Motion Ashbrook-Sarren
(a.k.a. Margaretha)
Born into the client house of Ashbrook-Sarren in 1324 AK; her early childhood was marked by a number of odd occurrences in her general vicinity, culminating in her brother Leopold being badly injured in a freak accident which she was believed to have somehow caused. Taken in by the Hospital of Ekirena at the age of six, with the initial theory that she was somehow cursed; it however emerged that she was unconsciously manifesting a rare kind of sorcerous ability, without the ability to control it. She was thus enrolled as an apprentice in the Academy of Gildenschloss, with the intention of helping her to tame her abilities; despite some difficulties in the latter part of her time in the Hall of Apprentices she was noted as an above-average student in several areas. She enrolled as a Neophyte scholar of the Faculty Umbral in 1342 AK, and we understand is presently working towards her adept thesis in the field of dream manipulation.
Personal History
Early Life
Named Margaretha by her parents, Motion was taken in by the Hospital of Ekirena at the age of six in tragic circumstances. Her latent sorcerous talent awoke within her at a very young age, resulting in a number of odd occurences and accidents which culminated in diaster in 1330AK - an accidental and unintended surge of energy which summoned a mephit and started a fire which resulted in the death of her father, and her brother being badly injured. Motion was thought to have perished in the flames, but was later pulled from the wreckage, unconscious and badly burned yet miraculously alive; comatose and balanced on the knife-edge between life and death, when both mundane and magical healing was unable to revive her she was admitted to the Hospital of Ekirenna in order to attempt to discover if any supernatural power was keeping her in that state. Motion's mother, a weather-mage in the Alderni navy, had been lost at sea in 1327; with the death of her father, Motion's elder brother Leopold was her nearest living relative. On account of the prospects of her survival being extremely remote even with the help of the Hospital of Ekirenna, it was decided that it would be a kindness to tell her brother that she had died so that he could properly grieve for his family; it would be a decade before Leopold - who had by then become the head of House Ashbrook-Sarren and holder of the barony - was told that his sister had in fact survived. In keeping with the traditions of the Hall of Apprentices at Gildenschloss, she was given a new name on arrival at the Hospital of Ekirena; it is this name, Motion, which she now uses. Some time after she arrived, Vice-Scholarch of Illusion Sanctity Falcoferri-Riddacci took an interest in her treatment, theorising that she might have retreated inside her mind in order to protect herself, and somehow become trapped there. Using the Mirror of Dreams, Sanctity was able to reach Motion's dreamscape and recover her consciousness, but in doing so encountered an avatar of the Kraken Queen.Apprenticeship
Motion first met the tiefling Beatrix "Beatitude" Bheuren, the granddaughter of Queen Margaretha IV Bheuren, shortly afterwards whilst she was recovering in the Hospital; Beatrix had suffered an illness in infancy which had led to the paralysis of her tail, and which eventually led to the tail being amputated and her having to relearn to walk. The two girls quickly became friends, and remained inseperable throughout their time in the Hall of Apprentices; Motion was fiercely protective of Beatitude, and on more than a few occasions got into physical fights with other students who were bullying the young tiefling. The two were considered troublesome and somewhat rebellious by the staff of the Hall of Apprentices - Motion more so than Beatitude - however they both showed significant academic aptitude and skill with magic. In her early teenage years, Motion began to realise that the way she felt about Beatitude was something more than mere friendship, but Beatitude seemed entirely oblivious to this fact. She eventually confessed her feelings to the Toad of Secrets in exchange for information on its operation; when she finally summoned up the courage to tell Beatitude how she really felt about her, she was surprised and somewhat overjoyed when Beatitude told her that the feeling was mutual. Though their relationship was a generally positive one, Motion always suspected that Beatitude didn't feel as strongly towards her as she did towards Beatitude. This suspicion only intensified in the latter part of 1340AK, when Motion discovered, via the Toad of Secrets, that at the Harvestide Ball Beatitude had kissed Worship, a tiefling boy whom Motion had considered a close friend; Motion felt less betrayed by the fact that it happened than Beatitude's failure to tell her, and then lying about it when directly asked.Architect of Dreams
Motion first began to develop the ability to maintain lucidity whilst dreaming - the all-important first step on the road to mastering the art of Oneirurgy - at around the age of twelve. She soon discovered the existence of a stable pocket of pseudo-reality containing a reflection of Sanctity's Mirror of Dreams, a Silver Gate, and the crystalline focus bearing a Telesm of Interdiction that Sanctity had used to escape from the Kraken Queen when he had rescued Motion from her coma six years earlier. This focus had somehow become a dreamseed, a fixed point which gave her dreamscape an independent and stable existence, which had made the process of developing the skill of lucid dreaming far, far easier. In time she mentioned this strange recurring dream to one of her tutors, who passed it on to Sanctity and to Gudrun Athelswicht-Zaal - who both took an interest in Motion's unusual ability and began to offer her additional tuition and guidance in developing this skill further. It seems that in retrospect neither Sanctity nor Gudrun's interests were entirely benign - though quite what their true agendas may have been is unclear - but nonetheless their instruction helped Motion to construct a complex dreamscape over which she had a remarkable level of control. Following the events of the Night of the Wolf, Gudrun and Sanctity would transform a portion of Motion's dreamscape into a psychic prison of sorts, greatly limiting Motion's control over it until she was able to break free of the psychic bindings with the help of a party of adventurers in 1344AK. Following this, Motion was able to open the Silver Gate for the first time, and gain access to the Fountain of Night; she cast the crystalline focus into the Well which served as her connection to the Fountain, destroying both it and the telesm that had blocked the power of the Paragons of Azoth from reaching into her mind, sacrificing her dreamscape to the Well only to create it again with the Well serving as its new keystone. Quite what effects this might have are yet to be seen.The Night of the Wolf
See also: Night of the Wolf In the early part of the 10th Moon, Beatitude was suddenly and unexpectedly "recalled" to the Ysberinge, when a unit of the Royal Guard turned up in Gildenschloss and marched her off under armed guard. Exactly what provoked this is as yet unclear, though it has since emerged that Motion revealed Beatitude's true identity to the Toad of Secrets several days earlier in an attempt to put an end to her doubts about Beatitude's feelings towards her. Tragedy struck several days later, on the second night of the festival of Mellet known as the Three Nights of Soot and Ashes, when Motion recieved a forged letter pupporting to be from Beatrix. This letter, in truth written by Knight-Intelligencer Nera Arrighetti-Sarren of the Queensknife, is believed to have been the product of the machinations of Beatrix's mother Hildegard and Guillaume Arthmael-Riddacci, the Castellan-Regent of the Queensknife. It is unclear whether this was intended to merely alienate Motion from Beatrix so that she would not seek to contact her again, or whether they had in any way intended or anticipated what happened next; regardless, the effect that this had on Motion's psyche was devastating. The sorrow and anger that Motion felt catalysed the development of her sorcerous powers through intensifying her connection to the Fountain of Night; her power rapidly overtook her ability to control it, and she began to unconsciously manifest potent magical effects including the calling-forth of a being known as Telarna, a Hound of Ill Omen, which killed four students and injured several others before the danger could be contained.Psychic Bindings
In the aftermath of Telarna's rampage, Gudrun Athelswicht-Zaal and Sanctity Falcoferri-Riddacci entered Motion's dreamscape and were able to erect a number of psychic wards and bindings within her mind in order to constrain the Hound and block Motion's access to the ultimate source of her sorcerous power. These bindings took the form of three imporant sequences of memories, which were sequestered away from Motion: the memory of how she came to Gildenschloss, the memory of certain key interactions with Beatrix in the weeks prior to the Night of the Wolf, and her memories of the night itself. A fourth suppressed memory - that of Motion's former incarnation Tulia Seconda Akropos' doomed last stand against the elite Wolf-Eaters of the Empire of Kataris - was likewise sequestered and used as an anchor in order to prevent Tulia from communicating with Motion. A number of other manipulations seem to have been performed at the same time or shortly afterwards, including the binding of a Vylok demon into Motion's subconscious mind as part of the method for keeping Telarna quiescent. Telarna was bound within Motion's mind, slumbering there for almost four years before in mid-1344AK Sanctity awoke it and bound it under his control to use as a weapon in the so-called Shadow-Wolf Murders.Talents and Abilities
Motion is understood to be a skilled sorceror, though the full extent of her abilities are unclear. She also has some knowledge of arcane magic, and is a skilled practitioner of the High Art of Dreamsculpting. She has the potential ability to manifest a Hound of Ill Omen, though has not as yet been able to do so of her own will - though it is possible that following her regaining access to the Fountain of Night, she might regain this ability. It has been implied that Motion may be able to access the power of the Throne of Stars (and potentially any of the Arcane Thrones, for that matter), through her connection to the Fountain of Night - though the details are as yet unclear. Following Motion's release from the bonds of fate, she is one of a minority of mortals who can be said to genuinely have free will; as a result, she will be immune to all forms of magic which seek to determine her future actions or control her destiny unless she somehow relinquishes this freedom.Research Interests
Prior to the death of Claudin Alkyonides-Ysern, Motion was working on a thesis on Oneirurgy under his supervision. Her primary area of research was into the concept of there existing a central "null point" which interconnected all dreams, and allowed passage between dreamscapes within the Shadowlands. Among the consequences of the existence of this null-point were that it was possible to access ancestral memories and the like through dream-states, and that under certain conditions it was possible for people to dream each other's dreams.Friends and Foes
Though a scion of a family of the Low Nobility, Motion has had little contact with her family since childhood; she has spent the majority of her life at Gildenschloss, and like many others has come to see the Academy as being more akin to her true family. After the breakdown of her relationship with Beatrix she was taken under the wing of Gudrun Athelswicht-Zaal, whom she considered a close confident and mentor for several years - though after she learned the truth about Gudrun's manipulations, she has since distanced herself from her. From 1342 until 1344AK Motion studied under Claudin Alkyonides-Ysern, the Vice-Scholarch of the Faculty Umbral. By all accounts Claudin felt that his student was in danger of eclipsing him; he began to pass Motion's research off as his own, and when Motion learned of this it resulted in a complete breakdown of trust between the two of them - and, ultimately, in Claudin's death when he attempted to enter Motion's dreamscape and erase her memories. Motion has a number of close friends in Gildenschloss, including Endurance Adrasta-Votellian of the Hellborn Host, and the bladesinger Clarica Bjornrath-Mettvergen. Motion has admitted to having complex feelings about her relationship with Beatrix; it has been observed that she cares very deeply for her (and possibly that this is why the Telarna attempted to protect Beatrix), but it was for a long time unclear whether she might want their relationship to resume after all that happened. Following the destruction of her psychic bindings, Motion and Beatrix have fully reconciled, though it remains to be seen if their relationship will fully recover. Motion is something of a political radical, and is somewhat outspoken in her opinions; whilst as a member of the Academy of Gildenschloss she has somewhat more leeway to speak her mind on such things than most (at least, within the confines of the Tower), she has found herself on the wrong side of the Tower's authorities on several occasions. She appears to have some connections to the secret society known as the League of Free Mages.Past Lives
As with the vast majority of other Shadow Sorcerors, Motion is the reincarnated soul of a servant of the Paragons of Azoth who swore the Oath of Night many centuries ago. In Motion's case, her soul was initially sworn in service to the Kraken Queen. The only past life to have so-far been contacted is one Tulia Seconda Akropos, an archmage who lived at the time of the Empire of Kataris and who gained a permanent existence within Motion's soul by dint of the invocation of her Immaculate Will. Tulia is believed to have come very close to successfully undermining the Basilisk Queens through binding numerous mystic pylons and other geomanticly important sites across the continent into a web of power, by which she would have severed them from the source of her power; however when it came to setting the final link in the web of power she was overcome by doubt and uncertainty and did not manage to complete the rite in time. Ironically, it appears that this indirectly led to the destruction of the Katari Empire in any case, as the staff into which she had bound the collected power of an entire continent was inherited by her successor, who sundered the staff in a Strike of Retribution after losing a duel - resulting in the eruption of Mount Witherpeak, the destruction of Vash Edom and Kinik Kataris, the fall of the Katari Empire, and possibly the coming of the Black Wind which ravaged Volsanger, leading to hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of deaths.Dark Fate
According to the prophecy uttered by a coven of hags, Motion was fated "to lose all hope and be devoured by the Utterdark"; though it is as yet unclear what this might involve, it is clear that Motion is bound towards destruction of one kind or another unless this can be averted. A significant component of the doom that hung over Motion was the result of the mental bindings placed upon her by Gudrun and Sanctity - which suppressed certain parts of her memory and prevented her from fully accessing the Fountain of Night. They did not, however, prevent the build-up of the energies of the Paragonic Vault within her soul; by 1344AK these built-up energies were of sufficient magnitude that, whilst the bindings could be released with the use of relatively simple magic, doing so would have destroyed her. The danger posed by this possibility provoked Tulia Seconda Akropos to reveal her presence to a party of adventurers who intended to try and free Motion of the curse. Tulia considered the threat sufficiently grave as to threaten to kill Motion in order to preserve the shared soul. In 1344, Motion's fate was averted with the aid of a party of adventurers, with whom she journeyed into her dreamscape to unweave the bindings that had been placed upon her mind. As a result of their success, Motion was able to emancipate herself from destiny, and ultimately regained full access to the Fountain of Night, greatly increasing her power.
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Honorary & Occupational Titles
Neophyte Scholar-Umbral (1342AK)
Year of Birth
1324
20 Years old
Children
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she/her
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