The magus Heserethia was a researcher and collector, one of the diaspora of arcane prodigies who frequently pass through Dis in search of pathways to planes of secrets and power. She took an interest in the plane of Absilia, with its historic conjunction of warring divine powers, but the Importers Guild of Dis barred her from traveling there lest she carry back some destructive angelic or titanic pest. She sought the aid of freebooters to sneak her through the embargo, and they did so, but a botched casting of the necessary planar travel spell landed her hundreds of years in the past instead of amid the flux of power she intended to study and harness. Once she understood what had happened, she turned her attention to spells of longevity (forward time-travel having stumped her), and has extended herself lich-like until such time as she can strike back at those who humiliated her. Instinct: to take revenge for her centuries of exile

• Turn enemies' spells against them
• Disorient them with invisibility and mirror-images
• Cast a spell from the Wizard list

The terror of the skies! These enormous cephalopods are whispered of in fear by sky pirates and air sailors everywhere. A dark shape amid the clouds: could that be a tentacle? Driven to consume sources of elemental energy to fuel the unnatural biology that keeps them aloft, these superpredators of the Blue hunt dragons, elementals, and flame- and air-spirit-powered airships alike. When one catches up to its prey, it ensnares it in tentacles and cracks it open to feast with its vicious beak. Instinct: To feed on the elemental spirits of engines and forges

• Drag an airship down from the heavens

Raised in the wilds of the Towering Mountains, Khark grew up learning the secrets of beasts and spirits, and grew distrustful and hateful of anything constructed by the "civilized" races of the world. In a strange alliance, his destructive aims ended up aligning with the goals of the Empress-Hierarch Dahlia, and he now stands with her against the titans. Khark is in his natural form an Elf, garbed in hide, with eyes like a great bird-of-prey. But more frequently he takes to the skies as a bird or wriggles into dark places as a serpent. Dahlia frequently sends him on scouting and infiltration errands, and when not so engaged, he watches over Tenebria and guards her. Instinct: To tear down symbols of civilization

• Transform into a beast of the wild
• Call on primal spirits of fire, water, earth, or air

Dahlia was once an adventurer, venturing into the Valley of the Titans and delving into the catacombs beneath Tenebria. Horribly injured in a clash with a chained lesser titan, she found herself before the Black Gates, and Death offered her a bargain: liberate the true believers of Death from the weak and heretical practices of the Reformed Church, and live. She accepted the offer, and now she has usurped the Church leadership of Tenebria and turned the city into an unliving citadel, preparing it for war against the titans, ancient enemies of the gods. Clothed in robes of white and black, and surrounded by her cultists, the unquiet dead, and her bodyguard Khark, she rains contagion and curses upon whoever will not offer up worship and sacrifice to the God of Death and its hallowed bones. Instinct: To spread the "old ways" of sacrifice and reanimation

• Draw strength from her own pain
• Invoke a spell from the Cleric list
• Call underpriests and cultists to her aid