I will stop world-building at some point, I swear.
Name: Elizabeth 'Liz' Black, also known as Fortunata Faust, and the Queen of the Damned.
Age: Undefinable
Gender: Female
Race: Demon
Appearance: At her height...Profession: Publican, retired world-conqueror.
Personality: Grumpy and irritable, Liz is your typical surly innkeeper during the evening and night, and a youthful-looking crotchety old man when she's out and about by day. Her snappishness makes a few brave souls suggest she should sleep--only to be told, in less polite terms, that it's none of their business and she doesn't need to. She thus performs the typical function of giving adventurers someone to talk to for a bed at any time of night, whilst other employees fill this void in daylight hours.
Equipment/Weapons: None (Can make almost
anything, though)
Abilities: Superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, durability, and regeneration--she didn't get her title by sheer chance. On top of her already-prodigious natural abilities, Liz is a master of Augmentation Magic, Fabrication Magic, and Domination Magic, with vast reserves of power to fuel them. On top of this, Liz has the ability to summon essentially
any demon on a whim. She is, however, required to answer any summons that call for her by name... which might explain why all relevant historical document have certain lines carefully blacked out.
Brief Backstory: Nearly a millennium and a half ago, Almara was almost completely subjugated by a single empire, which spread eagerly onto all neighbouring landmasses. It was vast, powerful--and spreading at a seemingly unstoppable rate. Half of this could be put down to superior training and magic. The rest? Well, one Emperor had hit upon the idea of finding the strongest summon possible, and using it to augment their armies... and their court mages had found Liz, a demon who commanded the respect of that entire world through force of arms.
The result was an empire augmented by seemingly limitless summons, whose armies were bolstered every time they depleted, until one resident of the 'real' world commanded an entire force of summons. Without some sort of internal conflict, it would have become an unstoppable plague across the world--but the emperors made mistake after mistake, and Liz herself was granted total autonomy. The result was an empire that soon became the puppet of the strongest of all demons... who wasted no time in reshaping law and custom to her whim.
It was inevitable that many would take objection to the sudden changes. Common rebellion was suppressed through yet more summons dragged forth into the world, but a few managed to avoid capture or death, and formed a potent resistance. Finally, Liz was surrounded on all sides and forced to fight on her own.
Naturally, she lost. It wasn't without a price--the formally-insurmountable empire lost most of its forces, and a full half was swiftly overrun by invaders, whilst the remainder was severely weakened and has enjoyed a fluctuating descent into near-impotence, though in recent years it has enjoyed a resurgence to something of its former imperial glory.
As for the defeated foe? She wasn't killed; the group that defeated her still couldn't work out that. Instead, she was sealed away, hopefully for eternity... though, instead, she broke out about eighty years before the present. After her previous disaster, Liz had no desire to try and subjugate the world again--instead, she joined the Warriors' Guild for a time to earn money, and edit all documents with her summoning instructions.
About ten years ago, her pooled funds were used to purchase a plot of land by Karstberg's main square, which was cleared of prior construction. Now it boasts a three-story building whose very timbers are lined with gold. The top floor is for permanent residents, and the second for temporary stays, whilst the bottom is a tavern where the beer is cheap and choice is plentiful, though fights often break out. It's a good place to stay.
Race Name: Demon
Race Description: 'Demon' is not so much a race as a classification of summonable entities. It is, essentially, a designation for those summons that are both sapient and humanoid, and normally with a malevolent streak--as much because they're being dragged from their home realm to serve the whims of some annoying wizard as it is due to innate evil.
The traits they normally possess, and make them desirable summons, are the possession of opposable thumbs combined with unnatural physical capabilities, and a talent for magic that the smarter examples can put to use. They also seem to have some link to other summons that they've overwhelmed in the past, as a function of their magical ability.
Magic Name: Fabrication Magic
Magic Description: The ability to create weapons and armour from nothing more than magic and a mental template. Whilst somewhat helpful in the field, it takes a true master to replicate magical weaponry. The flaw, here, is that it takes more magic to create it than the weapon itself uses; it's far beyond most practitioners to replicate the more potent items they've come across.
Magic Name: Domination Magic
Magic Description: The ability to bend another mind to your whim. On animals, it is considered legal but disturbing at best. This even extends to dragons--though such a feat is enormously hard to pull off. Whilst it could theoretically be used on a sapient entity, this is ranked alongside murder as a criminal violation--though anyone with the skill to pull this off would take a
vast mobilisation of resources to subdue.
