Asteria

* Aged 26
* Aged 20

Art of Asteria by Ksu (blackthornwine)

Art of Asteria as a university student

**Asteria** is a tiefling wizard and a member of the Unholy Tempest.

## Description

### Appearance

Asteria is a young tiefling woman in her mid to late twenties. She is of medium height, has light blue skin (which may sometimes appear even paler due to her affliction), elegant and somewhat sharp facial features, short black hair with a fringe to the side and short blue horns. She has tattoos (as a generous gesture from Spark) on the back of both her hands – red lines stretching across her fingers.

She wears several earrings and rings – silver, gold, and a black one made out of lava. Since the party left Blackwood Manor, she has been wearing a silver locket with a rose petal.

She wears no armor and prefers mostly practical clothes: black pants, white shirt (and occasionally an elegant blue shirt with silver embroidery, once again, as a gift from Spark), simple leather boots and a dark purple-ish cloak.

### Personality

For most of her life, Asteria has kept to herself, but that didn't stop her from forming connections and something resembling friendships with people. Regardless, she still prefers mostly her own company over others, which gives her continuous opportunities for introspection. Moreover, she's not the best at socializing, preferring not to speak at all in some situations and avoid talking to people if she doesn’t feel like it.

This shy and aloof facade however may disappear under the effects of alcohol (of which she has low tolerance), prompting her to go into full rage for example (as witnessed by several members of the party on different drinking occasions).

On those rare occasions when she does speak, Asteria attempts to give advice and tries to be the voice of reason, but sometimes from her tone her intentions might be misinterpreted as skepticism or snarkiness. In general though, she is well-meaning and nice towards most people (or at least she tries to be).

Her inquisitive nature may have gotten her in trouble before, but it remained with her. She tries to use what information she knows and find something else of use to give herself and her friends an advantage.

Asteria's strivings for privacy might be deemed as selfishness, but that's far from the truth. She will certainly come to the aid of people she loves, maybe even putting her future at risk in the process. She may help others too, given they ask nicely.

After becoming the champion of Guh'uun (and all the events leading up to that), there has been a slight shift in her demeanor – even though on the most part she remains reserved, but a slight surge of newfound confidence has made itself known.

## Biography

### Background

Not much is known about Asteria’s childhood; she was most likely an orphan as she never remembered her parents (she mentioned to the party that her earlier life felt quite like a blur). By her late teenage years, she had already joined the university as a student.

### Time at the university and discovering blood magic

University of Iriaebor ended up being the place where Asteria felt like she thrived. Her innate curiosity helped her excel and achieve respect of her peers and teachers. At that time, she formed a bond with one of her professors, Tina Corinthus. Asteria admired her work and in turn she became Corinthus' favorite student.

However, one day this curiosity got the best of her: during her research she came across a tome on a forbidden type of blood manipulation in one of the libraries. She familiarized herself with whatever knowledge was available and wished for more. In her eagerness to try out what she learned she had ignored several precautions and ended up not casting the spell properly. This miscalculation of abilities had resulted in Asteria contracting a blood malediction. According to Asteria, everything that happened after was a blur, but what followed were the deaths of at least a dozen students and professors. Eventually, the blood sickness managed to take a lot of Asteria's powers away, thus she was later expelled from the university for her actions and for breaking the laws of magic. Corinthus was the only person to stand up for Asteria in the end. She was powerless against the dean's decision, though she was able to give her favorite student hints on the best course of action to take. The professor pointed Asteria to a "woman called Gwen Blackwood and her group of Blood Hunters", who might be of help.

### Life after expulsion

Having been left with no other option, Asteria left the university and settled in a nearby town of Fendrals Gate to recollect and look for some work. While there, she continued her research into blood magic and a possible existing cure from the malediction with help from Tina Corinthus, who sent Asteria some material to aid her. Unfortunately, during those several weeks in Fendrals Gate Asteria began experiencing the symptoms of the blood sickness: she felt extremely weak and frequently coughed up blood. Moreover, the townspeople were the opposite of welcoming to a tiefling, so this prompted her to leave towards the Sword Coast, where that wouldn't become a problem. With all that in mind and her belongings packed, Asteria set out towards Baldur's Gate.

### Meeting the party

Less than a quarter of the way to Baldur's Gate, Asteria suddenly felt weaker and almost lost consciousness, but was quickly picked up by a friendly older-looking man, Federicco Fairbanks. Him and his circus troupe, Federicco's Menagerie of Wonders, were traveling towards Boareskyr Bridge for a show. He kindly offered help to bring seemingly half-dead Asteria with them so she can recover. There Asteria met a fellow tiefling, cleric named Nyx, who helped her settle in.

After having a creepy dream about a library and pools of blood, Asteria awoke as the troupe arrived at Boareskyr Bridge. Federicco asked her and Nyx to hand out some leaflets signifying the circus performance in town. Nyx did most of the talking, while Asteria remained largely silent, and people were very cautious about the tieflings' presence. After coming closer to the tavern, the pair were picked on by drunk local men who were later successfully intimidated away by Bop Blitzkrieg, an automaton barbarian. The trio entered the tavern, where they met Anemone, a young druid girl, At-Taajir, a Zakharian sorcerer and Mistral, a paladin woman. Later, two runaways from Waterdeep, Doran and Kai, joined them. Kai had a severe wound, which was patched up by Anemone. The duo shared that they were attacked just outside the West Gate of the town and the party (Asteria included) decided to investigate the place later.

## Relationships

### Guh'uun

Not long after Asteria's discovery that her magic is the domain of the blood god Guh'uun, he talked to her, offering her power in exchange for Asteria becoming his champion. While initially she didn't give a definitive answer and tried to consider all pros and cons first, she eventually agreed in order to heal her friends from the deadly root plague. After that Guh'uun granted her powers to perform the necessary ritual.

In Asteria's opinion this is more of an alliance of convenience rather than genuine example of worship, as both Guh'uun and Asteria, at least for the time being, literally depend on each other in order to exist. The looming presence of Guh'uun in her life has thrown Asteria into a state of helplessness.

### The Party

#### Mistral

Asteria holds Mistral in high regard and considers her a great person. She’s quite in awe of her fighting skills, quick thinking and selflessness. In their early days of traveling together Asteria was just perplexed by how nice Mistral was to her and to everybody. After Mistral stayed behind to fight the Call, Asteria was kind of heartbroken but still very grateful to her. When Mistral appeared to save the party from the Ivory Tower, Asteria got genuinely excited to see her and even shed a few tears.

#### Nyx

Nyx was the first person from the party Asteria met. They ended up forming some sort of bond, despite Asteria barely speaking and just a general clash of their dispositions. Chaotic nature of Nyx’s healing rituals used to leave Asteria quite confused, but she got used to it over time. They maintain a playful friendship where Nyx teases and Asteria gets exaggeratedly annoyed. Still, Asteria cares for her a great deal and was relieved to see her resurrected after the Ivory Tower business.

#### Pepe

Despite traveling for only a short period of time, Asteria and Pepe are on good terms, though that’s not to say she isn’t somewhat concerned because of his outlandish decisions. As a token of friendship, Pepe enchanted a black lava ring that she bought in Candlekeep, giving it a reddish glow.

## Character information

### Goals

Asteria’s initial goal was to rid herself of the blood malediction she contracted. During the party’s stay in Blackwood Manor she found out that it can’t be healed, but one could live with it if they knew how to successfully manage it.

Asteria seeks to improve her knowledge of blood magic and fulfill Guh'uun's request, as her life (and lives of people she loves) depends on it.

### Proficiencies

* **Skills:** Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation

### Notable items

* **Heart of the Rose**
* **Luckstone** *(requires attunement, attuned)*
* **Fang of Marnuurhax** *(requires attunement, attuned)*
* **Barkskin Amulet**
* **Boots of the Winding Path** *(magically infused by JJ)*
* Crystal scrying orb *(given by the Djinn)*
* Black lava ring *(magically infused by Pepe)*
* Notes on blood afflictions *(given by Ari)*
* A book on divination magic
* A glowing leaf from the blood tree
* A book on divination
* Writing equipment: bottle of ink, ink pen, parchment
* Little bag of sand
* Small knife

## Trivia

* Asteria once dealt more damage to Nyx in a fight than the bandits they were fighting. That was the last time Asteria ever used Ice Knife.

## References and notes

1. ↑ Under the influence of dragon tequila, while traveling on Spark's space whale, *Fallaciter*
2. ↑ As remarked by At-Taajir upon the party's return to Blackwood Manor