Mavara the Web Diviner

‘I see that you will be unlucky in love, I’m afraid. You will struggle to become respected and renowned, though you may yet become so, if you are persistent. Your health, at least, will remain good… as long as you don’t follow through with your little plan to rob me as soon as we’ve finished here. Do that, and your future ends considerably more abruptly.’ – Mavara the Web Diviner * Mavara was once a disciple of <color=#8F1100>Arachoa Moonspinner</color>. After deliberately allowing herself to be bitten by numerous venomous spiders, she saw visions in the webs of her mistress' shrines, each complex conjunction of silk serving as a nexus where the visions could take shape, grow, and change. After repeating this agonizing psychedelic ritual enough times, she learned to access these oracular insights at will. She left Arachoa’s service, feeling her mind had been expanded by her psychic ordeal and new powers of precognizance, and finding Arachoa’s web-cathedrals stifling. Over several years, Mavara refined her process of delving into her web-sight and crafted arcane implements to make her future-sight yet more reliable and powerful. Foremost was her staff, topped by an orb of spider-silk so densely woven as to form a hard, resinous sphere. Inside there was a swirling pink haze of magical energy, as well as a single, fist-sized spider whose legs were sometimes visible as it scuttled around its sealed enclosure. This spider wove webs that only Mavara could see. These, she found, provided her with the clearest visions of the future. None can say how the magic of the orb worked, nor what spider could live indefinitely in a sealed vessel without food or air. Certainly it was imbued with some kind of magic. It may be a Fae, or even an Insect Lord. Mavara did not stay in Durham Forest for long, since Arachoa resented her departure and many other Dark Elves would gladly harm even a former member of the spider-cult. So, she wandered Anhelt, guided by her foresight, concealing her great power behind the guise of a simple fortune-teller. She is confident and compelling, even seductive, as she gives those around her glimpses of the future in exchange for coin, favors, or knowledge. Mavara’s arrival in a village often brings a dangerous game of escalatory precognition: someone will learn of a future danger caused by a fellow citizen, then seek to avert it. The cause of the future problem, not knowing why they are being chastised for events yet to come, might seek Mavara for advice on what to do. Eventually the whole town is clamoring for her services, all to unravel a mess of potentialities that she herself illuminated to them. She dismisses any who are upset by the results of her divinations, stating she is only a messenger of fate, not its author. Behind her suave persona, Mavara is a bitter and jaded soul. Seeing the petty ambitions and constant squabbles of so many people has poisoned her opinions of all. Witnessing traumatic visions of plagues, wars, and disasters, all of which she cannot avert, has hollowed her. At times she feels like a prisoner of her own visions, and wonders if anyone truly has free will, including herself. Living and traveling alone, facing the dangers of monsters and brigands, has furthermore made Mavara a skilled warrior and combat mage, though she never fights if conflict can be avoided. When it is necessary, she anticipates her foes’ every move, evading their attacks and landing blows easily. Soon, however, she may find her powers tested to their limit, as Arachoa intensifies efforts to return her to the cult. Mavara can feel Arachoa’s movements upon the threads of fate like a spider sensing its prey – but which is truly which between Mavara and Arachoa is yet to be seen.