Backstory Version 1

Axia Narcissus is the daughter of a researcher and an archeologist. Her mother, Kessia, the researcher, had worked for the government of Regnum Aurelia in the area of researching, cataloging, and preservation. Her father, Aldred, was an archaeologist working with the same department, the Aerarium, which is responsible for record keeping and archives.

Kessia was working on a scroll that had been found in the ruins of an ancient civilization. She had wanted to keep her research a secret because the researchers are highly competitive with one another, and their work only becomes public knowledge after the Censors, the heads of the Aerarium, deem it so. The scroll was in tatters and in bad condition when it was brought to her, and yet she had begun to restore it, well past what people had thought it was able to be. After some years, Kessia had to retire unexpectedly as she was getting very sick with an unknown illness. Aldred was responsible for clearing out her office because she couldn’t leave her house after discovering her research that the Censors had forgotten to destroy. In his haste to cure Kessia, he went out with a mercenary band to find more information about the ancient civilization the scroll had come from. He had left Axia to care for her mother at home, as she was about to graduate and soon take over her mother’s position in the Aerarium. Aldred has not returned from his self-imposed mission, and Axia had to take care of her mother on her own for many years.

Axia was given her mother’s old office and discovered a secret compartment in the desk that contained the keys to the archive. Axia knew she needed money to care for her mother, and turned to selling some of the artifacts to her “friend” Luana. In the meantime, she continued her research on the scroll and made the same progress her mother had. Eventually, she concluded with her research and decided to ask her mother, who had been deteriorating since Aldred had left. Her mother left her with a cryptic message,

“It won’t open for hands alone… it needs what stirs beneath your skin,” and shortly fell into a comatose state.

Axia was confused about the message and went back to researching the scroll. At the same time, there had been a spell storm brewing and gathering power since the nearby Epida Emini was shattered. When the storm hit Regnum Aurelia, it created earthquakes and strong waves, almost hurricane-like weather, and at the same time, as a magical flare hit the Aerarium, Axia spilled blood on the scroll. The magic of the Spellstorm and the ancient scroll mixed in her blood and made her spellscarred.

She had been knocked unconscious in the backlash and, when she awoke in the morning, found that she could read more of the scroll. She couldn’t describe what she read, only that she suddenly knew that there were beings just around the corner of reality, and one of which gave knowledge to the authors of the scroll that broke their minds.

She decided to leave the position of a researcher and transfer to the archeology department, for the freedom it grants. The Censor had no issue with her transfer, so long as the Aerarium had gotten their due of artifacts.

Backstory Version 2

Axia Narcissus grew up in the quiet corridors of the Aerarium, a child of two obsessive minds, surrounded by parchment, dust, and buried secrets of people long past. Her earliest memories are steeped in the echo of her mother’s footsteps down the stone halls and the earthy scent of artifacts her father brought home from distant sites.

Kessia, a researcher of excellent reputation, was precise, private, and fiercely protective of her work. She rarely spoke of the contents she preserved, but her eyes would linger a second too long on particular scrolls, her fingers tracing ancient ink with reverence. Axia inherited this curiosity.

Aldred, by contrast, was warmth and wonder. He’d return from expeditions with artifacts that whispered when held close, or fractured idols that seemed to hum with old memory. He taught Axia how to listen and explore, not with her ears, but with intuition.

“Everything we find,” he’d say, “wants to tell its story. You just have to know how to listen.”

When the scroll came to Kessia, she changed. Axia noticed the way her mother stayed later and later in the Aerarium, locking her office even when no one was around. The scroll was broken and fragile, written in a dead language no one could trace. Kessia didn’t speak about it, not even to Aldred.

What Axia saw, though, were signs: the shaking hands, the red-rimmed eyes, the smudges of ink across her forearms like ritual markings. Kessia had begun to transcribe something from the scroll, something she kept hidden from official Aerarium records.

Kessia’s decline was swift and unexplainable. No cleric or healer could diagnose her wasting sickness. Aldred, desperate and convinced the scroll held the answer, grew restless. He found a note among her belongings, a scrap written in shaky lettering related to the scroll, with a location scrawled in the margins. He told Axia goodbye, saying he’d return by year’s end. His expedition site was found with no sign of a struggle, and all of their gear was left behind.

Axia took her mother home. She spent her days mixing herbal remedies and her nights trying to decipher her mother’s scattered research. She burned through every ounce of money they had, and when that ran dry, she remembered Luana.

Luana had always been ambitious but willing to pay in coin for artifacts no one would miss. Axia justified it: a broken idol here, a fragment of stone there. Nothing with names. Nothing sacred.

When Axia was formally assigned to her mother’s office, now her own, the place felt wrong. Cold. The desk drawers resisted her like clenched fists until one gave way with a metallic click. Inside: a set of keys and a glyph-marked scrap of parchment she couldn’t read. The scroll was still there, locked in a false-bottom cabinet. Her mother’s work, all of it untouched by the Censors.

She studied obsessively and slowly, and the patterns started to shift under her eyes. Symbols rearranged themselves. Words became understandable, but only when she stopped trying to read and started feeling. That scared her.

When she asked her mother, now barely lucid, about the scroll, Kessia clutched her daughter’s hand, blood under her fingernails, and rasped:

“It won’t open for hands alone… it needs what stirs beneath your skin.”

Moments later, Kessia slipped into silence. Not death, not sleep, something in between. A shell, empty and waiting.

The sky cracked open when the Spellstorm hit. Axia had seen storms before, but this was different. It screamed with purpose, lightning that wrote runes across the sky, waves that knocked over buildings with surgical precision. The Aerarium took a direct hit from a flare, a pulse of raw magic that surged through the foundation and up through her desk.

Axia had been holding the scroll when the flare struck. She didn’t remember cutting her palm, but blood hit the parchment like a signature. The scroll drank it, and something sighed in relief.

The pain came first, her vision went next, and the last thing was the feeling of her body hitting the ground.

When she woke, the scroll was open in her mind, able for her to summon, but the words no longer made sense, because they didn’t need to. She knew them. She couldn’t say them aloud without her tongue knotting, but the meaning was burned into her.

There are things just behind the veil of the world, sleeping, watching, teaching. The scroll wasn’t written by mortals alone. It was dictated, whispered into the minds of the ancient ones, until their thoughts spiraled into madness.

Axia doesn’t know what she is now. But she knows she can’t be just a researcher anymore. The scroll took her mother; it pushed her father into frantic searching; it felt like fate to keep reaching for the answers this scroll can provide. So she walked out of the archives and into the wild adventure, which she knew wouldn’t lead her astray.

Rumours

Survived a spellflare in the Aerarium and returned to work without explanation - T

Rarely seen in public and avoids official inquiries or promotions within the Aerarium - T

She can twist minds or peer into thoughts without speaking a word - T

Axia’s scroll is a fake, just an old piece of parchment she uses to impress others - F

The scroll she carries causes anyone who reads it to become possessed by an alien intelligence - F-ish

Rumours About Others

There’s a smuggler missing two fingers who claims Luana bit them off in a fit of laughter. She still calls Luana ‘darling.’

They say Ryn used to dance with fire when she was part of a traveling circus troupe. During the solstice, the longest night of the year, their flames went wild during a performance. Some say it was beautiful to behold, others say it was hell. The next morning, there was nothing left of the tent but burnt cloth and glass sand.

Evander only got through college because of sizable donations his parents (the famous wizards Michaelis and Aleksander) make towards the school

Birthday

20 Midwinter, 960AD, born under The Oracle Celestarch

Time Line

Axia was 11 when her mom got the scroll, 16 when mom got really sick, 17 when her dad found the location, 18 when he went missing, 20 when she became a researcher, 23 when the spell storm hit, and now at 28 has become an overseer for site C42

NPC’s

Coworkers

• Caelia, an older woman, was Kessia’s partner before Axia’s
• Decius, a middle-aged man who is very ambitious, wants to become a censor
• Zaerina, a woman younger than Axia, tried to steal some of Axia’s research

Censors

• Censor Servius Meminous supervises Caelia, and used to supervise Axia
• Censor Trebellia Vitalis supervises Decius and Zaerina

Criminal Associates

• Merri Bronzerock, Dwarven Woman, Art Forgery, school of transmutation, morals of transmorgification teacher
• Nephreus, Teifling Man, Potion Maker
• Nai Jiong, Human Woman, Pirate, part of the Black Tide

Lore

The Aerarium is a company of researchers and censors, working closely with the Adventuring Guild. It is split into three separate divisions, each with its own purpose.

The first is the archeology department, the archeologists are the ones who are delving into the ruins of the past and discovering artifacts. The adventuring guild sends the archeologist out with a group each time they go on an expedition.

The second group is the research department, which includes the researchers and the censors; they are the ones who investigate and document the artifacts brought back by the archeologists. The censors are the ones who report to the government any information, and/or any artifacts that they believe are of interest to them.

The third department is the archive itself, which is the storage place of all of the other artifacts from the past. It is run by archivists and librarians, this is the group with the least amount of oversight and recognition.

Bastion

Lvl. 5 (2)
__Arcane Study- __
Arcane Study Charm. After spending a Long Rest in your Bastion, you gain a magical Charm that lasts for 7 days or until you use it. The Charm allows you to cast Identify without expending a spell slot or using Material components. You can’t gain this Charm again while you still have it.

Craft Options. When you issue the Craft order to this facility, choose one of the following options:
Craft: Arcane Focus. You commission the facility’s hireling to craft an Arcane Focus. The work takes 7 days and costs no money. The Arcane Focus remains in your Bastion until you claim it.
Craft: Book. You commission the facility’s hireling to craft a blank book. The work takes 7 days and costs you 10 GP. The book remains in your Bastion until you claim it.
Craft: Magic Item (Arcana). If you are level 9+, you can commission the facility’s hireling to craft a Common or an Uncommon magic item chosen by you from the Arcana tables in chapter 7. The facility has the tool required to craft the item, and the hireling has proficiency with that tool as well as proficiency in the Arcana skill. See the “Crafting Magic Items” section in Chapter 7 for the time and money that must be spent to craft the item. If the item allows its user to cast any spells from it, you must craft the item yourself (the facility’s hireling can assist), and you must have all those spells prepared every day you spend crafting the item.
Hireling:

__Library- __
Research: Topical Lore. When you issue the Research order to this facility, you commission the facility’s hireling to research a topic. The topic can be a legend, a known event, a location, a person of significance, a type of creature, or a famous object. The work takes 7 days. When the research concludes, the hireling obtains up to three accurate pieces of information about the topic that were previously unknown to you and shares this knowledge with you the next time you speak with them. The DM determines what information you learn.

Lvl. 9 (2)
Scriptorum-
Craft Options. When you issue the Craft order to this facility, choose one of the following options:
Craft: Book Replica. You commission the facility’s hireling to make a copy of a nonmagical Book. Doing so requires a blank book. The work takes 7 days.
Craft: Spell Scroll. You commission the facility’s hireling to scribe a Spell Scroll containing one Cleric or Wizard spell of level 3 or lower. The facility has the necessary Calligrapher’s Supplies, and the hireling meets all the prerequisites needed to scribe the scroll. The “Crafting Equipment” section in the Player’s Handbook specifies the time needed to scribe the scroll and the cost of the scroll, which you must pay.
Craft: Paperwork. You commission the facility’s hireling to create up to fifty copies of a broadsheet, a pamphlet, or another loose-leaf paper product. The work takes 7 days and costs you 1 GP per copy. At no additional cost in time or money, the facility’s hireling can distribute the paperwork to one or more locations within 50 miles of your Bastion

Teleportation Circle-
Recruit: Spellcaster. Each time you issue the Recruit order to this facility, its hireling extends an invitation to a Friendly NPC spellcaster. Roll any die. If the number rolled is odd, the invitee declines the invitation, and you gain no benefit from having issued the order. If the number rolled is even, the invitee accepts the invitation and arrives in your Bastion via your Teleportation Circle.
While you are in your Bastion, you can ask the spellcaster to cast one Wizard spell of level 4 or lower; if you are level 17+, the spell’s maximum level increases to 8. The spellcaster is assumed to have the spell prepared. If the spell has one or more Material components that cost money, you must pay for them before the spell can be cast.
The spellcaster stays for 14 days or until they cast a spell for you. The spellcaster won’t defend your Bastion and departs immediately if the Bastion is attacked (see “Bastion Events” at the end of the chapter)

Lvl. 13 (1)
Archive- (Replace the Scriptorum at Lvl. 13)
Research: Helpful Lore. When you issue the Research order to this facility, you commission the facility’s hireling to search the Archive for helpful lore. The work takes 7 days. The hireling gains knowledge as if they had cast the Legend Lore spell, then shares this knowledge with you the next time you speak with them.
Reference Book. Your Archive contains one copy of a rare and valuable reference book, which gives you a benefit while you and the book are in your Bastion. You can choose one of the following options (your DM might make more options available):
Bigby’s Handy Arcana Codex. You have Advantage on any Intelligence (Arcana) check you make when you take the Study action to recall lore about spells, magic items, eldritch symbols, magical traditions, and planes of existence.
The Chronepsis Chronicles. You have Advantage on any Intelligence (History) check you make when you take the Study action to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, wars, and lost civilizations.
Investigations of the Inquisitive. You have Advantage on any Intelligence (Investigation) check you make when you take the Study action to make deductions based on clues or evidence or to recall lore about traps, ciphers, riddles, and gadgetry.
Material Musings on the Nature of the World. You have Advantage on any Intelligence (Nature) check you make when you take the Study action to recall lore about terrain, plants, animals, and the weather.
The Old Faith and Other Religions. You have Advantage on any Intelligence (Religion) check you make when you take the Study action to recall lore about deities, rites and prayers, hierarchies, holy symbols, and the practices of secret cults.
Enlarging the Facility. You can enlarge your Archive to a Vast facility by spending 2,000 GP. If you do so, you gain two additional reference books chosen from the list above.

Manifest Zone-
Empower: Manifest Charm. When you issue the Empower order to this facility, the facility’s hireling conducts magical rites for the next 7 days. At the end of that period, you gain a special Charm called a Manifest Charm, which lasts until you use it. You don’t need to be in the Bastion while the rites are performed to gain their benefit. The effects of the Charm depend on the facility’s linked plane:
Daanvi, the Perfect Order. You can expend the Charm (no action required) to end the Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, or Poisoned condition on yourself.
Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell from the Necromancy school, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Fernia, the Sea of Fire. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell that deals Fire damage, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Irian, the Eternal Dawn. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell that restores Hit Points or deals Radiant damage, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Lamannia, the Twilight Forest. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell that conjures or summons a Beast, an Elemental, or a Fey, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Mabar, the Endless Night. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell that animates or summons an Undead (including Animate Dead, Create Undead, or Summon Undead ), you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Risia, the Plain of Ice. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell that deals Cold damage, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to treat the spell as if it were cast using a spell slot 1 level above the slot expended.
Shavarath, the Battleground. When you score a Critical Hit, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to deal an extra 10 damage of one of the types dealt by the attack.
Syrania, the Azure Sky. You can expend the Charm as a Bonus Action to gain a Fly Speed equal to your Speed for 1 minute.
Thelanis, the Faerie Court. When you cast a spell from the Enchantment or Illusion school, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to give one target of the spell Disadvantage on its saving throw against the spell.
Xoriat, the Realm of Delirium. When you use a spell slot to cast a spell, you can expend the Charm (no action required) to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table in the Player’s Handbook.

Lvl. 17 (1)
Demiplane-
Empower: Arcane Resilience. When you issue the Empower order to this facility, magical runes appear on the Demiplane’s walls and last for 7 days. Until the runes disappear, you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to five times your level after spending an entire Long Rest in the Demiplane.
Fabrication. While in the Demiplane, you can take a Magic action to create a nonmagical object of your choice from nothing, causing it to appear in an unoccupied space in the Demiplane. The object can be no bigger than 5 feet in any dimension; can’t have a value over 5 GP; and must be made of wood, stone, clay, porcelain, glass, paper, nonprecious crystal, or nonprecious metal. You must finish a Long Rest before you can retake this action.

Level Guide

Lvl. 6- Clairvoyant Combatant
- Lvl. 3 Spell (Enemies Abound) [Switch Detect Magic for Hex]

Lvl. 7- 1 Eldritch Invocation (Lesson of the First Ones: Cruel* or Alert)
- Lvl. 4 Spell (Doomtide)

Lvl. 8- ASI or Feat (Spell Sniper, +1 to Cha)
- Lvl. 4 Spell (Psychic Lance)

Lvl. 9- Contact Patron
- Eldritch Invocation (Gift of the Protectors)
- Lvl. 5 Spell (Teleportation Circle)

Lvl. 10- Eldritch Hex
- Thought Shield
- Cantrip (Mage Hand)

Lvl. 11- Mystic Arcanum (Lvl. 6 Spell: Mental Prison, Soul Cage, Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron)
- Lvl. 5 Spell (Synaptic Static)

Lvl. 12- ASI or Feat (Bloodlust, +1 to Dex)
- Eldritch Invocation (Visions of Distant Realms)

Lvl. 13- Mystic Arcanum (Lvl. 7: Power Word Pain, Plane Shift, Dream of the Blue Veil)
- Lvl. 5 Spell (Dream*)

Lvl. 14- Create Thrall

Lvl. 15- Mystic Arcanum (Lvl. 8: Befuddlement, Maddening Darkness, Power Word Stun)
- Eldritch Invocation (Witch Sight)
- Lvl. 5 Spell (Far Step)

Lvl. 16- ASI or Feat (Resilient, +1 to Dex)

Lvl. 17- Mystic Arcanum (Lvl. 9: Power Word Kill, Psychic Scream)
- Lvl. 5 Spell (Hallucinatory Terrain*)

Lvl. 18- Eldritch Invocation

Lvl. 19- Epic Boon (Boon of the Night Spirit)

Lvl. 20- Eldritch Master

Spellscar Ideas

__Unleash Void, Adjusted __You open a rift into the Astral Sea, centered on a point within 60 feet. Each creature within 10 feet of the rift must make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes PBd8 Psychic damage and is frightened until the end of its next turn. While frightened in this way, it has a speed of 0. On a success, a creature takes half damage and is not frightened. You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus, rounded down. Per LR?

Void Warp, Adjusted You teleport to an unoccupied space within 30 feet. Immediately after you teleport, each creature within 10 feet of the space you left must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes PBd8 Psychic damage and is pulled to the closest unoccupied space to the space you left and its speed is halved until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and suffers no other effects. You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus, rounded down.

__Warp Reality, Adjusted __When hit by an attack roll, you can gain a bonus equal to your PB against that attack roll, potentially causing it to miss. Then you teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. (Half PB per LR, rounded up)

__Revelation in Flesh, Adjusted __Once per long rest, as a bonus action, you can magically transform your body. This transformation lasts for up to a minute, as long as you maintain concentration, as if concentrating on a spell. For the duration, you gain the following benefits.

• You can see creatures and objects that have the Invisible condition as if they were visible, provided they aren’t behind total cover, and you can see into the Ethereal Plane
• You can use your spellcasting modifier for your unarmed strikes, and can use it to determine the save DC for the Grapple and Shove options. Additionally, when you hit with an unarmed strike, you can roll PBd6 Acid damage in place of the normal damage. When you attack with an unarmed strike, you can make an additional unarmed strike as a bonus action.
• You gain (half proficiency bonus, rounded down)d6 temporary hit points at the end of each of your turns.
• As a bonus action, you can gain a fly speed equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn.

Smth smth

• Once per long rest, as an action, you can force a creature within 60 feet to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes PBd8 Psychic damage and is frightened until the end of its next turn, where it makes another Intelligence saving throw.
• If it fails this saving you, you either control the creature until the end of its next turn, or you can instill it with ferocity, granting it an additional 30 feet of movement until the end of its next turn, advantage on its next attack roll, and the next time it hits with an attack roll, the attack does an additional PBd8 acid damage.

Corruption

• As an action, you target a creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw, taking PBd8 Psychic damage and becoming corrupted until the beginning of your next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and is not corrupted.
• While corrupted, the creature has disadvantage on attack rolls, its speed is reduced by half, and if it tries to cast a spell, it must first succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence check or the spell fails and is wasted.