Salia Geodegazer-Shadowbane

Born in a small town far from Oraeus, Salia was the cherished only child of a scholar and librarian who instilled in her a deep love of learning from an early age. Surrounded by books and academic discourse, she developed an insatiable thirst for knowledge that would define her throughout her existence. Her parents recognized her exceptional intellect and nurtured her studies across various fields including history, law, and the arcane arts. This foundation would prove invaluable throughout her centuries of existence, allowing her to adapt and thrive in different eras and societies.

When Salia was sixteen, tragedy struck as a devastating plague swept through her hometown, claiming both her parents and leaving her utterly alone. Grief-stricken but determined to honor their memory, she set out into the world carrying only the most precious books from her family's collection. During her travels as a wandering scribe and tutor, she encountered a mysterious man who professed eternal love for her but confessed to bearing a curse of the blood. In her desperation for connection and love, Salia accepted his vampiric curse, believing they would spend eternity together. Instead, he vanished the next morning, taking all her possessions and leaving behind only his sanguine legacy, a betrayal that would shape her cautious approach to romance for centuries to come.

For over a century, Salia wandered the world, accumulating knowledge and developing a deep understanding of human nature and society. She witnessed the rise and fall of kingdoms, the progression of knowledge, and the constant struggle between progress and tradition. During this time, she learned to control her vampiric nature, developing a strong aversion to violence and a deep empathy for the struggles of common folk. She sustained herself through careful arrangements with criminal organizations, ensuring her survival without harming innocents, and dedicated herself to spreading literacy and education wherever she went.

Eventually settling in Oraeus, Salia used her accumulated wealth of rare books to establish "Seize the Quill," a bookstore that quickly became more than a business, it was a sanctuary of learning and literacy. She found deep fulfillment in teaching others to read, explaining complex laws, and fostering intellectual growth in her patrons regardless of their social status. Her fair dealings and genuine kindness earned her the respect of the community, while her discrete arrangement with the local thieves' guild ensured her vampiric needs were met without violence. For the first time in decades, Salia experienced something approaching peace and belonging.

Salia's carefully constructed life shattered when the Whitecoats targeted "Seize the Quill" after discovering her association with Arties and her companions. When six Whitecoat soldiers came to execute her, something primal and terrifying awakened within her vampiric nature. In a blur of violence that still haunts her dreams, her suppressed predatory instincts emerged with devastating efficiency. When awareness returned, all six soldiers lay dead, their blood drained, and Salia stood horror-struck by her own actions. Fleeing to Goodberry blood-soaked and desperate, she found sanctuary when Arties offered her refuge in the basement of her home, beginning a friendship that would prove transformative for both women.

In Goodberry, Salia made a life-changing discovery: the city's artificial sun causes her no harm, granting her the unprecedented freedom to walk in daylight after centuries of shadow-bound existence. This revelation cemented her absolute loyalty to the city, as she vowed never to leave a place that offered such liberation. Taking on the role of teacher for Goodberry's gifted children, she found new purpose in education, employing her vast knowledge and patient nature to inspire young minds. In Goldenleaf 1303, after learning of her sire Count Prayce's recent encounter with Arties, Salia experienced an emotional breakdown that led to a deeper connection with Arties, ultimately resulting in her entering a romantic relationship with both Arties and her husband Xaneborr. After a few short months of dating, Salia turned up pregnant the same time as Arties... something that should have been impossible because she was on birth control liquid from Hecks. Realizing time was short and that she didn't want to be an unwed mother, Salia proposed to both Xaneborr and Arties on the eve of Candle Vigil in front of all their friends and the Heavens. They accepted and were officially wed on Arties birthday, Yearend 20!

Late in Yearend of 1303, Salia grouped up with some other combat-unexperienced people to run a special mystic realm and they were succesful. With the experience she got from it, she finally moved into a combat role. She transformed what she learned there to step into the role of amateur sorceress. She still has a lot to learn about magic, but she finally feels like she's in an environment that can help her achieve any goal!

On Frostnight 2, 1304, the same wave of restorative magic that swept through Goodberry's graveyard and returned the dead to life passed through Salia as well. It did not find death in her. It found something older, something that had been living in the wrong direction for one hundred and thirty-three years, and it corrected it. She felt it happen. There was no drama to it, no pain, no flash of light. Just a sudden warmth moving through her chest from somewhere it had not been in a very long time, and then a sound she did not recognize at first because she had not heard it in so long. Her own heartbeat. She sat down on the floor of wherever she was and did not move for a long time. The fangs were gone. The hunger was gone. The careful, constant management of something predatory living inside her that she had spent over a century maintaining was simply gone, and in its place was an ordinary human body that was cold and tired and needed to eat something that was not blood. She cried, which surprised her, because she was not certain whether she was grieving or relieved, and she has not yet determined the answer. For one hundred and thirty-three years, the vampirism was the thing she managed, the thing she worked around, the dark asterisk at the end of every good thing in her life. She had made a kind of peace with it. She had built her whole understanding of herself around surviving it with grace. She does not yet know who she is without it. She suspects she is going to find out.

Salia's primary goal is to establish Goodberry as a center of learning and intellectual growth, creating educational programs that will serve the community for generations to come. She envisions expanding the school system to include advanced academic tracks, vocational training, and continuing education for adults. Her dream is to see every resident of Goodberry achieve literacy and have access to knowledge that will empower them to make informed decisions about their lives and their society. She believes that education is the most powerful tool for preventing the kind of tyranny and oppression she witnessed in Oraeus.

On a personal level, Salia strives to reconcile all aspects of her nature, vampiric and human, predator and protector, solitary scholar and community member. She wants to model for her students that personal growth never ends, regardless of age or circumstances. This includes learning to accept help and support from others, expressing her needs and desires openly, and building the kind of deep, lasting relationships that she denied herself for over a century. Her relationship with Arties and Xaneborr serves as both inspiration and practice ground for this personal development.

Having found the closest thing to a true home she has known in over a century, Salia is fiercely committed to protecting Goodberry from any threat. She sees the city not just as her personal sanctuary but as proof that different kinds of people can live together peacefully and prosperously. Her experiences with oppression and violence have taught her that such sanctuaries are rare and precious, requiring constant vigilance and protection. She stands ready to use both her intellectual abilities and, if necessary, her vampiric powers to defend the community that has given her everything she thought she had lost forever.