"I look for a means of going to Heaven by a little way which is very short and very, very straight,
a little way that is quite new, that I will invent.”
—The White Garden, Carmel Bird
Physical Description:
She is a study in subtle contrasts. Ethereal and delicate, at first glance, but it’s less like feminine grace than strange, cold glass. Her straight posture and serious expression may suggest self-assurance, but watch her try to do some casual, mundane thing like pay for a drink and it looks like a brittle, almost painfully unbending way to live. The eyes of some impossible-to-please god are always on her.
Her hair and eyes are the same light, milky blue and her pale skin telegraphs indigo veins, violet bruises, pink irritations, and a rapidly growing library of new scars. Her mouth is a pair of pink petals. She finds the color too sweet, too girlish, so she usually paints her lips with a sensible mauve.
Wardrobe-wise, she prefers white. The robes she’s earned through her Conjurer training are her most dear possessions and thus her dress of choice. As a rule (some might say “fixation”), everything she wears is white. Gloves, boots, hats—all white, whenever the dye, glamour, or choice is available. The obvious conclusion is the correct one: she wants to convey purity. And yet, it also pleases her that white shows her journey so undeniably. Blood and dirt are impossible to hide.
Personality:
Her reserved nature is a guise to keep distance between herself and the world’s horrors—as well as the horrors in her. She’s unworldly, naive, and gullible, not entirely because she was raised in a remote orphanage, but because she avoids things that threaten her. She’s conflicted and cautious. Though serious, she obeys stiffly and quickly when a “Smile!” is shouted at her in taverns. Though carefully self-contained, she’s deeply inquisitive almost against her own will.
Expect well-meaning but invasive questions. Expect to hear “Can you say more about that?” frequently. Her curiosity often lacks self-awareness. Her stare is far-away and troubled, at times— at others, it’s like “she's looking through you at the next Calamity and it's an unfathomable cosmic horror made of bloody Lala parts,” as one colorful fellow adventurer once put it.
When she speaks carefully and quietly, she may give the impression that she's mulling something profoundly, but often her sentences come out like puzzle pieces squeezed gently and very deliberately into obviously mismatched connections.
Strengths:
- Resilient despite a willowy appearance and seemingly fragile composure
- Thoughtful and attentive - rarely speaks or acts without careful consideration
- Earnest, or just bad at lying
- A powerful combination of curiosity and humility - failure doesn’t shame her, she will keep trying until she gets it right
Weaknesses:
- Morally insecure - too busy trying to be righteous to be truly good
- Conflict avoidance and chronic people pleasing
- Naïve, sheltered, gullible, usually the root of confidence issues
- Guileless and transparent
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Meditation, the scents of smoke and clover, hot springs, mulled cider, giant hats, irises | Conflict, ambiguity, sarcasm, Thanalan, injustice, hornets, “Can you explain why you feel that way?” |
History:
It’s difficult not to believe her birth in Ala Mhigo, just months before it was invaded by the Garlean Empire, was inauspicious. Her parents were slight, soft-spoken Midlanders in the nation of mountainous people, but their patriotism matched the largest and loudest warriors’. They stood dwarfed in rallies and their cries for independence were as loud as any other countryman’s. Though they never considered leaving or surrendering, they arranged for Nymeian priests to smuggle their daughter out of the country before it fell to violent retaliation and eventual defeat to the empire.
Auvri remained in the care of The Silver Web, a sect of religious black mages with orphanages and temples scattered across northern Gridania and Coerthas. They were a small, private sect that hadn't grown much in 100 years, but began devoting resources to anti-empire efforts after the Ala Mhigo invasion. Unofficially, they aimed to train up highly skilled black mages to fight Garleans.
They raised Auvri within the cold, stone walls of a Coerthas establishment along with other refugee children given asylum from the empire’s invasions and annexes.
Her training in Thaumaturgy began when she was seven, having shown innate talent in early classes and assessment. She could manipulate her surroundings’ aether in infrequent, uncontrolled bursts of destructive magic. This gift came with gruesome visions, night terrors, and aetherial anomalies. When the children delivered flowers and songs to the impoverished, Auvri hid the roses that withered in her hands. In her black-outs, she burned and temporary blinded the other children. When she spoke in languages she didn’t know, her words half-sparked nascent, ancient spells. Instructors occasionally suffered frostbite and burns when touching her.
None of this abated as her training progressed. Puberty brought with it violent somnambulism and dissociative assaults on her peers. Still, the Silver Web mages saw great potential in her and sent her to study under Ul’Dah’s Thaumaturgy guild when she was eighteen.
Before finishing her Thaumaturgy training and attaining the title of Black Mage, Auvri abandoned her duties for the Conjurer path. In adventuring parties, she’s nearly died or failed to mend her partners multiple times with fritzing spells. Her mending sometimes feel like a cold, hard scrub to the skin—sometimes like an icy sting. Despite the struggle, she’s unswervingly committed to her new path.
She lives her life in penance for the vile visions and memories she's still plagued with, convinced her soul is fouled and that she must atone by constantly seeking serenity, enlightenment, helpfulness to others, and purity of heart and mind through white magic and selfless deeds.