Patia Por'co

Patia Por'co is an elf wizard and the Keeper of Scrolls of Avalir at the Librarium Incantatum. She is played by Marisha Ray.

Appearance
Patia has very pale skin and silvery hair. She has elaborate, perfectly done makeup. She wears an emerald green coat over a deep blue-green dress, a gold fascinator through which strands of her hair fall, and a hovering, rotating golden ring around her neck.

Personality
Patia is charismatic and demanding. She is a very talented mage, and believes it is her destiny to continue Avalir's great legacy.

Marisha Ray describes Patia as "the epitome of 'boss bitch', who is prepared for anything – and if she isn't, she sure as hell isn't going to let you know that" and as the "walking embodiment of 'Fake it till ya make it'". She added that Patia, like herself, is hard-headed, hard-working, and constantly examining the choices that brought her to the current moment.

Background
Patia is the granddaughter of one of the founders of Avalir, Imyr Por'co, who was responsible for the final enchantments to lift the city into the air. As a child, she knew the woman who would become the Raven Queen and learned about Apogee Solstices from her a few years before her ascension. When she was a young girl, Imyr persuaded Patia to have her memories of her parents erased, because they "failed where she [would eventually] succeed." It was left ambiguous as to whether Patia did it to herself or if Imyr did it for her.

After wishing the statue of her grandfather a good Replenishment, Patia spoke with Eldamir the Wise, one of the Septarion of Avalir, who complimented her and talked about her grandfather's legacy. She then spoke with Loras, Eldamir's apprentice, who told her that the other apprenticeship position would be opening up. Loras also told Patia that Aeor was planning a potential attack to test a weapon on Lathras, a more minor flying city. He also informed her that the oracles in the Hall of Prophecy required a rest and the hall had closed for the day; and that some artifacts from Vasselheim had come to the city and were in the custody of Sightwarden Cerrit Agrupnin. Loras indicated that the artifacts seemed to be tied to Vespin Chloras and his presumed attempt to recreate the ascension of The Raven Queen. He asked Patia to use her relationship with Cerrit through the Ring of Brass to become involved in the investigation.

Patia later hosted the party at the Palazzo Por'co. She noticed a hodmedod behaving strangely and cast Detect Thoughts on it only to find that it - a non-sentient creature - was thinking "Ghor Dranas".

Patia continued to host the party and distract the guests so that the Ring of Brass could investigate their various leads. She was excited by Laerryn's success with the Astral Leywright and argued in favor of its use. As the group discussed the various coincidences - the closing of the Hall of Oracles, Zerxus's dream, Laerryn's strange experience with the Arboreal Calix, and Cerrit's encounter with Vespin Chloras, Patia recalled lore about the apogee solstice she had learned from the woman who would later become the Raven Queen. She was able to determine that the unidentified cleric of a Betrayer God entered the party disguised as Lacrytia Hollow's hodmedod servant, bearing a gift. She then opened the gift to find that it was a powerful poison accompanied by a note indicating this would be "the easier way out".

Patia and Laerryn then went to the Magisterium to investigate further, and quickly killed an invisible Micah Cormorant, then looked through his papers to find that he had been sneaking people through the teleportation circles into the city, as well as some information regarding the Pact of Crown and Throne concerning the Arboreal Calix.

Patia contributed significantly to the fight against Lacrytia and her various allies, and ultimately killed Lacrytia by casting Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, causing Circle of Death to rebound inside it. After the fight, Patia helped Nydas unravel the memories he had taken from one of the now-dead mages. She also revealed to Zerxus that he had come to her in desperation after Evandrin's death and she had not only used her knowledge as Keeper of Scrolls to attempt to bring him back, but had, upon Zerxus's request, removed his memories of the attempt.

The group reconvened with the rest of the Ring of Brass, and Patia failed Zerxus's Zone of Truth. She restored Zerxus's memories and elaborated on the ritual to bring back Evandrin, and said that she believed it failed only because he was still alive. She then helped Nydas display the memories to the rest of the group. When Nydas found Lacrytia's discussion of how Patia trafficked in her grandfather's name, Patia admitted that she had restated the purpose of the Sorcerer's University to make it more appealing to the leadership of Avalir, but that she did not regret this. She also offered to show Nydas her own memories, but he declined.

After Cerrit left, Patia repeatedly replayed his accusation of selfishness to herself before catching up to the others. As the fight broke out amongst the Ring of Brass in the chamber of the Arboreal Calix, Patia cast Legend Lore to attempt to learn more about the Tree of Names. She was immediately overwhelmed with memories of Imyr talking with the Gau Drashari, and learned its purpose: a way to cast a protective spell over all of Exandria protecting it from extraplanar threats, and "writing the names". She continued to push and saw the sealing of the Primordials underneath Toramunda by the Dawnfather and Wildmother. The tree began to lance into her she saw the history of Toramunda and Avalir and the creation of the Tree of Names.

Patia lost her forearm and several fingers when the Tree of Names exploded, and died of her injuries, regretting that her knowledge would be lost. She was shortly thereafter resurrected by Zerxus, and went with the rest of the Ring of Brass to the Hall of Prophecy to learn what to do next. After the Hall of Prophecy, Patia went to the statue of Imyr Por'co at the Archsept and considered her life of duty to Avalir and her grandfather's choice to lift the city despite the urging of the druids, before breaking off the Librarium Incantatum from the scale model and sending it, along with her orb, to Maya, Cerrit's daughter.

At the Archsept, Patia encountered Loras, and the two had a tense discussion in which Loras claimed that whatever Patia thought of him, he would survive the night and she would not. She also ran into Eldamir the Wise, who told her the people of Avalir must give all their spell energy to the city and the Septarion must evacuate, which she realized would kill most of the population. She ignored him.

Patia returned to the Astral Leywright. Laerryn told her to take Loquatius and leave once the Leywright had been activated, but during the fight, Patia instead defended Laerryn, casting Wall of Force around her to protect her from damage. She was ultimately killed by one of the taxmen, but before she died, she released the energy within her from the Tree of Names and ensured Laerryn's success. She heard Maya call Cerrit through the sending stone, confirming she had received Patia's orb. She also recalled that her grandfather had told her that the people who made Avalir are more important than the physical city, as they could remake it again one day.

Relationships
Patia is quite close with Nydas, and helped him fund the Sorcerer's University. She also considers Laerryn her "best friend", and Zerxus entrusted her to not only perform a ritual to resurrect Evandrin, but also to remove his memories of the attempt.

She and Lacrytia Hollow are rivals and detest each other.

Notable items

 * Sphere of Power
 * Ring of protection
 * Ring of Mind Shielding

Elf abilities

 * Darkvision
 * Keen Senses
 * Fey Ancestry
 * Trance

Feats

 * War Caster

Wizard abilities

 * Spellcasting
 * Arcane Recovery (up to 7 slot levels)
 * Arcane Tradition: School of Enchantment
 * Enchantment Savant
 * Hypnotic Gaze
 * Instinctive Charm
 * Split Enchantment
 * Alter Memories

Behind the scenes
Patia is an iteration of early character concepts developed by Laura Bailey for Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. Laura was originally a member of the cast, but she left early in the character creation process due to scheduling conflicts. Marisha joined the cast in her place and developed the final version of Patia.

Appearances and mentions

 * Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

Trivia

 * Patia's name is similar to that of Hypatia, an ancient philosopher in the Eastern Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries. In the twentieth century, Hypatia's violent death has become popularly but erroneously associated with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, which no longer existed by the time she was born.
 * Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dungeon Master for Calamity, said that if Patia was a cheese she would be brie.
 * Patia's subclass was not made clear from the events of the campaign, as she never made use of any subclass features. When this was pointed out on Twitter, Kyle Shire, producer for Critical Role and Exandria Unlimited (including Calamity) joked: "I should remember but...for some reason I don't? Like there's a hole in my mind...where the memory should be?"