Lorelei Kousan

Background

Lorelei is the daughter of the famous adventurer-turned-entertainer, Lirit Kousan. Born in the capital of Andoran, Almas, she was a skilled bard of renown who followed in her noble ideas of preserving peace and fighting for the greater good of all. Lirit made her name known to taverns across Andoran and its neighboring regions, though words of high-regard for her performances may have spread further still. The bard’s influence on the lives of others soon drew others to follow alongside her, forming a small but close-knit party of adventurers sworn to leave the world a better place than they had left it. She was best known for her songs about the myriads of adventures she and her band of allies have journeyed along, telling the tales of the lives they had saved and the monsters they had slain. Lorelei was born between the mutual relationship between Lirit and her party's sorcerer, Kaleo--or so it was believed. But despite any sort of ambiguity that might have been present, so close were these stalwart allies that the newborn child was immediately welcomed into the group with open arms as a fellow adventurer-in-the-making.

After the child's birth the direction of the adventurer's lives began to slowly change over time, steering them away from excessively dangerous quests now that the idea of a happily contented and stable future journeyed along-side them in the form of a beautiful baby girl. For a few years, the party focused more on caring for one another than gallivanting across the world looking for danger. It was during this time that Lirit wielded a lute much more often than a sword, eventually sparring her rise to popularity within large-name taverns. However, this period of respite among the band of adventurers soon came to an end as the party resided within Lastwall’s capital of Vigil. A call to arms to protect the realm from the encroaching forces of the Abyss found itself to the military dictatorship, rekindling the fire for action within Lirit’s band of adventurers. The fourth crusade against the darkness in the northern reaches of Golarion had begun, and the forces of virtue were desperate to repel the demons’ counter-attack. Lirit and company simply couldn’t refuse the outcry for able-bodied warriors, and thus made their way to the World Wound’s borders.

In the meantime, the young Lorelei was left in the care of a family-operated inn established within Vigil. In good standing with her famous mother, the family took good care of the newly-adolescent child in her parents' absence, frequently taking her on tours throughout the city in order to calm her mind about her friends and parents that had marched to war. As the years passed and Lorelei grew into an adolescent, she begun to struggle under her mother’s limelight. Though she shared her blood and surname, Lorelei was unable to hold a candle toward her mother in terms of neither her talent nor her legacy. For a time, this deeply troubled the young girl, leaving her in a strange place in which her own persona was renowned but was without substance. Though she was inherently gifted with the innate arcane powers that bards are wont to possess, she was shy and crippled by stage-fright. As a result, she instead honed her talents in a different form. With an interest in the arts of thaumaturgy, Lorelei leveraged a bit of her status as the daughter of the famous Lirit Kousan to receive a private tutorship from Vigil’s Crusader War College. As expected of such a school, however, swordplay was also a primary aspect of Lorelei’s lessons. Some few years later, eventually the once-distraught young woman learned to entwine the teachings of both steel and sorcery, paving the way for her future as a magus. Though never officially enlisted as a crusader, she held hopes that such training might one day make herself worthy of the fame the Kousan name carried with it.

By the time the soldiers returned from the exhausted crusade, Lorelei was eighteen years of age. Kaleo--Lorelei’s father--and the rest of the battered and bitter adventuring party arrived with the main body of the returned crusaders, but Lirit was not among them. Scarred, broken, and defeated, the middle-aged band of would-be heroes had found only darkness in misery in their last attempt at fighting for a brighter tomorrow. Now, those that survived among them were riddled with injuries—both physical and mental—that made such a living entirely too difficult to continue, and they unanimously agreed to return to Vigil before officially disbanding.

Lirit's fate, however, remained unaccounted for. With morale sinking low in the face of insurmountable odds, the famous bard refused to leave her self-provided duties behind. Though the crusade had ended, the war within the minds of its soldiers did not, and no self-respecting bard would have turned her back in the face of such circumstances. Though the thought of being unable to see her daughter again after all this time did give her pause, she sent her love for Lorelei along with Kaleo in the form of her personal armor, her beloved sword, and her blessings.

Though the group of former-crusaders as a whole remained closed to one another, their arrival back at Vigil decidedly marked the dissolution of their party, freeing one another from struggling with competing obligations and responsibilities. Over time, one by one, the individuals of the original group began to go their separate ways. Finally, some years later when all that remained of the initial party were Kaleo and Lorelei, there was talk between about returning to Almas and settling down as a proper family. But Lorelei was discontent with such a plan without her mother. While her 'unofficial' training with the War College had provided Lorelei with the groundwork of a respectable swordsman, she felt far from able to consider her training complete. As feelings of helplessly began to reemerge within her psyche, she refusing to return to Andoran and instead decided to journey to Korvosa with the intent to enroll within its prestigious Acadamae and complete her studies.

At first, Lorelei's decision to leave for Korvosa was blessed by good fortune despite her father's initial reluctance. Kaleo explained that one of the former members of he and Lirit's disbanded adventuring party, Luta Thamyris--a woman whom Lirit herself considered a sister--had actually moved to Korvosa to be wed to her well-to-do fiance Clemens Brentanno some time ago. Though the news that recently followed within the last few years spoke of some sort of legal affair that ended with the marriage called off, Clemens in jail, and Luta with ownership of most of their property and custody over their daughter, Cadence. After exchanging letters, "Aunt" Luta was more than willing to welcome Lorelei to stay with them until she was able to enroll into the Acadamae--a chance that the aspiring magus simply couldn't pass up.

Unfortunately, Lorelei’s arrival in Korvosa did not go as well as she had hoped. Tragedy struck shortly before Lorelei even arrived as it seemed Cadence had gone missing. While the free-spirited child was notorious for running off to play on her own, she was nowhere to be found for several days before Lorelei arrived. To make matters worse, the city's guard was unable or unwilling to help in the matter despite Aunt Luta's fervent pleas. Left with no choice but to take matters into her own hands, Lorelei relentlessly searched through Korvosa's unfamiliar streets alongside her Aunt Luta, persisting without rest even after her long journey to the city. 

Finally, after days of fruitless searching, Lorelei caught what might've been a glimpse of young Cadence amidst a small crowd of other children and some rather older, suspicious figures. However, the group dispersed into Korvosa's crowded streets before she had the opportunity to confront them. Upon relaying the details of this event to Aunt Luta, she nervously recalled the stories of "Lamm's Lambs," poor children who've been manipulated by a criminal known as Gaedren Lamm. Now with a notable lead to follow, Lorelei's stubborn determination has found itself renewed and her efforts redoubled as she sets out in search for a means to free Cadence and the other missing children, and perhaps put Gaedren to justice as well.