A Short History Of Isabelle, Mage/Rogue

03/18/721 A.E. The birth of Isabelle.

Isabelle grew up in the Larns Archipelago, on the Emerald Island, in the city of Coniperus under one of its many strong walls and the watchful eye of her father Barnabus, a widower, for Isabelle's life had come at the dear price of her mother's. Her childhood was less than joyous, her father working much of the time as a mansion and carpenter, his hours were long and the job all too often forced him to leave little Isabelle in the care of a neighbor woman. She had many children of her own and Barnabus paid her what he could. He thought it might be like having brothers and sisters of her own and was well content with the arrangement. But it was not like for Isabelle. The other children taunted her and teased her, saying no less than Isabelle had killed her own mother, even taking sadistic delight in excluding her from their games. Crying and fleeing rather than fighting became a way with her since the protective arms of the neighbor woman were never meant to hold Isabelle rather than her own awful children, no matter what they may have done.

Bell only found comfort in playing alone then, and her solitary upbringing had some curious affects upon her character. Some social skills were less than developed, this is true, but her curiosity came to know no bounds, and though often annoying to those with less than inquiring souls, she remained undaunted in her quest for knowledge. Even the walls of Coniperus herself could scarcely contain her.

A flaw, just a small crack, hardly big enough for a badger (though it was a badger's handiwork, truth be known), presented itself to Isabelle one day while she played along the wall. She tried to get out of the city, something children are not normally allowed to do alone, but the crack was insufficient. One of her father's many hammers, however, was more than a match for a poorly maintained wall, and though it took days of secret hammering, one day Isabelle found she had hammered enough, the egress now more than adequate for her small frame. Her timing could have been better, but little girls rarely pay attention to things adults consider "Grown up business" and hardly ever give their children information likely to frighten them. Would that they had, things may have gone differently.

Returning home, her father could not find Isabelle, even a frantic search turned up nothing. His initial fears were that the great Drake, a lesser dragon that had been causing all sorts of trouble for the lands in the immediate area, had somehow snatched little Isabelle away. He cursed himself for trusting his neighbor and vowed things would be different if he could only find his little girl again. Then old Dormikki, one of the village elders and a long retired mage and adventurer, cried out. He had discovered the hole in the wall. Soon, a small search party of her father Barnabus, Dormikki, and 6 other men began to look for the child, but as dusk approached the sense of urgency and hopelessness grew. Where was she?

Hours went by, and the night had come. Even Isabelle became concerned now, for it was cold and the smooth, shinny rocks along the bank of the Tears River no longer held their fascination. If both the moons had not been shinning brightly, she would have left over an hour before, but again fate had conspired to put her upon a different path. She heard her father calling, in fact, several men calling her name, and she knew she was going to be punished severely for this, but there was no helping it now. Her father, silhouetted against Pholar on the horizon (the inner moon), came running toward her, but a dark figure crossed over, its shadow falling upon the man and blocking out the illumination of Scepter (the outer moon). Barnabus froze in his tracks, his worst fears realized. He knew what it was, the drake, and he knew movement attracted it. Hopefully, it would not see him if he remained motionless, but Isabelle chose this time to rush toward her father and there was nothing for it. He had to get to her before, before.... he let the thought trail off unfinished, for it hardly needed it. Again he ran toward his daughter, her little resemblances to Rachel, her mother, was all that was left to him and he could not bear to lose her, and before he could reach her, it struck. The impact was traumatic and finale, and 8 years after parting from her, Barnabus joined his Rachel once more. Isabelle would have to take care of herself.

The events that immediately occurred after her father's death may interest some, but little Isabelle remembers little of it. Old Dormikki had flashes and streaks of light or something shooting from his hands, people died, even Dormikki was wounded, and when it was over little Isabelle found herself in Dormikki's care, the knowledge she'd never see her father again her only company for weeks after, and the town's rejoicing did nothing but upset her, their seeming indifference to her father's lost life overshadowed by the happy death of the drake made them seem cruel, just like the neighbor children were cruel. No one loved her now. No one. She was alone. It would turn out that Dormikki owed Barnabus a small favor, a little thing really, for Barnabus had constructed Dormikki's wall ahead of other paying customers as a favor to the mage. But he now had no way to pay a dead man back for his kindness. And when it was learned his daughter's curiosity and ingenuity caused all this, he saw the beginnings of talent, no matter how raw, and of honor could only do one thing. He adopted her, though unofficially, and raised her for the next 10 years. Because he was old and old looking, she took to calling him grandfather in public, but when she was 14, he insisted she call him master as was befitting a student, for that is what she became when he caught her rummaging in the pages of some of his arcane works. It was time.

For the next four years she studied there, under Dormikki's care and guidance, and his health was failing toward the end. In the last year of his life, her training suffered as she cared more for him and his comfort than her studies. When he died, she was not truly a mage, and Dormikki's only son, a greedy jerk by all accounts, his 50 years didn't endear him to anyone (even his father), claimed his legal rights and property. Isabelle had no where to go and was prepared to leave with nothing, but she did find a letter addressed to her. Dormikki must have written it in his last days. In it, he bequeath to her a book, a present, some small sampling of spells. She took it, though not entirely sure how to use it, and left. She'd had more than enough of Coniperus and used what little money she had to book passage out of the small island city. Next thing she knew it, she was alone, broke, hungry, and in Alodar where the ship, the Journey's Way, had sailed.

Darien, a youth who befriended her for reasons of his own, fed her and hung out with her, for like her, he hardly had a place to call his own. They lived in the streets for years, pulling odd jobs, he taught her many of the tricks of the trade, and it would not be unfair to say Isabelle became more of a thief and a rogue than a mage in short order. Perhaps she felt the world owed her a living, who can really say? But it was mostly out of friendship she stayed with Darien, and she was happy, though frequently hungry and a little undernourished. All that remained of her former life was the spell book she carried. She looked at it often enough, even tried to make things work, but her powers were incomplete.

Years later, on a particularly hot day too stifling to move out of the shade, Isabelle decided she really needed to correct the little problem of her inability to use her book, and when she heard of a local mage who might be willing to help, she took her savings of the last several years and decided to buy the training. Frederick Muri, a small man, a small wizard, he was more of a civil engineer than an adventurer, agreed to help her for the money she had, and though not exactly the epitome of wizards, he knew what she needed to know and he helped her. But while she did this, Darien and her other friends had run afoul of the long arm of the law. There was little she could do. The fine was too staggering to pay, and the alternative was two years in the slammer. She visited Darien, and Darien was happy when she showed him her new found talents with magic (even impressed). But in the end, he told her she should not hang around the prison since she'd get a bad reputation, and two years was too long to sit and wait for him. He suggested she might adventure and perhaps in two years, she come to see him released. She agreed to leave, but she had other plans.

Isabelle felt if she could raise the fine for Darien and her friends (200 GP each, 1000 GP total), she could have them released early, and she swore to do this.

It has been some months now, and adventure, being what it is, has taken Isabelle far afield, even to some of the most northern reaches of the Orlantia, all the way to the Asian Gulf. Finally, her last score was big and she had enough money for the first time in her life to pay the fines. Booking passage on a ship bound for Alodar, the Mystic Voyager, she continues her adventures as a rather competent rogue and mage.

The year was then 745 A.E.