Teera Vant

Info
Teera Vant is an Asuran Mesmer, master enchantress, and the current krewe chief of Crystalline Dynamics. She's also served as an administrator to Enterprisal Attainment Krewe, Spatial Evocation Krewe and the Astral Encephalon Krewe. She's the inventor of multiple inventions, including the Vantraguilizer and the Vantorium, as well as one of the pioneers behind the creation of the Eternal Library.

Early Life
Before Teera had begun her academic career, she was living with her family. Her mother, Mira, was an accomplished enchantress and one of the lead researchers on cross-enchantment. Her father, Flyll, was a renowned weapons manufacturer and chiefed one of the krewes that supplied the modern day Peacemakers. Her older sister, Itusi, was more concerned with becoming socially keen and hadn't started her scientific career in earnest until Teera had launched her own. With their parents being more concerned about their careers than their families, the sisters would have to raise each other up through the trials ahead.

As the youngest daughter of two highly respected members of the scientific community, Teera was born with the sense that there was some kind of expectation looming over her to make the best of her name and expand the family legacy. She aligned herself with the College of Synergetics because she believed the Eternal Alchemy was malleable, and that the world just hadn't yet possessed the knowledge to unlock the potential to shape it.

She first approached Gatekeeper Rell to be her first mentor when she was a mere progeny. Rell, being as close to retirement as he was, was adamant about not accepting any apprentices. Teera's persistence, demonstrated by lurking around his lab and taking note of its developments, eventually won Rell over; especially once she began proposing solutions to their hard-pressing problems.

Academia
Now beginning to excel in her academic career, she was drawing the attention of her peers. Her strong-willed temperament and assertive personality made her standing among her fellows divisive; people who worked with her either loathed her unwillingness to budge and abdicate her theories, while others admired her ability to stand her ground and not bend under pressure. At the time, there was also an air of hope and determination surrounding her every decision, almost as though her faith in herself and her colleagues were her safety net against total failure amidst the trial and error of the environment of Rata Sum's embedded research community.

This is when she attracted the attention of Illustrator Lopp, an Inquest aspirant who had taken an unhealthily possessive liking to Teera. After some convincing, Lopp was able to win her over and forge a partnership between them, becoming her first official scientific collaborator. Teera quickly became unsatisfied with his focus being misdirected on her instead of the research projects at hand, often to her annoyance and unease.

It was around this time that Vozz had come over from his birthplace in Kessex Hills to pursue a career in science, starting with the College of Synergetics. Teera was thoroughly impressed with the notion that even though he had started long after Teera, he still managed to climb the rungs of education to her level in half the time. Having watched and admired his progress, she proposed a partnership once they were united at the same academic level. Vozz accepted, and ties with Lopp were abruptly severed.

Vozz and Teera ascended quickly together, earning a place among the upper echelons in their respective fields of study. It was at this time that Rell insisted Teera finally step away from the libraries of Rata Sum and into the labs of the Metrica Province, finally launching her career as a krewe researcher. An opportunity had conveniently presented itself among the ranks of a krewe that was infamous for its high turnover rate. The proposition was that whoever could show the most promise among their college-sourced applicants in the form of a research thesis relative to the current krewe mission would be taken on and immediately promoted to the supervisory rank of administrator. The rest would simply be hired as entry-level researchers and engineers.

Scientific Career
Vozz and Teera had collaborated on this endeavor, hoping that cosigning each other on the submission would result in them both being promoted. Once the arduous process of conducting the thesis was over, Teera was shocked to discover that Vozz had submitted it in his name alone, and was individually appointed the position over her. For the length of her time at that first miserable krewe, she seethed quietly under the command of her now former research partner, opting not to make a fuss solely out of respect for their personal history together.

Working as an enchantress in the power generation section of the lab, she held onto her spot longer than most would have in her shoes, finding herself in unofficial command of several up-and-coming krewemates as the old ones rotated out to pursue different endeavors. This provided her with the foundational experience to be a front-line leader, and eventually her efforts were noticed by Chief Sturi of the ambitious Enterprisal Attainment Krewe, a startup founded by a formerly disgraced krewe chief willing to give large-scale research another try. Teera was transferred honorably from one krewe to the next, and subsequently promoted into the administrative role she initially sought after.

Introduction to the Enterprisal Attainment Krewe
Teera's indoctrination into the EAK was a painless one. Chief Sturi came to regard her as a daughter figure over the course of her employment there, despite his actual daughter, Miya, working under Teera's command. This had consequences and benefits to it; on one hand, she was silently regarded as the favorite among the boss of the krewe, and as a result she was allowed to conduct experiments with a great deal of personal agency, but on the other hand his somewhat overprotective nature got in the way of more risky or dangerous assignments, and his efforts to avoid favoritism despite the invisible preferences kept him from promoting Teera past her attained rank as administrator.

Teera led a small shop of researchers and technicians, most notably Zukk, her personal assistant at the time, Naffan, her assigned security coordinator, and Miya, her research collaborator. Together, their combined leadership carved the path through the doubt that had initially surrounded the krewe and brought their lab into upstanding repute. Teera's knowledge of enchanting expanded when coordinating solutions to workfloor obstacles with Miya, and her prowess with small firearms came to a head when Naffan began to impart his hard earned wisdom with her outside of work.

Eventually, Teera's schematics began to leak to the Asuran public at large. Spies were slowly infiltrating the ranks of the EAK and they were stealing their work; the peculiar thing was that the research wasn't being stolen for personal gain, but rather for public reveal. As a result, the source of these infiltrators was incredibly difficult to pin down. With her continued efforts being pulled in several different directions moving forward, her work ethic gradually began to develop into something much stricter, her style of leadership becoming more cold and calculating as time went on.

Enter Hapa, a technician administrator that was transferred from another shop within the krewe to help out with their next big project. Teera has always been infamously bad with Golemancy, whereas Hapa had earned countless awards and accolades for his skill in the subject. Where Hapa himself fell short was the lack of magical talent and next to no personal knowledge on arcane enchantment. The two complimented each other almost perfectly, and after a short time working together on the same project they began to fall in love.

With their affection carrying on in secret, the two administrators pushed hard to meet the deadlines laid before them. It was Hapa's firm insistence that they keep their relationship under wraps for the time being in order to maintain their image of competency and authority within the krewe, suggesting that them being together would create a perceived conflict of interests that would ultimately end up with them being separated.

It was a long stretch of time into their relationship that Teera had accidentally discovered that Hapa was the romantic partner of her sister, Itusi, who had fallen off Teera's radar after having been stationed in Kryta since their foray into the workforce. Confused and conflicted, Teera managed to keep the secret despite the new information, continuing with their secret relationship throughout the entire duration of their project.

Tragedy struck when their new golem was being presented at the Interdisciplinary Accessium. Once the creation was uncovered and powered on, it leapt from the stage and into the crowd of onlookers, violently slaughtering several members of the audience. This egregious failure brought the eyes of Rata Sum towards the EAK, many demanding penance or answers from those involved with the malfunction. Hapa quickly responded with a public address, declaring himself to be free of fault, shifting the entirety of the blame on Teera and her supposed lack of competency.

Heartbroken and enraged by this, Teera responded with an address of her own where she aired out every aspect of their partnership to the public in an attempt to bring him down with her. As she was preparing to destroy all records of their partnership, Chief Sturi stops Teera to declare his adamant willingness to defend and represent her amidst the controversy. Vozz also makes a trip to Teera's quarters to ensure that he would be eager to vouch for her all the same. Both individuals publish public statements clearly defining their sides while Itusi begins her voyage back to Rata Sum from Divinity's Reach.

With Hapa dismissed from the EAK and Teera on a brief hiatus, Itusi confronts them both individually to express her vast disappointment in the both of them. Pregnant with Hapa's progeny, Itusi disowns him completely, turning her back on Teera after sharing one final heart-to-heart regarding her unquestionable love for her only sibling.

The Hiatus
Having been officially reprimanded by her family, krewe, and the Arcane Council, Teera retreats into a hiatus from scientific involvement hoping that stepping back from her career in hopes the environment will be less chaotic when she eventually returns. Things begin to settle down at the EAK during Teera's absence with Zukk being promoted into the vacancy left behind by Vozz's termination.

Meanwhile, Illustrator Lopp had been watching recent events unfold from the sidelines. It didn't take long for him to begin scheming a way to use these developments to manipulate Teera back into his life. In a stroke of self-proclaimed genius, Lopp conducted a plot to stage a series of "accidents" at the worksites of Teera's parents, starting with her mother Mira. During the early morning hours, Lopp mobilized a team of Inquest sharpshooters to take Mira's research team hostage.

Because the team was unable to maintain the lab's reactor, the krewe within the lab had found themselves tied to a ticking time bomb of their own creation. After some time, the unchecked reactor suffered a catastrophic meltdown resulting in the lab's explosion and the demise of Mira and her krewe. Prior to her death, she was able to leave behind a cryptic message to be interpreted by her husband Flyll, who would remain overcome with grief, possessing the knowledge that her death was not an accident.

He shared this knowledge with Teera, who responded with passionate fury. As soon as she learned the truth of what happened, she took up arms against Lopp's krewe before he could get a chance to recoup and orchestrate another attack on her remaining family. Armed with a scepter and pistol, both respective creations of each of her parents, she stormed the Inquest laboratory without mercy. Flyll, who had initially attempted to stop Teera from running headfirst into certain death, appeared amidst the conflict to help her exact their revenge.

Using a combination of Mesmer arts and novice marksmanship, she pushed her way to the core of the lab where Lopp stood eagerly awaiting her arrival. Outfitted with a prototype exosuit, Lopp engaged the device that was tethered to his body and used his new creation to combat Teera and Flyll otherwise unarmed. Lopp found himself evenly matched throughout the engagement, though Flyll's first slip-up amidst the fighting turned out to be his final mistake as Lopp exploited his brief moment of weakness by driving his hand through Flyll's chest, incapacitating him.

Though the battle was lengthy and hard-won, Teera held her ground fueled by unbridled rage and pure spite. Lopp was defeated when Teera used magic to expose the exosuit's weaknesses, leaving it open to be finished off by one final blast from Flyll's shotgun before he succumbed to his fatal injuries.

Lopp was hauled off to prison, therefrom he was transferred to an asylum following his testimony. Teera, now orphaned, said her final goodbyes to her father and returned to their home to spend the remainder of her hiatus in contemplative isolation. She was so lost in her own affairs that she failed to recognize the passing of her mentor Rell, who had peacefully slipped away in his sleep after over a hundred years of life with very little fanfare.

What was even more striking to Teera's heart was her inability to be present for the birth of her sister's daughter. Itusi, having already scorned what little of her family remained, held her beloved progeny in her solitary arms and, with her final breath, bestowed upon her the name Sirah.

Just before her resurgence into the EAK, she received unofficial correspondence from Hapa; an off-the-record challenge to a duel of pistols in front of the krewe workshop. Teera saw this as an opportunity to seize permanent closure for these events and truly bury them in the past, paving the way for unhindered progress towards the future glory of her own legacy. She accepted, enlisting the help of her krewe security advisor and firearms tutor Naffan to be her negotiator on the day of the duel.

Teera was surprised to see Vozz acting in that very capacity for Hapa, stepping forward in Hapa's defense in an attempt to defuse the situation. Naffan, knowing that his krewemate deeply wanted the catharsis of this victory, and personally eager to see the duel play out, adamantly upheld the issued challenge by rejecting Vozz's attempts at a peaceful resolution. The two took their positions and prepared to fire their first shots.

Hapa's injury pierced his lung, while his own shot merely grazed Teera's neck. Prior to the dispersal of those involved, Chief Sturi came down with haste to the scene of events in an attempt to exercise his authority to prevent the conflict. He was too late, however, and Hapa was already in grave condition. Chief Sturi issued an apology to Vozz, the only outsider involved with the incident, and summoned Teera to his office where he would extend her suspension until the remaining investigations against her were concluded following an extremely heated argument between the two.

What followed was complete silence. Teera didn't interact with the outside world, nor could she even muster the courage to look too deeply within herself throughout the duration of her sentence. A great deal of time passed; greater than she realized, for when Teera would finally return she would be unprepared for how drastically different the EAK was.

The Cursory Innovation Krewe
--TBC