AINE

Race: The People
Etymology: Celtic for “queen
of fairies / radiance”
Age: Unknown
Occupation: Priestess
(daughter of Dagda)

Aine, daughter of Dagda, is as much a mystery as is her mother. Records of her birth are shrouded with as many conflicting stories as are opinions on the one who fathered her. Dagda was not known to have taken a husband, or even seek the comforts of man. Some have even speculated she was adopted by the elder Seer. A practicing Master under her mother’s tutelage, she has cultivated a lesser, if rapidly growing, prophetic eye. Much of her time is spent in meditation. She is a healer and nurse following any major conflict The People engage in.

Aine possesses a disarming way about her making it nearly impossible to stay tense in her company. This is in stark contrast to Dagda’s presence, which is assertive to the point of chilling. Aine claims her “bedside manner,” as I call it, is due to her seeking of The One. In so doing, her spirit is nearly a palpable force bringing with it an unusual sense of calm and wellbeing. To discount her matriarch’s hand in this gentle influence is folly. Dagda recognized Aine’s healing skills early and sought to nurture them with her own vast knowledge of the arts. Aine, in turn, would teach them to Noviates whenever possible. The alchemy of medicinals, insofar as more complex herbal remedies are known here, is the second duty of the Green Clan. Battle readiness is first, as it is with all Clans.

Aine is known to meet with any who genuinely seek to learn the healing arts. I have to admit a level of doubt as to her chemical efficacy being anything other than…supernatural. She has plucked the seemingly mortally wounded from death’s embrace with curious regularity, though she cannot raise the dead. Her expansive knowledge of plant extracts have nevertheless provided the means to overcome ailments of all sorts, as well as avoiding poisoning to begin with.

The Conglomerate BioMED would be greatly enhanced by the variety of phytochemicals of this world. Synthetics and nanotechs are wonderful, but there is something to be said for the holistic approach. I’d all but forgotten that food…real food…is mankind’s first medicine cabinet. Not some nutrition pill from Infinius Pharmaco.

Truth to tell, I’d forgotten what food even tasted like until my synthetics were destroyed shortly after our arrival. It was like tasting everything…anything…for the very first time… No. That’s not right. It was the first time I tasted real food…not some distillate, capsule or artificially produced analog meant to give a false sensation. While I had no idea what it was I was eating half the time, I enjoyed every morsel, even when it tasted…actually tasted…bad.