Calistra Winterdottir



  • Depending on your outlook of being blessed or cursed, Calistra was born on Midwinter Night's. In the rugged mountain valleys of Icewind Dale, outside of Bryn Shander, the festival of the Cold Goddess was at its peak. Swept up in the fervor of the festival activites, the tribal elders took the newborn from her parents and paraded the child through the ice festival in the village. Someone shouted, "This winter has been not been a harsh one, let us thank the Frostmaiden!" A snowflake symbol was painted on the child's forehead, by the tribal shaman. "Let Auril know we offer this child in her name!" The child survives thoughout the festival.

    In the coming days massive snow storms raged in neighboring mountain valleys, forcing much hunted game to seek refuge in hunting grounds of Calistra's tribal lands. The hunters relished in this fortune gathering enough game for a comfortable winter's survival with plenty meats and pelts for trade.

    Be it superstitious or through a true divine cause, the tribe took this as Auril's approval of the tribe's offering of the child. Thus the shaman gave Calistra the surname of the "daughter of winter."

    Given a normal tribal upbringing, however she was under the watchful eye of the Auril faithful. She learned of the Frostmaiden and the Reghedmen warrior queens of Icewind Dale who revered her. Upon reaching adulthood she and other Auril faithfuls travelled to Luskan on pilgrimage to The Winter Palace. There she learned of Auril's boons to those that further her reach and spread fear of winter's wrath. She learned of the Great Glacier how it once it spead across much of the northern lands but has since receded and of those priestess' whom risen as Auril's chosen - particularly Iyraclea, the queen of the Great Glacier.

    Upon returning from pilgrimage, her fearful outlook on Auril still remained, however a tinge of curiosity had crept into her mind. Her learnings had made Auril's wrathful power somewhat intriguing, though no less scary. Calistra began finding herself wondering more about the reaches of Auril's influence in Toril. The yearning for wanderlust outgrew her sense of tribal responsibilities, and she set of east and found herself ending in Narfell... in the lands where the Great Glacier once claimed.