The Illbournes were once an infamous bunch. Known as king killers & great assassins of days long past with a vast knowledge of potions & poultices both to heal as well as harm. There were brigands, pirates, lowly thieves and murderers in the family line back when the 'Illbourne' name was branded onto to the loathsome crew.
To be an Illbourne was to be feared.
Newer generations eventually decided to tame their unlawful ways, however, so soon they became just another family with a colorful name & tales of forefathers who thumbed their noses at the law but had no real connection to their sordid past.
This brings us to Candrian. Only child of Tobias & Maria Illbourne, she was a diminutive youth with long black hair & soft brown eyes like a doe. She was quiet, shy & had few friends but she took to wandering the hills & dales surrounding her village, becoming familiar with the flora & fauna there. It seemed natural for her to start reading all she could about herbal mixtures, concoctions & tinctures.
Most of these recipes were commonplace, but functional, so her parents approved of her taking an apprenticeship under the local herbalist to pursue her interests.
She'd often bring home a mixture to ease her mother's headaches, balms to soothe her father's strained hands after a day making & fixing things at his forge. Mundane, normal things that everyone approved of.
However, everything changed the day she bought an old, leatherbound alchemists' journal from a travelling merchant. It took some doing; the merchant was oddly resistant to haggling, saying it wasn't a book suitable for a young lady. In the end greed was more of a motivator for the merchant & Candrian finally won him over with everything she had; an amount equal to a full months' salary. She had paid a hefty sum for it, she had no idea what she was going to tell her parents, but it was like it called to her.
She had to have it.
The tome contained hand scrawled recipes for various toxins & deadly poisons; knowledge that would have made her ancient ancestors giddy.
It was forbidden. It was exciting. It was everything her life was not.
The merchant was right: it was not appropriate reading for a young lady. Whomever wrote the recipes detailed experiments with the substances on various beings, effects on each, time of death, even the scent of the corpse after the fact.
It all fascinated Candrian. It changed her ever so slightly, quietly, her mind tilting towards the darkness.
The course of a life shifted with one timely event. A healer so quickly seduced to a fascination with poisons. Only time will tell where her path will lead.
(( Not super detailed. Not enough detail about the environment to flesh it all out, but this is my founder. Well, my concept for my founder.
Just thought I'd get something out there in case anyone would be interested in being involved/involving her in game when it finally happens.))