Astrid
| Full Name: | Astrid of Caerdonel and Elfield |
|---|---|
| Creature Type: | Humanoid |
| Race: | Half-elf |
| Pronouns: | she/her |
| Age: | 43 |
Astrid of Caerdonal and Elfield is a half-elf mage who specializes in divination through card-reading. Through her mother, she is related to elven royalty, and through her father she is Vale nobility. Despite her highborn status, or rather because of the complications that arise from it, she has often chosen a much more adventurous path.
Early life
Astrid was born in 1294 VR to (father's name), Marquis of Elfield, and (mother's name), of Caerdonal in the Elf-lands. Her parents were not married at the time; her father would later marry her stepmother (stepmother's name) and produce the Heir to Elfield, Alain. Because both her parents held titles in their respective realms and neither abdicated in favor of marriage with the other, Astrid would be unable to inherit either of her parents' titles. She spent much of her childhood travelling seasonally between Elfield or Old Bay, to stay with her father, and Caerdonal, with her mother. This created an awkward distance between herself and Alain.
A Study of Magic
When she was 16, Astrid met a travelling fortuneteller brought in for entertainment at a party named Cassandra. Cassandra's outsider role as truth-teller appealed to the young woman, and she convinced Cassandra to stay in Old Bay for some time to teach her divination. Unlike the formal wizardly science of divination taught at the Great Library of Old Bay, Cassandra's somewhat unique folk tradition used the study of the stars and their movements (astrology) combined with card-reading (cartomancy). After Cassandra was obligated to move on, Astrid continued to study on her own for several years, baffling her families with wide-ranging interests in astronomy, magical theory, and carnival-esque showmanship.
During this same time period, several marriage offers were made and withdrawn once it became clear to her suitors that marrying her would not be an advantage for social climbers. Already disinclined towards the marriage market, Astrid earned a reputation among the nobility as a bit of a fun novelty but also for being uncannily shrewd and blunt when knowing something she shouldn't. In 1317, she exposed an affair between a married baron and a rich merchant with whom he had recently signed an exclusive trade agreement. To distance her family from the fallout, she left town and began to travel.
On the road
Over the next few years Astrid would earn a living telling fortunes: in bars, on the docks, in alleyway stalls, at rich parties - anywhere she could get in. She developed her patter and stage skills, becoming more clever at twisting the truths to which she was unexpectedly privy. Her father's social connections in the Vale were of particular use, and often the nobility invited her in as entertainment as much as due to her name. There were two significant developments in her life at this time.
Magically her skills developed such that she began to understand the stars themselves through her divinations: shining divine spirits set far away in the heavens, seeing the world and its people from far away. They would impart fragments of events to come, unfettered by mortal understandings of time and causality, and these fragments of the future would influence where she wandered and with what, or whom, she would choose to engage.
She also met Vivien Reid during this time. A mutual romantic interest quickly grew between them and they became travelling companions for a couple of years. However, Astrid was far more used to the cities and towns and rarely wanted to spend long stretches in the wilds between civilized places as Vivien preferred. Eventually they split up as the tensions between them catalyzed into arguments that could not be resolved.
At sea
To put distance between Vivien and herself, and following indications from the stars as to where she would be needed, Astrid took up a position as a weather-witch on a ship captained by a man surnamed Thomas. Although she quickly understood that Capt. Thomas was not quite the honest merchant he had seemed, she enjoyed the company of the ragtag crew and the romance of being a pirate. She befriended the ship's druid, Ganna, and the two shared much of their magical knowledge as they applied their skills to unexpected situations. Notably, she mediated a treaty between a dwarven mining town and the drow that lived in the underdark below; thwarted a plot by Lolth to marry and consume the soul of Capt. Thomas; and spent all of her spells in a single hour in order to liberate a magic sail from rival pirates. Following a particularly disagreeable adventure underwater to obtain contraband weapons from some lizardfolk, she decided to put ashore again with Ganna in tow.
Not quite back home
On landfall, Astrid and Ganna stayed in Old Bay for some time. Rather than stay in Old Bay, Astrid settled in Swansing
