"It is unknown who Niamh [Nieve] Ni Braonain's elven ancestors were or where they came from, but Clan Braonain hails from a remote corner of no-man's land and are believed to be rather more oriented towards war (Tempus is their patron but Branwen has never heard of them) than magic. Aisling [Ashling] Ni Braonain, Niamh's mother, was the half-elven child of a woman calling herself Sorcha Ni Braonain, who was expelled from the clan's homeland for her relationship with a mysterious elven knight who abandoned her as soon as he realised what he had spawned. Niamh's complexion, eye-colour and golden-blonde hair suggest he was a gold elf, which makes the reluctance to acknowledge a half-elf child all the more plausible.

"Rejected by her family and her lover, Reachbhe went to Cormyr and then on to Waterdeep, where allegedly she engaged in various kinds of prostitution, from a humble streetwalker to a fairly wealthy courtesan by the time Aisling was able to fend for herself. Rejecting her mother's licentious behaviour, Aisling dabbled in magery, and fell under the spell of a mysterious half-elven cleric Feargal when her tutor threw her out for torching his curtains with one of the initial wild surges of the Time of Troubles recorded, certainly in Waterdeep. He claimed to be a rejected kinsman as well (it is not known for certain, because the nomenclature is widely known to belong to that particular region of Faerun), although he was a Zhentish agent and so his intentions towards Aisling were less than honourable to say the least. When Aisling realised he worshipped Bane and not Tempus as he claimed, they were already on their way to Zhentil Keep. Once there, his charisma and and a nymph's cloak kept her under his sway and she became too confused with the chaotic occurrences to break free of her dark mentor. The climax to this unhappy period came when Feargal sold her to Bhaal as a concubine. This was how Niamh was conceived.

"After the consummation of this relationship and finding herself pregnant, Aisling escaped. After many months of travel, she reached Baldur's Gate as the pregnancy progressed to term. She had the child without complications after seeking refuge in the temple of Helm, but her story - she knew full well who the father of her child was - attracted suspicion and hostility. The priests of Helm kept her safe and negotiated with the monks at Candlekeep for her protection, and when Niamh was three months old she was despatched to Candlekeep with the necessary rare book provided by a mysterious benefactor. There, Aisling entered the care of Gorion, one of the Readers with most experience of children, and although their relationship was strictly chaste, there were rumours that the old monk's heart was broken when, exhausted from her trials and trauma, Aisling died when her child was still only a year old. From then, Gorion's love for Aisling was transferred to Niamh herself, although the little imp proved rather a handful for an old man and Phlydia acted as governess and tutor and Hull as coach. Luckily there was another child brought to Gorion under similarly mysterious circumstances, Imoen, who aged quicker and played big sister surprisingly well to Niamh.

"Gorion noticed that his half-elven ward was more interested in magic than his "pet human" Imoen, and while the older child proved too easily bored to master either weapons or magic, Niamh was interested in both and thanks to her slightly slower development and elven blood was able to acquire basic skills from both Hull at his watch and Phlydia in her laboratory. Twenty years slipped by in the twinkling of an eye, and Gorion was pleased that the timing of Niamh's maturity and the increasing urgency of the situation in the Sword Coast coincided almost exactly and that Niamh was not too wet behind the ears when disaster struck..."