Lillian Sesthal

General

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Additions marked by a ' + ' Edits are in 'Blue'

Name: Lillian Sesthal

Titles and monikers: Lil, Lily, Lollipop, Kid

Age: 17

Race: Apparently human

Hair: Soft and glossy strands of sable silk

Eyes: Eerily blue and frighteningly clear, with a sinister glow

Height: 5’ 4”

Weight: 64 lbs. (Change in Body Composition, not Anorexia)

Class: 'White Widow'

Occupation: Freelance librarian, Matriarch of the House of Sora, Ghost Scholar

History

The Story till Level I: 'Maiden Voyage'

Lillian’s first true adventure was at the age of twelve, when she boarded a ship for Scara Brae to follow in the footsteps of her parents. It was quite unfortunate that she started her first venture into the world by almost dying and becoming the meal of a gigantic spider. The trip was, luckily, not an utter failure, as she did befriend a charming, albeit dense boy named Sam and made the acquaintance of the mercenary demon, Ifrit Obsidian, who became her guardian during her stay on the island. She even became aware of a strange being that had lived inside her in secrecy, self-proclaimed the Welkin Body, and of the new healing powers it bestowed upon her. The entity, however, fell into a deep slumber shortly after their meeting, one from which the child could not shake it, no matter what she did. Halfway through the forest, in the village of Greenclough, she was kidnapped by a crime syndicate. During her time of captivity, she learned of her parents’ ties with the leader of her abductors. What followed was as much of a happy ending as she could hope, for the demon returned to save her and saw her safely to Scara Brae. There she recovered a box that once belonged to her mother; though it was locked and without a key, she took it back to Fallien as a keepsake.

Four years later, Lillian was exiled from Fallien for her failed attempt at entering Irrakam without an exit pass. The deed was done by the same man who had denied her parents the same right before their disappearance. The girl had never learned his name, and reckoned she never would; this made her already heartbreaking departure from her homeland that much more frustrating. She found refuge aboard the Peregrine as a stowaway, but was quickly discovered by the captain, a certain Rajani Aishwara. Instead of throwing her into the ocean to feed the sharks, as she had seen done in so many books, the young man took interest in her prodigious mind, and by some strange turn of fate, made her an integral part of his entrepreneurial group.

He sent her on her first assignment, where she was to persuade a monk of Ai’bron in joining their forces to fight against the Illicit Entrepreneurs. With the help of the sword-mistress Doji Ki, the mission had been a success, though she did not leave the Citadel without a few bruises and broken ribs. Her second task was to research the resources of Salvar in the library of Ankhas, a much less dangerous mission than her previous one… or so Rajani thought. There, she inadvertently unleashed a legion of Night Incarnates, who seemed to feast on fear to spread the darkness. After realizing that they had been called away from their home, she helped them return to their realm with the help of an arrogant Drow Summoner, Helviana Erelisstra. A few weeks later, she made her way to Salvar, where she helped her leader diffuse the resources of Althanas with her newly-acquired knowledge. The teenager had not expected the business venture to end with a gentle force blessing the Peregrines on their voyage.

The Story till Level II: 'Perusing the Nexus'

Upon her request, the ship dropped her off at the dock nearest to Radasanth, where she had hoped to spend quality time browsing its world-renowned library. Unlucky as she was, however, she became the murdering tool of a lecher sorcerer, who took over her body to dispose of Devin, heir of the Argente family. Following a violent battle, Lillian was wounded by the boy’s silver katars, but the pain was enough to summon an old power back to the surface. Once more, the Welkin Body rose from an unknown abyss, expelling the intruder from the temple of her mind without difficulty. Devin, remorseful, nursed the girl back to health after hearing her apologetic explanation, but disappeared once the girl had fully recovered. Hoping that she could resume her perusal of the library, she came across information that told of the Unseen Nexus, a special book which contained the locations of the most occult tomes and arcane scripts on Althanas, and perhaps even beyond. Following a trail of two-hundred-year-old clues, she was led to the 'Bawdy Barry', an erotic bookstore, where the said book had been securely stashed for centuries. Alas, she fought over its possession with a purple-haired boy and shoplifted the Nexus by accident. On the streets, she jarred into a political insurrectionist, who also happened to be a most potent fire wizard. With the help of the same boy, she defeated him and his flaming golem, saving innocent bystanders on the streets from what could have been a burning massacre. As a token of his gratitude, the owner of the Bawdy Barry gave them each a copy of the Nexus, though Lillian realized a few days later that he had given her the original by mistake. Concomitantly, Lillian found a new reason to explore the world; to exhume time-lost knowledge all over the world and make it her own.

As the first step of her new quest, Lillian traveled to the esoteric country that was Dheathain. In the swamps of Fiorair, she met Aiden DarkStorm and his son, Chance, though the circumstances of their meeting were somewhat unsettling. By some strange force were they lulled to an old and massive tree, exuding of mysteries and an unshakeable taint. With their help, she contended against an ancient evil that lurked within the sylvan prison, escaping both gruesome rape and agonizing death by its monstrous hands. After this blood-curdling ordeal, she became good friends with the man and the boy, deciding to tag along with them on light-hearted adventures, scouring the rainforest and grasslands for synthesizing ingredients. With her new allies, she fought Algoras, Wyrms and Wyrvens, becoming stronger and hardier with each day spent at their side. Alas, when they set out to rescue Aiden’s wife and daughter, Alaina and Fate, her friend met his dreadful end, and his son was kidnapped by the same man who murdered him, a despicable sorcerer named Ishadin. For months, Lillian grieved. For months, she searched, desperate. But nothing.

After months of silence from the Peregrines, she received a letter that summoned her to Marach Mor, where Rajani was forming a party to explore the ruins of the ancient capital. The news made her cry in happiness, trawling her from her pit of solitude and remorse. At the Great hall, she met a handful of important figures, including the captain of the Peregrines and Seti Dylan, a foul-mouthed architect and the leader of the House of Sora, which allied with his group shortly after the completion of their mutual task; that is to say, the discovery of time-raught artifacts and the repairs of the ruins themselves. For this venture, Rajani had only requested her aid as a scribe, wishing for her to record everything of import that was to occur during the endeavor. Little did he know that a steadfast quill and a faultless memory were not the only things this girl of sixteen would bring to the table. Little by little, the girl had gained respect from those she frequented. Now, however, it is fame that she is gaining.

The Story till Level III: 'Reaching Above the Skies'

After her adventure in the ruins of Donnalaich, she was offered a position in the House of Sora as Matriarch of Lodge Vespera, where she would lead a team of scholars on various research projects of both scientific and magic nature. Her first assignment was, naturally, to recruit a team comprised of Althanas' greatest minds. After multiple refusals on her voyage, she dejectedly returned to the island where it all began, Scara Brae. There, she sought the vestiges of her past, the few remaining mementos of her parents had left, before taking roots in Fallien. During a sojourn at the Sea’s Salt that should not have lasted more than a night, she made the acquaintance of a half-elf warrior, Anenfel Saendithas, and of a Drow named Izvilvin, while the port city was attacked by a horde of spider-mounted goblins. In the middle of the siege, the spiders retaliated against their masters, instead uniting as one under the shadow of their God, another spider of gigantic proportions. Their motley team eventually prevailed, and decided to set out on more adventures to the west.

After leaving Scara Brae, she headed out to Raiaera so as to resume her mission, while not forgetting her personal search for knowledge. Using the first few decoded pages of the Unseen Nexus, the girl learned of a set of books called the Red Pharos and the White Calamity, supposedly housed by a dilapidated library in Anebrilith: were they to be reunited under one unsuspecting owner, they would bring about the lands chaos and destruction. She was unfortunately too late, as they had both been rented by a pretty bookworm by the name Maia Kristel, whom she followed to the coast of the port city on a private beach. Unable to purloin the items from her bag, Lillian decided to remain with the bonnie blonde instead, ever on the lookout for any sign of an impending cataclysm. Alas, the influence of the books had already begun to spread on the beach-goers. Luckily, with Maia’s help, they interrupted the clash of the two entities and returned peace to the elven city. Though they took different paths later following these events, they left as close friends.

The following events were a maddening spiral. She was first taken to an alternate dimension where she faced with an alien entity with powers very similar to her own, hell-bent on assimilating the magical powers of those it captured. Its plan failed, and all prisoners had been released with her. Among them was a renowned Raiaeran Bard, Orophin Súrion, who grudgingly recommended that she study at the IstienUniversity. There, she followed the Empirical major, a fledgling program that favoured hands-on studies rather than theories. She was a prodigious learner, but this caused her classmates to avoid her, all save one young man, Io Beauregard, her roommate who soon became her friend. A dark presence lurked on the school grounds, apparently following the girl for shady reasons, but one day she learned that there was much more to him than met the eye and that they shared a strange… kinship.

It was then that an ancient evil resurfaced in Raiaera. Under the rising shadow of Xem‘Zûnd and his undead legion, Eluriand was in turmoil, and all students were ushered out of the University while thousands of soldiers were mobilized. Lillian was among them, but was alas separated from Io in the chaos. Alongside the famous Skie dan Sabriel, a mercenary called Godhand, a battle-scarred warrior named Kross and another student, the ophidian Khalina, Lillian escaped from the walls with the help of a mysterious force that teleported them to Carnelost, already ravaged by the Necromancer‘s army. There, they fought a few risen corpses before withdrawing into Lindequalmë, where they encountered one of the Forgotten’s generals, the Queen of Undeath, Cydonia. To survive, the librarian assimilated the mercenary’s inhuman strength and fought alongside him and Kross, defeating her with her healing powers. When all seemed well, however, Kross revealed his true colors as one of the Dark’s goons, and fled the Obsidian Spire with Skie on his shoulder, while the undead were closing in on the Tower, once a shelter but soon to be their grave.

The Story till Level IV: 'Return to the Fold'

Lillian escaped the Obsidian Spire by inadvertently touching the onyx stone on an armour that once belonged to Xem’Zûnd. It sent her flying far away in a dark stream the bore resemblance to a murder of ravens, and brought her to the ruined castle of one of the Dark’s esteemed generals, Sir Anderson Maxwell, the Unbeliever. There, she was kept prisoner for what seemed to be ten days, until she escaped from her cell by breaking the bars, using only a piece of a broken platter and her soaked dress. She ploughed a path through the thin ranks of undead that had not left the castle for patrol, until she jarred into Godhand Striker at the gates. Her defences crumbled at the sight of that old friend, until she collapsed from exertion, malnutrition and excessive happiness. He left her to sleep in his wagon while he quickly dispatched the general using his new magic-cancelling sheathe. However, after being left in the adjacent village, she decided to rush back to the Tower, hoping that there had been survivors – she knew it was highly unlikely. Unbeknownst to the girl, something within her had activated a strange spell, which created a gate that sent her ten days in the past, incidentally a few hours after her teleportation from the Spire. Thus was she able to assist her fellow stranded classmates in fending off the army of the Necromancer.

Following this ordeal, the teenager returned to Ettermire, where she continued to search for fellow scholars who would be willing to join the Vesperan Lodge. By visiting an old friend, Shairin Melarn of the Moru Úr inn, she ran into the Drow Summoner Helviana Erelisstra, the insufferable prick of a friend she had made during the incident in Ankhas. The girl was ecstatic when she heard of their engagement, though not exactly surprised by that turn of events. A few days later, she learned that the Qu’Ellarin Building was being sold off floor by floor, and she struck a deal with the town hall to rent the seventh floor, which thereafter became the headquarters of Lodge Vespera. There, she launched a series of projects with the help of the people she had managed to recruit, including Helviana who worked there part-time. Their first order of business was the creation of a dimension expander that would allow them more room in the cramped space that they had been provided, but Lillian knew that was only be the beginning.

The Story till Level V: 'Windows of Opportunity'

Seti Dylan, Patriarch of the House, was last seen in a foreign country on the continent of Kebiras, where raged a violent civil war. Rajani Aishwara, Patriarch of Lodge Peregrine, was said to have been be lost at sea or returned to his home of Avalon. Even with these ill tides, Lillian would not leave the House to die. As such, she formed an interim triumvirate with two other Patriarchs to sustain the group until the return of its missing leaders. During that time, the gears kept spinning in Lodge Vespera: a number of volunteers came to its aid, participating in the search for a number of special components that were necessary to its many projects, such as the retrieval of teleportation gate prototype in the mines of Kachuk and the hunt for a magical power source that could power it. Were they to return successful, she would be able to start the next phase in the expansion of the House throughout Althanas. That being said, she also had an unexpected meeting with an old member of the organization, Caduceus Grimaldi, who revealed to her that he now led the Order of the Golden Dawn and wished to form an alliance with the House. She gladly accepted, knowing full well that the Order was a benevolent association, being well acquainted with one of its other leaders, Dagon Dessalines, whom she had long ago met in the dreadful forest of Luthmor.

However, she had noticed certain changes occurring within her body for some months now, such as an unexplained loss of weight and a resurgence of vivid nightmares and otherworldly voices that haunted her more and more during every waking hour. Fearing that whatever was happening to her might endanger her colleagues, she delegated her work and set out for Fallien, her native land, sensing that her old mentor knew the answers to questions she could still not formulate. The girl did not have the slightest clue that the events that were to follow her return home would change her forever, and in more ways than one.

Afterwards...

(To Be Completed)