Alyssa Topoi

The crowd at the Grand Amphitheatre was rowdy in the minutes leading to the evening's debate. They were clustered around the signboard, which a young girl had just posted the debate topic of the night:
"On the origins of prurience, or, why copies of the Scarlet Journal are so popular amongst the people"
Alistair couldn't help but smile. The debates were getting more ridiculous by the week, with old greybeard professors like Vauxman and Severo bantering about whether the cream pastry or the buttered ham sandwich roll at Morrison's was a more appropriate breakfast food. That debate had quickly devolved into the precise definition of a 'sandwich' and 'pastry', which further collapsed into pointless ontology.
He walked with the crowd into the Amphitheatre itself, where the seven debaters were seated on the stage. Five of them, lecturers from the Academy, had looks varying from bemusement to disgust, whereas the last two were smiling and holding copies of the Journal. Alistair surmised that the two were writers for the Journal itself; it was unlikely the debate staff had simply found a random debauched couple off the street.
Professor Tunn stood up. "Let us begin the 140th public seminar of the Academy of Etoile. The topic at hand is unfortunate, but, as all of us here remain wholly committed to academic integrity and the freedom of discussion, this week's conversation will be another curiosity." Severo had a look of extreme disgust as Tunn continued. "On the nature of the prurient desire, or, more crudely..."

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Alyssa Topoi is a sixteen year old first-year student of rhetoric at The Academy of Etoile. She is the daughter of a laundry proprietor and is attending the Academy by academic sponsorship.
Although there are many students like her at the Academy as well as across the Etoile Capital City, Topoi is the mastermind behind a series of bizarre public debates held at the Grand Amphitheatre of Etoile. The Academy hosts a public debate every two weeks at the Grand Amphitheatre, where selected intellectuals from the Academy discuss a prescient topic with important members of the public in front of an audience. The goal is to elevate the discourse of the public away from the generally tawdry printed journals, and connect interested members of the public with the deliberations of high society. The topic at hand is determined some weeks in advance by a planning session at the Academy itself.
At the end of each planning session, each member writes a candidate topic on a small slip of paper and places it into a box. A neutral nonparticipant draws a topic at random from the box; this will be the topic of the next debate. Topoi has served as the topic selector this year (a hapless student is typically roped in at the last moment), and her arrival is co-incident with significant deviation in the topics of discussion. The last five debates:

"On the duties of pleasure within married couples, with focus on the specifics of obligation"

"On the correlation of power-wagon size and masculine qualities or lack thereof"

"On the preferred pastry options at Morrison's "

"On the preferred foodstuffs to induce the foulest flatulence"

"On the applications of magic for gambling"

This has caused a deal of consternation but has made the debates far more popular; journals in the Capital now regularly send reporters to the debates. Though many of the planners are attempting to eliminate the secret ballot and figure out what's going on, others steadfastly defend the freedom of expression and note that the entire point of the secret ballot was to maximize the breadth of potential discourse, regardless of judgment or normative custom.
While the planners each suspect the others of orchestrating the affair, no suspicion has fallen upon Topoi, who quietly continues to insert her own entries into the topic box.

Current Location

The Academy of Etoile

Date of Birth

61st of Second Season

Year of Birth

708 M 17 Years old

Gender

Female

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Bronze

Height

5'3"

Weight

115lb