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Aurora (pronounced: /ɔːɛˈrɔːrɑː/ awe-ROAR-ah[1]) was a human wizard, a former adventurer, and the owner of the Aurora's Emporium chain of stores in the mid-to-late 14th century DR.[2][5][1]
Description[]
The literal face of the business. Drawn by Nadul DaRoni.
Not many people had actually seen Aurora and reports from those who had conflicted.[2][1][note 1] She was better known by her business than her face, and it was even supposed she intended it this way, so she could find good products without being recognized.[1] Despite this, the logo of the company was the face of an attractive woman within a circle; many thought this to be Aurora herself[6][2] and in fact it did depict her, but as a younger woman.[2] At least one portrait of Aurora was drawn by in-house inventor Nadul DaRoni.[7] As of 1370 DR, she appeared to be in early 40s and had a medium build.[2] She said she enjoyed wearing jewelry, at least pieces with a storied provenance like coming from a dragon's hoard or a pirate's treasure.[8]
Personality[]
She was known to be friendly.[2]
As a far-ranging adventurer, she grew fascinated by the wide variety in cultures, cuisines, and comforts she encountered and by how her friend Jhegaan interested an audience in his stories of other lands and their luxuries.[2] She also spent a great deal of time with thieves and enjoyed it and came to like them and their profession, though she conceded this was odd for a business owner.[9]
In her early years, a practically minded Aurora had little interest in music, thinking it served no benefit. But in her adventuring career, she learned to appreciate its ability to raise spirits whilst on the road and in rough conditions.[10]
Aurora enjoyed good bread and would collect recipes or get loaves to go if she could whilst on her travels.[11]
Activities[]
Aurora owned and managed her namesake business, which acquired and delivered a wide variety of goods via teleportation to stores all around Faerûn. She established stores in new locales, helped receive and fill orders, and oversaw other aspects of the business, including relocation of the central warehouse.[1][2] Aurora also penned the introductions to the company's catalog, the Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. She used divination spells to confirm goods did not originate on the black market.[5] Despite the scale of its operations, as of 1370 DR, Aurora continued to run her company along the lines of a small business, thanks to the ease of teleportation.[2]
The business was founded upon three pillars: acquiring quality items at reasonable prices; selling said items with reasonable profit to customers; and maintaining the good name of Aurora's Emporium, with honorable practices and satisfied customers. Aurora would dismiss any member of staff whom she felt did not keep all three of these principles central to their work, particularly those who bought substandard or illicit goods or inflated prices.[2]
Despite this, for Aurora, the business was but a hobby, something fun to keep herself active and put her talents to good use; she ran it for personal entertainment, not out of capitalist desire for profit. If she ever wearied of it or found it repeatedly operating at a loss, then she would start scaling back the business, by either reducing operations, shutting down remote outlets, or decreasing quantities and kinds of stock. Fortunately, as of 1370 DR, the business remained prosperous and successful and Aurora was satisfied and still seeking out new and noteworthy goods to stock.[2]
Abilities[]
Possessions[]
Aurora's mage sigil.
Aurora possessed a number of magic items collected during her time as an adventurer, but had little use for them as a businesswoman. Instead, she favored items applicable to managing the business. These included eyes of minute seeing for close examination of proposed goods and a mirror of mental prowess for communicating with and keeping tracking of her agents.[2]
Relationships[]
Aurora in one of her warehouses with Jhegaan (left) and Thane (right).
Aurora had a daughter Lemily who carried on the family's business but struggled due to circumstances beyond her control.[3] Aurora's granddaughter Leleanor proved to be a cunning businesswoman and daring adventurer in her own right.[12]
Once, Aurora and Jhegaan had been lovers, but they remained very close friends. He worked as Aurora's assistant to deal with everyday affairs of the company.[2]
Aurora counted as a good friend Wendeira of Wendeira's Wondery in Monksblade, Cormyr, who purchased as many novelties as she could for resale.[13]
She was also acquainted with some Harpers. She borrowed the concept of their Harper pins for the enchanted badges worn by staff of higher rank.[14]
She was an associate of Volothamp Geddarm, the travelogue writer.[15]
History[]
Aurora was an adventurer[2] and accomplished mage[1][4] who was a member of a far-ranging band of explorers, among them the bard Jhegaan the Maestro. With them, she traveled the length and breadth of Faerûn: from the Sword Coast in the west to the borders of Kara-Tur in the east, and from Icewind Dale in the north to Chult in the south.[2] On these journeys, she saw "miraculous things," as she dubbed them in her catalog: lusty paladins, penitent dragons, a dwarf and an elf who were drinking buddies, and even to have witnessed the Godswar in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR. Nevertheless, she could not fathom the appeal of skimpy armor, and once saw a berserker charge into the fray in only a golden belt, only to be defeated in one hit.[16]
A few years after the group split up and Aurora's retirement from the adventuring life, she settled down but sought a way to stay active, stave off boredom, exercise her skills, and sate her love of exploration, and so she founded her business.[2][1][4] Her first shop was a little place in Waterdeep, named Aurora's Emporium, and it was initially only open for a few days each month after she came home from her travels bearing more exotic goods.[2] Nevertheless, Aurora made wise investments in the business.[17] Jhegaan elected to stay and help her, discovering a previously unguessed-at good business acumen himself.[18]
From such humble beginnings, the business grew and she began to open shops across Faerûn.[2] An Aurora's Emporium enjoyed success wherever one opened[1] and in the early 1360s DR, Aurora reported that she had a new outlet opening each month, promising that there was a good chance that someone reading her catalogue would soon have a store opening conveniently close to them.[5] Before long, it had become a multi-armed company that spanned the Realms and had agents in places further than even Aurora had traveled.[2]
At some point, Aurora was in Shadowdale attending an event hosted by Elminster when the gnomish inventor Nadul DaRoni met her and forcefully insisted his works should be included in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. Aurora flatly rejected him. Nevertheless, he persisted and pestered until eventually Aurora agreed to examine his notes and tour his workshop, and cautiously agreed to present a handful of them.[19][20]
By 1367 DR, Aurora was a standout amongst the rising new class of non-guild merchants operating in Waterdeep.[21]
Unfortunately, the Spellplague of the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR and after caused a much greater, more long-lasting disruption to Aurora's Emporium operations, with failures in the teleportation network. Amidst that chaos, Aurora's successor and daughter, Lemily, had a difficult time keeping the company together. Much of it was lost, with only a handful of outlets in the major cities remaining in business by the late 1400s DR, among them Waterdeep, Westgate, and Baldur's Gate.[17]
By the late 1470s DR, a greatly aged Aurora managed an Aurora's Emporium in Westgate as a fashionable curio shop. Here she sold exotic trinkets and treasures from all around Toril: Calishite smoking implements, Cormanthyran cloth; couatl-feather headdresses from Maztica, coral jewelry from Myth Nantar, clothes from Damara, hooked blades from Var, a Tuigan bow and arrows from the Hordelands, satyr's pipes, and so forth.[22] [note 2]
On Shieldmeet of the Year of Deep Water Drifting, 1480 DR, Ilira Nathalan, Myrin Darkdance, and Rujia visited the Westgate Aurora's Emporium and met Aurora. Ilira knew her and the two spoke privately, while Myrin noticed Hessar also browsing.[22]
Still in Westgate, after a century of being shut down, the portals in the abandoned Blais House inn had begun to cause instabilities in local magic, which led to interference in the nearby Aurora's Emporium's own teleportation network in the Year of the Rune Lords Triumphant, 1487 DR. To resolve it, Aurora looked to recruit adventurers to reenter Blais House and fix the portals, and maybe even reopen the inn.[23]
Appendix[]
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Notes[]
- ↑ This confusion over Aurora's appearance may be alluding to the different depictions of Aurora, with two in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue (one repurposed from the cover art of Pools of Darkness depicting Shal Bal) and a third in Cloak & Dagger.
- ↑ Eye of Justice implies this Aurora is the same Aurora, because Myrin, who has been temporally displaced from the late 1300s DR, appears to recognize her. If so, Aurora would be over 150 years old—unnaturally old for a human, but not unusual for wizards and characters of this era. Aurora may have retired to this curio shop, cutting back her involvement in the larger company. Alternatively, this is a descendant of the same name.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Running the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 31. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 Steven E. Schend, Sean K. Reynolds and Eric L. Boyd (June 2000). Cloak & Dagger. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 135. ISBN 0-7869-1627-3.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Greg Marks (2015-07-01). Oubliette of Fort Iron (DDEX2-11) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Elemental Evil (Wizards of the Coast), p. 7.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cardsheets included in Greenwood, Martin, Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised). (TSR, Inc). ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), pp. 5–6. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 1. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 154. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 94. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 13. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 21. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 119. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Greg Marks (2015-07-01). Oubliette of Fort Iron (DDEX2-11) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Elemental Evil (Wizards of the Coast), p. 26.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (July 1995). Volo's Guide to Cormyr. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 100. ISBN 0-7869-0151-9.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend, Sean K. Reynolds and Eric L. Boyd (June 2000). Cloak & Dagger. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 136–137. ISBN 0-7869-1627-3.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 120. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), p. 90. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Greg Marks (2015-07-01). Oubliette of Fort Iron (DDEX2-11) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Elemental Evil (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 5, 7.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend, Sean K. Reynolds and Eric L. Boyd (June 2000). Cloak & Dagger. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 135–136. ISBN 0-7869-1627-3.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb, Julia Martin, Steven E. Schend et al (1992). Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue. (TSR, Inc), pp. 147–159. ISBN 0-5607-6327-2.
- ↑ Thomas M. Costa (2004-14-01). Nadul DaRoni. Realms Personalities. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2004-02-04. Retrieved on 2016-08-05.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), A Grand Tour of the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 106. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Erik Scott de Bie (September 2012). Eye of Justice. (Wizards of the Coast), loc. 3553. ISBN 978-0-7869-6135-1.
- ↑ Erik Scott de Bie (October 2013). “Backdrop: Westgate”. In Miranda Horner ed. Dragon #428 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 12.