Bedivera d'Pont Vanis

“*Bravo, you've pointed fingers at those who disagree and actually found a witch for once. I'm curious—what was the rest of the plan?*”
―Bedivera confronts a band of Witch Hunters.
**Bedivera d'Pont Vanis**, teasingly known to her friends as **Bedi** or simply **Vera**, was a Koviri sorceress native to Pont Vanis. During the Third Northern War, Bedivera left Kovir for the embattled Northern Realms to seek out and rescue both mages in hiding and undiscovered mages endangered by their own latent talent.

## Biography

Bedivera might’ve lived a short, nameless life and been buried under a blank headstone had the gutter she was born into not been that of the Koviri capital. Though one of the rare individuals possessed of an aptitude for magic, her impoverished parents, whoever they might’ve been, failed to recognize her talent and saw her only for the disfigured, sickly creature her nature as a Source twisted her into. Abandoned as a child in the city’s slums, she would have been driven slowly insane by her unharnessed power if she didn’t first starve or succumb to worse fates had chance not generously intervened in her favor. As the royal procession of King Esterad set out, on its way north to winter in the seasonal capital of Lan Exeter, one of the mages in their company sensed the girl’s power and took her with them to be trained as a sorceress.

Named anew in honor of a kingsguard who helped the mage find her, Bedivera was given some basic instruction by the magicians-in-residence at Lan Exeter to keep her from deteriorating before she was sent far south for schooling at Aretuza. There, she trained alongside the most talented young women from across the realms and naturally grew attracted to some of them, though her awareness of her own plain features meant she scarcely had the confidence to act on her interests. Only when her mentors showed her she could achieve a level of control that would allow her to reshape herself did Bedivera come to realize her power for the blessing it was, and honed it to become a highly-regarded user of earth-based magic including auras and counterspells, along with gaining an exhaustive knowledge of alchemy and its use. When she graduated in 1268, she returned to Kovir a woman transformed and was welcomed into the court of the new King Tankred as a sorceress-in-residence, helping to fill the gap left by Drithelm’s death in the Thanedd coup the previous year.

With the guidance of her seniors Sigo Buntz in Pont Vanis and Carduin in Lan Exeter, Bedivera flourished as a courtier, working loyally for the king whom had sponsored her education and recognizing the ulterior motives of those who courted her now that her appearance had changed. When the Third Northern War broke out in 1272, Bedivera helped find places for northern mages fleeing Redania after helping Triss Merigold secure a deal with King Tankred for their sanctuary in Kovir. When word reached them of the dissolution of the schools of magic at Aretuza and Ban Ard, however, Bedivera stunned the court by asking for her leave of the king’s service to depart for the other Northern Realms, a request which the king reluctantly granted. Braving the dangers posed by witch-hunters of Redania or the Church of the Eternal Fire, plundering armies, and the ravenous monsters of the Northern wilderness, Bedivera ventured out in search of children born afflicted with the same talent as she had, no longer saved from their power by recruiters from schools of magic, that they might also escape the fate of mindless oracles. Being unaccustomed to the world outside a school or castle, however, she finds herself much in need of companions and friends.

## Personality & Traits

“*Magic could've kept me from ever knowing my name, or living past my first birthday. Instead, I can use it to cool my drink and see more years than kings can hope to expect. I owe it to the mages who came before me to make the same difference for those to come after.*”
―Bedivera reveals why she so willingly put herself in danger.
Persistently courteous and atypically warm compared to the reputation of mages, Bedivera's kindness and relative youth were often looked on as naivety, but the sorceress was in fact very slow to trust. Her few years in court had quickly demonstrated the first to declare their friendship were most likely to prove duplicitous, and while Bedivera learned not to let this affect her politeness to maintain courtly decorum, it did prevent her from developing many friendships, always fearing next season's politics would make turning backs on one another all the more difficult. Her inexperience in personal relationships made her shy towards those she truly did wish to bond with, but without fear of spoiling an attachment was fearless unto her rivals, and quick-witted in calling out their lies or hypocrisies. For a little girl, as most would first think her, she could be a vicious foe.

Even in traveling the dangerous Northern Realms, Bedivera's attire dares reflect much of her past, donning a cloak and hood the dark red of her fellow Koviri mages. Beneath, though the fit of her blouse, trousers, and boots are practical, their expensive layered fabric belies her acquaintance with courtly finery. Her long, flaxen hair is worn back in a sizeable braid, another hint at her incongruity in the wilds of the north, though she no longer dons a conical hat. Attractive by any measure, Bedivera has become proud of her acquired appearance and puts effort into maintaining it, discomforted without a chance to regularly clean herself. When accused of vanity, she’s like to react quite aggressively, as she’s grateful to have something to be vain about when jokes still go around the courtiers of Kovir that she had the face of a horse before she learned enough magic to reshape herself.

## Abilities

* Magecraft
As a graduate of the venerable school at Aretuza, Bedivera had learned precise control of her natural connection to magic and studied means of influencing it through spells and rituals. Whilst capable of advanced invocations, she often found simple spells to be the most useful in her travels through the imperiled Northern Realms. These included Codi Bywyd, allowing her to rapidly grow the small plants and herbs necessary as spell components rather than mark herself a mage carrying a vast collection; Telepathy, warning her of suspicion toward her in the thoughts of persons nearby; Adenydd, a gliding spell Bedivera used to escape pursuit over steep drops; and Air Pocket, which enabled her to dive underwater to elude followers.
* Alchemy

## Trivia

Bedivera picked up Gwent when refugee mages introduced it to Kovir’s royal court. While she’s a terrible player, having never truly taken the time to understand how its rules translate into strategies, she is an avid collector of cards depicting the Lodge of Sorceresses and plays many of them with a Northern Realms deck. Triss Merigold, Sile de Tansarville, Keira Metz and Sabrina Glevessig are all among these, while she wants after the rare Phillipa and Yennefer cards so badly she can taste the cardstock.