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Name: Aurelia "Lia" Castellis
Ancestry: Human
Background: Art Tutor
Class: Bard

Aurelia "Lia" Castellis is a vibrant and warm-hearted young woman with a deep appreciation for creativity in all its forms. Her teaching background has fostered patience and a nurturing disposition, often making her a calming presence in stressful situations. She has a knack for drawing out the hidden talents of others, believing everyone has an artist or storyteller within them.

Although she is selfless, she harbors the desire to step into the spotlight herself. She is often conflicted, questioning whether she deserves to chase her own dreams or focus on helping others achieve theirs.

She loves social settings and possesses a natural charisma that makes people feel appreciated. But she is no stranger to the dramatic. Her artistic passion often manifests in a flair for the theatrical, both in her storytelling and her gestures. This boldness can make her stand out but also occasionally cause her to misstep when her enthusiasm overtakes her judgment. One such incident occurred during a local art exhibition where Aurelia volunteered to host the event. Inspired by her love of theater, she decided to turn the opening ceremony into a dramatic performance. She wrote an elaborate monologue, crafted a costume, and transformed the typically formal event into a theatrical spectacle, complete with improvised lighting and music cues.

While the audience was initially intrigued, her over-the-top approach overshadowed the art on display. Some artists felt that their work was reduced to a backdrop for her performance rather than being the focus of the event. One particularly esteemed painter openly criticized her for "stealing the spotlight," leaving her embarrassed and regretful. Though her intentions were pure, the incident taught her a valuable lesson about balancing her enthusiasm with respect for others' contributions. It's a memory that still stings but also motivates her to ensure her passion uplifts those around her.

The entity behind what would become known as the Missing Moment is an ancient horror known as Osoyo. The wisest Ilverani priest‑scholars say that Osoyo was first encountered near the elves’ ancient homeland of Sovyrian. In a vast canyon filled with a magical sea of mist, the massive, ice‑blue whale floated through the air as easily as a fish through water. Those who encountered "the psychic whale" and inhaled its chilling, shadowy vapors developed paranormal powers. Unfortunately, they also lost control of their minds, becoming potent yet senseless thralls.

Once discovered, the Blackfrost Whale could not simply be ignored. Sovyrian’s High Families knew this entity was far too dangerous to remain anywhere near the elven capital. At great cost, brave elves subdued, shackled, and shuttled Osoyo to the Crown of the World. There, they sealed the beast beneath the thickest part of Golarion’s icecap, where Osoyo lay dormant for thousands of years.

Eventually, sentient life came to thrive even upon the barren ice caps. These large, white‑furred humanoids—called saumen kar—had long sensed a powerful force beneath their icy homeland. This presence was partly why they chose to build the temple to their goddess Aqakaru, the Snow Mother, at the place where the stars above danced in a perfect circle.

When the sky came crashing down on the apocalyptic day now known as Earthfall, the thick ice at the northern pole cracked wide open. From beneath the crust, the ancient, alien being Osoyo awoke from its millennia‑long torpor and breathed a tired sigh. Each exhalation blasted whirlwinds of black, powdery dust out from the fissures in the ice. In an instant, the saumen kar’s beloved spires were caked in thick, greasy ash.

The substance that coated the temple was not the same ash that smothered the rest of the world during Earthfall. This ashen muck glimmered like ice, and the merest touch inflicted a chill that cut to the bone. In time, people would come to call this umbral ash "blackfrost."

From the blackfrost that poisoned the saumen kars’ holy site emanated maddening whispers, which echoed in the minds of any who went near the haunted temple. Though the honeyed words differed according to the listener, they always promised the same thing: the power to obtain one’s truest desires. Ultimately, the Blackfrost Whale’s poisoned promises would seal the tragic fate of the saumen kar and force them to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The saumen kar rallied their strongest and wisest warriors to confront Osoyo. The battle was not won with brawn or brains, but with faith. Priests pleaded with their goddess for guidance, and the Snow Mother answered their prayers by offering a covenant: she would seal Osoyo away, even if it meant destroying herself in the process. In exchange, though, the saumen kar would need to sacrifice their language and their knowledge—in other words, everything they knew.

The saumen kar accepted this dreadful bargain. In an instant, all they’d ever known of Aqakaru, Osoyo, and the world beyond was extinguished from their collective minds. They retained only a vague notion of a sacred duty to ward the mysterious black towers at the top of the world—what they began to call the Nameless Spires. To remind them of their compact, magical blue marks appeared on the flesh and fur of all saumen kar and their descendants. Yet the details of their covenant would forever be sealed, along with Osoyo, beneath the ice.

In the millennia after sealing away Osoyo, the saumen kar gradually dwindled from the face of this world. Now, nearly 5,000 years after his ancestors sacrificed their past to save the world, only one saumen kar remains: Ainamuuren. Ainamuuren has wandered the edges of the Crown of the World, alone, for centuries. Recently, he met Seshu, a friendly Erutaki elder from the town of Aaminiut. To her, he began to pass on all he knew of his people and their story. Ainamuuren has long worried what would happen to the saumen kar’s pact if he—and thus his entire people—died out. He hoped that he could at least mitigate this seeming inevitability by passing their story on to Seshu.

Five years ago, though, a group of humans threatened to undo everything the saumen kar had fought for. The Pathfinder Svala Ice‑Rider led an excavation to the Crown of the World, which inadvertently released a cloud of blackfrost. While most of the contamination was contained, the damage had been done: Osoyo’s malevolent will had awakened once again.

A single mote of Osoyo’s blue‑black breath contains more potential psychic energy than the collective wills of an entire humanoid species. The sparsity of life on the Crown of the World, however, means that errant blackfrost particles had few opportunities to latch onto a living host. Luckily for Osoyo—and tragically for the rest of the world—the Blackfrost Whale found an even better catalyst. After many months of drifting across the boreal expanse, a single fleck of blackfrost managed to alight upon an aiudara called Icegate—a teleportation portal created by none other than the descendants of Osoyo’s original elf captors.

When Osoyo’s blackfrost touched Icegate, the Blackfrost Whale used the portal as a conduit to transmit a psychic signal across the entire aiudara network. In an instant, gates all over Golarion suddenly activated and filled with tremendous white light. For a moment, Osoyo was able to flex its incredible will upon the whole of an unsuspecting world.

Creatures near an aiudara when it activated saw whatever they most desired within the blinding halo: a loved one, a lost homeland, or a glorious treasure. It was only an illusion, but few could resist the impulse to walk toward the light in the hopes of grasping the apparent object of their obsession.

No one who walked through an aiudara that night remembered what happened next—their memories of what transpired on the other side of the white gate vanished, totally and irretrievably. One moment they stepped into the door, and the next they were stepping back out to discover that they’d been gone for minutes, hours, or in some cases, even days or months.

During this missing time, Osoyo took control of its thralls’ minds and bodies. Its tasks for these "gatewalkers" varied, though all advanced its ultimate goal of freedom. Many, Osoyo simply marched to the Crown of the World, where it transformed them into blackfrost‑infused zombies—none of these returned. To its most promising servants, Osoyo gave special tasks.

Osoyo entrusted its most important work to a select group of gatewalkers—the heroes—each drawn to Icegate from different gates around the world. The alien ordered these characters, rendered as its witless thralls, to locate and capture Ainamuuren, the last saumen kar. Under Osoyo’s command and infused with the strength of the Blackfrost Whale, the player characters dragged Ainamuuren to the Nameless Spires, where they shackled the saumen kar so he could serve as a conduit for Osoyo’s reawakening power.

Once their tasks were done, Osoyo’s favored thralls returned to the aiudara from whence they came. Upon them, the Blackfrost Whale left a special brand—a distinct arcane rune lifted from Ainamuuren and placed on the gatewalkers’ throats. Physically, this mark was the only trace of an abductee’s sojourn. Psychically, however, no one who walked through a gate that night would ever be the same.

The oracle Seshu became worried about her missing friend Ainamuuren. One night, as Seshu lay dreaming, the saumen kar informed her he was in danger, and that the magic of his ancestors’ seal was failing. A new sacrifice, from a new deity, was necessary. In the morning, Seshu and the other Aaminiut elders agreed to send their youngest seer, Sakuachi, to Sarkoris, where deities still walked the land. There, the girl would enlist one of these beings to help fulfill the quest of which Ainamuuren spoke.

The months since the Missing Moment were not quiet. In the wake of their strange experience, gatewalkers the world over had manifested unexplainable supernatural powers such as telekinesis, levitation, and regeneration. In the Ustalavic town of Lepidstadt, a consortium of gatewalkers gathered under the leadership of the venerable scientist and fellow gatewalker Etward Ritalson. Dr. Ritalson hoped to orchestrate his cadre of fellow paranormalists to solve the mystery of what happened on that fated summer night.

In the forest realm of Sevenarches, militant druids called the Oakstewards stand guard before the kingdom’s eponymous Seven Arches, all of which are aiudara. They forbid anyone—especially elves—from approaching. As important as the location once was to them, elves have been unable to visit the Seven Arches safely for many years. Those who tried fell ill to a potent wasting ailment called the obnubilate curse, which erased the afflicted’s memories when it didn’t kill them outright. Yet, since the Missing Moment, it seems the curse has abated; several elves have reported visiting Sevenarches with no ill effects.

Dr. Ritalson believes that Sevenarches, the obnubilate curse, and the interests of his consortium are somehow connected. He’s selected his most promising initiates to look into the matter. Our heroes head to Sevenarches, where they confront a fellow gatewalker and violent druids. To question a dark fey implicit in the mystery, the party enters the shadowy realm of Kaneepo the Slim. From there, the gatewalkers are transported to the planet Castrovel, where they learn about the alien entity responsible for the gaps in their memories before teleporting to the city of Skywatch, back on Golarion.

In Skywatch, the gatewalkers meet a young oracle from the Crown of the World named Sakuachi. She tells them of her quest: to travel to the Sarkoris Scar and find a guide to join her in sacrifice to save her homeland. Sakuachi believes that the alien Osoyo and the ancient evil threatening her people are one and the same, so it behooves everyone to see her mission through. To get to Sarkoris, the party must escape the monster‑riddled streets of Skywatch, voyage across the ominous Lake of Mists and Veils, and trek across the demon‑battered heartland of post‑war Mendev. Once successful, Sakuachi bonds with the spirit guide Ruun, one of the local gods of Sarkoris.

The party travels to Ustalav to report their progress to their patron, Dr. Ritalson, who reveals his treachery. He has been a pawn of Osoyo, working to further the alien's interests. He attempts to halt their quest, but our heroes prevail! Now on their own, the heroes walk through Lichgate to reach Icegate at the Crown of the World. From here, the gatewalkers accompany Sakuachi to the Nameless Spires, where they finally learn the truth of what happened to them on the fated night of the Missing Moment. Their final challenge is to face Ainamuuren, the mind‑controlled saumen kar champion of the alien Osoyo. The gatewalkers are given a grim choice—to strengthen their paranormal gifts to unimaginable heights or spare the life of the last saumen kar.

Fortunately for the world, our heroes choose the noble route. The strange marks they carried on their flesh fade away as they lose their deviant powers. Ainamuuren is saved, and Osoyo slumbers once again.