> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Lia > [![[Codex/Assets/Characters/Lia_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Characters/Lia.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Character | > ###### Character Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Creature Type | Humanoid | > Species | Human | > Gender | Female > Pronouns | She/Her | > Age | 11 | > Place | [[Camaar]] | > Connections | [[Veiled Cubs]]<br>[[Order of Ravens]]<br>[[Ellesar]]<br>[[Eryndor]] | > Profession | Assassin-in-Training | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Alive | **Lia** is a human assassin-in-training and the most gifted protégé of [[Ellesar]], the wheelchair-bound spymaster behind the [[Veiled Cubs]] of [[Camaar]]. Small, silent, and frighteningly capable for her age, she is a girl shaped entirely by loss — her parents were executed in the street by [[General Varan Brado]], and she has been burning with quiet, purposeful hatred ever since. ## Description #### Appearance Lia is petite even for eleven years old, with raven-black hair and eyes so bright a shade of green that they are the first thing people notice — and sometimes the last thing they see before their pockets are lighter. She moves with the unhurried economy of someone who has spent years learning to take up as little space as possible, and when she is still, she is very still. Around her neck she keeps a worn locket containing a small sketch of her parents — the only thing she has left of them, and never out of reach. #### Personality Lia speaks rarely and directly. She is not cold, exactly, but she is serious in the way that children who have endured real grief tend to be — her humour comes out sideways, and her warmth is rationed and deliberate. To those she trusts, she is observant and loyal; to strangers, she reads as hollow-eyed and older than her years. Beneath the composure is a fury she is still learning to master. She does not want to be angry and reckless. She wants to be patient and precise — and she is working at it. ## Biography #### Background Lia grew up in [[Camaar]], the younger child of two parents whose names she keeps close and says rarely. They were killed by [[General Varan Brado]] — executed in the city, seemingly without cause or warning — leaving Lia an orphan and the [[Valtorran Empire]] a permanent enemy. She found her way into the [[Veiled Cubs]], the network of orphaned street thieves operating under [[Ellesar]]'s quiet protection, and quickly distinguished herself. She had quick hands, a quiet step, and an instinct for locks and tight spaces that set her apart from the others. Ellesar saw in her his most talented student. He also saw the danger. Lia's hatred for General Brado was not the dull ache of old grief — it was active, and it was looking for an outlet. If she stayed with the Cubs, sooner or later she would do something impulsive against an Imperial, and the blowback would fall on everyone. When word came through the underground that the [[Order of Ravens]] needed a small infiltration specialist — someone slight enough to thread a tight vent and open a door from the inside — Ellesar recognised the opportunity for what it was. He sent Lia not to be rid of her, but because the Ravens were where her temperament belonged, and because he knew she would thrive under their discipline. He arranged an escort through trusted contacts, and the mission was framed to her as a transfer, not a removal. Lia accepted. She carried her lockpicks and her locket and said very little about what she thought of the arrangement. The escort north was [[The Bloody Nails]] — a mercenary company passing through [[Camaar]] who took the contract and gave her a seat in their wagon. She rode in silence for most of it, posing as a travelling relation when Imperial checkpoints required a story. She did not volunteer information about herself, and nobody pushed. On the road through the ruins outside [[Farhaven]], she demonstrated her usefulness without being asked, cracking the lock of a boarded farmhouse before the adults had finished debating how to get inside. It was [[Eryndor]] she warmed to, though "warmed" is perhaps too generous a word — she became less careful around him. That night by the fire at the ruins, she sought him out and showed him the locket. For a girl who said almost nothing about her parents to anyone, it was a significant gesture. She also, at some point during the journey, lifted his dagger from him without his knowledge — not for its worth, but apparently as a test of herself, or something harder to name. She said nothing about it. She carried it north alongside everything else she was carrying, and kept quiet. In [[Val Miriel]], she was handed off to [[Gideon Blackthorn]] of the [[Order of Ravens]] and taken into the Nest's training. The wagon ride was over. But the threads she had left in it — the locket, the dagger, the moment by the fire — had a way of persisting. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 10 - The Coastal Cave]] [[The Bloody Nails]] first encountered Lia — still called "the acrobat girl" by locals — when [[Ellesar]] offered them a contract at the [[Veiled Cubs]]' hideout in [[Camaar]]. He proposed a lucrative escort: deliver his most talented protégé north to [[Val Miriel]]. The party accepted the job in principle but delayed their departure to attend to other business, leaving Lia waiting. #### [[Session 17 - A New Journey Begins]] With Imperial pressure mounting on [[Camaar]] and the city on the verge of lockdown, [[Ellesar]] formally entrusted Lia's escort to the party. She was described simply as a stoic eleven-year-old assassin prodigy. The group departed north with Lia riding in their wagon, posing as a mercenary party travelling with family. When Imperial checkpoints threatened to slow the journey, she kept her silence and let the adults do the talking. #### [[Session 18 - The Old Forest]] On the road through the outskirts of [[Farhaven]], Lia put her skills to use — cracking the lock of a boarded-up farmhouse without hesitation when the party needed to investigate inside. Later that night, keeping watch by the fire at the ancient forest ruins, she sought out [[Eryndor]] and showed him the locket around her neck: a small, careful sketch of her parents. #### [[Session 19 - Blood and Sorrow]] Upon reaching [[Val Miriel]], the handover was completed with quiet efficiency. [[Gideon Blackthorn]], an operative of the [[Order of Ravens]] and an old contact of [[Eryndor]]'s, met the party at the [[River's Watch]] tavern the following morning and took custody of Lia, bringing her into the Nest's protection and training. #### [[Session 23 - Ruby Falls Goldmine]] When [[Eryndor]] passed through the [[Order of Ravens]]' headquarters beneath the [[The Raven's Nest of Val Miriel|The Gilded Crow]] on personal business, he caught a brief glimpse of Lia in the training hall — moving through rapier drills with focused intensity, already beginning to grow into the operative she intended to become. #### [[Session 27 - The Wanted Dwarf]] The glimpse of progress from Session 23 was thrown into sharp relief when Nestfather [[Thaddeus Karr]] revealed that Lia had gone rogue during a Ravens operation. Rather than withdraw as ordered, she had attempted to cut [[General Varan Brado]]'s throat. She had failed. The Ravens now held her detained as a security risk, and Thaddeus was openly weighing whether she could be allowed to live. #### [[Session 28 - The Underrun]] With the city locked down and the party seeking escape through the sewers, they passed through the Nest for one final meeting. Inside, they found Lia — subdued, cornered, but honest. She admitted the truth plainly: she had acted on personal vendetta, and she knew what it had cost her. [[Eryndor]] returned the dagger she had apparently lifted from him at some point during the wagon journey north — a detail she had kept quiet until now. The party's counsel was measured and direct: be patient. Learn. The Nest is the path. She took the dagger back and said nothing for a long moment. #### [[Session 49 - The Silver Sage]] In a distant memory surfacing during [[Eryndor]]'s reflections, it was revealed that on that early wagon ride north, Lia had lifted the dagger not for its value but seemingly as a test — or perhaps a keepsake. She had taken the blade, not the gold. ## Trivia - Lia's transfer to the [[Order of Ravens]] was engineered by [[Ellesar]] as much for her protection as for the mission it was attached to. He knew she would eventually act against the Empire if she stayed in [[Camaar]], and he wanted her in an organisation that could channel that drive rather than be destroyed by it. - The dagger she returned — or had returned to her — in Session 28 became one of the small recurring threads in [[Eryndor]]'s arc. She had taken it from him on the wagon north, and neither had mentioned it until the last moment before the Underrun.