"Actually, I find fire an excellent equaliser. Ashes seldom quibble."
- —Sienna Fuegonasus[1]
Sienna Fuegonasus, a member of the Ubersreik Five, was formerly a Bright Wizard, but has recently become a necromancer.
Sienna Fuegonasus is a fiery-tempered Bright Wizard turned necromancer native to Estalia.[1][6]
Blessed with a sharp intellect and a wicked sense of humour, Sienna will generally pass for a well-adjusted individual, as far as wizards go. Those who witness her in battle, however, will soon catch a glimpse of how deep her dependency on the adrenaline rush of pyromancy has taken her.[1]
Quick Answers
What is Sienna Fuegonasus's main source of power in battle?
How does Sienna Fuegonasus's personality change when she is in battle?
What is Sienna Fuegonasus's native land?
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What type of wizard is Sienna Fuegonasus originally before turning into a necromancer?
History[]
Origins[]
The Bright Wizard Sienna Fuegonasus
Sienna Fuegonasus travelled to the Empire from her native Estalia when she was young. She was sent away from the village by her parents as vicious rumours whispered that their daughter was a witch.[1] Sienna had a twin sister, Sofia Fuegonasus, but the two of them were never close growing up.[5] Sienna travelled with merchant caravans, slowly making her way across the Old World to Altdorf, where, she'd heard, wizards were forged.[1]
Along the way she met a Grey Wizard, Rambler, who became her first tutor in magic and taught her to harness her talents. Despite his tutelage, she, for reasons unknown, burned him alive. After a time, she finally arrived at the Bright College in Altdorf.[1][2]
Sienna mastered the Lore of Fire in Altdorf, but it soon became abundantly clear that she lacked both passion and patience for scholarly pursuits. She could not stand the slow pace of college life, and instead, she felt a void inside her that could only be filled by the addictive rush of intense spellcasting. Fire magic became Sienna's drug of choice, and she realised that she was unquestionably an addict. Accepting this fact, she decided to blaze her path through life, and has never looked back since.[1]
Fellow Bright Wizards were wary of Fuegonasus' temper and desire to always challenge herself to the extreme. She always strove to create the highest flame walls, the hottest fireballs or to summon the most impressive conflagration of doom. Her peers warned that the Wind of Aqshy was not something to play with, but Sienna saw it quite differently. She knew she needed the pyromaniacal rush of magic to not wither and die, so this was her way, and no other option would do.[1]
Destruction of Siernos[]
"How is your temper these days, Sienna? Does it flare? Does it boil? Do you remember what it led you to in the past?
Do you remember Rambler? He helped you harness your gifts, and you burned him alive for it.
You play the hero, Sienna, but your past is strewn with ashen death. You're every bit as dangerous as Victor believes.
Sienna, you'd have them believe the flame is wild, that it is beyond your control. But the flame is only wild because you are wild.
Don't you want to see their flesh curl and their skin burn? Remember Rambler? The screams? The sweet scent of his death?
Friends betray you, then they burn. Rambler. Sofia... who'll be next? But of course... it won't be your fault, will it? It'll be the flame...
You burned Siernos to save Sofia from the pyre. Only she was exactly what the inquisitor claimed, wasn't she?
You're a broken thing, Sienna. An angry child, screaming with flame. You've never been accepted. You never will be.
How long have you hidden in fire's embrace, numb to life? To people? You're an addict. You always have been.
How many times a night do you long to burn them all, just because you can? You've done it before.
Kill them now, Sienna. They'll betray you. Everyone always has."
- —The Daemon Prince Be'lakor wisphering inside Sienna's mind[9]
While she was in Altdorf, Sienna received word that her twin sister, Sofia Fuegonasus, was in trouble. Sofia had been accused of necromancy in the Estalian town of Siernos by an inquisitor named Diarno and was due to be executed. Using a variety of magical means, Sienna managed to reach Siernos the day of the execution, arriving to see her twin in shackles. Hot-tempered Sienna burned the entire town to ashes without a second thought, killing the inquisitor in the process. Sofia fled the scene without a word of thanks.[5]
However, Sofia turned out to be everything Diarno accused her of being. Like her twin, she was talented in the magical arts and addicted to its use, but had found her calling as a necromancer. Years after the destruction of Siernos, Sienna found her twin preying on defenceless peasants in the villages near Bilbali. She reportedly "corrected" her mistake in ash and flame, but her acts have haunted her since and she has refused to speak to anyone about them.[5]
Fuegonasus has since then wandered the Known World, always testing her powers but, as yet, always failing to find her limits and stave off her hunger for more. Unfortunately, she brought the flame with her wherever she went and some places were naught but ash after she had left.[1][2]
Tilea and the Empire[]
"You should try Tilea. One big swamp. All of it. The land, the people, the food. I've never bathed so much in my life. And still the stink of it lingered for weeks."
- —Sienna to Bardin Goreksson.[2]
This became evident during her stay in Tilea. In Miragliano she set a fire in the Old Quarter of the city to reclaim a debt, and so she is now a wanted criminal in that city-state ever since that day. This left her with a bitter memory of the region and when she refers to Tilea she calls it "a whole big swamp." Despite this, she appreciates how the way of life there was less hypocritical than in the Empire.[2]
Like many wizards of the Bright College, Sienna has a fiery temper and is quick to anger, but there's still room in her heart for morality and compassion. However, her addiction to fire magic is what truly shapes her life. She roams the land, offering her services as a Battle Wizard to anyone who can provide her with an opportunity to make things burn and get her adrenaline flowing.[1]
Sienna harbours a wicked sense of humour that spans from the droll to the outright bawdy, but is at most times forced to wear a mask of calmness and control to hide her addiction. In the midst of battle, her facade frequently cracks, and one would have to be both deaf and blind to not notice the rush of magic power she exudes.[1]
Sienna was aware of this problem. To gain further attention from the Witch Hunters was the last thing she needed. But recently, that is exactly what she got. Arrested under the suspicion of having killed the son of the burgomeister of Ubersreik, and burning down his mill, she is now in the custody of Victor Saltzpyre, a veteran Witch Hunter. Saltzpyre had hired a skilled and experienced state trooper, Markus Kruber, to assist him in escorting the dangerous bright wizard to Ubersreik. Sienna returned to the town as a prisoner, ready to stand trial for a heinous crime, at least in the eyes of the magistrates...[1]
After Ubersreik[]
Sienna Fuegonasus is an addict, forever torn between her will to control the destructive magics of Aqshy -- the Wind of Fire -- and a burgeoning desire to set the world alight for no other reason than the rush of magic in her bones. Another being might succumb to such temptations, and indeed, many have. But Sienna's compassion and wry sense of humour keep her grounded.[2]
Sienna's introduction to her companions who with her formed the Ubersreik Five was not the most auspicious. What began as a journey in chains has blossomed into a common cause of seeing the Reikland freed from invaders.[2]
During the Ubersreik Five's expedition into the Chaos Wastes, Sienna, who once cared little for gods, has taken the southern Goddess of War Myrmidia as a patron. She admires Myrmidia's cleverness in battle and fair character, and of course is attracted to her symbol; the blazing sun.[3] She herself sees it more as a "partnership" than worshipping Myrmidia, as she admires most of all her sense of justice and the stories of her siding with the valiant and true against all odds.[4]
Franz Lohner would eventually piece together the truth about Sienna's twin and the fate of Siernos from various reports, but he would also hear disturbing rumors about a Necromancer who looks more than a little like Sienna...[5]
Death is But a Door[]
"Other entities have manipulated our heroes for their own ends. The goddess Lileath - known to Bretonnians as the Lady of the Lake - anoints Kruber as one of her Grail Knights, even as Kerillian falls from her light and under the sway of the bleak Cytharai goddesses. Be’lakor, the Dark Master, deceives the puritanical Victor Saltzpyre into seeking the Citadel of Eternity - and then a Warrior Priest’s mantle - for reasons of his own. And it may yet be that Bardin’s embrace of the newfangled and oft-cursed engineer’s vocation is not so whimsical as it seems. Now, as Geheimnisnacht draws near, it’s Sienna’s turn."
- —Franz Lohner, on Sienna Fuegonasus' transformation into a necromancer.[6]
Sienna after following the path of necromancy.
Since time immemorial, a network of Elven waystones has channelled the eight Winds of Magic -- the stuff of Chaos itself -- into the Great Vortex at the heart of the High Elven realm of Ulthuan. But as the End Times gather pace, this network is failing, and one being in particular seeks advantage in that calamity.[6]
When Nagash, the Great Necromancer, conspired to yet another resurrection this fateful Geheimnisnacht, he had more in mind than a simple return. Reborn, he laid claim to Shyish, the Wind of Death, as its Incarnate becoming a veritable god...and in the process making his dark art of necromancy more accessible to mortals than ever before.[6]
As the End Times gather pace, countless wizards dabble in necromantic magic out of pride, desperation, greed or simple curiosity. Balthasar Gelt, Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic will become the most prominent of these, wielding the dead as a weapon to contain the invasion of the Old World by the Northmen.[6]
The magics that empower necromancy are hollowing and dangerous. But then all magic is corrosive to mortals, to a greater or lesser degree. It's why so much of even the simplest spellcraft is bound up in ritual and somatic conjuring -- it gives a wizard a means to minimise their exposure and their risk. And of course, necromancy's great power arises through the most selfish of means: the binding of other creatures (albeit dead) to one's own will -- and having absolute dominion over anything -- much less (once) living creatures seldom ends well.[6]
Given these physical, mental and spiritual pressures, it's no wonder that necromancers turn evil -- or else go so mad as makes no difference. When the boundary of mortality becomes so blurred, death loses its meaning -- especially the death of those who stand in one's way. And death is...so much tidier than living. Skeletons don't talk back. They don't need food or encouragement. They simply await their next command. And is it really so evil to press the dead to service if it saves the living?[6]
Such was certainly Balthasar Gelt's logic during the End Times, and he was by no means the first. So many of the necromancers who rose to bedevil the mortal world first began as wizards driven by simple curiosity, only to be led astray, one misstep after another.[6]
Perhaps Sienna's reasoning is much the same? Of all the Ubersreik Five, she's the first to be appalled at the carnage and cruelty they encounter. More than that, though Saltzpyre has struggled to give her the benefit of the doubt, her impetuousness and her addiction to magic have always threatened to lead her down darker roads. Perhaps Nagash's unshackling of the Wind of Death simply presented an irresistible opportunity?[6]
Maybe -- just maybe -- a third party fanned those flames during her recent periods of absence from Taal's Horn Keep? The Daemon Prince Be'lakor has manipulated the Ubersreik Five at least since they returned to Castle Drachenfels. Is Sienna his latest toy? Or perhaps Sienna found a secret mentor, just as Gelt fell under the sway of Vlad von Carstein? Stranger things have happened in the shadow of the Chaos Gods.[6]
Or is Sienna's twin sister Sofia Fuegonasus to blame? She's always served as Sienna's dark mirror, a soul free to act however she wished -- to embrace all that magic has to offer -- while Sienna strove for discipline. Did the Ubersreik Five's battle to reclaim Olesya's tower gather old resentments to the surface?[6]
It may even be the case that Sofia's influence is of a more direct kind...there is little more dangerous -- or desperate -- than a necromancer's spirit.[6]
Wargear and Abilities[]
"Kerillian: That was a fine hit, Sienna. Who taught you?
Sienna: Bastello, in Magritta. Loved his blade as much as his moustache.
Markus: A good moustache is to be treasured. I don't expect either of you to understand. "
- —A conversation between the members of the Ubersreik Five[8]
As a Bright Wizard, Sienna Fuegonasus was always seen with a staff in her hand. The staff was used to channel her magic, and she could choose from a selection of staves that would focus her magic into different attacks ranging from a concentrated beam of intense fire to a large flame column bursting up from the ground.[1]
Sienna needed to keep herself in check though, or she risked immolating herself. Using too much magic would cause the flames to turn on her. For close range combat, she could use her wizard sword or flaming sword to hack, slashing and burning through the Skaven and other foes, or opt for the Wizard Mace to bash armoured enemies into bloody submission.[1]
She was been taught the art of the sword by a sword master from Magritta called Bastello. Sienna always loved his skill with the blade and the cure of his mustache.[8]
Sienna's newfound powers as a necromancer were born from a fight with her twin sister, Sofia Fuegonasus, which granted her new powers and abilities that allow her to command the Undead through the use of Dark Magic.[7]
- Wizard Mace - A mace crafted for wizards, and said to be able to channel a portion of the wielder's magical strength into its attacks. Swings of the Wizard Mace can hit multiple foes, and most importantly, shows promising potential in the art of decorating walls with vermin brain matter.[1]
- Wizard Sword - An excellent tool for controlling large groups of Skaven and slashing them into more manageable pieces, ready to be scavenged by the bone pickers of Ubersreik (should any of them still be alive).[1]
- Flaming Sword - Fuegonasus loves fire more than anything, and what better weapon to use when the Winds of Magic still than her glorious and deadly flaming sword?[1]
- Wizard Staves - Sienna Fuegonasus' most important tools are her staves, and depending on which one she uses, she can combine her spells differently to achieve the most fiery and spectacular result. Each staff combines a lighter and heavier spell, allowing her a range of options and tactics in combat. Sienna needs to keep herself under control though, or risk immolating herself instead of her foes.[1]
Videos[]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer: The End Times - Vermintide (Archive)
- 2: Warhammer: Vermintide II (Videogame)
- 3: Pilgrim's Guide - Part Five: The Beneficent Gods (Archived)
- 4: Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Blazing Sun (Archived)
- 5: Franz Lohner's Chronicle - Reflections (Archived)
- 6: Dev Blog: Sienna the Necromancer - Lore: Death is But a Door
- 7: Sienna's Fourth Career—The Necromancer—Releases October 19
- 8: Character Conversations
- 9: Nameless Voice Conversation