Talde Silvertree lived the first half of his life as a trapper and woodsman
in the village of Elisair.  He was a quiet and peaceful elf who deeply loved
his native forest of Selkwood.  However, near the end of his prime, in his
hundred and thirty-first summer, shame was brought to the Silvertree name
thanks to Talde's actions.  He had been accused and convicted by the elders
of Elisair of being a deep-elf sympathizer and was outcast from Selkwood.  In
their shame, Talde, his sister and his cousin left Selkwood, never to
return, and travelled to make their home in the woods on the western shores
of Lake Everclear.
 
It was in this forest that Aster was born, many decades later.  Aster
was the fifth of six children born unto Talde and his wife (little is known
about Aster's mother except that she may have been half-elven; Aster does
not like to speak about her).  Aster lived the first eighty years of her
life there, in the forest, with her father, mother, three brothers, two
sisters, aunt, uncle, and cousins in a close and independent family.  She
learned a lot about the ways of the wilds from her father and from the many
travellers her family took in who passed through the woods.  She heard tales
of far away lands and strange creatures which made her young imagination run
wild, inspiring her with a lifetime of incurable wanderlust.  However, this
all came to an end on one cold, rainy night when her father took in the
wrong traveller.
 
Kodama Sal'Devir came to the Silvertree home that night.  Kodama
appeared in the night, a tall deep-elf in rain-soaked clothing, wandering,
seemingly lost, through the forest.  Talde approached the deep-elf in the
darkness of the woods and the two spoke to each other in hushed tones.
After a short time, Talde brought Kodama into the home and introduced him to
the family.  The elves were uneasy under the gaze of the deep-elf's amber eyes,
but welcomed him in, none-the-less.  He was given a warm bed to stay the
night in, on the condition that he left them the next day.  The elves went
to sleep that night in the company of a killer.
 
Aster was awakened first by the screams, then jostled by her frantic
Uncle.  "Run, child, take your sister and run!  Run and don't look back!"
her uncle said to her as he ushered the two elven girls to their home's back
entrance.  Aster glanced behind her and met Kodama's gaze as he stood over
her father's bloody, dead body which lay cold upon the floor.  The two girls
ran as fast as they could as their uncle turned to face the dark killer.
And so Aster and her younger sister were the only two remaining members of
the Silvertree line after that night.
 
Aster sent her sister to Selkwood then made her way to Exile with a hard
heart.  She studied with the city's trainers with a passion, in hopes of
someday finding the deep-elf called Kodama and extracting a bloody vengeance.
With the skills her father taught her and her faith in ways of Nature, she
learned her trade fast and ventured to the most dangerous places in Taslamar
to test her skill.  Her skills grew with time and thanks to the wisdom of
some veteran scouts she met in her travels.  She owes much of her learning
to the scouts Welverin, Kharmyss, Tarak, and, most especially, to the
legendary elven hunter, Abane T'sliasha.
 
Aster is now known to make her home in the wild reaches of Ayamao.  She
can often be found roaming the wilds with any of a number of animal friends.
She is quite shy but also friendly to all she meets, except for deep-elf, for
whom she has no tolerance.  She is also known to be a member of a secretive
group known as the Druids, which is thought to be based in Ayamao.  How she
became involved with the Druids is not known, though it is thought to have
been a result of her friendship with the S'hochi tribe which once held sway
over the Ayamaoan lands.
 
The deep-elf Kodama was never again seen by Aster, though her desire for
vengeance has been replaced by her unshakable faith in and love for Nature.