Araspira

Araspira grew up in a quiet village. Her family lived at the edge of a forest. Her childhood dream was to be a teacher. She loved telling stories and shaping young minds to help them expand their imagination and dream of a world better than the one they lived in. Young children loved to hear her stories and the little bits of magic she scatters about to create the atmosphere and bring to life her fantastical stories. Stories of children just like them, far from the glitz and glam of the capital, who one day are given a choice, a chance, and with their friends save the world from a great evil.

She has a baby brother, Xarius, 10 years younger than her and her most ardent fan. She would create magical illusions to entertain him and he would follow her everywhere, enchanted by her magic and her stories.

But she and her family were shunned even from the villagers who lived near them all her life. Her red skin, horns, and tail too foreign, too close to monstrous and evil. Children would scatter if they heard one of their parents calling for them, fearing punishments and scolding. Her family finally decided to move when Araspira carried her brother home one day, the tip of his tail missing and a cut down the side of her face, blood pouring out.

Everywhere they moved, people seemed to be wary of them. Everywhere, Araspira noticed, except the more sketchy parts of town. When they reached Waterdeep, Araspira got a job bussing tables in The Enchanted Angel tavern in the Dock Ward. Her dreams tossed away in favour of earning money, keeping her family safe and her brother out of trouble. No one but her brother and the owner of the tavern, a half-orc named Kesk, knows that she also performs at the tavern at night under a different name, different appearance. Kesk caught her singing one day and offered her triple her pay if she would sing and dance for them, an offer she couldn’t refuse. Her parents had been scammed and lost their savings and owed 11,000 Dragons to a mysterious party and Araspira has been trying to pay it back.

Araspira currently lives with a half-orc named Peter, a performer like her, and her brother in the Trades Ward. Her magic and stories now told in song and dance for a different audience she had imagined, but it paid the bills even if she had to put up with unwelcome propositions every now and then while she tries to desperately find the 500,000 Dragons hidden in the city.

Inspiration

• Lookswise, I accidentally created Marion Lavore from Critical Role Campaign 2.
• [I will be painting Araspira at some point, tbc]