Aspen Dragil

Aspen is Nora's cousin, and a former heir to the throne of the Astoran Empire. Though currently imprisoned at the Order of the Sword, he has influenced the party's quest from behind the scenes. For much of the campaign he also maintained a false identity as Rhea Lwomyn.

Appearance & Personality

Aspen bears a strong family resemblance to Nora; both have blue eyes, and thick black hair with similar bangs, although Aspen's is cut much shorter. Like the rest of the Order of the Sword, he wears black robes, although as nobility, his are more decorated. Under the robes, he wears a sleeveless turtleneck, which covers the prisoner's tattoo that circles his neck.

Aspen is seemingly friendly and easygoing, and has aided the party on many occassions, claiming to want nothing more than to protect his cousin and country. However, he is also fairly secretive and calculating, as he refused to reveal his identity to the party or Nora until they had assembled all of the Compass pieces. When speaking alone to Anari, he became noticably colder and more detached, seeming to care more about the Eternal Sword than Nora's safety.

Story

Backstory

Aspen is the nephew of the Astoran Empire's king, and the first cousin of Aelinora ven Astora. As children, he and his cousin were extremely close, with him affectionately nicknaming her, "Nora". He apparently took his role as a member of the royal family very seriously, viewing it as his duty to protect Nora, and calling himself her knight.

Five years prior to the start of the campaign, Aspen found Nora standing over the body of Lord Ian Blackthorn's son. Despite the fact that Nora had only killed him as an act of self-defense, the Blackthorns were a powerful family, and the crown princess murdering their heir would have likely led to a civil war within the Empire. Knowing this, and also wanting to protect Nora, Aspen staged the scene as if he were the murderer, and told Nora to let him take the blame.

Due to his high status, Aspen was not executed, but instead sentenced to lifelong imprisonment. He was sent to island inhabited by the Order of the Sword, and given a magical prisoner's tattoo, which would kill him should he ever attempt to leave. This pacified the Blackthorns enough to avoid outright war, and the incident was then covered up by the royal family, although many were left wondering why Aspen had suddenly disappeared.

At some point after being imprisoned, Aspen met Rin, who agreed to become his point of contact with the outside world. Shortly before the campaign began, he contracted the Hounds of Blight to protect Nora while she assembled the Compass, leading to Anari becoming her bodyguard. At least some of the money used to employ Anari was gained by catfishing various members of the Solithian Army, including Appel (although Appel himself never sent any money).

Collecting the Compass

Although unable to leave the island himself, as well as unable to make full use of the Order's resources due to the Abbess's disapproval, Aspen interfered in the party's quest on a few occassions. He forged a letter from Bingus to Augusta before the party first arrived in Kingsglade, leading her to help them escape from the city guard. Later, he sent people to destroy a camp of Solithian soldiers that likely would have blocked the party's path to Tower, leaving behind a note addressed to Appel from "Rhea".

Following the party's exploits in Tower, Aspen had Rin pass along a tip that the next piece was hidden in Arnor, along with a warning that Solithian factions would also likely be looking for it. He also instructed Rin to warn the party to avoid Kingsglade. This was most likely to keep Nora from encountering Ian Blackthorn, but ultimately failed as the party had already teleported to Kingsglade before meeting up with Rin.

While traveling to Arnor, Blitz had a vision of a person with a prisoner's tattoo on their neck, who seemed to have just finished either drawing or injecting blood into their arm. The later reveal of Aspen's tattoo seems to have confirmed he was the subject of this vision, although it is still unknown how far in the future it might take place.

When the party went to Nova to rescue Appel, Aspen managed to send reinforcements from the Order of the Sword to help them fight their way out.

Order of the Sword

After the party had collected all six Compass pieces, and been taken to the Order's island by Rin, Aspen finally revealed himself and thanked the party for helping Nora. While Nora was overjoyed to have her suspicions about their mysterious ally confirmed, the rest of the party was less quick to trust Aspen.

Aspen warned Nora against opening the box in the Order's trial, advice which the party heeded despite their curiosity (although they did steal the box instead). After congratulating them on passing the trial, he asked Anari to spar with him, to which she agreed. During their match, Aspen questioned Anari about her commitment to fulfilling her contract, asking if she would even go so far as to kill Nora on his orders. Although Anari tried to argue this would fall outside the terms of her contract, she eventually agreed to a new deal with Aspen, in which she would bring Nora and the Eternal Sword to him.

While Aspen and Anari sparred, the rest of the party snooped through Aspen's room, confirming that he was actually Rhea Lwomyn. Upon Aspen's return, Appel tearfully hugged him and announced they had to break up, although this was at least partially a ruse to allow him to get close enough to confirm that Aspen did have a prisoner tattoo. A bemused Aspen apologized for catfishing him, and encouraged the party to leave in search of the Sword as soon as possible.

Trivia

• It is unknown how Aspen has so much information on the movements of the party and others, though it can be assumed he has access to some sort of network of informants beyond Rin.
• Aspen seems to have an affinity for dragonchess, as the party found a board in his room.
• Due to his disappearance being established at the beginning of the campaign, with his reveal not being until several years later, Aspen is one of the most theorized about TOHD characters. Outside of the game, multiple NPCs have been accused of secretly being Aspen.
• Ix has said they would cast Johnny Yong Bosch to voice Aspen.