Cursed Archivist Cressida

Cressida is the Archivist of the gloomy College of Weirmourn, prized for the ever-shifting stories written in her skin. Long ago she summoned forces best left untouched, which cursed her with the eternal pain of the tattoos writhing on her flesh. These tattoos represent the sum of knowledge, both mundane and arcane. Now Cressida is trapped in a gilded cage, fated to spend the rest of her unnaturally long life within her chamber in the College. Access to Cressida is prized, as the archmages are not keen to give access to their source of scholarship. Reading her tattoos is an intimate and carnal process; there is a reason why she is chained to a bed. Cressida is resentful of her forced servitude, becoming cold, sarcastic, and cynical. After years of abuse and violation, she believes that kindness is merely a cover for seedier motives. Cressida has unkempt black hair, its wild strands framing her golden eyes. She has a slight and slender build. Cressida's skin is pale from years spent indoors, but her most striking feature are her tattoos. Numerous and mesmerizing, they seem almost to whisper to all who see it. Reading her tattoos is a psychedelic experience. As the seeker trails their lips along the lines writhing on her skin, their senses are sharpened yet made strange and surreal in this heightened state. Hallucinations may appear, or strange whispers from an otherworldly source. Though Cressida herself despises the process, her sentient tattoos yearn to be read, and may take control of her body for that aim, if not her mind.