Step 1: Five facts about Andra
1) As a young child, Andra was abducted from her home by goblin minions of a powerful dark entity. Goblins still remind her of that time, and often make her nervous.
2) Her young mind was infused with vast intellect and knowledge by a magic item, which was then forcibly stripped away after she had come to rely upon it.
3) Manipulated into becoming the entity's apprentice, Andra rapidly became a powerful wizard - but those knowledge and memories were stripped from her when she was freed from captivity, forcing her to start over as a mere beginner.
4) The loss of the magic that her developing mind relied upon has left Andra suffering from occasional issues with memory and comprehension, but its lingering influence is the source of her natural talent for wizardry.
5) Since Andra's family was slain during her abduction, since then she has been raised by the five eclectic adventurers who rescued her - growing up enamored with their tales of magic and heroism.
Step 2: Character Goals
Short-Term) Andra hopes to perfect the pseudo-golem she has designed - augmenting her talent for clockwork with arcane magic.
Long-Term) Andra dreams of becoming a famous adventurer, like the heroic band which raised her.
Step 3: Secrets
Aware) The source of her construct's animating force is in fact a fragment from the clay golem who watched over her during her imprisonment - the piece of its armor which bore the construct's name and structured its personality.
Unaware) The malign intelligence which animated the tower that imprisoned Andra as a child was not destroyed, merely its vessel - and perhaps it still hungers for her power.
Step 4: NPCs: Two friendly, one unfriendly
Friendly) Moli - The Garundi wizard (and Magaambya graduate) of the adventuring party which saved Andra from her childhood imprisonment. He's responsible for sponsoring Andra for attendance at the academy, and along with his adventuring companions, raised her like a parent.
Friendly) Andra knows only one current student at the Magaambya - a half-elf named Lenora who was the former apprentice of her father figure Moli. While she's quite a bit older than Andra, she's a bit like an older sister to the young woman.
Unfriendly) One of the goblin shamans who had also served the tower survived the adventurers' assault - a brute named Rekti who blames Andra for the tower's fall and still holds a grudge all these years later.
Step 5: Memories
1) Andra's most powerful memory is of donning the magical hat which transformed her mind. Despite the trauma that resulted, she still dreams about that moment nearly every night, and fights a feeling of emptiness which still persists to this day.
2) Andra really only has one memory of her life before the tower. She's holding her mother's hand, looking at a display of magical tricks for children at a faire. Her father stands next to her, but she cannot remember his face.
3) The first time Andra cast a spell under her own power, not the tower's magic, was a moment of rebirth for the young woman. She finally believed she was capable of succeeding on her own merits, and did not need to use another as a crutch.
Flaw: Andra suffers from occasional moments of confusion when something triggers a lost or fragmented memory, occasionally also experiencing piercing migraines.
Quirk: Andra whistles, sings, or hums while she works - she struggles to focus if she's forced to work in silence.
