Asteria

## Nomenclature

The name *Asteria* is a reference to purple aster flowers, as well as the Greek word for star. Aster flowers are symbolic of love, wisdom, and royalty.

## Physical Characteristics

### Ancestry

Asteria is a young firbolg woman with a strong build and broad shoulders. Firbolgs are usually between 7-8' tall; Asteria is 7'2" and might still have a few inches to grow. Her fur is light gray, almost white, and her hair is long and curly. Her eyes are a dark blue-violet.

### Appearance

Asteria keeps her hair dyed a blue-violet hue, but that's about all she does to maintain it. Bob the rat often hides in her hair.

She carries a faint aura of twilight around her that in certain lights may appear to shimmer with white stars or the greens and violets of the aurora. This aura becomes less translucent and extends to a 30' radius when she uses channel divinity.

Typically, Asteria wears high-quality but functional clothing. Her set of silver chainmail armor features the house symbol of a family from Vardagen and iconography depicting Vaorh, the patron deity of that city. Recently, she has taken to wearing a set of black mithral armor that was found in the layer of the Manticore, as it is quieter than chainmail and still rather effective.

She prefers wearing cool tones, namely blue, violet, gray, silver and black. She has two necklaces that she always wears; one is a shard of citrine bound in a leather cord, and the other is a symbol of the goddess Iris made of a silver crescent moon and a white crystal. Asteria wears no other jewelry or piercings and has no tattoos.

## Personality and Beliefs

Asteria has some religious beliefs that she has not gone over in detail, but her moral code is mainly her own. She's demonstrated her distrust of authority figures, and apparently had a problem with authority in Vardagen that got her into a bit of trouble. However, as shown by the two fated arrows she has received and as pointed out by Caleb, she likely has some ties to people in high places.

She is generally opposed to killing, even in circumstances where people are trying to harm her, such as when the bounty hunters at the beginning of the campaign were after her. She'll cast spare the dying on defeated enemies once combat is over, but prioritizes healing her companions first.

She hasn't discussed her religious beliefs much, though she wears armor and wields a hammer with iconography depicting the dead god, Vaorh. The amulet she uses as a spellcasting focus is for a different deity, Iris, whom Iridian also had ties to.

## Backstory

Asteria ostensibly fled from the city of Vardagen after causing a bit of a commotion. She said that the people in power there weren't good people, that she was causing problems for them, and that they chased her out because of it. Asteria also said that she left because her presence there endangered her loved ones.

While on watch with Freya in Nyvkyla, she revealed more of her former life, revealing that she had ties to a rebellion against the ruling Denzel family in Vardagen. Asteria said that she destroyed a bell-tower in an attempt to stop the execution of her fellow rebel, Citrine, but failed, and Citrine was killed anyways. One of Asteria's necklaces is a shard of Citrine that she keeps as a memento. She fled Vardagen after Citrine's death.

## Relationships

Asteria and Raoden confirmed that they used to know each other in their previous lives, while Faylen was eavesdropping on their conversation. Asteria helped Faylen and some other academy students copy a 50-page essay before the two sisters left to the academy.

She has also received two fated arrows from a sender unknown to the rest of the party, hinting at a past with friends in high places, and seems wary of higher-ups both in government and magical institutions.

## Trivia

* Asteria's favorite flower is purple aster