Six NPCs

A sketch portrait of a group of six NPCs for a custom D&D campaign set in the Dragonlance universe: each one unique and loved by their DM and players.

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1. Sir Gradian Tresbal

Sir Gradian Tresbal, the Knight of Words, is a charismatic Istaran noble with shoulder-length blonde hair and pronounced physique, wearing almost comically shining armor (which hasn’t seen much battle). He’s a reluctant “knight” (paladin) who was pressured into the life, and only really went along with it because it afforded him access to libraries and colleges to pursue his academic and philosophical dreams: he’s particularly fond of writing comparison critiques between texts translated between different languages, and hopes to eventually retire into some kind of professorship, or start a publication/distribution company to expand the opportunities and reach of international and obscure authors. He married the wizard Syrrth, the “White Witch of Palanthas”, very recently (and in fact, it was Varin who officiated their ceremony). The newlyweds are still figuring out what life together will look like, once they’ve survived the present military/siege conflict, and have relocated to Syrrth’s estates in Palanthas). Tresbal is devoted to the gods of Good, especially Paladine, though his relationship with them has long felt distant, disconnected. He receives his paladin spells and abilities, and feels a sense of peace following prayer, but he has felt his questions gone unanswered, his communications one-sided: he found both solace and purpose in his studies, his scholarship. After he met others (Varin, specifically) who had interacted directly with the Gods of Good, in ways he had only dreamed of, his life was changed: he views his purpose as having shifted, now, with greater responsibility, having more closely encountered the gods (albeit vicariously through others, whose destinies draw them closer to the divine than his own). 

2. Syrrth (and owl)

Syrrth is an unconventional white-robed wizard, who is highly placed in the hierarchy of the Conclave (and was rumored to be “next in line” to head her order, if not eventually become Highmage herself). Known (informally)  as the “White Witch of Palanthas”, she was born to the wealthy Viranesh noble family. Taking quickly to arcane studies, she excelled (and rose in prominence quickly). She completed her Test of High Sorcery at a younger age than usual, in secret from her family (which frowned on magical practices). Her first husband had risen to the position of Lord Justice of the Knights of Solamnia, but died only several years in— leaving Syrrth to focus more on her magic, and less on the politics she’d been born, and then married, into. She has recently married again, this time to an Istaran paladin, Sir Tresbal, “the Knight of Words”. She is an intensely controlled personality, with a stern “serious business” demeanor amongst most: she has an air of cold authority and the sort of smug confidence that stands between arrogance and excellence. Within her magic, she specializes in the school of divination, and utilizes her arcane studies toward what she considers to be the betterment of the world— albeit within the experience of lifelong privilege.

3. Lectiana

Lectiana is a Silvanesti Dark Elf and Black Robed Wizard of High Sorcery, with hair dyed a blue-black color, and the pale light skin: in many respects, she looks like your stereotypical elven Black Robe, exactly like you’d expect: pallid, distant, with a burning or seething passion in her eyes, a hunger for power or for secrets— but the stereotypes more or less stop at the surface. She’s a Dark Elf because she studied magic outside of her Caste-House in Silvanost proper, then eloped with her master’s son: she faced exile for the offense of love, and was permanently separated from her partner. Forced out and alone, she survived by the cunning of her magic, and reached beyond what she had been taught by the elves— all to survive, in a harsh world which was unkind to lone elven travelers, without roots or home or connections. In time she was encountered by other Mages, and brought to Wayreth Tower for the Test. In her Test, she committed acts of violence and vengeful fury upon illusory figures, traitors to her heart and safety, from her past: for her moral choices, she was given to the Order of Black Robes. However, unlike the clichés of her peers, her focus in magical studies was not necromancy, but transmutation, and she developed a special focus as an attachment in military campaigns on providing environmental support to allied soldiers— allowing for warm sheltered encampments in bitter cold, barriers of dryness in the pouring rain, and passage through difficult terrain. She is a war-mage, but one geared toward hospitable provision for her assigned forces: she has been alone in the elements, abandoned and cast out, and she has developed a special focus in her arcane magics to undermine the power of the world over the frailty of mortal machination.

4. Cordia

Cordia was raised into enslavement and abuse within a particularly vile noble house in Silvanost, before being trafficked against her will (by way of trade for favor) to an even worse environment across the continent. She was rescued, near death, by Varin, and once healthy enough, became a frequent “underdog hero” amongst the party. (She is an intermittent PC/NPC pending player availabilities, etc.) She began with levels in rogue, as cunning and subterfuge came easily from her background, but was courted to the study of magic when she was able to demonstrate a keen understanding of the arcane. She is the romantic partner and apprentice of Dhrazura of Dravinaar, herself formerly of the Tower of High Sorcery at Losarcum, but is considering a departure (at the end of present military campaigning) as she has been invited to study at the Tower in Palanthas. Cordia is YOUNG as an elf, and has only just begun to overcome staggering trauma: her nights are still besieged by nightmares, and while she is recovering, she is also throwing herself dangerously fast into her magical studies, giving herself to the magic in part to escape the burdens of facing her past (and establishing her future). It has been observed, by more than one, that she will likely grow to move into a position of prominence amongst the Orders of High Sorcery, if she survives her own youthful ambitions long enough to do so.

5. Dhrazura

Dhrazura of Dravinaar is a war-mage of the Red Robe Order of High Sorcery, who spent most of her career at the Tower of Losarcum, “The Black Knife”, in Qim Sudri. She grew up in the region before the Istaran invasion and conquest in 868 PC. She was married to the Master of the Tower of Losarcum, a human Black Robe she’d come up through the Conclave with. With his death, she and their teenage daughter – Zhradalthi – departed the Black Knife, and Dravinaar itself, relocating to take up residences at Zhaman Keep, and the nearby Tower of Wayreth. Dhrazura has taken a position – alongside Syrrth and Lectiana – as one of the Council of Twenty-One of the Conclave of High Sorcery, while her daughter studies with the war-mages of Zhaman. She “married into magic” with her husband, coming from a proud warrior family who were very displeased with this choice: Dhrazura is built like a berserker, a barbarian, towering and muscled for slaughter, but her calling was always to magic; indeed, she lost her bloodlust and inherited gifts of rage to her Test of High Sorcery, replacing them with meditation and a focus on long-form ritual spellcasting (whose patient intricacies are quite the opposite of her family heritage of the altered-states of extreme violence). 

6. Zhradalthi

Zhradalthi of Dravinaar is a war-mage of the Red Robe Order of High Sorcery, trained at the famed Zhaman Keep (well after it was surrendered to the Conclave by Fistandantilus of the Black Robes, and repurposed in the Age of Might as a training facility for war-mages and more military-oriented arcane magics), who is naturally talented with High Sorcery… but a “reluctant mage”, full of anger and angst. Like her mother (Dhrazura) before her, she was born to a bloodline of berserkers, of warriors, skilled at and meant for battle. She was born not long after Dravinaar fell to Istaran conquest, and after the passing of her father, was moved from the Qim Sudri to the Tower of Wayreth, until she had matured enough to join the ranks at Zhaman. She took her Test very early, and was awarded admission into the Order of the Red Robes; whereas her mother had sacrificed her birthright as a warrior in her own test as cost paid for her magic, Zhradalthi’s sacrifice was heavier still: she was left with the yearning for battle, for rage, for the release of unrelenting physical violence, and is haunted by the spirit of blood-fury which was her inheritance. Though a talented mage, she struggles frequently with the temptation of the sword, and of slaughter: this is her own crucible to bear, and time will tell where she winds up with it in the long run. 

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Created on: 16/11/2022, published on 15/06/2023 – 25/8/25
Copyright 2022 Elena zambelli, all rights reserved, #noai