Sothilyn Avonzath

Having been the last one to hatch out of her clutch of six-dozen siblings, Sothilyn was far from the fearsome creature most Sea Elf nobles of the underwater Empire of Aquarion were expected to be: she was born small, soft, and weak. Most weak offspring of noble lineage didn’t survive past childhood—with so many blue-blooded children vying for food, natural selection allowed for only the strongest to survive. But what Sothilyn lacked in strength, she made up for with cleverness. Instead of competing against her siblings in their race for survival, she’d trick others into doing the hard work for her, or she would swoop up food while her siblings were busy squabbling. Her out-of-the-box approach to thinking was a rarity in the Empire—one her parents and siblings didn’t quite grasp—and while it allowed her to be one of the seven Avonzath children to survive past the culling childhood competition, it also meant that she was the least-liked child. She kept to herself, and she would regularly choose hiding in the darkness than spending time with her kin.

In addition to wit, Sothilyn was born with a terrible curiosity. As soon as she earned her noble right, she took to studying lore and arcana. The underwater metropolis which the Avonzath bloodline governed was one of the oldest cities in the Empire, with coral libraries brimming with ancient texts dating back to the sea’s beginnings in the Elemental Plane of Water and the clan’s encounter with the Dangling Light. While stories of terrible creatures lurking in the depths intrigued Sothilyn, her attention lingered elsewhere—specifically on the history of the surface world.

To Sothilyn, the surface world represented everything she could not have. Her life had been decided for her: she was a child of the Avonzath, and she would obey the will of her mother to further the power of their people. The stories she read of the surface world were far different: the politics of the surface continents were not solely colored by war, but by reformation, forgiveness, and belief. It seemed much easier up there for something to grow from nothing, and for humans, one’s life wasn’t determined solely by the blood in their veins.

Sothilyn longed to visit the surface. She read all she could about it. Her kin frowned upon her curiosity: Aquarion was not friendly to outsiders, and there was no need for a royal child to ever leave their designated waters. Sothilyn had to learn to study in secret, and she accrued a collection of surface-dweller trinkets that found their way to the ocean floor.

On the cusp of her 35th (18th in human years) birthday, her mother gave Sothilyn her first true task to serve the Avonzath name. Sothilyn was useless in traditional combat—as such, the only way she would be of use to the family was to be forced into a political marriage to a child of the same age: Dugus of the Rholorath family, prince of the smaller Kingdom of Rholo. Sothilyn knew of Dugus—he was a stereotypical dope, wonderfully pretty with a head full of rocks, who had zero interest in the arcane or history. Sothilyn tried to worm her way out of the marriage, but her mother refused to budge: it was Sothilyn’s responsibility to sacrifice herself for her family.

It was then that Sothilyn decided that she had finally had enough.

The day before the wedding, Sothilyn gathered her favorite trinkets and floated up to the surface. It was a long, treacherous swim, but she eventually found her way to the coast. With the burden of the “Avonzath” name lifted from her shoulders, Sothilyn embarks on her new life, fueled by the same curiosity that has enticed her ever since childhood.

Avonza is the heart of the Aquarion empire; it is characterized by huge, vertical spires, bustling crafters, and huge libraries dedicated to uncovering arcane power (which Sothilyn spent most of her youth scouring). Other occupied cities of the Aquarion Empire always have a guard station housing the military, crafted with the recognizable white coral architecture evident of the Empire. The Empire believes that the Aquarion elves are destined for greatness. It is said that thousands of years ago, a clan of elves were guided into the sea by the Dangling Light: an otherworldly entity from the deep sea. It chose the Aquarion elves to plant its clutch in, promising them unlimited power if they agreed to enact Its dark will. All Aquarion elves are said to have blood of the Dangling Light in their veins, which is what grants them their strange appearance (they are very fishy, usually resembling deep sea creatures). The Ultimate Monarch of the Empire is said to be able to communicate directly with the Dangling Light itself, acting as a conduit for Its power. The Dangling Light wants to consume the world; one of the ways the Empire does this is by arranging political marriage and spreading the blood. Or they just, you know, eliminate divergent bloodlines. They’ve been mostly focused on conquering their underwater legion, but as their power expands (and as the mysteries of the Dangling Light’s power strengthen), they set their sights on the surface.

Wasneryn Avonzath. Sothilyn’s mother and leader of the Aquarion Empire: Ultimate Monarch. She’s a harsh, cruel warlord who is not only intolerant towards outsiders and rival lineages, but to her own children. The Avonzath family has incredibly potent blood—that combined with her brutal tendencies elevated her to the status of Ultimate Monarch (the Avonzath family has been in power for generations). Sothi’s dad has long since been forgotten, probably having been eaten by Wasneryn at some point. She considers the Dangling Light her father. (Similarly, Wasneryn considers the Dangling Light her lover. It’s weird.)

Siblings. Sothilyn was born to a clutch of seventy-two siblings, but only seven made it past infancy and into childhood. Sothilyn is the youngest and the smallest, and she was frequently bullied by them. They all control some minor reach of the Empire. From oldest to youngest, their names are: Balthonlis, Xiphalia, Yrashiae, Raeleith, Moxilyn, Neptunlis, and Sothilyn.

Thirst for Power. Sothilyn loves learning about history, arcana, and technology, and will be willing to embark on any quest that quenches her thirst for knowledge.

Curiosity Killed the Crustacean. Sothilyn’s curiosity is insatiable, and she’s easily blinded by it. She makes stupid decisions just because she wants to see what’ll happen.

Mommy Issues. Sothi has been told she’s useless all her life and desperately wants to be needed, seem useful, etc., especially to those in authority. She always yields to authority, unless it directly contradicts her curiosity. In addition, being raised in her brutal competitive household, she puts other people down in an effort to raise herself up.

Enigmatic Echinoderm. Sothi has always thought of weirdo mammalians as something to be studied (or, in her family’s case, controlled and eliminated), and she has trouble thinking of them as living people. She often misunderstands social graces—she plans to spend the rest of her life on the surface, though, so she wants to get better about it. She knows a great deal of lore, but she lacks the nuance to understand most societal differences. She’s truly a fish out of water.

When in Doubt, Become a Lich. Sothilyn fantasizes about returning to her people as a ridiculously powerful wizard and proving that she did make something of herself.

Drifting like Krill. Most of Sothi’s dreams are vague, and she doesn’t have a definitive outline of where she wants to go or who she wants to be. She needs to find a cause to believe in.

A lifetime of being raised in a vicious society has resulted in Sothilyn growing into an absolute weirdo. While she’s clever and strategic, she’s absolutely horrible with people—she either acts far too mean to them or struggles to look them in the eye. She’s not shy, just awkward and far-too blunt. She always either speaks her mind or weaves a pessimistic, poisonous version of the truth.

Sothilyn might seem like she has a pretty big ego, as she’s quick to flex on others with her knowledge and make fun of them if they don’t know something she does, but it’s all compensation for an immensely damaging inferiority complex. She thinks of herself as useless, as it’s all she’s ever been told. The only way she knows how to compensate for this is to think of others as dumb, lame, mindless drones, etc. Compliments are extraordinarily rare for her: if anyone were to be nice to Sothilyn, she’d probably break down and cry.

Sothilyn is a pretty big dweeb. Get her started on one of her favorite topics, like history, arcana, famous folk legends, etc., and she’ll ramble for hours. She also has a fondness for strategy games. She treats characters in surface history like fictional characters and has very divisive opinions on them—don’t tell anyone, but she may even have a crush on some of them. Other than graviturgy, her favorite school of magic is necromancy: she is obsessed with how things die and decompose (she’s a bottom feeder, after all—she’s based on the crown of thorns starfish).

Sothilyn wants to live like a surface-dweller and will try every type of food or engage in whatever kind of cultural event she can. She is utterly obsessed with horses: she has never seen one before and wants to ride one really, really badly. She is slightly sticky, bad with bright light, and can use her “hair” as extra arms. She has a familiar named Count von Crab: a tiny black Mangrove tree crab that loves to jump around (a reskinned spider).