The Mystery at Trida Academy | Fantasmical 2023

Fantasmical Character 2023

 Name: Alaina Blackforest 

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Ancestry/Ethnicity: Elf. Her parents were both masters of potion-making, and they'd hoped that she'd follow in their footsteps. She does like gardening, and is interested in potions, but she doesn't have quite the skills her parents did.

Physical Attributes: Dark, wavy hair with a hint of purple and bright green eyes. Beautiful for a human, but pretty average for an elf.

Education: Advanced degrees in herbology

Career: Gardener

Personality: Guarded, a bit Insecure

Skills: Knows about plants - which ones make good medicines, which make good potions. But she doesn't always have the ability to successfully utilize this knowledge.

Hobbies: Sewing, Gardening in the spring/summer, Reading by the fire in the winter

Likes: Her pet fox, Working in her garden

Dislikes: Being compared to either of her sisters, Blueberries

Strengths: Can use fire magic

Weaknesses: Has a tendency to burn things down more often than not and she can't swim to save her life.

Fears: Claustrophobic

Special Powers: Fire Magic

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Alaina Blackforest is perfectly ordinary – for an elf.

She was born in the small town of Koh-i-noor on the southeastern side of the Emerald Island. Her parents had been alchemists – both of them skilled in the art of potion-making. They'd met when they were training together, and from everything Alaina has been told, it was love at first sight. They'd gotten married and settled down together. Of course, they'd chosen the lush green hills that overlooked the Sapphire Sea, in a small cottage where they would eventually raise their three daughters.

Alaina's oldest sister, Ellowyn, was the village beauty. And even though their family wasn't wealthy or connected, rumors of her elegance and grace traveled the countryside. No sooner had she come of age than she'd married a prince and moved to the capital to live with him in the Crescent Palace. Then there's her younger sister, Candia. She's gifted in both earth and water magic; she's one of the most talented magic users in over a century. Now, she studies at the Trida Academy, and everyone's sure she'll end up as an advisor to some royal court in a far-off land.

And Alaina? Well, she's nothing like either of her sisters. She can make a simple sleeping potion, sure. But she can't make an invisibility elixir like her father. And her mother's recipes for transfiguration potions? Alaina had tried making one of those once and ended up with a tail for almost a week. Now, the only plants she tends to grow are of the decidedly less-magical variety.

She doesn't have her older sister's charms or allure, and she doesn't have her younger sister's gift with magic. She's got fire magic, sure. And while it's the rarest of the elemental magics, it's also the most volatile. She's more likely to burn the house down than to light the hearth fire. And though she might be exceedingly beautiful by human standards, as an elf she's really quite plain. But none of that bothers Alaina – she's perfectly fine, even with unreliable magic and somewhat homely looks.

That's why she tends to isolate herself. It isn't that the townsfolk look down on her – as everyone always tells her, she's perfectly ordinary. And that's an altogether fine thing to be. But with a family like hers, everyone always seems to expect so much more than ordinary. The only person who doesn't seem to quietly judge her shortcomings is her best friend Dahlia. And so, Alaina prefers to live in the small cottage her parents left her, along with her loyal, if somewhat yippy fox, Cinna, tending her garden and selling the biggest, sweetest strawberries that Koh-i-noor has ever seen. But when her younger sister sends a cryptic word that something's wrong at the Trida Academy, Alaina must abandon her solitary, peaceful life to save her sister.