Vera Ashtanik

Vera Ashtanik is a female half elf currently enrolled at the Arcane University of Bulatania. As of right now, her current area of studies is Magical Scribing.
Born to an elven father and human mother in the Eastern portion of Fairmarsh, her community was intertwined both economically and culturally to the University. Her parents would often take her on day trips up to the campus to hear talks from academics, watch performances, or simply reminisce of their own time studying at the University. Many scholars from around the world would pass through her town, so much so that there is even a large engraving in the center of town that points directly to the University.
Consequently (or perhaps the reason for the travelers to choose this direction over others), the area has a generally quite high income. Children often go to prestigious private schools at a young age to study magic or art, and are often taken in as apprentices to some of the most prominent scholars in Agnesia. It is not rare for a child born in this town to be given a free pass into the University in this way. For Vera, this meant that she had to keep her grades up if she wished to make her parents proud. Her parents were, anyway, paying quite the coin for her schooling.
Vera was not a quiet child, but she did enjoy reading, studying and other activities one might normally associate with someone more reserved. No, she was quite eccentric and loved to talk about her latest thoughts, the newest idea she read, or the most recent scholar she thinks is "washed up". She would often rant to her friends during classes about a new idea she had, usually to the dismay of the teachers who would scold her. Still, it didn't stop her. She was quite popular in school, other students enjoyed hearing her speak of her ideas and many adults regarded her in a good light, even if she wasn't the best at following rules sometimes.
Her personality, unsurprisingly, came in direct clash with her parents who followed a semi-strict Raoan code of ethics. She didn't quite understand the meaning of it, but her parents would make her come home every night and meditate for at least an hour before bed. They would scold her not to harm others, repeating over and over that "No creature wants to be hurt, beeteh*, we don't have a right to hurt them."
*(Note: Beeteh is an affectionate term used within Raoan households to refer to the daughter, it comes directly from holy Raoan scripture where Rao calms a newborn baby girl from crying).
Once every few months, her and her parents would take a trip up to the north-eastern part of Fairmarsh, where long time family friends of theirs, the Yapas, lived. As far as she knew, her parents held the Yapas in very high esteem and often pressured her to keep proper etiquette and dress nicely when visiting them. As a kid she was always confused, because where her house was a large multi-story building with a garden, the Yapas lived in a small single story "house" that hardly even had a lawn. And while she and her parents would dress nicely to visit them, they would always be dressed in their same clothing, white robes. Whenever she asked, her parents would shush her and say "Silence, beeteh, their riches are not material." Still, she enjoyed her visits there mainly because it was an excuse to get away from home, but also partly because she got along well with the other kid in their house who was the same age as her, Yuhi. She found it strange at first that he had glowing eyes, but overtime he came to explain to her why and what it means for him. Knowing this, she began to understand why her parents placed this family in high regard. This child was a spiritual link to the god Rao, the first time in many, many years that Rao has interfered with the dealings of mortals.
From her point of view, she was often jealous of Yuhi. He always seemed to get the answers correct, his mind worked quickly and he was able to understand ideas in a day that took her weeks (and even she was praised for learning them fast!) (Of course, she did not know, having only visited them for an evening every once in a while, that Yuhi stayed at home training and studying most of the time, so while he may have some intellectual gift, most of it was simply discipline and time. Time he was not able to spend playing outside or making friends.) She showed and tutored him in the Elven language and he was able to pick it up to a good degree of fluency by the next time she came back, just two months later. From that point onward, the two would only speak to each other in Elven.
Usually the nights would go as follows: the Ashtaniks would show up in the early afternoon. They would come in and meditate with the Yapas for a bit (Vera found herself antsy during this). Then they would have dinner, and the adults would have long discussions while the two kids played or talked in the room over. They got along well, and over their years built up a good friendship, even though they only saw each other once every few months. They would send letters back and forth to each other in Elven, and Yuhi even began to teach her some of his language, Quori (of which she had a hard time picking up, due to its spiritual and metaphysical core).
At the age of 18 Vera was accepted into the University of Bulatania to study magical scribing. Quite close to her 19th birthday, she moved onto the campus to begin her studies. During that time, she noticed that Yuhi had not replied to one of her letters and figured he would be coming to the campus too as he had mentioned wanted to study there. She didn't see him there, but figured he would reply in due time.
She has gotten along well in the University and made her home there, succeeding in her classes and making quite a few friends. She still often finds herself caught up in mischievous adventures even at a collegiate level. For example, she has attempted to sneak into forbidden sections of the library numerous times, succeeded a couple and gotten caught the rest.