Leonore
A fallen Aasimar, and the mother of Kei and Iltiza Ward. She presently espouses the cult's cause and is considered evil. The party does not know what lies behind that: she may be possessed, she may be brainwashed, or she may genuinely believe what the cult believes. Her relationship with the party is fraught and unresolved: she is family to two of them and a threat to all of them at once.
Status: Fallen Aasimar; considered evil; possessed, brainwashed, or a true believer (unknown)
First appears:
A fallen Aasimar
An Aasimar is a mortal touched by celestial power, watched over by a guardian spirit whose light shows through them. To fall is for that light to be corrupted or turned: the guardian bond severed, twisted, or overtaken, so that what was radiant in her has curdled into something darker. What caused Leonore's fall is unknown, and tangled with a larger unknown: the party cannot say whether she is possessed, brainwashed, or a true convert to the cult's beliefs. Each would explain a fallen Aasimar differently. An entity occupying the place her celestial guide once held; a mind coerced and remade; or a soul that chose this and turned its own light.
A fall of this kind tends to show both outwardly and inwardly: the outward marks of corrupted celestial power (eyes like black pits, the shadow of dark wings, radiance soured into necrotic cold) and the inward inversion of an Aasimar's protective, guiding instinct into something that wounds. It is consistent with Iltiza Ward being hurt each time she tries to reach her: appeals that should land on a celestial conscience strike corrupted ground instead.
It also reframes the family. Kei and Iltiza Ward are both Aasimar, so the celestial blood is hers, passed down. Her fall is a dark mirror of what her children still carry intact, and an unspoken question of whether the same could ever reach them.
History
Around ten years ago the family lived in a small coastal town, Kei and Iltiza Ward unaware of Leonore's heritage and the celestial blood it gave them. When Kei's powers began to surface, Leonore and her husband grew afraid: the townsfolk had started behaving strangely, as if something were influencing them. On the night the family tried to flee they were attacked, and Leonore told her husband to take the children and run while she stayed behind, shouting at someone. The children escaped by sea and watched their father cut down; Leonore never reached them and was not seen again.
Where she went in the years since, and how she came to be fallen and aligned with the cult, is unknown. Whether the influence that gripped her town then has any bearing on what grips her now is an open and uncomfortable question.
A vision granted to Tiz by a Jimson brew later showed Leonore in chains: first as an enslaved miner deep underground, then marched in a column of prisoners through Phlan toward Valejo Castle by the Cult of the Dragon. If the vision holds true it suggests she may be a captive of the cult rather than a willing member, and it has pushed Tiz toward believing her mother possessed, broken or brainwashed rather than a believer. It remains a vision, not proof.
Relationships
- Iltiza Ward: daughter. Tiz has tried several times to talk her mother round and reach her, without success, and has taken damage in the attempts.
- Kei: son. Kei has sworn to kill Jaag Nixon if Jaag kills her.
- Jaag Nixon: has alternated between wanting to kill her (treating Leonore in her current state as a threat to be ended) and wooing her. Kei and Iltiza Ward are unhappy about the wooing, but they would far rather it than the alternative.
Notes
Stub created from the campaign journal. The reading of her fall above is inferred from what "fallen Aasimar" generally means; confirm against the table. The central open question is what is actually wrong with her: whether she is possessed, brainwashed, broken, held captive, or genuinely believes the cult's doctrine. A vision of Tiz's (see History) leans toward captivity, but it is not proof. Also unknown: what caused her fall, which cult she now serves, and whether any of it can be undone.