Hoya

**Name:** Hoya

**Alias(es):** Karakuri, Tifapine

**DOB/Age:** Winter 7, 455 A.O.V; 45 at adventure start

**Race**: Gnome (Traveler)

**Class:** Bard (archivist)

**Archetype:** Spirit Medium

**Affiliation:** Royal Homeland Constabulary (RHC); King of Risur? Idk man they all got promoted or something

**Height:** 2'5"

**Weight:** 29 lbs

**Hair**: Dark green, curly, and pouffy

**Skin:** Light green

**Eyes:** Blue

**Personality:** Hoya is a 45-year-old gnome who has spent her entire life wandering around Lanjyr. Though she's spent the bulk of her time in Risur, she will openly share that she's been to many of the surrounding countries, including Danor and Ber. She's generally well-meaning and quite smart, but her inability to articulate her point tends to get her into trouble. She's also fairly eccentric, even for a gnome, moving from one odd job to another in an attempt to learn as much as she can about everything she can. It's a habit that people find strange at best and infuriating at worst. She is an archivist bard, and though she plays the flute (and the dulcimer, thanks to Marcel) her focus is almost entirely scholarly. She's not much of a singer, though she can carry a tune, and is a downright *terrible* actress.

## Background

Hoya was born Fijit Ipswom, the oldest of three daughters in a family of traveler gnomes moving all over Risur. While traveling through the Risuri countryside, she and her younger sister became deathly ill. When neither improved, the Ipswoms brought their daughters to Flint in search of a healer. Fijit eventually recovered; Tifa did not. Fijit discovered her spirit medium powers talking to Tifa's ghost, though her family dismissed Fijit's claims as grief-driven lies.

The tension eventually escalated up to an incident that left the Ipswom family assuming Fijit was dead and Fijit assuming she was unwanted. Fijit traveled on her own afterward, eventually meeting Tinker Oddcog who took the still-young gnome in as a ward. They traveled together for years until about 7-8 years before campaign start, splitting up in Slate shortly before Tinker found the Godmind Urn.

Fijit continued traveling around the world, changing names according to her interests in the process. While in Flint under the name Karakuri, she became enamored with an acting company's production of ~~ripoff~~ Onegin and befriended Marcel Beaumont in the process. A few years later, the Flint RHC recognized Hoya's talents and recruited her partially with the knowledge that Marcel had also become a constable.

## Campaign

Hoya began her work with the RHC in Adventure 3, and quickly received a wake-up call about the danger of their work when she nearly died at the Ziggurat of Apet. Things got worse as the job increasingly brought her into contact with ghosts (Adventure 4, Adventure 7, etc.) the undead (Adventure 4 again), and other demands (Adventure 8) in sometimes unbearable quantities, straining her senses and emotions with increasing burnout. In Adventure 9 Hoya accepted the position of Royal Spirit Medium to Risur reluctantly, knowing it was the only way to stay with the group and keep up. In the time since she has come to regret not taking the alternative position offered to her, Minister of International Relations, because then maybe SOME PEOPLE might listen to her ideas about working together with other nations.

Work with the RHC also challenged Hoya's character, at times forcing her into difficult positions (spywork in Adventure 4) or punishing her naivete (Zo's betrayal in Adventure 5, her entire relationship with Gatria who envied her innocence). At other times the work rewarded her willingness to make friends, earning the party new allies and eventually making Hoya the person the Humble Hook decided to accompany. Hoya has gotten more than a bit...temperamental at times as a result of her ordeals, though she still endeavors to do the right thing. Hoya eventually reached a limit witnessing the horrors of the Gidim both on Lanjyr and off of it, and eventually used her Axis ritual wish to eliminate the Gidim entirely in Adventure 13.

Hoya's abilities as a spirit medium also alienated her from her family. Even in the present day her parents are not fully understanding about the matter despite some attempts after their reunion in Adventure 12, and Hoya's sister Rena came to resent her after her disappearance.

Although not Clergy herself, Hoya tried to take her possession of the Hook seriously and tried both to follow its principles and learn more about Triegenes. This paid off in Adventure 11 when it turned out the Hook effectively made Hoya a saint of sorts to followers of Triegenes, and that status as well as Hoya's efforts to learn about him eventually brought her to the truth of Triegenes' life and character. Even after the public revelation of Triegenes' lack of godhood and his reclassification into a saint, Hoya has since become known as the Second Saint - again thanks to the Hook.

In Adventure 3 Hoya became host to Xambria Meredith's ghost, and the two quickly bonded over intellectual interests. Over time they fell in love, Xambria becoming protective of Hoya throughout their adventures. They married just after Hoya was able transfer Xambria into a new body during Adventure 7. Xambria would eventually be the one to call Hoya back from the Gyre in Adventure 12.

## Trivia

* The Ipswom sisters are color-coded to different seasons.
* Hoya can, and has, played her flute hanging from a tree.