Upon hearing the petition of the Knights of the Sword Coast, the House of Wonder in Waterdeep spread the word that a unique opportunity had arisen for a young and adventurous priest to spread the word and way of Midnight to other worlds. A few volunteered, mostly the very young and ambitious. Three of the most prominent of these quickly formed a trio to guide the newly faithful.
Midnight, however, though she loved Blindar, Serathin, and Taylor greatly, feared that they might misinterpret her will. They sometimes demonstrated the urge to use the Art to reshape worlds, and to overuse it as they gained in power. Yet knowing of their ultimate aims, she did not wish to send a pacificist to this young world. Thus, in her wisdom, she sent the dreams of calling to none other than Lady of Mystery Nyniel, a devoted and cunning Harper - someone quite active and full of energy, yet not so easily bent by the Knight's consuming drive to fulfill their purpose. Whether Nyniel will stand up to Taylor's magnetic and forceful personality, none but the fates can predict.
Yet the Knight's had some say in this matter, as they were funding the temple and had more than a little influence over the fate of Seedspace. Thus, upon learning that Nyniel had pledged her allegiance to the "secret society" of the Harpers, Serathin balked, and Blindar stood with him. Taylor tried to negotiate her separate peace, but her companions made sure she failed. The House of Mysteries finally relented, and allowed a young but vigorous (even militaristic) knight to accompany their priest. This was how Deldrik, Knight of the Mystic Fire, joined the senior preistess. Though he has no formal authority in the triumvirate that leads the expedition, he is popular both with the junior priests and the men at arms.
Yet this did not satisfy the Knights, and thus they petitioned the House of Azuth in Waterdeep for aid as well - and the lord of spells answered the prayers of his ever so faithful trio. Or at least, the High Mage allowed the Knights to believe this, since he had already selected his emissary before they had approached him. Much to Nyniel's chagrine, the priesthood of Azuth assigned a young but compelling priest who had some experience with travelling through the spheres. The priest's name is Zeladrius. Serathin suspects that the High Mage knew of the Knight's ambitions, and quite agreed with their aims, and even some of their methods. Of course, the High Mage's true intentions remain hidden even from his leige lady herself, much less the overambitious archlich.
The third member of the trio seems the weakest, but perhaps the wisest. The elderly magus Ade seems more of a scribe than a priest, but she is in fact quite devout and frequently offers good words of advice. Though she is not the swiftest to make decisions, both Nyniel and Zeladrius, and even Deldrick, listen to her when she chooses to speak.
The trio has already fallen out dozens of times amongst
themselves, but they seem to have come to grips with each other
very quickly. They have only just moved into Seedspace. The Knights
generously offered them residence in a magnificent, magical
mansion. Indeed, in the time they have been in the sphere, the Knights
have practically pampered them, inspiring them with dreams of building a
temple to rival that of Waterdeep, of gathering a library of spell's to
become the Candlekeep of the sphere, and of teaching ever growing
numbers of mages. Of the three, only Nyniel seems suspicious of their true
aims. Or if the others are, they don't seem to care.
The temple began with 300 mages from Greatspace of levels 3-13, and a handful of priests. It is agressively training new mages and priests, and seeking to expand its influence in Seedspace. In this regard, it is closely allied with the temple of Lathander. The temple itself is a structure carved from a 10,000 ton asteroid, nearly half again the diameter of Lakgar, which was towed to New Thesalys and embedded in a magically dug crater.
The priesthood is currently planning how to use the space, how to
carve the asteroid, and how to properly shield and protect it. They
are also wondering how they will turn what is essentially a huge
lump of stone and ore into a temple displaying the mysteries of
Midnight. The Temple has already hired 200 dwarven engineers and
craftsmen from the Durrok Clan to help them begin construction.
Nyniel, Lady of Mystery (Cl12(Mystra); Int 15, Wis 20, Chr 15; age 31; 57 hp)
Nyniel has long, thin, grey hair, though she is otherwise very young looking and has never used magic to alter her age. Her eyes, too, are grey, imparting the sense of great wisdom when she speaks. She talks slowly, and infrequently, and prefers to answer few questions and ask many. Whether she revels in this sense of mystery, or propogates it only in service to her goddess, none really know.
The church and the Harpers have both chosen to keep her past secret, though she has sometimes hinted that she had a difficult childhood. What sort of difficulty - whether she was the daughter of a pauper and grew up on the streets or was a princess imprisoned in a tower - well, none really know.
Serathin originally feared that Nyniel and Taylor - both being females - would strike it off well together, perhaps nudging Blindar and him aside. Quite to the contrary, the two women immediately saw each other as rivals, and act quite coldly to each other. Taylor, naturally, has the keener wit, but whenever Nyniel feels outmatched she retreats into the protective humility of her faith, a shield against which Taylor's too-subtle jibes are not quite, but almost, useless. Serathin finds it all quite amusing. Taylor has had quite a bit more luck with Deldrik and Zeladrius, until one day they suddenly found themselves uncomfortable around her.
Currently, Nyniel is preoccupied with building the temple.
Deldrik, Knight of the Mystic Fire (Pal7; Str 18, Con 16, Int 14, Chr 18; age 25; 67 hp)
Deldrick is dark skinned - almost as dark as the natives of Chult - with a neatly trimmed beard and a long braid of black hair. He wears the colors blue and white, preferring a darker shade of blue than most priests. His features are sharp, almost elvish, but his demeanor is more serious than that of most elves. He has a commanding personality that inspires trust, if not always friendship.
Originally born in Phlan in the Moonsea region, his parents (who owned and operated a small inn) were slain when he was a youth by an overconfident wizard who was upset by the service and decided not to pay his bills. The mage was promptly hunted down for his crime by a paladin of Mystra, and put to the sword. Deldrick took to the crusader, following him around for many years until his mentor was slain in battle, and on the site of that blood-stained battlefield, Deldrick took his own vows to the goddess.
His travels have taken him far given his limited experience. Once, he followed an offending mage into Wildspace. While his knowledge of space is limited, it is vast compared to that of most groundlings.
Zeladrius, Magistrati of Azuth (P(spec)9(Azuth); Int 17, Wis 20, Con 14, Cha 14; age 36; 50 hp)
Zeladrius is of medium height and build, and very formal in dress and mannerisms, though he is energetic to the point of seeming constantly nervous and has a terrible sense of humor. He wears a grey robe with the symbol of Azuth tastefully embroidered on the shoulder.
Zeladrius has spent some time on Dragon's Rock, and actually knows something of the Knights of the Sword Coast. Though he spent the last few years spelljamming ships in Wildspace, he began his life as quite the groundling. He was given formal training in Silverymoon, but spent some time in Halruaa (though he was confined to Azuth's many temples for most of his stay). He occasionally served in the militia of Neverwinter or another of the city-states of the Sword Coast and the North, but proved too filled with wanderlust to stay=20in one place for long. Only recently, he has taken a wife and decided to settle down. Nonetheless, he hopes to settle someplace exciting, and to build a community from the ground up. Though far from his old family and friends, he is enjoying the adventure of Seedspace.
Adee (M11(Tasseldale); Int 21, Wis 18; age 65, 30 hp)
As a native of Tasseldale, the most cosmopolitan of the Dalelands, Adee has a great thirst for knowledge and wide exposure to it. Thus, her broad experiences give her two extra non-weapon proficiencies. However, her curiosity is such that whenever presented with a mystery or engima, she must make a wisdom check or venture off to investigate.
Adee is silver haired and grey eyed. She prefers blue and white like Nyniel, but is not quite so ostentatious about her priestly garb. She is a little pudgy, but has a very welcoming smile. Though she keeps her hair tied in a bun, strand of it frequently pull free, giving her something of an unkempt look. She wears thick spectacles because she is nearsighted from a lifetime of reading by candle light. She once had a husband, but he died while escorting a caravan through the Vilhon Reach. She has not brought herself to marry again.
Unlike many mages, Adee looks and acts exactly her age. She is healthy and well, though she is not terribly active. She does not use many words when she speaks, but her words express what she means.
She began life a farmer's daughter in Tasseldale, a relatively civilized place, and lived most of her life without even touching magic - though she read great amounts of literature. She served as a scribe for the Grand Mairsharr, and married a husband who served in the Six Flags Trading Coster. Her life might have been no more than that had her husband not died.
She'd had one daughter, who still lives in Tasseldale, but she suddenly found her life empty. After two years of worsening depression, she finally decided to start her life over. She ventured to Silverymoon to Study in the Lady Alustriel's academy. Though feeling terribly out of place for her age (she was then over forty), she completed the courses in less time than most students and took the savings her husband had left her to open up a small magic shop.
For good or worse, the shop earned her a meager income until five years later when she was drawn into an assassination plot and joined with a company of adventurers to prevent it. Her new comrades led her on a merry jaunt around the Heartlands and beyond, giving her a chance to see the world she had only read about. After this, she decided to spend a decade exploring, which she did. =46inancing herself with simple spellcasting and scribing, she visiting every place in the Realms from Skuld to the Ten Towns to Vaasa to the Dragon Coast. Along the way, she picked up a travelling companion who was a missionary of Mystra, and spent much time with her. They became fast friends, and Ade eventually became a devout follower of the Lady of Mystery and even took up her mantle. In the course of the decade of travel, she wrote a few travel logs which were published under a pseudonym, and still takes in a few coins from royalties every year.
She had considered retiring, until the opportunity to travel to a truly distant place came up. She had always wanted to see the stars, so she decided to take the opportunity. She would have liked to travel by ship, but understanding the need for haste, she decided to make the journey at a later time. She does not really know why the priesthood gave her, of all the candidates, the opportunity, but she does have much to offer, including a vast experience of different cultures and laws and practices with which to build a new society.
Chrathos (M9(wild)/P(spec)2(Mystra); Con 15, Int 16, Wis 21; age 73; 28 hp)
Chrathos was a minor mage of Greatspace who was one of the many victims of Terigimar's transformation of the sphere's Weave. He was transformed into a wizshade and absorbed into Terigimar the meta-wizshade. However, Chrathos' fate was very different from that of those wizshades who were destroyed with their creator. While physically separate from Terigimar during the meta-wizshade's raid on Logicus to free Lathuraz, Chrathos was Wrenched free of the meta-wizshade's influence by Phaestus' psionics, and then taken back to Lakgar's Mythal to recover.
Chrathos never regained his ability to speak, and his ability to communicate with others is likewise still impaired because his insight into the nature of magic left him "touched" by the Weave. Unable to fully return to the world of mortals, he chose to become a priest of Mystra to properly venerate the mysteries and wonders of magic. He is a true worshipper of the goddess. He searches out the greater mysteries of the multiverse. Though obsessed by this endeavor, he still feels that he owes a great deal to the Knights of the Sword Coast for saving him. He spends much time at the Temple of Stellar Mystery in Seedspace, but his colleagues keep a respectful distance. His presence incites a certain amount of awe and even a bit of fear.
In the month of Marpenauth, in the year 1372 DR, Chrathos was embraced
by the entity called Changeling, a wild magic elemental of Myth
Drannor who at that time took up residence in the Mythal of Lakgar.
Since then, Chrathos has spent all his time with Changeling.