Calliope

Cayden Calloway, Cal, Songbird, The Dragon of the Feywild
1305
Alive
"I would stall the wind and have the skys grow still to save a single cloud." -Calliope
Eladrin
Chaotic Neutral

Description

In a human form, "Cayden Calloway" has the appearance of a disheveled guard that drinks too much. However, she isn't human at all. Calliope Aberdeen wears a ring of humanity and took on a fake name to hide from Therron Rithe, but behind that facade is a small Eladrin woman with a shadowy mark on the left side of her face and tiny antlers protruding from her forehead. Her big shield is always within arms reach, and she keeps her sword at the ready. Her appearance changes color with the season, but she's often found wearing winter's sorrowful blue hues. No matter her season, her hair fades to blue and the shadowy mark remains. She has a number of piercings.

Cal's smile is fleeting, and when angry, her eyes almost appear to glow lightning blue. She looks to be in her early 20’s, but in actuality is over 1300 years old.

Biography

Anyone with common sense would recognize that they don't want to be on Calliope’s bad side. As a fearsome knight with affinity for storms, just a look is usually enough to silence the gossip among even powerful nobles. If that isn't enough, a lightning bolt will usually do the trick. Even with all that power and fearful respect, Cal tries her best to be a knight of the people, but her ever changing temperament makes them slow to trust her.

Cal was born in the Feywild city, Teraviis, home to the powerful artifact called The Deck of Many things. Raised as a healer, when her home was threatened, she sought more power and drew a single card from The Deck that changed her life and bound her to a demon stormlord named Azazel. She wiped out the threatening army, but destroyed most of her city. Her mother exiled her to the prime material plane, where she now wanders, seeking a way to free herself from the demon. All the while, Azazel seeks to take 1,000 innocent lives… Or Cal's own, in order to free himself to the prime material plane.

92 years ago, Cal was captured by a vicious Shadar-Kai named Therron Rithe who tried to extract information from her regarding the location of the deck. He gave her the nickname “Songbird,” believing her pained cries sounded like bird song. She endured years of torture before being freed by Xaveria's past life, but the trauma made her paranoid, becoming slow to open up to others and reluctant to reveal any bits of information that could potentially be used against her.

Calliope came to the Elysian Empire as she traveled around the continent of Hadea, but she never expected to become stuck there. She committed a horrible crime that got her locked away, but she continuously escaped jail, even past the warded cells, all while Charlie tirelessly worked to learn more about the infamous criminal. Furious, the king finally summoned her before she could escape again. She was told she could be freed from her cell permanently, so long as she took an oath to the crown. Without much knowledge of the oath, Cal agreed, and immediately regretted her choice, finding similarities in her Soul Oath to being at the whim of Azazel.

The Soul Oath forced her cooperation for a decade, as she carried out what she believed were the king's orders. She mostly served as Charlie's personal bodyguard, but occasionally she was sent on assignments outside the capital.

Calliope spent romantic time on and off with Charlie, but finally ended things for good when it was revealed that, due to her mysterious connections to Talos and ability to escape her cell so easily, each member of the royal family held claim to part of her soul. Her orders could come from not only the king, but the queen, Prince Andreus, and most infuriatingly: the woman she came to care for, Lady Charlotte.

The revelation broke Cal. She became cold, distant, and dangerous. Her work reflected the raging storm in her heart for months as the demon Azazel slaughtered countless innocent lives without Cal being able to calm herself down to stop it. Each carried out order, each strike of lightning, each drop of blood that was spilled by Stormrazor fueled her hate. That was, until Captain Octavian Ren finally tried to put an end to her.

Now, Cal serves Charlie primarily as a spy, since Charlie recognizes the danger of putting Calliope in combat. Calliope hates this all the while, but knows Charlie's orders come from a place of protection for not only herself, but the fate of her kingdom and Hadea.

Relationships

Charlie

Charlie still cares about Cal, but Cal doesn't care to hear it. Cal was hesitant to ever get into a relationship, and sees the secret that Charlie was keeping as the ultimate betrayal of trust. She longs for freedom and sees Charlie as the second biggest obstacle in the way of it, right after her demon. Now, Calliope tries as hard as she can to carry out Charlie's orders in a way that will upset the mage.

Ren

Once close friends, Ren became terrified of Calliope when she and Charlie broke up. He prayed to Thaldra for guidance, and after years of silence finally received a grim message from what he believed was one of her messengers: Calliope is a knight of the evil war god, Gruumsh, and must be eliminated for Thaldra's plans on the continent to succeed. Ren hunted her down at the docks and saw an opening to take her out with only a single witness, and believing Xaveria to be working alongside her, had no qualms with disposing of her as well.

Azazel

While Calliope claims to hate being bound with Azazel, she doesn't deny the benefits to it. The power Azazel grants has protected her and her allies many times over, and she secretly feels safe being bound to him. The only thing she truly wishes to change is to stop hurting people against her will.

Xaveria

Cal knew Xaveria's previous life, and claims that the two of them were close. As such, she will do anything and everything to keep this incarnation of Xav safe from danger. She sees Xav as her savior, and in turn is loyal to her above all others. She secretly followed for years Xaveria, trying to learn more about this new life, and hoping all the while that the two of them can at least be friends again.

In the events of the Severance side-campaign, Calliope and Xav worked together to cleanse their former home of darkness seeping through a portal opened to the Shadowfell and to destroy Therron Rithe's memories for good. After clear initial distrust due to a secret that Cal had been keeping, she worked to mend their relationship. It eventually led to the two of them starting a relationship, with Cal making it very clear that she doesn't expect anything from Xaveria in regards to her previous life- even if it did seem like they were very similar people.

The Accountant

Cal didn’t actually dislike The Accountant, but his presence reminded her of the previous Accountant that witnessed the destruction of her home without any offering of aid. Azazel used this reminder as a way to take control of Calliope and slaughter him. His understandable rage at this made him attack Cal when he was revived even after she was standing down. The attack that injured not only Cal, but also Xaveria, soiled any sort of potential trust the two of them had. Cal fully regards him as her enemy, and will do her best to avoid him.

The Group

Cal appreciates Dreamer's ability to pull her out of possession, but his clear distrust of her makes it difficult to assume they'd be anything but enemies.

Seraphim pinned Cal down after Azazel was dispelled while the Accountant swung at her, which means she now has a very prominent grudge against him.

Nox and Klernt haven't done anything to anger her, so Cal regards them as associates.