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.
Contents
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During this same time period, several marriage offers were made and withdrawn once it became clear to her suitors that marrying her would not be an advantage for social climbers.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. Bella briefly took an interest in her as a patron, but the two women did not get along well and the relation did not last. 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. This suited neither very well, as Astrid took pains to avoid her family and Ganna was miserable inside the stone walls of the massive city. Ganna departed for (the swamp beyond the hills) and Astrid settled in Swansing, quite well-to-do following her pirate years. She took on a maid, Sophia, and familiarized herself with both high and low society in the city. Occasionally, she would take trips beyond the city as the signs and portents from the stars, read through her cards, would indicate, and get involved in other people's issues.
The Lighthaus Inspektorz
In the spring of 1337, her divinations indicated that a party of adventurers would cross paths with a dangerous magical object: a component of the Orrery of the Wanderer, a legendary item supposedly commissioned by Oschon himself. She quickly travelled north to Eagleton, where the thief Robin Hoot had accidentally triggered the Orrery component, the Dimensional Loop, shifting the small town into a space in-between other planes. She would assist the party with defeating a shadow dragon attracted by the Loop's power, although she would be injured in the process by channelling too much magic to heal them.
Once recovered, she accompanied them to the lighthouse at Cape Crusader as they used their previously-held Orrery component, the Timepiece of Travel, to teleport to the owner of the journal they'd found below Breakrest Manor. After causing Symol to flee, they found a third component of the Orrery in the lighthouse. Astrid understood this was her true mission and committed to providing aid to the party as she could, now called the Lighthouse Inspectorz.
To that end, they returned to her family's home in Old Bay, the longest she would end up staying since she had left almost 20 years earlier. Following some brief adventures in the city, she would accompany the LHI up the Peakchester to Redford to investigate the standing stones there, and then back to Swansing. Due to machinations by the wizard Yorn Fom, she was largely left out of the LHI's involvement in his plot to summon the demigod Volibear, although she provided what counsel she could to the LHI. Eventually, they set out again on the road north.
In Florsea, they came across Miranda Symol's tower, where she had raised the young Etheon. Astrid stayed in town while the LHI explored and removed the oblex that had taken up residence in the tower. Once freed, she took up residence in the tower at their suggestion, working on maintaining the magic and using the planar telescope at its apex to study the portents of catastrophe that were beginning to appear in the stars of every plane (every plane that has stars, anyway).
Astrid would rejoin the LHI later in Cormount as they fought to liberate the city from the Iron Revenant's control, this being the catastrophe she had foreseen. She stayed with them in their camp, providing guidance and foresight as she could to General Jericho Swain, Bella, and the amassed heroes. Following their triumph, she would invite Dead Arturo to stay with her in the wizard's tower where he could safely test the limits of his condition and assist in her research.
Some months later, she would reunite with Vivien, who had been a travelling companion of Corrin's grandfather prior to their relationship. Corrin had convinced Vivien to reconnect with Astrid in an unsubtle attempt to matchmake. The two women agreed that a relationship was off the table in order to get to know each other again, but Vivien was much more comfortable staying outside of the small town of Florsea and visiting the lone tower than she ever would be in a big city. In February 1338, they both accompanied the LHI as they travelled into the Border Ethereal in order to challenge Nidizzar.
Trivia
Astrid uses the custom astrologian class, based on the job of the same name from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. As of February 1338, she is 12th level. She originally started at a higher level than the LHI, but has levelled more slowly as she has not directly taken part in all of their adventures.
Her earrings and necklace are enchanted to be particularly alluring and distracting, mechanically raising her CHA by 2 to a total of 20. This was her reward for stealing the magic sail. Actually, Jamie just wanted a magic item from the DM at the time and this was the result.
Caerdonal is rolled directly from Xanathar's Guide on the Elf Family Name table.
