Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Greyhawk Wizards: The Pentad

As my busy day has gone by I've struggled to think of any current online, comic or personal campaign news. Then it hit me, try to create something new off the cuff, so here we go! Wizard groups are one of the most memorable things about a fantasy setting and the World of Greyhawk is by no means short on wizards. Everyone has heard of the Circle of Eight the Ring of Five or some of Iuz's Boneheart mages. Here is my attempt to assemble a new ubermage group from remaining canon NPCs available. Let's also take it step further and make it an all female wizard group! This is The Pentad!

Elayne Mystica (19th level, NG) The nominal leader of the Pentad, Elayne has a long and storied history serving Cobb Darg and the city of Irongate as well as adventuring with the Company of the Iron Fist. Elayne is an albino of the Lerara tribe of Suel who has also exhibited psionic powers, and possesses her own pocket-plane. Elayne decided to call together the Pentad to share knowledge and deal with dangers to the Flanaess with a "woman's touch".

Fioranna Aielestriel (13th level, NG) This tiny, demure elven mage from Nyrond was once an ambassador to the City of Greyhawk and served to further the interests of the Iron League until 591 CY. She has no love for the Great Kingdom for they slew her father. Fioranna specializes in mind-affecting and concealment spells to travel undetected, though most think she is only a diplomat who dabbles in the art. In semi-retirement, Fioranna still resides in Greyhawk's High Quarter, but has recently jumped at the chance to do some good after being contacted by her Iron League colleague Elayne Mystica.

Marial (15th level, CG) A native of Greyhawk, Marial is the red-headed former apprentice and best friend of the Circle of Eight's own Jallarzi Sallavarian. Marial has seen a lot of action in her time from dealing with the reappearance of Vecna to an untimely attack on Tenser's Castle before she was restored after the Return of the Eight. Marial still resides in Jallarzi's Tower in the City of Greyhawk, where her friend has withdrawn and become paranoid since her experiences at the hands of Tuerny the Merciless and Iggwilv. Marial's social life has suffered as a result and so she spends more time abroad with the Pentad since being contacted by local acquaintance Fioranna Aielestriel.

Rautheene (level unknown, N) The stunningly beautiful and fun-loving Rautheene is notably an apprentice to the archmage Mordenkainen. Rautheene's personal history and her exact mastery of magic is a mystery to most, even her own Pentad associates. What is known is that she claims to have spent much time on other planes traveling meeting other archmagi when not studying from the remote security of Mordenkainen's Obsidian Citadel. Now on her own, Rautheene seeks to apply her skills and knowledge with a new cadre of wizards since being contacted by Elayne whom she looks up to as much as Mordenkainen.

Shemeya (19th level, CG) The oldest of the Pentad by far, Shemeya hails from the Bright Desert but comes from a time long past when the land was called Sulm. This realm was once fertile before a terrible curse forever changed the land and it's people. Already a powerful wizardress back then, Shemeya retreated to her plane-hopping Tower of Sleep, shielded from the curse and the passage of time. Not truly asleep, Shemeya has long been travelling to other worlds and planes of existence to find a way to reverse the curse on the Bright Desert, yet now has been recently distracted by the usurping desert mage Rary. Shemeya was approached by Elayne Mystica to join the Pentad for her vast ancient knowledge and planar experience. In return the Pentad promises to help the sleeping sorceress restore her home someday.






8 comments:

Mystic Scholar said...

Nice creation. I'm unfamiliar with a couple of these wizardesses. Time to do some research.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Very cool.

I just put up my own version of Iggwilv yesterday.

grodog said...

Nice work, Mike!---like Tony, I'm not familiar with all of them.

I've also clearly been watching too many Marvel movies, since the illustration for Rautheene looks like it's modelled on Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow to me ;)

Allan.

Mike Bridges said...

Haha well I wouldn't be upset if it was modeled off her ;)

Yeah I tried to pull in characters from a variety of sources. It's all published canon to me.

Paul W said...

Excellent post. If I can make a suggestion, in the future, if you ibclude a bibliography for such posts, indicating which game publications these official NPCs have appeare din, it would make the article 10x more useful. :)

Midnightwriter said...

Hey Mike! I'm a huge fan of your work. Idk if you'll see this but I'm working a massive write up of named wizard spells for 5e from Greyhawk (almost 200) that I plan to publish on DM's guild that includes homebrew spells I've made for Elayne Mystica and Marial. Is it okay to mention your article on the Pentad as a suggested way to use these characters?

Mike Bridges said...

Midnightwriter: Uh HELL YEAH it's alright. It's about time someone made some name spells for the ladies of magedom.

Midnightwriter said...
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