Villains' Lorebook.pdf - Department of Political Science

lose and will close with enemies if she feels she’ll
gain an advantage by doing so.
Allies/Companions: Zrie Prakis, the Fire Knives,
Nameless Bard, minions of Moander, Moander,
Phalse the pseudo-halfling (it’s likely that he truly
was a hordling from the Gray Waste, a.k.a. Tarterus).
Foes/Enemies: Alias, Dragonbait, Akabar Bel
Akash, Olive Ruskettle.
Appearance: Cassana looks to be an older, evil
Alias. Her features are similar, but crueler. Her reddish-blonde
hair lacks the luster of Alias’s, her green
eyes are hard, and her high cheekbones all combine
to give her a harsh appearance overall.
Personality: Cassana is consumed with the need
to dominate all around her. She’s an irrevocably evil
and sadistic woman who takes great pleasure in tormenting
those under her thumb. She killed her former
lover, Zrie Prakis, and then brought him back to
a semblance of life as a lich to serve her. She orchestrated
Alias’s creation in order to control the swordswoman
whom she referred to only as Puppet. She
sees others only in terms of how they can serve her
needs. She has no compunctions about disposing of
those who are no longer useful to her or whom she’s
bored with.
Locales Frequented: Her mansion in Westgate,
the Hill of Fangs, the Citadel of White Exile.
History: Cassana’s history begins not long after
she and her fellow mageling, Zrie Prakis, met and fell
madly (and I do mean madly) in love several hundred
years ago. However, they were forced apart
early in their careers. The stories of their lives vary
with the teller, but one thing is certain. Both lovers
grew into powerful, vain, and hateful mages. When
the lovers were reunited, both had naught but blackness
in their souls. The pair battled to learn who’d
become the greater mage, and Cassana emerged
from the duel victorious. His defeat cost Zrie his life.
Conjecture also concerns Cassana’s overall mental
stability at this time. In other words, some wonder
if the act of killing her former lover was what
drove the female mage beyond the brink of sanity.
Others speculate that simply entering combat with
one who was once so dear is an act of madness and
evil in and of itself.
Regardless of the exact moment of Cassana’s mental
breakdown, the evidence of its occurrence is incontrovertible
from the following events. She gathered
her former lover’s remains and kept them at her
bedside until such time as she was able to return Zrie
to a pretense of life as a lich. (See Zrie’s own entry
on page 58 for further details on his final form.) Cassana
controlled the now-undead Zrie with her powerful
wand. Cassana’s need to dominate others and
control events is highly evident by this time.
This compulsion took its final form in the creation
of the Puppet, as Cassana referred to it. This
Puppet came to be known (across the Realms and
even beyond) as Alias, the tattooed swordswoman.
Cassana’s need for control also manifested itself in
the fact that Alias was to be an exact physical duplicate
of the mad female mage.
To create the automaton she sought, Cassana assembled
a diverse group of conspirators: Her lich
Zrie, the thieves’ guild known as the Fire Knives, the
cult of the dead god Moander, the Nameless Bard,
and a fiend in the form of a halfling known as Phalse.
While most of these “partners” of hers had their own
reasons for creating such a being, Cassana saw the
Puppet simply as something (not someone) whom
she’d have complete and total control over.
As is so typical in the Realms, the villainess’s plan
did not work out as she’d hoped. Alias herself was
instrumental in Cassana’s downfall.
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