Ignatia was a researcher at the Wizards Guild studying the magic of fire. She had become a rising expert in the topic of how energy from the Elemental Plane of Fire imbibes spells with power. Ignatia's thesis led her to discover a previously untouched land that sat upon underground intrusions of Elemental Planar Energy. These 'Fire Pits' were her chance to work on building a bridge to the Elemental Plane of Fire, and she shared it with her Dean. A few years went by and it seemed like her research was being intentionally hindered and held back by bureaucratic forces in the Wizards Guild. Ignatia dropped out of the guild and headed to the unexplored lands to complete her own research.
However, upon arriving in this pristine wilderness, she realized the betrayal. Industrialists had been given access to her research and now sought to mine and harvest the Fire Pits. She saw butchered fire newts and salamanders. The land was torn open, its contents removed. All of this had led to a conquering force of settlers to claim the land and drive off the native peoples. Ignatia did her best to convince the settlers and industrialists to slow down and find ways to preserve the integrity of this area and it's people: a backwards, uncivilized human population of clans that threw themselves violently against the intruders. She accompanied the knights and clerics that marched out for one last purge of these people. Her anger at the slaughter turned into sparks which turned into flames across the savannah. The settlement forces had to retreat, but the clans of the barbarians were already killed on the field of battle. The ensuing fire did the rest to finish them off.
Ignatia stayed out there in the wilderness for another week. Anger and guilt left her ready to starve and die in the land that her research had condemned to death. That's when one of the primitives found her to kill her out of vengeance. But Ignatia's lack of fight or fear held the barbarian's hand. A mutual curiosity began to take hold. The barbarian wanting to understand why this woman in red was apparently exiled from those that massacred her people. Ignatia wanted to understand this cavewoman, which turned into a desire to educate her and protect her.
Now, Ignatia travels with Ayla. Partially as mutual survivors and friends of convenience. But, secretly, Ignatia hopes to find atonement for what she caused to happen to Ayla's tribe. And both of them agree that vengeance upon those settlers, industrialists, and religious missionaries is due.
Getty, the warlock, is a shallow and materialistic treasure hunter with Machiavellian tendencies. He is of neutral alignment but has found that doing good usually serves his interests more so than evil as it can lead to handsome rewards and aligning with other "do-gooders" is safer than aligning with those like himself, or those who are worse. His warlock patron is Belial a demon who is equally as motivated by treasure as he is. Unlike other warlocks, he prefers to think of his arrangement with Belial as a business transaction and may be in denial of the power Belial holds over him, and the fact that they are not "equal partners" by any means. His main motivation is to acquire objects of power and wealth (though he has no desire for political power or power over others). His "Holy Grail" of treasure would be an artifact which would free him from the servitude of Belial whilst preserving the power he draws from the demon, and the multitude of treasures he's acquired with those powers - "having his cake and eating it to," so to speak. Although he's acquired many riches and powerful artifacts from his adventures, he has secreted them away and rendered them unavailable, through magical means, to ensure that they stay hidden and secure (from both enemies and Belial), albeit at a severe inconvenience to himself and his adventures (and misadventures).
Ignatia: Getty is generally untrusting of other magic users, and is particularly resentful non-warlocks who have not paid the price of binding with a patron-demon for their power. However, as Ignatia's tales of Elemental Plane of Fire (perhaps even preceding them meeting one another) have piqued his interest and more so his lust for the possibility of magical treasure therein. As such, he seeks to win her favor and trust.
Getty is a half-elf who was born into human nobility - however, he and his family were disgraced two-fold as he was not only a bastard, but his father was a drow. The circumstances that lead to his conception are mysterious and little is known about his dark elf father who was never accepted into the human palace that he and his mother lived in. At a young age, his mother was found murdered in the castle, the details of the case are unclear, but it was most likely a political maneuver from those who disapproved of her rearing and protecting a half-drow bastard. Little effort was made to discover the culprits and bring them to justice. The court was more concerned with what they should do with the now orphaned drow boy, exile seemed most likely (or worse). In a rare an unexpected act of compassion, it was decided that he would be useful as a "steward" of the palace's Bibliotheca Veterum Jawn, a grand library renowned for its specialization in magical archeology, mostly in the form of recorded history and encyclopedic content, but also boasting a small collection of magical items it had acquired. "Stewardship" there dull and tedious; organizing, auditing, and repairing miles of ancient books. He was encouraged to make himself scarce when the library was graced with nobility, scholars or the rare magician seeking arcane knowledge. He would always watch them from afar, admiring the finery of their raiment, jealous of their wealth and status, and particularly intrigued by any magical powers he witnessed. The library effectively became his unofficial prison, his only respite was deep study into the tomes for which he was responsible. As such, he learned much about history, archeology, geography, and the practice of magics - though all second hand. He also attempted to learn how to wield magic on his own, through these books, but without any success. The more he read, the more he became intrigued to adventure out and attempt to "recover" the lost treasures and artifacts that he read so much about.
One day, he hatched a simple plan to do just that; he would slip away from the library, and "borrow" certain items from it's collection which would be useful in his pursuit of treasure. Once he had acquired a wealth of treasure and artifacts, he would return to the library triumphant, replace what he had "borrowed", and further enrich the library with all of the wonders he would have collected on his journey - everyone would love him for this and his rightful position as nobility would be re-instated, if not exalted. In the back of his mind, he was unsure if he would actually follow through with the full plan - it would be just as easy to abscond and keep all for himself. However, he will never know what he would have done. As he was removing a particularly volatile magical item from its fixture, he accidentally started a fire that burned down the entire library and spread farther into the palace. Although that was a genuine accident - he reveled in watching it burn, more so than he would have thought. He was obviously suspect number one, but was long gone before efforts could be made to capture him.
He carried on as he had originally planned, setting straight to work in the effort of locating riches and magical objects. His first order of business was acquiring a new identity so that no agents of his homeland could track him down, and while he was at it, he figured that some embellishment wouldn't hurt. Thus he chose the name Vercingetorix, "winner of 100 battles", at the time he had barely fought a single battle, but the name is now well earned - give or take a few dozen. He is known by his nickname, "Getty".
Although his pursuits began as simple archeological exploration, he soon realized that the best prizes were won through adventures, danger and questing, so he became dedicated to that lifestyle - furthermore, he enjoyed it and was good at it. Although he was successful without his magical powers, he never lost his desire to obtain them, yet could never find a clear path to do so. When one of his adventures lead to a chance opportunity to effectively sell his soul to Belial in exchange to become a powerful warlock, thus shortcutting a lifetime of training, he agreed without any hesitation - he was delighted and figured that he could just double-cross Belial down the road if things didn't work out - a foolish gambit.
Now Getty lives a nomadic (yet sometimes lavish) life of adventure trapped in a vicious cycle of questing for material gain, with no exit strategy insight. Though his preference is questing for magic objects of power, he is more than happy to settle for old fashion gold, jewels and riches as a consolation prize.
Alya: Getty has an academic background and highly values intelligence, charisma, and knowledge of culture in others, so he is uninterested in barbarians. In his experience, barbarians usually fear and avoid magical items, so there is little to be gained from listening to their tales.
Goj: Getty is happy to befriend rogues as they typically have similar goals, moral principles and as they are non-magic users he does not see them as a threat.
Getty is short for Vercingetorix; "winner of 100 battles". Bob, a good challenge for the DM would be putting him in a situation that tested his neutral-neutral alignment and forced him to take a clear side.
Charlie - seems like our characters have an increasing amount in common. And although mine is not a fire-mage, reveling in his library going up in flames was a pivotal moment for him so there might be something there.
Bob - I'll leave it to you re: how he enters the story. The default choice was that he heard that one of the other heroes can help him locate treasure, either directly or indirectly.
Jeff - Getty scorns barbarians and thinks himself above them, but what is interesting is that the real-life Vercingetorix from whom I stole the name had much more in common with barbarians than warlocks so maybe that could inspire something.
Adam - standing by for more info on your character and how they might relate!
* Getty would have a complex but likely productive relationship with Goj. He would both admire and resent that he is a pure elf, and always wonders if any elf he meets might know who is father was, especially drow. He likes dealing with lying cheats, like himself, because you both know you'll double-cross each other, which is better than not knowing if you can trust someone or not, it's game on. He instantly likes thieves as they always come in handy when treasure hunting, in a variety of ways. He has successfully quested with more thieves than any other class. One of Getty's character flaws (possibly replacing that official one I picked or in addition to) is that he consistently underestimates non-magic users and therefore he doesn't view them as a threat, so Goj's sinister background and culture wouldn't scare him off, even if it ought to.
Ayla was born into a society of nomadic hunter/gatherers living at peace with nature for tens of thousands of years. Possessing extraordinary physical strength, heightened senses relating to the natural world and an innate understanding of right and wrong. As a warrior, mother, knowledge keeper and hunter she ranked as one of the top people in her tribe. Life was hard and at times, violent but for the most part conflicts could be resolved peacefully between tribes. All of that changed when the intruders invaded the sacred land. Not even the animals were safe.
After a long day of hunting, Ayla was returning to camp when she heard the scream erupt from her ancestral plain. She dropped everything and ran only to find her entire family slaughtered. The invaders were laughing as they burned children alive. Ayla did not hesitate. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Ayla put up a good fight but in the end was captured. The Invaders took turns raping her before tieing her up for the night.
Alone and sitting in her own blood, Ayla swore revenge on the invaders with their magic. She would know no fear of magic. She would have no mercy. She would only know vengeance.
As she sat thinking of ways out of her bondage Chester, her loyal wolf silently crept into her tent. He chewed her ropes, freeing her and they both fled into the wilderness.
Her new journey had begun.
Goj was born a Diadosha, A lower breed of Elf castaway from the lava mountains of U’Kaskell. Diadhosians are a long line of gypsy scavengers and often debased by the derogatory term, CRUSTS, which is based on their scaled skin and black lava cave dwelling existence.
He was raised in a harsh mountainous existence. A profane and godless society, Diadoshians either learn how to lie, cheat, and steal or die.
It’s usual for Diadoshians to be skilled archers, having the lava infused wood out of the forests to fashion bows and arrows out of.
While attacking a band of travellers crossing the U’Kaskells, Goj comes across a journal that chronicles this groups quest to find what they believe is a buried treasure of Bilial. Goj kills all of the crew, steals their map and horse carriage with all of their supplies and sets out on a solo mission toward fortune.