Aneira Bennet
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Character
Description
In Castleton, Aneira (Ria) Oasis is introduced as Captain Aneira Bennet, the charismatic and successful privateer captain operating out of Eldron. At sea for around 5 years now, leaving behind her duties in Cerul to avoid an unfavorable marriage for her house, she has established her crew as both a fearsome pirate crew to Cerul and a successful merchant ship in Eldron. It has almost become too easy to wear the different identities she possesses as masks over the years. Whether that is Lady Gwendolyn Aneira of House Oasis in Cerul, the successful privateer captain of the merchant vessel “The Glacier” as Captain Aneira Bennet, or the feared pirate captain who is only spoken about in hushed tones through the nobility of Cerul “The Ice Queen of the Sea.” Truly it is only Luciano and Evie being allowed to see the real Ria behind it all. In addition to being a swashbuckler, she has taken on a warlock pact with an unknown demigod towards the end of part 1.
Ria has never liked the politics of being the only heir to House Oasis and what all of that it entails. Her and her father being the last of their house, her father expects her to “marry up” to a man of prestige for their family, as women do not inherit in Cerul. However, being of the feminine persuasion and not liking the thought of her choice of how to live her life dictated to her, she fought against her dad. Once she reached adulthood though not able to persuade him to see differently, she left and didn’t look back. Entering matching season her dad reached out and made a deal with Ria, if she can make a match of her choosing during this season and survive, then despite her gender, she will be officially recognized as the next Baroness Oasis as he will step down. However, as the matching season commences, and Evie dies, her crew’s survival has superseded any plans she had coming in.
Ria is 5’ with blueish-white skin, dark red hair, and golden amber eyes. Her hair sits past her shoulders, curly and wild. Always decked out in full captain regalia, minus the hat, with a fine jacket with a long tail as well as a leather corset, pants, and boots in a mix of dark reds, black, and white. Since her time at sea, her body has been honed in her adventures being much more muscular while retaining her slim stature from when she left her life as a lady behind.
Storylines
Background
Aneira Oasis, or in Cerul Lady Gwendolyn Aneria of House Oasis, is the only daughter and heir to Baron Vonos Oasis. Ria’s mom died giving birth to her, and she was raised primarily by her house’s staff and her tutors. Her father has remained cold and distant from her all of her life, only showing the expectations placed upon her shoulders from a young age. When Ria approached adulthood her dad started looking into potential suitors for her hand, for the family to marry up into a higher position within Cerul. With the only heir to House Oasis being a woman, Ria inheriting the Barony was very frowned upon, her father preferring to have her join houses with a man of stature in Cerul or potentially finding a male cousin through her mother’s side in Arma to inherit.
Ria fought her hardest to change her father’s mind to no avail and so at 18 stole a ship from her family’s dock and left Cerul. Shortly into her adventures, she met Wez Pottle and Golden Boy, who became the first members of her crew. They were a rambunctious but loyal duo and this led to a little bit of chaos in those early years, but also a lot of fun. Two years into their adventures on a routine trip to steal more from nobles who wouldn’t notice the loss of their excess in Cerul they met the nobles Luciano Velasquez of House Tidal and Eviarix Rivulet of House Rivulet. They were seeking passage away from Cerul and on further questioning their desire to leave sparked a familiar chord with Ria. Over the next few years of their adventures Ria, Luci, and Evie became very close, pretty much being the admin portion of their little group of pirates. The three of them seeking to have the fun and excitement that was robbed of them growing up in Cerul dove fully into their lives of piracy.
Drinks and sex were aplenty every time they reached port until one night Ria and Evie hooked up. This stirred some stuff in Ria that she wasn’t prepared to handle and led to her trying to sleep away her feelings with any woman who looked remotely like Evie over the next few months until called out by Luciano. This culminated in a messy threesome between the trio a few months before the matching season. Shortly after the crew was sent the invite from Eldron to attend and Ria the message from her father. Realizing what this could mean for them all, Ria once more suppressed any potential feelings for Evie and they made their way to Eldron to prepare. Taking on a curious new ally on the dock named Caroline to join their crew, the crew got ready to dive into the politics that they have largely escaped over the last few years.
Castleton Part 1
Ria begins her journey in this story with the crew making dock into Eldron with Luciano, Wez, and Caroline as they make their way into the city to take the solar circle transport up to The Castle. Ria explains to the crew how Evie and Boy will meet them there, how they will need to act as they arrive at The Castle, and how they will be representing “House Glacier,” an honorary title granted to them for the season by Eldron.
She establishes to leave House Oasis and Tidal alone in their actions to cause chaos during the activities as both Ria and Luciano will be seeking matches this season. Knowing how solar circles react when multiple people use them she has Wez and Caroline teleport up with her to get a bead on them before the opening ceremony without informing the two of them.
Upon their arrival at The Castle, the crew starts to make their way out of the arrival point to the opening ball. The crew draws positive attention and interest around them as they arrive and head into the ball making their entrance. Ria scopes out those around the ball before joining in to the dancing taking the lead with one of the other ladies on the floor. As the floor gives out and people fall below she lands gracefully on a platform as her dance partner falls and sees the chaos around her. Wez was badly hurt from his fall, Evie fell below wounded and bleeding heavily, and the rest of her crew was not in sight. As she retreats to her House’s estate in the city she regroups with Boy and Wez at the manor receiving the knowledge of Evie’s death.
Ria doesn’t sleep that night drinking and mourning over Evie, realizing those feelings she tried to suppress were a love for Evie that she never got to express. The next day looking rough from a night of little sleep she meets Wez and Boy for breakfast to get caught up that the date week is happening and that somehow Boy has acquired a very powerful ancient weapon. She sends the two off to clean up so that they can prepare and make appearances for the week. Ria knowing that date week usually starts with invites and letters to those you are interested in writes a very sad letter to Evie about her unspoken feelings and promises to find a way to bring her back, even if she has to resort to violence against the city and gods.
As she finishes this letter, however, another letter appears on the desk in a weird writing style that seems almost alive and drawing from her ink well. It asks “Do you wish to bring her back?” When she confirms this out loud to herself it then asks for her name which she gives her Cerulian name. The ink turns red in her name and transforms into a scroll that can bring back the dead. As the deal is made, the pact is set and Ria feels the power and consequences of said power lock inside her chest. The last thing the mysterious letter says is to warn Ria that the pirates have a target on their backs, and signs the letter “The Opposite of Death.”
Throughout date week Ria makes the necessary appearances kind of spending the week on auto-pilot as she continues to mourn the death of Evie and take in the conversation with her new patron. At the end of the week, Ria decides it’s finally time to start reintegrating into the matching season and attends the Eldron party held by Lady Mirella Ironspade where she meets Mirella, Lysander, and mingles with the other guests. She approaches the sisters of Othella and Ottilia and asks for a dance before accompanying Othella to the floor. Othella compels her to give information on the trade routes between nations with her expertise as a privateer and in seeing no harm in this parts with this info. As Othella tries to influence her further however Ria’s eyes flash white and Othella feels herself rebuffed and senses another claim is already present gaining her attention and curiosity. Shortly after the dance is interrupted first by a loud decree from the gods that no violence will be allowed going forward and a new arrival of Fallyn and Valvaris Ironspade to the party. In the excitement, Ria sneaks away from the party to meet her crew.
Castleton Part 2
Ria heads off from the Eldron party and meets Luciano and Wez from her crew as well as Evie’s cousin Naiyalë Rivulet. They head to the caverns leading below the city to try and find Evie and bring her back, following this strange connection that Naiyalë has with her cousin. Ria worries about what is to come, what she has to do, whatever the hell Caroline and Boy are getting up to with supervision, but she worries the most about seeing Evie again and telling her how she feels. As they make their way through the caves they come upon a perfectly put together ritual setup already prepared and Evie’s body in perfect condition on an altar as if she was never injured. As the rest of the group investigates the area warily, Ria approaches Evie immediately glancing over her body and noticing how her body doesn’t seem fully dead. She pulls out the scroll to see how to start the ritual and as she does so more writing appears asking if she’s ready to begin. As the ritual begins the scroll disintegrates into Evie’s body and Evie’s soul moves from Naiyalë to her body as Evie gasps awake.
Credits
Page (She/Her) plays our rogueish “privateer” Captain Aneira Bennet of the “merchant” vessel The Glacier and is definitely not a pirate. You can catch Page on her Twitch channel, and other socials, at PlutoCleric where she runs one-shots and AP series of different TTRPG systems. Also, recently she started a podcast where Page and her guests talk about nerdy topics and any topic of the guest's choice. It's called “On the Same Page: Lore Dump w/ Friends," and is on Spotify and on her YouTube!
