Linnea/Storyline

Linnea is an advisor for the Adventurers' Guild branch of Nasha Town.

Profile

Personality

Linnea has an energetic and innocent personality. She adores all cute things, such as her fae companion Lumi, the Melusines and cats.

Appearance

See also: Lone Feather's Omen

Linnea uses the medium female model. She has fair skin, magenta eyes with light pink heart-shaped pupils and light pink short and fluffy hair, styled in a jellyfish cut with twintails in the front. She has a small pair of pink wings on her head with light blue feathers underneath and pointy ears. She also has blue and pink crystal-like fae markings on her thighs.

History

Past

Linnea is an Augury Bird fae born to two parents who lived in the tundra north of Nod-Krai. She had a biological older sister, Celaeno, and a younger sister, Yashina, who is a human. The Augury Birds were "cursed" with an ability to foresee their own future, unable to change it no matter how hard they tried. This prophetic power would kick in while in close proximity to each other. Wishing to delay this curse from manifesting with Linnea, her parents decided to swap her with a human family. They selected a family whose daughter was afflicted with a rare illness that the fae could treat. While she remembered little with her fae parents, she only recalled a lullaby which was meant to discourage her from digging into her past.

Linnea grew up like any other human child would, but she soon began to realize she was different due to the wings on her head and the marks on her body, trying in vain to cover them up. She eventually mustered the courage to tell her parents Latkin and Zinovia, and while they did not show anger for the deception, they could no longer love Linnea in the same way as before. As they began to grow old, they told Linnea that they had to look for their biological daughter, and guiltily abandoned her by entrusting her to the Speranza.^[8] There, Linnea joined the Conch Gang and earned her keep at the restaurant. Having fully embraced her fae nature, she did not hide her identity from the others. Eventually, she had to leave the Conch Gang after growing up, but promised to return to Speranza when she could.^[9]

At one point, Linnea decided to venture to the tundra to look into her past, but she found herself quickly uneased. The trip was not completely fruitless, as she encountered an unusual Jack Frost fae; while most were blue, this particular fae was yellow and shunned by its own kind for being different. Being both outcasts of some sort, Linnea invited the fae to accompany her, which it agreed to. She called it Lumi and resolved to figure out what was wrong with her.

As she travelled the nations, Linnea would come across outdated or incorrect information and made corrections on her field journal. She eventually arrived at Fontaine and became enamored with the Melusines, camping near Merusea Village for a month and accumulating mechanical components to gift to them. But when she finally came up to talk with one, she had forgotten her professionalism and terrified the Melusine, resulting in Serene reporting her to the Gardes. As the Gardemeks came to take her away to the Fortress of Meropide, Sedile arrived and noticed neatly packed gifts and a mountain of notes tumbling off her bag, clearing the misunderstanding.^[10]

In order to realize her dreams, Linnea would need to buy a boat, but discovered the prices were astronomically expensive. She still resolved to buy it regardless, signing up with the Adventurers' Guild and becoming well-versed in exploration, becoming an advisor to teach others how to safely adventure.

During her time in Nasha Town, Linnea would become acquainted with Illuga and Aedon, terrifying the latter to the point that it would instinctively hide in his lantern upon hearing her voice.^[11] She also met Ineffa, quickly becoming terrified herself due to her robotic nature.^[12]

Present

The Traveler and Paimon first encounters Linnea after being sent to her by Katheryne after she suggested speaking to their top-tier advisor for the upcoming Spirit Envoy Championship. Linnea was delighted to find someone with lots of experience and quickly befriended the two. As they considered who would partner with them, Aguara arrived and wished to participate. During the competition, Linnea was shocked to discover another fae and fell unconscious upon touching her as she demanded to know answers, finding herself in a horrific nightmare before waking up. She continued to chase after her, learning her name, Celaeno, and that she was her sister. Celaeno had come to shatter Linnea's perspectives after believing she had lived a carefree life, but when she realized she was torn about her past, expressed remorse for her actions. Celaeno explained that they were an uncommon type of fae known as Augury Birds and their powers; all of the nightmares she had witnessed would be her future. Aware of what she saw, Linnea told Celaeno that it wouldn't discourage her from continuing onward. She also discovered the reason behind Lumi's nature during the tournament, deciding to find another Jack Frost with similarities to her to keep her company.

When the tournament concluded, Linnea bid farewell to Celaeno on good terms, who told her to write to her if she felt lonely and that the family would welcome her when she paid another visit to the tundra.^[13] As Celaeno was about to depart from Nasha Town, Linnea arrived and gave her a mountain of items to give to her biological and adoptive family as mementos to remember her by until she finally came to meet them in-person.^[14]

Trivia

• She is likely based on the Gamayun (Гамаюн) from Slavic folklore, a bird of prophecy, symbolizing joy and happiness, as well as an ill omen that signals the death of a ruler. Originally described as a wingless and legless bird perpetually in flight via its tail, it was then depicted as having both the wings and bird legs in heraldry, while ultimately, appearing as a bird with a woman's head, as drawn by Viktor Vasnetsov.

Etymology

• Considering her knowledge in the life sciences, her name is most likely a reference to Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish biologist who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms, and the "father of modern taxonomy." Linnéa is a popular Swedish female name derived from Carl Linnaeus's name.

References