Wayward Suns Characters

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Sideris

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House Rules
  • Martial Artists need only take the Martial Art ability once. No multiple purchases per style. That said, you cannot suddenly dip into any style at any point. You must buy them in sequence as in the corebook.
 
Gentle River
Eclipse Caste
"I think you've deeply misunderstood the nature of this relationship. How unfortunate for you."
Taken as an infant in Nexus and raised by the venerable, high-class Venus-cult and brothel The Blessed of Venus, Gentle River was peerless as a companion, lover and social darling on the arm of the most powerful men and women in the city. In his late teenage years the dark heart of the cult was revealed to him - Mara's Embrace, a shadowy Yozi-cult of assassins who hide in plain sight and use social manipulation, ruined reputations, sex and esoteric Martial Arts to destroy their targets and glorify the Shadow Lover. In time he became disillusioned with the cult and the uses they'd made of him, but escape seemed impossible... until he was blessed by The Unconquered Sun and joined the Eclipse Caste of the returning Solar Exalted. He has fled north-east to put distance between himself and his former masters, and to give himself time to learn about the strange new powers he has found himself blessed with. He knows he must be ready when they come for him, especially the master assassin and sifu of the cult: the mysterious Exigent Ajurda Malen, whom he is unshakably in love with, despite knowing from his own Black Claw training what this means. The only things River are truly sure of is that he will never serve any other master but himself again, and that to ensure this, the courtesan-assassin must look to gain a seat of true power.

Gentle River is young man whose olive skin and black hair suggests Southern ancestry, though whether he was born in Nexus or stolen or sold and wound up there as an infant is unknown. He is, by any standard, incredibly beautiful, with a lithe, muscular figure and an immaculately-groomed appearance. There is something sinuous and seductive about the way he moves, and he is happy to flirt and pay attention indiscriminate of gender. He radiates an aura of harmlessness - he never seems like a credible threat until the poisons have already set in. He wears a black onyx ring (the artifact Despite) on his left ring finger like a wedding band, though he'll laugh and play off any questions about a marriage.

Gentle River.pdf

The Blessed of Venus

[spoili]
The Blessed of Venus

(Mara's Embrace)



Nexus is rife with Yozi cults, brothels, cabals of assassins and intrigue to an extent unequalled anywhere, perhaps even on The Blessed Isle. Various disreputable, disruptive and simply dangerous organisations sprout up in the Nexus underbelly like mushrooms in shit in a rainstorm, and often they fall apart almost as quickly – succumbing to their own schemes, internal schism, the rage of the Emissary or even the occasional Wyld Hunt on the lookout for Anathema or Yozi worship. There are others, however, that last for centuries.



A venerable Nexus institution, Venus' Blessing is the oldest, most exclusive and most highly priced brothel in the city. If anything “brothel” doesn't truly cover its full scope – it is a luxurious and ancient palace in one of the best parts of town and the Blessed, as the courtesans who it raises from birth are known, are masters of the arts of seduction and aesthetics. They're not mere prostitutes but highly-educated, intelligent and skilled masters of etiquette and manners. All are trained in history, languages, politics and fine art, as well as martial arts and athletics. To make contract to one of the Blessed is, for a brief time, to be accompanied by a true equal – able to navigate the highest society, converse on any topic, and perform acts of sexual artistry that would make a neomah blush. Blessed are few in number, rich, highly respected and welcome in any social setting in Nexus and the surrounding cities. They're good for business, and so their open worship of one of the Incarnae is largely protected by the Council from any Immaculate interference. But of course, like with everything in Nexus, there is a foulness at the heart of it.

Venus' Blessing is a cover for a Yozi cult that has been active since the late Shogunate, whispered of as Mara's Embrace. Not all Blessed are inducted, but a rare few are made aware and exposed to the inner mysteries of the organisation. Any Blessed who has been “embraced by the Shadow Lover” is subjected to rigorous additional training in espionage, martial arts (Black Claw Style is naturally favoured, though some are trained in Ebon Shadow also and links to the mythical White Veil Society are rumoured), forgery, infiltration and the black art of the poisoner. They are social agitators, kingmakers and breakers, and assassins, all directed by the dark whim of the cult. They kill in broad daylight, in crowded rooms and in full view of witnesses who either notice nothing or leap to their defense. And they brook no desertion from their ranks...
[/spoili]

Despite (Bitterbite Ring, two-dot artifact)
[spoili]
Bitterbite Ring - Despite

(Two-Dot Artifact)

Crafted shortly after the establishment of the Scarlet Empress' reign by an early member of the Mara's Embrace Yozi cult who Exalted as a Wood-Aspect, at one time there were perhaps two dozen Bitterbite Rings in regular use as the signature tool of the whore-assassin order. In this fallen time almost all the Rings are lost, and there are even fewer active Essence-users inducted into the cult with the skill to attune and use them, so the four still in their possession are mostly worn by the highest-ranking cultists as a sign of Mara's favour for those with the eyes to see it. The rare god-blood, spirit or Exigent who has been part of the order can still attune the rings and access their killing power, though Evocations are inaccessible except to the most puissant users, such as Anathema. Each ring was unique in design and bore a single word engraved in Old Realm inside the band that named it. Each has the same basic function, but the four Bitterbite Rings still known to exist – Despite, Mistrust, Confusion and Antipathy – have all gained unique legends and Evocation lists over the centuries that can be accessed by Solar Exalted and other very powerful beings.

Despite is a ring carved from onyx and inlaid with a thin, sinuous band of green jade that wends langourously rough the stone like a snake. It requires four motes to attune. When worn and attuned the wearer of Despite can reflexively summon into being a five-inch shard of razor-edged green glass in that hand at no additional mote cost. This glass shard uses the weapon traits of a mundane knife and may be used with Melee, as a form weapon for appropriate Martial Arts, or as a Thrown weapon. The shard-blade will remain intact until the wearer reflexively dismisses it. It may be used to parry attacks but will shatter, requiring a new blade to be created, or if it leaves the wearer's hand for a full combat round (such as after being thrown). Up to (Essence+1) summoned shards can exist at once, but the ringbearing hand must be free to summon another after the first and each additional blade after the first costs two motes to create. At the beginning of each combat round any additional blades shatter (outside of combat additional blades last for up to one minute), as the Ring cannot sustain them. The final, main benefit of Bitterbite Rings, aside from concealability, is that the essence-glass that make up the blades is infused with a deadly toxin – those cut by a Bitterbite glass blade suffer a poison with the following traits: Damage 2i/Round, Duration (Essence+2) rounds, and a -1 penalty.

Multiple Bitterbite Rings can theoretically be attuned and used simultaneously to allow access to Evocations or simply increase the potential number of essence-shards the assassin can access simultaneously. However given their extreme rarity and symbolic value to the cult Mara's Embrace never entrusts more than one ring to a given cultist. There are other, darker rumours too, that attempting to use more than one Bitterbite Ring at a time can eventually lead to dire consequences for the wielder, and everyone who has done this is supposed to have died horribly. It suits the cult's purposes to allow this story to spread.



When first attuned all Evocations of Despite or any other Ring are locked and can only be accessed over time.
[/spoili]
 
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Iskandr First Snow
Prince of Hunters

Named for the season of his arrival, Iskandr's first breath was his mother's last. Raised by both of her lovers, the cheerful man of the village and the silent man of the forest, Iskandr grew into a solemn youth under Northern skies, showing a talent for patience, and a willingness to hunt without savagery, to kill without cruelty. He earned his Exaltation in the grip of a starving winter outside Whitewall. Besieged by wolves of the forest, Iskandr ran their gauntlet, the youth's feet barely breaking the crust of snow as he returned again and again to the village bearing hare, bearing grouse, and finally, bearing an empty quiver and a vast white wolf, slung dead across his shoulders, with bloodied antlers shining in his anima.

No fool, Iskandr knew that word would spread as soon as the roads opened. After all, there was a merchant caravan sheltered inside the walls. What was he to do? Murder them all to keep his secret? No. The boy knew well what it was to be both hunter and prey. He would find meaning and hope in either.

When the Wyld Hunt came, Iskandr led them a wild dance through the final snows of the harshest season, loosing arrows through the blizzard, slaying Dynasts with no warning, and leading their party onto the lair of a sabre cat, rendered savage by hunger. Their accoutrements of jade, he gathered and wrapped carefully, setting aside his own avarice. The bundle, he returned by stealth to a Realm garrison near Kalasch, containing priceless Daiklaves and the sabre cat's tusks, the teeth carved with a message in High Realm.

I return these relics not as mockery, but as honour.
Prince of Hunters


Iskandr means well, but perhaps he is not so bright. He's a lanky northerner of twenty winters now, pale as the snow, with dark hair over a face more sharply delineated than handsome. His demeanour is solemn, almost owlish, yet occasionally broken by a boyish grin as the child he he has not yet outgrown peeks through.

5Y5yP7i.jpg


The Thrill Of The Hunt - Defining

Small Settlements Of The North (Protectiveness) - Major

Raiders and Reavers (Hatred) - Minor

"A righteous kill is clean and swift, but no-one said it had to be fair." - Minor

I will honour the memory of my mother, and the teachings of my fathers - Minor

This fallen sword; I must repair it. - Minor

The Wyld Hunt (Honoured Enemy) - Major

Tepet Ishin (Died A Hero, And His Memory Deserves Respect) - Minor

Zala (The Defence Of Our Town) - Minor

Allowing things to go to waste is not how one survives the north. - Minor

Mul Hyades (Concern and Hostility) - Minor

Red Snow's Herald (Glorious Battle Companion) - Major

Gentle River (Worried About This Deadly Blossom) - Major

Mehmet Ferat (One Who Has Suffered, But Retains Compassion) - Major

Resonant Hammer (Deeply Impressed By The Savant) - Major

Radiant Shine (Either A Wise Man Or A Clever One, Or Both. Respect Either Way) - Major

The above can also be expressed as:
Solar Circlemates (Loyalty & Respect, But Also Concern) - Major


XP: 22 / 0
Solar XP: 6 / 0


Crafting XP:
Silver: 22
Gold: 0 (31 given to Hammer)

Iskandr First Snow.pdf
 
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Mehmet Ferat
Zenith Cast survivor of Thorns​
Iconic Anima: A golden bear with markings depicting the sign of the Unconquered sun.
Limit Trigger: Seeing someone in danger and being unable or unwilling to help
Concept: Traumatised refugee from the fall of Thorns
Current Limit: 4
They say that in times of darkness, the blind man is king. This is a time of madness and horror. Blood and fire.
Once, I was a city guard. It was a righteous enough cause. The politics of Thorns were not my concern, the whims and wishes of distant kings and queens have little effect on a back-alley stabbing or smuggled goods.

The memories are like poisoned darts. Here they come again, worming their way into my mind. It was a good life. I loved, and was loved. Friends. A wife, children. A place in the world.

Mask of Winters swept aside the Dragon-blooded garrison with sickening ease. He could have torn the city apart that same day. Instead he got us to do it for him. Rat swarms destroyed food stores, disease killed indiscriminately. Sorcery commanded the very bones of the living to tear free of the horrified, screaming people containing them. Local gods and spirits fled or went mad. Each survivor was, in their own way, broken as the horrors mounted. In the end, the people threw the city gates open and begged Mask of Winters to save them. His forces were welcomed in. Dissenters were executed, their bodies rising again to join the dead armies, refused a funeral. I ran. And was chased. Some petty lieutentant looking to curry favour, a pack of rotting, half-skeletal hounds at his command, making sport of my desperation and terror. I don't know how far I ran, or how long. All a blur. Doesn't matter. I couldn't outrun destiny.

My flight eventually took me past a small farmstead. The dead hounds, their baying, grew quiet. Were they giving up at last? Then it struck me, they were going to attack the farm behind me. I stopped running, breathing ragged, mind racing. I don't remember if I was planning a noble self-sacrifice to spare their lives, or if I was just tired of running, but I turned towards the farm.

The hunter had rounded up the farmers when I arrived. Two, three families, scared silent. I was the one they wanted, I pleaded. Only let these innocents go and I would return home without resistance. So naive. The hunter agreed, I was bound, and as he led me away, he ordered his hounds to return and slay everyone else. I thought the fall of Thorns had broken me. The city's fall had only emptied me, made me a hollow shell, more easily crushed. As the farmers began to fight and scream, my shame and despair became bitter anger. I tried to do right by these people and fate responded by dooming us all. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. I couldn't accept it. WOULD not accept it.

I was Exalted at that moment. The Sun itself spoke to me, blessed me with His power. Or cursed me. My captor burned to ash as I turned on him, my chains become holy fire. But the Sun chose me too late to stop the hounds from killing most of the adults. They wept and cowered from me after I destroyed the last monster, asked me why their husbands, mothers, brothers couldn't be saved.

I had no answer for them. No comforting words. I prayed for their dead, furious at He who gave me the power to protect these people too late to use it. Afraid that the dead had noticed my flare of light in the night sky. What hope was one broken man against a crawling citadel of rotten flesh, or the sorcerer who gave it half life? I'd hurt these people enough. And again, I ran.

I don't care much for settling down now. Too much hurt, just waiting to happen in a town or city. Best to stop only to trade a few things, and then be on my way again. Sometimes I can take a job, some bandit or small god causing trouble needs a word. Take the pay, restock, keep moving on. I prefer the wild anyhow. Fewer nightmares when I sleep under an open sky, fewer memories of what I lost and left behind. Just keep moving, keep surviving. Sometimes meet other Exalted. Chosen by Dragons, the Sun, the Moon. Sometimes work with them. Sometimes fight them. Some I meet and work with again. Whatever it takes to survive.
STR *** Cha *** Per ***

DEX **** Man ** Int **

STA **** App ** Wit ****

Abilities (favoured/caste in bold, supernal in red)
Archery *

Athletics *** (Running)

Awareness ***

Brawl ****

Dodge **

Integrity *

Melee *

Resistance **

Linguistics *

Performance

Presence *** (Intimidation)

Ride **

Stealth *** (Hunting)

Survival **** (Handling animals)

Bureaucracy *

Investigation ***

Lore **

Occult *
Intimacies:
"Above all else, Survival" (Defining/Principle)

Thorns (Love and nostalgia) (Major/Principle)

Shalla (loyalty and trust) (Minor/Tie)

Solar Circle (Respect) (Minor/Tie)

Mask of Winters (Hatred) Minor/principle)

The dead (Major distrust) (Minor/Tie)
Danger Sense ***

Boundless Endurance **

Language * (Icetongue)

Familiar ** (Grey wolf, Shalla)

Artifact *** (Summit's Rebuke, jade smashfists)
Essence 1

Willpower 5/5

Personal: 13/13
Peripheral: 33/28
(5m committed top Summit's Rebuke)

Soak 4 + (+3 buff jacket) = 7

Parry: [(Dexterity 4 + Brawl 4)/2] = 4

Evasion: [(Dex 4 + Dodge 2)/2] = 3

Join Battle: (Wits 4 + Awareness 3) = 7 dice, +3


Smashfists: Accuracy +5, Damage +10, Defense +0, Overwhelming 3

Withering Attack: (Dex 4 + Brawl 4) + Acc 5 = 12

Withering Damage: (Str 3 + Smashfists 10) = 13 (minimum 3)

Decisive Attack: (Dex 4 + Brawl 4) = 8


Resolve: [(Wits 4 + Integrity 1)/2] = 3

Guile: [(Manipulation 2 + Socialize 0)/2] = 1

Health Levels:

-0 O
-1 OO
-2 OO
-4 O
-X O

Current Limit: 0
Archery

Athletics
Monkey Leap Technique
Lightning Speed


Awareness
Sensory Acuity Prana


Brawl
Fists of Iron Technique
Ox-Stunning Blow
Ferocious Jab
Heaven Thunder Hammer


Dodge
Reed In The wind


Integrity

Melee

Resistance

Linguistics

Presence

Stealth
Perfect Shadow Stillness


Survival
Food-Gathering Exercise
Trackless Region Navigation
Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit
Element-Resisting Prana
Friendship With Animals Approach
Spirit-Tied Pet (Shalla)
Beast-Mastering Technique

Bureaucracy

Investigation

Lore

Occult
Shalla, wolf familiar
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice

Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.

Actions:
Intimidate: 3 dice
Senses: 6 dice (Double 9s)
Stealth: 3 dice
Tracking: 7 dice (Double 9s)
Resolve 2
Guile 1

Bite: 9 dice, damage 9
Grapple: 6 dice (5 dice to control)
Evasion 4
Parry 3
Soak/Hardness 4/0

Spirit-Tied Pet:
Defining Tie (Loyalty to Mehmet)
Essence-Drawing Method: Mehmet may reflexively draw up to 5m from Shalla once a day.
Power-Renewing Bond: Once a day, Mehmet may draw 1wp as a simple action.
Sense-Riding Discipline: Mehmet may borrow Shalla's senses. Simple action, cannot perform other actions until ending this power. May be used while asleep.

Merits:
Keen Nose: Double 9s on Perception rolls made using scent

Special attacks:
Harry:
On the turn Shalla moves into close range of an enemy, if she deals 5+ damage to them with a withering attack, that enemy cannot disengage/withdraw on their next turn

Pack hunting: When Shalla attacks an enemy, she adds 1 automatic success to the attack roll for each allied pack member in close range of that enemy to a maximum of 3 successes.
On a decisive attack, she may pay a point of Willpower to add that many dice to the raw damage of the attack. Upgraded, works with both canine and human allies.

Though objectively more puissant by far than the Terrestrial Exalted, the children of the Elemental Dragons were still capable of feats that could inspire envy in their Solar lords. One such Solar, his or her name long lost to the ages, was particularly enamoured of the Air and Earth Aspects of the Dragon-Blooded, and the ease with which they commanded their respective elements. Seeking to emulate some of this power, the solar designed a set of armoured fighting gauntlets that folded both into his own considerable fighting skill.

Composed primarily of blue and white jade plating, with exquisite inlaid orichalcum designs and Old Realm script documenting the crafting of the weapon, Each consecrated hammer strike in the forging took place on a different mountaintop, where Earth and Sky met in harmony, and elemental spirits of both aspects watched and blessed the process. It is said that the forging of the gauntlets led the Solar to every mountaintop in Creation, culminating in the final hammer strike and completion of the weapon atop the Elemental Pole of Earth itself, with Mela and Pasiap themselves witnessing the final stages of creation.

Summit's Rebuke is a pair of white and blue jade smashfists that cost 5m to attune. Each gauntlet possesses a single hearthstone socket, but the benefits of a hearthstone will not be granted until both sockets are filled, such is the weapon's commitment to harmony between two very different forces.

The gauntlets are currently in the hands of Mehmet Ferat, who came across them exploring an ancient tomb revealed in the Scavenger Lands by an earthquake during a particularly powerful thunderstorm.

Summit's Rebuke:

This Is The Hill You Die On
Cost: 5m
Type: Supplemental
Mins: Essence 1, Brawl 2
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

Those who challenge the wielder of Summit's Rebuke do not get to change their minds so easily.
This Evocation supplements a withering attack. This attack does NOT add initiative to the wielder. The mighty smashfists flare white as the strike connects with their opponent, sending a pulse of essence through them into the ground on which they fight, which shatters into fragments of loose shale, sucking mud, treacherous roots and so on. The terrain beneath the target becomes difficult terrain, imposing a -3 penalty to rush/disengage/withdraw attempts.
XP record

Current spare XP
Regular: 14
Solar: 6

8XP spent on Beast-Mastering Behaviour
 
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Resonant Hammer's Descent

Resonant Hammer’s Descent was born a commoner in the Realm. A smith’s son, almost as soon as he could stand he started learning his father’s trade. From a young age it was clear that Resonant Hammer’s Descent was exceptional, and his father (a simple village blacksmith) sent him to be apprenticed with an armourer in the City of Cherak. After only a few years Resonant Hammer’s Descent had surpassed his master as an armoursmith and had begun teaching himself how to forge weapons. The jealous man cast him out, without the tools customarily given to an apprentice when they became a journeyman.

Dismayed, Resonant Hammer’s Descent wrote home, begging his father’s assistance. Several months later Resonant Hammer’s Descent received a reply: his brother had fallen ill, and thus his family would be unable to provide aid. Undaunted Resonant Hammer’s Descent used the last of his stipend to buy iron and, using hand wrought clay molds, cast from it a hammer and small anvil. For several years he worked himself to the bone, first doing simple repairs and blacksmithing, later returning to his war-forging ways.

When it was announced that the Satrap of Cherak was to commission a set of armour and a matching weapon for the Calibration Resonant Hammer’s Descent was beside himself. He set to work, slaving night and day over his humble forge for a full season, barely meeting his body’s needs. On the eve of the Calibration took the finished glaive from the stand holding the rest of the set and brought it to the Satrap’s palace. His old master was there, with a full suit of plate and a matching tetsubo, being lavished with praise by the Satrap. Resonant Hammer’s Descent forced himself to the front of the crowd and presented the Satrap with his weapon. The Satrap imediately dropped the tetsubo he was holding, cracking a floor tile. While he seemed at a loss for words Resonant Hammer’s Descent told him that the rest of the set was at his small shop. The Satrap summoned a palanquin and the two set off, with a minimal guard. The suit fit the Satrap perfectly, and as Resonant Hammer’s Descent closed the last buckle around the Satrap’s leg he exalted as one of the Twilight caste. While the guards attempted to apprehend him they were unsuccessful. Resonant Hammer’s Descent fled, leaving a dead Satrap, the mirror-bright breastplate stove-in by his own hammer.

He went to his home town, where he found one of the Golden Pact who had healed his brother as he waited for Resonant Hammer’s Descent . That night the Wyld Hunt caught up with him, and while the Sidereal managed to spirit him away it was clear that his village was condemned by his presence. He fled the Realm, his family’s screams echoing in the caverns of his brain.

For the past couple of years Resonant Hammer's Falling has lived on a powerful demesne approximately twenty kilometers south east of Zala. He has raised a small, ascetic hut on the site, and makes use of the lava pool there to power his forge. He hasn't made the tools of war since he exalted, as advised by someone he can't quite remember properly, but he makes a living selling well crafted smithed goods in the town. The demesne is concealed in a stand of hills, only a small cut in one of the valleys leads into it, which is no doubt why it has remained hidden for so long.

Character Sheet
 
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Name: Radiant Shine

Concept: Itinerant Sage

Caste: Twilight

Supernal Ability: Medicine

Age: 60


Radiant Shine was a humble physician in an inconsequential border village, by luck finding his education sponsored by his local Scavenger Lord. He fell out of favour in court following impassioned pleas to give more aid to the peasantry and acts of civil disobedience, and was exiled to another inconsequential border village.


When tensions between neighbouring courts gave way to war, as they do, Shine and the other villagers were ignorant of the coming conflict. The one thing the little village of Leap had to its credit was the wall, a remnant of times long past well-built enough that the location could be held by a dozen stalwart men.


Which was lucky; the militia was made up of three or four stalwart men and a handful less hardy.


When enemy forces sought to take the town - more to sate their mercenaries in their employ than for any real strategic value - that militia held the first wave with minor injuries. Shine treated them.


They brought out mightier warriors and bigger weapons for the second assault, leaving some militia grievously wounded. Shine treated them, too, as best he could.


When the siege weapons were brought to bear, limbs were lost and lives given. Shine did his best to treat them, too, and some returned to the wall with a javelin in their remaining hand and a shield strapped to the stump.


During the final assault, the three brothers who formed the core of the militia were all left on death's door, with the rest barely holding the line, faltering as the walls fell. The Unconquered Sun empowered Radiant Shine, in that moment, and he denied Oblivion its prizes, bringing the brothers back from the precipice of death.


This time, however, Shine stood with them, and the army was routed.


He has spent the time since his Exaltation wandering the region, curing the sick and driving away vagabonds, trading medicine for ancient texts from shady merchants and descending into ruins in search of answers. Rumours are already filtering back to cruel lords and bandit leaders of a traveling medicine man with a pair of ornate firewands striking at raiding parties and enforcers, only to heal the survivors and bid them to change their ways.

Ba Sao

Ba Sao is Shine's familiar - a bull Yeddim the doctor saved from Clawstriders when it was only a calf. The rest of its herd dead, the stubborn beast followed Shine ever after.
When the lord of a small and probably now defunct state offered Shine a permanent residence, he elected not to slight the woman by rejecting it and instead had it carefully mounted on Ba Sao's back.

Frankly, Shine is not convinced Ba Sao has even noticed.

Still, it seems long association with a Solar has affected the animal, and Ba Sao is smarter than the average Yeddim. Of course, that's still only on par with a concussed housecat, but exceptional is relative.
 
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Red Snow's Herald

To join the Glorious Dead you must fall in battle. If your end is truly worthy you will join the ranks of our honoured ancestors and march at their side in the Final Days. My father bled out atop the corpses of four raiders either stupid or desperate enough to attack our village. He will march in the Final Days. My mother died with her teeth in the throat of a bear. She joined the ranks of the Glorious Dead. My brother died with my spear in his chest, when he led his cowardly fucking raiding party back with spoils taken from the weak. His soul will rot in the dark. None of his craven allies would face me then, and I left, disgusted with what me people had fallen to.


I looked for my death in the wilds. Bandits jumped me in my sleep, but fell beneath my spear. Wolves hunted me through the silent forests, but I now wear the packleader’s pelt across my shoulders. The walking dead clawed at me with rotten hands, but they were a pale imitation of my ancestors and crumbled to dust beneath my blows. At last I thought I’d found a worthy end at the hands of a swordsman of the Wyld with eyes of glowing shadows, but as his icy sword sought my heart the Sun itself deemed me worthy, and the fae creature will trouble Creation no more.


The Unconquered Sun has granted me great power, but I still must prove myself to my ancestors. I must find a death worthy of my power. Dreams have called me South, to the one of the soft weaklings’ cities. There I will find a new tribe, the dreams say, and find my beautiful death.


Wolf's Hunger

Once upon a time in the forests of eternal winter, one of Luna’s chosen went to war. Her people called her the Wolf Queen, and it’s said her howls shook the snow from the trees for miles. Her prey were the Fair Folk, the twisted creatures of the Wyld, and she led her wolf-kin children into furious battle under the watchful eye of Luna herself. The Wolf Queen was Luna’s wrath given form, and her children were furious warriors, but they were ultimately outnumbered and the moon watched, as capricious and uncaring as always, as the Wolf Queen died howling to her goddess. The Wolf Queen’s weapon, a moonsilver halberd she had named for her own bloodlust, was lost to the snow and waited for untold years for a warrior with a thirst for war to match the Wolf Queen to come and wake it from its slumber. On a moonless night after countless centuries Wolf’s Hunger sensed a heart that matched its own and called out, a piercing howl tearing through the snow and packed ice and calling Red Snow’s Herald to the halberds resting place. Wolf’s Hunger slowly wakes from it’s long sleep, the essence of it’s new mistress calling it to battle once more.


Wolfs Hunger is a moonsilver halberd with blue jade accents, decorated with running wolves. In the hands of the Wolf Queen it was a weapon of legend, but it has forgotten it’s evocations in its long sleep and must wake to battle again before Red Snow’s herald can learn it’s secrets



 
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