by Mysteris Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:24 pmEnchantress Transcendent in Sublime Eternal Glory (Transcendent Enchantress for short)
Caste: Eclipse
Background: She was born in the underwater kingdom of Pearl to a pair of kelp farmers. One more mouth to feed. One of too many mouths to feed. Her parents didn't name her since what would be the point? They'd have left her in the reefs or sold her to the raksha, if they could reach the raksha. Instead a man came to their village and offered to buy the child from them. This man was a collector of sorts. He gathered up orphans and unwanted children and paid their parents what they considered a grand sum for them. These children were taken off to begin their service as maiko, apprentice geisha in the most luxurious geisha house of the big city.
This particular geisha house, the Mist of Sapphire Blossoms, was owned by one Spring Blossom. Spring Blossom was the public face of the Twilight Shark Society. The "society" is a polite name for a criminal syndicate that covered all of Pearl. Members of the Society specialized in blackmail, extortion, theft, and (for the right price) murder-for-hire. Spring Blossom ran the operation: honeytrap operations, prostitution, and the more high-class geisha and courtesans. Her job was training and managing agents who could be invited into places and then could seduce, steal, or kill as needed, sometimes all three. She ran all this from behind an unassuming and polite mask as the head of a geisha house. This was the world our nameless baby was sold into.
Her early years were shaped almost from the time she could walk. She and the other children were praised and graded on how well they could lie and decieve. They learned early that they could get out of trouble by informing on other children for their own crimes, if they were clever enough to come up with a convincing lie or could fake evidence well. The children were assigned chores, and fed only when they did their chores. But those children who could convince or bully other children to do their chores for them got the best meals and the nicest toys. By five the children were separated. Those considered pretty enough, talented enough, and smart enough began their training. The rest were sold off to the raksha at a profit. Waste not, want not. Night Coral (as she was called by then) was one of the lucky ones chosen to remain, and begin her training. Over the next ten years she learned the arts of dance, of seduction, poisons, and theft. She learned how to be what people expected and to be completely unique. She also learned to trust no one. To view people and events solely in terms of how she could manipulate them for maximum gain. The only being she ever allowed herself to get close to was the house cat. She learned, painfully, that people betray. She drove herself to be the best, because only then could she be sure that her heart couldn't be betrayed. She was taught to find joy in her work, in the ways she could twist others around her fingers, and she relied on that joy as the only thing she could truly count on.
Her constant rival during these years was a girl named Rippling Willow. Rippling Willow was pretty, but not as pretty as Coral. Talented, but not as talented. She always strove to be better than Coral and never quite measured up. So when the Society got a very lucrative contract for the honeytrap division, it was only natural for the trainees to compete for the honor. And Coral won, as she always did. She was assigned to infilitrate the household of one of the kingdom's top judges. He was known as a man who showed no sympathy to criminals, frequently sentencing offenders to be given to the raksha. Spring Blossom wanted him replaced with a more corruptible judge and sent her top agent in to arrange matters. With a change of name (to Sunset Spark), and a falsified past, Coral found herself as a maid to the judge's wife.
It took six months for her to worm her way into the family's trust. During that time she was memorizing the household layout, guard schedules, and establishing herself as a paragon of reliability. She didn't realize that it was all for nothing. Rippling Willow was insanely jealous, and she gathered together other rivals of Coral's. Together they found a way to tip off the judge about the serpent in his midst. The judge played it cool, and when Coral moved in for the kill, he had guards waiting for her. She fought for her life against thirty armed guards with more on the way, putting on a masterclass in martial arts and dodging while she fought. She didn't even notice that she was glowing with golden light by the time she'd put down the last guard. The realization of what she was came as the judge begged for his life. A request she denied. But before she killed him she extracted the information about who had betrayed her.
In a cold fury, she returned to the Mist of Sapphire Blossoms, intending to confront her betrayers. As she fought her way past the security, everyone was startled to hear the sounds of a raid. The judge had traced back his "anonymous tips" and arranged for a magistrate raid on the same night he intended to deal with his would-be assassin. Coral wound up fighting her way through city guards as well as Twilight Shark enforcers as she hunted down Rippling Willow and coldly, methodically, murdered her and anyone she even suspected of being involved in her betrayal. By the end of the bloodbath she was surrounded by well over a hundred city guards, the Twilight Sharks (who'd survived) were in custody, and she was facing down an impossible battle. That's when one of the commanders stepped forward. He addressed her as a Solar and offered a bargain. She could come quietly or go out in a blaze of glory. After a long moment of hesitation, she surrendered.
While Spring Blossom and the other survivors were hustled off to the jail cells and an eventual meeting with the raksha, Coral was taken to the offices of the kingdom's spymaster. Although he seemed friendly, the amount of information he had about her was unnervingly in-depth. The Twilight Sharks had been under surveillance for some time and the guards could have moved in at any point. The assassination of the judge had finally tipped the scales. It made her realize what power could be held by one who truly knew how things worked, and made her see how crime could be a blade expertly wielded. In the immediate term, the spymaster had a question for her. Given her newfound abilities, did she want to serve her kingdom and live, or be a soul-drained husk along with her fellow criminals? It was an easy choice for Coral to make.
Given the name of Transcendent Enchantress, she began her duties in her nation's spy service. There was a long period of training. What the Twilight Sharks had taught her was a good base but she needed other skills to be an effective agent of the crown. And of course, she needed to be tested for loyalty. There were many tests, both subtle and overt. Eventually, she proved her loyalty to the crown and was given her first assignment. The crown had need of agents in the surface world who could alert them to threats against the kingdom. She was inducted into the ruling Circle of the kingdom. This was to facilitate making reports easier. In actuality, her real work was on the surface. With suitable papers and funds, she joined the Denzik city-ship as a merchant specializing in rare and hard-to-acquire materials. In truth, much of her stock was supplied by Pearl, of things common there but difficult to find elsewhere. Over the next fifteen years she used the movements of the city-ship to build an extensive collection of informants, agents of her own, and trade contacts across the West, funneling information back to Pearl. She's brokered deals with the courts of the Raksha to obtain rare and priceless merchandise to sell, and finds herself thriving on the surface in a way she didn't expect.
Attributes
Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 4
Appearance: 4
Perception: 3
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 3
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 2
Caste Abilities (0)
Socialize: 5
Bureaucracy: 2
Linguistics: 2
Presence: 3
Larceny: 2
Favored Abilities
Integrity: 3
Performance: 3
Occult: 3
Dodge: 2
Brawl (MA-Black Claw Style): 3
Brawl (MA-Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style): 2
Supernal Ability: Socialize
Merits
Gills (3 dots)
Water Adaptation (2 dots)
Resources 4
Contacts (Western Raksha Courts) 3
Influence (Denzik City-Ship)-2
Influence (Wu-Jian)-2
Languages (Old Realm)-1
Martial Artist
Followers (a mixture of merchant contacts and paid spies)-2
Thaumaturgist (free)
BP Spends (0/15)
Contacts (Western Raksha Courts)-3
Influence (Denzik City-Ship)-2
Martial Artist merit-4
Socialize 5-2
Followers 2
Influence 2 (Wu-Jian)
Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
Charms (0/15)
Excellent Solar Socialize (free)
Excellent Solar Bureaucracy (free)
Excellent Solar Linguistics (free)
Excellent Solar Presence (free)
Excellent Solar Larceny (free)
Excellent Solar Integrity (free)
Excellent Solar Performance (free)
Excellent Solar Occult (free)
Excellent Solar Dodge (free)
Excellent Solar Brawl (free)
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Summon Elemental (free)
Open Palm Caress
Demure Carp Feint
Mastery of Small Manners
Motive-Discerning Technique
Shadow Over Day
Night Passes Over
Unimpeachable Discourse Technique
Humble Servant Approach
Frugal Merchant Method
Reed in the Wind
Enduring Mental Toughness
Stubborn Boar Defense
Integrity-Protecting Prana
Stormwind Rider
Spells
Summon Elemental
Stormwind Rider (control)
Intimacies and Limit Trigger
Defining Intimacy: Her own identity (she's worked hard to develop her own sense of self since her Exaltation and she refuses to be made less than what she is)
Major Intimacy: Pearl (patriotism mixed with a sense of comfort and home); Her Circle (she's not used to working with others but she's trying to be a good team member even if she's separated from them)
Minor Intimacy: Her love for Spring Blossom (her sifu in Black Claw and Dreaming Pearl Courtesan styles, and the closest to a mother figure she ever had. Manifests as fond rememberance).
Negative Intimacy: Being a pawn or a tool. (She grew up as one and never wants to be one again.)
Positive Intimacy: Her budding mercantile business (she knows it's a cover but she's fond of it and wants to see how far she can grow her business)
Willpower: 5
Parry: 3
Resolve: 3
Guile: 3
Evasion: 5
Caste: Eclipse
Background: She was born in the underwater kingdom of Pearl to a pair of kelp farmers. One more mouth to feed. One of too many mouths to feed. Her parents didn't name her since what would be the point? They'd have left her in the reefs or sold her to the raksha, if they could reach the raksha. Instead a man came to their village and offered to buy the child from them. This man was a collector of sorts. He gathered up orphans and unwanted children and paid their parents what they considered a grand sum for them. These children were taken off to begin their service as maiko, apprentice geisha in the most luxurious geisha house of the big city.
This particular geisha house, the Mist of Sapphire Blossoms, was owned by one Spring Blossom. Spring Blossom was the public face of the Twilight Shark Society. The "society" is a polite name for a criminal syndicate that covered all of Pearl. Members of the Society specialized in blackmail, extortion, theft, and (for the right price) murder-for-hire. Spring Blossom ran the operation: honeytrap operations, prostitution, and the more high-class geisha and courtesans. Her job was training and managing agents who could be invited into places and then could seduce, steal, or kill as needed, sometimes all three. She ran all this from behind an unassuming and polite mask as the head of a geisha house. This was the world our nameless baby was sold into.
Her early years were shaped almost from the time she could walk. She and the other children were praised and graded on how well they could lie and decieve. They learned early that they could get out of trouble by informing on other children for their own crimes, if they were clever enough to come up with a convincing lie or could fake evidence well. The children were assigned chores, and fed only when they did their chores. But those children who could convince or bully other children to do their chores for them got the best meals and the nicest toys. By five the children were separated. Those considered pretty enough, talented enough, and smart enough began their training. The rest were sold off to the raksha at a profit. Waste not, want not. Night Coral (as she was called by then) was one of the lucky ones chosen to remain, and begin her training. Over the next ten years she learned the arts of dance, of seduction, poisons, and theft. She learned how to be what people expected and to be completely unique. She also learned to trust no one. To view people and events solely in terms of how she could manipulate them for maximum gain. The only being she ever allowed herself to get close to was the house cat. She learned, painfully, that people betray. She drove herself to be the best, because only then could she be sure that her heart couldn't be betrayed. She was taught to find joy in her work, in the ways she could twist others around her fingers, and she relied on that joy as the only thing she could truly count on.
Her constant rival during these years was a girl named Rippling Willow. Rippling Willow was pretty, but not as pretty as Coral. Talented, but not as talented. She always strove to be better than Coral and never quite measured up. So when the Society got a very lucrative contract for the honeytrap division, it was only natural for the trainees to compete for the honor. And Coral won, as she always did. She was assigned to infilitrate the household of one of the kingdom's top judges. He was known as a man who showed no sympathy to criminals, frequently sentencing offenders to be given to the raksha. Spring Blossom wanted him replaced with a more corruptible judge and sent her top agent in to arrange matters. With a change of name (to Sunset Spark), and a falsified past, Coral found herself as a maid to the judge's wife.
It took six months for her to worm her way into the family's trust. During that time she was memorizing the household layout, guard schedules, and establishing herself as a paragon of reliability. She didn't realize that it was all for nothing. Rippling Willow was insanely jealous, and she gathered together other rivals of Coral's. Together they found a way to tip off the judge about the serpent in his midst. The judge played it cool, and when Coral moved in for the kill, he had guards waiting for her. She fought for her life against thirty armed guards with more on the way, putting on a masterclass in martial arts and dodging while she fought. She didn't even notice that she was glowing with golden light by the time she'd put down the last guard. The realization of what she was came as the judge begged for his life. A request she denied. But before she killed him she extracted the information about who had betrayed her.
In a cold fury, she returned to the Mist of Sapphire Blossoms, intending to confront her betrayers. As she fought her way past the security, everyone was startled to hear the sounds of a raid. The judge had traced back his "anonymous tips" and arranged for a magistrate raid on the same night he intended to deal with his would-be assassin. Coral wound up fighting her way through city guards as well as Twilight Shark enforcers as she hunted down Rippling Willow and coldly, methodically, murdered her and anyone she even suspected of being involved in her betrayal. By the end of the bloodbath she was surrounded by well over a hundred city guards, the Twilight Sharks (who'd survived) were in custody, and she was facing down an impossible battle. That's when one of the commanders stepped forward. He addressed her as a Solar and offered a bargain. She could come quietly or go out in a blaze of glory. After a long moment of hesitation, she surrendered.
While Spring Blossom and the other survivors were hustled off to the jail cells and an eventual meeting with the raksha, Coral was taken to the offices of the kingdom's spymaster. Although he seemed friendly, the amount of information he had about her was unnervingly in-depth. The Twilight Sharks had been under surveillance for some time and the guards could have moved in at any point. The assassination of the judge had finally tipped the scales. It made her realize what power could be held by one who truly knew how things worked, and made her see how crime could be a blade expertly wielded. In the immediate term, the spymaster had a question for her. Given her newfound abilities, did she want to serve her kingdom and live, or be a soul-drained husk along with her fellow criminals? It was an easy choice for Coral to make.
Given the name of Transcendent Enchantress, she began her duties in her nation's spy service. There was a long period of training. What the Twilight Sharks had taught her was a good base but she needed other skills to be an effective agent of the crown. And of course, she needed to be tested for loyalty. There were many tests, both subtle and overt. Eventually, she proved her loyalty to the crown and was given her first assignment. The crown had need of agents in the surface world who could alert them to threats against the kingdom. She was inducted into the ruling Circle of the kingdom. This was to facilitate making reports easier. In actuality, her real work was on the surface. With suitable papers and funds, she joined the Denzik city-ship as a merchant specializing in rare and hard-to-acquire materials. In truth, much of her stock was supplied by Pearl, of things common there but difficult to find elsewhere. Over the next fifteen years she used the movements of the city-ship to build an extensive collection of informants, agents of her own, and trade contacts across the West, funneling information back to Pearl. She's brokered deals with the courts of the Raksha to obtain rare and priceless merchandise to sell, and finds herself thriving on the surface in a way she didn't expect.
Attributes
Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 4
Appearance: 4
Perception: 3
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 3
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 2
Caste Abilities (0)
Socialize: 5
Bureaucracy: 2
Linguistics: 2
Presence: 3
Larceny: 2
Favored Abilities
Integrity: 3
Performance: 3
Occult: 3
Dodge: 2
Brawl (MA-Black Claw Style): 3
Brawl (MA-Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style): 2
Supernal Ability: Socialize
Merits
Gills (3 dots)
Water Adaptation (2 dots)
Resources 4
Contacts (Western Raksha Courts) 3
Influence (Denzik City-Ship)-2
Influence (Wu-Jian)-2
Languages (Old Realm)-1
Martial Artist
Followers (a mixture of merchant contacts and paid spies)-2
Thaumaturgist (free)
BP Spends (0/15)
Contacts (Western Raksha Courts)-3
Influence (Denzik City-Ship)-2
Martial Artist merit-4
Socialize 5-2
Followers 2
Influence 2 (Wu-Jian)
Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
Charms (0/15)
Excellent Solar Socialize (free)
Excellent Solar Bureaucracy (free)
Excellent Solar Linguistics (free)
Excellent Solar Presence (free)
Excellent Solar Larceny (free)
Excellent Solar Integrity (free)
Excellent Solar Performance (free)
Excellent Solar Occult (free)
Excellent Solar Dodge (free)
Excellent Solar Brawl (free)
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Summon Elemental (free)
Open Palm Caress
Demure Carp Feint
Mastery of Small Manners
Motive-Discerning Technique
Shadow Over Day
Night Passes Over
Unimpeachable Discourse Technique
Humble Servant Approach
Frugal Merchant Method
Reed in the Wind
Enduring Mental Toughness
Stubborn Boar Defense
Integrity-Protecting Prana
Stormwind Rider
Spells
Summon Elemental
Stormwind Rider (control)
Intimacies and Limit Trigger
Defining Intimacy: Her own identity (she's worked hard to develop her own sense of self since her Exaltation and she refuses to be made less than what she is)
Major Intimacy: Pearl (patriotism mixed with a sense of comfort and home); Her Circle (she's not used to working with others but she's trying to be a good team member even if she's separated from them)
Minor Intimacy: Her love for Spring Blossom (her sifu in Black Claw and Dreaming Pearl Courtesan styles, and the closest to a mother figure she ever had. Manifests as fond rememberance).
Negative Intimacy: Being a pawn or a tool. (She grew up as one and never wants to be one again.)
Positive Intimacy: Her budding mercantile business (she knows it's a cover but she's fond of it and wants to see how far she can grow her business)
Willpower: 5
Parry: 3
Resolve: 3
Guile: 3
Evasion: 5
