Spoiler: Backstory/Quest
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Nel's concept began when rummaging through a bunch of material from the PF wiki, Archives of Nethys, etc. The gist of it is that the story surrounding Tar Baphon is far more complicated than most would be led to believe, and she is his daughter (who due to being undead is old as dirt and currently around with the protagonists). He penultimate quest is essentially to rescue Tar Baphon.
But Tar Baphon is a great and terrible evil dude, yeah? Why would he need to be rescued from Gallowspire where he is sealed away?
Well, what we know about Tar Baphon is that he was just a necromancer who didn't like Aroden a whole lot but wasn't anyone special. However, he then unearthed the tomb of the Runelord of Gluttony (the necromancy one), suddenly and immediately gained incredible power, grabbed some orcs and went to pick a fight with Aroden in a convoluted ritual to become a lich. He then wakes back up a long time later and names himself the Whispering Tyrant, and then becomes the the dreaded "conqueror" of central Avistan. There's a few issues with this though...
For the necromancer who has no limits on undead control and bent on taking over the world as the 'official story' goes, his actions don't actually reflect that at all. He grabs a section of central Avistan which is located very close around the ruins of Thassilon and shuts off all contact from the outside world for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. That's crazy. Especially most of the surrounding lands are filled with targets easily conquered by such a super necromancer (including slightly northwest which is basically a land filled with giant megafauna that become siege weapons/tanks when you kill them). Something is clearly amiss.
So why is it that the supreme conquer doesn't actually conquer anything past this small slice of central Avistan? Well, the theory we have concerning it is that he's not interested in conquering the world (yet at least). What inside the runelord of gluttony's tomb could have given the necromancer, even a talented one, so much power and drive instantly upon it's discovery? Well, being possessed by the Runelord of Necromancy themselves of course. Which would explain the sudden change in disposition and the sudden desire to establish control over an area in Avistan, but protected from any other rival Runelords (who were still at large). In essence, Tar Baphon, much like Queen Illosea from CotCT stepped into a place and got body-jacked by the Runelord who acts through his new vessel. And, incidentally, the Runelord of Gluttony was known for being a particularly sadistic bastard and that would explain some of mannerisms of Tar Baphon post-tomb event.
So how'd the BBEG who didn't conquer very much aside from unclaimed land, Ustalav, a former dwarf hold filled with orcs, and sat on them for five centuries get pegged as a conqueror of everything? Well, money, pride, revenge, and politics of course. See, during this period, Taldor had these things known as the armies of exploration that it used to expanded its empire, and also controlled the banking systems of the world. They had actively been taking lots of Avistan but Tar Baphon's domain was in their way. So what better way to oust a near unstoppable evil dictator than to set yourself up as the good guys and liberators of the people. Of course joining them was an order of knights led by the herald of Aroden (an old enemy), and the dwarfs who were enemies of the orcs who took Belkzen long ago. Essentially, the great liberators were composed of a group of actual conquerors and the natural enemies of them.
When they defeated Tar Baphon, Taldor didn't take the lands (which would damage the public opinion after they claimed to be doing it for the people), but of course the Taldan banking system and commerce spread throughout the lands, and since Taldan is the common tongue across the world (explicitly because of their conquering) it was very easy to paint any picture they wanted in terms of the official record for the events that transpired.
So now we enter Nel Baphon's story, which views it from a different light. The necromancer daughter of Tar Baphon pre-Tyrant years, she watched as her father and mentor underwent a terrible change after discovering some secret stemming from the runelords of ancient Thassilon, but didn't understand what had happened and why he had taken this turn. So her primary goal is to unearth all she can about the ancient secrets of Thasilon in hopes of undoing whatever happened to her father. Upon which, she will have to rescue him from Gallowspire and defeat the Runelord of Gluttony in a battle for her father's very soul and their homeland.
Elaine was the spirit of a crusader champion who ended up fighting with Nel during the crusades against the Whispering Tyrant. At the time, Nel had neither the power nor the will to stand up to her father in his apparent madness, but was still swept up into the war when people began invading their homeland and putting everything that was alive without a pulse to the sword. This ended with Nel having to do battle with a number of the invaders, and this critical moment was were the two dueled in a desperate battle in the heart of Ustalav. The battle ended with Nel as the victor, and she used her necromantic magics to invoke the soul of the champion into a special soul gem (her psicrystal) out of a mixture of pragmatism (the champion was powerful and would make a powerful 'ally') but also out of a sense of charity (as the palace they did battle in had a variety of terrible devices within reminiscent of the ancient Thassilon soul-sucking machines, and knew there was a chance that her opponent's soul would be sucked up by one of the nearby machines if left to its natural fate).
After the invocation and Nel fleeing Ustalav with the defeat of her father, Elaine, now being able to experience things through Nel's eyes, has accepted the 'quest' to help Nel undo whatever evil was driving the Whispering Tyrant, and now serves as the lost heir's loyal retainer.
Nel found the party after a number of divination attempts to find a good lead on her study of Thassilonian magic, having led her to the party's arcanist who spontaneously manifested sin magic runes on her flesh as a child. Her family kept her as secret and safe as the one ring until her Paladin mother was slain by members of the whispering way and her father abruptly took her far from their home and then got her lost somewhere where she wouldn't be found. She seems naturally drawn to the runewells around Avistan for some reason, and Nel believes she may lead her to the answers that she seeks. So currently Nel and Elaine have been trying to help her find the Runewells and uncover the secrets of the even more ancient virtue magic that Nel believes may be the key to saving her father.