**Below is a combination of headcanon original creations and references from the 5E resources - I will source references for works not my own if they're from books!
PREFERRED NAME: Odette "Tav" Tavelyen
TRUE NAME: Gellana Toth (pronounced "Ghel-ahna")
AGE: 32
RACE: Human
CLASS: Order of the Scribe Wizard (Level 2 prior to BG3)
ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good
Unbeknownst to her, Odette is actually a descendant of Ilyn Toth, the Red Wizard that fled his Thayan homeland. This is the very same Red Wizard that is tracked to the town of Moonhaven, the blighted town where he used the townspeople to conduct his macabre experiments.
HIS GOAL: Learning how to perform true resurrection to bring back the woman he loved, *Qulone Trythkul, the ex-lover of the zulkir Szass Tam - and the one person who could possibly bring the lich to heel.
Tam, having tired of Qulone's existence, tried to kill the woman; however, his ploy failed and, instead, made Qulone immortal. In an effort to stop her from becoming a source of conflict against his rule in Thay, he trapped her in a tome - the Necromancy of Thay.
Below the cut is a thorough breakdown of Odette Tavelyen's heritage, the history of her family, sources for references, and the implications of her lineage in the BG3 game events. Spoilers, spoilers galore!
Her great-grandfather, Ilyn, had escaped with three things:
The Necromancy of Thay
His reluctant, resentful apprentice: a young Thayan man named Azilos who despised Ilyn for abandoning their home in pursuit of bringing the Zulkir Szass Tam out of power through the Necromancy of Thay's dark knowledge.
His familiar, Shovel the quasit. A cheeky little thing, Shovel enjoys the simple things in life: murder, fisting, and mischief.
Pre-BG3:
A hooded figure arrived at Candlekeep's gates with a crying child in a basket and an offer: take the child and raise her within the halls of the library and, in exchange, the Readers would be given the donation of The Tharchiate Codex. This darkly dangerous vellum-bound tome held the secrets to unlock the complex glyphs and mysteries of the Necromancy of Thay.
Odette was raised as a custodian of the tomes, a young woman steadily working her way through the hierarchy of the Avowed with a quiet dream of one day ascending to the rank of Reader.
She has no inkling of her true heritage—a secret known only to those who must guard it: the Keeper of the Tomes and the First Reader. To reveal her lineage would endanger not only her life but the library itself, for the Necromancy of Thay remains one of the most coveted grimoires among Red Wizards still hunting its hidden knowledge.
But when The Tharchiate Codex is stolen from the Restricted Section of Candlekeep, suspicion falls squarely on Odette. The wing where the tome was kept was heavily warded against any who might dare to claim it - yet someone whose bloodline resonated with the book, someone who had spent her life uncovering every hidden corner of the library? The connection was too compelling to ignore.
Since The Tharchiate Codex would only respond to the bloodline from which it was first bound - the Toth line - Odette is charged with retrieving the dark tome before it falls into the wrong hands. The last reports placed it traveling toward Baldur's Gate, where the library's scouts had gone ominously silent.
To Baldur's Gate, she shall go.
Act One:
During Act One, Odette is forced to navigate the impossible balance of concealing her true identity while grappling with the fact of it at all. She has now glimpsed a version of herself - a truth buried in her bones - that she doesn't recognize. And what's worse, her heritage isn't just a burden to carry in secret; it's a mortal danger to everyone around her.
With the theft of The Tharchiate Codex no longer hidden, it is only a matter of time before Thayan Hunters or Red Wizards come seeking it - the only key unlocking the maddening whispers of true resurrection contained within the pages of the Necromancy of Thay.
When the group comes upon the ruins of Moonhaven, Odette begins to feel the stirring of something dark within her - a whisper of the Necromancy of Thay calling to her blood and bone. She knows she must tell the truth to the companions who have trusted her with their own confessions, but terror roots her tongue. If she speaks it aloud, she is certain that they will leave her behind to deal with her dark responsibility.
Yet when she confesses at camp that night, she is met with a measure of support - a trust she neither expects nor believes she deserves.
Later, as the group explores the abandoned Apothecary Shoppe that once belonged to her great-grandfather, Ilyn Toth, Odette's keen eye uncovers the hidden laboratory below, shelves lined with brittle vials and rotting scrolls, and there - resting as if it had been waiting for her all along - lay the cursed tome itself: the Necromancy of Thay.
The moment her fingers brush the vellum-bound cover, Odette becomes a vessel.
Qulone Trythkul, the imprisoned spirit whose screaming face is forever immortalized in the leather binding, begins to whisper. The secrets she spills are seductive and terrible - knowledge that gives Odette command over her magic in a way she never imagined, but at a cost.
Soon, her hands can summon the dead to speak, to rise, to serve. And though she tells herself it is only temporary, only out of necessity to fulfill their quest to remove the tadpoles and return the book to Candlekeep, she can't help but wonder if this was the power she was always meant to claim.
Act Two:
In the Shadow Cursed lands, Odette finds herself uniquely (though uneasily) prepared for what awaits. While her companions struggle to fend off the unrelenting wraiths and corpse-laden fields, she begins to realize that the Necromancy of Thay offers her an unnatural advantage. The tome's whispers, once only a sinister undercurrent in her mind, have become something closer to a second voice - one that teaches her to pierce the veils between life and undeath.
The wraiths that drift along the roads seem to pause when she draws near, their eyeless faces tilting as if in recognition... or perhaps in fear.
Odette learns quickly that, with effort, she can exert a tenuous control over these cursed creatures. When a ghoul emerges from the blackened soil, she does not need to lift her quill to spell a scroll. Instead, she meets the sunken gaze and feels a thread of understanding between them - the result never perfect, more an insistent compulsion than absolute dominion, but often enough the ghouls would shamble past her in reluctant deference.
Its a power that unnerves her as much as it aids her, for every act of command seems to bind her more tightly to the spirit coiled within the tome.
At times, she can almost understand the groaning wails and violent hisses of the lives ruined by the Shadow Curse. Qulone's voice in her mind serves as translator and tutor both, urging her to listen rather than recoil. When faced with the battle against General Ketheric Thorm, Odette learns to raise the dead of the men and women and creatures killed by the Sharran curse and Absolute alike - bringing the vengeance of those dead back to fight alongside her (this also ties into Withers' offer to bring the hirelings back to life!).
Though Odette tries to keep these abilities hidden, there is no denying the uneasy relief that they provide. While Odette insists to herself that she's using this power solely to protect the living, the innocent, and destroy the Absolute, she wonders who she will be when and if she makes it through this alive.
Act Three: Coming soon!
I'm finishing up Act Two on my playthrough right now, so I'll update this post and reblog when Odette's bond with the Necromancy of Thay escalates in the next act!
If you made it this far down in my tangential torrent of brainworms for Odette, please know that I am holding you gently in my hands and smooching your forehead (with consent, of course)! Thank you for reading and I hope that this was compelling for an OC! ♥
*Qulone Tyrthkul is a fictional character mentioned in the Thay Land of the Red Wizards by Ed Greenwood, Alex Kammer, & Alan Patrick. It's a wonderfully thorough reference for any Thayan interests, I'd HIIIGHLY recommend picking up a copy from DMsGuild!
Odette Tavelyen has spent all of her life along the Sword Coast in one of the most magically warded places in Faerun: Candlekeep Library Fortress. Due to this, she is largely untested in the ways of the world. While she may have plenty of knowledge learned from the books within the library, she's never seen the remnants of Mount Hotenow, hadn't breathed deep the spiced evening air of a Calimport bazaar, couldn't describe the glittering sunset over Waterdeep with anything more than pure imagination.
As a Scribe in Candlekeep Library, Odette knows her way around a book, be it magical or non-magical, fiction or historical, recipe book or a small collection of poems. She spends most of her days transcribing ancient texts or copying spell scrolls for those purchasing from the library's stores. Odette spends most of her time either in the House of the Binder, creating the aforementioned replicas, or assisting "Seekers" (those allowed to enter the Court of Air for study) with their research during their stay at Candlekeep.
The librarian is equipped with an enchanted quill, which requires no ink and can write in any color of her choice and will erase her writing if she brushes the feather across the inked surface. Odette also has an apprentice: a young acolyte tiefling named Irony. Despite stereotypical assumptions, Irony is bright, honest, never steals or lies, and hopes to one day become the Keeper of the Tomes. Odette and Irony have worked together for the last several months in harmony.
A lifetime of research, but wholly lacking in firsthand experience.
As with many of the librarians and Avowed of Candlekeep, Odette is not well-trained in the art of the Weave. In fact, she considers herself rather lousy with magic; in her early attempts with spellcasting, she had a Mending mishap and accidentally melted several pages of an ancient tome together (she's never been more mortified!). Since then, she's studied a bit to become less hazardous to the knowledge within Candlekeep's walls.
Odette knows spells such as Mage Hand, Silence, Prestidigitation, and Detect Languages, but these have little combat utility as she soon learns
Therefore, when Odette meets Gale, she's intrigued by his offer to help her connect to the Weave, to learn alongside him as he regains his own footing with magic (since the Orb had consumed his connection with the Weave, Gale had to relearn his magic without Mystra's guidance and is finally feeling like an adept again, but still a far cry from Mystra's Chosen abilities). But she knows she has to help the party more than writing quick spell scrolls for the others to use in combat - so she accepts his (several) offers. This leads them to the first "romance" scene with Gale - which I'll share in another post!
If you've read this far, I give you each a kiss on the forehead (only if you consent) for your interest in my little librarian!
