View source for Wavespire:Characters:Felicia:Backstory

== The Story of Felicia ==


Maga Amelle ex Verditius wanted a child very much.  She and her lover Magus Ulrich (a prestigious and talented magus himself – they were not married, but that hardly mattered in the eyes of the Order) had tried several times to have a child, but Amelle kept losing the baby partway through the pregnancy.  Each time Amelle became with child, Ulrich would tell all of his sodales what a talented magus he expected any progeny of his would be, how his heir would be a prodigy, would make him proud.  After her third miscarriage, though, Amelle confessed to her lover that it didn't matter to her how her child turned out, gifted, dimwitted, or cursed.  Just as long as she had one, she would love it with all her heart.  Ulrich said he agreed with her.  But he lied.  

Perhaps speaking those words is what finally did it, for a year later, Amelle gave birth to a lovely baby girl.  However, any bard or sage can tell you that one ought not to say “it doesn't matter”  or “I don't care” unless one really means it.  As we shall see.

Felicia was a happy child.  Bright, inquisitive, eager, and friendly.  At a very early age her mother recognized her ability to sense the presence of magical auras and effects, and suspected that she had a supernatural sense for danger as well.  Amelle made certain that her daughter was well educated in all the areas that she would need to prepare her for apprenticeship.  As soon as the little girl was able, she took her into her lab and began teaching her the fundamentals of glass-blowing (her preferred craft for magic-item creation – she was a Verditius after all).  There was never any doubt in Amelle's and Ulrich's minds that their daughter would be gifted.  The only question would be which parent would take her as apprentice.  

By the time Felicia was five years old, Amelle and Ulrich were no longer lovers, and Ulrich was rapidly rising in political power.  Amelle thought Felicia should be allowed to choose which house she apprenticed into (and hoped to convince her of the superiority of House Verditius), while Ulrich thought that he should have the right to apprentice the child, since he was so much more successful and powerful than Amelle (in his own opinion, of course).

By age ten, Felicia's supernatural abilities were no longer in doubt, and her parents (the issue of apprenticeship still unresolved) were both carefully considering options for preserving them when her Arts were opened.  She was an eager learner, able to read and write Latin, and making good progress in  the Artes Liberales and Philosophiae.  Felicia's Gift, however, was slow in awakening, which was troubling.  Her parents arranged for lessons in Magic Theory and Order of Hermes Lore, so that she wouldn't get behind.  Even more troubling were the frequent minor accidents and incidents that happened around Felicia, though none of it was ever her fault.  She was simply unlucky, if one believed in such a thing.

By age twelve, Felicia's Gift still had not emerged, and her parents were really beginning to worry.  Perhaps, they conjectured, her Gift was gentle, and they simply couldn't see its signs.  Perhaps something was masking it, like one of her other supernatural abilities, or her unusual bad luck.  They had her extensively (and repeatedly) tested by a number of experts in the field.  When Felicia turned fourteen, and still showed no hints of a Gift, and even auguries showed no signs of one developing, Amelle and Ulrich admitted defeat.  Felicia would never be a Maga.  Ulrich was bitterly disappointed and embarrassed, for he had bragged of the great potential of his first-born to his sodales for years, and now had to admit that the girl was, in fact, a failure.  He had sired two other children (by a custos whom he eventually married) and the youngest was hermetically gifted, though everyone agreed that he was not especially bright.  Ulrich was angry, and swore to Amelle that he wanted nothing more to do with his daughter.  Amelle, though she had been barren since Felicia's birth, handled her disappointment much better than Ulrich did, and continued to profess her love and support for her daughter, despite her shortcomings.

Felicia, in fact, decided not to let herself mind a bit that she would never be a Maga.  She told herself cheerfully that this allowed her a great many opportunities, whereas she would be limited if she joined the Order.  Felicia was an optimistic sort of person.  She just didn't see the point in being depressed over things that she could not change, or in assuming things would go badly when there was no proof that they would.  She was a skilled glass-blower and a trained scribe, and she had branched out her study of Natural Philosophy into Alchemy, which she discovered she had a deep passion and natural aptitude for.  It was suggested by some of Amelle's Verditius friends that Felicia become a forge companion for Amelle.  But the mother and daughter simply did not work well together, their personalities being too conflicting.  (In short, they were too much alike and drove each other crazy.)  Felicia left her home covenant to, as she put it, seek her fortune.

The bad luck that had troubled Felicia as a child, however, had grown into a full-blown curse.  Nothing ever went right around her.  None of if was her fault, and none of the mishaps that she seemed to attract were particularly serious or tragic, just highly inconvenient and annoying for the Magi she worked for.  Items broke or got misplaced, crops did poorly, messages were lost, experiments botched, guests were less than impressed, and employers were less than pleased.  No covenant would keep her for more than a year, and she began to develop a reputation as a jinx.  Felicia did not let herself be bothered by all this trouble, though.  After all, nothing really bad ever happened, and she was certain everything would sort itself out in the end.  This misfortune of hers, she told herself, was simply the downside of some other, perhaps latent, ability of hers, or else building up to something good in the unforeseeable future. 

But by age twenty, Felicia was jobless and soon to be penniless if something didn't change.  So she appealed to her mother, who really couldn't do anything to help her, except to appeal to her father.  Ulrich had become very powerful politically and magically.  He was begrudging about it, but he agreed to help, deciding the best thing for Felicia would be a change of location.  Using his connections, he determined that her best opportunity would be in the Loch Leglean tribunal.  So he buried her reputation, put in a good word to the right people, and sent her off in time for the next Tribunal.  He made sure she understood, however, how deeply she was in her debt for his aid, and that one day she would be expected to repay him, though perhaps not all at once.  Ulrich felt that he had made the best of a bad situation.  He had rid himself of his embarrassingly useless daughter, and if she ever managed to make something of herself after all, he stood to gain quite a bit.  Felicia didn't let her father's attitude hurt her feelings (much), and told herself that she will win his respect again some day.