Asura

Art by Yenba

### Also known as

Dmitrius Valiensworth, Headmaster Gloria Chronos, Archmagister of Brysben, The Many-Faced Lord of Deception

### Family

Nigel Valiensworth (Son), Unnamed partner.

### Faction

Lords of Shadow, The Exodus Academy, Kingdom of Brysben, Daemancer Cult

## Campaign Appearances

### Main Campaign(s)

*Arcane Academy*, *Miss Demeanor*, *Goblins of Io*, *Fallen Hero Weyzi*, *The Shadow Invasion*

### Guest Appearances

Reunion: A World of Io Lore Session

**Asura** is one of the Devil Lords under Asmodeus, the Lord of Shadows. He was once **Dmitrius Valiensworth**, the Archmagister of Brisbane and headmaster of The Exodus Academy. After his failed attempt to further extort Asmodeus after the completion of their deal, Asmodeus saw fit to transform him into his fourth Devil Lord, seeing that his usefulness outweighed his treachery.

## Description

### Appearance

Asura's original appearance as Dmitrius Valiensworth is that of a tall slender man with deep red eyes. Valiensworth appears to have some form of albinism, as he has extremely pale skin and matching white hair that is slicked back off his face. One of his most distinctive features is a long hairline scar on the left side of his face. The scar travels vertically from his forehead down to his mouth. He normally wore a black longcoat over a white shirt, punctuated by a blood red cravat.

In his time as Headmaster of the Exodus Academy, he adopted the appearance of Gloria Chronos, a slender human woman of average height with blue eyes and dark brown hair tied in a bun. She usually wore a blue waistcoat over a white shirt with navy trousers. Her shoulders were ordained with long orange ribbons, and she also wore an orange tie.

In his new form as a Devil, Asura is drastically changed. He is now over 8 feet tall and his skin became an ashen grey. He possess four arms with long pointy fingers. He now has many faces over his body, three of which are on his head, with the face of Gloria Chronos facing forward. Other faces can be seen on his torso and shoulder, with the face in the center of his chest resembling his original visage with deep red eyes. A pair of horns adorns each of the faces on his head. Upon his body he wears a simple dark red velvet cloak.

### Personality

> *"You see, kingdoms and magicians like to work within limits. They have a code of ethics that they prefer to work upon. Me? I prefer to muddy the barrier, just a little bit."*
> -Headmaster Dmitrius Valiensworth
>
>

Even in his former life as Dmitrius Valiensworth, Asura was a master of deception and manipulation. His end goal was always power no matter the source or the means to acquire for himself. He openly admitted to the crew of the Miss Demeanor that he considered ethics and morality to be an obstruction in the pursuit of magical advancement. His lust for further power lead to the creation of the Daemancer Cult, an secret organization dedicated to unlocking the power of Dae that had been used against them not long before. It is hinted by Mayliera in her conversation to Lunafiera that Asura had sought to eventually usurp the Kingdom of Brisbane and turn it into a magiocracy with him at its head.

Asura also shows a noticeable sociopathic streak. He turned his own son into a book and kept him that way for months with no evidence of guilt, and was more than happy to allow one of his most loyal followers, Mayliera, to take the fall for the failure to summon Kaasma Khara to Io. This doesn't mean that Asura is blind to how people feel or think. He successfully manipulates all those around him by analyzing what they respond to. His interrogation of Tremmer Kushions, Gideon Snowfall, Aldoras Thelerian and Elenora Mordove showed how he constantly changed tactics between each session of questioning to best resonate with the mistrustful students. He was also able to memorize and replicate the mannerisms of Gloria Chronos so well that he was almost never suspected to be anyone else for over 50 years.

Asura is immensely intelligent and always has multiple schemes in motion. During his tenure as Headmaster, he was involved in several plots, including the delivery of the Ruby-Eyed Scepter and the summoning of Kaasma Khara, all in the pursuit of power. He always assured he covered himself appropriately, so as that none of his clandestine operations could ever be traced back to him, and that contingencies could be pursued despite any and all setbacks. However, his self-assuredness in his own scheming led to his downfall, with his curse upon the Ruby-Eyed Scepter being discovered, allowing Asmodeus to outwit him and turning him into the being he is now.

## History

When he was a mortal, Asura was known as Dmitrius Valiensworth, an ambitious wizard who became the Headmaster of the Old Academy in the Kingdom of Brisbane. However, for reasons yet unknown, the Academy came under attack by what accounts describe as "Dae savages" 50 years before the events of Phase 2. Much of the buildings were destroyed and many lives were lost. Valiensworth himself narrowly escaped by teleporting himself and a few students from his tower just before it collapsed. After the attack, the Kingdom of Brisbane led an inquiry and it was decided that Valiensworth would step down as headmaster and go into exile.

Not content with this outcome, he returned under the guise of Instructor Gloria Chronos, who became trapped in temporal stasis in the Astral Veil (potentially due to his machinations) and eventually rose to becoming Headmaster of The Exodus Academy, the institution that succeeded his destroyed academy. During his time there, he started to experiment with the Dae magic used by the invaders and that lead to the creation of the Daemancer Cult, which he led in secret. His experiments with the Dae have also caused a rise to the Goblin population within the Ishtar region, infecting countless humans within the highlands with Dae energy and letting them reincarnate to see the effects of the Dae on normal people. At some point in recent history, he had a son called Nigel Valiensworth, who he eventually had enrolled into the Exodus Academy as a first year student despite his young age. Valiensworth also saw fit to adopt the orphaned Half-Elf Alice, who was kept under close supervision as the Academy's ward.

## Phase 2 Story

When he was a mortal, Valiensworth had still managed to maintain his disguise as Gloria Chronos by the time the Exodus Academy had opened and acted as the headmaster there. Secretly however, he had plans to obtain a different source of power from the Dae energy he was currently using, as it is not a very sustainable source of magic. At some point, he managed to find out about the Shadow veil and discovered how to brings souls from there out to the prime plane. To do this, he managed to convince Mr. Mephisto to retrieve the Ruby-Eyed Scepter of the All King and bring it to the Kingdom of Asmodia. He even got Bronn Luxprin on this plan by giving him an enchanted head that can be used to revive the dead king.

Everything was going according to plan until Alice, Nigel, and a few other students found out about the Djinn housed in the basement of the Academy and wished themselves off to random places within the world. The moment that he found Nigel, who was about to tell the other students the truth of the Academy, Valiensworth used a considerable chunk of his Dae magic to transform his own son into a book, which the rest of the students there were not happy about. After bringing them back to the Exodus Academy and interviewing each of the students about what happened there, he managed to learn about the Astral Veil and, subsequently, Kaasma Khara, which could be used for another power source to replace the depleting Dae magic he was using. To not risk any of his plans being found out, he put the rest of the students under high surveillance to make sure they didn't get in the way again.

Over the next year or so, Valiensworth had been sending out Mayliera and his Daemancer cult to take over the Astral and secure Kaasma Khara as a new power source to use, while he spent his time assassinating Rafius Thelerian to become the new Archmagister of Brysben to make certain no authority could go after him any more. While the Mayliera and the rest of the Daemancers were unsuccessful in securing Kaasma Khara, Valiensworth always had a backup, as he had a recent run-in with both Alice and some of the Ishtar Goblins that he created some time ago. During his visit to the Goblins, he had managed to give them cursed items that would absorb the Dae magic directly from them, but while it was successful in its job, he never got the magic he desperately wanted, and he was running dry on power.

By the time that Valiensworth had returned from his Goblin visit, he had little magic left in him to dispel a simple barrier, let alone take on the mage that created it. Not only that, Nigel, whom he has been studying to extract the massive amount of dae magic from, had been taken away from him. It seemed like his time as a mage was over, but as it turns out, the Ruby-Eyed Scepter had made its way to Asmodia and brought Asmodeus to the prime plane. With one last chance at securing a new source of magic, he made his way over to meet with the Lord of All Shadows. He had tried to gain the upper hand in his meeting by threatening to banish him back, but the Devil could see right through his lies. As Valiensworth was still a strong mage, Asmodeus decided to give him the power he desperately wanted by transforming him into his fourth Devil Lord, and giving him the new name of Asura, the Lord of Deception.

When it was time for the rest of the souls within the Shadow to make their way back to the Prime plane, Asura first made his attack on his old school, the Exodus Academy. To his surprise, Nigel had been released from the book, and was met with adversity from almost every single person that he personally tried to control the lives of. Ultimately, Asura was unsuccessful in his mission, and was banished by Alice to the same veil that Asmodeus had come from, spending the next few centuries trapped within the dead landscape.

## Powers and Abilities

### Enemy Abilities

* **Stats:** 2134 HP, 15 AC, +6 Dex save, +4 Con save, +10? Int save +14 Wis save
* **Vulnerabilities**: The first time Asura takes Radiant and Electric damage in a round, Asura gains a Vulnerability stack.
* **Damage Immunities**: Asura is immune to Fire in the Crimson Face, and Cold in the Azure Face.
* **Condition Immunities**: Asura is immune to Charmed, Paralyzed, Petrified, Polymorph, Exhaustion, and Frightened.
* **Condition Indomitability**: Asura may sacrifice a turn to negate a condition, or ongoing effect.
* **Banishment**: Asura has a Spiritual Barrier with 600HP that can only be damaged through other means. If this barrier is destroyed and a Banishment spell is cast, the battle will end.
* **Concentration Turn 1**: On an initiative of 30, Asura creates a crimson or azure wall dependant on the current face. The first time you enter the wall, make a Con save or take 8d8 true damage. If Asura is on the opposite face of the wall, the wall deals no damage.
* **Spellcasting Turn 1**: At an initiative of 20, Asura casts Crimson Orb or Azure Orb dependant on the Face Asura is on.
* **Debilitate Turn 2**: At an initiative of 20, a visage of Valiensworth appears. Nigel gains 8 life tokens. Nigel loses 1 life token at the end of a players turn. If Nigel drops to 0, the Dae cloud trait is removed.
* **Phase Turn 1**: At an initiative of 1, Asura marks a creature. The creature and Anyone within 10ft of that creature must make a Con save once the Phase turn comes up again, or take 16d10 Shadow damage. The total damage is divided amonst everyone that got hit.
* **Phase Turn 2**:
* **Dae Cloud**: Nigel can be commanded once per round to move up to 30ft and cast a Dae cloud (20ft Area). Attacks or Spells using the Dae Cloud can damage the Spirit Barier. If you use a 4th level spell, you can cast the Banishment Spell. At the end of a player's turn, if Asura is within the cloud, Asura gains 50 HP
* **Two-Faced**: When Asura takes damage, He alternated between Crimson and Azure face.
* **Duality**: Every time a creature takes an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, a creature alternates between Crimson and Azure Face.

### General Abilities

* **Master Manipulator**: Asura is well versed in the art of deceit and manipulation, pulling the strings of the populace of Brisbane and beyond for years. He successfully duped the Goblins who defeated Kaasma Khara, tricked Mr. Mephisto and Bronn into obtaining the Ruby Eyed Sceptre for Asmodeus and orchestrated the disappearance of Rafius Thelerian to ensure he became Archmagister.
* **Master Wizard**: Asura has spent much time researching and mastering magic. He is capable of casting many high levels spells, such as True Polymorph and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.
* **Teleportation**: Asura can teleport over vast distances freely and is able to create portals. He is also implied to be able to track leylines.
* **Daemancy**: As a pioneer into the studies of Dae, the blood of the dead god DIV, Asura can manipulate its energies to do things outside the realm of possibility for conventional magics.
* **Master of Disguise**: Asura hid his true identity for years, flawlessly posing as Gloria Chronos since his exile. Only the uncanny perception of Sterling Smiles was able to see through this disguise.
* **Dreamweaver**: Asura has knowledge of the dreamscape and was able to manifest a version of it within a cursed Bag of Holding. Within, he created a double of himself to communicate his intentions.
* **Master Magewright**: Asura knows how to create powerful magical items, which he was able to provided to the Goblins who saved Ishtar. He was also able to place curses upon said items, which could not be broken by conventional means.
* **Lord of Shadows**: As Asmodeus' newest vassal, Asura has obtained new powers originating from the Shadow Veil itself.

## Images

### Official art

Asura in his disguise as Headmaster Gloria Chronos (Original Art by Sea\_bayer)Asura's original self, Dmitrius Valiensworth (Original Art by (placeholder))Asura manifesting their Crimson Face in battle.Asura manifesting their Azure Face in battle.