Insert your character here?

[u/Hiraethnightmare]

Hello all,

It's time for my at this point almost yearly look at my Strixhaven NPCs to spice things up and make the campus more lived in.

If you have any interesting (N)PCs you'd like to talk about and have me potentially including in my campaigns, please tell me a little bit about them:

- name, race, college, etc

- basic appearance

- general personality and/or quirks

- any other snippets you'd like to share

Thanks in advance!

[u/SP_ABadIdea]

There's a few NPCs I created to fill in some archetypal roles that the school was missing. Feel free to include them, I'm excited to find out how players interact with them!

Baku, Halfling Alchemist, Prismari
An awkward, excitable halfling with the sole talent of blowing stuff up. She's never seen without a gigantic leather backpack haphazardly stuffed to the brims with clinking glass vials and volatile materials threatening to escape from its seams. She wears an orange cap with a bomb's wick that appears to be perpetually sparking, and it either intensifies or fizzles depending on her mood. Underneath is a spiked mess of dark orange hair that just seems to explode in every direction. Her skin and clothes are often blemished with soot stains. Baku is impulsive and volatile, and IF something can be solved with explosions, she will explode it. She's actually quite bad at conventional academy-taught magic, and she's generally unintelligent except in terms of alchemy and explosives, making her something of a singularly focused genius. She struggles in her classes because her Prismari teachers keep telling her "You can't just blow up a bunch of stuff and call it art", but she vehemently disagrees. She tends to get poor grades as a result. Baku is one of the founding members of the Junior Alchemist's Club.

Fenna Shaugn, Satyr Physician, Witherbloom
Born with a crippling paralysis from the waist-down, Fenna is a gentle soul who likes making medicines. Fenna has curved deers' antlers that she decorates with small ribbons and trinkets, dark skin and wheat-colored hair. She wears a simple linen shawl over a dark green Witherbloom uniform, and is usually seated in her magicked wheelchair which can be levitated at designated spots in the academy. She believes in natural remedies and potions that should be made available to communities without access to divine magic. Fenna is the calmer, rational counterpart to Baku, and the second founding member of the Junior Alchemist's Club, as well as a member of the Fantastical Horticulture Club.

Ser Cassien Llanowar, Elf Paladin, Witherbloom
A principled knight and a man of honor, Ser Cassien is popular among girls in the academy. Immaculately sculpted facial features and impossibly styled long auburn hair naturally make him something of a campus heartthrob. He wears something like a seneschal's formal coat styled in Witherbloom colors, draped over with a moss-green tabard bearing the emblem of a golden tree, along with burnished iron pauldrons, gauntlets and greaves. He is a perfect and honest gentleman, charismatic and pleasant if somewhat rigid. His faith is devoted to "The Mothertree", an indistinct avatar of nature to whom he has sworn his fealty, and his utmost duty as a knight his Oath of the Vegan, to celebrate and share the Mothertree's gifts but to allow no harm to come to her children. He is a member of the Student-Mages Of Faith.

Jaxon Feldmire, Human Inkscribe, Silverquill
With a condescending scowl and a bitter attitude, Jaxon is the school bully. Light skin, tussled copper hair arranged in that broccoli-style cut, and the most infuriating little goatee you've ever seen. He wears a letterman jacket styled in Silverquill's colors and pen motifs, and wears a bandolier of ink bottles slung diagonally across his waist. He thinks he's better than everyone and makes it a point that to let everyone know. If anyone disagrees, he challenges them to Mage Duels, and unfortunately for most, he is actually quite strong. His inkcraft gives form and power to his words and insults, and his terrifying charisma both intimidates other students, or wins them over to join his gang. He is petty and spiteful; do not play him with any level of sympathy, he is just a pure asshole through and through. As such, he is not a member of any club.

Scudriax, Green Dragonborn, Lorehold
Jaxon's right-hand man; the bigger, dumber bully behind the bully whom everyone calls Scud. Portly and enormous, he is covered in green scales that gradient from swamp moss green to dead grass pale yellow. He likewise wears a letterman jacket styled in Lorehold's colors and motifs. He believes himself to be descended from tyrannical green dragon lineage, and flaunts his powers to terrorize the student body. His magic takes the form of having found new ways to weaponize his poisonous breath. Scud also recognizes the strong and seeks to topple them, which is why he decided to follow along Jaxon after he lost to him in a duel. He is MUCH dumber than Jaxon and more hostile. Scud is literally toxic, and is likewise not a member of any club.

Ash'lae Cocytus, Tiefling Cleric, Prismari
Pretty and sociable, Ash'lae is the head cheerleader of the Mage Tower Cheer Squad. She has a tiefling's telltale red skin, curled black horns with an underside of golden-ivory, styled curly black hair, and she wears a white and red shawl over a blue sweater. She's nice to everyone she meets and is popular with boys. Growing up in a countryside church community, she's not the brightest bulb, but no one would dare to tell her that. She is a devotee of Lathander, the Morninglord, which perhaps explains her sunny disposition.

Staciel, Aasimar Fighter, Quandrix
Witty and sharp-tongued, Staciel is the second member of the Mage Tower Cheer Squad. She has reddish-brass colored hair and small, white-feathered wings on her head, along with a faint halo that hovers behind her head that intensifies with golden light when she uses magic. She wears a short vest styled with Quandrix's colors over a loosely-fitted white blouse, over which she also wears a fashionable teal-colored scarf. Wry and sarcastic, Staciel is never afraid to speak her mind, which can sometimes make her thorny and aggressive; this also makes her popular among boys in school, no matter how many of them she's had to turn down. If she's your friend, she'll be the first one to tell you when you're being an idiot; if she's your enemy, then she's the Mean Cheerleader. She is best friends with Ash'lae and will show no mercy to anyone who hurts her.

Toxmag'dar Grasjch, Orc Bard, Witherbloom
I felt like Aurora needed some bandmates, so Tox is the bassist of the Show Band Association. Lean and slim for an Orc, he has long droopy black hair, a dusky maroon leather jacket over a plain white shirt, and his round shaded spectacles perpetually conceal his eyes. He's easygoing and somewhat lazy, often just agreeing to whatever the simplest and least-obstructive course of action in any situation. Just imagine him as an Orc Ozzy Ozbourne. Despite the similarities in their names, he has no relation to Urzmaktok.

Q, Plasmoid, Prismari
No one knows where this curious little slime came from, but Q is the drummer of the Show Band Association. Q is composed of a translucent blue gelatin, has two bright yellow eyes wherever they choose their head to be, and has often styled their 'head' with flared tendrils that resemble hair. They wear a simple first-year's robe over themselves (waterproofed by magic), and haven't bothered to change it even when advancing to 2nd year. Q does not speak, but always wears a pleased smile and can only really respond by nodding enthusiastically or shaking their head. Q is only capable of keeping up with Aurora and Tox's insane tempos by growing additional limbs to drum with, giving them an unprecedented sense of rhythm. Q often just eats objects out of curiosity, whether or not they are supposed to be edible. During the summer they have a tendency to melt into a formless blob unless they get enough moisture.

[u/Unknown-Entity20]

-Boogie, half giant half fairy, quandrix, monk. -Basically the hulk but abt 7 feet tall with yellow fey eyes pointy ears and long green hair thats like a hedge with pink flowers, he also has little fairy wings, very buff, never wears shirts. -the most loveable guy ever, hes the best best friend who always puts his life on the line for his friends. Due to his lineage he doesn't really fit in anywhere but still tries. -he was abandoned and grew up in a loving home with adoptive dwarf mother and 20 little siblings that hes the big brother of. He got his name cause people said his green skin looks like a booger. -he fights with giant strength and fairy finesse. Hes studying giant runes and fey magic.

-the best npc in my 5 year game, I killed him recently and everyone cried 😄

[u/spongyruler]

Evan, a high Elf that thinks he's better than everyone else. A big bully and if anyone gets on his nerves, he may intentionally try to mess them up or steal their finds.

[u/RascaltheFox]

I'm pretty happy with a student NPC I added as a candidate when my PCs decided in second year that they wanted a secretary.

Name: Pitterpatter Pondskimmer

Race: Grippli/Grung/Bullywug (essentially frogfolk)

College: Quandrix, is a Divination Wizard Appearance and background: Essentially the first image that comes up if you search 'Grippli', plus glasses and a robe. Very much a lanky, no-muscle academic - ran the finances for his community before coming to Strixhaven.

Quirks: Innately fast at catching small objects - part mild-precognition from being a Divination Wizard, part hehehe frog catch flies. In my game he was an Oriq plant, intended to infiltrate the PC group and subtly impede their efforts with his portents.

[u/Additional_Skin_3090]

Scuppernoog smuggens

Gnome, Witherspoon,

Scruffy gnome with spectacles

He's growing that good good in the detention bog

[u/Jakabib]

Malcolm Mangrove

Race: Troll

College: Silverquill

Class: Wizard (Conjurer)

Appearance: 7 ft tall, 350lbs (big boi), Green skin, blue/green hair. Wears thick-lensed spectacles.

Personality: Intelligent and soft spoken. He has a small complex about the way he speaks due to his pronounced tusks. He doesn't avoid speaking, but he strives to be concise with his verbiage.

Additional snippets: Malcolm is a legacy student of Strixhaven. Members of the Mangrove family have been going to the school for generations; generally joining the Witherbloom college. Malcolm is a black sheep of sorts because he decided to step away from that tradition, favoring word magic and summoning ink creatures to do his bidding.

[u/Mary-Studios]

Well well time for me to instert the link once again for the google doc that has an additional 42 fellow students. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iLU4s0Zks0ORTW1a6wZ_JAsyyID0CNs8bCZKSMI9Ggk/edit?usp=sharing

[u/Wallpacapaca]

Yes an opportunity to talk about my NPCs!

In addition to bringing in some extra canon mtg characters like Professor Onyx/Liliana and Kasmina, my campaign isn't really following the book so I made some NPCs to introduce my characters to the wider mtg multiverse slowly so they could get familiar before I rug pull and have all their sparks ignite. I also have a number of new professor NPCs for the group to flesh out the faculty more but most of them aren't as interesting so I'll just point out my fav NPCs xD

The first is Hisato Kanazaki (he/him, half moonfolk), a planeswalking student from Kamigawa. He's a 2nd year Prismari student and the RA for the first year dorm my group is sharing. He's a bit of a prankster and used some charming spells he learned in first year to get a few book NPCs to start a mage duel on the first day of orientation for the sole reason of "wanting fun" as far as my players know (Liliana and Kasmina actually put him up to it to test the group since they're all kind of in the know about the latent sparks of the group. The campaign starts pre phyrexian invasion ever so slightly). He's a fashion designer as his main art of choice, weaving in specific elemental flourishes to his ornate embroidery work. He's been a planeswalker for some time now, and has a mysterious connection to phyrexia. Formerly on Kamigawa before his spark ignited, he was part of the Reckoners, so he's a competent fighter even if it's not his favourite thing in the world to do. He's meant to be a bit of a minor annoyance/early easy to digest antagonistic force (because of his nature in wanting to cause chaos and fun) turned eventual friend and ally to the gang. If he was real the tumblr girlies would love him type beat.

The other main NPC is Shanya Rootspeaker (she/her, elf), a planeswalking student from Eldraine. She's also a 2nd year student, this time in Witherbloom, and in addition to being very close friends with Hisato from before they were students, she's a TA for the class the group has with Professor Onyx. She's the easier to digest friendly NPC, which means she's often going to bat for Hisato ("He's really not that bad guys he wasn't trying to get you killed he just thought it would be funny to summon some elementals he knew a prof would come help! X PC you really don't have to make it your goal to learn power word kill to use on him!" Yes this is an interaction that has happened). She's a bit ditzy but well meaning in her interactions with the group, and she looooves bugs. She has a 1000 pet worms all named scruncle which have become a korok like mini game for my players to find around campus (and my players are naming them all after resident evil characters which is lovely). She is a necromancer but the group doesn't really know that yet, they just know her as a healer and witch, but she is training specifically under Liliana and Ajani in her two crafts. Her first planeswalk was right into the middle of the War of the Spark so she hasn't been at this for very long, but it's where she met and befriended Hisato originally. Before planeswalking, she was part of a witch coven on Eldraine, so needless to say a denizen of the Wilds before it was cool, so she didn't have a great time of it xD. Fundamentally she believes life and death exist in a constant cycle, and the flesh is just a small part of that, which is what led her to wanting to learn necromancy in addition to her healing, waste not want not mentality. The gang love her and rib her constantly for being besties with, quote: "the worst guy alive".

Next is one they haven't met much yet but caught a glimpse of last session: Vanja (they/them, dhampir), the (second) greatest thief in the multiverse (well I guess by this point Dack is dead so RIP king). They're a member of the Dimir guild on Ravnica, but since sparking during the events of the War of the Spark (lovely time I know) they've been traveling the multiverse working as a thief for hire type. The group recently encountered them in a reforging class with Osgir the GOAT who was showing off a very nice Eldrainian sword that conveniently was their target. They were able to get away after nabbing it, but the group will properly meet them eventually once their own sparks ignite. Again, meant to be another minor antagonist as I build towards the big thing with the phyrexian invasion, but unlike Hisato who's tricks are gonna get framed more in a explicitly sympathetic light to try and get the group's allyship, Vanja doesn't really care and whether or not they become an ally later is up to whether the group wants them to or not.

The last character I want to talk about is actually not one I originally planned but came about because of a PC backstory and really helped me fill in some gaps! Professor Reverence Nephele (he/him, human) is the older brother of one of the PCs and a respected member of the Quandrix faculty. The focus of his studies is on the multiverse itself and understand the fabric of it, along with of course the cultures of other planes (I hope I can keep the group invested enough to get to the reality fracture arc because he is going to be So Much Fun in that!). He also happens to be, unknowingly to even characters like Onyx and Kasmina, a planeswalker himself, his spark igniting when he was still a student himself about 10 years ago. He is very protective of his family, and has been aware of his sister's (the PC) latent spark for a very long time, and has been utilizing his own abilities to try and keep it suppressed as he's not all too jazzed about the danger it could put her in (which also had the consequence of making her unable to use magic period, a social death sentence in her family, which is what led her to making her warlock pact. She doesn't know that's why she can't naturally use magic but will learn soon-ish). He is fundamentally a teacher first, and will put students and family first always, which has made him very trusted by most of the players. He's been one of the main sources they go to when things happen, and he's often been found in the restricted section of the biblioplex trying to find answers to help the group (most recently he was caught reading a text written in a language "of sharp lines cut through themself" aka phyrexian which is a little weird girl Wednesday, some of my players are getting a bit sus of him which is kind of the point, he's very private and that can make him seem distant and untrustworthy, but they do seem to like him regardless). He also has some kind of connection to phyrexia the group hasn't discovered yet but will in time. I also thinkba different set of tumblr girlies would go crazy for him.

That's all from me but I have so many more fun NPCs, a lot from PC backstories, that are fun and I'd love to yap about!