Iltiza Ward
An Aasimar Cleric of Selune (she/her), known to everyone as Tiz. Twenty-one years old, 5'6", with hazel eyes flecked with gold, golden-blonde hair, and white skin scattered with metallic gold freckles. Sister of Kei and daughter of Leonore.
In play she carries Calm Emotions, Guiding Bolt and Aid, and has a notable fear of water. She broke Welsea Parenthe's charm on the party with Calm Emotions, then later put a stray Guiding Bolt into Lavinia Zafir's back.
Status: Alive
First appears: Chapter 11 - Episode 1 - Session 1 The Silver Pyramid
Faith
Tiz is a devoted follower of Selune. Adrift at sea after fleeing her home (see Backstory), she prayed one night for someone to find them, and the next morning they were found. She forgot the prayer until, after a long stretch living on the streets, she came across a temple devoted to Selune and took it as an answer. She has been devoted since, and works in the temple during downtime, serving as a High Priest (rank to confirm). Her devotion has made her an enemy of the Church of Shar, Selune's opposite.
Backstory
See the shared Ward siblings' backstory. In brief: Tiz (then eleven) and her brother Kei grew up in a small coastal town, unaware of their mother Leonore's heritage. When Kei's celestial powers surfaced at fourteen, their parents grew secretive and afraid; the townsfolk had begun acting strangely, as if under some influence. The family was attacked the night they planned to flee. Their father carried the children to a boat and pushed them out to sea, and they watched him cut down as they drifted away. Leonore was left behind and never came. Sailors picked them up days later. Kei turned to crime to survive; Tiz turned to the temple, especially once her own healing powers began to show.
She holds onto the hope that her mother is still alive and prays often for her return. She has read of a relic that might help her find her, though she does not yet know what it is or where to look.
Like her brother, she has begun to have strange dreams and visions that do not quite make sense, and they are growing more frequent.
A vision
After drinking a Jimson brew, Tiz fell into a vision. The chanting and scenes of a ritual swirled away into colour and then silence, replaced by the ring of metal on stone. She stood in a mine, its walls veined with glittering metal, where hunched figures swung pickaxes to free the ore. They were chained: an iron spike driven into the floor with four chains running from it, one to the foot of each of four miners, and the dreamlike cavern stretched on and on, lined with these enslaved quartets.
One miner turned. Soot could not hide the sparkling gold freckles on her cheek, and her eyes blinked and looked through Tiz: her mother's eyes (see Leonore).
Tiz gasped, and the scene changed. Dragonmasked, cloaked figures of the Cult of the Dragon marched down the main promenade of Phlan toward Valejo Castle, now half a ruin, where a shadowy winged dragon perched, its talons crumbling the stone as its grip tightened. The marchers were not all in cult dress: orcs, gnolls, kobolds and humans in tribal clothing walked among them, and just as many of every kind marched in chains, Leonore among them.
The vision has shifted how Tiz reads her mother. Where it was an open question whether Leonore is possessed, broken, brainwashed or a willing believer, the sight of her enslaved and marched in chains has pushed Tiz toward believing she is a captive and a victim rather than a convert. It remains a vision, not proof.
Relationships
- Kei: brother; the two have stuck together through everything, and Tiz is the more trusting of the pair
- Leonore: mother; a fallen Aasimar now considered evil. Tiz has tried several times to reach her, without success and taking harm in the attempts; after a vision of her mother enslaved and in chains she leans toward believing her a captive rather than a willing member, and still hopes to save her
- Church of Selune: her faith; serves as a High Priest (rank to confirm)
- Church of Shar: an enemy of the church, which holds a standing order to neutralise her