Upianshe

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Upianshe

(Person)

Alignment

Chaotic neutral

Ancestry/Species

Human (Ninshaburian) ghost

Class

Magus (kensai) 13

Gender

Female

Homeland

Ninshabur

Source: What Grows Within, pg(s). 58

Upianshe is a Ninshaburian explorer who first discovered and named the flying polyp city Neruzavin. She was later killed by her friends, who were infected by Xhamen-Dor, and haunts the city as a ghost.

History

Upianshe was born in the final decades of Ninshabur's existence and grew up on a caravan that travelled annually across the great cities of the empire. For three years she noticed strange signs in three of the cities and recorded everything she learned and suspected.

She finally submitted a report of what she had learned to the guards of the city Teralindar, which suggested that a subterranean mastermind was manipulating the markets for sinister purposes. The guards dismissed her, but Upianshe was unfazed; she stole her mother's sword and descended into the city's underground tunnels. Four days later she dragged a dark naga's corpse to the surface, proving that her suspicions had been correct.

The authorities rewarded Upianshe by enchanting her sword, which became known as Teralindar's Honor, in order to help her combat other such threats to the empire. In return, she continued to critically examine Ninshabur's oldest assumptions and superstitions, especially those close to home.

To disprove wild stories about the forbidding Parchlands, she led an expedition of academics into the desert. There they discovered the ruins of a city on the bank of a crater lake, and Upianshe named it Neruzavin—"Cradle of Heaven". Her team set up camp at the Star Stela of Alar and began to explore the ruins, but quickly fell victim to terrible nightmares.

Upianshe initially dismissed these phenomenal nightmares since she herself was not affected, but as her colleagues progressively lost their grip on reality, she eventually discovered the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor beneath the lake. It was too late: her entire team was seeded, and they tore her apart. Her ghost continues to haunt the ruins, re-examining her findings, second-guessing her conclusions, and blaming herself for not sensing Xhamen-Dor sooner.