Surina Daardendrian
Daughter of military officers of the Daardendrian clan, she developed a druidic connection to nature from a rather young age. This led to her almost never fitting in among her kin as her family moved around to various forts and bases across the continent throughout her childhood. An avid reader, she would often retreat to her books cataloging all the wonderous flora and fauna of the world. Also, when social situations got to be too much, she was known to use wild shape to get away for a while, a habit she keeps up to this day.
On entering the academy, she was originally a part of the "Wise Guys" party (with Briza, Isatina, Ryfon, and Qris), but within about a month, that party fell apart, with each member having some reason to leave the group (hers was advancing in level beyond that of the others). She was without a party for a while, often tagging along with her close friend Tilly and his party, until shortly after the air rift adventure/before the harvest festival when she was assigned to a new party with Eldram, Fiona, and Wendel. Since then, has bonded a fair bit with Eldram, as if siblings from a different family. Also, she has been very happy to get back together with Tilly and adventure alongside him and the others aboard the Gentle Night. She initially had some tension with the fellow intellectually-oriented druid Audry due to her lack of understanding of subtext in their interactions, but they have later reconciled, though they still tend to differ in mindset (Surina more scientific, Audry more philosophical).
While she never met him in person until enrolling at the academy, her uncle Kireg was likewise a druid outcast from their family. This has led to them becoming close in recent months with her adventures going through Dynskrogar and the broader context of developing war (given that her great-grandmother Felkath is one of the leading generals in the Ixlan Republic's military). Around the time of the start of the wars in Omros, she learned that one of her and Kireg's distant ancestors (on the opposite side of the family from Felkath) was a Topaz dragon. Later discoveries connected to this (particularly a letter of warning from Asta) led her to find out that she was considered the "prime candidate" to become a druidic Topaz dragon to join Audrarith's council of each gem dragon type (with Kireg, unknowingly, having been the former prime candidate for this role). These discoveries included her academy item (a cloak now transmuted into a tattoo of dragon wings depicting the five gem dragon types, with topaz in the center) receiving a disproportionate amount of power from the dispelling of Eldram's Namecloak. She ended up becoming opposed to this plan of action (mostly due to her preference for the druidic magic of giving and receiving from nature over the draconic magic of hoarding, but also due to the interpersonal conflicts existing within the current four of the council she was uncomfortable navigating), which led Kireg to take on this role (which he has now done, upon becoming Kylyndaar). However, this situation (and her own personal desires) has also led her to towards a big research question: is the nature of draconic magic coming from hoarded wealth the only possibility, as it is generally presumed to be? Or could there be another way?
During her time aboard the Gentle Night, she took a liking to wizardly ritual casting of spells, first inspired by what Tilly had been learning, then working side by side with Esnys during the roughly two week period doing the enchantments for the ship upgrades. As a result, she multiclassed into wizard, and very swiftly found a familiar, Cinnamon, a orange-brown tabby cat. She was also telepathically connected to Audrarith during the exploration of the Temple of the Worlds, learning much in the process, particularly around her recent work with Pata-Elemental Theory. After the distress of yet again loosing her adventuring party (with Wendel returning to the academy to get out of his warlock pact and Eldram joining Kal in returning to World 37-09), she got permission to join Tilly's party going forward.
Just after the exploration of the Temple of the Worlds, she went along with Tilly back to the academy for her uncle's transformation into a dragon, while the rest of the crew of the Gentle Night flew north to Kal and Vesh's lair in the far north. She and Tilly had a bit of an awkward conversation about their relationship, though leaving it in a place where they are both open it looking a little bit more like dating (though, of course, no rush! they both have a lot of time, and don't want to do anything or push anything if the other doesn't want it...and all that sort of thing). At the spell of transformation, she cast the spell Control Winds to act as an elemental counter of air energy to Ky's necrotic energy, which she appreciated being able to do. It also further confirmed her disinterest in becoming a topaz dragon as was previously offered to her, feeling much more comfortable with air energy than its para-elemental opposite of necrotic energy.
She currently wields a rather unique combined druidic/arcane focus: the enhanced quarterstaff base (that used to form the base of the staff of the "Frosted One"), a amalgamated stone top bound by tree-branch-like extensions of the staff (which can be made to cast Dancing Lights), and a magesteel triple helix wrapping around the upper portion of the staff below the top (which resembles the skyship engines of the Gentle Night that she worked on).
Species
Year of Birth
702 CE
22 Years old
Children
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