Merida

In the highlands of 10th-century Scotland, legends speak of Maerid of DunBroch, a chieftain’s daughter whose arrows never missed. When her mother promised her hand to a rival clan for peace, Maerid swore an oath on the standing stones:

“If I must marry, may the stones themselves bear witness to my fury.”

The night before her wedding, the rival clan vanished. Their horses returned without riders, and their weapons were found buried in the moor, as if the earth had swallowed them.

Years later, farmers near DunBroch reported seeing a red-haired huntress riding through the mist, her bow carved from bone. They called her The Spirit of the Stones.

Archaeologists discovered ancient carvings nearby — depictions of a bear standing beside a woman, both with eyes made of amber. The carvings predate the clans by centuries.

When Pixar adapted Brave, locals protested the sanitized version. The real Maerid wasn’t a rebellious teenager — she was a protector whose rage changed the landscape itself. And when thunder rolls over the Highlands, it’s said to be her voice, roaring through the stones she once bound her soul to.