Sofina

Sofina () was an undeadIt is unknown what type of undead Sofina is. A typical type for her role is a lich like Szass Tam, but she does not display any of the common features of a lich. human wizard and member of the Red Wizards of Thay in the late 14 and 15 centuries DR. She was an apprentice of Szass Tam, the Zulkir of Necromancy and later Regent of Thay, and served as ally and advisor to Lord Forge Fitzwilliam of Neverwinter in the 1490s DR.
==Description==
As a Red Wizard, Sofina had a bald head adorned with tattoos that represented magical sigils. She had pale skin that darkened around her eyes, hinting at her undead nature. This was but a disguise, however, and her true appearance was decayed, gaunt, and dead-eyed.
She typically wore robes with a large cowl to cover her bald head and tattoos. It changed color at a thought or with her mood, shifting from the dark blue she habitually wore as a disguise among others to a crimson red when she wished to show off her status as a Red Wizard.
==Personality==
Sofina was a shrewd and patient schemer. She was aloof and disinterested in making friends, rejecting all attempts at amiability. Szass Tam called her the disciple upon whom he had always most relied. She despised the living and sought to see them all slain and raised again as creatures of undeath like her. She also despised Forge for his false charm, arrogance, and jests.
Owing to the fear that Red Wizards received outside Thay, and to conceal her true intentions in Neverwinter, Sofina kept secret her affiliations and concealed her bald head and tattoos.
==Abilities==
Sofina had advanced skills in spellcasting and specialized in the school of necromancy, including spells of fear and death magic. As a wizard, she commanded a variety of spells, including mage hand, message, and prestidigitation at will; bestow curse, Bigby's hand (which took on a black-nailed, skinless appearance), dimension door, mage armor, Otiluke's resilient sphere, and thunderwave twice a day each; and Evard's black tentacles, finger of death, and time stop once a day each, as well as transmute rock to mud and animate objects. She could also hurl a meteor swarm, evoking four orbs that exploded in flames over a radius of wide, and could do so up to . Other spells she could cast included chain lightning.
As an undead creature, she could strike with a necrotic power, either with a touch or up to away. She was naturally resistant to such energy herself.
She could summon a wraith that was the spirit of a Thayan assassin. It appeared up to from her and obeyed her commands. This wraith served for up to 1 hour, unless it or Sofina was destroyed or dismissed it.This wraith may be intended to be the undead Thayan assassin Dralas, but in Honor Among Thieves he is not summoned but arrives by boat as a regular creature.
She was knowledgeable in history and the Art, and possessed good insight and perception.
==Possessions==
Sofina wore a magical robe that protected her somewhat from attacks and harmful effects. She kept concealed a Red Wizard blade, a necromantic weapon that prevented resurrection and healing.
Lady Sofina owned a gated and fenced townhouse in Longsaddle. After her encounter with Forge Fitzwilliam, Sofina placed armed guards in front of her home. The building itself appeared unwelcoming, with its boarded-up front windows and large intimidating reinforced oaken doors. The fence surrounded the property with rose beds planted alongside the walkway to the front door. The townhouse's back window opened to the formal gardens surrounding a stone fountain. The interior was darkly decorated with expensive plush sofas and wingback chairs. The sitting room's centerpiece was a grand piano drowned in the room's shadows that the home's owner liked to play.
==History==
===Early History===
Sofina was purported to be some three hundred years old as of the late 1400s DR.
In the mid-1370s DR, on the eve of a summer solstice, Sofina joined other Red Wizards who served Szass Tam atop the Citadel, his headquarters.Honor Among Thieves only says "the capital" of Thay, which at the time should be Eltabbar. However, the Citadel is presumed instead, owing to its apparent depiction and characters like Xenk bearing Tam's tattoo. Moreover, Xenk may be referring to it as the present capital.Honor Among Thieves mentions only the eve of the solstice; due to the presence of sun-like symbols in the crowd, this is presumed to be the summer solstice.According to history books a century later, Szass Tam had called all the other zulkirs of Thay and all the people of the Thaymount tharch, Xenk Yendar and his parents among them, to a grand celebration atop the Citadel. But it was all a lie—instead, Szass used the horn of beckoning death, thereby creating an army of undead under his control for his coup and following conquest of Thay. Sofina and the other Red Wizards serving Szass Tam slew or trapped all who tried to flee.It is difficult to reconcile Xenk's account and the scenes in Honor Among Thieves with the established history of Szass Tam, the zulkirs, and Thay, as Tam's betrayal here contradicts his betrayals elsewhere. It appears to conflate the zulkirs gathering at the Citadel in The Crimson Gold in 1373 DR; the meeting of the Council of Zulkirs in Eltabbar, the start of the War of the Zulkirs, and Tam's takeover of Thay in Unclean in 1375 DR; and a later new event of Tam creating his undead armies from his subjects. Since this is presented as a story from a book a century later and from Xenk's childhood memories, it's presumed to be a case of unreliable narration or movie dramatization.
===Quest for the Red Horn===
However, Szass Tam would later lose the strange red horn that was central to the beckoning death, with the Harpers apparently having acquired or stolen it. They stored it within the vault of Korinn's Keep, far from the lich's reach.From Honor Among Thieves, it is unknown how the horn managed to pass from Szass Tam's possession and into the Harpers', and when this occurred. Most likely, they stole it to prevent him using it again. While speculative, the event is included here for context. Szass Tam sent Sofina to recover it.
To this end, in the mid-1490s DR, Sofina disguised herself and traveled to Targos, one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, to enlist the services of the ex-Harper turned thief Edgin Darvis, whose wife Zia had been murdered by Red Wizards nine years earlier.It might be supposed that, after Edgin revealed himself as a Harper to the Red Wizards, Sofina and others were watching him even this far back, and perhaps had even killed his wife to cause him to lose faith in the group. For aid, Sofina allied herself with his treacherous partner, the confidence trickster Forge Fitzwilliam. Finally, one night whilst they were celebrating a score at the Trip and Shuffle tavern in Targos, "Lady Sofina" met the team, which also included Holga Kilgore and Simon Aumar. She wanted to hire them to help her steal the treasures of Korinn's Keep, a Harper storehouse that only a Harper could enter—Edgin. He refused, however, still having some standards. But Forge promised they would find there a Tablet of Reawakening, a magical relic capable of resurrecting one deceased soul. Against his better judgement but with hopes of restoring Zia to life, Edgin relented and acquiesced to Forge's and Sofina's scheme.
Donning his old Harper uniform, Edgin led the team to Korinn's Keep and gained admittance. While the thieves helped themselves to the treasures of the vault, and Sofina claimed the red horn, Edgin went for the Tablet of Reawakening. But the poor thief triggered an alarm, summoning Harper guards, whom Sofina struck with chain lightning, to Edgin's dismay. She then cast time stop, which the sorcerer Simon could not counterspell. It trapped the guards, Holga, and Edgin while she, Forge, and Simon made their escape. Afterward, Sofina tried to kill Simon, as they'd never intended for him to escape Korinn's Keep, and the sorcerer only just got away with his life.
===The Doom of Neverwinter===
However, Szass Tam did not merely want his horn back, but instead set Sofina a greater task. Next, she moved on to Neverwinter and with her dark magic caused Lord Dagult Neverember to suddenly take ill and fall into a vegetative state, a sickness that was rumored to be her doing. Then Forge Fitzwilliam seized the opportunity, waging a political campaign for lordship of Neverwinter financed with his ill-gotten gains. Successful, he became Lord of Neverwinter with Sofina as his chief advisor and Edgin's daughter Kira as his ward. They all moved into Castle Never, where cast Mordenkainen's arcane seal on the treasure vault.
But Forge and Sofina's real scheme was far larger and more terrible in scope than simply taking over Neverwinter. One of the Forge's main acts was to revive the High Sun Games, a monster-filled bloodsport that had been banned by Lord Neverember as he considered them too brutal. Forge also ordered the construction of the Neverwinter arena to host the Games.As no structure of the kind has been seen or mapped in Neverwinter before, the arena is presumed to be new and built by Forge. The first Games were to be held in the late 1490s DR, allegedly as a way of bringing the city together, as well as many visitors from outside Neverwinter. This was quite true, and exactly what Sofina and Szass Tam desired.
Meanwhile, after two years imprisoned in Revel's End, Edgin and Holga escaped and came to Castle Never to retrieve Kira and the Tablet of Reawakening, but they had a less-than-warm reception. They were shocked to find Forge still working Sofina, whom they rightly blamed for getting them caught. Worse, Kira was estranged from her father due to Forge's lies. Finally, Forge refused to return Kira and threatened to sell the Tablet of Reawakening in Skullport, and when Holga and Edgin got angry and went to grab him, Sofina cast a transmute rock to mud spell to trap them in the floor. After taunting and mocking them, Forge ordered his guard Blackwood to take them back to Revel's End. But Sofina told Blackwood to kill them in secret, though they would escape.
Later, from the shadows of Sofina's office in Castle Never, Szass sent an image of himself to communicate with her, giving counsel her that her long work was close to completion. Forge and Sofina then showed the wealthy guests Din Caldwell and Porb Piiradost around Castle Never, boasting of its upgraded security and suitability for storing the wealth they'd brought to gamble on the games in its vault; Sofina declined to elaborate on her Mordenkainen's arcane seal. However, they were interrupted when Sofina sensed the presence of a wild shaped druid—Doric, a new ally of Edgin and Holga—spying on them. Sofina led the hunt, blasting the walls with her thunderwave and ordering the castle guards to give chase. Although Sofina sensed Doric in other forms, including as an axe beak, the druid got away. Forge was correct in his suspicion that this was Edgin's doing, but Sofina vowed to send her own forces to get rid of the gang.
She sent for the Thayan assassin Dralas and his band of six fellow warriors. Sofina, Blackwood, and his Neverwintan guards met Dralas at the docks as he arrived by boat on the Neverwinter River. Sofina ordered him to hunt down and kill Edgin, Holga, Simon, and Doric. But first, she wanted Dralas to dispatch Blackwood and his guards because they'd failed to stop Edgin and Holga's escape. Dralas slew them all single-handedly.
Finally, on the day of the High Sun Games and the culmination of her long work, Sofina somehow detected that Edgin, Holga, Simon, and Doric had infiltrated Castle Never, as part of their attempted heist of the treasure vault and mission to rescue Kira. Fortunately, she had placed an Evard's black tentacles trap in the empty vault, which ensnared Simon and Holga. Meanwhile, Sofina used disguise self magic to pose as Kira and waited in the girl's room for Edgin. Finding her, he confessed he had been terrible father, for abandoning his daughter to resurrect his wife, not the mother she'd never known. But it fell on mocking ears—laughing manically, Sofina threw off her disguise and caught him in her Evard's black tentacles spell. Then Forge entered and taunted him, but Edgin pleaded for a fighting chance, that is, to compete in the High Sun Games. Though Forge was reluctant, perhaps to spare Edgin a fate worse than death, Sofina agreed that they should suffer for defeating her assassins.
Afterward, Sofina took her place in the luxury balcony over the arena, with Forge Fitzwilliam and Din Caldwell, Porb Piiradost, and the wealthy gamblers. At last, their respective schemes had come to fruition: Forge had stolen the riches of the castle and his wealthy guests and had it all loaded aboard a ship for his getaway as he abandoned the city, and Sofina had all the people gathered together in the arena—a perfect target for the Beckoning Death, turning the whole city into undead, and bringing about Szass Tam's plan to seize control of Neverwinter. Though Forge tried an amiable farewell, Sofina coldly ordered him to get out of her city, in a hurry to be rid of him now their partnership was at an end. Chanting the arcane phrases, she finally invoked the horn of beckoning death and levitated above the arena, causing storms to brew over the city, crimson strands to funnel down through the horn, and red smoke to fill the viewing chamber and turn the wealthy gamblers and servants into ravening undead. The smoke poured down into the arena below, but before it could engulf the spectators, Sofina saw them all leaving, following a trail of treasure spilling from a portal in a hot-air balloon—the doing of Edgin and his friends. With the Beckoning Death wasted, and the horn not useable again for a whole year, all of Sofina's patient work and scheming had come to naught.
Enraged, Sofina assaulted the thieves from atop the arena, first hurling a meteor swarm into the streets below. The fighting was furious. Sofina first grappled with Doric, who'd wild shaped into the form a snowy owlbear and then animated a statue of a juvenile gold dragon to aid her. Next, Sofina briefly trapped Edgin and Holga in an Otiluke's resilient sphere, sending them rolling through the streets while she engaged in a hand-to-hand spell duel with Simon—literally so, with her Bigby's hand grappling with his Maximilian's earthen grasp. Finally, all four companions fought the Red Wizard together until Sofina cast a time stop spell, presumably gaining the upper hand. Angry, Sofina confronted and threatened Edgin with eternal suffering for foiling her scheme—only to be surprised that he was not frozen in time at all as the invisible Kira put a magic-suppression cuff from the games on her wrist, negating Sofina's spellcasting abilities. Doric wild shaped back into an owlbear and put the defenseless Red Wizard down for good. But Sofina had one last curse, however—during the fray, she had stabbed Holga with her Red Wizard blade, and afterward the companions found her dying. Being undead, it is not necessarily confirmed that Sofina is dead, or rather, destroyed. If she is a lich, then she may resurrect at her phylactery if she has one.
With the negation of Sofina's magic, the former Lord of Neverwinter, Dagult Neverember awoke and resumed his reign.
==Appendix==
===Background===
Sofina is played by actor Daisy Head.
===Notes===
===Gallery===
Sofina concept art.jpg|Concept arts for Sofina.
Lady Sofina and Szass Tam.png|thumb|Concept art of Lady Sofina conspiring with Szass Tam.
Honor Among Thieves movie poster Head.jpg|Character poster for Honor Among Thieves.
Sofina T-shirt.png|Artwork of the Red Wizard Sofina appearing on t-shirts.
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Wizards
Category:Undead
Category:Humans
Category:Mages
Category:Members of the Red Wizards of Thay
Category:Inhabitants of Thay
Category:Inhabitants of the Unapproachable East
Category:Inhabitants of East Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Longsaddle
Category:Inhabitants of the Savage Frontier
Category:Inhabitants of Neverwinter
Category:Inhabitants of Northwest Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Inhabitants of neutral evil alignment