were resurrected. Annaïg sent Coo to Prince Attrebus Mede, to inform him of the horrors they’d witnessed. Annaïg and Glim were captured by the kitchen staff that served the lords and ladies of this world, and Annaïg was especially valued for her knowledge of the flora and fauna of her world, which they were using in dishes. When she spoke with the Prince through Coo, she told him of what she’d witnessed so far.
Annaïg was terrorized by master chef Qijne, and was tutored by another chef, Slyr, until a higher kitchen invaded, trying to capture her to work in their kitchen. The rest of the kitchen was slain, and she and Slyr were captured by the opposing chef, Toel. Annaïg lost her locket in the battle but also obtained the invisible blade of Qijne, which wrapped itself around her arm. She met Toel in a beautiful outdoor area of Umbriel. Toel asked her about the place she came from, and revealed to her that the sump, part of Umbriel, in a way recycled the people of Umbriel; it’s where they were born from, and where they would go when they die.
Later, Annaïg received a bucket of ingredients from a skraw (those that work the sump). In the bucket she found her locket, and inside it a message from Glim. She responded to Glim’s note in a similar manner and they decided to meet the following midnight, at the dock. When she met Glim at the docks, they consumed flying potions Annaïg had made, and begin to fly away from Umbriel, only to find that they had become like the other residents of the city; if they traveled too far from Umbriel, they began to lose their substance. Determined, Annaïg swore to Glim that they would figure out a way to leave Umbriel.