Alauoti

- one of ives/cosette's first litter, born on the northern shore of the wood
- sent away on a wardship to a healing temple in the wood - was unable to achieve something better at the time due to virulent's relative unknowness (svarukti was really only picked up as a queen's handmaiden as a curiousity at the time and only advanced due to virulent's unexpected success, and stoja's wardship obviously failed due to her kidnapping)

- learned a basic medicine education at the healing temple, specializing more in recovery and long-term issue treatment then actual surgery or medicine brewing
- so alauoti wasn't intended to continue working at the temple
- her role was to travel to clan to clan, give advice and treatment where she could, and recommend sending any (rich) dragons back to the temple for further treatment
- they were a political faction, and it was a method to gather rumors (which were worth their weight in gold)
- she wasn't really into that bit though. genuinely does like helping people, and purposefully lingered in less-dramaful clans

- eventually, at one clan, she met mylirdele, the heir of the heir
- they befriended each other over the course of a month and since she was rubbing a lot of elbows in her travels, his grandmother agreed to let him travel with her



- the shadowlands were, even before the war, super sparsely populated. even the mostly uninhabited labyrinth had more people out on their shield islands for agriculture
- the shadowbinder kept a court in the forum, which holds representives from a lot of families and trading companies
- travel in the wood doesn't work like 'walk from point a to point b' the shadowbinder decides where you go
- you can walk into the wood and IMMEDIATELY walk out on the other side of the flight if she wanted to let you
- so the few shadow clans that function are highly dedicated towards pleasing the fickle deity if they want any semblence of trade
- and if they are on good relations with the shadowbinder, trade and travel is easy
- this all immediately broke down during the war since (a) the wood burnt down due to the gladekeeper/her magic trees on the western border catching on fire (b) the windsinger spreading the fire through the all the wood and (c) the shadowbinder being distracted/severely injured by the plaguebringer



- she was born on the northern shore of the wood, and traveled with the clan to the caverns before being sent away as an adult
- has some identity issues with fitting in the clan - having spent long enough in the wood speaking only the shadow-tongue that she had to relearn how to speak virulent's dialect
- lived in the shadowcourt's circles as a confidant and caretaker to a lot of noblefolk, but that lifestyle was more 'surrounded by intrigue and backstabbing' so she's really guarded and doesn't open up much past her customer service veneer - none of the holyhealers can get past it to actually know her
- refuses to engage in politics - which was why she and mylirdele married (to protect each other from unwanted arranged marriages) - and she doesn't mesh in with the virulentian nobles

- she's honestly pretty lonely