Tessandra “Tess” Tagliatova is another dreamer – desperately in search of who she is and where she came from. In her part of the world elves had long since withdrawn from the world of humans. Rarely seen and rarely heard. Legends from antiquity. Yet she clearly has elven blood. She grew up in a church orphanage. Surrounded by dusky tomes. She was never fully accepted among the other children. Too obviously exotic. Too obviously different. So she found refuge in books. In songs. In history.

She has devoted her life to learning everything there is to learn about the elves. Stories, art, magic, music – everything. If she can just learn who and what they were, and why they left, maybe she can learn where she came from and who exactly *she* is.

She met Roland the way most do – he simply wandered into her life out of nowhere. She was totally absorbed in a tome about an old elven library on a long forgotten island, when she heard a voice from behind her. “Lovely place. A bit drafty this time of year, but lovely. The old legends are still there you know. Carved into the very walls so they would outlast the scrolls.” She whirled around and saw the last thing she expected to see – a human man, armored, holding a book, and smiling. “I believe D’Mornay has some fascinating paintings on the subject in his latest edition, if you’d care to review them.” he said, as he handed her the tome. And so it began.

Despite the introduction he didn’t know nearly as much about the old elves as she did, obviously. But he knew far more than anyone else she had ever met. He was eager to listen. He often asked questions she hadn’t considered. And he never once questioned why she was so focused on this one goal. And slowly but surely she became infected by his dream as well. The old elves had their heroes. They had their songs and stories. They worked towards a better world. And so did he. So her dream melded with his. Sometimes she followed him, lending her all around talents to his latest drive. Sometimes he followed her. Delving into forgotten ruins in shadowy lands to unlock pieces of the past. But at heart they were both dreamers. It worked.

Kat doesn’t get her at all. Falcon finds her utterly mystifying. But Roland accepts her, so they do.

In games Tess can be difficult. She has a lot of the bard about her, but she is not Charisma focused at *all*. So she’s sometimes a lore-focused Wizard. Sometimes a bard. Sometimes various multi-classes. Whatever combination best cobbles together to support who she is.

She’s actually another former Wizardry character – an alternate in Grim’s crew that ended up fitting better elsewhere.

Getting her portrait right involves capturing a lot of different physical traits – the signature hair and tattoos, the distant look. The elven but not fully aspect. Sometimes I simply run out of qualifiers trying to fill her out. Her queries tend to vary on:

“mid 30s, cockney, half-elf woman, bard, long black hair covering right side of her face, buzz cut on the left side, mystic tattoos on her face, leather armor, distant look in her eyes, distracted,”

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