Character history for Sphinx Skatn(Bardic Mage)
Name: Sphinx
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 90lb
Race: Half-Elf
Gender:Female
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Magic: Healing, Bardic Magic.
Markings: Tattoos run down the back of her neck and over hear arms, following down her spine and then down both of her legs and into her boots.
Sanity: None.

A bard born and trained in slavery this half elf was once a well known and respected bard. Currently she has fallen from grace (Or sanity) and wanders the land as an oddity, a creature usually spared death due to her enemies showing the insane girl their pity....

The beginning of her tale is sad, but simple, she was born into poverty, and sold by her mother into slavery along with her twin. During their early years Sphinx's twin, "Hypnotic Sphinx" showed a high aptitude for acrobatics and dancing, sometimes neglecting her duties to watch the performers, though often punished for this, she eventually was awarded training. Sphinx was drawn to music. After being caught attempting to play a shoddy set of panpipes she'd created, her masters took the serving girl from duties to be tested on her aptitude with music. She took to the instruments easily, mastering songs and music faster than many had expected the then-clumsy girl to learn.

Years in training taught her to play the songs well, however, there was a price to this.While studying her music, the bard unlocked her magic, accidentally using it to influence crowds, healing or harming according to her moods. This went unnoticed for years until a fully trained Bardic Mage stumbled on the girl. After a particularly stunning performance on the Bard's part, he cornered her owners and demanded that she be given to him for training, when they attempted to refuse he simply showed them what, exactly, the girl could call on. The young half elf was never made aware of exactly what it is he showed them, but when her masters handed her over to her new mentor they did so white-faced and shaking, asking him to never return, and never allow her to come back to their home. After Sphinx left with her new mentor, Hypnotic was abandoned and later found her way to her twin, and her mentor's side.

Once her training was completed Sphinx and her twin once again parted ways, the dancer choosing to stay with sphinx's trainer to augment the man's shows, and leaving her twin to make her way on her own, at least for a time. During her travels on her own Sphinx learned many new talents, including the ability to summon and control the soulflayers. The same creatures her mentor had used to influence her former owners.

It unknown as to when she met with the vampire, but for a time she traveled with a Malkavian Vampire, an elder master who eventually turned on her, his paranoia deciding that the bard was a threat of some sort. Sphinx fled after being attacked by him and hid in what would later become the Valley of Sorrows. Here, she delved into her bardic magic, summoning the soulflayers to guard herself from her lost love - the vampire, releasing the flayers into her valley. Too late, she realized her mistake, in fending off one of her summoned guardians she made a final effort to dismiss the soulflayers. She successfully dismissed all but the most powerful of them - unable to dismiss it, she attempted to bind it to her. The battle for dominance over her body and soul began, and ended when she bound the SoulFlayer to herself, locking it into place and locking it away from her soul with the runic magic she'd embedded in her tattoos. After this she began locking away her memories, of the past, of her friends, and of the magic. It is here that we now find her.... know that she is linked with the soulflayer... know that her death shall release it..... It is here that we find her now, re-emerging from her valley with the dubious protection of two Drow. Individuals who'd run across her in the past, and followed to protect her in her exile.

It is worth noting here that the runes - the same ones that lock the soulflayers away and keep them from devouring her soul - much less being released onto the rest of humanity, are also a fail safe set up for the bard, a thing which will in times of need force-ably pull the bard back into her Valley to heal. What's more, these runes act as armor on the bard's body, making her a little harder to hit, and creating a small amount of insulation to keep her warm (as her usual outfits do little practical).

(I do not follow D&D rules for my bard, she is based out of lore from another book series. )