Caira Xasten

Caira Xasten is an incredibly powerful cleric of the Ur who now leads the Vanguard as an Ur Knight. She is well known for her nearly successful attempt at slaying the Faesoric gods in the Atropus Calamity, and now wields the Blade Severed, stolen from the god Fate herself. After these victories, the Ur imposed its will upon her, taking control of her like a puppet. Now, they use her to execute their unfathomable plans directly.

## Caira Xasten

### abilities

Psionics, Oath of Conquest, Dark Speech, Divine Theft

## Notable Possessions

* The Blade Severed
* Sanguis Indominus Plate Armor
* Tenebris' Crystal Lantern
* Soulsiphon Tablets
* The Halo of Deposition

## Biography

### Childhood

Caira was born in Feyfel to two archeologists from the Eastern Kingdoms. As a child, Caira exhibited great interest in her parents' work, often travelling with them to locate avolokian ruins; she soon began her own investigations into old elvish runes. Though Elvish was a very common language at the time, knowledge of avolokian elvish was very esoteric. By the age of 16, Caira had finished translating a particularly interesting avolokian tablet, one that revealed their worship of the primordials, the Ur in particular. It was around this time that the Primordialist church in the Eastern Kingdoms decided to send a group of missionaries to Thenan in an attempt to gain more influence in that region, especially since Thanese Umbrayism had taken a turn towards more open Demon worship and was waning in popularity. These missionaries crossed paths with Caira's caravan, and the two groups exchanged resources. However, when the archeologists shared their discoveries with the Primordialist clerics, they become very uneasy. The tablets Caira had translated explained in detail several heretical spells, namely the spells Tears of the Earth and Darkblade. In order to ensure knowledge of these spells was not released, the clerics and paladins massacred the archeologists, including Caira's parents, and she was forced to flee, taking several artifacts with her. The missionaries sent a lone paladin lancer after her, but she was able to repel him using a psionic spell she had learned from the tablets, a spell now known as Caira's Psionic Torture. She then claimed her foe's mount and ventured off into the desert.

### Founding the Vanguard

Upon arriving in the caravan city of Sen, Caira was accepted into the care of a local astronomer who took interest in the artifacts she had brought with her. They took her as their apprentice, teaching her how to navigate the stars and teaching her several spells. During Caira's stay, she continued to learn more about the Primordial Design through her tablets, becoming more and more infatuated with the Ur. After a year of peace, the astronomer spotted a stray comet in a dangerous position around Atropus. This celestial object was similar to comets that had been known to carry Star Spawn. The astronomer disregarded it though, as the comet's trajectory clearly took them away from Atropus' pull. Unfortunately however, unbeknownst to any mortal or even to the Faesoric gods, Faesor itself would manipulate the comet's trajectory in an attempt to slay Caira and destroy the tablets she carried. Seeing this, an armagon of the Ur implanted itself in the comet in an attempt to foil the sky's plan. The astronomer never checked back on the comet, since they didn't think it was any threat and they couldn't fathom that it would threaten Sen itself. Soon, the comet did come. It breached the clouds with a trail of red flames, flying through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound. The armagon within it released itself and quickly flew to envelop Caira and her tablets in its mighty tentacles. The comet landed directly atop the astronomer's tower where Caira was studying, destroying the entire city in a brilliant explosion. Caira had once again lost everything, but the armagon bestowed her with a purpose. It told her to spread the word of the Ur, to create a new Vanguard among mortals, using the tenets inscribed on the avolokian tablets she had translated. With the aid of the armagon, Caira founded the Vanguard on these tenets and began recruiting members across the continent.

### The Atropus Calamity

Using the innate psionic ability of her armagon ally, Caira was able to gain a great deal of influence among occult groups in the Western Borderland. She also began to grow an inner circle of Vanguard members, including Jaunwulf the Soulbiter, Seolma Nilanesh, and Lucather Maji. This group began making preparations to summon Kyuss from the Far Realms to slay the Faesoric gods. They were able to commune with Kyuss far below the great city of Ergold in the Waning Crescent. The old god suffused a fragment of its being into a small pile a maggots, and set off into the sewers to find a more suitable form. Gathering more and more insects and worms, the new Kyuss began shaping itself into a giant humanoid. When their new warrior was ready, Caira set off in search of the components to the Tears of the Earth spell in order to generate a sufficient number of undead to create an army to conquer the gods. In Lucather's journal, she is quoted to have said:

*"Faith must die for hope to survive."*

After gathering these spellcasting ingredients, Caira began the casting process, which would take over a year to complete. During this time, Kyuss, in their boredom, manipulated the mind of a wealthy noble named Edwin Tolstoff to begin spreading his worms across the Waning Crescent, granting them ever more influence in the area. At the time, Edwin had an adventuring party in their court, and they began to suspect Edwin's involvement in local cult activity. After much investigation, they discovered Caira's lair in the sewers below the city, killed Lucather but could not find the ritual room, as it was masked by several illusions. Using artifacts stolen from the vanguard, they tracked down Kyuss' avatar and with the help of Sephix (in the guise of Corval the Merchant) imprisoned their consciousness in a massive stone obelisk. The Faesoric gods then intervened, coating the obelisk in a layer of enchanted Iridium. While the party was away, Caira completed her casting of the spell, and rained ruin and calamity upon the city of Ergold, reducing it to a blasted wasteland, teeming with necromantic energies and undead creatures. This intruiged the great sphere Atropus, who turned to face Terrasius in the sky, showering the entire planet with necrotic radiation. The party, with Corval in tow, located Caira and attempted to imprison her in a similar stone obelisk. During the battle that ensued, the gods intervened, stabbing Caira with the Blade Severed and banishing her to the depths of the Far Realm. A mighty knight in the party by the name of Henry then carried the sword into the heavens and struck Atropus itself, killing it and snuffing out its pale blue glow forever.

### Travels in the Far Realm

Upon her banishment, Caira was captured by a Locus vessel under the command of Alkalan, a former Ur Knight in a past life. Caira asked for passage to the floating city of Acrepsis, where she hoped she could purchase a Nautoloid and return to Terrasius. Alkalan sought counsel with a member of their court, a charlatan called Tenebris. Tenebris convinced Alkalan that if they made Caira look weak, they could claim additional blessings of the Ur, and potentially even become an Ur Knight once more. Tenebris told Caira that they would instead take her to a city called Sigil, and even contact an ally in the city who could get her a vessel. In exchange, they took Caira's human soul, which Alkalan kept in a crystal lantern as a sacrifice to the Ur. In truth, Sigil itself was a massive illusory projection created by Tenebris' psionics. However, unbeknownst to Tenebris, Caira had cast her own illusion, and had instead given them the soul of her loyal ally Lucather instead of her own. As they were on their way to Sigil, she took her chance and tried to steal the lantern. Tenebris spotted her in his study and tried to use the lantern to control her, to no avail. Grabbing a diffused darkblade from Tenebris' trophy wall, she shattered their chitin mask and stole the lantern. Tenebris, deeply ashamed at losing their sacred mask, waited much to long to summon Alkalan as they desperately tried to repair it. This allowed Caira to capture several souls from Alkalan's collection using the lantern, and steal a vessel from the belly of the ship. With a new tool and a ship of her own, Caira set off towards Terrasius, but decided to stay in the Far Realm, realizing the resources and knowledge she could gain if she remained a little longer. In one of her coming adventures, she would slay several rogue armagons as sacrifices to the Ur, and forge a suit of plate armor from their blood and bones. This material is now known as Sanguis Indominus. Eventually, she returned to Alkalan's ship with many gifts, including previous artifacts and ancient souls. Alkalan gave her their blessing as a former Ur Knight, and shared with her their knowledge of the Primordial Design via psionic transfusion. Alkalan then offered to replace Caira's soul with one of an Avolokian archlich, giving her a sort of lesser immortality. She accepted, and Alkalan gifted Tenebris with her soul so he could regain some of his honor.

### Communing with the Ur

After gaining great power in the beyond, Caira sought her master, the Ur itself. In a vision, she saw the Ur filled with rage at her failure to return to Terrasius. Upon arriving at Ur's Tower, she was faced with several trials to prove her worth as an Ur Knight and to show her loyalty to the Primordial Design. The final challenge was a climactic dual with a Locus warrior called the First Warpriest. Upon reaching the heavenly city of Ur Domum at the top of the tower, the Ur appeared in its true form, displaying its incomprehensibly swirling tentacles and its all-seeing golden eyes. Caira was brought to tears by the beauty of the creature, a feeling of joy she had never experienced in her life. The Ur then planted a fragment of its own mind into her, preserving her in that state of bliss and taking control of her body. It then sent her back to Terrasius through a gate in the Northern Realm to begin preparations for the arrival of the tower.

### Puzzle Tower

At some point after the arrival of Ur's Tower, Caira fought and killed many of the Faesoric Gods and stole Fate's sword, the Blade Severed. She now leads the remnants of the Vanguard on a pilgrimage to the eternal city of Ur Domum at the top of Ur's Tower.