Personality

To most strangers, she’s someone rather intimidating. She comes off as stern and unwelcoming on the best of days, and vulgar and cranky on the worse. She’s not someone that bothers with thin veneers of respect and surface level niceties. 

In reality, to most people Enclave is going to be little more than a quiet and unassuming stranger. She’s someone who prefers to mind her own business, and will leave well enough alone even when she suspects that something immediately pertains to her. In a lot of ways, Enclave can be deeply paranoid and suspicious, despite this. She’s someone who doesn’t trust easily, and tends to assume that the worst will happen. In particular, she does not trust people who come off as too kind. 

With friends that she’s closer to, she can be incredibly sarcastic and snarky. Likewise, within her own thoughts, she tends to be a rather critical and judgemental person. She can be fairly stubborn- Once she has her heart set on something, she will do it regardless of the consequences to herself and her well-being. While not arrogant in the traditional sense of the word, Enclave can be very egotistical when it comes to her beliefs and knowledge. If she thinks she knows something, she holds an unshaking belief in that knowledge, often times to her own detriment. 

Despite this, Enclave can be incredibly “soft-hearted” - Even by the standards of other cultures. She’s not prone to physical displays of violence, and does not think highly of people who are needlessly cruel. She’s considerate of other people’s presence and well-being, though it’s something she only shows through silent actions rather than verbal affirmation. Despite her otherwise pessimistic view of the world, she will go out of her way to help others in small and unnoticeable ways, and she largely does not like to inconvenience other people. She is deeply protective of the few people she does let in, and easily blinded by her bias towards them. She’s willing to let the people she cares about get away with doing things she finds otherwise morally reprehensible, even when targeted to herself. If she loves someone, she will find it in herself to forgive them, no matter the atrocity. 

At her most harmless, she’s fairly awkward and uncomfortable around other people. She doesn’t know how to approach others, and is okay hiding behind the strength of larger personalities.

Enclave does not view herself in a very positive light. She doesn’t believe herself to be a good person and doesn’t believe that she has any desire to become better. She believes that allowing herself to be a bad person will pave the way for people who come after her to be better than she’s been. She does not offer herself a lot of sympathy for the circumstances of her past, even where she might have otherwise offered it to other people. There is nothing she hates more than hypocrisy, and she believes herself to be a deeply hypocritical person.

 This leads her to being rather inept with emotions, as she's constantly downplaying the importance of her own relationships.

Enclave is strangely non-discriminatory for a drow. While she performs with language that might imply otherwise (Calling other Drow by “Brother/Sister,” Half Drow “Little Brother/Little Sister”, and other races largely by their race or job (“The Faerie” “The Human,” “The Priestess.”), she does not actually seem blinded by the same arrogance as her kin. She values competence above all else, believing strongly in working with the best person for a job, regardless of what their race and gender may be. Likewise, she believes that paying for good service is important, as she views it worthwhile to keep those services in her pocket. This is because Enclave would like things to run smoothly in her life, and finds no joy in extra hassle of incompetence. 

She’s willing to put up with intolerable personalities for this purpose, but not being patronized or looked down upon.

That’s not to say that she doesn't hold any of the views or biases of the culture that she was raised in - She certainly seems to hold more awareness and concern for drow lives and deaths. But rather that she knows better than to dismiss anyone outright, and will consider the opinions and experiences of most people rather than dismissing them outright. Generally speaking, she approaches everyone with the same amount of neutral disconnect and suspicion regardless of race, gender, or religion. 

She seems otherwise uninterested in forming either long term friendships or alliances, and when traveling with other people, she prefers to be left alone, in the security of the shadows.

Biography

Self-care:

Enclave has bad self-care habits, something she is actively aware of and chooses to ignore in the face of prioritizing other things. Most of her life is made up of resting, then getting back up to travel or work. While she has clothing made of expensive material, it’s rare that she actually bothers to dress up, preferring the far more comfortable (Albeit, still well maintained and of decent quality) travel clothing that she’s collected over the years.

She prefers to trance over sleep, as she does not feel entirely safe sleeping. However if she does get ill to the point of sleeping, she will give up pretending it’s not something that she enjoys, and do so in abundance. She sleeps and trances with a knife dangerously close to herself - If she can’t place it between the bedboard or on the nightstand, then it’s under her pillow or in her blankets.

She has a tendency to put off eating, and has spent most of her life eating most of what gave her the bare minimum to get by. To Enclave, eating is something you do to keep yourself alive, rather than to actually enjoy the process of doing so. While she won’t ever admit to having a preference, she generally gravitates towards spiced foods and stronger flavors when she does get the opportunity to, and views most of the food she grew up around within the underdark through a rather neutral lens. She is fine surviving strictly on hard tact and salted meats, and won’t go out of her way to over indulge. She enjoys alcohol with unique flavors, but doesn’t have a particularly expansive pallet 

Enclave has Chronic pain - Of which she is managing poorly. She’s never once allowed herself to heal properly, rather relying on healing magic to quickly stitch up her wounds. As a result, she is sore more than than she’s not. It is something that she’s used to and simply works through. 

Enclave is not someone who believes she has hobbies, and if asked would not be able to come up with any if asked directly.

However, she enjoys gardening, fishing, and reading. She likes collecting themed stationery, and enjoys clothing that have dignified cat patterns on them. She justifies her interests by indulging in them through the lens of her church, or by the fact that they’re aspects she needs to do to survive. The only one she can’t justify through the lens of her religion is swimming - She likes swimming in cold water, and soaking in hot springs, and will do so simply to relax.

Personal Worship

Enclave does not believe that she has a particularly diligent form of worship. Given her discomfort with others who follow him, she participates in very few ceremonies and holidays, seemingly doing very little in the way of immediate community building. She does not kill Priestesses of Lolth enough to sacrifice their weapons, and very few mortals can really say what she’s actually doing for the church on any given day.

Her worship of him (Enclave voice: “If it can be called that.”) is something deeply private to her. While she will talk (At length) about him and his church if asked by someone she suspects is doing so in good faith, she doesn't believe in going out of her way to proselytize, and sees no point in doing so to non-drow. To those that aren't part of the faith, it's unlikely that she will mention who her god is. If asked (Assuredly, in a safe spot to do so) it’s unlikely that she will immediately offer his name - However, her explicit disgust towards any other drow god may very well cue someone in the loop in on where her allegiance lies.

It must be said, however, that she converses directly to her god near-daily (a routine that would deeply upset her to have disrupted.) She is otherwise comfortable calling on his attention for both business and personal affairs. She enjoys his company and calls for it rather casually, though would get defensive if anyone pointed this out. Likewise, when she does get comfortable talking about him, it’s clear that she has a lot to say regarding his church and personal character, and pushing for her opinions on other religions may be one of the few ways to get her to open up.

Likewise, she is guaranteed a bed at any temple of his she finds her way in, few and sparing as those might be on the surface. 

Underdark

Enclave has mixed feelings on the Underdark: On one hand, it is the home that she grew up in, and she doesn’t believe that dismissing it as uninhabitable is going to benefit them in the long run. On the other hand, she does seem to enjoy the surface more, preferring to satiate her wanderlust by traveling it by night. Her belief is that the underdark is worth being an extension of their territory - That while they should not be forced to sit trapped within its caverns, it is worthwhile to use the land and its resources to better their gains. 

Despite the otherwise negative feelings she might seem to have towards her kin, Enclave has a soft-spot for the arrogance and hedonism that her society is known for. For all of her distrust and frustrations regarding doing so, in many ways she sincerely enjoys  the company of the drow she grew up around. 

Perhaps due to this, there is nothing she distrusts more than people who are too kind.

Children

Enclave has had three children, all of whom are dead. Her first child, a daughter, was born when she was around 100, to an Eilistraee priestess. This daughter was killed at the hands of another priestess when she left the Underdark for her work on the surface. Her second and third children were a set of twins, both of whom lived to be well into their 30’s, however died at her ex-husbands (rather, their fathers) hands. 

If asked about it, Enclave has decided that there’s nothing to say on the matter - And she sincerely believes this. 

In reality, Enclave has (understandably) complicated feelings on the memories of her children that she refuses to acknowledge. She struggled to grow attached to them after they were born, and as such never bothered attempting to do so. She’s not unaware that there are things she could have done to keep them safer and out of the Underdarks otherwise cannibalistic societal structure - Namely, in both cases, she did have an opportunity to bring her children to the surface and decided against doing so, as she believed that it would put more people within her church at risk when the Mistress of the house she served in inevitably came to find her. She has worse feelings about the twins in this regard, as she was a traitor under Vhaeraun by the time that they were born. 

But she also believes that there’s no point in lingering on it or grieving for them, as it has been centuries since their death. (However, it can be argued she never grieved them to begin with.)

While not hers biologically, she raised her younger brother (Nymryn, of whom she picked up after killing her mother to properly dismantle her houses legacy), and a young boy brought into the house she mentored in (Lymrith, who is older than Nymryn by nearly a century.) Both boys are alive and on the surface by the time of 5e, though Lymrith has declined the opportunity to stay in contact with her.

When it comes to children who are strangers to her, she treats them largely just like smaller adults. Even with her own children, she had a tendency to talk to them on equal terms. While she doesn’t talk down to them, this does result in her putting higher expectations on them then she perhaps should. Likewise, while she has shed and is critical of many of the worst beliefs the Underdark has to say on the matter of raising and disciplining children, she still believes that it’s important for children to be taught how to handle a weapon from a young age. In her eyes, while there is no reason to put a child on the battlefield, the world is simply too dangerous to neglect doing so. 

Romance and Sex

While observant of her immediate surroundings and otherwise insightful on the larger manipulations of others, Enclave has a blind-spot in spotting when others have sincere interest in her. Even her long term lover’s attempts to impress her largely seem to go over her head, as she doesn’t seem to believe herself worth impressing. Despite this, she’s neither particularly modest nor prudish in nature, willing to sleep with people even if she doesn’t seem interested in them as a person (Or, really even like them.) She views sex as a lens to learn about someone through, rather than an inherent act of vulnerability.

Perhaps ironically, considering her private nature: She does not care about nudity, and is largely desensitized to it, both within her own body and the body of others. She is willing to sleep with just about anything. As long as she can communicate, she considers free game. As well, she’s incredibly curious by nature, and enjoys experimentation. 

All of these factors considered, she’s not hard to convince to have sex with. However, the act of doing so is not, in itself, going to get her to let her guard down (An aspect of herself she is well aware of.)

She enjoys physical touch and is largely touch starved. She does not mind public displays of affection from long term partners, even in overindulgence. 

She is polyamorous. The concept of monogamy baffles her (She does not understand why anyone would want to be) though there have been a few periods in her life where she’s dated the less long lived surface races and remained strictly with them for the whole of their life. 

On Violence and fighting:
Enclave is a cleric with a rogue skillset. Functionally, she is built like a glass canon - She is meant to hit hard and quickly, and to do so without getting noticed. She is not actually a fighter first and foremost, she’s a strategist. Her main preference of attack is in killing people in their sleep.

Enclave sees no honor in killing, and very little celebration in battle. She views it as a tragic duty that needs to be fulfilled rather than something to immediately rejoice in. She particularly dislikes killing other drow, especially those who are still within the Spider Queens web. (What good does it do besides send them back to her clutches..?)

 While she does not prefer to use violence to further her means, she is not opposed to doing so. As such, she is willing to take advantage of unfair strategies within her fights; violence is not an indulgence for her. 

Even with her opinions on it, she does not see violence as an indicator of true evil. 

Her main weapon of choice is daggers and small blades, but she’s trained in archery and is passably familiar with a wide range of melee weapons. She takes advantage of poisons where possible, and has a minor resistance to many of them. Despite being raised amongst mages and wizards, Enclave often forgets to account for magic as a threat, using her own mostly to buff her stealth capabilities.

While not apathetic to the suffering of others, being raised within the Underdark has led to her being otherwise desensitized to it. She is unflinching in the face of most death. Despite this, Enclave will stop to mourn for most dead Drow, even the ones that she herself has killed. 

Miscellaneous: 

When she’s traveling, she enjoys picking up clothing from whatever town she’s staying in. She has a small collection of clothes from across the sword coast from this, though the large majority of them have been dyed to some shade of grey or black.

She has little patience for both Underdark and surface bureaucracy, and is willing to default to underhanded means if it means avoiding dealing with either. She particularly does not like being told she’s not allowed into places, and will wander in on her own accord if she decides it’s worth her time. She’s particularly good at getting in and out of places unnoticed. 

She’s normal enough to be morally opposed to slavery, however does not view Indentured Servitude as slavery. If they didn’t want to be in that position maybe they shouldn’t have signed themselves into it...? Pick a better person to work for (< Rest Assured, Author Thinks This is an Insane Take)

Personality

At a glance, Ilphaer is a friendly, excitable spirit. She’s someone who can almost always be seen with a smile on her face, though whether that smile is one of true joy or something tinged with a bit more malice or mischief is truly dependant on the moment that she’s existing within. And certainly, this is not a facade she is putting on. When in her own head, Ilphaer is the happiest she’s been at any point in her life.

The complications occur when she’s left in the company of others.

Ilphaer has something of a difficult personality. While Ilphaer likes to think that she thinks before she acts, the truth of the matter is that she is very reactive person by nature. Her hands move faster than her brain, and her mouth faster than her hands. She doesn’t have a particularly strong filter, often saying the first thing that comes to her mind in any given situation. In many ways, she can come across as deeply vulgar and (to the more judgemental) classless - Both in her vocabulary and behavior. She’s someone who can be rather snarky when she’s not actively thinking about it, and she has no interest in changing this about herself.

While she is otherwise amicable to strangers and those she doesn’t have as much of a history with, Ilphaer is someone who will unabashedly treat someone differently depending on how much she likes or dislikes them, becoming more difficult and stubborn the less she respects a person. She already finds it difficult to share the company of others, and becomes more irritated in the presence of those she finds distasteful or uncomfortable to be around. She can be rather judgemental about people, though that judgement does little in the way of being an actual deciding factor on whether or not she’ll continue to work with and talk to them.

Ilphaer is a person whos main motivator in life, for better and for worse, is spite. In the past, this was something that consumed her as a person - She knows, looking back on the person she was even just a few decades ago, that she was a deeply bitter and somewhat irritable person. As she’s gotten older and more content with her place in the world, she’s learned to better manage some of the stronger emotions (and, in turn, impulses to act on those emotions) that she feels.

On the other hand, she thinks very lowly of those who betray people they’re close to. The general drow mindset that results in the ever changing alliances of the nobility never sat well with her, and she sees and understands the importance of keeping the people you value safe and taken care of. Ilphaer herself would give her life for those she keeps most close - However, it is hard to get to that level of trust with her. Despite the value she has on that (Or, perhaps because of it) She’s otherwise disinterested in letting most people in, and she believes that people have to earn the place they have in her life and prove themselves worthy of that protection and love. She believes strongly in taking care of the community, though she has a the flaw of having a rather limited idea of that community.

Even at her best, she enjoys finding ways to get under peoples skin. Teasing and gossip is a bonding activity for her, though it is one that can quickly become sincerely meanspirited and cruel in the face of someone she doesn’t hold as high of opinions on. Though, to her credit she can take what she gives in this regard, and has a high tolerance for being teased in return. She's someone who knows she's funny, and can be rather snippy as a result of it.

At her worst, Ilphaer is smug, vindictive, and cynical. She’s stubborn and loud about it, holds rather ridiculous grudges, and actively enjoys getting under people’s skin. She’s someone who acts rashly, thinks herself and her own suffering above the suffering of others, and (At the worst period of her life) was prone to self-destructive spirals in which she was willing to do little to pull herself out of. She can be self-important, short sighted, and impulsive. 

At her best, however, Ilphaer is someone that’s able to see past her own immediate biases, and able to stomach swallowing the worst of her traits in search for a better tomorrow. She is incredibly protective of those that she keeps close to her and those she sees as more immediately weaker and defenseless, and is otherwise rather generous with sharing what she’s managed to obtain in her life. She’s done a lot in recent years to self-actualized - All of the growth she’s had as a person has been a proactive attempt to be better and happier than she was in her youth. And realistically, though she is unaware of it herself, she’s willing to show others far more grace and kindness than even she would generally accredit herself for.

Biography

Self-care:

The kindest way to describe Ilphaer’s self-care habits is that they are okay. 

Her habits used to be far worse in her younger years, and many of the issues that she has now adays are holdovers from the habits she developed in her youth and never quite learned how to break - when she was particularly younger, she was end up lost to her room for days at a time lost in any number of studies or projects that she’d been assigned to. When her hair was longer, it was notoriously a tangled and unkempt mess that she refused to either cut or care for. To this day, her work space is an organized mess, with everything seeming to have a place but those places sometimes being in places like a pile on her desk and days old makeup isn’t an uncommon sight on her.

However, as she’s gotten older there are parts of her life that she’s gotten better at keeping up with. She keeps a rather consistent sleep schedule (Of which she prefers to do rather than trance) and she found a hobby-esc level of enjoyment in cooking that has allowed her to remember to eat more regularly. While there will still be days where she sometimes gets absorbed in whatever larger project she’s working on, she’s now better about the smaller parts of life and personal upkeep. 

Hobbies

For much of her life, the majority of Ilphaer’s time consisted of working herself to death. It wasn’t a thought in her mind to try and take up hobbies, because the position that she was in for the majority of her life was one that didn’t afford it. When she was younger, she had to put that energy towards study and survival. When she joined Vhaeraun’s church, much of her energy was focused on the larger goals of it. Even once she first attempted to retire, she put more energy towards the various ongoings in the settlement she’d joined than she did in finding any one particular thing to spend her time doing.

Largely this left her feeling burnt out and miserable, and she doesn’t look back on those years fondly. It took the death of her god to go out of her way and discover things she could enjoy doing - and in recent years, Ilphaer has taken up quite a few different hobbies. When she joined Eilistraee’s church, she found an enjoyment for cooking and dance, both of which are ones that she keeps rather private. She first found her passion for item enchantment within this church as well, of which was inspired when she began creating flashy toys for the children within the community she’d been staying in. 

In recent years, she’s found a lot of enjoyment in the arts and in fashion, especially in figuring out ways to incorporate within her own personal wardrobe. 

Many of her hobbies involve the very magic she’d once burnt herself out on, and she largely accredits her hobbies for actually coming to enjoy what of the magic she actually uses to this day.

Personal Worship

Ilphaer’s personal worship is an odd by the standards of both of the churches that she’s been apart of.

The quiet, more meditative styles of worship popular within Vhaeraun’s church have never been something that suited her, as staying still for long periods of time irritated her more so than it has ever really made her feel connected to her god. She loses focus when she attempts to pray in the silence and the shadows, and for a while she felt a slight sense of dissonance towards her faith and god as a result of that.

During her time within Eilistraee’s church, she’d originally joined their rituals to step on the toes of the cleric’s who’d originally forbade her from doing so. She was surprised to discover that she actually rather enjoyed the far more freeform, mobile styles that her clergy tends towards - It allowed her to actually put her attention towards the worship itself, rather than her own thoughts. This is something that she’s kept up with even as she has changed her religious affiliation back to the Masked Lord - and likewise, something she’s deeply embarrassed about. She’s gone into embarrassed, though otherwise harmless, screeching fits for others having walked in on that before. (Some rumors say the target of this may have even been the god himself - But that’s mostly all hearsay) but she is under the impression her god holds some amount of amusement over her preferences.

While not a cleric she has a rather public, rather extravagant, and otherwise easily accessible shrine to Vhaeraun within her home to those in the know, and generally will allow even those who she holds major disagreements towards to come and worship. This action isn’t entirely benevolent - it allows her to keep an eye on who's coming in and out of Waterdeep. 

She doesn’t seem to use the public shrine that she’s set up for others for her own personal worship, instead doing most of it under the stars on particularly clear, moonless nights.

Underdark

While her main home is within Waterdeep, she travels between the Underdark and surface frequently and freely. These days, she travels to the Underdark more-so for business than out of any particular love of the place. 

While she does traditional forms of trade and business in the Underdark, going back down there under the guise of business and trade is just an excuse for Ilphaer’s actual point of interest - She wants to recover old and lost magic technology and items that have been long-abandoned in the ruins of long destroyed houses. While she will often go into the underdark herself to find these, she will pay big money for anyone else that has recovered them from these ruined houses - Only once she’s able to verify their authenticity, of course.

 Fortunately, she has a reputation for being an otherwise fair trader, and there have been very few circumstances to which she has not followed through on her word.

Romance and Sex

Ilphaer’s been married before. While her ex-wife is still alive, the circumstances of their separation have left the two of them largely on questionable terms. She doesn’t hate her ex-wife, and her ex-wife certainly doesn’t seem to hate her. But an event in the past has left them unable to stay together in the long term.

Beyond that, she’s polyamorous, but has “No Game”: She doesn’t sleep around not because she’s entirely unwilling to, but because she’s otherwise cynical about people and would never make the assumption that someone is interested in her unless they were very upfront about it. She’s also a “Notoriously difficult bed partner” - She has very specific preferences that she’ll rarely break for another person, and she’s very willing to leave intimate encounters over it. Neither particularly reserved or particular promiscuous, she’s difficult to get and keep the attention of in the long term.

She doesn’t care about her partners gender, though she will rather shamelessly pry into their own personal history. And, while she isn’t particularly jealous by nature, she likes knowing who her partners are sleeping with - if only because it might allow her access to another set of ears down the line.

On Violence and fighting:

Due to the circumstances she grew up within, she’s rather detached and apathetic to the suffering of others. Seeing others in pain doesn’t bring her much discomfort, and she’s not someone who would flinch away from the sight of larger displays of gore and atrocity. Though, at this point in her life she knows that it’s a character flaw of hers and she’s at least aware enough to stop most obvious torments. As far as Ilphaer figures, she’s already desensitized to these things, and the least she can do is best take advantage of it to stop others from needing to do the same.

The only exception to this is children, to which she’s come to feel very strongly about the abuse of. For as much apathy that she feels towards the suffering of others, she also doesn’t take pleasure or enjoyment in it. And as far as she figures, it’s deeply cowardly to go after someone that can’t defend themself in return. 

Despite that, she can be something of a hypocrite in this regard. She is an arms dealer, and while she has a few standards on who she’ll sell to, she largely is uninterested in the specifics of what her weapons will be used for once they’re out of her hands. She specializes in putting larger, more destructive spells in the hands of those that would not easily be able to use them. Her logic is that if it wasn’t her they were getting it from, then they’d just be dragging some other wizard along to do it for them. It only makes sense to profit off of that need.

Children

Ilphaer has complicated feelings on children.

On one hand, to any adult in the room she would say that she hates them, and she’s not lying in that she finds them to be personally rather annoying and overwhelming for long periods of time. She holds no desire to personally have any of her own, and has always seen the drow nobilities push to have children that they will just dump into the larger crab bucket of drow society to be “Somewhat odd.”

On the other hand (as mentioned) in spite of her personal feelings towards children, one of the crimes she feels the strongest negative reaction towards is cruelty and violence towards children. She believes heavily in at least feigning kindness towards them - Something that she acknowledges that she needs to do with business and interests like hers. This is something she feels towards any child, but admittedly is particularly attentive towards those of her kin. In her eyes, they’re already bound to face countless cruelty in the world. She doesn’t need to be another voice within that.

It’s likely that she would insert herself into a situation if she saw a child being hurt. She's particularly diligent about her own sects crimes on the matter, as she knows the bulk of her church hasn't had the best history with this, even at their most well-meaning.

Familiar:

Ilphaer has a black cat familiar - It’s a small, scarred up street cat, with no other immediate magical properties at a glance.  

This cat, known only as “The Cat,” is little talked about. When acknowledged, Ilphaer will gripe that he “Comes and goes as he likes,” and insists at length about how very much not her responsibility “The Cat,’ is.

Truthfully, this one is as much of an act as it is sincere - Ilphaer knows exactly what this cat is to her, and uses him as an extra set of eyes and ears around the city and her home. When no one else is looking, she is fairly affectionate with her cat, and her workshops window is always cracked open to give him access in and out of the building. This makes her workshop no less easy to break into, though that is for any would-be intruders to discover on their own time.

Ilphaer’s sect:

While not a cleric, Ilphaer is the head of the local Vhaeraunite sect within the surface city of Waterdeep. She’s fairly indiscriminate about the race of those she allows to join her sect, though her distrust and suspicion (While not immediately self evident) is as equally indiscriminate. 

You would think that this is something that becomes easier for her to manage upon her gods return, however she’s learned this loyalty towards Vhaeraun and his cause does not inherently mean well-meaning and loyal to the whole of the group. As a result, she tends to keep pretty consistent eyes not only on those joining her sect, but of other Vhaeraunite and Eilistraee worshipers that come in and out of the city of Waterdeep. 

Her sects interests lay less in the more immediate scheming, subterfuge, and militaristic that seem to act as groundwork to their religions survival. Instead, she's interested in establishing a film of legitimacy to their presence within more multi-cultural cities (though, she's admittedly not entirely unopposed to using underhanded means to do so - No more than anyone human in these businesses tend to.)

She does not look down upon other Vhaeraunite groups for using these tactics - She understands that the position that she's in is inherently one of a luxury, as they don't need to be in constant survival mode with where she's set up shop. However, she sees the value in at least attempting to play by whatever rules exist in these larger cities - And hopefully in offering a space to those that can't exist in the more militaristic environment she herself stemmed from.

She hosts more bards and rangers than she does clerics and rogues, though (For evident reasons) she does go out of her way to equip them with the same rogue-ish skills her religion is known for when at all possible. Even amongst Vhaeraunites, her people are known for sticking their nose into things they don’t belong in, and even amongst Vhaeraunite’s her sect is known for being particularly cage-y about who all specifically is apart of it, let alone specific connections they’ve earned over the years. Ilphaer views this as a matter of basic safety for everyone involved, though this also undeniably gives her a bit of an upperhand. 

In spite of this, she is not so distrustful and spiteful that she’s unwilling to work with other Vhaeraunite groups. This, in her eyes, would be rather hypocritical to the tenants of her religion. Rather, that she is rather open about the apprehension that she has towards putting those apart of her sect in any immediate risk through trusting the wrong person - Something she suspects most members of Vhaeraun’s faith could respect and agree with. Likewise, while inherently suspicious to most, her sect has been known to act as host for a fair few of the faith who have been pulled from the Underdark. She is known to have rather low immediate expectations for those coming up from the Underdark, as she believes heavily in the idea of letting them forge their own path and being allowed the time to adjust and explore the surface on their own terms. 

That path isn't- however, without some amount of manipulation on her part.

Ilphaer’s businesses:

Ilphaer is a filthy and shameless capitalist, often monetizing off of the interest that she’s found focus on. She operates on a limited-runs, only creating for each when the fancy strikes her to do so. She has rather high standards for herself and what she creates, and even higher standards for the materials that she uses. Even that of which she makes that doesn’t have particularly complicated magic tends to be highly sought after, let alone the more volatile and extreme forms of magic that she manages to capture down into artifacts.

While she’s willing to create for on commission, she charges more and begrudges the act of doing so. This is something she’s rather upfront about, calling it an “inconvenience fee.” She wouldn’t dare to worsen the quality of her works for it. Otherwise, she’s known for being a mostly equitable trader, whose prices are fair and quality is consistent.

 The only groups she’s willing to give discounts to at large are other Vhaeraun worshipers - particularly those she believes needs the supplies to better defend themselves. 

The Wilted Rose: Deceptively, this is the label she runs her weapons business under. 

It is the business that brings in the most amount of money, particularly within the underdark. While she makes the most individually off of specialty weapons with magical enchantments on them, her most consistent source of income comes from creating and supplying weapons to middle class and noble underdark houses who are looking to quickly arm the bulk of their personal army for whatever inner-house political fight they’ve encountered. 

To that end, there are a few rumors going around about her personal business dealings. The first being that many of her weapons are resold. That is - somehow, she manages to retrieve many of the weapons she sells from the losing end of whatever inner-house war has taken place. This has never been proven, and it largely does not seem to dissuade people from working with her. Secondarily, however, It’s believed by her closest that most of the magic weapons she creates have a fail-safe in them - That is, should they dare to turn her own weapons around on her, she can cause them to implode within the very hands that wield them with the right set of words. 

Whether this is true or not is something she’d not even told her closest friends, however whatever system she has set up seems to keep her god seems content in letting her sell to the enemy. 

The business isn’t strictly one that sells within the Underdark, though the weapons she creates on the surface are more-often on commission rather than any particular bulk sale for armies and mercenary groups. 

The False Phoenix: Her children’s toy business. She designs toys of questionable safety standards. Her most popular toy and the namesake of the business is a fully moving mechanical doll phoenix. When the magic on the toy wears off, it explodes in a loud (but otherwise harmless) display of sparks and colors. Her second most popular toy is that of a miniature Skyship, similar to those found around the ports of Waterdeep. It’s enchanted in much the same way the ships themselves are, though on a far smaller scale. These ships tend to fly about aimlessly in whatever room they’re in (though when equip with the proper toy soldiers may engage in battle with one another.)

It’s one of the only businesses she allows herself to bring in extra help on in creation of her product itself (Within the realms of her arms business she’s largely doing resale work, and largely only invested in it in as much as it takes in making sure she herself is not being screwed over), though her standards for that extra help are as high as they are for herself.

Bitter Button: Ilphaer’s cosmetic business. “Bringing magic to the common folk.” Almost all of the enchantments that she places on her clothing and jewelry through this business is strictly aesthetic, though it’s not outside of her capability to create more utilitarian clothing (Such as invisibility cloaks, ect.)

Her most popular items are that of minor illusions that act as cosmetics - Music notes,  harmless glitter effects, smoke and flame sparks, and flower petals that follow the person wearing it (Though, not all are visual - Small gusts of wind that occasionally catch the person's hair is also a rather popular effect) 

Of her clothing, she’s experimenting with fabric that has “dancing” imagery along the bottom - One of a unicorn running across the hemline of a dress is seeing growing popularity.

Drunken Kitten: While not selling a product in its own right, it is the business she does all of her dealings in whatever entertainment industry she’s worming her fingers into.

Personality

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From this point on is a Work in Progress. Code may be broken and writing may be incomplete.

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Personality

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Personality

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Personality

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Personality

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Personality

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From this point on is a Work in Progress. Code may be broken and writing may be incomplete.

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