| Aliases |
Ice Demon |
| Species | |
| Age |
Late 50s |
| Gender |
Female |
| Status |
Deceased
|
| Affiliation |
|
| Residence | |
| First Appearance |
Illphres is a Human [Cryomancer of Masks] at Wistram Academy, and Ceria Springwalker's former master.
Appearance[edit | edit source]
Illphres is a tall, older woman with slightly graying dark hair and an apparently smooth and flawless face, but she actually wears a mask of ice made by her magic to hide her flesh[1], which has been damaged by frostbite due to ice magic. Her face and mask is typically expressionless. To change her expression, she covers her face with a hand, manipulates the mask her face, and lowers her hand to reveal a smile, frown, grin, etc. However, she can do this without covering her face, she had just grown accustomed to doing it this way.[1]
Personality[edit | edit source]
...Illphres was the dreamer. She was the one who was obsessed with the challenge, with the impossible. She kept trying until everything else fell away.
Revine Zecrew reminiscing about her old friend.[2]
Illphres is a temperamental person, giving off an aura of cold, both in mannerism and temperature. She could be blunt in her manner of speaking, reveling in the consternation of others, and didn't hesitate to use magic to back her words. Additionally, she could be unsympathetic to other people's worries. She is a dreamer, one who yearned to defeat Cognita, open up the higher floors of Wistram, and become a true mage like [Archmages] of old. Illphres has no affection for friends or lovers[2]
Background[edit | edit source]
When Illphres was young, she once yelled in a fit of fury that she was going to pass Zelkyr's final test and become the Archmage of Ice. Years later, she would throw [Ice Spears] at whomever would bring up that memory.
While a student at Wistram, she was friends with Revine Zecrew. As a [Cryomancer] and [Hydromancer] combination, the two were complementary and worked well together until Revine left the academy. After graduating she rarely left the bubble of the academy; magic, above all else, was her goal. She spent decades training and studying within the halls of Wistram for the day she would take on Zelkyr's test.[3]
Chronology[edit | edit source]
Wistram Days[edit | edit source]
Years ago, when Pisces and Ceria first attended Wistram, Illphres was assigned to be the teacher of their destruction magic class[4], where they are supposed to be taught combat spells. However, she didn't want to be a teacher and had been largely absent from her own classroom. She was later forced into action by the Council. As a result of that, she sabotaged the class by imposing an impossible task upon the students[5], which they had to overcome to be allowed being taught by her. Their task was to melt the [Ice Wall] she created, which was impervious to any spell below Tier 4.[6] Ceria, angry at Illphres' refusal to teach them, shouted at her, which prompted Illphres to summon a second [Ice Wall], sealing the students in the corridor. The students were locked within until Cognita destroyed the [Ice Wall] by punching it.
Illphres, along with the other mages who practiced spellcasting at the boulders of Wistram's beaches, watched Ceria practice her combat magic one day. She criticized Ceria's aim, and continued to refuse to teach Ceria; she challenged Ceria to melt her ice.
After her exam, Ceria melted Illphres' [Ice Wall] with salt in a last bid to receive teaching or aid in staying at Wistram. She remained impassive and merely turned, walked away, and left Ceria to her despair. Despite this, Ceria would wake up to the news that she had passed her exams; her name had been tacked onto the list of passing students as if it were a last minute addition, thanks to Illphres.[6] Illphres kept to her word and taught others who managed to melt her ice, even with salt. Though, she would eliminate those who learned of Ceria's method by forcing them to melt the ice by themselves while she watched.[1]
During Ceria's second-year at Wistram, Illphres was assailed every day by Ceria's requests to become her student. One day, she was annoyed with her constant shadow, and so ended up paying for the secret that Ceria was afraid of heights. Knowing that, she led Ceria up to a high walkway where Ceria slipped on a patch of summoned ice and fell into the sea.[1]
Despite her annoyance and steady refusal, she became out-of-sorts when Ceria left her alone on the day she and Pisces left on a hunting expedition at sea. When she heard that the expedition had been ambushed, she froze patches of the ocean over to rush and skate to their aid. Her arrival was announced by the giant blades of ice that were capable of slicing a pirate ship in two. Illphres' true face was revealed to Ceria when the [Storm Captain] cracked her mask of ice. Her lower face, her jaw, her nose was blackened by frostbite; though her lips and she could still speak.
Later, Illphres agreed to become her master and teach her in the ways of ice magic, despite her promise to never take on an apprentice.[2] Illphres' decision to take Ceria on may have been more than simply melting her [Ice Wall], but also due to the oncoming challenge against Cognita or simply that Illphres saw a bit of herself in Ceria. Despite the widespread hatred of [Necromancers], Illphres still regarded Pisces as a mage; and Necromancy his magic. She acknowledged that Pisces sought to be the same as she: a true mage.
Illphres introduced her apprentice to the other mages who would challenge Cognita to reach the upper floors of Wistram. She had Ceria retrieve two enchanted items for the purpose of protecting the others against her ice magic. She then brought Ceria to the challenge room, at the highest available floor, to show Ceria the Golems that they would be facing.
As Illphres' allies began preparing to face the Golems, mere minutes away, Illphres told Ceria that she had studied and stayed in Wistram for years. That perhaps she wouldn't have been afraid if she had left to adventure for a few years. This is part of the reason Ceria went back to adventuring.
Despite her rivalry with Amerys, Illphres asked her to make sure Ceria would not kill herself should Illphres die. Amerys haphazardly and casually fulfilled Illphres' request.
Illphres and the others died to Cognita and the four other Golem guardians. Their bodies, not all entirely in one piece, were stored in Bags of Holding by a group of Golems for disassembly. Before the Golems could begin processing their remains, Pisces reanimated the challengers' corpses. They rose as Liches, more powerful than normal due to their proximity to death and their power in life. The Liches were nearly as powerful as Revenants, as close as Pisces could have made them. He commanded the Liches to aid him when he fought his way into the catacombs, pilfered Archmage Nekhret's tomb, and set Nekhret's curse of shaded apparitions upon the academy. [5]
When Ceria left Wistram, Amerys broke into Illphres' room and handed off Illphres' spellbook to be delivered to Ceria. However, Charles de Trevalier intercepted the delivery to drop the spellbook into the sea.
Powers and Abilities[edit | edit source]
She is a specialist in ice magic, especially noteworthy in combat and spell-marksmanship.
Classes/Levels:[edit | edit source]
- [Cryomancer of Masks] Lv. ? (below 60)[3]
Skills:[edit | edit source]
Spells:[edit | edit source]
Tier 3:[edit | edit source]
- [Ice Spike]
Tier 4:[edit | edit source]
- [Ice Lance] - She can cast it in seconds, without even using a wand.
- [Ice Wall]
Unknown Tier:[edit | edit source]
- [Fortress of the Ice Queen]
- [Glacial Spear]
- [Ice Spear]
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- She is one of the best [Cryomancers] in the academy.
- She dislikes teaching, and makes Ceria do it.
- She and Amerys fight frequently.[7][5]
- During the Ceria's Wistram days, Amerys is six to eight levels higher than Illphres, or so she estimated.[8]
- Her spellbook had been tossed into the bottom of the ocean by Charles de Trevalier.[5] It is currently in the possession of Gazi.[9]
- Her name is a pun on the phrase, “I'll freeze“
- Illphres had once tried to apprentice herself to Valeterisa.[2]
Quotes[edit | edit source]
- (To her students) “I’m allowed to test you. So I am. I don’t feel like teaching children who can barely cast [Light], so this is my condition. Pass it or fail; it matters little to me.”
- (To a Dullahan student) “A Tier 3 spell. Not even a good one at that; if you want to clear snow, use that spell. For this, you’d better have something better.”
- (To Ceria) “Real [Mages] don’t need help. They forge their own paths. If you want someone to hold your hand, find another teacher.”
- (To Rievan) “Shut up, Rievan. No one’s interested in a lordling with money. He can buy his way in if he wants, but he’s as talented as my left toe. Less.”
- (To Ceria) “Of course not. You’re an idiot whereas I know what spells are best. Your [Ice Spike] spell is flawed—see there? Correct it.”
- (To Ceria about Amerys) “Us? Friends? What gave you that idea? I can’t stand her.”
- (To Ceria) “I’ll take as long as I please. And when it’s over I’ll make you practice twice as hard learning all the spells you need to be halfway competent.”
- (To Ceria) “There are wonders and horrors in this world, Ceria, remnants from the ages when gods still lived, memories of empires long gone. This is one of them. And today we will challenge the power of one of the true [Archmages] of Wistram.“
- (To her fellow Wistram students) “I won’t stay down here. I will be the one to pass Zelkyr’s last test! I will become the Archmage of Ice!“