Dr. Elysia Blackthorne

"There is no such thing as magic, only science we do not fully grasp the details of"   My name is Dr. Elysia Blackthorne. I used to be a renowned scientist working on the frontiers of science, until lesser minds who could not comprehend the importance of my work took it all away from me. Now I am forced to live from meal to meal, disgraced and discredited. How did it come to this?   My story starts on the island of Aelle. I am daughter to Man and Elf: the famous scientist Erik Blackthorne and the scholar Tisiah. My father studied the Elvish magic in Ult Aelien. During his studies, he met my mother, an Elvish scholar who studied the ancient texts. Not long after, my father and mother fell in love, a romance which was forbidden by the Elvish elders. When my mother got pregnant, they were unable to keep their love a secret. My father was banished from Ult Aelien, my mother was forced to give me up at birth. So I came to grow up in the human town of Wython.   My father died during an experiment when I was four. After this the only person I had left was my grandfather. I grew up as an outcast. I had no mother, no father, and to those around me I was seen as an Elf. Because of this I was bullied by other kids my age. My grandfather taught me how to defend myself against them. He had been a sailor when he was young, and he has taught me to fight using my fists and my smarts, the way they had fought when the tides carried the scum of the seas. And not only brawn, he also passed on a sailors wit to me. Even though he had lost a son to science, he had taught me to use my brain and look for logic when there seemed none. There is always an explanation to things that others attribute to the gods, fate, or something mystical.   When I was 15, my grandfather died of pneumonia. He left me my father's old journal, in which I learned of the Ill-fated love between my parents and his studies. The last entries were on the experiment that cost him his life, an experiment to infuse magical energy into a human, so that magic could become available to all races, and not only those who hoard it greedily. In it were also names of old colleagues of his, from the university of Portis. I decided to go to the university to learn to understand his notes, and to finish his experiment and liberate mankind. One of his colleagues, dr. Brighton, was still alive and took me in. I showed to be an adept at the sciences and quickly made name for myself.   Having learned the basics of alchemy, engineering and numbers, I set about to complete my father's final experiment. I was convinced I had found the error he had made and commenced the experiment, using myself as the subject. For this hubris I had to pay the price. Not my life like my father, but I had to sacrifice my left arm to survive. I spent the following years designing and building a mechanical arm, and revising the experiment. Through these works I have learned a way to channel primal energy into the prosthesis and other inanimate objects. A tremendous step towards realizing mine and my father's dream.   Five winters later I had perfected the experiment. The only matter was to find test subjects. I had learned the last time that it was unsafe to commence a self-experiment, with no-one to control the experiment from the outside. I appealed to the board for subjects, but seeing the board consisted out of 4 elves and 2 humans and a gnome, they deemed the experiment "to dangerous to the subjects", pushing their argument heavily on my lost arm and my father's demise. A proposal to use prisoners in line for execution was also denied, as the university "would not be seen working with criminals, lowlifes and beggars". I know they were only afraid I would succeed. So I decided to run the experiment in secret with my students as test subjects.   On the day of the experiment I summoned 4 students to my lab. Of course I could not tell them the true purpose of their arrival, so I told them I needed help in some alchemical preparations. I gave them a recipe of a volatile tranquilization potion and told them I needed to step out to pick up some supplies. While I was gone my students prepared the potion. Within moments the potion started to evaporate and knocked my students out. When I came back I strapped each of them into an iron chair I had hidden behind a curtain. Now the experiment could begin. I injected the reagents I had prepared and subjected my subjects to a primal energy emitter, making sure to keep the dosage controlled. The experiment was progressing beyond expectation, when the university board barged into my lab with the city guard. Immediately they shouted for my arrest and execution, and sent the guard at me. Whatever happened, I had to make it out alive. I am the only person who can free the world from magical oppression. I am the key to equality.   I fought the first two guards of. One of them fell into the primal energy emitter, causing the emitter to overload and instantly killing him and my students. There was no time to grieve them, or my experiment, more were coming. I had to run. In my escape I saw the board burning my work. Years and years of study going up in flames. I managed to grab my notebook and some tools on my way out, but there was no time to rescue anything else. I knew the university better than the city guard, and managed the lose them by taking one of the many secret passages. There was no time to rest. That same night I left the city for good.   Days later I heard the board had blamed me for the death of my students. I also learned one of them had been spying on me for the board. When he failed to report, because he was incapacitated, the board had drawn conclusions and come for my arrest, ultimately leading to their death. The one who betrayed me, had it coming. For the others I feel truly sorry. I shall make sure that their death was not in vain. I had to flee Portis, and decided to run North. Now I am living from meal to meal, disgraced, discredited and robbed from my work. I now look for money and resources and fame, so I can rebuild my lab and finally complete my lifes work.   "There is no such thing as magic, only science we do not fully grasp the details of"