Alice

Once there was a dragon named Absinthe. Her goal was simple: avoid Exaltation at all costs. The burden society and her clan mates thrust upon her seemed crushing and inescapable. Until, one fateful day, a strange pantheon gave her the opportunity she so desired

The Goddess of Dragon Bloodsport had simple rules: Kill, survive, win. If Absinthe won, she’d grant the dragon her one wish.

She failed.

But the Bloodsport Goddess and her followers found Absinthe’s efforts laudable, so they gave her another chance. And another, and another…

Though Absinthe put everything she had into the games, she could never succeed. Finally, her day arrived and she left her clan to serve the Arcanist. In the Observatory, she was unhappy. She’d snap at the other mages and refuse to pay homage to the Arcanist or any of Sornieth’s Gods. Instead, she’d mutter about the Goddess who—she felt—had betrayed her. She spent hours researching Arcane Magic far older than any her peers practiced.

Finally, one day, she simply vanished. Days passed before anyone thought to look for her. Weeks more passed before anyone found her. Tucked away in some long-forgotten library, laying in the middle of esoteric runes. In her notes, the mages found countless entries about the Bloodsport Goddess and her followers, her minions, her Arena. Absinthe didn’t mince words in her writings: she’d wanted another chance at the games, she’d wanted to win, she’d wanted revenge.

Even in death, she still wanted it.

No one knows how she came to be. Possession? Reincarnation? If you were to ask her personally, she’d scoff and say it didn’t matter. She wanted to live again, she wanted her revenge, and her will was strong enough to grant her one more chance.

Reborn, Absinthe shed her old identity and became Alice. Her name, however, wasn’t the only thing about her that’d changed. Her colors lightened. She’d acquired magic no dragon had seen before. Creatures known simply as “Things” answered to her beck and call.

In her death and rebirth, she achieved the power she needed to reach her goals. Through trickery and manipulation from the Arena’s Inner Workings, she managed to overthrow the Bloodsport Goddess, and take the Arena for her own. Her victory, however, was short-lived. The Bloodsport Goddess’s followers worked together to overthrow her.

Once again, she was reduced to a tribute to the games. Again and again, the Goddess cast her into the Arena. Until one day, unthinkably, she won. Not through any trickery or magic, but through the same simple effort that had failed her so many times in the past.

But it was an empty triumph. She’d evaded Exaltation, she’d conquered death, she’d won and lost the place of a deity…but for what?

Her anger quelled, Alice embarked on a quest to find a new purpose in life. Currently, she works as the owner and manager of Alice’s Restaurant, in the Arena.