Illyana Phantom Blade's page

About Illyana Phantom Blade

Illyana Tibus' backstory

Growing up in Virtue, the capital city of Lastwall, Illyana Tibus heard countless stories of the mighty paladins of Iomedae fighting the legions of undead that were the last remenants of the Whispering Tyrant. So one day in her youth, she reckless crossed the border in her own attempt of bravery.

That was when her life was forever changed.

On her second night in the mountains of Virlych, she came across a group of cultists gathered around a fallen soldier. Amongst the cultists was an undead shadow. The shadow was systematically draining the soldier's strength, which the cultists used to give power to the ritual. Steeling herself, Illyana charged into the group trying to disrupt the ritual as much as possible. She succeeded, but she received a horrible scar that forever marred her face as payment for her trouble. Having fulfilled her tast of adventure, she started on making her way home.

But she was not alone. That night she heard a voice in her head. It was quite polite and thanked her endlessly for her part in disrupting the ritual. But she heard the voice even when she was awake. She thought she was going crazy. Because the voice distracted her constantly she barely kept ahead of the constant horrors that plagued the area around her.

And that is how Professor Lorrimorr found her. Half starved and almost fully insane, he walked the waif of a child back to his camp. He nursed her back to health and listened to her tale of woe. Eventually, he consulted his reference books and told Illyana that she had become a spiritualist. And the voice in her head was her phantom. The professor even then guided her to the Ustalav and Lastwall border. Waving away her gratitude, he simply said that it was a favor to her and that one day he would come back to collect it.

Armed with the knowledge of what the professor told her, Illyana started talking back to her phantom. Its name was Darmon. He was the sound of the fallen paladin that she had saved on that fateful day. She also learned that she was unique even among spiritualists as Darmon manifested as a phantom weapon (a longsword) rather than a humanoid figure.

And so a pact was forged between the two. Darmon would teach Illyana everything he knew about combat if she would take that knowledge and her newfound psychic magic to destroy the undead and especially the incorporeal undead that condemned him. She agree and started using armor and Darmon together.

But then sadness struck again. Illyana received a letter saying that Professor Lorrimorr had unexpectedly died. Even more surprising, she was named in his will. And so she undertook another trip of Ustalav, but this time it was to say goodbye to a mentor who had never collected on his act of kindness.