Erika Redmark

Erika was the most powerful mage of the Five and their political leader when they were first Exiled. She led their struggles on the surface and underground. Little is known of her life before this; it has been suggested that she was a member of the faculty at the Skylark School of Magery, based on an office bearing her name discovered there by the explorers who ultimately purged Skylark Vale of its curse. This would suggest that she was, at a conservative estimate, over one hundred years old at the time of her death; she may have been much older.

Before she was Exiled, Garzahd and his students placed a powerful curse on her. The curse was said to kill her if the sun ever touched her again, dooming her to life in the caves. But this did not faze her, and she did all she could to help the citizens of Exile, including teleporting a group of adventurers to Hawthorne III's throne room to assassinate him.

When a small group of Avernites from Unspecified Services returned to the surface and found Valorim awash with monster plagues, she helped the adventurers destroy the Vahnatai operation when she dueled Rentar-Ihrno. Unfortunately, Rentar exploited her curse and just as she was about to be defeated, she blasted a hole into the ceiling and a sunbeam touched Erika's skin, killing her instantly. She is considered a hero to many of the Avernites, and will be remembered by those forever with admiration. Others, however, considered her mad with revenge against Hawthorne and Garzahd after her falling-out with the Triad, and accuse her of instigating the Empire-Avernum War.

In 839, after the reconciliation of the Empire and Avernum, Redmark College was founded and named in her honor near the City of Dawn in Southeastern Valorim.

Magical Ability

To this day, no one is certain how powerful Erika really was. While her power clearly had its limits, she conveniently worked around them. Erika is known to have bent a number of demons to her will (while Empire wizards were able to do this easily when acting in concert, Erika did it alone) and was able to create doomguards, a craft that is thought lost even to most imperial wizards. During her battle with Rentar-Ihrno, Erika's summoned minions outnumbered the Vahnatai's, and the Avernite agents present noted that while the duel left Rentar-Ihrno looking exhausted, Erika was barely fazed. It appears likely that Erika surpassed her rival in sheer power, and could not have been beaten if it were not for the curse.

Many scholars, particularly those from Avernum, name Erika as the most powerful mage to ever set foot on Ermarian.

Deeds in the Service of Avernum

• Teleported magical tomes from the surface, providing the basis for all Avernite magic
• Taught magic to generations of Avernite mages
• Teleported plants from the surface and modified them to subsist on volcanic heat energy
• Created cavewood trees, capable of growing in stone
• Created nourishing, fast-growing mushrooms
• Helped build the Tower of Magi
• Imprisoned Grah-Hoth (with Rone and Patrick)
• Created the wards at Skarragath
• Worked with the Scimitar to uncover the last remaining exit to the surface
• Masterminded and facilitated the assassination of Hawthorne III
• Assissted the Empire War Heroes in the recovery of Vyvnas-Bok and the assassination of Garzahd
• Dueled Rentar-Ihrno, sacrificing her life to allow the Surface Explorers to destroy the machinery responsible for the Valorim plagues