An illustration of a red-skinned female fantasy character with antlers, green eyes, and mossy hair in a forest.

She is tall and slender in the way wild saplings are—slightly bowed by wind and wandering, but stubbornly upright. Her skin is a dusky wine-red, dappled with soft, moss-green markings that bloom across her shoulders, collarbones, and fingertips like living freckles. They shift slightly in color with the seasons or her moods, glowing faintly under moonlight. Her horns spiral back from her forehead in elegant curves, branching subtly like antlers or the twisted roots of an ancient tree. They’re covered in rough, bark-like ridges near the base, but smooth out toward the tips, where tiny flowering vines sometimes grow—sprouting forget-me-nots, mushrooms, or bits of moss depending on her surroundings. She keeps them mostly hidden under her oversized, patchwork hood. Verdance’s hair falls in a tangled cascade of dark green-black curls, threaded with dried leaves, beads, and woven cords of vine and cloth. It smells faintly of cedar and damp earth. When she moves, twigs and blossoms sometimes fall out like blessings or secrets. Her eyes are startling: wide and luminous, with no visible whites—only shifting pools of pale gold and soft green. They catch light like dew on leaves, and sometimes flicker subtly with the phases of the moon. Her clothing is a druid’s armor of layers—flowing robes of faded greens and soft browns, stitched with ivy-thread and scrap silk. She wears a belt made of braided twine and antler pieces, from which hang pouches of dried herbs, teeth, bones, and See more