- Graham Wintertide (husband)
- Ainsley Wintertide (daughter)
- Edmund Sunscatter (older brother)
| Fia Wintertide | |
|---|---|
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| Physical Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5’6” |
| Hair color | Brown (with blue highlights around dense mana sources) |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Relationships | |
| Family members |
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| Students | Neisha Fengari |
Fia Wintertide is a magician and a professor who studies humans. She usually alternates between conducting fieldwork on Earth and teaching courses in New Salem. She met her husband Graham while doing her research.
Fia’s expertise in anthropology was requested to study a local community mysteriously suffering from migraines and nightmares. Through her interviews of the residents, she learned that all of them mentioned seeing a doll or a relic in their dreams.
One day, she was asked to visit an abandoned workshop near a ley line where she meets Graham, a soldier from the New Salem military currently on humanitarian missions. Inside, they discovered an ancient, human-sized doll. Fia accidentally triggered a fallback mechanism that caused the soul of the sorceress who originally owned the workshop, Emeraude Gladebloom, currently trapped between the doll and the ley line stream itself, to be transferred into Fia herself, transforming her body.
Now merged with Fia, Emeraude revealed her obsession with immortal youth and beauty. She built her workshop near a ley line, siphoned its energy to her lab, and implanted her soul into the doll. However, this resulted in her soul drifting between the doll and the ley line stream itself, which interfered with scrying mirrors and gave the local magician community migraines and nightmares.
Seeing how her doll was not maintained, she realized the folly of her goal, and agreed to undo the binding from the ley line and pass away, but not before Fia documented her life story, leaving her body transformed.
Graham told Fia that his work is relocating him to Earth, which led to them discussing the effects of frequent travel on their daughter, Ainsley. They agreed that having a stable place to live was important, but on the other hand, being able to travel is a chance that not many people can have. Although Graham knew he had to move frequently, Fia proposed moving with him to better support their child. After she arranged her sabbatical leave, they both decided to move to Earth together.
After they relocated and settled down, Fia continued her academic research on human culture. As a magician, she knew little about how non-magicians taught students, so she paid close attention to what course material was taught at Ainsley’s school, what homework was assigned, what classmates she had, and so on.
Graham was eventually restationed in New Salem, and the whole family moved with him back to their home town. At her university, Fia shared her research with her colleagues, and at home she checked with Ainsley to see how she was coping with the addition of magic to her curriculum. She noticed that Ainsley was getting depressed because she felt like she didn’t fit in with her classmates, so Fia and Graham reassured her that they would always love her, and that it may take time to connect with the right people.
A couple of years later Fia and Ainsley again accompanied Graham to Oak Shade, and was glad to see that Ainsley was making friends at school. However, she noticed Ainsley gradually becoming more and more depressed. Despite Fia’s best efforts to console her, Ainsley became so depressed that she refused to leave her room. Fia and Graham expressed their love for Ainsley, and patiently listened to her troubles. Then one day, Ainsley’s classmate, Mary Demore, visited with snacks, concerned about her being absent from school. With her help, Ainsley left her room on her own and slowly regained her self-esteem.
Ainsley graduated from 7th grade, and the family moved back to New Salem. When she learned that Ainsley was in the top of her class she became very proud.
Fia loves talking to people. Even though magicians believe that non-magicians are dangerous, she wonders if they can still get along with each other. Her curiosity has led her to a career in anthropology with a focus on non-magicians. As one of the few people who aren’t afraid to travel to Earth, she uses her talents to learn more in order to bring about the era of peace she desires. With the knowledge she gained, she teaches magicians about non-magician society.
Her colleagues admire her dedication to her work, as well as her inquisitiveness. Her daughter Ainsley learned from her how to apply unconventional methods to solve problems.