Laerryn Coramar-Seelie

Laerryn Coramar-Seelie is a high elf wizard and the Architect Arcane of Avalir. She is played by Aabria Iyengar.

Appearance
Laerryn is a pretty, dark-skinned elven woman. She is tall and lanky, and wears primarily gold clothing, sometimes with a purple cape. She has an angular face and gold eyes. She is 100 to 150 years old in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. Aabria Iyengar conceptualized this as the equivalent of being in her late 20s compared to the 40s that she perceived Patia Por'co (described as middle-aged) to be.

Personality
Laerryn takes her role as a key maintainer of the infrastructure of the city very seriously, and is a perfectionist. She frequently multitasks, and can be somewhat brusque and impatient. She hates attending parties, preferring to make a brief appearance before leaving again to work. She used to like parties and events, but her grief for her friend Evandrin Alterra, who vanished into nothingness after an experiment with the Astral Leywright, drove her deep into her work and into disliking social events.

Aabria said that Laerryn's personal hobby is her work.

Background
Laerryn married Loquatius Seelie, whom she met through work, seven years prior to the events of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, at the last Replenishment. The two have since divorced. She felt that their end of their relationship would give him the chance to be happy, the loneliness would allow her the ability to focus, and there would be time to fix their relationship after the Leywright was completed.

She is architect arcane at the Court of Working and a member of the Abjuration Guild, through which she holds the title of Hierophant Abjura.

Laerryn worked intensely with her staff on the arcane engine of Avalir and the logistics of Avalir's descent to Cathmoíra. She then excitedly reviewed her own research into ley energies that were likely to change during the imminent celestial solstice. She was interrupted by the arrival of Loquatius, and the two had an argumentative conversation but reminisced about their upcoming anniversary.

Later that evening, Laerryn attended the ball at the Palazzo Por'co, but wished to return to her research. She investigated the arcane aspects of the strange bow that Cerrit brought.

Laerryn hurried away from the party to work on her experiments in the Meridian Labyrinth. Nydas met her there with four taxmen, and she had one of them insert the bow of a solar into her engine, the Astral Leywright. She then used the Astral Leywright for its purpose: to transport a small machine, the Ley-Rudder, to another plane. She and Nydas both celebrated, as they hope to redirect leylines and allow Avalir to travel to other planes so that they can become like the gods, but she then noticed that this working caused the Arboreal Calix to draw a considerable amount of power.

Laerryn then went with Patia to the Magisterium in search of Micah Cormorant. They found his door locked, but Laerryn summoned a construct to break down the door. The two wizards attacked and killed Magister Cormorant before searching his records and finding information about the Arboreal Calix and the original pact with the Gau Drashari, as well as evidence that Cormorant had been tampering with teleportation records.

At around 1 in the morning, Laerryn heard from her helmswoman that the descent to Cathmoíra was ready with no anticipated issues, but the communication ended in a choking noise. Laerryn called the rest of the Ring of Brass to go to the Meridian Labyrinth, but they were stopped by Lacrytia Hollow.

When questioned by Lacrytia, Laerryn told her she was heading to the helm. During the ensuing fight, Laerryn notably used Reverse Gravity and Counterspelled a serious attack on Patia. She then used Dimension Door to take herself and Loquatius to the helm as the fight was still ongoing.

The two of them were able to secure one of the eldritch batteries under attack. Laerryn and Loquatius then talk: he wanted to understand her plans, and said that she should get permission from all of Avalir. When she told him he could return to the Feywild, he said that he's happy here. Calum then called her to confirm only one battery was destroyed and that there is some strange script in Primordial to decipher. He also gave her a status report on the energy in the city, and Laerryn told him to short the tithe to the Gau Drashari. Loquatius was even more concerned for her, and told her history is subjective and unkind, but Laerryn continued with her plans.

The rest of the Ring of Brass convened at the helm. Laerryn resisted Zerxus's Zone of Truth. As the party discussed their findings, Laerryn admitted that Evandrin's illness was likely due to her sending him - willingly - to the Celestial planes, and she angrily accused the druids of preventing her spells from working.

When the group realized that the city landing would complete Lacrytia and Vespin's plans, Cerrit realized that Laerryn was lying about not knowing how to stop it, and she told him that this is her only opportunity in 120 years to engage the Astral Leywright. Cerrit left, and the rest of the Ring of Brass went to the Arboreal Calix. Loquatius noticed the model of the Ley-Rudder stuck in the trees, and Laerryn tried but failed to pull it out with Mage Hand. She decided the tree is what is preventing planar travel, and once she saw Evandrin stuck in the tree, began to cast Blight. Nydas tried to stop her, and a fight broke out. Nydas was able to hold her for most of it, and Dweomer came to her aid, but eventually she broke free and cast Blight on the tree. It cracked in half, and Vespin, then Asmodeus, both emerged.

When the Tree of Names exploded, Laerryn was the only member of the Ring of Brass in the room to remain alive and conscious following the blast, though her Ring of Masks was destroyed. She used Dimension Door to escape to a safe room within the Meridian Labyrinth, and watched the discussion Asmodeus had with Zerxus in Infernal via a feed from Dweomer. She also telepathically messaged Cerrit, as the only other member still conscious.

When Zerxus returned to the room of the Arboreal Calix, she yelled at him through Dweomer to bring the other members back, then rejoined the group, along with Cerrit. She apologized to Loquatius and scolded Zerxus, but urged the group to head to the Hall of Prophecy to learn what to do next. She also asked Cerrit if his children were safe on the way.

At the Hall of Prophecy, after hearing Karwen's new prophecy that Exandria would be destroyed by the primordials should the Betrayer Gods awaken them, Laerryn realized that she could modify the Astral Leywright to instead move the primordials, rather than a ley line. She ran back to the Leywright as the rest of the party gathered resources to help her and protect the population, listening to Loquatius's broadcast as she did so.

With the help of Patia's knowledge of the primordial's various names, Loquatius's healing, and the party protecting her from Vespin and the taxmen, Laerryn was able to successfully modify the Leywright; however, a release of energy devastating to the city could not be prevented. During this fight, Loquatius proposed to her again, and the two of them stayed together in the room as the city burned. Prior to her death, Laerryn pointed out the location of an exit from the Labyrinth to Cerrit so that he could escape and find his family, and when he successfully did so, he contacted her over the telepathic bond, telling her "The Brass Ring endures."

Relationships
Laerryn and Loquatius were once married, but have since divorced. They appear to still both have some hard feelings about the end of their relationship. She entrusts both Nydas and Patia to help her with the Astral Leywright and is very close with them both. She was also dear friends with Evandrin, who left her his locket. Dweomer is extremely loyal and protective towards her.

Notable items

 * +2 All-Purpose Tool
 * Ring of Masks
 * +2 Mace

Elf abilities

 * Darkvision
 * Keen Senses
 * Fey Ancestry
 * Trance
 * Cantrip (On/Off)
 * Extra Language (Marquesian)

Feats and other abilities

 * Background: Izzet Engineer
 * Tool proficiencies: Mason's tools
 * Language: Draconic
 * Feature: Urban Infrastructure
 * Eldritch Adept: Armor of Shadows
 * Tough
 * War Caster

Wizard abilities

 * Spellcasting
 * Arcane Recovery (up to 7 slot levels)
 * Arcane Tradition: School of Abjuration
 * Abjuration Savant
 * Arcane Ward (33 hit points)
 * Projected Ward
 * Improved Abjuration
 * Spell Resistance

Behind the scenes
Aabria Iyengar wanted to build Laerryn mechanically in a way to support her narrative journey. Once she knew that Laura Bailey and then Marisha Ray was building Patia Por'co, also an incredibly powerful wizard and "examples and paragons", they cooperated on their character's backstories together. Mel Medarda was one of Aabria's inspirations for Laerryn.

Aabria initially wanted Laerryn to be a Graviturgy wizard, but upon realizing that dunamancy had not yet developed in the Age of Arcanum, she settled on the School of Abjuration, because it fit with Laerryn's personality as someone who "fundamentally wants to protect things" and to mitigate damage. In the early abjuration builds, Aabria was considering giving Laerryn levels of Artificer to represent her engineering occupation, but Aabria's desire to improve her abjuration capabilities outweighed the Artificer option. Aabria picked a high elf, because in her mind this race represents "hubris and inherent class distinction", which was the prominent climate among Age of Arcanum mages. Aabria also settled on playing a high elf because she wanted to create a character who obsessively chases a singular goal with incredible dedication and doesn't sleep, only temporarily resting in a trance. It is understandable to focus her everything on a project as a high elf who lives much longer and who lives through a decade "like a month-long crunch at the end of a big push".

Brennan let the players to roll twice for their ability scores and take the highest roll. Aabria rolled well for Laerryn, maxing Intelligence to boost her spellcasting modifier, and raising Constitution because her abjuration spells heavily rely on Laerryn's ability to maintain concentration. For this reason, she also picked up the War Caster feat. Aabria was proud that she chose the Eldritch Adept feat that let Laerryn learn an abjuration spell Mage Armor and cast it at will, which worked really well with her Arcane Ward, refilling it every time she cast Mage Armor.

Brennan let players choose all the magic items they wanted, but Aabria got distracted and forgot to take this opportunity, picking up only three items. She also planned to combine the plus two mace and All-Purpose Tool into a single item and give it a special name, but did not get to it.

The idea for Laerryn and Loquatius being ex-spouses was proposed by Sam Riegel, the player for Loquatius. While the cast was discussing their characters, Sam mentioned that he always wanted to play a character who was divorced from another member of the party, and Aabria Iyengar immediately volunteered to play his ex-wife. By the finale of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, they had not worked out anything about how Laerryn and Loquatius met beyond having met through work.

Appearances and mentions

 * Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Quotations
Laerryn: "They don't know it yet, but this is what the city stands for. We took the top of a mountain into the clouds. It was always about reaching. And we're just reaching a little further and it's scary and we have to break rules to do it. But if it works, it will be worth it. It has to be worth it." Laerryn: "My best. Finally."
 * "It's a mediocre mind that tries to replicate what's already been. We're going to go somewhere new now."
 * Loquatius: "History is-- (scoffs) History is not true, all right? History is whatever people decide to put out into the public. They might never know that you exist, unless someone like me tells them. And I can't, if you're going against everything that the city stands for."
 * Asmodeus: "What? What have you done?"

Trivia

 * Aabria said that if Laerryn had a real-world astrological sign it would be Capricorn sun, Virgo moon, Scorpio rising.
 * Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dungeon Master for Calamity, said that if Laerryn was a cheese she would be "some kind of synthetic non-dairy super cheese".
 * Aabria and Sam did not work out anything about how Laerryn and Loquatius met beyond having met through work. However, Aabria made two out-of-game comments on her own personal thoughts about how they met:
 * They met in a terrestrial city during one of Avalir's stops. She went into the city with Evandrin and Nydas to research leylines and there met Loquatius, who was working for a journal that pre-dated the Herald's Tome. He was so charming that she fell in love immediately, and they hooked up in a closet at a party. Their relationship ended during yet-another fight about her dedication to her work. She told him that if he wanted to leave, he should go, and she did not walk it back.
 * "Soft Dom meets a Brat and the rest is history."
 * Aabria joked that she headcanons that Laerryn had kissed every member of the Ring of Brass. In relation to this joke, she further confirmed that Laerryn is indeed bisexual.
 * Aabria explained that Laerryn eats the feather that Loquatius proposes to her with in because Brennan's character in A Court of Fey and Flowers (for which Aabria was the Game Master) impulsively ate a feather that reminded him of another character and wanted to be as close to it as possible. Brennan explained in the Adventuring Party talkback show that this was in reference to an anecdote in which Maurice Sendak wrote a letter to a small child, who loved it so much that he ate it. The finale of Calamity was filmed after this episode of Adventuring Party, and Aabria, remembering this story, decided that Laerryn would also eat her feather.  She also explained that Laerryn does this because "her outfit doesn't have pockets and she panicked".