Saphara Mohradyllion Character Info
Saphara is a dragonborn bard and the fifth daughter of Rehmzakh, a middling noble of Greymore and patriarch of the Mohradyllion clan. From a young age, Saphara resisted the strictures of being a high-born girl, especially those related to restraint and modesty. She was always rambunctious and athletic, but also deeply curious, inclined to stick her nose into any business. Her wit and curiosity drew the attention of the family’s court troubadour Ivellios Moonwillow, who steered Saphara’s inquisitive mind to the study of stories and the histories and tragedies of the great draconic and elven kingdoms of old. Ivellios showed Saphara how to channel her rebellious energies into intense musical performances with long improvisational interludes on her shamisen contrasting with the simple power and resonance of her voice. As the girl’s talents grew in her teens, Ivellios introduced her to the secrets of bardic magic and the advantages of weaving subtle tricks and illusions into her court performances.

Life in her father’s court was pampered and the clan wanted for nothing, save more power. Rehmzakh’s ambitions had seen new titles and lands accrue to himself and the wider clan, but as one of his last children Saphara stood to see few of the benefits directly. Seeking to avoid a destiny defined by marriage to another noble to give her father some minor benefit, she focused on music and her studies with Ivellios and ignored the whims and whispers of other courtiers. Saphara inadvertently played into the claws of her father’s rivals, however, when she used the excuse of private lessons to avoid attending a function with the son of one of Rehmzakh’s peers. Rumors quickly spread that Saphara’s private lessons with the half-elf went far beyond simply singing of romance. When Saphara overheard a courtier whisper a rude joke while she walked by, her rage overtook her and she had tossed the unfortunate courtier several feet across the great hall in front of her father and many of her elder clan-cousins. The incident deeply embarrassed Rehmzakh, with many of clan Mohradyllion viewing Saphara as out of control and touched by the wildness of Tiamat. Rehmzakh publicly berated Saphara before the court and forced her into a long, obsequious apology to both the courtier and the elders of the clan. A rift between the two remains; a cold and calculating father unnerved and disappointed by a daughter given to impulse and passion.

As expectations grew for Saphara to marry over the coming years, she snuck away funds and one night snuck out from the manor house and joined a troupe of travelling performers she had been introduced to by Ivellios. Her escape cost Ivellios his position at court, but won her years of freedom and a chance to experience the rest of the world. Seeking to downplay her noble upbringing and the formal styles she trained in as a court troubadour, Sephara spent many of the first years of her life as a performer focusing on physical performance and acrobatics, taking turns as tumbler, strongwoman, drumming dervish, and self-rescuing damsel more apt to run away with the dragon than defy it. After a time the master of the troupe decided to retire and rather than find another group to join, Saphara set out on her own, entertaining in taverns and music halls far from home and in courts and manors when winds and seas brought her near Greymore. A life of adventuring is Saphara’s next step in proving her courage and physical prowess with a chance at wealth sufficient to be independent of her family and opportunities to be the hero of new stories.