Ususi Manaallin

Empress Ususi Manaallin was a Deep Imaskari wizard, the ruler of High Imaskar in 1479 DR and a former adventurer.

Appearance
In 1373 DR, Ususi had skin like marble criscrossed by something akin to mineral veins, with hair and eyes of coal black color. In 1374 DR, she gained star-bright eyes when she was granted her sister's percipience.

As of 1479 DR, Empress Ususi was a frail and weak old woman. Despite her age, she was warm and benevolent.

Powers
As a wizard, Ususi had, even before reaching the surface, weakened the Great Seal of Deep Imaskar while fleeing the city.

During her quest for the Mucklestones in 1373 DR, Ususi displayed a number of feats of sorcery, including her mastery of the Keystone, and the use of spells similar to Aganazzar's scorcher, burning hands, light, fireball, lightning bolt,  magic missile, and passwall.

She used different spells while looking for an entrance to the Celestial Nadir in 1374, most likely including color spray, stoneskin, shocking grasp,, wall of ice followed by hold person, wall of stone, gust of wind and wall of force. Ususi had been thwarted while trying to use a few spells she thought to employ against Shaddon Datharathi, whose crystal flesh could not be pierced by weapons and showed little response to most magic. Those spells included one that hurled words of ineptitude (possibly power word, maladroit), one that created a vortex tossing its target into the air, and an otherwise undescribed one which she knew as the decomposition of Umyatin. Ususi also knew a spell similar to find traps and had created several magical tools, as well as brewed potions of her own. She kept powerful spells of blasting ready for use against summoned demons.

She also gained her sister's percipience in 1374, allowing her to pierce Pandorym's darkness.

Possessions
In 1373, Ususi carried on her person a scroll of disintegrate, and the Wand of Citrine Force. She was granted the Keystone by the Nentyarch that year.

While exploring Imaskari ruins in Veldorn and Estagund along the way to Vaelan between Mirtul 19 of 1373 and Tarsakh of 1374, Ususi crafted a number of tools for herself, including her Delver's orb, its bound uskura, a number of potions, and the device that summoned horselike constructs to pull her coach wagon.

In 1374 DR, Ususi employed a number of potions of healing, a sunburst scroll, and a potion of a divination spell, presumably identify. She also carried a red dye which she used to mark traps, a stone fragment from an Imaskari tablet, and a copy of the Writ of Adama.

History
Ususi was originally a wizard of Deep Imaskar. She had left the city at some point on or before.

The Mucklestones
Around 1363, Ususi Manaallin set up her residence at Two Stars in Thesk along the Golden Way, where she studied the Mucklestones. She was friends with a druid by the name of Briartan and a half-elf ranger, Elowen. In the Spring of, when the ranger arrived at her door with the priest Marrec, Ash, a mysterious young woman, and the Osslander Gunggari Ulmarra in tow, she accepted their help to visit the Mucklestones in person, so as to determine why she could not contact Briartan nor scry on the Mucklestones.

At the Mucklestones, they encountered Briartan mutilated by the blightlord Gameliel, who she attacked and slew. Afterwards, she accepted the dying druid's request to report directly to the Nentyarch, then at Yeshelmaar. In order to speed up their journey, Ususi used a keystone taken from the blightlord to access a pathway through the Celestial Nadir.

At Yeshelmaar, a turncoat elf by the name of Fallon kidnapped Ash and used her keystone to open a pathway through the Celestial Nadir towards the Arches of Xenosi in the Rawlinswood. The group quickly followed Fallon through the Nadir, only to be ambushed by the blightlord Anammelech at the Arches, against whom they prevailed. They pursued Fallon's track into the Narfell ruins underneath the Rawlinswood.

While in the ruins, they fought the demon Eschaar for the controlling token of the Queen Abiding, a demon bound by the ancient Nar. Acquiring the key, they moved on to fight a third blightlord, a vampire named Damanda. After slaying all of her minions, they were faced with the full forces of the Rotting Man, which were only brought down by the intervention of the Queen Abiding, called upon by the priest Marrec against Ususi's protests. They faced the Rotting Man in person shortly after; he was accompanied by the vampire Damanda, who revealed she had dominated Ususi during their last encounter. She turned on her companions, to be saved by Ash suddenly revealing herself to be a manifestation of Lurue, Marrec's goddess, and forcing the Rotting Man to flee the fight.

Resealing of Pandorym
In spring of Ususi had been on the road for a year after having parted ways with Marrec's group, searching for other pathways into the Celestial Nadir. She had come across a sample of Celestial Nadir Crystal in a jewelry store at Two Stars, spurring her back into the search. The Imaskari vengeance taker Iahn Qoyllor joined her on the road to request she return to Deep Imaskar, which was under siege from the Underdark. He revealed that the key to defeating them lay within the Celestial Nadir; she proposed they continue towards Vaelan, where she determined another access to the Celestial Nadir might have been found.

On Vaelan, they encountered people whose limbs were prosthetics of Celestial Nadir crystal; looking into it, they came across Eined Datharathi, then in hiding, who helped them enter the mine. In the mine, they met the wizard Shaddon Datharathi. After they determined that Shaddon had released the Elder Evil Pandorym, the wizard slew Eined; unable to defeat him, they escaped through a nearby entrance into the Celestial Nadir. In the Nadir, they met with Warian Datharathi and his uncle Zeltaebar, who had fled into it too. After performing funeral rites for Eined, the four of them found an entrance to the Palace of the Purple Emperor, where they believed Pandorym's mind was to be sealed.

The elf Kiril Duskmourn and the elemental Prince Monolith rescued the group from a trap, and joined them. A second trap placed all of them in impenetrable darkness; she learned there that her sister, Qari Manaallin, was actually herself cleaved in two through Pandorym's meddling in the timeline. Qari granted her the sight she needed to penetrate Pandorym's darkness, allowing her to bypass the trap. Together, all six people entered the Imperial Weapons Cache, and managed to keep the mind of Pandorym imprisoned.

Founding of High Imaskar
When the threat had been dealt with, many of the younger Imaskari of Deep Imaskar left with Ususi to support the growth of High Imaskar.

After the Spellplague, the wizard Ususi relocated the old Palace of the Purple Emperor to the barren Mulhorandi lands and founded the city of Skyclave and the nation of High Imaskar. She was crowned empress and her first mandate was to renounce the slavery of her ancestors, outlawing slave ownership on pain of death. She also set up the Body of Artificers, Planners, and Apprehenders, whose power was equal to and balanced hers.

In 1479 DR, as she was old and infirm, she asked the Body of Artificers, Planners, and Apprehenders to look for a worthy successor.

In the same year, the paladin Medrash, the warrior Balasar, and wizard Biri from Tymanther, as well as Khouryn Skulldark of the Brotherhood of the Griffon, sought out Empress Ususi to ask for aid against Tchazzar and the invading Chessentan army. In exchange, they offered their aid in destroying the blue dragon Gestaniius. Empress Ususi gladly accepted the offer, as Gestaniius was raiding High Imaskari lands.

Appearances

 * Lady of Poison
 * Darkvision
 * The Spectral Blaze