Alesia Al'Verath

## History

### **Alesias early life.**

Once upon a time, a time long forgotten, Alesia was a little girl, she wandered the forests, lost. She spent a few days alone in the wild, when in a rugged state, almost void of hope, she stumbled upon a building, hidden deep in the forest, far away from everything.

The building, a library to be more exact, was her salvation, they took her in, a stranger, and helped her recover, she showed great interest in the knowledge they kept, and was taught how to be a librarian.

The years passed, she grew up, rising in standing within the library, assistant to the head librarian. While most libraries merely keep knowledge, this one also went to collect and find it, on one of these excursions Alesia stumbled upon an old tome, older than anything she had seen, and yet untouched. She brought it back to the library, where it was locked away in a secure chamber, as even a cursory look revealed the power contained within.

More time had passed, and Alesia became the new head librarian, at which point she also met Vichear, a fellow seeker of knowledge. They became friends, albeit a bit skewed in balance, as Vichear often taught her things she had not known before.

### **A moment in Time**

The library was in danger, a beast driven mad by power rampaging, and no one able to contain it.

Alesia knew, that their last hope lay in her, and she knew that she would be unable to do anything, not without utilizing a certain tome she had found so long ago, and studied over the years. She believed herself capable of controlling the magic within, to use it to prevent this calamity.

She was wrong, when she unleashed the spell, the beast was indeed torn asunder as the confines of time came apart, but the spell did not stop there, it brought forth a whole new calamity upon the library. And Alesia was powerless to do anything but watch, as the tome shunted her from time, separated and left to contemplate her failure for eternity.

### **A break in Time**

An unknown amount of time had passed, Alesia contemplated, and watched the world change around her, the last remains of the library crumbled to dust years ago, she observed the spell keeping a hold on her, analyzing it, seeking for a flaw ever so minor.

She succeeded, and broke free of her prison, finding herself in a world her own, but yet so different.

## Appearance/Notable things

White hair, a pair of ears resembling a fox, and a tail, tipped in black, those are the most notable physical features she possesses, but if one knows her, and has seen her in person, they know that time does not quite like her, there is a permanent distortion surrounding her, a coalescion of several timelines into one. She is never found without her tome, and if one were to open it, anyone but her would only find blank pages, even if she had just written in them.

Something else most people would note, is that she is mute, by her own explanation her vocal cords are functional, however when she tries to speak, only a garbled, pain inducing mess of sound comes out.

## Personality

Usually very attentive to her surroundings, but also completely incapable of being very covert, or of lying. Enjoys the quiet of her library, and being alone, or with only a few individuals in a mutually enjoyable company.

She believes that knowledge should never be freely given to just anyone who asks, but should be taken care of, and given to those that would use it properly, and without malice, for she has experienced first hand, what the wrong knowledge can do in the wrong hands.

Sometimes becomes slightly disoriented when timelines intersect more intensely than normal, or abruptly change their course.

## Relationships

### **Vichear**

They are friends from old times, they occasionally talked to each other, however since her return she has only talked to him once, being given some pointed advice regarding her planned course of action.

## Adventures

### **Small Adventures**

Alesia went on several smaller adventures, surrounding a small fishing village investigating some disappearances, and helping solve a fishing problem.

Beyond that she was involved in some other, minor investigations across the continent.

### **The Binding**

Shortly after being inducted into the Order, Alesia met with Vichear, a reunion of friends after a long time, as a welcome back gift he helped her bind the tome that brought her little predicament, to regain her own power and grow more powerful, as she absorbs the power it stole. Additionally they talked a bit about what he had been up to over the years, and what Alesia plans to do now, that she has returned.

### **The Countess of Green Graves**

Alesia, together with some other adventurers was called upon to free the area near Greyhollow from the influence of the countess, which had been wreaking death and fear upon the local population.

The initial encounters with the Countess' forces were easy victories, however when encountering her main forces, it became apparent that they weren't entirely well prepared for her. Of course, beings as old as Alesia and the Countess had their own tricks to stay alive, it was a long and hardfought battle before finally resulting in victory for Alesia and her compatriots.

### **The Tower of Death**

Having heard about the planned excursion into the Ghostlands from Elyn, and some of her personal circumstance surrounding the locale, Alesia has decided to help out to the best of her ability.

Alesia had always been a librarian, a scholar, but she was also no stranger to the violence of the battlefield, and the dangers that the undead pose. As such, she has decided to prepare all those that wish to learn from her, opening the doors to her Library, for anyone interested in the nature of the undead, and their usual battle tactics.

A short primer on Undead:

Indeed, most undead, mindless as they are, sometimes retain retain a semblance of intuition from their mortal lives, though most of the lesser undead would just throw their bodies at their foes, some are adept at handling weapons, and maneuvering the battlefield. However, the greatest danger always stems from the greater undead, at least, in the absence of a Necromancer or Lich controlling the lesser undead. Greater undead, be it Vampires, Dullahan or any of the sort, are not only capable of thought and independent action, no, some of them are even capable of magic, the Lich being the most well known example of these.

No single Lich is the same as another Lich, it is something to always keep in mind, while there are similarities, being that all Liches have an extreme amount of control over undead and are extremely hard to kill, that is where the similarities usually stop. The nature of this, is quite simple, most Liches are mortal casters, that have through a ritual, or another means, in their thirst for immortality, achieved Lichdom, and just like mortals, every one of them has a slightly different take on magic.

If one wishes to learn more about a certain kind of undead or their general behavior and tactics, they may feel free to visit Alesias Library in Lalotai.

Despite sharing knowledge being important in this case, Alesia also deems it necessary to investigate, and research as much as she can in regards to the Ghostlands themselves. As such she goes onward to find out anything she can about the origins of the Ghostlands, and what exactly the cause behind the undead and anti-teleportation field are, seeking to uncover ways to aid the expedition in circumventing one or the other.

Should this direction of research bear no fruit in the limited time she has, another object of consideration would be the nature of the Towers, their purpose and their defensive mechanisms as well as what would await one, should one enter it.

It is a field of research she also hopes to be able to apply for her personal gain further down the line, considering the recent emergence of the Tower of Time being of great interest to her.

With any remaining time, Alesia helps out with the preparations of the Order of Tunum Khav as a whole, as most of its members are planning to join the expedition towards the Tower of Death.

### **Lalotai**

Alesia was, as usual, in her library, reading one book or another, when Ekaterina came to find her, informing her of rumors she picked up from the visitors that Lalotai way under siege by fire elemental, after a quick discussion Alesia decided to set out to Lalotai, to see what she could do to keep the citizens save. As such she Gated to find Magnus, in an attempt to get a more local view on events and ongoing efforts, however after waiting infront of his castle, she was informed that he had been missing, and her best bet would be a nearby outpost. Making her way over there, she found one of his offices deserted, just a few documents and traces of magic remaining. Having not found Magnus, she quickly took a look over the documents, and failing to find his location, decided to coordinate with whoever else would be on the island.

As such she moved to the main island and began to create firebreaks between the buildings and towards the coast, in case any fires would break out, it would be unable to spread before being taken care of. Once she has sufficiently isolated the buildings to protect them from random fires, she makes her way to the coastline to help take care of the rampaging fire elementals.

At the coast she looks out on the ocean, taking in the sight, even with all the happenings, large parts of it were still as serene as always, while on some parts of it the hulking forms of the elementals were visible. She would fly up into the air, to take a position overseeing everything between Lalotai and the Volcano. She’d remain there for the next few hours, observing the paths the Elementals take, and the places they focus their attacks on.

After sufficiently analyzing the patterns and everything, she starts creating walls and breaks across the coastline, to funnel and split the elementals into strategically viable positions, where the others would be able to take care of them.

After setting up the funnels, she moves out to find one of the elder elementals, and tries to figure out just why they are going on a rampage, even offering them travel to the plane of elemental fire. Sadly her inquiries went unanswered, the rage in the elementals too vast for reasoning. Seeing as her attempts turned out fruitless, she decided to at least give as many of them a chance for when the source of the issue would be resolved as she could, as such she created another funnel towards a closed off area, herding as many of them down that way as she possibly could.

The elder elementals however, being too large to not draw too much attention and destroy the walls with time, she had to either destroy or attempt to Gate away, even against their will, she managed to remove some of them, however their numbers being too large for even her very reduced need for sleep to make too sizable an impact.

### **Striking the Behemoth**

Alesia usually does not pay much attention to the general world at large, preferring to spend her times gathering new knowledge and amongst those she holds dear, but even a recluse such as her got word of the behemoth, a bit later than most, but for someone such as her, time sometimes doesn't flow quite right anyways, so knowing of it late makes little difference to her actions. Though truth be told, the primary reason for her action, as usual, were those close to her, in this case, the "sister" of Annabelle.

On the eve before the attack on the behemoth, observers would see a gate open above the camp, stepping through it a being that is well known to many. Her gaze went across the camp, taking it all in, swaying across the horizon, leveling on the behemoth itself. A being that had occasionally caused trouble, but nothing of much concern to her until now. She took a moment to find mentions of it in her memories, only small samples coming up, mostly empire records, as unreliable as they were, something to research at a later time.

After a short headcount, and assessment of their state, Alesia deemed them well equipped and trained, considering the circumstances, however numbers were lacking and the morale wasn't the best, being who she was, one of those she could fix, to an extent. Though first she decided to seek out the leader of the camp, a quick discussion to be had, they were quickly found a gruff man, standing over a table with a map, several others nearby, apparently in a discussion about the attack on the next day. Alesia stepped inside, her voice resonating in their minds. "Good evening everyone, I have come to help." Their heads moved up to her, her presence having announed herself already long before. The leader spoke up: "Alesia, an unexpected honor. If you are here to help, we could use the help, our numbers aren't quite sufficient, we worry about being overwhelmed... And the morale isn't the highest, in themselves neither are the worst issue, but they could break our back if things go wrong." She nodded, "I can tell, I will see what I can do about the numbers, I am not apt at motivation however, so I will simply bolster your numbers come morning, they won't be as good as your trained soldiers, they'll act as a distraction at best." The leaders nodded their appreciation as she left again.

She spent the rest of the evening moving around the camp, checking and fixing anything that may be broken or could be improved, a little hardening here, a sharpening there, an elemantal enhancement at another place, minor improvements that would quickly add up with the numbers present.

As she went around the camp however, she not only restrained herself to such, she also began errecting more fortified barriers, not only physical, but also magical, ward and concescrations covering the entire camp, protecting those within from most hostile actions. As such she turned the camp into a properly fortified fallback point, also protected against any possible raids during the night.

In the morning, as the army began to rouse, with a sway of her tails, a massive array of magical runes appeared in the air surrounding her, and a veritable army of animated armors and weapons moved into existence, their skills mediocre, but their purpose mostly for distraction anyway.