Sophistria, better known as Sophia to those close to her, is a kithkin psion whose specialty lies in the realm of thought. However, while her mental capabilities are prodigious, they are augmented by her chose of equipment, two large gauntlets which more resemble
s than mere gauntlets. At their center are gems which act as a focus and amplifier for her telekinetic powers, allowing her to
, she is better able to use her mental abilities to find solutions to the problems at hand. Though defensive in nature, she is capable of using her abilities offensively if necessary.
Sophia stands approximately half as tall as your average humanoid, with broad hips and shoulders that are disproportionate to an average humanoid of her size, though her waist and bust is more proportional. Her features are soft, the most notable aspects being her full lips and large, wide eyes, whose navy irises occupy the entirety of her eyes, displaying no sclera. Her hair is a wavy mass of dark blonde that hangs past her waist, usually kept out of her face by the silver headband she wears, adorned with a gem similar to that placed in her gauntlets. She favors blue clothing with silver piping, particularly fond of her royal blue overcoat, a garment which she has a particular attachment to since it symbolizes her position in the Academy.
Sophia has spent most of her adult life pursuing the higher echelons of education, a fact that caused a profound schism with most of her kind, who saw her quest as a dishonorable pursuit. The kithkin of her world are deeply militaristic and dogmatic, trained from childhood to embrace tradition, law, and nation without question. Sophia was ill suited to that.
Following her graduation at 15, she chose an apprenticeship under a human mage rather than an "honorable" career in one of the kithkin military branches. She excelled at the new curriculum and specialized in psychic magics, something her kind were once capable of. Her intellectual training offered a different perspective on most of what she had been taught as a child, and it further led her to question much of what her people took as granted, an epiphany that further drove a wedge between her and most of her kind. It also set the path for the continuation of her education, as after the expiration of her contract, she parlayed her experience into joining the Greater Academy of Griffin's Gate.
She quickly passed her courses, ranging from such topics as arcane runic theory to things such as criminal justice and sociology. It was not long after she joined that she was offered a position on staff, which eventually became a full professorship, skipping the journeyman step altogether. She spent years further compiling research for her magnum thesis, and it finally came the day when she presented her theories: The defense of ethics and the flaws of social morality.
Everything she had learned had been building up to that topic, and, she argued, morality inherently negatively reinforced behavior as much as it offered some form of positive guidance. The harm came from the declaration that certain acts were "wrong" and "right", thereby removing the necessary objectivity required of social judgment. It further drove separated people, and placed them in positions of opposition based on perspective and lack of respect for each. Ethics, she proclaimed, were ultimately a better measure than morals.
To demonstrate, she prepared a ritual meant to take five individuals, herself included, with vastly different moral codes, and link their minds to form a perspective consensus, thereby establishing that morality's views of "right" and "wrong" were basically adversarial and far too subjective a meter by which to measure society's views. She began the
enchantment, but the runes she used must have been mistranscribed, because rather than linking the group, they were instead, all linked to a single will. Sophia.
With the mental capabilities of five people, her intellectual abilities were greatly amplified, not only thinking through her own mind, but that of four others. However, she also acquired the perspective of the volunteers, adding more data to her consensus and allowing her to view things in different ways. That moment of increased power was enough to trigger her spark, and she was ripped away, the connection of her enchantment severing in that moment.
She awoke on Faskeria. After a great deal of hesitant exploration, she began to understand that she had arrived somewhere completely different, and more, she could feel something just out of the physical realm. There was some sort of extensive, and powerful network woven between the kithkin of this place, and tentatively, after taking the appropriate steps to nominally ensure her safety, she tapped into this connection. Immediately, she found herself within the thoughtweft and in the middle of a battle. Confused, she fell back upon her defenses, and the result was magnitudes greater than she was expecting. She had once again usurped control of the locals' thoughts to power her own magic, throwing the invaders (known as the pale as she acquired the knowledge from her connection) out of the dreams of the kithkin she'd connected to. Outside the dreamscape, a true defensive shield had risen over the city, causing enough of a disturbance to awake most of the dreaming kithkin, and pulling her out of the dream.
The entire experience shook her, but it offered her so much new data. She stayed on Faskeria for some time, trying to learn more about the thoughtweft, which she found fascinating, and gathering more information on the culture to apply to her own research. The existence of new worlds completely revolutionized the approach she could take on her own research, but it also complicated things more than she was capable of expressing.
With a great deal of experimentation, and the new information in tow, she managed to return to her homeworld... and was promptly brought before the board of directors. In shock, she was informed that her experiment had put the volunteers into a coma for close to three days and such a major miscalculation would cost her dearly. The demands of where she had been were answered with a, quite frankly, shocking admission. It intrigued the council, and after a brief consultation, their judgment was handed down. Sophia would be allowed to retain her position at the academy, but her duties would be changed to acquisition and field research. Ultimately, it was a reassignment that she felt she could live with, because the possibilities to further develop her theories was paramount to her own desires. There were things out there that she did not understand, and for her to feel vindication in her theories, she had to gather more data.
Now Sophia explores the planes trying to learn as much about other cultures as she can, and when she can, learn about entirely different thought perspectives as well, all in the pursuit of her ultimate goal of developing a universal ethics theory.
Long story short: She's a kithkin psion shieldmage ethicist.