Madame Serris

From a young age, the girl who would become known as Madame Serris was drawn to the forbidden arts; not just shadow magic, but all of the dangerous magic forbidden by the rulers of Aravia. With an aptitude for the arcane which far outstripped that of her peers, Serris was considered to be one of Aravia’s most gifted students of magic. But though her education rivaled that of even senior mages of Ireth, it was not enough for the young sorceress. She wanted – needed – to know more. Serris hungered for proscribed knowledge in a way that many of her peers found unsettling, could find no one willing to teach her, and was the subject of much suspicion for it. She desired to feel the touch of powers she could only dream about. It was in her dreams that the answer came. The Dreamwalker visited Serris, and whispered to her of sorceries such as she had never imagined. He also showed her how to contact those who might teach her that which she desired to know. She first learned shadow magic from the sorcerers among them. But even that satisfied her for only a short time. There was more to be learned, she was certain of it. Serris was forced to resort to more unpleasant methods, including necromancy, to get what she wanted. She was caught plundering the burial vaults of one of Aravia’s noblest families, and banished. She joined other Elvish exiles in Durham Forest, but had little interest in the new society that was being formed there, or in the conflict brewing in Aravia. She instead retreated to an isolated village to continue her studies uninterrupted. This she did for a number of years, and during this time learned how to extend her own life through the consumption of an alchemical concoction of her own devising, brewed from the bones of the dead blended with crushed chronogrubs and droplets of her own blood. It turned her flesh green and her eyes amber. But once again Serris' methods attracted the wrong sort of attention and she was forced to flee yet deeper into the forest. There, she discovered an ancient ruin, a stone tower, broken by time and overgrown with moss. Within, she found colonies of mourn-bats. Serris found that her necromantic studies had given her an affinity for the blood-sucking creatures, and that she could communicate with them to some degree. Deciding it was an omen, Serris made her home in the ruin, and made it over into a place fit for contemplation and study. Moreover, she layered a shroud of magical wards and spells of misdirection over the area, ensuring that it could only be found if she allowed it. No more would she be forced to depart in haste, halting her studies. The mourn-bats became her eyes and ears in the forest, and nothing they observed escaped her notice. In the years since, Serris has rarely ventured into the more civilized regions of the forest, and then only because some Dark Elf lordling has learned of her and requested her aid. Serris will only agree to these requests if her price is met. Her demands are largely innocuous… a certain book, a consignment of unique herbs, a few slaves. Other times, it is something more enigmatic… the skull of a noted scholar, for instance, or a mystical artifact. In all cases, her clients know better than to ask why she wants such things. Some things are better left unknown.