Left on the doorstep of the Runaar Monastery by unknown parents Aera was left with few connections. In the secluded monastery surrounded by monks and religious zealots, Aera learned discipline first before all else. With a noticeable proclivity for hand-to-hand combat, she was trained extensively under Valda Vilulf, the head monk.

Spending nearly all her childhood among adults studying and training Aera developed a focused mind with little room for play or leisure. As she reached adulthood, which happens in a few years for aarakocra, she began to feel a sense of wanderlust. She was mostly comfortable with her lack of connections outside her hilltop home but it had begun to grow unbearable. As a result, Aera set out on her own, mingling with common people and doing small mercenary jobs around the city. Amongst the people of the city that she met was Ikki, an odd painter with a certain charisma that drew Aera to her.

The two of them started as friends, meeting daily to discuss the goings-on of the city, trading information about odd jobs the other could do. Their friendship quickly developed beyond work-related talk into a romantic relationship. Finally feeling connected to something concrete Aera quickly settled down with Ikki, building them a home, moving in, and finding a simple domestic happiness.

As much as Aera longed for a plain life living atop the mountains now that she had carved out a space for herself and Ikki, she needed to make money somehow. So, with the idea of getting more than enough money for a wedding and a long honeymoon, Aera set out for Askr hoping to find more bountiful jobs.

I’m Paley Goldberg and I’m a sophmore at UMICH majoring in neuroscience. I played D&D for a few years in middle school into high school, but then there was a pretty big gap. I was already pretty familiar with the structure, so this was my first time building a character with that knowledge. I tend to be a bit more mechanically focused than character-focused, so my character, Aera, came from the question of what a monk could do with wings. Turns out, it’s a pretty powerful combination, and I’ve really had a great time figuring out all the ways to combine monk abilities with magical items and the aarakocra mechanics. It’s been super fun figuring out how to mix everything in order to create a strategic, powerful combatant (occasionally to the detriment of my DM, whoops).

Contact Paley: paleyg@umich.edu