Appearance:
Raelis is a human in her thirties, having been a teenager upon first joining the party. She's aged well, and she'll hardly look any different to the party upon seeing them again, despite the intervening years. She has smooth olive skin; and dark, straight brown hair that she often wears tied up in a messy knot. She's pretty, but not very present — you'd have to be looking for her to spot her in a crowd. She stands at 5'8", and is relatively slender. Most often you'll find her in a somewhat bizarre mish-mash of clothing, scholarly robes often combined with practical work clothes with lots of pockets for gadgets and scraps of machinery. Raelis is also nearly permanently accompanied by her homunculus, an ugly white clay imp-looking thing, named Fblthp, whom she affectionately calls "Fib."

Personality:
Outwardly, Raelis is brash, cocky, insufferable, and brilliant. She has a confidence in herself that borders on arrogance, and it's typical of her to callously or derisively dismiss those who can't keep up with how she thinks (which is nearly everyone). She talks more than she probably should, and though she is often witty, she can just as often come off as rude, pretentious, or condescending. Her prodigious intelligence is counterbalanced by her rash, hasty, overconfident, and careless decision making. Raelis is also an incredibly adventurous, inquisitive, and determined person.

Inwardly, Raelis is shy, curious, and generous. She's extremely loyal to her friends and cares for them deeply, which reveals itself in private moments, but it'd be rare for her to admit this explicitly.

Backstory:
Raelis was born poor on the streets of a lakefront city, orphaned and homeless from a young age, having to steal and fight to fend for herself among the other urchins. Unlike others in her situation, Raelis was physically weak, but had a sharp mind, which she used to perform small time heists alongside petty theft in order to survive. One day though, she was caught in the act, stealing rare books from a wealthy family's library. In a twist of fate, the family, which happened to be a young couple of scientists named Shai, forgave Raelis, and offered to adopt her and give her a home. Though reluctant and suspicious at first, Raelis eventually accepted, and suddenly found herself off the streets and thrust into a privileged life.

Parth and Lorren Shai grew to love Raelis like a daughter, and Raelis eventually came to return that love. Her incredible intellect did not go unnoticed among the Shais, who nurtured her talents and did their best to give her as extensive of an education that they could afford. Though a lazy student given to lapses in attention, Raelis exceeded all expectations for her from her adoptive parents and her tutors, absorbing information ravenously and effortlessly. She developed an affinity for the study of magic, particularly artifice, which she practiced in her newfound parents' workshop. Raelis still couldn't shake some of her old ways, and frequently got in trouble for her sticky fingers, despite having resources enough at her disposal to have virtually anything she wanted. Her parents tried their best to understand.

One day though, the Shais, prominent archaeologists, left for a distant land for their studies. This wasn't unusual — they made trips like this frequently, and even sometimes brought Raelis along. This trip, however, was farther and more dangerous than before, and they went alone. When they didn't return on their promised date, Raelis began to worry. When weeks had passed with virtually no sign of their return, they were assumed dead. Because of the nature of the will, Raelis couldn't inherit their fortune until she reached a certain age. Nearly adult, the prospect of waiting around in their home, with nothing but dusty old tomes and pieces of scrap to entertain herself, sounded like a kind of hell to Raelis. In her studies of artifice, she had created theoretical designs for a magical armor that would aid her in her more adventurous pursuits. She left her newfound home in pursuit of the materials and skills to realize that design and find out what truly happened to her parents.

It was here when Raelis' path crossed with the party's. Her versatile skills and abilities as an artificer were invaluable to the party, and her expertise in thievery and more subtle undertakings came in handy as well. When at last the party retired and went their separate ways, Raelis was old enough to inherit the Shai fortune and estate. She used those resources to pursue her intellectual curiosities, as well as establish and run a well-known artificing company, Shai Acquisitions, dealing in magical and mundane items of all kinds.