Profile
A sorry little thing with an insatiable desperation for power. What was first the urgings of their upbringing - a relentless pressure to achieve their full potential and rightfully ascend to the stars - became an endeavour for her own survival and that of her companions. Nothing was ever enough. As the journey's danger only increased, Kastör died and came back worse, repeatedly. The sweet, naive druid became jaded and singleminded in their mission to solve the mystery of Storlia. To this end, they made a deal with the grandmother hag: bolstered spellcasting ability in exchange for one eye and their soul. This debt has since been collected.
Personality.
Kastör was first timid and gentle, wide-eyed at the world and skittish. Then after being persistently beset by horrors - and death - Kastör grew evermore unstable and powerhungry. They grew colder and impatient. After one death, Kastör came back laughing. They never quite fully sobered after this event; this unseriousness lent an eerie tone to their voice.
- Stargazing
- Spellcasting
- Cloudberry liqueur
- Exploring
- Overcast nights
- Being alone
- Being dirty
- Tentacles
- Captivity
- Amnesia
- Claustrophobia
- Disappointing others
- Studying
- Astronomy
- Reading, esp. fairytales
- People-watching
Abilities.
Weaknesses
- Megalomania
- Delusional expectations
- Poor empathy skills
- Low self esteem
Kastör harnesses the power of constellations to alter their form. Their body becomes luminous, their joints glimmer like stars and glowing lines connect them as on a star chart.
Achieving this form marked a significant milestone in their druidic development, and Kastör was giddy with pride when first assuming this form. The novelty wore off fast as it became a rote action for the sake of survival.
Whispering to the spirits of nature, Kastör creates a sensory effect that predicts the weather, instantly makes a plant flower or bloom, creates a sensory effect such as falling leaves or a small animal's sound, or instantly lights or snuffs out a small fire.
Kastör used druidcraft frequently before their demise to predict the oncoming eclipse in the region of Storlia, tracking how the pulsing dark obsidian gradually suffsed the golden disc of sunlight until no light remained.
A flash of light streaks toward Kastör's target creature, dealing radiant damage and leaving the target glittering with a mystical dim light, granting advantage to the next attack made on that creature.
A silvery beam of pale light shines down, engulfing those that enter the light in ghostly flames that cause searing pain and deal radiant damage.
Story.
Storlia was a really terrible time and Kastör lost everything.
Once upon a time there was a star in the Northern sky that fell. As it fell, it broke in two, landing in a forest clearing as two halves of glimmering light. The starlight coalesced into twin infants, changelings slumbering in the wild woods. They were found by the Order of Stars, a sect of astronomers who took the twins back to the academy in Högfall where they were named Kastör and Bålus. They were raised primarily by Nejla Tornvik, the Matron of Stars, and Olav Sorensen, a respectable scholar who served as their chief mentor.
The twins grew up within the academy, seldom setting foot outside, wearing the guise of each child brought to them every few years. They studied the stars and the wild, learning magic and druidry. Bålus was better. Bålus was always better. They were smarter, faster, more loved admired.
I don't remember. I can't remember. I'm missing parts of myself. My past is lost in the haze of a deep fog I can't penetrate. We were close. We were like mirror images. But I was always one agonising, crippling, shameful step behind. Always. I was never enough. And they knew this. They all knew this. And they made sure I knew it too.
So I killed him. I remember that. I remember his flesh parting under my claws and his blood on my teeth. I remember the desperate, frightened wrestle for survival. I remember the feeling of triumph, of relief when I succeeded.
I remember being found like that. And I remember Bålus looking at me like I was a stranger. In that moment, I scarcely recognised them either.
As a chance at redemption, Kastör was tasked with travelling to investigate the newly founded city of Storlia alongside three others. Together as an adventuring party they fought monsters, killed cultists, appeased hags, raised salamanders, encountered demons, and died and died and died.
They came back, of course. Again and again. As did everything else in Storlia, which was the problem.
Continually frustrated by their lacklustre performance in battle - repeatedly falling prey to danger and going unconscious whilst her friends fought for their survival and to protect her - Kastör sought more power. The party had encountered the Grandmother Hag prior, with the arrangement of the hags lending their aid when called upon in exchange for a favour. Having seen the power granted to one of her companions, Kastör sought her own deal with the hags. Her spellcasting prowess was bolstered in exchange for her right eye, taken immediately and replaced with a purple hag eye, and that once her soul began to travel, it would belong to the hags. Kastör was all too eager to agree. Her companions were much less enthused upon hearing the news.
After the truth of Storlia was revealed and - where necessary - the party members had their souls restored in full, they were each returned to the world outside of the city's gates. All except for Kastör, for as her newly intact soul travelled towards her body the conditions of the hag deal were met and the debt was collected. Kastör now resides as a soul in a bag in the long-fingered clutches of the hags.
Trivia.
- On their right wrist is an enchanted silver cuff. It bears the partial emblem of the Order of Stars and cannot be removed or defaced.
- Their right eye was replaced with a hag eye after they made a deal with the grandmother hag for more power. The hags can watch through this eye.
- They initially used their twin's name, Bålus, for fear of being hunted for having murdered their mentor.
- They briefly used the alias Einar, meaning 'lone warrior'.
- The twins' names Kastör and Bålus are norse-ified versions of the names Castor and Pollux from the Gemini constellation.
- They are currently a soul in a bag in the possession of the hags. Their body, if it still exists, has yet to be found.
Related.
