Gartrett Corbie

## Appearance

In a word, Corbie is a pixie. She's a petite woman, standing no taller than about 5'3". Fine bones, a pale complexion, a long nose, and unruly, pale blond curls mark her as being half Ygressine. While not a stunning beauty, Corbie is pretty and has a particularly bright and lovely smile. Most noteworthy are her eyes which are so dark that they first give off the impression of being brown, but are actually a deep violet-blue. Her movements are light and quick, and she tends towards flitting, darting, and bouncing regularly.

## Powers

Novice wizard. Corbie is a beginner in studying magic, and thus while she has considerable power (stated, not shown) she has only learned so much about how to use it. In canon she is seen performing only three spells. The first hides her magical abilities from other people. The second is lighting and extinguishing candles. The third is calling witchlight. She is also able to sense magic, which most wizards of her school seem to be unable to do.

Between conversations, lecture topics, and generally hanging around her mentor Felix Harrowgate, she is stated or implied to have rudimentary knowledge of light and fire spells, thaumaturgic architecture (creating structures from magic) and architectural thaumaturgy (enchanting objects), wards, cleansings, clairance and noirance (light and dark magic), ghosts, sacrifices, and labyrinths. Her knowledge is more theoretical than practical.

## Talents

Emotional intelligence. Corbie’s very good at reading people and discerning what they may need or want from her in a given moment. She has a way of bringing out the best in other people and inspiring protective and nurturing feelings.

As far as practical skills, she’s handy with a needle, enough that she was able to make room and board taking in her landlady’s mending while also studying full time. Corbie also has a fair grasp of Spanish, the language she knows as Ygressine. She speaks it much better than she reads or writes it. She knows some phrases in Greek (she calls it Kekropian). They are not polite ones.

## Interests

Acquiring knowledge. Corbie is insatiably curious. Particularly about magic, but really she’ll listen to anybody ramble at her about anything they’re really into. She’s increasingly interested in machines and mechanical objects and taking them apart to see how they work.

More than anything, Corbie is interested in people. She likes people, she likes to talk, and she likes to explore. She tends to look for ways she can help others if she thinks they need an ally, offering whatever information, resources, or emotional support she's able, however limited those may be. Even when she doesn't know what to do, she'll be the first person to celebrate your triumphs with you, become outraged on your behalf, or just sit with you a while and hold your hand.

## History

Many of the exact details of Corbie's youth are unknown. She was born and raised in the free city of Bernatha in Corambis, and for most of her life, she'd never been anywhere else. Until the age of eight she received an education at a dominioner school--a public school--but her grandmother would not allow her to continue past that point, saying that kind of education wasn't right for girls. Corbie was raised in poverty by her maternal grandmother from a very young age; there is no mention of her mother, and the only thing she knows about her father is that he was very likely a Ygressine sailor.

Exactly when Corbie first learned she was a wizard is also unknown, though most wizards in Meduse come into their power in their early to mid teens. Her grandmother was also a wizard, though rather than impart any knowledge to the girl, Gran instead taught Corbie to be distrustful of magic-users and to keep herself hidden for fear of warlocks, even though warlocks were supposed to have been eliminated over twenty years before Corbie was born. Warlocks are, briefly, magic-users who specialize in enslaving other magic-users. Corbie was taught to conceal her magic, this being the first, and for a long time only, spell she knew.

What is clear about her life, however, is that she was brought up not to expect much of anything from it. Her grandmother died sometime in Corbie's mid-teens, leaving the girl alone in the world. Corbie's goal, such as it was, was to get a third-grade magician-practitioner's license--the lowest ranking among Corambin wizards—only so she'd have something to fall back on when she grew too old for sex work. The problem was she couldn't afford to get even that much training, and so she laid low and tried to scrape the money together.

When Corbie was seventeen she made the acquaintance of the wizard Felix Harrowgate and his brother Mildmay Foxe when they arrived in Bernatha on the way to Esmer and Felix's exile. What first looked to be a one-time meeting with Felix became a strange blend of patronage, teacher-student relationship, and friendship as they traded their skills. Corbie offered her knowledge of the Bernathan sex trade and acted as Felix's pimp so Felix could earn money to support himself and his brother, and in turn Felix began teaching Corbie about magic. Originally not very ambitious in her magical goals, Corbie found herself greatly enjoying her studies and eventually joined Felix and Mildmay when they went on to Esmer. No one said the word "apprentice" out loud, but that's what it was.

Corbie enrolled as a student at the Women's College at the Grevillian Institution, a university of wizardry. She found the experience largely unsatisfying, much to her disappointment and ire. Aside from being treated differently for not being bourgeois and educated like the other girls, the female students were not treated with the same dignity and respect as their male counterparts. Warlocks were, unfortunately, mostly women, which left the Corambins with the impression that women had no business making a serious study of magic. Felix offered her the support of continued private instruction—and badgering the faculty on her behalf—and this she accepted wholeheartedly.

The end of Corambis found Corbie staying behind in Esmer while Felix and Mildmay went on to Grimglass, determined to continue her studies and reach the level of virtuer, something of a wizardry PhD, which women have not done at least in living memory.