Tethys Ingemar

Tethys Ingemar (née Mälstrom) is a Fleet Admiral in the Concordat Navy, head of the Research Branch, and mother of Captain Ephyra Ingemar of the party. Originally hailing from the Mälstrom clan of Il Umbral, she left home in her youth due to a contentious relationship with her family in order to pursue a career on her own terms. Rising through the ranks to become one of four Fleet Admirals, she is a celebrated Naval officer and researcher, specializing in transmutation magics.

### Early Life

Tethys Mälstrom was the firstborn child of Lord & Lady Mälstrom. The Mälstroms are, and have historically been, a powerful family in Il Umbral, begetting many prominent Tidesages and at least one Amphidrome. Given this proud tradition, great expectations were placed on Tethys even before she was born. She was a water genasi like many of her bloodline before her, but it soon became apparent that she inherited none of the natural magics that marks a Tidesage. This was a point of much contention in her life, because the Mälstrom legacy was supposed to be passed on to and lived through her. By age 10, her lack of sorcerous talent led her parents to another attempt at heir-making, culminating in the birth of her sister Carina. In an inverse of Tethys' genetics, Carina was born a human and *did* inherit her family's Tidesage magic.

The pressure from her elders led Tethys to many attempts to manifest the magic deemed her birthright, from dabbling in warlock pacts to arcane studies. Having her decade-younger sibling succeed where she could not was not only an added stressor, but a wedge between the two sisters themselves. This environment culminated in Tethys growing up disaffected with her family, the Tidesage order, and Il Umbral as a whole.

### Meeting Trystan

When Tethys was an older adolescent, her family hosted one Trystan Mecyk, an arcane researcher employed by the Navy. His subject of focus was the Brel mythos and, because the Mälstrom estate was the repository for several very ancient and very cursed relics, Research Command assigned him to study these objects. The Mälstrom patriarch, however, never trusted the young researcher, believing him to be an agent of an occult group called the Arms of Pelagos which had plagued Il Umbral for many years.

Finding kinship in their mutual alienation, Tethys and Trystan fell in love over the course of his posting there. Trystan showed the elder Mälstrom daughter what a life outside of the Tidesage order could be, and it wasn't long before he convinced her that her fate lay beyond the shores of her native island. She absconded with him shortly thereafter, leaving behind everything she'd ever known - even (perhaps especially) the name that shaped her life.

### Later Life

Tethys had their daughter, Effie, some time after she had left Il Umbral. She had joined the Navy herself by then, and was frequently away during her daughter's youth - Trystan had the main role in raising her as Tethys made a name for herself. Due to her previous desperate striving for magic, she had by now become a wizard of some skill; not many threw themselves into arcane learning with the dedication that Tethys did. However, her dedication to her studies and her career wore a gulf between her and her new family. The constant separation made her and Trystan distant, and by the time Effie was cognizant of such things, Tethys was introduced as the young girl's aunt rather than her mother.

Trystan disappeared when Effie was 11, and Tethys suddenly had full responsibility for her. By this time Tethys was in command of her own ship, and the easiest thing was to simply bring her daughter along. This was the state of affairs for the next decade or so, until Effie followed in her mother's footsteps formally and accepted a Naval commission herself. Tethys had attained the rank of Fleet Admiral by then, and helms the Research Command branch - the very one that brought her former lover to her family home all those years prior.

### Campaign

By the time our campaign begins, Research Command is furiously attempting to discover anything and everything about the Wraith, a pirate with seemingly limitless ability to pierce the Navy's defenses and the Concordat's borders. Tethys leads this effort, but is pulled away when her daughter disappears at sea. The Admiral is actually the first one to greet the party upon their arrival to Courlemar from the Mistmaw, having put out notice that any word of Effie is to be routed to her ASAP.

She takes part in the Naval inquest of the party, and is particularly concerned by Cord's sighting of the Wraith in the interior of the Shatterglass Sea. Lord Admiral Kypak directs Tethys to resume the investigation of the Wraith's activities with all haste. Before departing back to her flagship, Tethys takes the opportunity to tell her daughter that she's only a letter or a Sending away. Unbeknownst to Effie and the rest of the party, though, Tethys has enlisted Phin to secretly be her eyes and ears regarding their whereabouts. Due to a prior incident, the specifics of which are not known, Phin was bailed out of a spot of trouble by the elder Ingemar, and is thus obligated to report on her daughter's wellbeing.

This leads to some conflict, though, when the party unexpectedly arrives in Il Umbral to check on Luralen Velar. The archmagister is a guest of the Mälstrom family, from whom the Book was stolen by a changeling; the party suspects the changeling is still there, and could be a danger to the elder Velar. Phin, secretly and dutifully, relays to Tethys where they are. Unfortunately, Tethys never saw fit to tell Effie about her heritage, so the captain walked into her ancestral home completely unaware of the familial connection.

Upon hearing the news, Tethys immediately teleports from her ship to the island, where she meets with Effie to level with her. This did not go over smoothly; never particularly 'close', Effie views this as a betrayal of their relationship. She takes some time to cool off, though, and comes to understand her mother's reticence regarding her history when she learns how hard Tethys' home life was. Effie later facilitates a reunion between Tethys and Carina and the introduction of her cousins. When the threat assailing Il Umbral (and the Tidesage order) becomes clearer, Tethys assures the party that she will work with her sister to safeguard the family and attempt to uncover what's going on.