Tweet
Abby was born in Ashbenford to Peter and Gretchen Winters. Peter was a poor cobbler from the Heartlands and he married Gretchen, a beautiful young Damaran gypsy. Years after having birthed 4 healthy sons, the couple unexpectedly gave birth to Abigail Constance Winters on a cold Winter's morning. The young girl showed an early love of reading and growing things. She split her time between the library and her mother's herb garden, and her nights dreaming of one day becoming a famous wizard. It was not to be however.
When Abby turned 9, there came a great plague to Ashbenford, and the village was quaranteened. Ashbenford's resident temple of Helm combated the plague as best they could, bringing healing to those who could afford treatment first. The priests of Helm, following the doctrine of their faith also took in as many small children as they were able from the poor and common folk. So it was that Peter and Gretchen, who were too poor to afford Helm's blessings gave up their dear daughter to the Helmite clergy. It was the last time Abby would ever look upon her family in this world.
One week after the plague had begun, healers of Ilmater from the House of Lillies in Shadowdale at last arrived in Ashbenford. They went to their work, clensing disease and sickness from everyone, never asking for payment. They worked tirlessly beyond the point of exhaustion, spending every ounce of strength healing others, even at the expense of their own health. Though it was too late for Abby's family when the Ilmateri came, even at her young age, the girl understood the selfless nature of these men and women. They never asked for so much as a copper, and they brought the blessings of Ilmater to everyone... even those who had nothing.
Within another week, the plague was over. Hundreds of lives had been saved that would have been doomed, and there were less Ilmateri to return north than had come. Some had died of exhaustion, some of sickness... taking the suffering of others into themselves.
When they left, they brought with them a number of Orphans who had nowhere else to go. Abby was among the sad column of weeping children who went north. Unlike the other children however, Abby already felt her calling, clear and strong. It was the strings of fate drawing her toward a life that could no more be denied than the drawing of her next breath.
For the next years of her life, the girl grew to a young woman, cloistered among the libraries and infirmaries of Shadowdale's "House of Lilies," A temple of the Sanctuary Healer order. Her gift for healing, both mundane and divine was quickly realized by the clergy and she was nurtured and guided by the most skilled hands among the cloth.
Besides her skill in healing craft, her bretherin recognised unshakable faith and a passionate devoutness to the Crying Lord's teachings. The young girl took all three of Ilmater's vows upon her frail shoulders. Swearing off the trappings of a normal life, she devoted herself entirley to her cause. She would never know riches, comforts or the love of a husband. She would never hold a weapon or wear fine dreses. Her life was a vessel through which Ilmater's spirit would flow, bringing santuary to those without.
By the age of 18, Sister Abby Winters possessed a knowledge of herblore and healing to rival even the elders. Though her frail body was not yet accustomed to the rigors of channeling divine power, her potential was well known among the bretherin.
It was decided that she should go forth and bring the word and compassion of Ilmater to a part of the world which needed it most. Thefore, soon after her 19th birthday, Sister Abigail Winters looked for the last time on the shores of her homeland and set sail across the Dragonmere.
In the distance north, there stood a war-torn, fledgling land fighting for survival against all hope. Starving, suffering refugees huddled within while a desperate legion fought for their very survival. There, a young healer with nothing more than thread-bare robes and a satchel filled with salves and bandages would set foot through the great Gates of the Sunderer and find her destiny.