Audrarith

Ancient (though having become so only very recently) amethyst dragon wizard and sorcerer, co-founder of the Torrentha Academy alongside her partner Jadvigal. She has served as its Provost since its founding. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the Academy and its large network of graduated adventurers (particularly in the Sponsored and Indentured Programs), and her often inscrutiable insights and decisions have guided the course of the academy through its centuries-long history. She most often presents herself in humanoid form as an amethyst dragonborn, with powerfully magical bracers (a reshaped Staff of the Magi) she uses as her arcane focus. When needing to disguise herself, however, she tends to prefer avian humanoid forms. While normally very cordial and highly energetic, she has a darker side when it comes to protecting grave secrets and dangerous knowledge (seldom seen as such to the outside world, but fairly frequently seen as such by the party). She has a particularly strong emotional reaction to details regarding her draconic type, which seems to be related to the deep insecurities she had around the fact that she was not amethyst in type prior to the founding of the academy (and instead blue, as she was when hatched). She is a granddaughter of the legendary blue dragon Iymrith, and in turn, carries the ancestral ability to shapeshift into a storm giant (an ability that she suppresses, along with all familial connection, by means of her Namecloak). She has had several simulacra fulfilling a number of duties around the Academy, including some who were able to be permanently transformed into non-construct beings (who in turn began thinking of themselves as her daughters).

Personal History

Early Life

Based on what could be skimmed from the Journals of Chest 314:

• Age 5 (102 BCE): She receives parchment and ink in celebration of her hatching-day, starts a diary.
• Age 7 (100 BCE): She first meets Kalbisaryx (Kal).
• Age 8 (99 BCE): Retroactively, the first indication that something is up with regards to her type, though as a wyrmling she didn't recognize it at the time. She spends several diary entries describing her dream lair/hoard as a vast library by a lake in the mountains, far away from any desert.
• Age 9 (98 BCE): She finds a spellbook from the remains of an adventurer who tried to loot her family's lair, and begins studying spellcraft from it.
• Age 10 (97 BCE): Matures from wyrmling to young blue dragon. There are many diary entries about a vague feeling of expecting something different to happen, even though there was no logical reason for anything different to happen.
• Age 11 (96 BCE): Figures out how to cast her first spell: Find Familiar (there is a very cute drawing of a hawk).
• Ages 12-18 (95-89 BCE): Significant teenage tension with family...she hides both her magic studies and continued friendship with Kal. Several times the book she is currently reading is burnt to a crisp by her parents. Her diary documents lots of anguish over being a blue dragon. But, her parents and Kal's parents are in serious conflict in the desert where they live, so there is plenty of time she has to her own pursuits.
• Age 19 (88 BCE): Nearby communities are affected so much by the parents' conflict that an outside mediator dragon is brought in. This mediator's daughter is Jadvigal...and it's young love at first sight.
• Ages 20-25 (87-82 BCE): She sneaks out more and more to meet with Kal and Jadzia. There is a stretch where she is found out and keep grounded, but while grounded, she figures out draconic shapeshifting. She then can make it out much more often, most often disguised as a hawk like her familar.
• Age 26 (81 BCE): Gets caught while shapeshifted: her mother fully blasts this hawk flying through her lair with her with her breath weapon, but Audrarith is immune even in hawk form. Even more abuse results. Kal eventually sneaks in, and they hatch a plan to escape.
• Age 27 (80 BCE): The three dragons escape, flying across the sea to the continent of Omros
• Age 28 (79 BCE): The trio gets in trouble with an adult dragon on the west coast of Omros, given that they are loitering about and have no lair or hoard of their own. Audrarith and Jadvigal decide to find a lair together farther inland in the mountains. Kalbisaryx aids them in the search, but once they find a suitable location, he decides to head back to Oketh to his family.
• A several decade span covered in volumes skipped over in haste...
• Age 41 (66 BCE): Audrarith gives up trying to learn druidic magic from a mountain druid circle (that is the only civilization within a hundred miles of their lair location), it being far too different from the wizardry she has already become used to. However, she takes inspiration from the guidance of one of the archdruids, who was transgender and suggested that perhaps Audrarith needed her own form of transition to alleviate her distress.
• Age 42 (65 BCE): With an elven druid and an aarakocra ranger, Audrarith goes forth as a dragonborn wizard adventurer seeking out whatever arcane knowledge can be had in the area. Jadvigal stays in dragon form as their party's dragon companion.
• Ages 43-50 (64-57 BCE): Many "low-level" adventures were had over the span of several years. She begins to analyze the progress of her own abilities, and attempt to organize their development in terms of levels.
• A several decade span covered in volumes skipped over in haste...
• Age 100 (7 BCE): Jadvigal and Audrarith undertake their ritual of maturation to become adult dragons. Despite all their preparations, Audrarith upon maturing is still mostly blue (and still elementally lightning), only flecked with purple/amethyst. She is livid, depressed, soul-crushed. She starts to contemplate some very dark paths, but is saved by the support of her partner, and the return of Kal joining back up with them. He gets up to date with all their druid friends from across the mountain range that they made over the decades.
• Age 107 (0 CE): A druid circle that has had a tenuous relationship with a clan of giants while tending to a rift to the plane of water reports that they have been decimated by said giants, and that the giants are preparing a great assault during the Celestial Equinox. Many druid circles in the area unite, with the aid of the three dragons, and they defeat the Clan of Rhaaztum. During the battle, Audrarith used an illusion to hide those scales of hers that were still blue, but she couldn't hide that her breath weapon remained lightning. After the battle, Audrarith and Jadvigal request to use the foothills near the now stabilized rift to make their lair.
• Ages 108-112 (1-5 CE): The novelty of a pair of dragons and druid circle coexisting peaceful, along with Audrarith's scholarly endeavors, attracts much attention to the area.
• Age 113 (6 CE): The Torrentha Academy is founded, initially as a collaboration between the dragons, druids, and townsfolk of the rapidly developing Montspring for the study of magic (of all kinds). Audrarith states that "no one will ever doubt who I am again", content with this grand academy's collection of knowledge being the thing that will finalize and secure her transition into an amethyst dragon.

Past Centuries at the Academy

See Also: History of the Torrentha Academy
To be added soon, from what details the party has been able to discover, or that is widely known...

Recent History

To be added soon, based on events in the campaign...

Family Relations

This is based on the information contained with in the family tree of Iymrith, from Halimath's book (all of these are blue dragons):

• Mother: Veidrorith (deceased, when adult, but brought back as a dracolich after Griaustithanach's death)
• Father: Griaustithanach (killed by crew of Gentle Night, when ancient)
• Older Sister: Devesaerith (ancient, currently in disguise as Hierophant Everissa of the giants)
• 1st Younger Brother: Krovaenach (deceased, when young)
• 2nd Younger Brother: Imirisarnauth (deceased, when adult)
  • An annotation by Halimath states that he suspects this brother was killed by adventurers of the Academy, with Audrarith unaware the relation.
  • Since Audrarith fled home at age 27, several decades prior to his hatching, she did not know of this youngest brother's existence, until prompted by the events of her echo Audry from world 37-09 and the killing of her father, when she thoroughly re-investigated her immediate family members with Halimath's aid).
• Grandmother (mother of Veidrorith): Iymrith (deceased, when Ancient)
  • History texts confirm that she was killed at the hands of giants infuriated at her treachery around 30 BCE.

Audrarith has had no natural children. However, as the party discovered in Ninth-Month of 724, and Audrarith herself re-discovered after a memory removal, that she had a "spell-child" of sorts (the unnamed dragon made via True Polymorph who was imprisoned within the Amethyst Cynosure). Also, her "former simulacra" (particularly Asta and Rhiwa) tend to view themselves as her children in some sense as well.

Simulacra

Early Generations

"First Simulacra of Audrarith"

Editor/transcriber of the Journals found in "Chest 314", the object of the party's recent quest in the capitol city, Ixlyria. The fact that she did this transcription work over three centuries ago, compared to the most recent generation of simulacra, implies that she is no longer around (and perhaps several generations have come and gone since then).

Final "Adult" Generation

Avalanche

Created by Audrarith herself as the first of four in this "generation" of simulacra. Has worked as a librarian of sorts within the deepest archives of Audrarith's and Jadvigal's lair, with whom Halimath consulted immediately after his escape from the Lyonhall Prison, having teleported directly to those archives. She acts as the intermediary to Audrarith for those around the world who are her close personal allies.
See entry on Val for the new identity she chose for herself prior to the "Ancient generation" of simulacra being created.

Blizzard

Created by Avalanche as the second of four this "generation" of simulacra. Has previously worked undercover (under many different personas over the years) as an administrative assistant to Audrarith at the academy. At times when Audrarith herself has needed to go undercover for one reason or the other, she has been the one to act in Audrarith's place conducting the duties of provost (known as "Winter Protocol"). Notably, such a Winter Protocol was in place from the start of the harvest festival until the dawning of the civil war. This included Blizzard being the "Audrarith" who gave the banquet speech (while the actual Audrarith watched on as Rhiwa).
See entry on Liz Audaren for the new identity she chose for herself prior to the "Ancient generation" of simulacra being created.

Glacier

Created by Blizzard as the third of four this "generation" of simulacra. From her creation (implied to be around 50 or 60 years ago) until around the time of the harvest festival, she spent day and night in dragon form under the waters of the Torrentha Reservoir as the unsleeping guardian of the elemental rift. Just before the harvest festival, she was assigned to be a special liaison to small number of parties of students at the academy who have been deemed of particular interest to the founder dragons, which included the PC party and the "Friendly Four". She augmented her draconic abilities with spell tattoos running the length of her forearms.
In a fateful meeting delivering a large load of goods to those aboard the skyship while they speedily made their way south to investigate the giant sightings, she had a moment of existential panic and/or realization upon meeting the young Audry. She stole a scroll of True Polymorph and disappeared into the snowstorm below. When sent a sending, she responded cryptically with the first stanza of the poem Do Not Go Gentle. After that, any further attempt to contact her or use divination to location her failed, as if she didn't exist. Later investigation found traces of a ritual in a forest to the southeast of the academy, with debris in the trees from a large (not huge) sized flying creature flying clumsily, as if not used to flight in that particular form, in the direction of Lake Silverscale. So, it was presumed that she turned herself into a young dragon (but not a type that has psionic-based flight like amethyst does), and may be making her way to Planimrest to blend in among the many young dragons there.
See full article on who she became: Astadrilnolnyn (Asta)

Snowsquall

Created by Glacier as the fourth of four of this "generation" of simulacra. Has been the primary holder of the Rhiwa identity, as a knowledgable (but adverse to high-level spellcasting) wizard in the research and development staff associated with the Academy. She swapped with Audrarith herself in being Rhiwa at the start of the harvest festival, and from that point, until the discovery of the alternate world echos, she took on Blizzard's usual role of acting as an administrative assistant. She was the last of the this final "adult" generation of simulacra, having used her 9th level spell slot to create a simulacra of Jadvigal named Thundersnow (which also occured at the start of the harvest festival).
See entry on Rhiwa for the identity she chose for herself prior to the "Ancient generation" of simulacra being created, even if it wasn't all that new for her.

First "Ancient" Generation

With the enhanced abilities becoming Ancient has brought her, and with the need to have her stand-in also resemble and ancient, not adult, dragon, Audrarith decided to create a new generation of simulacra (after replicating Asta's ritual to ensure that none of the prior generation would die upon doing so). She followed the same procedure used several times before of creating the first simulacrum herself, and then each new simulacrum creating the next. So, over a period of 5 days, 5 simulacra of herself as an ancient dragon were made, naming them Aspen, Birch, Cedar, Elm, and Fir. Given the compressed timeframe meaning that only one protective "layer" of False Aura could be placed on them once they needed to act publically, they were all at an increased risk of being dispelled compared to prior generations (at least until many more months could go by). So, Fir, being the last of the series and thus only endangering only herself and none of the others if she were killed/destroyed, would be the one to adopt the most public role: standing in for Audrarith herself as Provost (Winter Protocol) while she was inside the Windcrest cavern powering the arcane engine. Fir did not care for the name for herself, and has instead taken on a name breaking the theme a bit, Fern.
With all the confounding factors of being newly ancient, the wars (with her partner having a role of great prominence within them), having an echo in this world, and sorrow and regret for how she treated her spell-child and prior generations of simulacra, Audrarith was greatly troubled in creating this generation of simulacra. This resulted in an (as of yet unexplained) anomaly: this generation of simulacra form a hive mind and do not have fully separate consciousnesses (they jokingly call themselves "the forest"). This troubled Audrarith even further, but with the encouragement of Jadvigal, she set those concerns aside and continued full speed ahead on the arcane engine plan. Thus, as of December 12th, 724, Winter Protocol went into effect, with an expected duration of 6 months (one of the longest in history), with Fern acting as Audrarith at the Academy (though it is in some sense the full hive mind doing so), and Audrarith herself having her draconic/gravitational magic continually drained to enhance the air rift arcane engine. The other four are transferring the most important parts of Audrarith's and Jadvigal's hoard from their old lair to the new one at the flying city, guarding both sites during the whole process.
However, in the roughly three weeks that Audrarith was powering the arcane engine, she had a number of insights into Pata-Elemental Theory and the Telemet of the Giants, as well as the possibilities of bringing the Gem Council to completion on a much earlier timeframe (given the conversation with Kireg and Surina on the night of the solstice), meaning that she no longer has to remain within the mountain complex for the full 6 month duration, and can resume work elsewhere. However, she was impressed by how "the Forest" was managing things, so with her desire to focus on research and other arcane pursuits without the distractions of day-to-day academy operations, she is leaving the simulacra in charge of running the academy while she focuses elsewhere. She is also currently considering making it a permanent and publicly-known arrangement at the start of the next academic year.

Alternate Identities

Rhiwa

This entry is for the alternate identity used by Audrarith and her simulacra. For the person that Snowsquall became after undertaking Asta's ritual, see her entry.
For the about the past decade, an Aarakocra wizard known as Rhiwa as been the lead developer of the Academy's skyship program. With the announcement of the New Torrentha flying city at the harvest festival, she was promoted to chief project manager for the city's enchantments (which includes overseeing the Windcrest elemental rift arcane engine project). At the banquet of said harvest festival, she was seated at a conspicuous location in the front, alongside a half-elf military officer (with sapphire blue eyes), two diplomats (a human and a tiefling) dressed in the attire of the far north, and an unoccupied seat. She acted as captain of the skyship the party took from the academy to Ixlyria, and during the journey proved to be very formidable at dragonchess.
When the party met Audrarith (Alternate Timeline), who (at the time) looked almost exactly like a younger version of Rhiwa (but with druidic rather than wizardly attire), they made the discovery that Rhiwa (at that time) was a persona used by Audrarith and/or her simulacra. Later events confirmed that the individual adopting this persona from the time of the harvest festival until the discovery of the alternate world echos (which included the time the party traveled on skyship to Ixlyria) was Audrarith herself, but for a majority of time both before and all of the time after it was/has been Snowsquall.

Species

Dragon

Year of Birth

107 BCE 831 Years old

Gender

Moteru (female)

Draconic Type

Amethyst (Ancient) [Currently]
Blue [Formerly]

Adventurer Type

Wizard (Graviturgy) / Sorcerer (Lunar Sorcery)

World of Origin

37-01