Allow me to make myself known - just a little - to our group.
As you are all regrettably aware by now, my Grandsire, the venerable Galinndan Galanodel, Arch Alchemist, Master Mage, Senior Sage, and Presiding Wizard of the Guardians of Elven Wisdom, was originally supposed to accompany you on this quest. His knowledge is justly famed, his learning legendary, his experience and expertise in such things without equal, and his justly famous words of wisdom have been cited from one end of our world to another in scrolls, books, and parchment.
Alas, it was not to be.
My Grandsire has been laid low by a rare form of ill health, it has been termed a virulent virus, that afflicts those of high intellect - and, the unkind might unseemly suggest - those who hold high office and wield considerable power.
Be that as it may. The upshot of this sorry saga is that my Grandsire was taken grievously ill most unexpectedly shortly before he was due to set out to join our party of explorers. There are some who have intimated that the sudden and inexplicable onset of his illness may have been connected with this planned journey - in some strange, by, as yet unknown means, but this is something that I can in no way confirm. He is still, and silent, and staring, in a state of stasis, and unable to speak of his thoughts or offer his much needed counsel.
After some thought, and much discussion, some of the elders of our people gathered together and suggested that my services be offered to the expedition - or journey - in place of my unfortunately absent learned Grandsire.
I protested that I had not long since ceased to be an Acolyte, that I had only recently been advanced to the First Level of Wizardry, that my mastery of studies were not yet complete, and most of all that that my studies absorbed me, and that immersing myself in contemplation of matters of the mind were of far more pressing importance to the cultural integrity of our people than a…….wild adventure.
It was impressed on me that my Grandsire may have had his own reasons for having made himself available to this party, and that - given the positions he held, and holds, (in absentia) - in the upper ranks of our governing and academic and judicial bodies, that it would well serve our people, and, indeed, our family, were I to make myself available to this body of adventurers and explorers in his place. It was further impressed upon me that this is considered a matter of honour for our family and for our Elvish society. My studies could wait. My bloodlines are strong, and it is inconceivable that some of my Grandsire's strange but compelling abilities do not run in my - untested as yet - veins.
So, it only remains to introduce myself, albeit a little belatedly.
My name is Syllin Siannodel, and I am an Elf and a Wizard, though I have only recently discarded my robes as an Acolyte to don those of a Full Wizard, and been admitted to the First Level of Wizard Scholarship
As you can see, the name I carry is still that of a child, for in our world, one has to have well passed much more than a mere century of earth timed years - and sometimes, many more - before one can put aside the name of a child and claim that of an adult. My gender is female, though in our Elven world that, that, and much else, is viewed by some other races as something which is uncomfortably and unsettlingly fluid.