Overview
Astrid is a divine mage, engineer, and former Blackcrag council member who raises Garrik and becomes his mentor. She teaches him divine spellwork and skyship handling, advises him during his years as Blackcrag's prince, and follows him when he flees before coronation. After Kaldaryn is founded, she lives there as Garrik's retired mentor while healing patients, maintaining engines, planning rail routes, and advising on skyship work.
Appearance and Manner
Astrid has teal eyes and golden hair when she first receives the infant Garrik in Blackcrag. By the time Raphael and Gabriel's forces threaten Kaldaryn, she is elderly, with graying hair, visible lines, and a weathered face.
She is practical, informal, curious, and deeply loyal to Garrik. She often calls him boy or little prince long after he becomes a ruler. Her engineer's habits leave her clothes soot-streaked and her workshops cluttered with tools, essence engines, and skyship parts.
Abilities
Astrid is a formidable divine mage and healer. She senses essence and unusual auras, casts divine shields, teaches divine spellwork, and uses golden healing light on wounded people. In old age, she still heals injured citizens in Kaldaryn, heals Splin while Eira stabilizes the astragon, and heals Garrik after Splin rescues him from the sky.
Blackcrag trusts Astrid with its most advanced engineering. She handles skyships, essence cores, stormglass machinery, advanced weapon systems, and later Kaldaryn's rail projects. She personally drafts Kaldaryn's route for the train line.
History
George introduces Astrid to the infant Garrik after Nero delivers him to Omberion, then places her among Garrik's teachers alongside Ulrich. As Garrik grows, Astrid sits among Blackcrag's council members, oversees skyship development, and trains him for rule. She favors caution about sharing Blackcrag's technology but also backs renewed contact and trade with central Valrindor.
During Blackcrag's diplomatic mission to Morindel, Astrid senses essence in the crystal heart worn by Magnus and trades for it. The heart draws essence and can repair itself. When the council allows it to feed, the heart restores Eremion, who thanks Astrid and later calls her his savior. Astrid initially welcomes him, builds Blackcrag skyships with him, and believes his stories about Thalion, Tianlei, and the Order of Thalion Zenith because she can feel that he is not lying.
After George's death and before Garrik's coronation, Astrid catches him aboard the skyship he steals and chooses to stay with him. The sabotaged vessel strands them in Shaoying, where they enlist in the Green Emperor's army while searching for Ren Wuye and answers about Tianlei. They later meet Isaac and Simon after the battle in Thundermarch, and Isaac recruits both Garrik and Astrid into the Order.
Astrid stands by Garrik through his years of travel, peacemaking, and coalition-building across central Valrindor. She joins him under Khoradyn's command, marches with the army that becomes Kaldaryn, and eventually asks for a peaceful place to live when age makes it harder for her to keep marching. In Kaldaryn, she carries guilt for the mistake that restored Eremion despite Garrik and Eira's refusal to blame her.
When Raphael and Gabriel's forces threaten Kaldaryn, Astrid remains active despite her age. She directs engineering work, heals civilians after Azarion and Eliona attack Kaldaryn City, keeps Splin alive with Eira, and heals Garrik after Splin carries him back from the Battle for Cyndarel.
Relationships
- Garrik: Astrid raises, teaches, and follows him from Blackcrag into exile, the Order, and Kaldaryn.
- George and Ulrich: George entrusts Garrik's training to Astrid and Ulrich, who become the prince's main Blackcrag teachers.
- Eremion: Astrid's work on the crystal heart restores Eremion. She first welcomes him, then sides with Garrik against him.
- Eira and Splin: Astrid heals beside Eira in Kaldaryn and uses divine magic on Splin after the astragon is badly injured.
- Magnus: Magnus trades the crystal heart to Astrid in Morindel.