The moon hangs above, my home lies below
Although it be cold, and covered with snow
Foul monsters to stalk, old knowledge to know-
Such is the life now for Vel'duith the Drow!

Vel'duith Voiryn, Dark Trickster

Biographical information

Birthplace Zar'Ahal, the Undercity Born Died Age 154 Home Crobhear Keep, atop the Spine Sexuality Pronouns

Physical description

Race Drow Sub-Race Gender Female Height 5' 1" Mass 90 lbs Hair color Snow-white Eye color Garnet red Skin color Charcoal black

Political information

Affiliation(s) Occupation Probationary Yaegir Clan(s) Caste Domain Masters Apprentices Alias(es)

Out-of-character information

Writer Threecups the Caffeinated Created on 9/22/2025 Avatar Concocted by MS Copilot

Vel'duith Voiryn [VELDwith VOYrin] is a somewhat short, slender wisp of a dark elf of seemingly indeterminate age. Sharp garnet-red eyes peer from an angular face of tightly drawn charcoal black skin, and her thin lips often curl into an easy grin or smirk. Fine snow-white hair falls from a widow's peak to her mid-back, bound by interwoven braids and pinned in the rear by the split and silver-gilt halves of a seven-inch-long monstrous claw. She wears layers of spidersilk robes in various dark colors, a supple mantle of a strangely mottled dark leather pinned by a silver brooch, a sensible pair of sturdy shoes, a silver pendant whose vines enwrap a carved moonstone eye, and a wide-brimmed spidersilk hat. A short sword, a hand crossbow, and a box of bolts depend from a hip belt, though anyone at all familiar with her folk might correctly suspect that these are not the only weapons she carries.

Her hands, feet, forearms, and calves are enwreathed by intricately interwoven patterns of fine silver and crushed moonstone embedding, resembling delicate tattoos that gleam in moonlight or sunlight, yet wane and vanish in darkness or shadow. When she taps into her luminancy, these embeddings and her moonstone eye pendant pull light, color, and shadow in to weave into her illusionary tricks, distractions, and diversions.

A falcon-winged grey tabbycat named Ilharess is often to be seen nearby, murring curiously at whatever dusty tome Vel might have open, slyly depositing any bothersome loose fur on her robe, trying to spirit away an unattended quill, or some similar mischief.

As an experienced rogue, Vel'duith is adept at stealth, slight of hand, hearing and discerning noises, spotting hidden doors, clues, and traps, setting and disarming traps of both mundane and magical varieties, picking locks, deciphering ancient languages, deception, and is acquainted with such weapons and tactics of the drow as suit her frame and occupation. She necessarily wields only light, nimble weapons, especially favoring shortsword, dagger, darts, and hand crossbow. In combat, she always seeks to attack from advantage - i.e., from behind, above, or the flank - and if at all possible, in coordination with an ally to hold the attention of their foe. She is not very highly skilled as a duellist and would immediately look to fade away from any extended melee, if possible in the direction of the nearest prepared trap or ally with which to turn the tables.

As a journey-level luminancer, Vel'duith can cast various illusions, wear magical disguises, blur her silhouette, momentarily shroud herself in shadows, or snare enemies in a web of light that adheres to their form, making them easier to hit. She does not wield a traditional luminancy weapon; rather, she can momentarily create a nearly invisible shadow hand that can fly a short distance, pick up and carry light objects, pick locks or pockets, or perform other similar feats of legerdemain. She can also cast a handful of other-discipline spells of minor effect or short duration such as a simple ward or a laughing curse, and a variety of cantrips for trivial but useful tasks such as mixing or heating and cooling liquids, lighting candles or a cooking fire, hiding smoke from a fire, or mending simple rips and tears. She has not learned any of the powerful sorts of fire, lightning, or ice evocations, impenetrable abjuring barriers, or fell conjurations of terrible beasts and demons most folks think of when picturing a powerful wizard.

As a highborn drow, she cannot be magically made to sleep, is resistant to poisons and magical charms, and can sense the weave of magic at will. Once each day, she can levitate herself or another person or object, or temporarily suppress a magical effect. She can see in complete darkness out to 180 feet, but is seriously hampered in full daylight, and may be temporarily blinded by sudden bursts of bright light.

Vel'duith is well read on the subjects of arcana and history, with a special emphasis on denizens of the nether planes, but this is book-learning much more than practical expertise. She can sing and play the lyre passably well, but is no bard. She speaks Drowish, Common, Elvish, Undercommon, Abyssal, and Draconic, as well as a smattering of Dwarvish, Gnomish, Orcish, and Goblinspeak. Given time and access to a decent library, she can decipher ancient writings in these and related languages.

Vel'duith's familiar, a fey winged cat, is intelligent, good at hiding and hunting, has a keen sense of smell, and can telepathically communicate with Vel to warn her of bad scents or twists in a trail.

Vel'duith is almost always smiling: warmly among fellow scholars who can discuss arcana obscure detail for obscure detail with her, an easy smile among those who she considers friends, a slight Mona Lisa smirk for the world at large, and a gleeful ear to ear grin whilst perforating a monster's thorax from a direction that it mistakenly thought was unoccupied just a second ago. Well, until she loses her temper at some foolish action and uncorks a cacophonous outburst of drowish cursing sounding somewhat like a raging ferret strangling a pixie with a dandelion stem.

Vel'duith appreciates beauty, whether natural or artificial, and craves long lost knowledge. She can be easily distracted by things like intricate frescoes, stunning vistas, and shelves of cobwebbed books.

Vel'duith was raised to think transactionally, ruthlessly, and without much regard for morals or ethics. Thus, she struggles at times with her newly embraced dogma to 'be kind to all save in battle with evil.' Part of the attraction of hunting monsters is finding a bit more evil to not have to be kind to...

Vel'duith was born into the lowest cusp of the high houses of Zar'Ahal, the Undercity. Her noble house, named quite literally for its commodity, maintained its precarious perch at the edge of the highborn caste by procuring and selling arcane tomes to noble-born priests and wizards. Once she came of age to learn her ordained trade as a book thief, she was drilled in the requisite methods of research, investigation, and skullduggery to acquire such tomes. Sometimes she had to acquire them from forgotten crypts and ruins; other times from the wary, grasping hands of proud ownership. She also learned the trickster's art of luminancy, warping light, color, and shadow to disguise her form and cloak her passing.

Vel'duith grew up smaller and weaker than most of her peers - a useless runt in her mother's words- but she was also nimbler and cleverer. She delighted in besting rivals with bamboozling displays of cunning, legerdemain, and spelltrickery. In the penultimate act of deception of her youth, Vel'duith passed her blooding trial not by actually slaying a surface dweller - indeed, she passed up on several opportunities to finish off those she saw hiding or fleeing by her - but by sneaking through the tower of the most powerful wizard in the town the blooding raid had targeted, stealing the biggest spellbook she found there, and simply letting the priestess leading the raid draw her own assumptions about how she had come to claim such a trophy.

Vel'duith took pride in how neatly and discreetly she could complete missions, almost never bloodying her weapons save on the various dangerous natural predators she sometimes encountered while skulking through the bowels of the Undercity. She gained something of a reputation among Zar'Ahal's spellcasters as a person to seek out if a given tome needed to be found and acquired as discreetly as possible, such as from a rival's bookshelf.

A century into her career as a book thief, Vel'duith stole a demonic tome from an old ruin deep in the bowels of the Undercity. Ever craving arcane knowledge and ancient lore, she foolishly tried reading it, leading to the book imprinting itself upon her and attempting to dominate her will. Whether by dumb luck or divine intervention, on the way home, in mid-mind-wrestle with the evil tome, Vel'duith tripped and fell through the weakened, ruined roof of a hidden antechamber. Here she discovered a very different tome, bathed in a weak ray of moonlight, though miles of bedrock lay between the chamber and the night sky above: The Light of Sse'ellah. This book was the dogma of a forbidden cult, forgotten for over two thousand years. Their creed was repentance of the ancient sundering of the elven races through word and deed, and ultimately achieving reunion with the elves on the surface. Reading an inscribed prayer on the margin silenced the infernal whispers that had been assailing her thoughts and broke the demonic tome's imprint upon her. She resealed the tome with a ward and delivered it to her buyer, but she also secreted away the forbidden dogma for herself.

Further reading and reflection on the dogma and how it had saved her led Vel'duith to a moment of epiphany, questioning who truly benefited from her existence, exploring why she had cheated her blooding in the way she did, and why she had been so fortunate to find this book whose inscription had saved her. Ultimately, Vel'duith decided she owed nothing more to the Undercity and its bloodthirsty, power-mad wizards and priestesses. She chose to embrace the forbidden teachings of the moon-goddess whose serendipitous intervention had saved her life. Under the guise of a new mission, Vel'duith deserted her House and the Undercity, and started the long climb up to witness the true light of the moon for the first time since her blooding raid.

Guided by Ilharess, a fey winged cat sent to aid her, Vel'duith emerged onto the surface atop the Spine, near the Noct Yaegir stronghold of Crobhear Keep. There, she met a dwarven axe-maiden who fiercely accosted her and a stoic human warden who mysteriously greeted her in her mother tongue. Offered shelter and succor, she meditated out the sun's fury in a dark corner, before being roused from her reverie for an important meeting about a mysterious relic. Detecting a plume of unknown magic leaking from a broken ward, she warned those gathered, and formally offered her services. Warden Gabriel accepted her offer, naming her a Yaegir-in-training.

DnDwise, inspired by an arcane trickster/illusionist multiclass character. Concept wise, kind of a cross between Evie O'Connell and Lara Croft.