Phyrea

Phyrea was the daughter of Senator Inthelph, the master builder of the city-state of Innarlith in the mid–14 century DR. Secretly, she was a thief who stole valuable prizes from the rich nobility of Innarlith.

Description
She had a beautiful appearance. She had black hair and large black eyes. Her neck was long and her cheekbones were high.

Personality
She was born into luxury and was accustomed to living in wealth. Her father allegedly spent about 40,000 gold pieces per month to keep her in the habits that she was accustomed to. She nevertheless sought out the thrill of stealing valuable things that belonged to rich nobles, which she herself had little use for. She was not bloodthirsty, but would occasionally kill people in the course of her thievery to protect her own identity and complete her task.

She would use knives and blades to cut herself in private.

Eventually, she became haunted by ghosts of her family who slowly drove her insane. She became obsessed with her love for a Cormyrean engineer named Ivar Devorast.

She regarded her native city with contempt and thought it was a cesspool that any foreigner could easily take advantage of.

Abilities
She was a very skilled thief who could break into and out of well-guarded areas of the city of Innarlith. She had the skills of a thief and was good at moving unseen and unheard, picking locks, and so on. She was proficient in the use of swords and throwing knives.

Possessions
She came into possession of a magical sword that she discovered by accident had the power to turn its victims into undead after they were slain with it.

Relationships
Her father, Senator Inthelph, was the master builder of Innarlith and he pampered Phyrea in a luxurious lifestyle fit for the city-state's aristocracy. Her father saw her as being a bit wild and wasn't aware of her secret thievery. He wanted to try to reign her in and keep her under better control by getting her married to Willem Korvan, whom she detested.

Ivar Devorast was a Cormyrean engineer whom she had met while she was living at her father's estate north of the city and he was working on a project to build a nearby winery on her father's payroll. She became enamored with him and, after having an affair together at the estate, she became obsessed with him. She even swam to the Shou merchant vessel that was built by him in Innarlith harbor and sneaked aboard, so that she could be near something that was made by him. The ghosts that haunted her seemed to disappear when she was in his presence.

Willem Korvan was her father's chief aide and the man that her father wanted her married to. Phyrea detested Willem and compared him with Ivar, whom she thought was Willem's better in everything. She eventually married Willem, but the marriage didn't last long.

Pristoleph, a wealthy Fire genasi on the senate was Phyrea's second husband after Willem. He eventually became Ransar of Innarlith, and Phyrea thus became the Ransar's wife.

Wenefir was a cleric of Cyric that employed Phyrea on thieving missions.

History
Phyrea grew up with her father in Innarlith. She learned thievery and secretly engaged in it while she lived a double-life as a noblewoman. She was introduced to Willem Korvan and became aware that her father intended for them to marry each other, although she detested him.

In 1363 DR she tole a prized egg from the Palace of Many Spires under Wenefir's orders, but rather than handing it over to Wenefir, she deliberately destroyed it for her own amusement and lied to Wenefir about what happened to it.

In 1364 DR, she went to spend the summer at her father's country estate of Berrywilde near Innarlith. While she was alone at the estate she began to hear voices in the house that she came to realize were the ghosts of her dead ancestors. These voices would continue to haunt her after she left the estate and she ended up hearing them everywhere.

She also met Ivar Devorast while she was there. Devorast was working on the construction of a winery on the estate grounds some distance from the estate house. She became infatuated with him and requested the foreman to send Devorast to work on the wall of the estate house where she was staying at Berrywilde. Devorast then sent a dwarf named Vrengarl Hardtoil in his place. Phyrea was greatly embarrassed by this and she went to the winery construction site and made a public display of anger in front of the foreman and the workers. Devorast later came privately to the estate house and the two of them had intimate relations.

Devorast did not stay long at Berrywile, however, and he returned to Innarlith without her when he became aware that the Ransar was interested in his plans for a canal. However, Phyrea became infatuated with him and tried to follow his activities with interest in the city.

While she was being haunted by the ghosts at Berrywilde, she discovered an ancient crypt that was connected by a secret passage that went from the house to an underground area beneath the estate. She found a tomb that contained a magical sword that the voices urged her to take. She had a habit of cutting herself with knives and the voices urged her to use the sword on herself.

She developed a hatred for the foreman of the winery who had been Devorast's superior, in the belief that he was responsible for embarrassing her and she determined to murder him with the magical sword.

She secretly killed him in his tent at night. Later, she heard rumors of strange disappearances of workmen at the site and she went to investigate it herself and found that the murdered foreman had been raised from the dead as a ghast by the magic of the sword, and he was murdering and eating workers at the site. She killed him a second time with the sword.

She was horrified by the effects of the weapon and determined to try to find answers about it. She went to Marek Rymüt, a well-known wizard in Innarlith, who was secretly a Red Wizard of Thay. She presented the sword to him and he realized that she was being haunted by ghosts and he told her that he would take the sword from her and not give it back, which she accepted, even while the ghosts were screaming at her that they would punish her if she gave the sword to this wizard.

For a time period after she began coming continually haunted by ghosts, she rented out a tradesman's flat in the third quarter of Innarlith, in order so that she could have a place alone where she could think.

When Devorast was appointed by the Ransar to head the work in building the canal, Phyrea tried to work against him and get him dismissed. This partly because she wanted to protect him, knowing that the forces against him were aiming to destroy him. Devorast contacted her and asked for her help, however, and she gave it. Devorast needed a supply of saltpeter to assist the alchemist Surero with making Smokepowder for use in blasting the trench and Phyrea agreed to provide it from Berrywilde, where there was a supply.

She eventually gave into the pressure from her father and others and got married to Willem Korvan, even though she detested him. She moved in with him, but they typically stayed apart from each other. She was still haunted by the ghosts at this time and she showed very strange behaviour while living together, such as serving raw meat to Willem and requiring him to eat it. She even said things to the ghosts in front of Willem, without him realizing who she was talking with. Her behaviour terrified Willem's mother, who decided to leave Innarlith and head back to Cormyr.

Pristoleph a wealthy senator and an ally of Marek Rymut was given a pair of magical spectacles by the red wizard that allowed him to see what Phyrea was seeing at any time. Pristoleph had never met Phyrea before this point and when he realized that Phyrea could continually see ghosts, he took an interest in her and decided to meet her. He fell in love with her after their meeting and decided he would marry her. Phyrea and Pristoleph then invited Willem to a meeting at Pristoleph's house to announce to Willem that Pristoleph was going to take Phyrea as his wife. Pristoleph threatened Willem not to bother him if he didn't like the new arrangement and Willem was forced to acquiesce. Phyrea then married Pristoleph and became his wife.

Over time she began becoming more and more insane as the ghosts wouldn't leave her alone. The ghosts would sometimes destroy items near her. She also developed some qualities that were wraith-like such as an aversion to sunlight. Pristoleph wanted to arrange to have an exorcism done on her, but she refused.

Pristoleph made plans to overthrow Ransar Salatis and he moved south to Firesteap Citadel where he built up an army to siege the city. Before he made his attack, Salatis sent a Spirit naga assassin to kill him and Phyrea. The Spirit naga came into Phyrea's bedchamber and attempted to kill her, but Pristoleph saved her by burning the naga, before it could escape. Pristoleph went forward with his plans and invaded the city. Salatis was betrayed and killed by his own bodyguards and Pristoleph became the new Ransar, thus making Phyrea the wife of the Ransar. She moved back to Innarlith after his victory and stayed by his side.

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves
 * Lies of Light