Xanthe Seaflower

<i>‘Finding your eyelids growing a bit heavy, love? Your limbs not responding quite the way they should? That arrow in your shoulder wasn’t just tipped with metal. You should never have threatened me and my friends!’</i> – Xanthe Seaflower * Bright and vivacious, a lover of nature and the sea, Xanthe is a wandering herbalist and healer who also dabbles in art, music, embroidery, and other joyful pursuits. She makes friends wherever she goes and has adventured with numerous different groups of companions. Her enchanting personality has ensured that she has no shortage of admirers and lovers, if she chooses to indulge in passion. For her, intimacy is another form of art and entertainment, part of the rich tapestry of life, essential to appreciate and not to be shied away from as shameful or decadent. Equal in her mind to the arts and pleasures of love are the arts and thrills of combat. Despite her gentle nature and free spirit, Xanthe is no helpless damsel, and wields a powerful enchanted bow along with a variety of arrows that have been coated and infused with her herbal concoctions. Those struck by these arrows suffer from a variety of strange intoxications beside the flesh wound. Those tipped with the juices of passionroot and flame-lilly cause wild surges of emotion and aggression in those struck, while her arrows dosed with languor-tincture numb the senses and dull the mind. She supports her allies with medicines and potions that enhance fighting strength and skill, ultimately preferring to rely on the protection of those she has cultivated rather than solely on her own strength. Many of Xanthe’s herbal remedies and toxins are derived from Mistwood plants, a sign of the times – the Argolades’ integration into the Nyresan Union has opened many new avenues of cross-cultural exchange. She was even permitted to take certain rare plants with her and cultivate them abroad. Superficially a gesture of goodwill, the Sylvan had ulterior motives for this unusual display of openness, hoping that Xanthe would seed the Rhythm-tuned plants in various places that could then become Sylvan outposts, spreading the Rhythm to new frontiers of conquest. The Sylvan think that Xanthe is an unwitting dupe expanding their influence. Xanthe suspected their true aims, however, after hearing of expanding Sylvan presence in areas she had visited. The fact of the matter is that she is unbothered by it – she is carefree and lives in the moment, and has no concern what happens to the plants that she leaves anywhere or carries with her. If the Sylvan plan to follow in her wake and try to grow new patches of Rhythm-infused groves, she considers it to be their business, not hers.