Wisrtum:Characters:Xandra Kliess (Wizardress of the Imemenu Isles)
Description[edit]
Xandra Kliess has ill-kept short brown hair, kept only slightly longer than a butch. Several noticable patches of hair are missing. Her nose appears to have been broken several times, and her face has clearly suffered serious acid-burns. Her hazel-eyes constantly appear blood-shot. In-fact, much of her face has lost the sensation of touch. Before her run-in with a vengeful acid spell however, she looked much different.
She had shoulder-length curly-brown hair, which she kept in ringlets, and slightly almond shaped hazel-eyes. Though only slightly over five-feet tall, and almost too thin appearance would almost lead one to expect she could be missed in a crowd. However, her large bosom ensured that most men did not miss her in a crowd.
Background[edit]
Xandra was stunningly attractive and publicly well mannered, even from her youth. Raised by her father Guye Kliess, an aristocrat and landowner among the isles, she leaned etiquette practically from the womb of her mother, Illees Kendius-Kliess. As surly as she learned the power of a well spoken word, she also learned quickly the manipulations that go with it.
As economic hard times fell, the house of Kliess became a convenient scapegoat among the aristocrats wishing more for political stability than social justice. As her father's political enemies grew, and the house of Kliess began to fell evermore out of favor among the aristocracy, and commoners alike and death threats began to surface -- some of them signed -- addressed to her father.
Not far in adolescence' bloom, she discovered more efficient ways to archive her own ends: first, the bed-chamber, and second, the might of magic. Knowing the few of power among the aristocracy would come to call and court her, she sought the affections of a young wizard, Avaldaar, some ten-years her senior. Leading him to belive she wished to marry, to gain his trust. As she did so, she gained a good understanding of the rudiments and foundation of Margery and the manipulation of mana. Once her knowledge and skill where sufficient, she used this power in various ways to strengthen her father's position once again.
Having courted the mage Avaldaar for no other reason than to gain power through him, and satisfied that her task was complete, she ended the engagement. Heartbroken, disillusioned, but not broken, young Avaldaar began to sought with all his might to kindle her love but could not. At the end of his rope, he brought himself to the summit of lords-ridge, a beautiful and relatively private spot on the edge of town where he planned to take his life. It was there he found her.
Working up the courage to do the unthinkable, Avaldaar heard, well... the tell-tail sounds of passion. As he looked about to locate its source he found Xendra with a young, aristocrat; the name of whom he neither knew, nor cared to know. Blood burning with jealous fury, Avaldaar uttered a curse — invoking ineffable names of infernal beings from the abyss as he did so. In that cursed moment, he cast a mighty acid-spell in a more potent manner than any, least of all Avaldaar could have forseen. Seeing the fire in his eyes, Xendra quickly spoke a defensive utterance — as she did so, Avaldaar's spell blossomed with a sickly-green light. When the acrid smoke cleared, Xendra was knocked unconscious, the aristocrat was dead, and Avaldaar had vanished.
When Xendra awoke later, she found herself in the midst of scorched earth. Staggered both mentally and physically, she began to grope around on the ground before a hazarding an attempt to stand. As she began to rise she her eyes fell upon a stone she had not previously seen. It was a reflective and glittering jewel, pulsating with magical power, without a thought Xendra wrapped it in a bit of tattered cloth, and tucked it away.
On her way home, she barely noticed the townspeople which hid their face from her. When she arrived home, she went for the bath. As she was going down into the opulent pool that served for a bath, she met her reflection, and let out a blood-curling scream: her face was badly marred by the scorching of acid.
Unable to be healed of her scar either naturally, or magically, Xendra closed out the world and locked her self in her bed-chamber. It was there the stone first spoke to her, and it was there she swore by a dark-oath, that if kept, would return her beauty to her: so promised the stone...
