#i hope having yikes backstory posted will make the timeline easier to understand if i ever get around to all the short stories i wanna writ

[hellscribbles]

Yikes' Backstory.

I decided I'm just gonna throw Yikes' backstory on here!! It's not quality writing by any standpoint since I'm very Get To The Point when I write backstories, but I figured its good to have it here for people interested!!

Yikes' backstory is set in a homebrew world, so feel free ask me or @controlledchaosetc questions!

LONG post below (If you're a player in the game I don't really care if you read, but spoilers below I suppose)

Wallowale

The Changeling, known later as Yikes, was born November 6th, 1461 to an Eladrin named Maylynn Nailo on the tiny island of Wallowale. 

The island of Wallowale was plagued by all manner of Fey creatures, some merely harmless pranksters, but others terrorized the town. Sowing mistrust between the human islander's and their Fey visitors from the very beginning.

Yikes and their mother lived on the outskirts of town on a quiet sheep farm. The land surrounding their home was dotted with Sylvan ruins from long ago, these ruins were believed to be an opening to the feywild and the cause of the towns strife. The townsfolk made many attempts to destroy the ruins and the portal they supposedly held. Yikes knows the portal was actually in their mother's water well.

Despite being a feywild elf, Maylynns healing abilities were far too valuable to the small isolated village. For Yikes early childhood, Maylynn was liked by the humans. Her charming music and gentle magic endeared her to the village. While valued by the community, Maylynn was never quite trusted.

From their earliest memories, Yikes knows their mother worked tirelessly to hide their identity, disguising them until they were old enough to master their shapeshifting. The skin Yikes used in Wallowale would later become Quinn. The skin was made to look like Maylynn’s daughter, so it shares a lot of Yikes’ actual features, therefore it was an easy skin for them to wear as a child.

Maylynn was an extremely superstitious person, she taught Yikes many routines and habits to protect them from a Fey’s ire. Yikes still practices these routines to this day, despite not quite understanding why. The most extreme manifestation of Maylynn’s paranoia was her insistence on Yikes not having a name, only calling them constantly changing nicknames or “Changeling��. She told Yikes it was to protect them from someone stealing their name. 

As Yikes aged, they became lonely. Longing to know and understand the world outside the island, as well as whatever strange land lay beyond the portal they lived so close to. Though by the time Yikes was old enough to realize these desires, the suspicion of Maylynn had risen beyond her usefulness as a healer. 

The Fey charming magic Maylynn was so practiced in had begun to be noticed by the townsfolk. People's opinions of her often shifted wildly, from adoring and singing her praises to despising her, sometimes all within the same hour. All manner of rumor had begun to spread about Maylynn by the time Yikes was 10. The most common beliefs spoke of her as a Nighthag, or a siren.

With every attack by the Fey, Maylynn’s name was sullied further. It didn’t take long for this to grow into a conspiracy that Maylynn was the source of evil and strife for the island. The fact none of the passing Fey ever harmed Maylynn, Yikes or their farm only served to solidify the growing suspicion of them.

Despite the growing unrest, by 1474 Yikes had begun spending more time with the village children, loneliness driving them to seek companionship amongst the humans. One of those humans being the cleric's daughter. After gaining trust with the local children over the course of a few months, Yikes freely revealed themselves to be a changeling despite their mothers warnings. The small group of children surprisingly took Yikes' confession very well, their abilities as a shapeshifter began to be treated as part of the group's normal play. 

However as the year progressed, one by one the children excitedly told their parents about Yikes ability to shapeshift, causing a paranoid frenzy in the town. It was in December of 1474 that Maylynn’s quiet sheep farm was burned to the ground, and her Hag trial began. 

The trial lasted 3 days, during which time Yikes and Maylynn were kept captive in an enclosed cell inside the village church. The trial was falsified and seemingly only a method of enacting "justifiable" torture upon Maylynn to prove her status as a Hag. Yikes has very little clear memory of their 3 days locked away, but they do remember the townsfolk breaking their mothers fingers and cutting out her tongue. Despite the torture, Maylynn gave them no evidence of being a Hag, but when the towns leader cut Yikes’ hair, that was enough for the town to damn Maylynn to a Nighthag’s fate. 

Yikes didn't witness their mothers pyre. Set to burn after her, Yikes heard her screams from within the cell they had shared. During the burning, the clerics own daughter came and freed Yikes from their cell, and helped them escape. 

Yikes fled to the shipping docks where the boat captains their mother traded with were about to set sail. Hoping to convince them to save their mother, instead the captain took Yikes aboard and set sail immediately upon seeing the rising smoke and hearing the distant cheers of the villagers.

The Capital

Due to the hard winter storms, the ship was blown off course and what should have only been a week of travel turned into months lost at sea. Yikes and the crew nearly starved to death on the freezing waters, the ship constantly threatening to sink. By the time the ship arrived in the capital in the Spring of 1475, the crew had eaten through what they'd meant to trade, leaving them with no resources to help themselves, much less Yikes.

Yikes spent the following year in the capital as a beggar, shifting skins constantly as they were caught stealing food and other supplies. However, at the start of November and just as the cold was threatening Yikes life, The Eclipse Freakshow pulled into town. Yikes spent their last few coins to see a show. Desperate for help and willing to do anything for safety, Yikes approached the head of the show, Jasper Moon and asked to join the Freakshow. When Yikes revealed themself to be a Changeling, Jasper hired them immediately.

The Eclipse

Yikes spent the next 4 years working as a freak in Jasper's show. It was during this time that Yikes started going by Yikes, a name given to them by Jasper’s (at the time) 12 year old daughter, Iris. The Eclipse was hugely successful during this time, if troubled by the law on occasion. Yikes was treated as part of a family, as long as they performed well.

At the start of the 1480 season the freakshow took a shift into more performance based acts, an attempt to shift into an even more lucrative and more respectable industry. Yikes became a sword swallower in this time to keep with the new look of the Eclipse. It was during this time the high turnover rates for performers began, few freaks or performers still remain that belonged to the old Eclipse. Jasper’s hard working conditions and rumors of his high spending at casinos spread in the industry, driving away the workers who weren’t contractually obligated to stay.

As the Eclipse declined further financially, so did Yikes stability. Yikes began spending their Winters in a city called Fearhar to party and over indulge in whatever vice they could find. 

Yikes found work and protection in Fearhar in the form of working in a lounge that prided itself on having exotic hosts, it was here Yikes began experimenting with escorting and casual love affairs with high society members.

Even during the working months at the Eclipse, Yikes’ over indulgence and reckless abandon started to become obvious to those close to them. As the stability and safety of the Eclipse slipped away from them, Yikes' mindset about their life as an open changeling costing them the chance at a long life became more ingrained, both due to their environment surrounding themself with other live hard and fast performers, and the continued close calls due to the Eclipse shrinking safety In 1482, Yikes changed their act in the Eclipse to that of a dancer. Fully embracing their new passion.

In 1483, a large number of performers walked out. Largely due to poor working conditions, pay and safety. However Iris, Jasper's daughter and someone Yikes thought of as their sibling, refused to leave. Despite being disillusioned with the Eclipse and being offered much better opportunities elsewhere, Yikes stayed in the Eclipse for Iris.

By spring 1486, the eclipse was left with less than a dozen performers. At the start of the new season, Yikes was invited to a dinner party by a strange noble man, which Yikes accepted.

This is where the campaign started!! The rest of Yikes' story can be found in summary here!!