Kasita Quenthel (Ka-si-ta)

Reality is merely a veil between what is possible and what is impossible. Strip that away and who knows where your dreams may lead you.

The Phantasmist bard Kasita is a famed wayfarer and much celebrated illusionary entertainer.

by Hector-Monegro

Intrepid entertainer and playwright, Kasita Quenthel is a famed illusory story teller, her reputation well known throughout The Sunless Realms. Weaving fantastical scenes using her illusionary magic, and phantasms to play the parts of her stories, mystifying and confounding her audience, suspending disbelief as they are drawn in. Infamous for her tongue and cheek verses, inflammatory story telling that often finds her deep in the thick of trouble. Always keen to share her tales, while keenly on the lookout for new mischief and adventure. Known to frequently accompany cavern raiders, relic hunters, delvers and tag along with merchant caravans across the underworld. Visiting numerous places and peoples across the lightless of Evalaw, always on the lookout for inspiration to stoke her muse.
While many of her contemporaries are more concerned about using their art as leverage for other more subversive or carnal motivations. Kasita's interested purely lies with the pursuit of the arts and muse of inspiration, to bring new untold stories to life before her audience. The stories and performances Kasita prefers to bring to life before her audiences are purposefully inflammatory and evocative.

Penning re-imaginings of historical epics as well her own original work, drawing inspiration from current affairs, juicy rumours and gossip thrown in with her own experiences from her travels and the people she has met on them. Kasita and her troupe currently hold weekly performances in the Orisha District. Her headlining slot in the aptly named Imaginarium, is a show that allows her to demonstrate the full calibre of her Phantasmist abilities. Spinning a blend of tales she has performed time and time again seamlessly, with fresh spectacular illusions never seen before, she keeps her audience mystified and astounded in awe. Invoking ideas of magnificent dragons taking flight, shimmering lights and colours, weird and exotic animals from outside the city walls, and even sprites and fairies cavorting and dancing to the delight of the children.

The entire auditorium came to life in an instant, like nothing I'd ever seen before, a beautiful tapestry of colour and imagery emerged before me. It was as if my fantasies had come true, as life was breathed into all sorts of hideous beasts and shimmering apparitions, as if I were experiencing the world for the first time through the eyes of a child. Every fear and anxiety I had melted away as these inconceivable events unfolded in front of me.

Background

Unlike the delusions of her kin, the trappings of wealth would not weigh her down.

Born 5095TW, Kasita began her life as the third daughter of a petty Riek'norian merchentile house, spending in her formative years travelling from settlement to settlement on her families caravan train before being enrolled into education. Kasita's innate talent in the illusory arts became clear to her magic masters during this impressionable early age. With significant expectations from her family to begin her role in the family business after finishing her official schooling, Kasita chose to continue her studies and enrol at Serrish'balaa, Zhennu'janais academy of the arts at the behest of her Jhera'viaan grandmother. Though she didn't realise it at the time, her grandmother's push was an attempt to shield her granddaughter from the trappings of commerce that poisoned the minds of the rest of her household.
Whilst being heralded as one of the most prominent Alumni, in truth, Kasita has had little to nothing to do with the academy since her graduation. Despite the fact that her time among the academy's illusionists was mostly uneventful, she learned the principles of her skill here. Ultimately leading her to disobey her family once again and seek out further tutelage in the illusory arts. Not that she knew it then, but her journey to becoming a Phantasmist began when she up sticks and left her family behind, joining the first Caravan out of Zhennu'janai going wherever wanderlust would carry her off.
On hearing the news of her dissent, Kasita's Matron Mother allegedly flew into a blind fury for the shame, pain and tragedy, she had brought down upon them. She was completely disowned for abandoning her family for the life of a penniless vagabond with the troupe of musicians she had chosen to follow.

A Student of the Mists.

Her art was used throughout her early travels as an effective bartering tool. Capable of masking caravans or groups she travels with in a veil of illusion, she was invaluable. Leaving her never short of food or having to pay fare for travel. These slights and illusions earned her notice, especially when she entered the city-state of Rie'shae. It was here that much of Kasita's whereabouts entirely vanish for a number of decades. When she remerged almost thirty years later, her former talents were but a mere shadow of what she could now do. Referring to herself now as a Phantasmist, it is believed that Kasita had been taken in and trained by the illusive "Palace of mists", a well-known urban myth amongst the residence of Rie'shae of a school of illusionary mages that for all the evidence does not exist.
Kasita was eager to leave Rie'shae as soon as possible for reasons she would never disclose to anybody. It was around this time that she began to wear the Opal headpiece she would become famous for. In an unexpected turn of events, she ran across and rejoined the troupe of musicians she had first started out with over thirty years before, who were travelling through the city. Continuing her journeys into the underworld, she gained renown and notoriety wherever the group travelled. She could not only show the audience the stories her companions were sharing, but she could also duplicate the sights and sounds of places and people she had met and visited. Kasita's unique talent to write and bring music to life was also a factor. Kasita's extraordinary talent to compose and bring to life music and instruments would also gradually sow a schism between her and her friends, finally driving them apart.

The Mistweaver.

The rumour of her involvement in the mysterious palace of mists, and Kasitas uncanny ability to completely shroud and distort reality almost at a whim earnt her the moniker Mistweaver, among those she travelled with.

There is far more truth to the threads I weave in my stories than mere fiction. If you know where to look of course...

— Kasita Quenthel when asked about her influences.

Current Location

The City-state of Rie'shae.

Species

Dral'azie

Ethnicity

Riek'norian

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

• Jhera'viaan.

Year of Birth

28095 TW 131 Years old

Height

5'3

Phantasmist

Phantasmist are an ancient Aelfier discipline of illusionary mages. Masters of mirage and deception, they weave complex spells, illusions and phantasmic figures to mystify, confound and perplex all they cast their magic upon. Able to shatter and distort one's perception of reality with the click of a finger or a blink of the eye. Most spend their lives attempting to blend reality and fantasy into a beautiful amalgamation, walking a thin line between reality and imagination.

Personality.

Preferring not to be within arm's reach of others, often hiding behind a veil of her own imagining. For many that meet Kasita, it is always a question of whether you are truly speaking with the real Kasita or a phantom of her likeness. Able to disappear and reappear somewhere completely different in the blink of an eye. Dral'azie society being what it is, Kasita is no stranger to violence, making it a habit to keep herself out of the reach of others at all times.
An emotive and empathetic individual, to Kasita, being able to take her audience away from the grim reality of life in the underworld even for a briefest of moment is the greatest reward she can ask for.
Her quasi-nomadic upbringing, moving from city to city in the back of her families caravans left Kasita never feeling truly tethered to any one place. Embracing a far more bohemian lifestyle, with very few permanent ties. While it may not be obviously, due to the trappings and convictions of this lifestyle. Kastia suffers from the same sickness that afflicts her bloodline, a burning lust for gold that runs through her veins. Instead of amassing vast amounts of coin like many of her kin, Kasita channels this greed into her elaborate and sometimes gaudy jewellery she is typically seen wearing.

Hearts of Gold

The Quenthel bloodline are known for their insatiable lust for gold. Their family once ranks amongst the most powerful and influential houses in Vaul'riek, this was until one of their ancestors made a bargain with the Goddess Melanthyus, a bargain they did not intend to keep. As punishment, Melanthyus cursed the Quenthel bloodline so that greed and their lust for wealth would lead each and every one of them to ruin.

Appearance

Her ornate hair jewellery is a common sight amongst the northern settlements of the Dsja'taresh and the southern Dral'azie city-states. Tending to be seen wearing song flowing dresses and outfits of a somewhat archaic and outlandish disposition, atypical to current Dral'azie.
Like any respectable Dral'azie woman, she carried a knife close to her person at all times.

Works

Kasita's catalogue of works are wide and varied. Ranging from evocative concerts filled with highly fantastical imagery, sights and sounds, to dramatic epics and love stories.

The Song of the Hydra.

The imaginative retelling of the great schism of house Geni'orell. Originally commissioned by Ithicess Orssariju Rie'Gani'orell to commemorate the houses founding of the city state. It loosely tells the story during the early years of the city-states founding, where the different members of House Gani'orell and the founders of Rie'shae are represented by the different heads of a Hydra, each scheming and conniving against one another, as one by one they cut each other's heads off. It is somewhat of a black comedy, that became a favourite of the younger more critical generation.

Temptation of a Templar.

Arguably one of the most successful and controversial of Kasita's plays. The infamous story tells the tale of the Templar Bhaalmot, who finds himself caught between his solemn duty to the gods and the pursuit of an Jhera'viaan dancing girl from a noble house. A chance meeting between two souls from different worlds leads to them abandoning everything. Lust turns to love as duty and honour are cast aside in the pursuit of that forbidden romance,. Forces amass either side ultimately splitting them apart and dooming the two star-crossed lovers to a most miserable fate.
The play earnt her a lot of infamy, Temptation of a Templar was based on a number of rumours and observations Kasita was privy too whilst in Rie'shae. Sparking nothing sort of a minor diplomatic incident between the Dral'azie city-states.