Annie's backstory is something only shared through haphazard stories and piles of metaphor, for she is not very comfortable discussing her personal history. Even her close friend Ibota knows very little of what she has experienced, other than the rumors that still echo round the sleepy town of Combe. Some say that she saved her sister from the fire that killed their father, others say she started it. None have yet forgotten the screaming matches or the sounds of breaking furniture that trailed down from her husband's cottage on the hill each night.

"I'll bet he lit the fire that killed her," people muse, "he never did treat her right." But the gossips at the village inn know very little, for indeed although she has been presumed dead, Annie Morley is still very much alive.

• • •

The first five years of Annie's childhood were soft and cheerful. Her parents, William and Matilda Hawtrey, were deeply in love; the crops flourished; everything was fine. However in her fifth year, Anola lost her mother, who died giving birth to her sister, Ilonna. Grief-stricken, William took to drinking. He treated the children harshly, especially Ilonna, whom he explicitly blamed for Matilda's death. He would frequently lash out at her, and Annie quickly adapted the habit of redirecting his anger to herself in order to protect Ilonna. The girls' relationship with their father continued to decline as they grew older, eventually culminating in an incident where Ilonna was knocked unconscious during a row. At this point, with Annie being age seventeen, and her sister twelve, the young woman took matters into her own hands. She waited for her father to fall asleep drunk that night--nothing could wake him once he fell asleep, the heavy sleeper that he was--and burnt down the house, pulling Ilonna to safety and taking the family lockbox and key with her. Ilonna went to live with the Cartwells, apprenticing under Mrs. Cartwell in hopes of becoming the next midwife of the village, while Annie stayed in the Comb and Wattle for a good span of months. 

Anola began, at this time, to begin courting a significantly older man by the name of Ryland Morley. He worked at the woodcutter's camp, and as time went on she rushed into a relationship with him, more out of a need for a home and financial security than love alone. The first year of their marriage went on with little strife, and by their second year they were expecting a child. She was born with little difficulty, and named Tilda, after Annie's mother. The couple were happy, their fondness for each other growing stronger by the day. However, on one fateful autumn morning, the Morleys found that Tilda had stopped breathing, and died in her sleep. Ryland blamed her death on Anola, and from that moment onwards their relationship went from rocky to manipulative to violent, lasting a total of five years until it reached an incident in which she felt her life was truly being threatened. On the third occasion of this specific brand of altercation, Anola couldn't take it anymore.
At the age of 23, Annie set the homestead ablaze as she had her childhood home. She couldn't bring herself to kill the man she loved, giving him a chance to survive as she herself disappeared into the Chetwood, nursing a broken wrist from their most recent altercation. Ryland came out of the incident with a burn scar up his right arm, and the (undeserved) reputation of a suspected murderer.

After her homestead burnt down, Annie became the loyal companion of the reputable Ibota Wormwood, joining up with her band of brigands despite her own lack of pertinent skills. She clung to the younger woman's side for protection, and in turn fed Ibota's ego and acted as the cook of the group. However, after a year together the band of brigands was slowly killed off by the expansive, encroaching force of the Blackwolds overtaking Chetwood. All that remained were Ibb and Annie.

Anola found herself separated from Ibota one morning in the middle of summer, when she was set upon by Cleoswith, who attacked her and lit her skirts on fire. An odd Dalish man by the name of Tychoric heard the commotion, and came to her rescue, taking her into his odd little shack and healing her wounds. Since then, she has been staying with him as his only human company, cooking meals and learning to trust him despite their language barrier. After a long past of difficulty, she has finally found a proper friend in Tycho, and she doesn't fancy she shall ever leave his side.