Bella Hearthwell

Name (Etymology):

Bella — A halfling name common in the river-valley regions of Wendmor, meaning “well-fed” or “blessed by the hearth.” Traditionally given to children born during the harvest or just before the first frost.
Hearthwell — From Old Halfling hartwelda, meaning “to keep warmth” or “to guard the ember.” The name is often passed to those who preserve seasonal knowledge, especially through food or healing.

Combined Meaning: One who safeguards the ember of tradition and keeps others well-fed through changing seasons.

Details:

• Age: Appears early 20s
• Gender: Female (She/Her)
• Race: Halfling (Wise Folk)
• Occupation: Baker, Herbalist, Ecologist
• Region: Seven Mile Bottom
• Affiliation: Seven Mile Bottom Culinary & Agricultural Guild

Appearance

Soft-cheeked and rosy, Bella wears a linen apron stained with years of flour, spice, and seasonal syrups. Her curly brown hair is streaked with silver and always pulled back with a patterned kerchief. Her arms are strong from kneading and harvesting, her eyes the warm amber of steeped honey. Her presence smells faintly of bread, herbs, and the edge of rain.

Home

Bella lives in a round-doored bakery nestled near the village green. The garden out back is a tumble of herbs, edible flowers, and trellised beans. Inside, the walls are lined with recipe books, jars of preserved fruits, and bundles of herbs drying from the rafters. A blackboard near the hearth lists what’s fresh, what’s fermenting, and what’s nearly ready.
Most locals stop by just to check the board — and stay for the company.

Background

Bella was raised on the idea that food is a story — one you tell with patience, with care, and with full hands. As a child, she learned preservation methods passed down through generations: pickling, drying, fermenting, and baking by moon-phase. She kept those traditions alive, even as new Mirror-World knowledge began to filter into the village.

While others chase novelty, Bella pays attention to what endures. She listens for shifts in climate, trade, and tradition — not to resist them, but to blend them. Her breads may be shaped by Far-Seer star charts, and her teas sometimes incorporate Mirror-World flora. But every flavor still honors its root.

Some call her a baker. Others say she’s the village’s quiet historian — one who records not with ink, but with jam and dough.

Skills

• Seasonally-aware preservation and fermentation
• Herbal pairing based on healing, mood, and memory
• Culinary storytelling rooted in ecology and trade
• Recognizing plant-based survival strategies across regions
• Baking bread that lasts long journeys — or long winters

Notable Belongings

• A weathered recipe book annotated in multiple hands
• A set of heirloom baking tools, including a dough-scored rolling pin from her grandmother
• A collection of rare spices and Mirror-World salts
• A teapot glazed with star-mapping constellations, gifted by Fiona
• Jars of preserved roots and fruits, labeled with both botanical and emotional notes

Ongoing Project

Bella is refining a seasonal loaf that requires not just time, but timing. It uses wild yeasts that only thrive after the first autumn frost, and a root that becomes sweet only when harvested in moonless dark.
She’s working to sync it with Wendmor’s shifting weather and new Mirror-World planting rhythms. She calls it a memory bread — the kind you eat when you’re ready to remember where you came from, and decide what to keep.

Finn thinks it’s a metaphor.
Tom thinks it’s a riddle.
Bella just says, “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”

Quote

“You can tell everything about a place by what they eat.”
"Flavors tell you who traded with whom, who learned from their mistakes, and who thrived because they paid attention."

Reputation

Bella is a trusted fixture of Seven Mile Bottom — warm, calm, and quietly influential. Her bakery is where worried parents, traveling scholars, and wide-eyed children all end up. She’s known for her patience, but her advice can be startlingly direct when needed.

She does not seek attention, but attention finds her — drawn by the scent of rosemary, the hush that falls over the bakery during late-afternoon tea, or the way she remembers your favorite comfort food even when you don’t.

She debates with Azar over which traditions are worth keeping. She trades preservation tips with Aldric and sends herbal notes to Finn. She once baked a truthbun so spicy that Azar stopped mid-sentence and said, “Alright, yes — I was avoiding the point.”

She never raised her voice. She just refilled his cup and smiled.