Calliphana of Aspasian

Calliphana of Aspasian, known simply to her associates as "Phan," was a Daphnea assassin who worked for the Sunlit Isles Trading Company in the years leading up to the Twenty-Year War.  

Early Life

Phan was born within the Cult of Aspasian, a little-known Daphnean snake-goddess. Aspasian's spirit, weak from being disregarded by her fellow gods, was contained in the body of a large asp, hence her name. Aspasian was kept at the cult's sanctuary on the island of Sebos.   Like her fellow cult members, Phan was, as soon as she could walk, given the "Bite of Aspasian". This bite, while extremely powerful, gave her the lifelong ability to shapeshift. Life in the cult thereafter centered around ritual worship of Aspasian, which involved shapeshifting to a great extent. To sustain itself, the cult routinely took jobs where their special abilities would be useful. These jobs could involve thievery, espionage, or assassination.   Phan excelled in the latter. As she was brought up, she trained heavily in the arts of stealth and murder. In the centuries leading up to the Twenty-Year War, the Sunlit Isles Trading Company (SITC) came to the cult asking for their services. After completing a few jobs within the Sunlit Isles that involved the killing of supposedly dangerous and corrupt enemies of the company.

Killing of Istrad Nordlund

After proving her skill with these jobs, Phan was given an assignment that surprised her: she was to travel to the Makovai Mountains and kill Istrad Nordlund, a tribal king of the Sverden. According to SITC, Nordlund held criminal intentions toward the Daphnea, plotting to invade their islands. Phan thought this was strange, as the Sverden were far away and rarely disputed with the Daphnea. Nevertheless, she and another cult member, Rhodope, journeyed to the city of Norwen to complete the job.   Along the way, Phan and Rhodope developed feelings for one another, feelings that Phan had never deeply experienced before. Nevertheless, they decided to postpone any substantial affection until after they returned home.   Disguising themselves as dwarves, Phan and Rhodope entered the city and eventually infiltrated Nordlund's palace. While Istrad himself was kept under high security, his wife and family were not. While Rhodope organized transportation for them to swiftly leave the city once the deed was done, Phan killed and took the form of Istrad's wife. However, she was seen by Istrad's young son right as she did this. She witnessed the horror on his face as he disposed of him too, increasingly beginning to doubt her actions and feel disturbed by herself. Nevetheless, she hid the bodies and pressed on.   When Phan found Nordlund, he was meeting with his advisors in a conference room. Eavesdropping from above the room, Phan heard the dwarves discussing how a large number of well-liked, cool-headed dwarven rulers had been killed under mysterious circumstances recently. The advisors were warning Nordlund that he could be next. At that moment, Nordlund received the news from a shaken-up courtier that the bodies of his wife and son had been found. Phan watched Nordlund's horrified reaction, witnessing him break down completely.   Seeing this, Phan experienced absolute, profound disgust and horror at herself. Panicking and distraught, she fled Norwen, abandoning Rhodope and her entire cult. She swore never to shapeshift again.

A New Life

Following her escape from Norwen, Phan ventured aimlessly across Atla Vera, willing to go anywhere except for Sverdenland and the Sunlit Isles. She passed through various small locales, doing odd jobs to make a living, but never staying in any one place for too long.   As Phan reflected on her time in the cult, she suspected more and more that SITC was purposely killing off popular dwarven leaders in an effort to destabilize the population and cause war, from which they could then profit. Additionally, Phan struggled immensely with herself and the innocent beings she had killed. She constantly felt empty and afraid, and struggled to make any personal connections with others.