• Name: Ceren
• Age: Twenty-three
• Description: Standing at a small five-foot-one, Ceren is petite and stature and appears extremely fragile and doll-like. Her skin is as pale as porcelain, her eyes as dark as the fading moon, and her hair as bright as the pure fallen snow. She has a lean build and not muscular at all. She has a few places on her body that resemble spider veins, the lines black and jaded.

• Is your character cursed? Were they storm touched or generational storm touched? Ceren has been storm touched and cursed to resemble a porcelain doll. Her skin is as pale, but not exactly as tough as porcelain. Any rough touch results in spider veins lanced about her body circling a small dark patch of skin.

• What ring does your character come from? Ceren comes from the lost fifth ring, but has been outcasted and shamed due to being storm cursed.

• Active Role: While she has lived a life of solitude and poverty, she has a strong yearning to rage against the current goings on in the world. She wishes to be a part of the revolution, but as she is feared by many, she has a very strong feeling that she will be outcasted by the group as well. Yet they will not stop her from standing up for what she believes is right.

• Biography: Born to Destiny and Myrel, Ceren grew up a normal only child in the fifth ring. Her parents were part of the revolution from almost the very beginning, and always pushed their daughter to believe in the underdogs and to always stand up for what was right. That urge was instilled in her from a very young age and it carries with her to this very day. When the storm came for their ring, her parents died trying to protect her. Her mother shielded her, protecting her child's life. But, that didn't stop the storm from laying a curse on the young girl. From the very moment her curse took it's hold, she has been an outcast and living alone and on scraps that she has been able to find. She believes in the work her parents put into the revolution, and is bound and determined to live out their legacy.

• Name: Faylrie
Pronouced Faye - Lrie
[the L and R in her name are pronounced as one]

• Age: 22

• Description:


• Cursed?
It's complicated. No. She is not cursed. However as a babe, her father figure used a special form of body Ikonomancy to give her the appearance of storm touched. While this body Ikonomancy is not the same as face changing, it is along similar lines. There are two main differences to this Ikonomancy. First the appearance change does not hold in reflections or when being viewed through another medium such as a pane of glass. Second, the change is permanent regardless of will power.

When looking directly at Faylrie, centipede like bulges can be seen crawling beneath her skin.

• What ring does your character come from?
Second technically, but she’s lived her whole life in the fourth.

• Biography:
Born unto an unknown female, in the nobility, who had a relationship with someone in the third ring, any chance of happiness for Faylrie was doomed from the start. Immediately after her birth, it was commanded by the family that Faylrie be given to the storm for she was not worthy of their name and title.

The task was given to the family’s butler, a man by the name Jhaydarr Finch. But upon looking at the babe, Jhaydarr found himself in the middle of an impossible task.

Jhaydarr was unable to follow through. Since cursing the child at birth would surely lead to abandonment and death, he instead decided on another path. Calling in a favor, he used Ikonomacy to change both his own and the Faylrie’s appearance to look as if the plan had gone array and that they were both storm touched.

Dismissed by the family shortly after, he took it upon himself to raise the child in the fourth ring. He found a curse woman who he paid to act as the Faylrie’s milkmaid (who ran away shortly after Faylrie no longer needed to feed) and was with her ever since.

Having the appearance of a curse, not to mention one that others find grotesque, Faylrie’s life has never been an easy one. Nights were always cold and crowded. Food was scarce and she always had to be on the lookout for thieves among the other cursed.

Her one solace were her training sessions with Jhaydarr, and a peculiar friend she made at age ten. One day when she found herself all alone, running from the Wardana who caught her stealing, her friend came upon her. A strange talking raven. A raven by the name of Faine.

“This way! This way!” He guided her, in a voice that seemingly only she could hear. “Over here! Over here!”

With Faine’s help, she was able to evade the Wardana and find her way safely back to Jhaydarr.

Faine has been with her ever since. Though oddly, he’s not always a raven. Sometimes he’s a mouse. Sometimes fly. Other times a cat. Faine comes and goes as he pleases, but he always returns, usually in some new form.

Over the years Faylrie has found Faine to be quite mischievous. And perhaps sometimes even an instigator.

• Active Role:

Faylrie has multiple motivations:

Revenge. Faylrie has a deep seeded hatred of what the world has done to her. She will stop at nothing to murder the mother that abandoned her. But Faylrie’s ability to carry out revenge is at the moment limited. So as such she must take things one step at time

The destruction of her false curse. This has been a sore spot for Faylrie for many years. A false curse that she is unable to see when looking back in a mirror. She loathes the undue treatment it has garnered from those around her.

A spot in The Revolution. The revolution’s goals aligns with her own, but given the chance she would give away The Revolution’s plans and high ranking members if the chance to enact her revenge arose.

Crossing off names on her list. While not actively blood thirsty, Faylrie keeps a mental list of those who have severely wronged her. She awaits the day where she can final crossing those names off one by one.

• Personality:
Faylrie doesn’t mind being crude and will often act as if she doesn’t give a shit. She has trust issues and thus has a difficult time getting close to others. Over the years she has been beaten, bullied, harassed, lied to, spat on, whipped, cornered and stabbed multiple times for laughs and even nearly strangled to death before getting rescued by Jhaydar. There is very much a whole lot of hatred and anger bubbling beneath the surface.

That said, there is far more to Faylrie than the anger, hatred, desire to enact revenge. Deep down, what Faylrie desires more than anything else is belonging. A home. A family. Anything! Anything that could justify the torture she endured. Anything to justify the point of living…. But this… this is not something she is willing to admit to. Not to herself, or to anyone else.

• Ikonomancy:
While not a student of Ikonomancy, Faylrie has become proficient in a few very particular transformative ikons that have been built into her walking stick.These ikons were taught to her by Jhaydarr during her training sessions, and the stick was given to her has a gift so that she could discreetly use the ikons she learned to transform her stick into a tool or weapon of her choosing.

• Weapon:
Faylrie carries her walking stick with her at all times. The top of the walking stick divides into a v shape. The top of the stick has two rotating pieces attached to each end of the ‘V’. These rotating parts have incomplete bits of ikons carved into the piece and the stick. The ikons are seamlessly hidden by a false surface that was glued atop the surface of the stick.

The rotating piece on each end of the ‘V’ has a different function. The rightmost rotating piece transforms the stick into different weapons depending on the ikon activated.

These weapons are:
A Kusarigama
A short sword
A two handed spear
A mace

The leftmost piece transforms the stick into various tools.

These tools are:
A grapple
A glass cutter
A slingshot
A spyglass

In addition to this. Faylrie keeps a crude dagger hidden at her side at all times.

• Age: 49

• Curse: Godric’s body no longer heals on its own at all. Ever since being touched by the storm, all repair to his body has to be done through ikonomancy. While there are no obvious outward signs, there have been whispers among the healers of his body taking longer to heal than it did previously.

• Ring and views: Of the First Ring by both wealth and status, the Argyle family has maintained their proximity to the power center for generations. While being a Regia Guard wasn’t the best option for their primary heir, it was a great path for the secondborn. When it came to his practical views of society, Godric was always known for strict adherence to hierarchy. Their God and his Voice stood above the rings, thus the First Ring bowed. In turn, Seconds bowed to them, with the Thirds bowing to those before. Fourths would give way to Thirds, but hold superiority over the Fifths. His worldview seemed to have gotten much softer ever since the Fifth fell. Offering words of guidance instead of outright orders or dominion to those who were surely below him. This change in his character was overall taken as old age and weakness.

• Active Role: Oldest serving member of the current Regia Guard, Godric made his name for great deeds in the previous generation. However, anyone who has started service in the days following the fall of the Fifth would find the present man left much to be desired when compared to the hero of old stories. Over time, his once commanding presence has been reduced to more of a relic of times past. The fact that he kept stepping out of the way of any real conflict only added to the feeling that he had already seen his best days. Currently, the upper echelon of the First is actively looking to push him into retirement. Had his family been any less wealthy and influential, this would have happened several years ago. His influence still holds with any older officers in the service, as they mostly remember him as he was instead of what he became later in life. Within the Guard itself, he had grown to be an ostracized, agreeable sort. He never desired conflict or voiced opinions against the grain. The only aspect of his life which still showed a degree of fortitude was the relationship with his apprentice. Llyris would be his legacy.

• Biography: Argyle family always did its best to maintain a good position in relation to the other great houses. They would arrange political marriages and overproduce offspring simply to make sure additional pieces could maintain the board. If you were the firstborn, you were to take over as the family head once the previous generation stepped down – which is what his brother Lorentz did.
Both of his sisters were married off for political capital. Emilia made a great name for herself as a particularly skilled healer, even making her own adaptations to common practices. Julianna on the other hand blended into the background, quickly becoming what most would deem as a perfect wife. There were occasional rumors about schemes and intrigue, but none have ever landed squarely on her. The youngest of the family, Damian, seemed to have pulled away from Godric completely in the years following his choice of apprentice. Damian had always expressed an interest in the Guard, but while he was still mighty, Godric never saw the proper strength within the man. As such, he had chosen Llyris – son of his former brother in arms. While his name still carried weight within the Guard, his family kept their deference to him, but as soon as he started losing said influence – their tune changed as well. They still recognized him as one of their own, supplying resources and backing him in all public affairs – but his influence had come to an end. Once he retired, he would fall completely under Lorentz’ command for the remainder of his days.

The family has recently been surrounded in whispers of a marriage for Damian – a play to prop themselves back into the currents Godric couldn’t help them swim in. Since Damian never lost his intention to join the Guard, it wasn’t too strange when bad luck seemed to loom over Godric's allies.

Godric did his best to keep Llyris under his protection, but as his influence faded, so did the air of safety.

NAME
Callina venenum publicly.
Matriarch / Void mistresses her cultists.

AGE
28

RING
3rd / 4th

ROLE
Matriarch to the cult of shadows.

The Cult of shadows is a death cult, assasins ply their trade and its members can be found to bring death in all forms. She is its leader. And its influence is rising higher and extending their tendrils…slowly.

On surface she is a mistress of a web of establishments who deal in the vices of men and women. They do not have
Judge as long as you have the coin to pay for it.

DESCRIPTION
White haired, slender, and lithe. Her skin is pale yet also full of life and a strong hint of danger. In her public persona she is seen as a mistress of a wide number of less morally reputable establishments that serve the desires of those with the coin to pay for them. Dressed in garments that would scandalise an upper ring she presents a rather hedonistic front.

Her cult attire is no less provocative, though her face is always masked. One near albino is quite like another in the lower tiers. The leather mask artfully merges the bones of its predecessor as a warning to those who may think to repeat it. Make no mistake, however she dresses to distract and detract… She is deadly.

The rumour of her drinking blood and vampirism is potentially not always a rumour. Men and women have not returned from her bed or bath chambers.

Her choice of attire can be interesting….but is pragmatic. Whatever works. Works.



PERSONALITY
Ruthless, you do not rise to lead a death cult by being nice. A lady who can charm one minute and flirt but also kill you 30 seconds later without mercy.

Her front is not a lie, she has no shame, no qualms and her hedonistic rumours are often somewhat true if later exaggerated. Very few things phase her.

Her loyalty to gold. Herself and own interests thus her cult. They may have ties to rebels. But that's far from their only customers.

SKILLS
Assassin
Knife fighting
Poisoning and trickery
Charm…when needed
Matriarch at centre of a spider's Web.
Can heal but needs to regularly drink blood to live. Blood must be "Live" to heal straight from the source.
Charismatic cult leader.

BACKGROUND
Her true parentage is unknown, maybe 5th ring refugees, maybe an upper rings bastad or an unwanted child of nobility. No one knows.

An orphan was left on the cults doorstep and found, taking her in, she was raised slowly by them becoming her twisted but also loyal family as much as they could be.

Callina was trained by the cult along with other found children who wandered their way into its clutches. Toys were wooden daggers, play was combat training, the cult was no such easy childhood. Most had killed before they reached their teens and already taken their first contracts before their 15th name day. The cult was brutal, darwinian, many died or failed but those few who survived were some of the best killers in the group.

Trained from a young age, they could Infiltrate, evade, and specialise in all manner of weapons. Some from a distance, some up close, others in their own beds, kitchens and more. There was many ways and the cult brought death to every flavour.

Callina was ambitious, dangerously so but also dangerously smart. Gathering allies and slowly cultivating her position by expanding their surface interests to hide and fund their activities even into the 3rd ring. Having footholds in 4th and 3rd rings of the nameless city.

One day. It all boiled down to one day. A poisoned dagger to the heart. Years of secret planning…was over in seconds. Callina became the matriarch.

MISC
Mostly concentrated near the 3rd and 4th ring gate and making inroads into the 3rd. The cult's influence has bled over the borders.

CURSE
Vampirism. The curse is not entirely obvious physically unlike some though one who pays particularly close may find something amiss. It has affected her mind more than body. Her fangs cannot be hidden though.

Drinks blood, her restraint and such are reduced. Fixed fangs and blood lust if deprived.

Has limited or no ability to balance her own blood thus must consume it to live. They can however consume normal food.

Prefers the night but can function in the sunlight. It's just uncomfortable and harsher. Bright light is uncomfortable.

Wardina / MAGIC
Taught in the underground by the cult in basic magic. The education was haphazard but functional.

Mostly practical skills and those to hide, survive, evade and such skills. They were heavy on practical and not academic.

The Cult
The cult has existed for a long time, it has waned, risen, fallen and happened to exist for a long time in various forms. Its exact history is unknown having been lost in the Chaos and storms.

It has grown since the storms and Rebellion era more into a stricter and more organised form. They have taken their obsession with death into a business, more mercantile, mercenary to survive what has plagued the 4th district. Callina and her sect who eventually rose to power in recent times have seen the pragmatism the zealots do not possess. To survive they had to evolve, to spread, to gain strength and become more than fanatics. They have sought ways to make money, to build influence and use that to spread the direction of the 3rd ring knowing eventually 4th will be swallowed too. They must find ways to survive and move inwards.

The regular, storm touch, outcast and damaged are found, offering a place to belong, loyalty, and protection. Those that survive the training, challenges and battles are hardened and skilled in the arts of death and survival. Death is everywhere waiting for everyone. The Cults ethos has shifted at current to more of an Assassin ethos, worshipping death by being its deliverer.

Many who join through reason of whatever whim life have are often the orphan, abandoned or those who have nothing else. Those who fail die. Those who succeed are brothers and sisters of the Void. It's a place where judgement is based on.what you bring and nothing else.

A favourite of the cult is a now semi slum area near the gates, only once it was not they have found their way into old ruins below. Over time, scavenging, repairing the chambers, even making the now underground bathhouse fill from what seems to be an intact spring that so far defies the effects of the storm. There is space enough to shelter, store and use the ruined sewers and such to ply their trade. Though it has its downsides, it is best they manage for now.

Others are probing into other ruins. The earth and stone provides some protection from the harsh reality of conditions in the 4th zone. Earth keeps the cold out and the stone means Beasts cannot just smash through weak rot ridden walls without warning.

---

---

From the moment since his conception, Zavala has been fed the tale of his destiny. How he is to lead his people and shelter them from the encroaching storm, to be the light in the dark and a shining beacon of hope for them all. It was his father’s belief in him to shepherd the lost, that drove Zavala to become a paragon for the nameless city, to be the best of the best. To that end, he was given the best tutors, advisors and instructors available in the city to teach him the skills necessary to develop his mind into a ruler and his body into that of a warrior.


As soon as he came of age he enlisted into the Wardana Academy; his previous instructions flourishing his education ever further. Though he doesn’t have a natural affinity for the full destructive power that Ikonomancy can possess, he does have a propensity to create makeshift weaponry and barriers from earth ikons. When his cousin Ergen joined the academy not two years after, not only did Zavala finally have a friend he could rely on, but a powerful rival to push his limits against. The two dueled often, served on the streets together and saved one another during fights on more than one occasion. They were an inseparable team, but perhaps he should have listened to the words his cousin often spoke, rather than the ambitions and ideals he strived towards. Perhaps if life had gone different, it would have been anyone else under that hood but Ergen that night. For the first time that night, Zavala felt he was not in control of his destiny, his eyes showing confusion, his voice betraying anguish; weakness.

“Ergen.”

“Don’t take this personally…”

Those words were more biting than the explosive wind and though the Regia captain was quick to act, the deed had already been done. Ergen was gone, his body never recovered, believed to have been torn to shreds from the destructive power of his misguided ikons. Zavala lost a friend, and a comrade, not just family that day.


As the years ticked on and the fires of rebellion began to stir, talks of the future and who would rule after became a common occurrence. His mother, Rehema was ever insistent for him to have an heir and arranged for a multitude of bachelorettes to be brought before him; all of them denied. In his pursuit to be the best, he also wanted the best match, not just in superficial traits or for political or financial gain. He desired another who matched his zeal, who desired not only to save the people from the coming storm, but to do what they do best to achieve that goal.

He found that desire amongst a lowborn woman, one who would not reveal her name to him, one he would frequent often and converse with. Despite her upbringing she was intelligent, and far too kind, but that kindness was met in return. He knows not where she is now, even if he did, the crown would never acknowledge whomever she birthed. If he was right though, that child would find a way to strive to ever greater heights and mayhaps one day, be the true beacon after he is gone.


Now years later, his father, the new host Regia, Zavala must take his rightful place . Yet the rebellion wears heavy on his mind, every day is a challenge and there are those that would bring down the monarchy as a whole. Enemies within and enemies without, allies to the storm that would bring their doom. He will meet them all on the battlefield if he must, for he will lead the people to a brighter dawn.

Description: She stands at a tall 5’10” with slender proportions and an angelic grace about her. Most amongst the populace would describe Jaina as protective, dedicated, and courageous (except if you’re Stormtouched), but those who know her well know that she is a bit flirty, stubborn, and haughty. She respects authority and will only challenge her superiors if she knows she is in the right.

Biography: Jaina hails from a once great family of ikonomancers in the 3rd Ring. Her family had been pioneers of ikonomancy in its infancy all those years ago, but stagnation and ineptness had plagued generations of Vanns, robbing them of their prestige and wealth bit by bit. By the time of Jaina’s birth, her parents, Syrun and Dawn, were just barely surviving in their rundown estate, kept only intact by runes drawn by their forerunners. Jaina was expected to be as talentless and unbecoming as her parents and as all the recent generations of Vanns, but her youthful curiosity and keen intelligence would be the Vann’s saving grace. Dirty tomes and hidden recipes for ikons were a feast for Jaina’s young eyes, devouring them bit by bit in their firelit study. Her parents would witness a momentous rise back to the top, their daughter a fledgling paragon amongst this city.

Or at least, they should’ve witnessed it.

Syrun was an eager fool of a man, and his wife, Dawn, only served to enable his scheming. His “friends” were seedy at best, Stormtouched rogues and brigands that he would occasionally harbor under the noses of the Wardana for “business purposes”. Jaina was rarely privy to any conversations that her father had with these individuals, nor would she ever know what he was really up to.

One night, a 12 year old Jaina woke up to screaming and shouting. She snuck downstairs to find the source of the noise, only to find her father being flayed by a pale woman with ghastly features: her yellow eyes were much too wide, her lips black as night, and her skin glinted with reptilian scales. Her mother, Dawn, laid on the ground, her skull already shattered against a stone wall. A few other Stormtouched individuals were looting her home, while the pale woman jeered at Syrun for “failing his end of the bargain”. In a fright, Jaina managed to escape the estate without being detected, flagging down the Wardana with tears in her eyes. By the time the Wardana arrived on the scene, Syrun was a bloody husk of a corpse, but the Stormtouched criminals were likewise taken care of.

Jaina would never know what criminal enterprise her father had aligned himself with nor would she ever know who the Stormtouched were. Nonetheless, the Wardana had avenged her parents, and so she felt she knew where she had to go next, especially now that she was an orphan: She would go to the Academy and become just like them. Her trauma sparked a wildfire and a need to protect this city and drive the Storm back, and with it, all of the Cursed individuals. The miscreants and fell beings would perish so that no one else would have to endure what she had.

And so she did exactly what she set out to do: Jaina showcased her proficiency of ikonomancy upon joining the Wardana Academy, one that would only blossom with each passing year. She was a natural, a manifestation of the past glory of the Vann name. By the time she was 19, she had become a Wardana Leader and fought numerous skirmishes against storm beasts. There have been some rumors that she purposefully caught Stormtouched in the crossfire of her battles, but it has never been a point of contention amongst her peers. As for the general, non-Cursed population, Jaina has been a saint to those in need, a true hero fighting valiantly against the Storm.

With the betrayal of Ergen Ilkin, Jaina’s pedigree and skill has earned herself a position as the newfound apprentice of Leonhart Astaros, someone she has idolized for her prowess and heroic status. Suddenly, her prospective future looks even brighter.