Ophelia Rousseau

History

Origin

Ophelia is an elf hailing originally from Silvanesti. She traveled to Androtia with her siblings, Ezra, Heskel, and Petra as a younger elf in search of a new life and new riches to be found among the Humans and Orcs of Androtia. Upon arriving they took up residence in Amberac before starting to venture out into the forest in search of ancient treasure. There they stumbled upon the Chaotic God, Orfeo.

Becoming a Vampire Lord

They became cursed by accepting gifts of power from Orfeo, the chaotic god of vampires. Ezra Rousseau Petra Rousseau, Heskel Rousseau, and Ophelia Rousseau are The Court of the Vampire Lords. It is said they made a deal with the dark god Orfeo in order to gain great powers. Forever bound to the powers of chaos their exchange for such great power was to live an eternal life drinking the blood of their enemies. A half life of self loathing and hate, endlessly seeking more of the chaotic power that first birthed them. Ophelia managed to release herself from the curse.

War With Gevaudan's Werewolves

Shortly after the Vampires rose in the Cote D'Prue region, Amoux, the god of the Werewolves, continued his work of slowly turning individuals into werewolves. While Amoux had been turning Werewolves for thousands of years, Amoux is a much more chaotic and much less calculating God than Orfeo. There was no grand strategy to turning werewolves to create a faction or organization as Orfeo did with the Vampire Lords. Instead a man named Gevaudan was turned by Amoux and rose as a natural leader of the Werewolves in the area, forming a camp in the Longwy Foret. The Werewolves quickly discovered the Vampires in the region and found that the Vampires needed access to the Orfeo Tree in order to generate more Vampires. The Werewolves dedicated themselves to defending the tree as they found the Vampires to be aggressive and dangerous. If Gevaudan wanted to set up shop in the Longwy Foret, he would need to prevent the Vampire problem from getting too out of control. Ophelia and her siblings reigned terror upon the Werewolves leading many raids against the Orfeo Tree. Ophelia was personally responsible for slaughtering countless of Gevaudan's werewolves in persuit of the Orfeo Rubies. A great hatred for Ophelia, her siblings and the rest of the Vampires was bred from these raids and Gevaudan renewed his pledge to protect the tree and destroy the Vampire Lords.

Breaking the Curse

"I did terrible things when I was corrupted by Orfeo. My siblings and I, we reigned terror upon your people. Anything to get at those crystals. Even a taste of Orfeo was so delicious back then, and we could make more soldiers at the same time. I was stalking the forest one night alone, I didn't often do this. You see when Orfeo bound us to his will, our minds became linked. My brother and sisters and myself were all one being to some degree. We could read each others thoughts if we were close enough. We often spoke in sync, the same mandates coming out of our four mouths simultaneously. The same call from the corruption Orfeo placed upon us to slaughter and consume the blood of the living and multiply. It was intoxicating. The power combined with the constant addiction was a vicious cycle. The last bits of our humanity slipping away slowly every year. Anyway, I was out in the forest alone and my tether to my siblings was broken when I stumbled upon a stranger. My mind immediately jumped to thinking I had found my next meal as I spied an old man in not much more than a loincloth. Walking through the forest with a pendulum floating over his shoulder. I leapt to attack him but he flickered out of mid air and appeared to the right of me. I tried attacking again and again relentlessly, I never landed a blow. After I had tired myself out, I asked him who he was. He told me his name was Gamal Haroun. I sat down in the woods next to him and we talked. In that moment I felt peace. I knew I was up against a force of nature that I had no chance of beating. This being was not even in the same league as myself so I took this as a rare moment to have a conversation with a stranger, something I had not done in so many years. I explained to him our curse, our lifestyle, everything about us. He revealed himself to be Gamal Haroun and revealed his fragment The Continuance Pendulum and it's ability to manipulate time. He had a plan to purge me of my vampirism but I was unwilling. It was not until many years later that I considered his offer and succeeded at purging the vampirism after my siblings tried to sacrifice me to their own ends. But that is a story for another day. The point is that you can purge the curse of vampirism only by stabbing a dagger through your empty heart to destroy yourself. I stabbed myself through my heart and destroyed myself, turning myself to ash and Gamal used his time magic to reverse the effects on my body. Because I had died by my own dagger, the curse was broken and the bond to Orfeo was broken, but most of the abilities and strength I had gained had remained despite purging the curse." Ophelia Rousseau

Vampirism

Ophelia is siblings to the current Vampire Lords and has retained most of her Vampire powers. Ophelia has lost her immortality and her need to consume blood of the living. The physical changes she experienced remained, including her destroyed heart, vampire fangs, and milky white skin.

Vampire Abilities

Vampires can only be slain by their sacred dagger, forged from Iron pulled from the Calamitous Lands and a ruby from the Orfeo Tree.
Vampires forge this dagger when they decide to take the pact to Vampirism. They must be bit by another vampire and converted. After they are bit they have a 3 days where they will be dying. If they forge the dagger and plunge it into their own heart, they will become a vampire.
A vampire bite always imbues the fatal curse but they will not become a vampire unless they forge the dagger and destroy their heart.
Vampires have an aversion to daylight but it is not outright fatal.
Vampires can not be killed with a wooden steak, garlic has no effect.
Vampires are immortal.
Vampires can turn into mist and bat forms.
Vampires can move extremely quickly and gain other unnatural powers mostly oriented towards the warlock class.
Vampires can perform ritual magic and more powerful vampires can link their minds together.
Vampires worship a minor chaotic god named Orfeo.
There are very few other vampires in this world. The vampire was created in this region by Orfeo and Orfeo has not done much since, mostly lying around the border of Cote de Prue and Le Maruk Desmarais.

Relationship With The Court of the Vampire Lords

Currently Ophelia is trying to defeat her siblings once and for all. In an encounter with The Adventurers, Ophelia attacked her sister, Petra, by stabbing her with her own dagger after distracting her.

At this moment there is a commotion towards the back of the field, the vampire crowd begins to part as you see a bright golden light. A light shines out forming a wall of energy around you and the Vampire Lords and the Shard as Ophelia steps into the clearing. The light burns bright, blinding your party for a moment as your eyes adjust and the vampires near the shard start to scream as the light burns at their skin. They recede towards the wall destroying themselves as they hit the light. The Vampire Lords recoil in brief pain but otherwise appear unaffected by the spell. "Ophelia, you cursed wretch. We will destroy you for what you have done." As you are all blinded by this light, you hear a voice in your ear, it is Ophelia. She says, "I didn't see another way out, I guess it's time we see what these Vampire Lords can do. I'll hold the perimeter with this spell while you take my lovely siblings." Ophelia drops the spell she is focusing on and leaps towards Petra after casting a brilliant ball of light as a distraction. She grabs the dagger from their belt with an insane amount dexterity and strength and plunges it into Petra's heart. Petra screams as she dissolves into ash. Ophelia falls to the ground, landing in the pile of ash of her now dead sibling. She quickly stands and says, "Druid copy my form", and she transforms into a massive bat. She grips two of the party members in each of her massive talons and launches from the ground spiraling up in the night air. As you are escaping, you look down to see the two remaining lords already moving the pile of ashes towards the shard. You lose sight of them afterwards.

Light Magic Practice

Ophelia is frequently seen practicing a form of light magic that the party is unfamiliar with. Ophelia casts multiple brilliant white lights, in addition to creating a wall of light energy. She was also able to use her abilities to calm Jean Gustav Krognar Desmarais after he transformed into a Werewolf. It is speculated that these abilities are a form of a reversal of the powers granted by Orfeo developed by Ophelia, but this is not yet confirmed. Ophelia has lived for 1200 years and is likely an extremely high level caster. Retaining her vampire powers in addition to her normal abilities within her class has made Ophelia quite powerful. We have also seen Ophelia capable of detecting Divine Magic, particularly Gamal Haroun's energy off of the shard of The Continuance Pendulum. Detecting Divine Magic is a feat that few characters have achieved. Miranda Majestic was able to detect this energy, but few other casters of lesser caliber are capable. Agar has struggled on and off with detecting divine magic.