Heartstringer Guinne

Hailing from a distant land of curious magecraft, Guinne's magic-weaving of choice is almost literal—'threads' of energy control puppets known as weavedolls, resulting in a visually distinct manner reminiscent of traditional marionettistes. As ethereal beings of immaterial form, lesser spirits can manifest both in flesh or in a material vessel. The most common ones are crystal, but the greater the spirit, the purer a crystal must be, and those often command prices far beyond the reach of a humble mage. For weavedolls, simply connecting threads of energy to their limbs is sufficient, but it comes with the caveat of manual control—a price to pay for complete obedience over the more haphazard free-spirits. In search of greater autonomy and sentience without breaking the bank, Guinne struck west. After months of research into what precious few scraps of information she could glean from smuggled manuscripts from a distinguished scholar's library, Guinne finally pieced together what she deemed a viable solution. The weavedolls could make do with crystal shards, and by channeling her will into a more powerful spirit—a servitor or 'shadow'—the greater spirit could command its lessers, circumventing the need for multiple expensive cores. All that was left was the matter of the servitor's own vessel, for which her research concluded was to be the summoner themselves. Steeling herself, Guinne invoked the dangerous ritual, setting up as many failsafes as she could muster. But through her concentration, stray desires clung to the purity of her intentions and coalesced into a most alluring form...