[NOBLES] Celiquillithon Sidebottom Backstory

New Greenwich was never a big town, but in the brief period that there was thriving trade between Meritocrat-ruled lands and the Americas it was rich and it was happy. In a region rich in magic and dangerous megafauna, the town was an unusual permanent settlement next to a natural harbour, functioning as a key trading centre.

Because it couldn’t move away from the enormous creatures and waves of wild magic that passed through the area, New Greenwich required expensive defences; walls and magical wards that insulated the town. But being one of very few places trading vessels could dock, they were easily afforded.

Cel is the only child of an American elven mother Aerilena, and an English father; Tod Sidebottom. While elves, humans, orcs, goblins, halflings and others live alongside one another across the Americas, and elves more common there than they are in Eurasia, half-elven children are still relatively uncommon; elves have few children and other species’ shorter lifespans simply mean lower odds of a child; Tod was in his fifties when Cel was born.

Obsessed from an early age with making, fixing, mixing and exploding things, Cel sometimes struggled with understanding people’s expectations; their relationship to their mother, who shared none of Cel’s interests, was strained, and Cel learned relatively little about Aerilena’s culture and that of other native communities, which remains a painful regret.

It was not an enormous surprise to Cel’s family when they began to question and resist gender expectations. By their mid-teens Cel removed the gendered suffix of their first name and went by Celiquillithon, or more often just Cel, and soon informed family and friends that they used gender-neutral pronouns.

Around this time political tensions meant that Meritocratic investment in New Greenwich dried up and defences began to decay. Aerilena left to return to the settlements of her own people, but Tod, who was getting frail, couldn’t face the change, and stayed.

Cel’s human fiancée, Haley, was Mayor of the remaining citizens, and together they attempted to defend the town from encroaching megafauna. The townspeople argued fiercely with one another whether to stay or sail to a safer settlement. Cel insisted they could use their alchemist skills to defend the town. Debates raged on while megafauna assaulted town defences.

Cel doesn’t remember the last night. Except flashes… Mixing potions to take on a larger, stronger shape, being in an unrecognisable monstrous form wrestling huge beasts, were they shot by a crossbow from the deck of the ship? Did they see Haley on the ship’s deck looking back? The ship left without them.

Cel woke to a missing ear, dead monsters and dead townspeople and blood on their claws. They buried their father and began to trek southwest, deeper inland; away from anyone who might find and recognise them. During years as a travelling alchemist mercenary, they found that sometimes stress or anger could cause an uncontrolled mutation.

In a fishing town on the east coast they met an orc water druid and his two sons who traded across the islands of the Pacific. Yuko and Cel found an instant connection. He and Cel worked together to understand and control the mutations - turning the raw power into a proper feral mutagen. Cel followed Yuko across the ocean to Japan where they married. They lived and worked together for ten years until Yuko died peacefully of old age. His sons Eiko and Ena took up his trading business. They may be away from Japan for years at a time, but when possible they stay in touch.

After Yuko died, Cel moved to a small town in an area known for great alchemy, with a population of mostly gnomes and took on Jasper as an apprentice. Cel lost track a while ago, but thinks they are about 90. They thought it was about time for a quiet, settled life… until the raids and storms started.