Aruna

[Arn]

Aruna Dawnseeker

Origin: Thay
Age: Late 20s
Race: Tiefling
Sex: Female
Deity: Pays homage to Lathander
Alignment: Neutral Good
Height: 6'3"
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
General Health: Athletic
Profession: Wandering protector
Habits/Hobbies: Fledgling artist
Languages: Thayan, Mulhorandi
Weapon of Choice: Her teacher's reforged blade

Appearance
Aruna is unusually tall. She wears an outfit of brown, black, and silver. A scarf and hood are almost always covering her head. A medium blade is sheathed at her left hip.

Personality Profile
Aruna is not particularly outgoing, but she has a wry sense of humor and is not above the occasional enthusiastic outburst. Overall, however, she is a pragmatist. She formerly aspired to follow the tenets of Lathander, but found herself unsuited to his worship. Aruna is disappointed in herself.

Background
Thay

• • "Thay is unusual because of its numbers of tiefling slaves. An unknown number of fiendish bloodlines exist in Thay, some of them lost for generations. When a true tiefling arises from a latent bloodline, there is often a scramble as the Red Wizards struggle to collect the planetouched offspring. Some Red Wizards train these young tieflings with others of their kind, either to work as spies in other households, personal assassins, or as some sort of sacrifice to an evil being. These tieflings can develop a sense of community among their fellows. If they are lucky, they may manage to escape their evil masters, scattering to the four winds to elude pursuit. Some of these slaves start revolts to cover their tracks, others return to kill their former owners, and still others leave and never look back. In this way, certain tieflings have extended families, although how to find their adopted siblings usually poses a problem."
    • -Races of Faerun, page 126

• Born to commoner farmers in Thay, Aruna's parents did their best to hide their daughter's tiefling heritage from the Red Wizards. Nonetheless, a Red Wizard family eventually learned about Aruna and came to take her away when she was a child. They left Aruna's parents alive, in the hopes that the two would create another tiefling. The Red Wizards trained and used Aruna as a spy and personal assassin. She was not the only one; she was trained and worked alongside others of her kind. The Red Wizards that owned her specialized in the school of Necromancy, and from this Aruna developed a special distaste for the undead.

The Order of the Long Death

• • "The Long Death order worships the principle of death without caring much which deity currently owns the portfolio.... This order is quite strong in Thay, though not with the sanction or cooperation of the Red Wizards."
    • -Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, page 25

• Aruna managed to escape from her Red Wizard masters when she was a teen. To elude pursuit she sought out the Order of the Long Death, one of the only organizations in Thay strong enough to protect her from the Red Wizards. She thought it likely that they would be interested in her skill set, and she was right. Aruna trained with the Order of the Long Death, finding their philosophy intriguing. It seemed true to her that death was the great equalizer, while some of the monks even shared her distaste for the undead. She gave serious thought to the Long Death's teaching that death is a gift, a final freedom from suffering. Indeed, one of her tests for full induction into the Order of the Long Death was to give the "gift" of death to her former owner. She succeeded in this.
  
  Aruna's last test for admission into the Order of the Long Death was only revealed to her when she and a few monks arrived at a small village: she was to kidnap a child after quietly killing his parents. She refused to do this. Aruna suddenly saw the Long Death's teachings as an emotional and moral vacuum, no better than the Red Wizards' way of life. Aruna ended up fighting the other monks. She was defeated quickly, but was saved from death by an aging Lathanderite paladin who had seen the entire exchange. He killed the other monks and took Aruna away with him.

Lathander

• • "Paladins of the Morninglord are among the best-loved heroes of Faerun. They are loosely organized (along with other fighters devoted to the god) into a holy order called the Order of the Aster. Within their own church, the paladins are frequently more conservative and concerned with the way things should be done than the clerics, who are often neutral rather than lawful..."
    • -Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, page 26

• After healing her wounds, the paladin allowed Aruna to travel with him. During their time together, she learned about Lathander's teachings. Aruna felt inspired by Lathander's hatred of the undead. The god's lessons on creativity, renewal, birth, and dawn were like nothing she had ever heard before. Aruna compared the Long Death's philosophy to Lathander's dogma, and to her the difference was like night and day. "Night ends, and the sun rises," the paladin would say. To Aruna, this saying was no less true for its simplicity.
  
  The paladin made Aruna his unofficial squire, even obtaining an outfit in Lathanderite colors for her. "The world needs good Lathanderites," he once said. He trained her in Lathander's ways, but progress was slow. He expressed disdain for her assassin's tactics in battle, saying that a Lathanderite should always show others the strength of truth, honesty, and integrity, should be someone people could look to as a beacon of light. But he also discouraged Aruna from trying to fight too much like he did, telling her that not everyone could be a paladin. She did not get very far in her Lathanderite training before the paladin sacrificed himself to save a village from a raid. Aruna, having never seen such an act before, was moved.
  
  The paladin expressed his wish to die away from the eyes of the villagers. He wanted to maintain the image of strength and confidence, so that they would continue to have faith. Aruna asked him, "Isn't that dishonest?" The paladin thought for a few moments, and then chuckled. "You're right. Stay true to yourself, Aruna. Stay true to Lathander. It's your turn now."
  
  After he died, Aruna took up the paladin's greatsword and aspired to seek out Lathander's light on her own. She traveled to the Song of the Morning in Beregost and studied there in hopes of entering the clergy. Unfortunately, she found herself unsuited to serving the Morninglord as one of his priests. Aruna's introverted personality and pragmatic streak made it difficult for her to be a "beacon of light" to others. She didn't seem to see things as optimistically as other Lathanderites and she often felt out of her element at the temple. Aruna also saw her assassin's training as a mark against herself.
  
  After an incident at a halfling village made it abundantly clear that she did not have it in her to be a priestess of Lathander, Aruna left the temple to wander once more.

Goals

• Learn about Lathander's teachings
• Live up to her teacher's example
• Survive

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas

• Given her upbringing, Lathander's values are not ingrained in Aruna's mind yet. She feels a struggle between her old training and her new religion. Although Aruna is seeking Lathander's light, she retains a certain appreciation for the Long Death's teachings. For death does come to everyone. And after all, night follows day, just as day follows night. Still, Aruna feels more drawn to Lathander's vibrant and energetic dogma than she does to the Long Death's cold and emotionless philosophy.
• Aruna is disappointed in herself for not being able to uphold Lathander's values.

Miscellaneous Facts

• Aruna aspires to fight like her teacher did, hoping to one day use his greatsword with strength and confidence.
• Aruna is keenly aware that she has much to learn about Lathander. She assumes that no paladin would ever use a blade the way she sometimes does: to dispatch enemies paralyzed by her assassin's methods. So on some level, she considers it fortunate that she is no paladin.