Born in the Far Sea Marshes, Silifrey Hornraven is one of the Marsh Rovers, descendent from the fallen City of Anauria and a full-blooded Netherese. If she still lived among them, she would realize that she is considered tall and slender by their standards. Though her Netherese heritage is not known to her, she does know the language of the Marsh Rovers, which is merely a dialect of Netherese that has evolved since the fall of the fabled cities and still uses Draconic for its alphabet. To this day she still has pleasant memories of the rich, green expanse, full of bogs, shallow ponds, stands of swamp-growing trees, and occasional islands and causeways of solid earth. When not playing in the “village on stilts”, she would be out amongst the ferns and rushes, or petting the domesticated catoblepas when the herders were not looking.
As the society is matriarchal in nature, it did not seem strange when her mother, Cefrey decide to go on a trade mission to the south and bring Silifrey (now 5) with her, while leaving her husband, Taman behind at the Drover village of Coldhaven. What Silifrey did not know was that undead activity had recently flared in the swamps and rumors of a black dragon (“Shift”?) also abounded. So the decision was made to send a small group with their “Death Cheese” and recovered artifacts south to find a trading center, instead of through the marshes to Eagle Peak. Perhaps the idea was to remove the children from a perceived danger that loomed on the village, who really knows. But their plans went awry.
As they were journeying south of the region a caravan from Calisham fell upon them. The few guards were quickly overwhelmed and group was taken prisoner. Realizing the value of their prize, the caravan returned to Calimport promptly with the Netherese items from the swamps and the exotic and strong-willed women as slaves.
With her fair-skin, raven-black hair, and tall, slender frame, Cefrey was quickly auctioned a high price to merchant-noble of some means. Bardeid-Pashar Ralan placed Cefrey in his harem as a jhasina. Seeing the child had promise of likewise maturing into a beautiful and exotic (by Calisham standards) lady, he bid on Silifrey as well. She was introduced into the harem for training, learning the art, song, music, and dance, recitation of great literature, the art of massage and other duties of the harem. Bardeid-Pashar Ralan wisely believed he would easily be able to profit on such an investment when the girl matured, either at auction or as a gift to gain favor from those more powerful. Silifrey saw little of Cefrey from this point on, as she was kept separate to reduce the chances of her developing the disobedient traits displayed by her mother. Older members of the harem cared and raised the girl teaching her the languages and alphabet of Calisham; Alzhedo, the Calant dialect of common, and the Thorass alphabet, as well as Chondathan that is commonly spoken by many travelers. Silifrey quickly learned all that was taught her, and only awaited maturity to begin practice of her final lessons. But she still remembered the ways of her youth and secretly did not accept her subservient fate. At night she would pray to Mystryl and Chauntea to be spared her fate.
As it was, Bardeid-Pashar Ralan had business in the Moonshae Isles. He decided to send a small portion of his harem ahead to set-up for his extended visit. Silifrey’s caretakers were among this group, so she was sent with them. Unfortunately their vessel did not have the guard that it would have had if he had accompanied them. The ship carrying Silifrey (now 13) was set upon by pirates (perhaps Luskan under the Arcane Brotherhood or affiliated with a group active in Skullport) who took the vessel without much resistance. They quickly realized that the vessel did not contain the type of cargo that they had hoped for. The captain decided to make what profit he could. Realizing that the normal ports to auction slaves would not be wise to use, he headed for the Waterdeep region and smuggled the women into Skullport. Once there, they were auctioned off to the pleasure-houses and as private slaves.
Silifrey was considered for the brothels, but was still young and a higher-up at the auction house noticed her ability with the pen (calligraphy) and languages. Touting those skills, he was able to fetch a suitable price from the Master of Slavers of the Xanathar’s Guild. Who loaned her into the service of the Master of Bookkeeping to translate and forge the proper shipping papers and manifests needed to fence stolen goods as legit. He hoped that she might become useful by giving him an eye into the affairs of one of the other masters of the guild, while gaining a favor owed.
As Silifrey matured to look more like her mother, They began having her dance during bardic performances in guild owned taverns and inns, to help draw a crowd and catch the notice of the Masters of Blackmailing and Information Gathering. Once Silifrey caught their eyes and they learned of the more cultured aspects of her training, they quickly made arrangements with the dwarf to utilize her within their own branches. The decision was made to slowly work her into being one of the known escorts of city. They began sending Silifrey (now 16) as an escort for minor nobles and merchants during events in Waterdeep, and anywhere a pretty girl on the arm of a gentleman was expected. Their hope being that she would gain notice of more influential types while about. With the lesser nobles and merchants vouching for her character, suspicions of her being connected to a criminal group would be averted. Then once she procured suitable clients, she would be instructed to do what was necessary to bring them under the Xanathar’s Guilds influence.
