Nyadnar

Nyadnar was a powerful mage living in Zazesspur in the mid-14 century DR. Although living in disguise among humans, she was in fact an amethyst dragon.
==Description==
In her humanoid form, Nyadnar was of average height and extremely thin, built much like an elf. Her skin was very pale and had no wrinkles. She had long, straight black hair with a widow's peak. Her face was roughly heart-shaped, with high, slanted cheekbones and with a thin nose and lips. Her eyes were the color of dark blue sapphires. She was awesomely beautiful, more so than even an elf, yet she was never seen to smile. She dressed in a velvet robe the color of her eyes. She had a husky and dry voice.
In her true form, as an amethyst dragon, Nyadnar had purple scales and boasted a massive wingspan. In either form, to those who could see or sense such things, she was enveloped with a powerful magic aura.
Her mage sigil was a stylized dragon's eye symbol, including a slanted brow. Two lines extended vertically below the eye.
==Personality==
Nyadnar considered herself above matters of good and evil, caring only for maintaining the balance of the multiverse. She considered herself a creature of rationality. She was arrogant and impatient and rarely showed emotion.
Nyadnar was obsessed with sapphires and had a vast collection of them in her home.
==Activities==
Nyadnar had many agents and spies who kept her informed on happenings in the world, but she rarely took action, seeming instead to simply keep knowledge for herself.
==Possessions==
Nyadnar lived in a large house on Love Street in the Exotics Quarter that seemed both chaotic and planned in its construction, with many architectural styles being integrated into a design that worked together as a whole, almost like a naturally grown structure. It had friezes, pilasters, and colonnades and windows of a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The roof, too, had an assortment of angles and slopes with a miscellany of chimneys. Many stone roof ornaments, such as gargoyles and caryatid columns were displayed. Atop the whole structure was a large lantern the color of sapphire. The main doors had stained glass and were flanked by Nyadnar's sigil on one side and a balance on the other. A golden chain served as a magic doorbell.
The inner hallways and were white and trimmed with gold, well-lit, with parlors coming off them and impossibly tall galleries. The stairs in the house were crafted from obsidian. In a large central chamber, Nyadnar displayed all manner of precious gemstones—amethysts, emeralds, rubies, topazes, turquoises, and especially sapphires of all colors—both polished and unpolished, upon pedestals and stands and within cases, themselves made of precious stones—agate, chalcedony, feldspar, onyx, and jadeite and nephrite. The walls of the chamber were panels of milky white quartz with golden veins.
Nyadnar employed at least one human footman at her house.
The location also served as a shop.
==Relationships==
Nyadnar had several times employed Zaranda Star's services as an adventuress, but neither woman considered the other a friend.The Lands of Intrigue boxed set claims that Nyadnar was Zaranda Star's mentor, but this is a misunderstanding. The novel War in Tethyr makes it clear that Alshayn was Zaranda's tutor. Nyadnar had simply hired Zaranda for adventuring work on several occasions.
Nyadnar was the mother of Chenowyn, the apprentice of Zaranda Star.
==Reputation==
As Nyadnar was the only mage living in the Exotics Quarter of Zazesspur, she was greatly feared, and her sigil was widely recognized around the city. Some considered her as powerful as Elminster; others who were more knowledgeable about such things, recognized that she was not quite his equal but still not a person with whom to trifle. Her age and her wealth were the stuff of rumors.
==History==
Around the 4 century DR, Nyadnar sat on the council of wyrms while it was discussing what to do about humans. While some members thought it best to annihilate humans, Nyadnar thought instead to somehow join the two races into one, as a way to preserve both races, which inevitably would come into conflict.
So, Nyadnar began many hundreds of years of magical experimentation. The end result was that she figured out a way to impregnate herself while in human form, carried her child for nine months, and gave birth to a daughter, Chenowyn, who—Nyadnar claimed—was an entirely new species, an entity simultaneously human and dragon. Nyadnar called her new creation a "ruby dragon".Heroes' Lorebook, a sourcebook written after the novel War in Tethyr, which introduced the character of Chenowyn, refers to her as a "ruby dragon" in a short stat block. However, the novel is clear that she is of a unique race and not a true ruby dragon. Notably, Heroes' Lorebook says that she has the abilities of a young amethyst dragon, like her mother, with a few additional innate abilities, not those of a ruby dragon. The Lands of Intrigue boxed set only agrees with the novel that she is a gem dragon without specifying which kind.
After ensuring that her child would survive, she dropped the baby off at a Sunite orphanage in Zazesspur, and Chenowyn grew up with no idea that she was even a dragon. She wanted Chenowyn to learn to survive on her own to prove that her idea had been successful.
Later, Nyadnar hired Zaranda Star to recover a brazen head from Zulkir Baastat from Thay, simply as a means of bringing Zaranda to Zazesspur to deal with the deepspawn L'yafv-Afvonn and hopefully awaken the powers of her daughter. Zaranada successfully recovered the head and arrived in Zazesspur in the , where she also encountered the orphaned Chenowyn and took her in.
By that time, Nyadnar's daughter Chenowyn had grown into an adolescent human girl, and she joined Star Protective Services as Zaranda Star's apprentice. In the month of Tarsakh, 1367 DR, Chenowyn finally figured out how to turn into her dragon form, to rescue her mentor Zaranda Star from the clutches of L'yafv-Afvonn, who was about to consume the adventuress. Nyadnar was present at that battle, but she did nothing but defend herself, neither rescuing her contractee nor aiding her daughter. She wanted to see that her daughter could solve the problem on her own, which she fortunately did. Chenowyn, upon learning the truth of her heritage and seeing how her mother seemed to treat her more like an experiment than a daughter, was furious and decided to stay with Zaranda as her ward instead of with her true mother.
Ultimately, Chenowyn seems to have made amends with her mother, for both Nyadnar and Chenowyn flew away together toward the west in the month of Flamerule in the , shortly after Zaranda's ascension to the throne of Tethyr. As of 1370 DR, Nyadnar's shop and home were still abandoned in the city but were protected by magics that no one could overcome.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
====Novels====
===References===
Category:Amethyst dragons
Category:Sorcerers
Category:Mages
Category:Wizards
Category:Inhabitants of Zazesspur
Category:Inhabitants of Starspur
Category:Inhabitants of Kamlann
Category:Inhabitants of Ankramir
Category:Inhabitants of Tethyr
Category:Inhabitants of the Lands of Intrigue
Category:Inhabitants of West Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Year of Manuscripts