Amisra Copperguard Backstory Poll (Patreon)

The name votes for this character are now closed. The palace guard captain’s real name is now officially Amisra Copperguard!

I’m pleased with the name. If your top pick wasn’t one of the results, don’t worry, there will be plenty more votes to be had on Captain Copperguard.

Based on your name choices for Amisra’s backstory, we know she was a young elf filled with untapped talent, and a soldier from humble origins who rose through the ranks after years of bringing orders to lawless lands.

Today, we’re going to flesh that out a little more.

Your choice here will affect her allies, enemies, and even the type of magic she uses (though that last one will have its own poll too).

Backstory choices:

Choice A: In Search of Justice

Amisra Copperguard was born to cultivate. Before she even manifested, her wisp set its sights on a small monster on the outskirts of Bronzeridge. After tailing the monster for several weeks, the monster eventually met its end by the hand of a passing mage acolyte. This mage acolyte couldn’t be bothered with such a weak monster’s spellheart and left both stone and corpse to rot in the mud.

In that mud, before that dying monster, Amisra’s wisp absorbed all the power it could before manifesting a body. With her first breath, Amisra plunged an arm into the dying monster, took its spellheart, and bound it to herself. With her second breath, she turned and slew all the terrible little forest creatures drawn by her manifesting.

By the time Amisra returned to Bronzeridge, she had a pocketful of spellhearts and was already at the second layer of zeal accumulation. While tending her wounds, she investigated her origins only to find that she hailed from a family of small merchants who’d run afoul of a mage acolyte who worked directly for one of the less-savory Spirelords. Over the course of a single night, Amisra’s entire family was thrown in chains and sold to traders from a distant world. Amisra herself only escaped the disaster because she was still a wisp at the time.

Left with no family, and finding no one who would safeguard an elf with such an unfortunate past, Amisra left for the forest outside the city. There she lived the life of a nomadic hunter, catching prey, collecting spellhearts, and occasionally trading in the city for weapons and cultivation supplies.

After saving the life of a traveler from the capital, Amisra made her way to the heart of the Deanian Queendom, where she quickly found work as a mercenary soldier hired as a helper for the palace guard. She rocketed through the zeal accumulation ranks, hit mage acolyte, and was invited to try to become a palace guard herself.

During the entrance exam, Amisra defeated every opponent and zealously took to the study of law and order. Had such a policing force existed back in Bronzeridge at the time, she might have grown up knowing her mother and sisters.

As her power grew, Amisra rose through the ranks of the palace guard and eventually became influential enough to petition the queen to implement legal reforms that would see officers of the law throughout the queendom. Though the great clans continue to maintain their own systems of governance for the lands under their domain, Amisra is certain she can spread law and order to all the lands of Deania.

Choice B: For the Pride of Her Family

Amisra Copperguard was born from a bustling minor clan with high hopes for the future. When she was young, she had talent and skill. When her pride started getting the better of her as a child, her mother took her to the capital where all the greatest scions of all the most powerful clans gathered. As her mother expected, Amisra was quickly humbled in the face of these young geniuses.

There, in the heart of Deania, Amisra saw heights her clan had never dared to dream of. If she could become strong enough, then her family would not need to be confined to their small plot of land, bowing to the whims of those with greater might than themselves. When the matriarch of the Copperguard Clan commanded Amisra and her mother to return, Amisra refused and remained in the capital, for she knew that was the only place she could hope to reach Deania's greatest heights.

Her rivals all had the support of their clans, and many of them were far mightier than Amisra's own. The Copperguard Clan could only take Amisra so far. She needed the support of a more powerful organization. She found that support in the form of the royal guard.

The challenges she faced as a royal guard were harsh, but the rewards were well worth the many months of suffering. After the queen reformed the royal guard into a structured order with a hierarchy and chain of command that mirrored aspects of the Fateweaver Society, Amisra was selected to be an officer.

Of the new officers, she was the first to break past the peak of true mage and enter the wizard ranks. The queen herself rewarded Amisra for her years of dedicated service by expanding the Copperguard Clan's domain in the Queendom and giving Amisra herself personal tutelage that would allow her to continue progressing well into the wizard realm.

Amisra's parents and sisters passed away years ago, but her clan continues to depend on her. Since she became the captain of the palace guard, they've moved their clan's headquarters to the capital, where they have found their calling as dedicated guardswoman. In recent years, the name Copperguard has become practically inseparable from the royal guard, and more than half their clan can be found in the palace at any time.

Choice C: To Build a Home

Many wisps make their way to the capital without knowing where they're headed. The dense zeal that fills the air makes it an ideal place to manifest a body. One of those wisps manifested into the elf who would one day be known as Amisra Copperguard.

As an orphan spirit, Amisra found herself working odd jobs as a heartwielder. Her wisp had picked up enough scattered memories to teach her which end of a spear to hold, but not much else. She found herself spending her days picking herbs and delivering letters. After a lucky and difficult fight outside the city, she managed to gather the resources to advance to mage acolyte. From there, she found her way to the royal guard.

Deania always had a thousand affairs to tend to, and members of the royal family could never see to all of them. In those days, the royal guard was nothing more than a loose association of cultivators hunting for bounties posted by the royal family. Amisra entered herself among that motley order and quickly distinguished herself thanks to her ambition and dedication to completing assignments.

After spending months tracking and slaying a particularly dangerous criminal, Amisra advanced to true mage. The speed of her cultivation and complete lack of affiliations caught the eye of the royal family. The queen herself gave Amisra instruction on progressing through the true mage realm and aided her in her ascension to the wizard realm.

Amisra had long despaired at the lack of cohesion among the royal guards and beseeched the queen to reorganize them into a formal organization. The Queen had long planned to do just that, but realized she'd never had the right elf to lead them. When Amisra proved her loyalty as a new and wizard, the queen bestowed Amisra with the honor of rebuilding the royal guard into a cohesive military organization that would uphold the law across the Deanian Queendom.

Under Amisra's authority, the royal guard worked with the royal family to install a constable's office in every royal-held settlement to uphold the law universally throughout the crown lands, and soon to the rest of Deania.

Choice D: Repaying the Fallen

Author here. Sorry I typed too hard earlier today and ended up breaking my keyboard. So we're down to three options!