Sofina

Sofina was an undead human wizard and member of the Red Wizards of Thay in the late 14 and 15 centuries DR. She was an apprentice of Szass Tam, the Zulkir of Necromancy and later Regent of Thay, and served as ally and advisor to Lord Forge Fitzwilliam of Neverwinter in the 1490s DR. "You know not the scope of my power!"

- Sofina

Description
As a Red Wizard, Sofina had a bald head adorned with tattoos that represented magical sigils. She had pale skin that darkened around her eyes, hinting at her undead nature. This was but a disguise, however, and her true appearance was decayed, gaunt, and dead-eyed.

She typically wore robes with a large cowl to cover her bald head and tattoos. It changed color at a thought or with her mood, shifting from the dark blue she habitually wore as a disguise among others to a crimson red when she wished to show off her status as a Red Wizard.

Personality
"She's just rich and eccentric. That’s all. It’s perfectly natural to wear a hood and sit alone in a room playing funeral music in the middle of the day."

- Edgin Darvis's first thoughts on Lady Sofina

Sofina was a shrewd and patient schemer. She was aloof and disinterested in making friends, rejecting all attempts at amiability. Szass Tam called her the disciple upon whom he had always most relied. She despised the living and sought to see them all slain and raised again as creatures of undeath like her. She also hated Forge for his false charm, arrogance, and jests.

Owing to the fear that Red Wizards received outside Thay, and to conceal her true intentions in Neverwinter, Sofina kept secret her affiliations and concealed her bald head and tattoos.

Abilities
Sofina had advanced skills in spellcasting and specialized in the school of necromancy, including spells of fear and death magic. As a wizard, she commanded a variety of spells, including mage hand, message, and prestidigitation at will; bestow curse, Bigby's hand (which took on a black-nailed, skinless appearance), dimension door, mage armor, Otiluke's resilient sphere, and thunderwave twice a day each; and Evard's black tentacles, finger of death, and time stop once a day each, as well as transmute rock to mud and animate objects. She could also hurl a meteor swarm, evoking four orbs that exploded in flames over a radius of wide, and could do so up to. Other spells she could cast included chain lightning.

As an undead creature, she could strike with a necrotic power, either with a touch or up to away. She was naturally resistant to such energy herself.

She could summon a wraith that was the spirit of a Thayan assassin. It appeared up to from her and obeyed her commands. This wraith served for up to 1 hour, unless it or Sofina was destroyed or dismissed it.

She was knowledgeable in history and the Art, and possessed good insight and perception.

Possessions
Sofina wore a magical robe that protected her somewhat from attacks and harmful effects.

Lady Sofina owned a gated and fenced townhouse in Longsaddle. After her encounter with Forge Fitzwilliam, Sofina placed armed guards in front of her home. The building itself appeared unwelcoming, with its boarded-up front windows and large intimidating reinforced oaken doors. The fence surrounded the property with rose beds planted alongside the walkway to the front door. The townhouse's back window opened to the formal gardens surrounding a stone fountain. The interior was darkly decorated with expensive plush sofas and wingback chairs. The sitting room's centerpiece was a grand piano drowned in the room's shadows that the home's owner liked to play.

Early History
Sofina was purported to be some three hundred years old as of the late 1400s DR.

In the mid-1370s DR, on the eve of a summer solstice, Sofina joined other Red Wizards who served Szass Tam atop the Citadel, his headquarters. According to history books a century later, Szass Tam had called all the other zulkirs of Thay and all the people of the Thaymount tharch, Xenk Yendar and his parents among them, to a grand celebration atop the Citadel. But it was all a lie—instead, Szass used the horn of beckoning death, thereby creating an army of undead under his control for his coup and following conquest of Thay. Sofina and the other Red Wizards serving Szass Tam slew or trapped all who tried to flee.

Quest for the Red Horn
However, Szass Tam would later lose the strange red horn that was central to the beckoning death, with the Harpers apparently having acquired or stolen it. They stored it within the vault of Korinn's Keep, far from the lich's reach. Szass Tam sent Sofina to recover it.

To this end, in the mid-1490s DR, Sofina disguised herself and traveled to Targos, one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, to enlist the services of the ex-Harper turned thief Edgin Darvis, whose wife Zia had been murdered by Red Wizards nine years earlier. For aid, Sofina allied herself with his treacherous partner, the confidence trickster Forge Fitzwilliam. Finally, one night whilst they were celebrating a score at the Trip and Shuffle tavern in Targos, "Lady Sofina" met the team, which also included Holga Kilgore and Simon Aumar. She wanted to hire them to help her steal the treasures of Korinn's Keep, a Harper storehouse that only a Harper could enter—Edgin. He refused, however, still having some standards. But Forge promised they would find there a Tablet of Reawakening, a magical relic capable of resurrecting one deceased soul. Against his better judgement but with hopes of restoring Zia to life, Edgin relented and acquiesced to Forge's and Sofina's scheme.

Donning his old Harper uniform, Edgin led the team to Korinn's Keep and gained admittance. While the thieves helped themselves to the treasures of the vault, and Sofina claimed the red horn, Edgin went for the Tablet of Reawakening. But the poor thief triggered an alarm, summoning Harper guards, whom Sofina struck with chain lightning, to Edgin's dismay. She then cast time stop, which the sorcerer Simon could not counterspell. It trapped the guards, Holga, and Edgin while she, Forge, and Simon made their escape. Afterward, Sofina tried to kill Simon, as they'd never intended for him to escape Korinn's Keep, and the sorcerer only just got away with his life.

The Doom of Neverwinter
However, Szass Tam did not merely want his horn back, but instead set Sofina a greater task. Next, she moved on to Neverwinter and with her dark magic caused Lord Dagult Neverember to suddenly take ill and fall into a vegetative state, a sickness that was rumored to be her doing. Then Forge Fitzwilliam seized the opportunity, waging a political campaign for lordship of Neverwinter financed with his ill-gotten gains. Successful, he became Lord of Neverwinter with Sofina as his chief advisor and Edgin's daughter Kira as his ward. They all moved into Castle Never, where cast Mordenkainen's arcane seal on the treasure vault.

But Forge and Sofina's real scheme was far larger and more terrible in scope than simply taking over Neverwinter. One of the Forge's main acts was to revive the High Sun Games, a monster-filled bloodsport that had been banned by Lord Neverember as he considered them too brutal. Forge also ordered the construction of the Neverwinter arena to host the Games. The first Games were to be held in the late 1490s DR, allegedly as a way of bringing the city together, as well as many visitors from outside Neverwinter.

Meanwhile, after two years imprisoned in Revel's End, Edgin and Holga escaped and came to Castle Never to retrieve Kira and the Tablet of Reawakening, but they had a less-than-warm reception. They were shocked to find Forge still working Sofina, whom they rightly blamed for getting them caught. Worse, Kira was estranged from her father due to Forge's lies. Finally, Forge refused to return Kira and threatened to sell the Tablet of Reawakening in Skullport, and when Holga and Edgin got angry and went to grab him, Sofina cast a spell to trap them in the floor. After taunting and mocking them, Forge ordered his guard Blackwood to take them back to Revel's End. But Sofina told Blackwood to kill them in secret, though they would escape.

Later, from the shadows of Sofina's office in Castle Never, Szass sent whispering images of himself to communicate with her, giving counsel and encouragement and assuring her long work was close to completion. Forge and Sofina then showed the wealthy guests Din Caldwell and Porb Piiradost around Castle Never, boasting of its upgraded security and suitability for storing their wealth in its vault; Sofina declined to elaborate on her Mordenkainen's arcane seal. However, they were interrupted when Sofina sensed the presence of a wild shaped druid—Doric, a new ally of Edgin and Holga—spying on them. Sofina led the hunt, blasting the walls with her thunderwave and ordering the castle guards to give chase. Although Sofina sensed Doric in other forms, including as an axe beak, the druid got away. Forge was correct in his suspicion that this was Edgin's doing, but Sofina vowed to send her own forces to get rid of the gang.

She sent for the Thayan assassin Dralas and his band of six fellow warriors. Sofina, Blackwood, and his Neverwintan guards met Dralas at the docks as he arrived by boat on the Neverwinter River. Sofina ordered him to hunt down and kill Edgin, Holga, Simon, and Doric. But first, she wanted Dralas to dispatch Blackwood and his guards because they'd failed to stop Edgin and Holga's escape. Dralas slew them all single-handedly.



Background
Sofina is played by actor Daisy Head.