The Children of the Wyvernspear

Poverty is an issue with roots that reach every corner of the world. It is no different on the streets of Waterdeep, where the most vulnerable, those without loving families and support systems, live lives of abject poverty, barely scraping by. Many of those unloved children wandering the dockside streets found only solace in each other. While most could only bear the weight of caring for themselves, a few formed relationships that would last lifetimes.

In the case of Kumo and Lyanna, born without families with names to hold onto, the earliest days were rough. Lyanna, weak and frail by birth, had been unable to fend for herself in her earliest days. She relied on the kindness of those around her who could afford the luxury of kindness, but as the days wore on, so did that kindness. However, Kumo was different. He was strong of body and naturally gifted with magic. Though his ability was limited, he could do enough to conjure food. His heart was always full of generosity, and he shared what he could, though he was no stranger himself to the cold clutch of hunger. Whenever he could find Lyanna on those bleak streets, he shared what he could with her.

Lyanna did have something to her advantage, though. Her body never did her much in favor, but her mind was strong. Just by watching from a distance and mimicking, she stole secrets from the nearby mages. Lyanna was not naturally gifted, but her determination carried her through. She learned to use basic magic through sheer force of will and a little bit of cunning. This led directly to the bright future to come.

Lyanna had a habit of watching any magic user she could on the streets. Her mind hadn’t been ready for most of it, but she picked up bits and pieces. Upon acquiring a notebook, she began taking notes of any magic she saw, making use of whatever secrets she could glean. It wasn’t long before the mages in question noticed, and some even gave chase, fearing their secrets would be taken to the wrong hands. However, being the crafty little urchin she was, Lyanna would be able to escape from these pursuers. That is, until the day she met Master Wyvernspear. Master Wyvernspear was a powerful Master Wizard from a local mage organization. The wizard had been seeking apprentices, but had found most applicants to be dim, lacking in ambition and boring. However, he saw the fire in Lyanna. One look into her eyes and he saw the future as it was going to be. Upon capturing the girl, the wizard offered Lyanna a position as his apprentice. In return for helping him with his work, Master Wyvernspear took her in and agreed to train her.

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Lyanna’s apprenticeship with Master Wyvernspear continued on for a few years. The wizard took her in, but part of that consisted of a relationship with a local church of Azuth, god of wizards. Though small in size and community, the church did have premises in which it could house a few loyal devotees. There, Lyanna was taught the ways of divine magic. Azuth provided her directly with the gift of reading and language, which she in turn took to learn about magic, history, the gods and the world itself. Not content with just whatever Azuth bestowed upon her, Lyanna continued her apprenticeship with Master Wyvernspear. But her ambitions began to stretch further. She partnered the church of Azuth with a local Zhentarim organization, negotiating a deal between the two. She and Master Wyvernspear would gather individuals off the streets with magical talents, which the church could use to support its organization, which she and Master Wyvernspear could use as helpful apprentices, and the Zhentarim could use as loyal members of their organization.

Lyanna’s ambitions stretched even further than that. She sought more knowledge and more power. Her greatest fear, since she was a frail child, had been to die without ever leaving her mark upon the world. To be forgotten. So, in pursuit of those goals, after getting her organization, colloquially called the Children of the Wyvernspear, off the ground, Lyanna left to seek knowledge in Mulmaster, at the Tower of Arcane Might, among the Brotherhood of the Cloak. Lyanna has specialized in divining, specifically diving the future. She hopes to one day look into the future and see her own name describing a spell of her own creation. She seeks to understand magic and the Weave at its most fundamental level, to shape magic at its core for the future.

Lyanna has spent most of her days adventuring in and around Mulmaster, which she has saved from devastation more than once. Alas, she was unable to save it completely from the plots of the elemental cults, but she still spends most of her time in the Tower of Arcane Might. Along the way, she has dealt with difficult foes in many different places on behalf of her faction, including a mission to defeat the gathering forces of a fire giant baron. She has made allies in Mulmaster, such as the High Blade Selfaril Uoumdolphin, Rastol Shan and various members of the Tersely family. She herself is a junior vice-senior cloak in charge of fines and membership dues, a position which she welcomes. She has recently discovered an interest in rune magic, which combines her love of knowledge of raw magic and language.

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On the other hand, the Children of the Wyvernspear have grown since Lyanna left. The few priests of Azuth, in cooperation with Master Wyvernspear and the Zhentarim, have made a few useful recruits from the street kids of Waterdeep. Most notably, Kumo, Lyanna’s sometime-companion from her early days. Kumo, being a trusting and unsubtle sort, has become an agent for the Zhentarim. He has embraced the Children of the Wyvernspear wholeheartedly, believing that they and the surrounding organizations essentially saved him and the others from those Waterdhavian streets. In fact, he has joined the church of the Azuth and serves to protect and heal those with arcane power, believing them to be of a higher purpose. He has expanded the organization and with his pay from his Zhentarim missions, he bought a nearby building, which now serves as a home for the other members of his organization and an orphanage for those without power. He is a very proud member of the Zhentarim, often declaring his allegiance openly and wearing a symbol to that effect on his armor. Though not quite gifted with true arcane power himself, Kumo is strongly attuned to the needs of wizards in particular, and in that, he supports them as well as he can. He continues to adventure, but not for any sense of adventure. He does so for duty to the organizations to which he belongs, and to make enough money to support both the Children of the Wyvernspear and the orphanage for whom he is the financial caretaker.

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Kumo has more recently found himself in service of a higher-ranking Zhentarim officer named Sir Brak Tersely, the spider knight. He conducted an investigation in the town of Nightstone, discovered some disturbing things, then was sent on various missions, including a brief stint in Hulburg, during a time of great upheaval.

At the end of the day, though the two have parted ways, they both were, in their own ways, saved by the Children of the Wyvernspear. Though Lyanna’s eyes are firmly planted in the future, Kumo’s never leaves his past. He is eternally thankful to Lyanna, and though he will likely never travel with her, he protects all those frail-bodied wizard whom he comes across in the hopes that one day he can shield her from whatever she needs protection.