Roxanya — Roxy — is a nineteen-year-old forest gnome who didn't know she was a gnome until she was twelve, and didn't know she wasn't a Brownie until she was eight. Abandoned as an infant and raised by a rummage of Brownies as one of their own, she arrived in Venturia with a swashbuckler's coat, a taxidermy owl on her shoulder, and a secret: she's enrolled at the Academy on a lie, her magic isn't what she says it is, and she's here to save her people.
Concept
An Arcane Trickster Rogue. A forest gnome — three feet tall, sun-tanned and freckled, with wild curly red hair and swashbuckler's dress she picked up after meeting Lotan. There's always a taxidermy owl riding her shoulder.
Raised a Brownie
Abandoned as an infant in the forests of the mainland, Roxy was found and raised by Brownies who taught her their language, their values, and their sacred arts of stealth, misdirection, and "strategic acquisition." Until she was eight or nine, she believed she simply was an unusually large Brownie. Learning otherwise broke something; learning at twelve or thirteen that she was a gnome broke it again. She doesn't know whether her birth parents are living, and doesn't much care.
The Mission
Roxy's people are vanishing. A binding magic exists that can enslave a Brownie utterly, and their numbers are falling because of it — that threat is the engine of everything she does. As a child she heard a traveler speak of Venturia, of the Academy, of a city built on secrets; she made a plan at fourteen, spent four years raising the money, and left with her rummage's blessing at eighteen to learn the magic that might save them.
The Lie She Lives
Roxy doesn't actually have the training she claims. When she first arrived, she tried to rob the Penny Shrine — and Garl Glittergold himself appeared, amused enough to offer her a divine pact: power in exchange for the occasional favor, and an abiding obsession with Vallombrosa, secrets, and hidden things. Her magic is a god's gift, not a scholar's study, and she keeps up the appearance of an ordinary Academy student by whatever means necessary. She can't even sleep in her dorm — eighteen years outdoors won't allow it — so she slips out each night to the Tiered Gardens.
Ties
- Lotan — Met on the voyage to Venturia; her first guide to the city, and possibly her most genuine friendship.
- Garl Glittergold — Her divine patron, met over a failed robbery at the Penny Shrine.
- Caravel "Car" Asteri, Valentro, Kryton Novelli — Threads in the web of acquaintances she's built across the Academy and the city.
- Venturian Academy of Veiled Arts — Where she's enrolled, and where she's keeping up appearances.