Evelyn

Evelyn Avalona Helvig Marthain is a player character by Anna Prosser Robinson. She is a human paladin of Lathander the Morninglord, and she has a pet mouse named Juniper.

Personality

Evelyn is a happy go-lucky person, who absolutely loves to share the wisdom of her deity with everybody. Her optimistic personality often annoys the rest of the group, especially Strix. Evelyn considers the tiefling one of her best friends, respects and defers to Diath's wisdom, and is a big fan of Paultin's musical abilities, flirting with him at times. Evelyn has proven herself very reliable in combat, although she can be overeager to enter a fight flying in with her winged boots and swinging her sacred battleaxe, Lightfall. Anna has explained that Evelyn can justify killing people because she sees it as sending them on a better path in the next life, which also ties in to Lathander being a god of rebirth.^[1]

Evelyn's sheltered past has made her relatively naive about the darker side of human nature or the evils in the world. According to Anna, "in many ways, Evelyn is very young, and has a lot of growing up to do. I think I have learned quite a few life lessons that she might yet have to learn, though I think she has a core wisdom that belies her exterior".^[1]

Background (spoilers for season 1)

Evelyn was born to a noble family living in Amphail,^[2] a ranch town on the outskirts of Waterdeep.^[3] Her family were devout followers of Lathander, with Evelyn following in her father's footsteps as one of his paladins, beginning "paladin school" at the age of six.^[4] However, her father died when she was young, and her mother passed away from an illness while Evelyn was away undergoing training.^[5] Evelyn's brother is caring for the estate, but she has not been home to see him, and there are rumors in her home town that may be keeping her away.^[3] Per Anna, Evelyn hasn't been fortunate enough to experience a lot of love from others, depending more on the love she believes Lathander has for her.^[6] "Sometimes...Evelyn has doubts about herself, wondering whether Lathander is the only being who could love her. Perhaps no human ever could. The dichotomy between such a pitiable earthly loneliness and an outward disposition that is incorrigibly sunny has been heart-rending and thrilling to play with".^[7]Anna has also said that Evelyn wants to be valued for who she is, not just what she can do, and that Chris toys with this aspect "a lot".^[8]

While training at the Spires, Evelyn would often drop by taverns where the bard Paultin Seppa was playing, believing that his music was an expression of her god's light.^[1,6,9] It was at the Rusty Pommel Inn that she got into trouble while defending Diath Woodrow from accusations of thievery, and she, Diath, Strix and Paultin eventually fled together and decided to form an adventuring party.

Although she was cut off from the voice of her god in the cursed land of Barovia, she still kept her faith and praised him loudly to anyone who would listen. Her paladin oath is to cherish beauty and nature (Oath of the Ancients) rather than enforce the law (neutral good alignment),^[3] which allows her to get away with questionable actions (willingly becoming a werewolf--or as she described herself, a 'were-Pomeranian', and adopting an evil puppet as her 'son'). Her faith was rewarded when the Crew found the tomb of St. Markovia, and Evelyn's axe was imbued with holy power.^[10] She places Lathander above all other loyalties, even to her friends, believing that the entire world would be in peril without him.^[11] Nevertheless, she still cares deeply for her party, acting like the "mom" to make sure everyone is feeling appreciated and doing what she can to keep them safe. She is likewise extremely friendly and trusting with all the NPCs they meet (especially Dee). Anna has acknowledged that "In [Season 1] she was mostly the one dimensional comic relief, [but] in [Season 2] you start to see the deeper internal side of where her character comes from".^[7]

Character development I (spoilers for seasons 2 & 3)

When the Crew adopted Hooty McHootface (and later Waffles) and Simon, Evelyn was finally able to 'mother' creatures who appreciated the attention. She continued to rush impulsively into battle, breaking Lightfall when she tried smashing it against the adamantine heart.^[12] Her flighty attention span also caused her to become distracted enough catching snowflakes to get completely separated from the party.^[13] However, when she realized that St. Markovia's power could be used to save Strix and Diath from a death curse, she willingly gave up her life for them, claiming that she had known since she was very young that one day she would be called upon to sacrifice herself.^[14] Although she had never before acted upon her feelings for Paultin, she kissed him during her moment of despair, and he played a song for her.

Although Paultin's spirit was able to intervene before Evelyn's soul was taken by the Soulmonger, being torn from the arms of her god made Evelyn begin to doubt her worthiness. She worried that she might have been meant to be punished by the soulmonger, and that Paultin had been wrong to save her. She also interpreted being placed in a construct body devoid of sensations as another form of punishment.^[8,15] This disconnect prevented her from summoning her holy steed Mourning Glory, who symbolized her tie to her god.^[16] However, in a hidden dungeon in Chult the Crew uncovered a vial of liquid sunlight, and when Evelyn drank it, she found herself in the presence of St. Andral, who reaffirmed Lathandar's love for her. Although he gave her the option to return to human form or to have Lightfall restored, Evelyn chose to remain in her construct body, which was further reinforced and decorated to become her new holy symbol.^[17] When the Crew became trapped in Dendar's nightmare, Evelyn accidentally activated the bomb she had been carrying, which caused a stressful situation that resulted in Paultin leaving the group. Evelyn blamed herself, but when Paultin seemed to reappear and gave her a morning glory flower, she took that sign that Lathandar was with her, and she finally resummoned Mourning Glory, who also appeared more powerful than before. When they followed Paultin into the Shadowfell, Evelyn became assaulted with a magical despair that made her doubt what was real. When she tried to appeal to Paultin's better nature seemingly to no effect, she realized that he was truly lost, and set fire to the doorway and pulled Simon to safety. Even after his Ring was removed, Evelyn had her doubts about whether Paultin was still evil, and even began to wonder whether Miranda had ever existed. In her prayers to Lathander, she revealed her shame that she had let her love for Paultin persist despite his obvious turn to evil, and that people had died as a consequence.^[18] Paultin overheard what she said and disparaged her for expecting Lathandar to just hand her things she wants, instead of working to achieve it herself. But he also revealed his own shame that he had put on the Ring despite the warnings, and that his intent had just been to make himself more useful to the party. Evelyn tried to comfort him, saying that despite knowing he wasn't himself, "it's my job to see these things", and she would strive to do better. When Paultin used the excuse "feelings suck" to explain why he wasn't more open, Evelyn understood that he wasn't looking for a relationship, and began to distance herself.^[18]

A balhannoth ambushed the party, and despite the Crew initially succeeding in damaging it, it teleported away with Evelyn and tore her body apart with its tentacles. Her human soul reappeared inside the Soulmonger alongside the AI interns and Lathander's head priestess, Zaress. When the atropal's caretakers reached out towards the souls to take them into its mouth, Evelyn flew towards one to take the place of the soul it carried. Zaress's words caused Evelyn to realize that her soul could destroy the atropal. As she was eaten, Evelyn became a sun that burst through its body and ended the death curse. Her soul then traveled to the Celestial Plane, where she ran into the spirits of Zaress and her father, as well as several celestials, who helped her realize that Lathander would want her to be happy and work towards her own goals and finding a lifemate, and that she might still have a purpose back in the mortal realms.^[19]

Character development II (spoilers for season 4)

Despite the year Evelyn spent in the Celestial Plane^[20] (while only a few months passed for the rest of the Crew), she was brought back to life by Omin without any memory of what happened after the battle with the Balhannoth. She could not even be sure she was responsible for the Soulmonger being destroyed, even though the others assured her she was, because who else could have done it? She was distressed by how much she had missed in her friends' lives, especially their encounter with a paladin of Shar, the "Lady of darkness and death and gross things". However, she was most pleased at being returned to her human form, and reveled at the ability to cry and feel and smell again. The new marks that had been added to her construct body by the blessings of St. Andral were now transferred to her flesh.^[21] She was very grateful to Omin and offered to write letters to him, being interested in his company which she assumed was more like a large church.

As the Crew prepared to leave Chult, Evelyn dropped hints that she was actually very reluctant to return home, but would not explain why. While relaxing at a bathhouse, she removed her winged boots and Paultin noticed that she was missing her left leg below the knee. He kept this information to himself, as she had just survived an assassination attempt and he was preoccupied with her safety (Anna told fans that Evelyn's leg was inspired by Anna's own grandmother's condition.^[22] Evelyn's father had brought her winged boots when she was a child to help compensate for this handicap.^[23] She didn't reveal this to the rest of the Crew until much later, surprised that they had never commented on it before^[23]). When the force bomb devastated Port Nyanzaru and Evelyn was ready to abandon her friends and go back to help, Paultin disparaged her, reminding her that any help she might offer was obviously limited and probably would only have resulted in her getting arrested or attacked again. Despite Evelyn arguing that her life was forfeit to Lathander's cause and helping others--and that since the Crew were responsible for the bomb, they should face the consequences--Paultin pointed out that there is a difference between doing the right thing and just being self-righteous. He made her realize that her rash actions repeatedly put her life in danger and that "you don't consider what you put [others] through when they have to watch you die over and over". Suddenly realizing their point of view, she said, "I do know what it's like to love someone who has a higher calling, and it is tough. And I do know how it feels to be left behind." After the Crew reassured her that she was needed, she said, "I guess Lathander gave me this family for a reason". She then relented and wrote a note to Omin Dran to ask him to use Acq Inc's resources to help the Port,^[24] and began making attempts to stop acting so impulsively. Omin appeared pleased by her correspondence.^[25] Later, Evelyn admitted that ever since her return, she has felt like she is two people, one who is certain of who she is and her duty to Lathander, and another side that keeps questioning what is right and considers what she might want for herself. In that moment, she had a flash of memory of Zaress telling her the same thing in the Celestial Plane (Anna has explained that because her subconscious has evolved, but her knowledge has not, there is dissonance between who she is and who she thinks she should be).^[26]

On their arrival at Waterdeep, Evelyn began looking for stationary to write to Omin,^[27] but they were suddenly approached by Xandala's sister, and were soon after accosted by members of the Xanathar's gang. One of the gang became engrossed in a conversation with Evelyn, telling her his name was Meloon, and agreed to defect to her side. He seemed ready to ask her out, but Paultin intervened and called the guards on him. Interestingly, Meloon soon reappeared and tried to seduce her again, but she was too distracted to realize it. She later managed to convert Noska, one of the Xanathar's enforcers, to Lathander's side. Together, they fought one of the Xanathar's mindflayer allies, but Paultin was turned to dust by a disintegration ray. Evelyn became traumatized, and carried his ashes to the Spires to have Father Luke Sunbright use the scroll of True Resurrection on him. Evelyn began to cry when she saw him restored. Sunbright invited Evelyn to lunch with him, hinting he would like her to support his promotion to head the church at the Spires, but with a focus on Amaunator instead of Lathander. He said their divination spells had identified her and Omin as their saviors from the death curse, and a powerful noble family in Waterdeep had paid for a statue of her (in construct form) to be put up in the Spires.

When Vistani dark powers drew the Crew into a domain of dread, Evelyn learned that Omin had taken her rings of protection, which were now being sought by the Powers to tether them back to reality. She accepted that Diath's ring was his to give away to the C Team, but her opinion of Omin was diminished.^[4,28] One of the Powers briefly banished Evelyn to her own Domain of Dread, where she saw the graves of her family and friends. Paultin managed to convince the creature to bring her back in exchange for the ring, and the Power was ultimately defeated. When they returned home to find Trollskull Manor partly destroyed from an attack by Mercy Killers, Evelyn became obsessed with remodeling it. They then discovered that Simon had grown depressed over being a construct, and had kidnapped a child. To help the traumatized boy, Evelyn let him play with Juniper, and ultimately let him keep the mouse when it seemed he wouldn't get the Crew into trouble over Simon.When the dwarf Binwin dropped by the newly dubbed 'Waffle House', he also became smitten by Evelyn and offered her his horned helm after she complimented it. He later tried to aid her in stopping the Xanathar from stealing her statue from the Spires, as the Xanathar had also developed a crush on the paladin. The beholder ended up killing Binwin and charming Evelyn, forcing Strix to temporarily turn her into a snail so they could escape. Evelyn later revealed her hatred of the creature, for it had taken away her free will, something she was beginning to exercise and appreciate more as she had begun placing priorities over those of the church. She tried to use the Xanathar's affection for her to help the Crew infiltrate its lair, but ultimately it saw through her attempts at being a 'distraction force' and put her to sleep, turned her to stone and levitated her. The beholder accidentally dropped her so that she shattered after Paultin learned she was in danger and burst into the room and reflexively thunderwaved it. After the battle, Strix and Paultin reassembled her pieces with a mending spell, and Strix used the stone-to-flesh potion the C-Team had given her to restore Evelyn to life. Paultin became catatonic, repeating that he should have been there, and that everyone around him keeps dying, so that Evelyn was forced to carry him and try to soothe him. He then revealed to her that he had been married previously, and that his wife had been killed when he was away performing. Evelyn was unsettled by this revelation, and confided the news to Strix and Diath in an effort to sort out her feelings. When they were visited by a spiritual therapist, Evelyn confessed that she had been resisting visiting her old home due to the shame she still felt that years ago she had been unable to return in time to prevent her mother's death from disease. The therapist pointed out that Evelyn wasn't the only healer around, and that she should not feel responsible. Interestingly, the therapist noted on departure that three of the Crew were possessed by "demons", likely referring to the soul worms (information that she did not share with them), although Evelyn herself had never been able to sense this.

By chance, the party stumbled upon the newly released Strahd at a Waterdeep noble's party they had managed to sneak into. Despite it being a festival of nonviolence, Evelyn and Paultin tag-teamed and utterly destroyed him. Afterwards, Evelyn was finally forced to confront her church. She and Diath began to protest the changes Father Sunbright had tried to orchestrate and get to the truth behind what it was all about, while Paultin made snide comments about 'the truth' having no place in a church. This remark deeply offended Evelyn. She successfully collected money from parishioners to keep the church's orphanage open, and made a point that the money was to be used for that purpose when it was revealed the church's funds were otherwise being used to redecorate the Spires. While she was doing so, Diath was speaking to Sunbright in his office when the priest suddenly combusted from a drow poison and died. Implicated for the crime, Diath had to stand trial, during which Paultin pretended to be his lawyer and dragged a still hostile Evelyn along. They managed to convince the magistrate that Diath didn't commit murder, but Diath took the blame for Paultin's theft of an expensive bottle of wine from the priest's collection, and was sentenced 10 days in prison and a 500 gold fine. Evelyn helped manage Paultin's street performances to raise money, where she ran into guardsman Todd, who bought her lunch and flowers, despite Paultin's jealous interference. She also met the drow priestess who had been favored by Zaress to lead the church. The priestess suggested that Father Morn might be the true murderer of Father Sunbright, and offered to raise the latter since it would increase her standing with their followers. Not caring about this political maneuvering, Evelyn nevertheless agreed to eventually help investigate Morn. When Diath appeared to have been freed early and got into a spat with Paultin over the choice to be self-sacrificing, Evelyn had the insight to see how this mirrored her own spat with Paultin over her wanting to return to Port Nyanzuru after the explosion, and how self-sacrifice would only end up hurting the group. When the real Diath appeared and this was shown to be a doppelganger, Evelyn helped capture it. Soon after, Simon was turned into a real boy using a permanent polymorph spell, although his time around the street urchins had taught him the child-like vices of being selfish, reckless and spiteful. Evelyn did not seem to mind that he no longer called her "mama", but nevertheless taught him about his flesh body and things such as needing to use the restroom.

Although the timing isn't clear, at some point Evelyn gets pulled into Ravnica by the accidental manipulation of an arcane artifact by Omin Dran. Walnut had also been summoned, and both Omin and Evelyn separately confided in the druid their uncertainty about starting a new relationship, with Omin commenting unenthusiastically "this seems like a tremendous amount of work".^[29]

Notable Equipment (spoilers)

Treebane (elvan magical axe)
Lightfall (double-bladed battle axe and holy symbol, further empowered as a mace of disruption) (broken into shards and given to Diath)
Holy Symbol of Ravenkind
Heart of Spinelli (flame tongue great-sword; 2d6 damage + 2d6 fire damage)
Winged Boots of the Dawn - magical flying boots that glow in moonlight, worked with the holy symbol of Lathander. When worn, they also make the wearer feel fortunate and optimistic about the future, and harmless creatures seem to frolic in their presence.
Golden 'emoji' shield -a gift discovered in the Waffle House that bears Evelyn's image, and will change its facial expression when commanded
Binwin's horned helmet - a gift
doll of Evelyn (roughly constructed doll made in Evelyn's likeness by Strix during her 50 years alone in Barovia)
pan flute (given to Paultin)
wand of conducting (found in the Xanathar's lair, Evelyn enjoyed making music with it for a week, until Strix stomped on it and broke it)
Armor of Invulnerability (a magical black suit of armor originally belonging to Kaharik the dao, which he took back from her)
Halruaan force bomb (egg-shaped device with a timer, believed to have the power of 10,000 magic missiles) (timer temporarily stopped by a mysterious key, then restarted and swallowed by Aremag the dragon turtle before it exploded in the bay of Port Nyanzaru)

Trivia (spoilers)

Evelyn's current character page on D&D Beyond is found here, although Anna has noted that it doesn't reflect some of their homebrew stats.
Anna has written out the letters Evelyn gave to each member of the Waffle Crew during episode 52.
Anna confirmed that as far as she's aware, Evelyn's construct form was indeed "made of Simon's old body".^[1]She has also explained that the markings from her construct body that are now on her skin are raised, white, and henna-like, but are not exactly like what she wore in the SomE broadcast, and she might have also kept some of the gold decorations from her construct form in her hair.^[21]Anna stated during a Q&A^[26] that Evelyn's appearance is the spitting image of actress Sarah Jones seen in this image with the hairstyle Anna eventually chose for Evelyn.
Anna wrote several stories of Evelyn's past here, here, here and here. She has added that Evelyn is not looking forward to seeing her brother or the conversations she feels she must have with him.^[26]In episode 112, Evelyn revealed that she feels guilt for not rushing home during her training in time to heal their ailing mother, and keeps her brother's letter to remind herself to feel ashamed.
Anna stated that Evelyn's last name came from the goddess Martha, who was Evelyn's patron in her last incarnation.^[10] Her middles names were suggested by fans, and Anna picked the two she couldn't choose between.^[30]
Anna revealed that she wanted Evelyn to have Juniper the mouse because a past DM would tease her and find ways to prevent her from having pets.^[10] She also really wants the spell Find Greater Steed, which would allow Mourning Glory to be a true pegasus. Chris teased her by allowing her to use the spell in the Celestial Plane, but then he "took it away".^[26]
Anna said that she keeps a 'ship log' of all possible hints dropped by Nate over the series about Paultin's true feelings for Evelyn.^[10] She also said that Evelyn's crush on Nate's character wasn't actually planned by either of them, and that "Evelyn just saw someone creating light, beauty, and laughter and couldn't help but be swept off her feet! I didn't talk to Nate outside the game at all for quite some time after we started, actually. I used to worry that maybe it would bother him, but it was true to Evelyn!" ^[1] Anna has been surprised sometimes when Nate picks up on and reacts to cues by her character, such as when she left to be off on her own in Citadel Adbar and the Shadowfell.^[1,6,31] As to how they both feel about the relationship now, "We've briefly discussed some aspects, like what tension we want to build by leaving certain things vague, but I have no idea what the ultimate end of their story is. I don't know if Nate does either...but we often discuss what happened after the fact to help each other understand the characters more (and scream)".^[1]
Regarding her relationship with Omin, Anna said, "I think that it's going to be really interesting because Evelyn sees Omin as a very godly, very successful, very stable person, the kind...she should be in a relationship with, and...if you're a [DCA] fan you know where her heart actually is, but she thinks that that person has no interest in her, and that maybe that's not the right kind of relationship for her.... So I think it's going to be really interesting if she ever figures out who Omin actually is, and if that might destroy her or affirm her.... The last letter Evelyn wrote Omin...I don't think a lot of people caught the subtlety...but Evelyn was very like, 'yeah, thanks for inviting us over to see your mom. It sucks not to see you... Hope you're having a good time. Guess we'll see you around'." ^[4] In the PAX Unplugged 2018 game in which she guest-starred with Walnut, Evelyn confided in the druid that she was worried she might have been too snarky in that letter, but Walnut--who had actually told Omin that Evelyn might be too concerned with her faith in Lathander to have the company's best interests at heart--told Evelyn she shouldn't worry.^[29]

References

[1] I'm Anna, I play Evelyn. AMA! #2 DCA Reddit.

[2] DCA Episode 112.

[3] Evelyn's character sheet: level 4.

[4] Insight Check E50: 50th Episode Podtacular ft. Anna Prosser! [39.26, 47:56-49:00]

[5] Clouded Judgement - Anna's Study After Episode 69: PAX Sub Optima. DCA reddit

[6] "I'm Anna, I play Evelyn. AMA! #1" DCA reddit.

[7] How To Redeem D&D's Worst Alignment, Which Is Obviously Lawful Good. Kotaku.com.

[8] PAX Unplugged 2018 'Ask the Waffle Crew Anything' Panel.

[9] DCA Episode 73.

[10] DCA Episode 30.

[11] Waffle Talk: Discussing Dice, Camera, Action Episode 79.

[12] DCA Episode 46.

[13] DCA Episode 36.

[14] DCA Episode 52.

[15] DCA Episode 53.

[16] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/942165703150284800.

[17] DCA Episodes 66-67.

[18] DCA Episodes 84-85.

[19] DCA Episodes 87-89.

[20] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/991491714891169792

[21] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/1002953446507491328

[22] A Story about my Gramma. DCA Reddit.

[23] DCA Episode 120.

[24] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/996952168870494208

[25] https://twitter.com/TychoBrahe/status/997978648303910912

[26] DCA AMA Session.

[27] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/1006719086976364545

[28] https://twitter.com/AnnaProsser/status/1036524407366144000

[29] Acquisitions Incorporated PAX Unplugged 2018. [13:25:30; 13:29:58]

[30] "Viewers Know Best: What is Evelyn's Middle Name?" DCA Reddit.

[31] Pax East 2018 - Dragonfly Theater - Wafflecrew Tea Time Q&A. Twitch.com