Hope Bannett

Class
 played by

Aurelion's little sister, studying magic at the Academia Sophia.

## Two Siblings.

Aurelion and Hope were the children of a popular bard and a well-respected herbalist.  When a magically bolstered plague swept over the land, though, neither their father's magic nor their mother's skill with medicine were quite enough, and both perished.  Left alone, Aurelion had to step up and take care of his little sister, though still a child himself.  While Aurelion took after his father, showing a prodigious talent for music, Hope took after their mother and became fascinated by the natural world.  The two orphans clung to each other in a land which frequently saw magical disasters and a revolving door of thaumocratic rulers.  Luckily, Aurelion's budding bardic power got the attention of a priest of the song god.  Father Aristophanes, the satyr priest, met with Aurelion and Hope, and upon seeing the way they were barely surviving, all alone, took them in and raised them.  When Aurelion grew up, he bid a tearful goodbye to his sister and foster father and set out to see the world.  Though Hope was saddened to see him go, the good thing about living in such a magic-rife kingdom was the ease with which they acquired a Two-Ended Purse, through which they could send letters.  Hope's days were kept bright by Aurelion's tales of his travels, and he frequently sent money to pay for her education at the Academia Sophia.

## **Higher Learning**

Learning Aurelion would soon be arriving back in Arcos after so long away, Hope and Aristophanes boarded the newly constructed "locomotive" to meet them at the edge of the Wild Plains.  Unable to contain her excitement, she took the form of a tiger and took off into the jungle at the edge of the Plains, taking out a displacer beast set to pounce upon the party.  The two siblings were joyfully reunited, and Hope and Aristophanes took them to the locomotive to tavel back to Dionia.  Hope warmly welcomed Aurelion's companions as family, bonding with even the very shy Nu.  She helped Denavir compete in the Elysiad games by acquainting him with an artist friend who painted him to disguise his Drow nature.  She even helped get the party into a temple of Corellon by using fake school credentials to get them into the gated Elftown community.

Things took a dark turn when Aurelion and his companions ran off in pursuit of the stolen skull of Dr Grass and the kidnapped Professor Von Tooms.  While they were gone, the Thalassic Engineering students ripped a hole in space, letting loose an army of fish-men and a tentacular horror which began taking over the school's Tower of Thought.  Students and faculty joined the fight against the eldritch horde alongside the city's watchmen and other magical practitioners.  Again taking her tiger form, Hope fought valiantly against the fishlike footsoldiers, but was overwhelmed and cocooned in their leader's slimy grey tendrils.  Her nightmarish imprisonment was ended when Aurelion and his friends freed her, and she vomited up the hideous eldritch parasite the tendrils had implanted in her body.

After the monsters were slain, Hope tried to help with the recovery efforts, but had been dealt a heavy blow herself--and not just physically.  She bolstered her strength and her courage to bid her brother a tearful farewell and give him her blessing to continue his quest to save the world.  She continued to exchange letters with Aurelion, not telling him the full truth of her state.  Her captivity had traumatized her, and she was given to nightmares and panic attacks.  She tried hard to keep up a positive front, but Aurelion read between the lines.  Unable to stay away from his hurting sister, he bid his own tearful farewell, this time to his companions, and used the two-ended purse as a portal--assisted by Emilio Pinweather--returning home.  Hope felt guilty about taking her brother away from his quest to save the world, but it was just so good to have him back, to have him home.  With her family around her, she began to heal.