Sidzla Rigware

Intro

• "A forest tutelar torn from her home alongside Forest Finns by Queen Kristina's men, carried over the saltwater sea and left to make her way on Turtle Island."

• Basic Info

  • Name: Sidzla Rigware
  • Gender: Female
  • Played by: kalmobotti
  • Species: Hulder (forest tutelar)
  • Alignment: Neutral Good
  • Age: 4 c.
  • Height: 5'8"
  • Weight: 176lbs
  • Complexion: Light
  • Hair: Waist length, brown, usually plaited
  • Eyes: Grey
  • Relationship Status: Widow twice again
  • Personality: Introverted, roundabout in speech, brusque in behaviour. One might say "mysterious".
  • Hobbies: Handicrafting (wreath- and bouquet-making, beading, knitting, etc.)
  • Skills: Sidzla has a green thumb (no surprises there) and a knack for weaving intent into handcrafts. She also has the very basic abilities that any self-respecting forest tutelar should: giving good or bad luck to hunters and fishermen depending on whether they have any manners, basic glamourwork, putting people (or animals) under a "forest cover", you know, the usual.

• Description

  Sidzla has long brown hair that she usually keeps plaited and sometimes covered with a plain scarf. Her skin is light and her eyes are a clear steel grey.
  
  She wears long skirts and a fanny pack. Around her neck are a number of necklaces, some with glass beads and old coins, others with shell beads, and yet others with other things.
  
  As a Finnish Hulder, Sidzla has a hollow, wooden back, albeit hidden by her clothing.

• Biography

  Was born in the Finnforests of Värmland in the Swedish Empire in 1629.
  
  Her Hulder mother deeply regretted binding herself to a human man, as the family was deported in 1641 to the colony of New Sweden in Delaware alongside a number of other Forest Finns.
  
  A few years thereafter the Forest Finns warmed up to the idea of becoming colonizers to the "New World", as their Old one didn't much care for them, and thus the crown no longer needed to have families rounded up and herded into a ship to populate the colony, as the Forest Finns and other residents of the realm of Sweden began to petition to emigrate.
  
  All in all the colonizers from the Swedish Empire to Delaware numbered no more than one thousand. The small colony couldn't afford to skirmish much with the Lenape and Susquehannock people indigenous to the area, and as New Sweden had been concieved as a trading outpost, decent relations were fairly necessary. (Not that the colony was all that profitable in the end; ships from Sweden came all too infrequently for the colony to keep up good trade on the long term.)
  
  Sidzla could have returned to Värmland, but why would she want to be there any more than she did in this new land? The only thing welcoming her to Värmland were the forests; the Swedes had no love for the Forest Finns, even those who were in fact wightfolk, and she had no family awaiting. At only twelve summers upon arrival on Turtle Island, by the time she was be old enough to make the trip alone, she had already gotten too attached.
  
  Sidzla had a family with a local man. She stayed with the family for generations afterwards, going from mother to grandmother to the White auntie whose relation isn’t really known, but she’s part of the family.
  
  Sidzla's mother wanders the forests as a true forest wight, having relinquished her ties to humanity after Sidzla's father's death.
  
  Sidzla has grown and raised children, buried three life partners, wept and stayed. With time and distance she has always made herself a life again.

• What are Hulders?

  Huldra are a variety of wight or tutelar native to the forests of Scandinavia. Similar beings also exist in Finland, particularly western Finland, but seem less known.
  
  Hulder is the Norwegian name for the wight, while in southern Sweden they are known as skogsrå ('Forest Tutelar') or skogsfru ('Forest Lady'). The Sámi know them as ulda. The Norwegian name is probably the easiest for an anglophone, which is presumably why it appears to be the most widely used name outside of Scandinavia. In Finland these tutelars may be called metsänneito, 'Forest Maiden', or sinipiika, 'Blue Milkmaid'.
  
  A Hulder may appear as a well-dressed woman or a milkmaid with a cow, horse or fox tail peeking from under her skirt, or as an attractive woman in a gossamer dress joining you by a fire in the forest, who will get spooked the moment you realise her back is covered in bark or has a hole like an old tree. The Hulders with tails are more common in the north, with the fox-tailed ones more common in Sweden and the cow-tailed ones in Norway, while in southern Scandinavia and western Finland, the wood-backed variety is more common. Some Hulders may have grey skin, or hooves instead of human feet.
  
  Hulders find it impolite when humans make a huge number of their nonhuman features, and may reward a well-behaved human by revealing the location of especially good fishing waters or hunting grounds. Sometimes they behave more mischievously or even maliciously, tricking a human into following them deep into the forest before blending into the trees, leaving the lost human to find their way back alone. One may presume the humans receiving this treatment have somehow offended the wights of the forest, but of course, sometimes the source of this offense will completely elude human understanding. It is, after all, wightfolk we speak of.
  
  Hulders have been known to have relations with humans. Sometimes a human will come back from the forest forever changed, part of their self staying forever with the Hulder. Sometimes people are lost for good, having joined their Hulder lover in the Otherworld, be it willingly or through trickery. Don't eat the food of the Otherworld.
  
  Conversely, a Hulder may settle down with a human. Hulders are good at blending in with humans when they want to, and sometimes their spouse may even forget that they aren't married to a human. Mistreatment will earn a swift reminder, and Hulders have been known to straighten horseshoes with their bare hands to show they aren't to be trifled with.

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