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Once again, the collaborative work with Thriff produced something I'm very proud of. Thanks for adding your talents to my projects Thriff :)
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Long ago, a Chasind woman turned for revenge to the Lady of the Skies.

In the midst of the Black Age, near the slopes of Frostback mountains in the western Korcari Wilds, Caecilia, an old Chasind woman, found her last son dead. He had been assailed by Fereldans whose blood bathed the earth. A powerful arl of the Alamarri peoples who strove to put an end to the Werewolves stalking the Ferelden Valley, led contingents of warriors and hounds deep into the dark forest on the southern border of the Ferelden Valley. They slew every member of the Chasind wilder folk, pretending that through magic they could harbor a demon inside and thus be a werewolf in disguise.

Caecilia had been raised as a mage among the Avvar who revered as gods Korth the Mountain-Father, Hakkon Wintersbreath and The Lady of the Skies under her twofold aspects of protectress and goddess of death. She prepared the traditional air burial by dismembering the body in little pieces that she strung up in the trees after covering them in a magical elixir. Soon a falcon and a swift fed and flew west and later an albatross took station high in the sky. She waited and reminisced.

Caecilia's memories began at the time of her adoption by an Avvar tribe when she was about twenty years old. They had found her unconscious near a precipice in the Frostbacks with eagles circling overhead. The shaman of the clan identified her magical ability, adopted and trained her. The tribe considered Caecilia a ward of the Mistress of Birds.

She was befriended by a young Chasind shaman met during the annual trade fairs. His promise of marriage for life she found alluring. Among the Avvar, marriage lasts the number of years fixed by how many knots in a rope the groom unties while the bride sings a religious hymn. With her connivence, the Chasind shaman kidnapped her and Avvar custom made them husband and wife, tribal bond released. Her granddaughter Celia, talented with magic, was her only remaining family.

At the following dawn, a dragon landed in her camp transforming into a woman clothed in Chasind armour adorned with bands of jewels and wearing Avvar war gantlets and boots. The new arrival said: "Call me Flemeth, the name I go by among the Chasind. Child, what do you want from me?"

Caecilia asked for the complete destruction of the arl and his army as retribution and to prevent future encroachments against the Chasind people. She was told that a blood magic ritual could be used to uncover their location and enclose them in a valley where Flemeth would kill them all. But such a powerful ritual would consume all of Caecilia's blood and take her life.

Flemeth claimed as payment the guardianship of Celia and she tendered to Caecilia a jewel torn from her clothes. "Know that you are required to do nothing, least of all believe me. If you bite this, you will know what the child will become and master the ritual that will punish the arl. You have earned a boon: I will take up residence in the Korcari Wilds, for a time, to raise this child."

Caecilia did as she was told. She first remembered her childhood. Blood magic lore came back to her memory, also details of the necessary ritual. She understood that the removal of those memories had been protection in case she was captured by the templars and imprisoned in The Aeonar to be subjected to demonic attack. Whispering "Thank you, mother!", she plunged one of the arl's blades in her breast. Where her blood touched the ground, a mist began to rise. It soared and spread until it was everywhere in the forest. The arl's army became lost, and it is said that they died there. Others say they wandered in a closed valley where they were one and all dismembered by a dragon and reduced to shreds hanging on trees for the carrion birds to feed.

A few years later, Celia taking inspiration both from the Chasind dress of her grandmother and from Flemeth's armour, created her own design as a memorial to Caecilia. She removed the heavier hardened leather around the collar and replaced the metal studs by decorative jewels. The new armour became known as the Leap of Fate armour.

To this day, the tale of Flemeth, the greatest Witch of the Wilds, is celebrated amongst all the Chasind tribes. Many shamans have learned their magic from the "Witches of the Wilds," the daughters of Flemeth, witches that inspire as much terror as they do awe and gratitude.

The Tale of the Grey Warden and the Story of the Rise of the Champion now add a legendary imprint to the Leap of Fate armour. That Chasind woman who turned to Lady of the Skies, by a bountiful leap of fate, allowed Flemeth to later ensure the survival of the Warden and Hawke.