Rhogene Zelipieti

Mistress of Abjuration at the Great School of Magic

Member of the Free Anachronic Society of Aalban

AC 1013

"That is totally unacceptable, young man. We have ways of doing thing here at the Great School of Magic. And as long as I am here, we shall continue to do such things in the proper manners as prescribed by tradition."

Appearance

Many wizards have commented that the Mistress of Abjuration is a cold and ancient relic, well-preserved even from the effects of time. This observation is quite true.

Rhogene Zelipieti has the physical body of a woman in her forties (preserved by abjuration magic and longevity potions), but she dresses herself to look older and dated. Her well-pressed and immaculate clothes befit a matron in her seventies. Her stiff black hair is tied back in a tight bun and her gray eyes and hidden behind thick spectacles. She wears large jewelry in the outmoded styles of three decades past.

Her voice is stern, her actions quick and severe, and she speaks very formally and with perfect and precise diction. She uses many archaic terms, even in everyday conversation. She never smiles nor relaxes, even when attending social functions at the Great School.

Personality & Quirks

The Mistress of Abjuration is the defender of tradition at the Great School of Magic. She upholds strict rules and disciplined scholarship to the point of being stodgy and prudish. Mistress Rhogene is very critical about younger mages and new innovations in magic, and is thus very closefisted when it comes to sharing the ancient and more powerful secrets of high magic. She is also a staunch supporter of the magocracy and quite vocal about it in her own cold, restrained, emotionless ways.

It is difficult to believe that once, the young Rhogene was a vibrant and adventurous maverick who stood up against the oppressive order in Glantrian society.

Background

The Mistress of Abjuration was born Rhogene von Karsten in the Viscounty of Blofeld in AC 942. She was of Alphatian-Aalbanese descent, and her family was well-educated and quite well-to-do. Her father, Xaradan, was an alchemist and assistant to Herr Wilhelm von Graustein. Rhogene and one elder brother who had magical ability studied at the local magic school and apprenticed under the Viscount, but her greatest dream was to study at the Great School of Magic in Glantri City.

In AC 959, Herr Xaradan had finally saved enough money to send his daughter to the capital, and at the age of 17 (considered late by Glantrian standards), Rhogene enrolled at the Great School of Magic. Rhogene enjoyed being at the Great School and found her specialty in abjuration magic, but unfortunately, the Master of Abjuration, the conservative and inflexible Master Walter McKinnon, did not get along with her and found the young apprentice willful, undisciplined, and insubordinate. Rhogene would often go against convention and tradition, and Master McKinnon took much offense at this and made life difficult for Rhogene. After two years of poor and failing marks, Rhogene decided to drop out of the Great School.

Rhogene took up adventuring. In the motley circles of adventurers, Rhogene met mages, warriors, thieves, bards, and even clerics, from the Flaemish race, the Ethengar, the Caurenzans, the Kaelic, the Alphatians, the elves of Erewan, Belcadiz, and Alfheim, the Darokinians, even some hin and dwarves! She also met her one true love, the hedge mage Vittorio Zelipieti, whom she married in AC 972.

Rhogene's adventures lead her all throughout the Principalities, and even into the mysterious Mists in Nouvelle Averoigne. It was at this time that Rhogene found her true strength as an abjurer and her purpose of protecting the helpless and those oppressed by unjust structures of society.

After more than five years of adventuring, Rhogene decided to return to the Great School of Magic and complete her formal education. Beginning AC 968, Rhogene labored again at the Great School under the harsh and exacting eye of Master Walter McKinnon, who in his aging years only became more puritanical. And after Rhogene graduated in AC 971, Rhogene did the unthinkable: she applied for a position as an instructor in abjuration magic—much to Master McKinnon's chagrin! It took four more years of hard work, but in AC 975, her tenacity paid off. From her travels, Rhogene was able to introduce many new spells not included in the previous curriculum, and from her many experiences, Rhogene shared many innovative uses for abjuration and protective magic. Of course, much of this met with disapproval from the obstructionist Master of Abjuration.

In AC 979, upon the return of Prince Étienne d'Ambreville as the Grand Master of the Great School, together with many of the Sylaire masters and archwizards who had disappeared with the d'Ambrevilles, the status of many of the ranking Masters at the time came under contention. Rhogene took this opportunity to question the suitability of the antiquated Master of Abjuration—and this coup was met with a challenge from Master McKinnon to a magical duel.

Rhogene did not expect such a radical move from the ancient Master but she was more than ready to face him in the arena. Master Walter McKinnon unleashed a fury of death magic (Apparently, he was also a powerful Necromancer!), but Rhogene was able to use her own abjurations to turn these against him. Rhogene barely survived McKinnon's attacks, but in the end, it was his own dark spells that destroyed him. For weeks afterwards, Rhogene convalesced in a sickbed, regaining her strength and shaking off the ill effects of the Death Master's magic, when she was awarded the position of Mistress of Abjuration.

With the new responsibilities thrust upon her, Rhogene found a new sense of self-confidence. She became more conscientious and developed a deep appreciation for scholarship—something she never previously had. But in AC 984, her husband Vittorio was killed by some mundaner hooligans simply because he was an arcaner—and suddenly Rhogene felt insecure and unsafe. She became self-absorbed and retreated to her magical studies, becoming more serious and more severe.

Over the next 28 years, Rhogene worked to establish many rules and restrictions within the Great School of Magic, particularly in the curriculum of abjuration magic, and strove to preserve long-standing traditions and an unchanging status quo—all in the name of security, stability, lawfulness and order. Many new wizards have tried to speak up against her, but nothing can be more steadfast and resistant to change than the Mistress of Abjuration.

Web of Intrigue

At the Great School of Magic, the Mistress of Abjuration is an institution, respected, if not feared, and not well-liked. Prince Harald Haaskinz, the new and rather conformist Grand Master, finds a staunch ally in her and appreciates her dedication to tradition, although the Mistress Rhogene herself always manages to find criticism and comparisons to "the time of Grand Master Étienne." The newer and younger Masters at the Great School avoid having to contend with her, especially in matters of improvements and innovation. Even the notoriously strict Master of Admissions, Master Angan Forrestir, finds her too uncompromising and extreme.

Mistress Rhogene is a member of the Free Anachronic Society of Aalban, through the patronage of her distant relative, Frau Gertrud von Drachenfels. From this circle, she has made the acquaintance of such nobles as Lady Serena Aendyr, but since she is not nobility, and since she is one of the few who became an Anachronic for ideological motivations, she has not become close with any of these noblewomen.

The Mistress of Abjuration does not concern herself with politics, especially with the ridiculous circus of new-fangled Principalities and ever-changing cast of nobles. She only had one ally in politics, Lady Margaret Hillsbury, the late Duchess of Fenswick, who shared her conservatism and who supported her financially for some time in magical studies, but looks down on the new Duchess of Fenswick, Princess Dolores Hillsbury. She also had an ally—some would say, even a friend!—in the late Lord Emeth Urbaal, Count of Wylon, for they were contemporaries, and partners in crime, in their olden days at the Great School.

Statistics & Styles of Magic

Statistics: 19th-level abjurer (Glantrian Wizard kit); Str 11, Dex 9, Con 17, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 13; AL L (D&D), LN (AD&D).

Languages: Alphatian (Blackhill dialect) and Thyatian (Aalbanese, Caurenzan and Glantrian dialects), all with impeccable accents. Rhogene also understands many languages, such as Kaelic and Sylaire, and has a passing understanding of Flaemish, Fenswick, Elvish (Erewan and Belcadizan dialects) and Dwarvish, but she refuses to speak them any more.

Weapon Proficiencies: staff, dagger.

Skills: ancient history (Glantri), etiquette, meditation, reading/writing, spellcraft, spellflash.

Rhogene Zelipieti is the highest-ranking wizard specialist in abjuration magic at the Great School of Magic. Many of her contemporaries have retired or moved on from teaching, but she adamantly intends to keep her position as Mistress of Abjuration. Only she has access to many of the ancient and high-level spells of abjuration (and even a few true dweomers, some say!), and keeps this hidden and secure in some secret library in the Great School of Magic, guarded by the self-same potent protective magic!

Mistress Rhogene uses any form of magic available to her to suit her purposes, but her main strength is still in abjuration. With the right amount of preparation, she is invincible in combat. Her protective spells are so effective, that she can even use them to counter and return offensive spells against her attackers, so much so that she has little use for direct-damage spells. Throughout her career as Mistress of Abjuration, she has won a total of five magical duels (including the momentous one against the previous Master Walter McKinnon)—and with the younger abjurers clamoring for a change in the present leadership, she will probably face a few more duels.

"So much change, so much chaos in Glantri! If only we had more true and serious scholars like her to uphold our traditions."

(Sire Charles d'Ambreville, a long-time acquaintance of Mistress Rhogene)