Ophelia Parker

Ophelia Parker is a Caster who deserted Sovereign in order to follow her dream of becoming a surgeon and helping people. After deserting Sovereign, she enrolled in medical school under the pseudonym Ophelia Baker, and spent four years studying medicine before taking what she had left of the savings she stole from Sovereign and traveling the world. She moved from island to island on the run, staying primarily on neutral or pirate islands, where she offered the best care she could to the people there.

## History

### Early Life

Ophelia was born on Glasoro to Theobald and Angela Parker. Assigned male at birth and with her father being the commander of Sovereign's navy, she was raised with the expectation that she, too, would join the navy when she was old enough. Those expectations were halted when, at the age of ten, she showed signs of being magically inclined. She would still join Sovereign, as all people with magic were drafted into the military, but it wouldn't be on the path her father had dreamed for her.

Ophelia also realized early in her preteen years that she didn't identify with her birth-assigned gender. However, having already felt like she failed her father's expectations by having magic, she was worried about disappointing him further, and didn't tell her parents until she was well into her training with Sovereign.

### 1733

At the age of sixteen, Ophelia went to begin her training with Sovereign. She hadn't settled on a name for herself because she was too nervous about coming out as transgender to her parents, so, in addition to supplying her with medicine to begin transitioning, Sovereign also assigned her a name - Devina. The first year of her training was study, where she learned history, tactics, and military structure, and the next two years were spent on physical and combat training.

### 1736

Having finished the first part of her education, it was time for Ophelia to begin training with her magic. She was sent to Harcam, where she'd train at the Phoenix sanctuary - Sovereign's home for Summoners. She first learned basic field medicine with her magic, and this is when she discovered her passion for healthcare and gained a desire to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a surgeon. After being on Harcam for several months, she was in the town's clinic one day to get her medicine when two people came in carrying someone who'd been severely injured in a fight. It was there that she met Carolina Trace.

Over the next year, Ophelia carried on a romance with Carolina and fell in love with her. During that year, Carolina taught her about the world and how it worked for people who weren't as privileged as she was, and challenged her previously Sovereign-biased perspectives and beliefs. Toward the end of that year, Carolina proposed to her and promised to stay behind even after her other crew mates left, to start a life with her instead of pirating. Ophelia waited on the morning of their wedding at a local temple, but Carolina never came. Saddened but not disheartened, Ophelia returned to the sanctuary and waited three months for Carolina to send a letter about what had happened and why she'd left without saying anything. It was only after those three months without hearing anything from Carolina that Ophelia's heart finally broke.

While Ophelia was heartbroken about Carolina leaving, she also felt trapped. Carolina had opened her eyes about the injustice Sovereign inflicted on so many people and then left her behind with no foreseeable way to escape Sovereign herself. That feeling compounded with the heartbreak, and Ophelia lashed out against it and Carolina by stealing a piece of laibralt from the sanctuary and placing a curse on Carolina. Her intention with the curse was that Carolina would be stuck on her ship until she'd saved enough to reunite with her mother and sister, and the curse would break when Carolina gave up pirating to be with them.

### 1738

Ophelia stayed at the sanctuary for a year after Carolina left in order to finish her training, and then, in 1738, she stole a small fortune from the sanctuary and ran away. She stowed away on a merchant ship to a different island, where she secured passage to a pirate island. On this island, she sought out a network of other deserters and rebels called Freedom in Shadows, searching for a means of removing the Sovereign insignia that had been branded into her shoulder as well as finding a more permanent gender-affirming medicine than the one Sovereign had been providing her, as Sovereign held access to that medicine hostage as a means of recruitment. Once the mark was removed and she'd found a spell for permanent transition, she traveled to Isle Westrose, to attend the best medical school under the name Ophelia Baker - Ophelia was her paternal grandmother's name, and Baker was her mother's maiden name. It was on Isle Westrose that Ophelia completed her medical training and had access to the top surgeons in the empire to complete the rest of her transition.

### 1741

Having graduated from medical school, Ophelia left Isle Westrose with the small fortune she had left, and began traveling to other islands to offer healthcare to those in need. Among the most notable of these islands was Wyholm, an island that was being harvested and where Ophelia stayed as long as she could before its fall. While on Wyholm, she secured her own passage off the island and then gave everything she had left to a family - just enough for them to buy passage off the doomed island for their only child. Without the remainder of her savings, Ophelia traveled to the last island she could, and would remain on Barciet instead of keeping on the move to run from Sovereign.

### 1745

After a couple years on Barciet, Sovereign bounty hunters finally caught up with Ophelia. She temporarily escaped them by seeking the help of a Grimstone Mining Co. crew, telling its captain that the men after her were pirates posing as bounty hunters. This bought her some time, as the merchant captain, Philip Dillingam, agreed to transport her to their destination, a Sovereign island called Clerwood, where he would verify the bounty hunters identities and then turn her over if they were found legitimate. Once they arrived at Clerwood, Ophelia used her magic to make herself temporarily invisible so she could escape the ship, however, one of the bounty hunters, Abner Hartley, was a Summoner, and used his magic to reveal her. A short chase ensued, coming to a head when Ophelia faced off against the bounty hunters' leader, Gerald Hartley. Gerald grabbed a teenage boy from the crowd and held a gun to his head, threatening Ophelia with his life unless she turned herself in. Unsure whether Gerald was bluffing or not, Ophelia surrendered, and as they were leading her back to the docks, she spotted Carolina Trace for the first time in 8 years.

Having had just enough time to lock eyes with Carolina and ask for help, Ophelia was taken to the bounty hunters' ship and thrown in the brig. Not long after leaving Clerwood, Gerald came to her and told her that they were being followed by a pirate ship and that he was worried for all of their safety. He agreed to release her from her bonds after she promised not to fight against him or his crew. On main deck, Carolina's crew caught up, and a short fight ensued between Omen crew and the bounty hunters' crew. The fight came to a stalemate after Carolina stabbed Gerald, and ended with the bounty hunters' surrendering. Ophelia saved Gerald's life and used her magic to heal him before leaving with Carolina.

On Carolina's ship, Ophelia was shocked to once again have chains put on her wrists as she was thrown in Omen's brig. After some time alone with the fresh betrayal of those events, Carolina came to tell her that she was still cursed, and wanted Ophelia to Ascend in order to break it. Ophelia wasn't convinced that Ascension was real, but agreed to follow along on Carolina's search for it so long as she could simultaneously search for her own way of breaking it.