Meraste Eveningfall
a name in Elvish, meaning small or little (in appearance and/or personality).
It's already hard to pin down any personality for an eladrin, a race that changes both appearance and demeanor with the seasons... but it's even harder for Meraste, whose seasonal forms have split into four different facets. Each of them has different opinions, different hobbies, different memories... different everything.
Some things remain consistent, however. For one, they're intensely loyal towards their friends, willing to die to help them out. They also have an ethereal (or just strange) aura about them and the way they act, likely from their extended vacation to the Feywild. They never seem like they belong anywhere - a true oddity. Their emotions usually get the better of them as well, and between the different intense waves, they don't have room to breathe.
Speaking of her emotions, it's important to note her lack of healthy coping mechanisms. In particular, she spends a lot of time glorifying the pain and abuse she went through for over a century - she took it all on so nobody else in her life would have to, she sacrificed it all so her loved ones could be happy. She doesn't realize there's a world beyond her pain.
Backstory
Meraste Liadi was born to Vathaea, the Chieftess of her village, and Hazion, a relatively regular father. She was expected to take after her mother and become the next Chieftess when she turned 250, but her dreams laid far outside of those expectations. She was a rowdy, 'masculine' child who only wanted a simple life. Unfortunately, this is not the life she would get, and several of the people around her chastised her for often going against the village's traditions and asking too many questions.
Despite the criticism, Meraste remained the way they were, even throughout their blooming love life as an adolescent and adult. Their first girlfriend (if you could call her that) was the Lady in White, a month-long fling with a human noblewoman who they only remember for her white dress. Despite the brevity, she stayed in Meraste's mind long after her departure, with Meraste wanting nothing more than to have another relationship that felt as idyllic as theirs.
Then, there was Lavender - the tiefling fellow they had a four-year relationship with who taught them self-regulation and control. Lavender had come to her village to study the fey magic within them, but a relationship blossomed out of pure impulse, making it as passionate as it was rocky. Even after they broke up, they remained bitter penpals for a long while. Then, finally...
Qiviryn. A fellow eladrin from her village and her childhood best friend. They were together for 37 years and married for 15 of those - and these years were rocky, in large part due to Qiviryn charming Meraste to make her more "socially acceptable". Meraste's assumption is that Qiviryn did this to both fix her and gain political power, but there might be more going on that she doesn't know about...
Either way, when Meraste confronted her about the charming, their marriage went even more downhill than it already was. The two divorced, and Vathaea & Qiviryn conspired to frame her for an array of serious crimes. After all, if Meraste couldn't be fixed... why not take her place?
This framing worked, and Meraste got banished to the Feywild, the go-to prison for this sort of crime. Their punishment? To be devoured by one Archfey in particular. Boasnia, the Archduke of Blood and Suffering. However, this backfired, because Boasnia saw itself in the young eladrin and adopted them instead, inviting them into its domain.
They trained underneath its tutelage for 8 years, and during this time, the extreme differences in reality between the Terran / Material Plane and the Feywild started to catch up to them. Boasnia noticed this, and it knew it had to return them to their home plane before they got stuck in the Feywild forever.
It led her back to the Terran, promising to visit her in their dreams but insisting she has to return. Despite her love for her adoptive parent, she left with grace. She's been back in Drake for about a year with the new alias of Meraste Eveningfall, and was reacclimating into mortal life by working at a tavern to make a living for herself.
However, she's now been called on a mission like none before (to "fuck shit up" for the Gods), and is currently doing her best to bond with her party. In particular, she's befriended Solaeris, the human wizard with a history as a soldier, and she's been doing her best to socialize with Feirin (hobgoblin ranger) and Erebus (half-elf sorcerer) as well.
Currently, their most recent backstory update is a prophetic dream they received while camping. They saw a terrified Qiviryn, chained by the neck, and she looked right at them before vanishing. The rest of their party had similarly haunting dreams on that same night. As much as Meraste insists it was a flashback, they know better... but what does that dream mean for their future - and their past?