Zandra Starcrow is an anomaly among her peers. Unlike most necromancers who focus on the study of death and immortality, Zandra focuses on the aspect of life that the necromantic knowledge touches. Illnesses, manipulation of vital force and other areas fascinate her and were one of the reasons that led her to run away from home to follow a necromancer when she was only 14 years old.
Zandra's parents have always been wandering merchants, moving from caravan to caravan to the furthest corners of Scar's world. During these travels Darran Starcrow (father of Zandra) would knew and became friend of the necromancer Azun Dabrurr that was from lands of Asherak. When Darran finally managed to gather enough gold to set up his own warehouse he settled in his hometown of Vorsus, the only city away from the violent and dangerous waters of the Sea of Blood.
Years later Darran and his wife Zaldrara would have two children, Aldury and Zandra (she is the youngest) and along with the children of Darran's first marriage, Kradus (Human, Cavalier serving in Karsia's military) and Nushala (Half-Elf, traveling Hunter, Last Known Location: Somewhere in the Dragon Lands) they made the warehouse a success and prosperity seemed to have entered the family life. That changed with Darran's disease.
During his travels Darran Starcrow ended up contracting a strange disease that affected his heart and prevented him from doing much physical effort. The healers and priests could not cure their illness, at most managing to alleviate it for variable periods of time. He lived with this disease during the last years of his travels and this was one of the main reasons for him to finally return to Vorsus and start his warehouse. During the years that followed he had relapses of this disease and each time it became stronger. When the disease arrived at a certain stage the business of the warehouse began to get bad because Darran could no longer take care of business as before and Zaldrara was not as good a dealer as her husband. It was at this time of lean cows that the event that would change Zandra's life would happen.
One morning Garran's old friend, Azun Dabrurr, appeared in the warehouse to visit him. The joy and excitement of seeing his old friend was too much for Garran, and his illness struck him devastatingly. Zandra and his mother were present when this happened and as they came to Darran, Zaldrara, desperate, quickly explained to the astonished Azun what was happening. When realizing what it was Azun went to put his friend under the effect of Spell Coma and proceeded to examine Darran. He soon realized something he had already seen during autopsies of some dead people and to confirm his suspicion he used the Spell Hemophilia in Darran. The effect was immediate and Darran began to breathe in a more normal way. Azun immediately ordered Darran to be taken to his bed and left the warehouse, leaving orders for him to be left resting. Hours later, late into the night, Azun returned with a strange bottle. In this bottle was a yellow liquid with a flickering color. Azun ordered the children to leave the room and then together with Zaldrara he proceeded to open the chest of his friend and using autopsy tools typical of a necromancer, proceeded to inject the strange liquid in the heart of Darran. The effect of the alchemical product was almost immediate, and shortly afterwards Darran stood again, healthy as if he had never had the disease.
Unbeknownst to Azun and Zaldrara, Zandra and her Brother Aldury saw the whole scene hidden in the attic of the house, using a hole in the floor that made it possible to see the room below. The whole procedure left Aldury disgusted but Zandra was fascinated by what she had seen. The following morning, during breakfast at which Azun was present as a guest, she began to fill the necromancer with all sorts of questions about what had happened in the room. Both Darran and Zaldrara were astonished that the girl had seen that and even Azun himself was concerned that the girl had witnessed such practices as a living section, but at the same time he was amazed at Zandra's intelligence as she was being able to guessing tiny parts of the procedure just by observation.
In the days that followed Azun, after Zandra's almost daily insistence, explained in part what he had done in Darran's heart, that what he did was in practice the same thing he did with certain corpses that had heart arteries obstructed and that the alchemical product he used in her father served to remove this obstruction. When Zandra asked how he knew that was the explanation for her father's illness, he replied that he did not know, but that he actually remembered what he had learned in the old continent of Asherak about peoples causa mortis and how to identify them in a autopsy. He tested his theory and was successful and therefore her father was alive and probably will remain alive for many years because the alchemical product he used leaves the arteries clean and almost "varnished" and therefore the dirt that clogged the arteries of his heart would never accumulate again.
These conversations left Zandra wanting to learn more about bodies, illnesses, and the like, and near the end of Azun's stay in the city she asked her father to let her be Azun's apprentice. Darran was surprised at his younger daughter's request, but Zaldrara, a fervent Madriel devotee, was vehemently opposed when she knew of it and soon Darran and his wife were arguing. After much discussion, Darran told Zandra that he would not allow her to go with Azun. Later Azun himself would seek out Darran to talk about Zandra and the girl's possible talent for the mystical arts, but Darran told Azun that he would not allow it because of his wife and also because of the repercussions that having a necromancer on the family would cause in his business. Karsia still stood guard against a possible onslaught from the servants of the Ghoul King and having Zandra as a necromancer would not be good for business. Azun understood the situation and without any hard feelings he said goodbye to his friend because he had to continue his own projects.
Azun would leave two days later, but without knowing it would bring with him a relentless chaser ... the young Zandra.
After knowing that she could not be Azun's apprentice, Zandra did not settle and, like every good teenager, she ran away from home one day after learning that Azun had left the city. With the help of her older sister Nushala, who did not share her stepmother's opinion, Zandra was able to find out where Azun was going and with that and the little money (30 gp) she managed to snatch out of the warehouse cashier's she began her chasing of Azun. It would take two weeks, but she would finally be able to reach him in the coastal town of Safral in the kingdom of Padrinola. When Azun discovered that Zandra had run away from home his first reaction was to send the girl back to Vorsus, but after much insistence he finally granted Zandra a chance, but the final word would be of Zandra's father. In the meantime he would begin to teach the girl the basis of magic.
Azun sent a letter to Darran, explaining what had happened. By this time more than a month had already passed since Zandra had run away from home. Furious with his eldest daughter and at the same time relieved, Darran, after much arguing with Zaldrara and Nushala, finally sent a letter back to Azun allowing Zandra to be his apprentice. Zaldrara was furious but in the end she ended up admitting that her daughter, like her, was uncompromising in her opinions and she would never give up on her goals if they tried to force her into it. When Darran's answer arrived at Azun, Zandra had already mastered the first of the cantrips (Light), demonstrating without a shadow of doubt his talent for the mystic arts.
In the years that followed Zandra learned a lot from Azun and it was on one of his master's visits to his homeland of Asherak that Zandra would eventually get to know Altanthropolis's young healing academy run by the city's kallorti caste. After a serious discussion with Azun because of Zandra's interest in the healing techniques and body knowledge that the Koralli have and in the fact that the Koralli only teach members of their caste, Zandra managed to convince his master to use his contacts with the members of the Society of Sand to obtain special permission for her to be admitted to the academy.
After weeks of negotiation and collection old favors, Azun was able to get permission from the Kalalli to get Zandra to learn at the Altanthropolis healing academy. As she said goodbye to Azun that year she would not have imagined it would be the last time she would see her master. 3 years later she was formed as Healer and her knowledge about the body and its diseases even greater. She then went on to travel the world to know more and more about diseases and their ways of healing them and never looked back. It's been five years since then.
Recently Zandra learned more about the pestilence titan and the continent where he was been defeated. She gathered her savings and built a "boat" to take her to the continent of Ghelspad. It's been three months since Zandra arrived and she's following directions here and there to try and find the place where the titan fell.
