Samantha Hawthorne
The Phoenix, The Eternal Seeker Samantha Isil Hawthorne (a.k.a. Sam)
The Phoenix, Progenitor of The Ashen Kingdom
Samantha (Sam) Hawthorne lived a normal life until the age of 24. Before The Wave, Sam, was attending grad school with a focus on bio-mechanical engineering, emphasis on nano-technology and prosthetics. She was in her final year, having graduated early, she got a head start into her continuing education. She was in a team focused on applying nano-technology to the reflex and control aspects of the more intricate and complicated tech, and they were nearing a breakthrough. When the Wave happened, she was on the road, heading back to school after a visit home.
After the Wave, Sam took the form of a small Pixie. About 8" tall, with shimmering golden wings, Sam took to her new form with less than excitement. Along her travels, Sam eventually gained the Half-Phoenix form, and is recognized as The Phoenix. In the final fight with the Tarrasque on the Light Moon of Alymatrea's Twin Moons, Sam experienced her first death and re-birth, which happened almost instantaneously, due to the magic in the area from Orochi's ritual.
With the defeat of Orochi, Sam, Farron, David, and the rest of the group responsible for the victory mostly split off into the new world that they'd saved. Sam headed an effort that came to be known as The Luminary Archive Society, and with scattered help and full support of Farron and David, worked to collect and preserve the knowledge of the previous era, before the Wave. This project lasted hundred of years, with membership ever expanding, duties growing, and the society as a whole taking on more power and responsibilities. In 1655 CE, the Luminary Archive Society officially disbanded, and worked to found The Ashen Kingdom.
The Ashen Kingdom lasted over 4,000 years, and at its largest, its reach spanned across continents. The defining technological, magical, economic, and military power of Alymatrea, Sam's leadership, power, and influence drove the Ashen Kingdom. She worked closely with The Council of Flames and other leaders within the Kingdom early on. As time passed however, that same power drove Sam into a place of reverence and legend, and she drew back from openly ruling the Kingdom. Still the leader in name and power, she retreated into herself and her research, only occasionally emerging to address high-profile incidents, and interact with Farron when she came around.
From the onset of the Wave, Sam's wanted to return to the world from before. The Wave happened at the highest point in her career and life, and as she's faced with the loss of her friends and connections to the past world. As first the Luminary Society and then The Ashen Kingdom grow and experience their own struggles, and Sam faces her own additional trials, she's faced with a future of true immortality, and this, along with the lost connections, leads her to truly investing her whole self into returning to the world before.
Sam begins experimenting with Time Magic, hoping to return to a time before the Wave. Time and time again she attempts to open a passage, but she only gets energies fizzling into nothing. A hint of success of this line of research arrives heralded by the unintentional deaths of two of her research assistants, who were fully knowledgeable of the risks of the work. The rift opened in this instance was barely longer than her own arm, but stayed opened long enough for her to catch a glimpse of the past, of Orochi, just after the Wave's destruction had died down. The rift closes in a fraction of a moment though, leaving Sam to address the casualties of the experiment.
The experiments continue on, more intensely than before, with this hint of a success. Sam does not reveal her success through sacrifice to the rest of her team, but works with a fervor to replicate the result without the cost, and gets closer than she had before.
On 3 Prentet 1580, days before the ultimate demise of the Red Dragon, Sam's final experiment with Time Magic occurs. In the briefest of seconds, Sam is able to open a rift, and glimpses the Wave itself - a brilliant, blinding gold-white light emanates from the rift, before it collapses on itself and releases all its energy. The entire research facility that was performing the test was vaporized, along with a 1-mile surrounding area, killing 5,576 people, including Sam herself. This second death takes Sam 17 days to recover from, and by the time she realizes what's happened to the area around her, it's already being described as a freak geological accident. Sam later learns of David's death, and between that and the already-prepared explanation that the populace has come up with, Sam is easily able to keep her role in this event a secret.
Sam learns from this event that there's no way to access a time from before the Wave through magical means. So, spurned by that information and the loss of David, Sam turns to a more destructive magical potential. Claiming God-hood to re-create the Wave, just as Orochi had attempted before. Sam, at this point, is more powerful than Orochi had dreamt of being before his attempted ascension, and knows that her own work will be more successful than his failed attempt.
As she continues on this vein, Nes turns to a volatile mix of necromantic and celestial magic. She draws ever away from her responsibilities as The Phoenix, and more and more into her own work. Farron's dwindling presence in her life only gives her more room for herself to think, and her work gets more risky as it fails to yield results. There are more incidents of minor casualties, but they're easily explained, and Sam has timed each of these risky tests to occur during Farron's hibernation cycles, to she's certain to be uninterrupted.
Her next major breakthrough is also her first semi-intentional mass casualty, and darkest point. A portion of the Underdark had been converted for her use, but also resided close to a small mining village. The fallout from that failure destroyed the entire cavern, caving it in and killing a couple thousand civilians.
With this failure, Sam reaches a limit. Faced with eternity, Sam attempts to reach oblivion by her own hand a number of times. Each time, she returns in a rush of flame and power, eventually just minutes after the darkness had claimed her. There's no end in sight for her now.
Sam's resurrections are uniquely astounding. In life, she does not age, she does not degrade in any way. She lives and builds up power, influence, and knowledge, and when she dies, all that is greatly increased when she returns to life, based on what she'd gained while alive. This means that when she lives for a thousand years, her power's exponential increase is nearly unfathomable. This also means when it's back-to-back deaths, the only positive is that each on takes less time to come back from.
This is what history may consider the final breaking of Sam's morality. Faced with eternity and unable to comprehend it, Sam believes her only option is to truly invest herself into the final path of research. Sacrificed lives had given her the only true results in her work.
After weaving a spell to kick-start Farron's Hibernation cycle, removing her from the scene, Sam pulls of another experiment. This time, those who are known enemies to the Ashen Kingdom are sacrificed, their lives towards her goal. This shows the most promise yet.
Time continues on, and The Ashen Kingdom's expansion becomes aggressive. Sam isn't directly responsible for this, but the Council she's left to run the Kingdom pushes for the growth, and Sam sees no reason to stop them. This leads to the discussions that lead to the formation of the Vahnoan Accords, a coalition of other countries and city-states in opposition of the Ashen Kingdom.
Sam begins preparation for her next trial, and spares just a moment of time to address the Accords. She sends an agent to the festival for the Signing, with the intention of pure destruction. Distracted by this planning, Sam does not know that Farron's predicted hibernation cycle is not as soon as she'd planned. Her final experiment consumes over 165,000 lives, while Farron is still awake to notice the aftermath.
Farron begins investigating the event, and goes to talk with Sam regarding the tragedy. Sam, distracted and extremely self-assured, makes a reference to the soon non-issue of the Vahnoan Accords, and Farron catches sight some data referencing the deaths on Sam's desk. This sparks the confrontation that leads to the Fall of the Phoenix.
The sabotage of the signing goes off almost exactly as planned, leaving the Vahnoan Accords in tatters, but Sam doesn't learn of this. While destruction is reigned over her enemies, Sam clashes with Farron in battle. Farron defeats Sam at great personal cost. Sam's essence is scattered throughout the stars in an effort to prevent her from rising from death yet again, and Farron is forced into a dormant state, frozen in time for over 11,000 years.
With the 'Death' of the Phoenix, the magical enchantments and rituals that she'd put into place over the last four thousand years crumbled and faded away. This included the magic keeping the Citadel of the Phoenix aloft. The impact from 55-miles of land crashing to Earth creates an area of ruin later known as The Bone Sea, and the destruction spanned miles, wiping out a vast majority of peoples and civilizations on the continent.
The Shards of the Phoenix scattered in the galaxy, however, do not lie as peacefully as Farron. Each shard possesses her will, and though only a handful regain sentience, each Shard continues to gain power and work towards eventual unification. One of these sentient shards lies within Nes Bruviel.
Samantha (Sam) Hawthorne lived a normal life until the age of 24. Before The Wave, Sam, was attending grad school with a focus on bio-mechanical engineering, emphasis on nano-technology and prosthetics. She was in her final year, having graduated early, she got a head start into her continuing education. She was in a team focused on applying nano-technology to the reflex and control aspects of the more intricate and complicated tech, and they were nearing a breakthrough. When the Wave happened, she was on the road, heading back to school after a visit home.
After the Wave, Sam took the form of a small Pixie. About 8" tall, with shimmering golden wings, Sam took to her new form with less than excitement. Along her travels, Sam eventually gained the Half-Phoenix form, and is recognized as The Phoenix. In the final fight with the Tarrasque on the Light Moon of Alymatrea's Twin Moons, Sam experienced her first death and re-birth, which happened almost instantaneously, due to the magic in the area from Orochi's ritual.
With the defeat of Orochi, Sam, Farron, David, and the rest of the group responsible for the victory mostly split off into the new world that they'd saved. Sam headed an effort that came to be known as The Luminary Archive Society, and with scattered help and full support of Farron and David, worked to collect and preserve the knowledge of the previous era, before the Wave. This project lasted hundred of years, with membership ever expanding, duties growing, and the society as a whole taking on more power and responsibilities. In 1655 CE, the Luminary Archive Society officially disbanded, and worked to found The Ashen Kingdom.
The Ashen Kingdom lasted over 4,000 years, and at its largest, its reach spanned across continents. The defining technological, magical, economic, and military power of Alymatrea, Sam's leadership, power, and influence drove the Ashen Kingdom. She worked closely with The Council of Flames and other leaders within the Kingdom early on. As time passed however, that same power drove Sam into a place of reverence and legend, and she drew back from openly ruling the Kingdom. Still the leader in name and power, she retreated into herself and her research, only occasionally emerging to address high-profile incidents, and interact with Farron when she came around.
From the onset of the Wave, Sam's wanted to return to the world from before. The Wave happened at the highest point in her career and life, and as she's faced with the loss of her friends and connections to the past world. As first the Luminary Society and then The Ashen Kingdom grow and experience their own struggles, and Sam faces her own additional trials, she's faced with a future of true immortality, and this, along with the lost connections, leads her to truly investing her whole self into returning to the world before.
Sam begins experimenting with Time Magic, hoping to return to a time before the Wave. Time and time again she attempts to open a passage, but she only gets energies fizzling into nothing. A hint of success of this line of research arrives heralded by the unintentional deaths of two of her research assistants, who were fully knowledgeable of the risks of the work. The rift opened in this instance was barely longer than her own arm, but stayed opened long enough for her to catch a glimpse of the past, of Orochi, just after the Wave's destruction had died down. The rift closes in a fraction of a moment though, leaving Sam to address the casualties of the experiment.
The experiments continue on, more intensely than before, with this hint of a success. Sam does not reveal her success through sacrifice to the rest of her team, but works with a fervor to replicate the result without the cost, and gets closer than she had before.
On 3 Prentet 1580, days before the ultimate demise of the Red Dragon, Sam's final experiment with Time Magic occurs. In the briefest of seconds, Sam is able to open a rift, and glimpses the Wave itself - a brilliant, blinding gold-white light emanates from the rift, before it collapses on itself and releases all its energy. The entire research facility that was performing the test was vaporized, along with a 1-mile surrounding area, killing 5,576 people, including Sam herself. This second death takes Sam 17 days to recover from, and by the time she realizes what's happened to the area around her, it's already being described as a freak geological accident. Sam later learns of David's death, and between that and the already-prepared explanation that the populace has come up with, Sam is easily able to keep her role in this event a secret.
Sam learns from this event that there's no way to access a time from before the Wave through magical means. So, spurned by that information and the loss of David, Sam turns to a more destructive magical potential. Claiming God-hood to re-create the Wave, just as Orochi had attempted before. Sam, at this point, is more powerful than Orochi had dreamt of being before his attempted ascension, and knows that her own work will be more successful than his failed attempt.
As she continues on this vein, Nes turns to a volatile mix of necromantic and celestial magic. She draws ever away from her responsibilities as The Phoenix, and more and more into her own work. Farron's dwindling presence in her life only gives her more room for herself to think, and her work gets more risky as it fails to yield results. There are more incidents of minor casualties, but they're easily explained, and Sam has timed each of these risky tests to occur during Farron's hibernation cycles, to she's certain to be uninterrupted.
Her next major breakthrough is also her first semi-intentional mass casualty, and darkest point. A portion of the Underdark had been converted for her use, but also resided close to a small mining village. The fallout from that failure destroyed the entire cavern, caving it in and killing a couple thousand civilians.
With this failure, Sam reaches a limit. Faced with eternity, Sam attempts to reach oblivion by her own hand a number of times. Each time, she returns in a rush of flame and power, eventually just minutes after the darkness had claimed her. There's no end in sight for her now.
Sam's resurrections are uniquely astounding. In life, she does not age, she does not degrade in any way. She lives and builds up power, influence, and knowledge, and when she dies, all that is greatly increased when she returns to life, based on what she'd gained while alive. This means that when she lives for a thousand years, her power's exponential increase is nearly unfathomable. This also means when it's back-to-back deaths, the only positive is that each on takes less time to come back from.
This is what history may consider the final breaking of Sam's morality. Faced with eternity and unable to comprehend it, Sam believes her only option is to truly invest herself into the final path of research. Sacrificed lives had given her the only true results in her work.
After weaving a spell to kick-start Farron's Hibernation cycle, removing her from the scene, Sam pulls of another experiment. This time, those who are known enemies to the Ashen Kingdom are sacrificed, their lives towards her goal. This shows the most promise yet.
Time continues on, and The Ashen Kingdom's expansion becomes aggressive. Sam isn't directly responsible for this, but the Council she's left to run the Kingdom pushes for the growth, and Sam sees no reason to stop them. This leads to the discussions that lead to the formation of the Vahnoan Accords, a coalition of other countries and city-states in opposition of the Ashen Kingdom.
Sam begins preparation for her next trial, and spares just a moment of time to address the Accords. She sends an agent to the festival for the Signing, with the intention of pure destruction. Distracted by this planning, Sam does not know that Farron's predicted hibernation cycle is not as soon as she'd planned. Her final experiment consumes over 165,000 lives, while Farron is still awake to notice the aftermath.
Farron begins investigating the event, and goes to talk with Sam regarding the tragedy. Sam, distracted and extremely self-assured, makes a reference to the soon non-issue of the Vahnoan Accords, and Farron catches sight some data referencing the deaths on Sam's desk. This sparks the confrontation that leads to the Fall of the Phoenix.
The sabotage of the signing goes off almost exactly as planned, leaving the Vahnoan Accords in tatters, but Sam doesn't learn of this. While destruction is reigned over her enemies, Sam clashes with Farron in battle. Farron defeats Sam at great personal cost. Sam's essence is scattered throughout the stars in an effort to prevent her from rising from death yet again, and Farron is forced into a dormant state, frozen in time for over 11,000 years.
With the 'Death' of the Phoenix, the magical enchantments and rituals that she'd put into place over the last four thousand years crumbled and faded away. This included the magic keeping the Citadel of the Phoenix aloft. The impact from 55-miles of land crashing to Earth creates an area of ruin later known as The Bone Sea, and the destruction spanned miles, wiping out a vast majority of peoples and civilizations on the continent.
The Shards of the Phoenix scattered in the galaxy, however, do not lie as peacefully as Farron. Each shard possesses her will, and though only a handful regain sentience, each Shard continues to gain power and work towards eventual unification. One of these sentient shards lies within Nes Bruviel.
Religions
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral, Evolving Chaotic Evil
Current Status
Scattered throughout the cosmos, split into thousands of individual and (some) sapient pieces of herself. Each acts according to the will of the whole, working towards unification and gaining power. One of these shards currently resides within Nes Bruviel
Species
Currently Held Titles
Date of Birth
July 27th
Date of Death
49 Illun
Life
26
6880 PW
6906 years old
Circumstances of Death
A 'final' battle between the White Dragon, Farron, and the Phoenix led to a defining blow which shattered The Phoenix and split her being across the stars, and left Farron frozen in time. This battle also razed a substantial portion of the world.
Birthplace
Oregon
Place of Death
Children
Pronouns
She/Her
Sex
Female
Gender
Female
Presentation
Feminine
Eyes
Reddish-Gold
Hair
Red
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale skin, Dark red fading to gold feathers on large angelic wings. Large scar encircling upper left thigh.
Height
6'1"
Weight
110
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
Comments