Friends and Foes

Whispering Mistress of Venomous Ambitions

Daughter of Mara, The Eater of Souls

The Whispering Mistress is a wealthy and powerful merchant, her mother, Mara a dangerous demon of the second circle. She has a spy network which is quite efficient in the Scavenger Lands. She used to work as a Diplomat for Nexus and many other smaller cities. She knows every important person of the River Province and is protected by many pacts and alliances.

The Demon-Blooded likes tranquillity so she chose to live in a remote place, the Palace of Thousands Conjunctions is built deep in the Living Thorn. She made a pact with the spirits around.
In the Palace of Thousand Conjunctions she is surrounded by an army of servants and zealots, they all wear green robes with her mother symbol on it

She has two dozens of soldiers and five personal guards as well, these one are drugged with magical potions. And never far, four Erymanthoi guard the place. But the Demon-Blooded is always travelling around and she spends few months every year in her Palace.

The Whispering Mistress of Venomous Ambitions loves to attract a male, make him fall in love with her and then disappear; from time to time she does the same with a female. She can be very sweet but she never feels love.

She is a bit plump with full breasts; she has very long black hair and fantastic blue eyes. Her face is very attractive with full ruby lips. She always wears provocative clothes.

Alabaster Master

The Alabaster Master is an old man, the owner of the most famous Baths house of the High Dales: the Alabaster Baths. The building is in the shape of a huge white spider with thousands of long and narrow chimneys. The entry is so expensive only the nobles and the richest can pay it. Inside the Alabaster Baths the customers can find pools but whores and courtesans as well.

The Alabaster Master knows everyone in Shadow Mountain, he understands all the court's games, he keeps precious records about all his customers and their small habits, and he can blackmail any noble of the High Dale very easily.

The Alabaster Master is a dry old man, greying but full of dignity and respect. He usually wears white and grey silk robes.

Cynis Afako, Dragon-Blooded of Wood

Cynis Afako was a very clever young man. He came to the High Dales to find a new market for his family’s slave trade. Unfortunately The One Who Rule the City didn’t agree to sell out his people in exchange of money. So the Dragon-Blooded had to make a deal with the mighty Guild. They tried to sap the spirit’s power and oblige him to agree with their deal.
Cynis Afako hid his political skills behind the mask of a depraved young dynast. He actually loved all this depravation, orgies, sex and drugs were one of his favourite pleasures, right after gambling, but he never forgot his duty to his family and this mask was his best protection.
Despite his skills he couldn’t compete with the ageless knowledge of The One Who Rule the City, this one trapped the Dragon-Blooded: he ordered one of his best assassins to murder courtesans in the Alabaster Master and to leave enough evidence to incriminate Cynis Afako. A group a Solars investigated these murders and tried to accuse the Dragon-Blooded, hopefully for this one, he discovered their secret and threatened them to reveal their identity to the Ledaal family, here, in the High Dales.
Bonded, the Solars couldn’t get rid of him. Cynis Afako tried to use his new “friends” a bit more; he sent them in one of the Ledaal family member’s mansions to steal a parchment. The Solars did it; they had to enter in a magical picture to do it.
The information in the document helped the Exalted to get rid of the Dragon-Blooded but this one said he will call for a Wyld Hunt on them as soon as a reached the Blessed Isle… The Solars didn’t like the threat and waited for him right after the Jade Wind Pass and murdered him.

Long Torment, The Black Cygnus, Abyssal Exalted of the Dusk Caste

Long Torment is one of the partners in crime of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. He never questioned his orders and loves the destruction potential the Deathlord gave him. He has a good size dead army under his command mostly composed of ghosts, so they easily disappear and travel unnoticed.
Long Torment and his army have been sent in the High Dales to prepare the invasion of the place for The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears’ glory. But before that he wanted to go to his former lover’s mausoleum, deep in the mountains. His Deathlord gave him a special artifact to call back the soul of his long dead love. He needed to kill six women of her blood; each of them would provide a part of an artificial body for his lover’s soul: two legs, two arms, a torso and the head… He chose his victims in Last Sorrow, a small village very close to the ancient ruins of Seriana. There he found his lover’s kin and brought them to her mausoleum to kill them with a special necromantic ritual. Each time a part of the artificial and monstrous body was put together, the temperature of the area went down.
Solars came to investigate but Long Torment successfully dismissed them with few arrows. They never succeeded to stop him and when his lover’s soul was back it was too late, he came to Last Sorrow with all his army and killed every last soul there.
Then he participate at the attack of Shadow Mountain few months later, enslaving the population, he was the one who killed The One Who Rule the City.

Long Torment is a real nightmare; he is vicious, cruel and merciless. His body is rotting, he looks like more a corpse than a human being, his smell is the one of death and animals flee at his approach. He wears a soulsteel, bone and tendons full plate armor, makes him look like a skinned huge monster of death. But his most dangerous weapon is a grand Daiklave called Soul Mirror, a present of his Deathlord.

The Maiden of Despair, Abyssal Exalted of the Moonshadow Caste

She is Lover Clad in Raiment of Tears’ Diplomat, a very dangerous Abyssal Exalted of the Moonshadow caste. She came to Shadow Mountain to weaken The One Who Rule the City and his administration and she did it well…
She arrived with her wealthy black horse-drawn carriage with blue lanterns on the four corners and her six night-black stallions with red eyes and sharp teeth. At the first interview with the spirit she found some newborn Solar Exalted there and she feared for her Mistress’ plans. So decided she would use the Exalts or at least move them away from the fight.
She carefully destroyed the city’s administration and she made the Solars think The One Who Rule the City tried to get rid of them. For that she orchestrated the death of the Ledaal house’s leader and left evidence incriminating the Solars, and then she left evidence saying The One Who Rule the City was behind that.
Then, she was ready to meet the Solars; she offered them to protect them from a curse and to place them at the head of the city when this one would be hers. They refused.
But she succeeded in driving them away, during the attack of Shadow Mountain they ran away, fleeing the High Dales.

She wears elbow-long red silk gloves. At her wrists are hanged dozens of refined silver bracelets with runic pendants. She wears a long black silk funeral gown with middle-arm’s long sleeves. She also wears a very long train (more than 10 feet) of the same bloody colour than her gloves, with black edges. A black thin funeral veil is shadowing her face. Her belt is made of soulsteel plates. Each plate shows grimacing faces, always moving. She always goes barefoot. A soulsteel crown of long thorns is laid down on her head, the thorns piercing through both the veil and the train. A bit of blood runs down her forehead.
She gets 6 rings piercing both of her arms (arm-rings piercing) and her dress and gloves as well. The rings are in black jade and are linked to 12 bone collars through 12 extremely small silver chains. Each collar is fastens to a child neck, there are 3 boys and 3 girls on each side. The children are going naked and are dreadly scarified and pierced with black jade needles, they all have empty eyes. All had their skullcap removed and replaced, fixed with black medical wire. But each of them has 8 strange articulated soulsteel sticks, like the legs of a spider which body would be in the kids’ heads, coming out from the healed wound. All the children are mutilated, missing some limbs or organs.
The Maiden of Despair, herself, is inhumanly beautiful, ruby lips, pale skin, large green eyes and very long dark hair. A goddess of love makes flesh… and she has a very sensual deep voice.

Heavy Mountain, the Lion of the Sun, Solar Exalted of the Zenith Caste

This Solar is a possessed soul. He sold this one to an Abyssal Exalted, it took the Maiden of Despair years to corrupt him but he finally fell to her dark powers. Now he thinks he is still controlling his fate but it is far from the truth, he is only a puppet, but a dangerous one.
Heavy Mountain thinks he acts for the Unconquered Sun but his lust for blood and battle makes him blind.
He has no fear and no common sense as well, he thinks the Maiden of Despair is a mean to fight more battles and more mighty opponents and she fuelled him with blood and stupid fights to keep him happy.
Heavy Mountain has a small band of bandits, around a hundred, most of them are murderers or madmen but they follow him blindly, because he is mighty and dangerous.
The Zenith has a very bad temper, loosing his nerves at the first occasion and using his fists each time something bothers him. But worse, he has no patience at all…
Heavy Mountain participates at the Shadow Mountain battle, taking orders from the Maiden of Despair.

Even he his a bit stupid he is a mighty opponent, he fights with nothing else than his fists, and he knows three dangerous techniques: The Pawn of the Lion, The Long Run of the King and The Hunt. And for protection, he wears the Great Armour of the Berserker, superheavy plate armour, red and black with screaming orichalcum faces carved on it.

Heavy Mountain is 8 feet tall and over 500 pounds; he wears his hair in long dreadlocks.

Master Jade Spirit, Dragon-Blooded of Earth, Immaculate Monk

Master Jade Spirit has been working for the Pinnacle of the Eye of the Hunt since his admission in the ranks of the Order. He his entirely devoted to his duty and worked with the Wyld Hunt six times already, but each time the support is tighter, no more Warstriders or legion with them… Nevertheless, this time a letter talked about 3 or 4 Anathema! This time he had Warstriders and soldiers, not a legion but two hundred of the best fighters.
He went to the High Dales to purify them and bring the Faith of the Immaculate Dragons to this recluse place. But he found hell instead, when he arrived to Shadow Mountain, the town was attacked by Anathema and a wicked army of ghosts. Other Hungry Ghosts came out of nowhere, in the middle of his men, it was a slaughter!
Jade Spirit killed hundred of ghosts before he had to flee, as far as he knows he is the only survivor of the Wyld Hunt. On his way back, he stopped near the wicked city of Great Forks, then he learned about Anathema, killing decadent spirits in town. He thought they might be the same that brought him to the High Dales. He sent a message to the Blessed Isle and decided to hunt them down himself.

Master Jade Spirit is a very strong man, a haunted man, he never expected such a defeat in the High Dales and now, his only purpose is killing Anathema!

He is strongly built with a brownish skin, he only wears brown robe and carries Sleep of Ages, a white-jade tetsubo.

Firewand, Master of the Court of Sleeping Fire, Diplomat of Heavens

Firewand is an Ifrit, the master of the court of sleeping fire, close to Great Forks; the court takes place in an ancient but still in activity volcano. He is like all the member of his race, very impressive and charismatic. He rules the court of fire wisely and fairly. Firewand is one of the last elemental who still believes in the Celestial Hierarchy, he respects every spirit above him and treats well all the others, but he is the only one in his court and he has to deal with the others from time to time. He is a well known diplomat in Great Forks and in Yu-Shan, the celestial lions trust him blindfold.
Firewand is a free spirit, brilliant and loving, he loves Creation and wishes he could help it more, he is very nostalgic about the First Age when Solars rules the world and harmony was not just a word. Beside this fair side, he is an elemental of fire and his wraths make the volcano rumbles.
Recently he fell in love with a Solar Exalted of the Eclipse Caste, he loves her spirit and her determination, he taught her the dematerialize charm and thinks he should bring her to Yu-Shan to see if she could help him changing things.

Ifrit’s appearance: Superficially resembling humans and often reaching heights of seven feet, with high smooth foreheads and straight, noble noses, these creatures are used by human warlords to coordinate fortress’ defenses and to lead armies into battle. Their very aspect commands obedience, and their word cannot be challenged. Ifrit can command existing fires to attack enemies, though they cannot emanate flames from their bodies like other fire elementals. However, the elementals do possess a bright-orange radiance that cannot be doused. At night, this personal radiance can be seen for miles.
Ifrit are known to be generous gift-givers to those who impress them with feats of diplomacy and etiquette. Powerful blessings are accorded to those fortunates deemed worthy. However, the word has gotten out about the Ifrit’s appreciation for such deeds, so it is likely that most Ifrit will avoid throngs of obvious favour-seekers. Ifrit are also valued very highly in the spirit courts for their wisdom and their diplomatic skill and are often employed as negotiators in important disputes. The Ifrit’s wisdom and glibness are offset by their fiery temper, which manifests in times of political stress or during particularly vicious combat.

Firewand possesses a red-jade Daiklave reaper and a red-jade armour.

Walker in Darkness, The Last Messenger, Assassin in Great Forks

Walker in Darkness was born thirty two years ago in the great megapolis of Nexus. He was sold as a slave three years after, bought by an important Guild Factor, he was trained as an assassin, his life was dedicated to the black art; nothing else existed. At thirteen he had killed ten men. His life changed the day his master was eliminated by a more powerful rival, this one tried to kill the assassin as well, but trained to escape any detection, Walker in Darkness was already far away. He sold his talents in many cities before settling in Great Forks, at 22. There he acquired a great reputation; his skill was highly valued by the many spirits. He was the one who killed Yrlam the green, a powerful spirit of the wilderness.
Now he lives in a big villa, with many gardens, surrounded by apathetic servants, these last are actually skilled killers hiding their powers behind servant masks.
Walker in Darkness gives many contracts to his acquaintances, to freelance assassins. Many contracts go to him first, and then he chooses the best for the mission. He has also the possibility to hide people or to deal sold goods. But the things he does not do are: slave trade, drugs and prostitution. These markets are too dangerous in Great Forks.
Walker in Darkness or the Last Messenger as he is called in Great Forks seldom accepts contracts for himself; he takes only the less politically dangerous and gives the thorny ones to some black sheep assassin… A complex net of alliances keeps him alive and free since he is in the Spirit City.
His favourite method is the poison.

Walker in Darkness is a tall, slim man, he moves with the grace of a great cat. He has nutty eyes and black hair with a crew cut. His face is too bonny to be really handsome but he still keeps a certain beauty. Always clothed at the last fashion he never leaves his villa without a pair of poisoned knives.

Recently he gave a dangerous contract to a young girl, this one appeared to be an Anathema, Walker in Darkness was very surprised and he thought about killing the girl to be sure no one will come after him, but he finally thought, the Exalt’s power could be a good thing to have if he can control her. Now he tries to keep an eye on her.

Green Rage, The Indecisive, War God of the North East

This spirit is not a very powerful one because he rules upon a small region in the North East of Creation. He is worshipped by a dozen of barbarian tribes who fight again and again, all year long to win his favours. The tribe who defeated all the others is the chosen one, and for one year they won’t loose a battle (if they stay in his area of control).
Green Rage lives a simple life, often transgressing the Celestial Rules; he appears on the battlefield and receives prayers and offerings. He always comes with hundred servants, all barbarians chosen to serve him for 10 years in Yu-Shan, at the end of their service he kills them and devour their hearts; it is an honour for the barbarian people to be chosen. These “lucky ones” always wear a black veil on their face.
Once a year, Green Rage is celebrated in Great Forks, the spirit loves these festivities, and he eats meat and drink wine for a week.

Green Rage is a big greenish creature, with incredible muscles and a tiny head, hidden by a black-leather mask. Two chains link his ears to his nipples. He fights with two huge bone-made hooks his hands protected by an insect carapace.

Recently Green Rage has been killed during his annual celebration in Great Forks, he was eating a banquet offered to him when a powerful golden aura appeared behind him, and he felt a hundred of mighty blows tearing his flesh apart. He was dead before he could realize it.
His essence is slowly reforming in Yu-Shan, full of vengeance ideas.

Cathak Mikoma, The Blue Lady, Dragon-Blooded of Water

She is one of the Cathak’s Diplomats and a skilled one. She is beautiful but cold and strict so few people like being too close to her. Since the Empress vanished her job is getting more and more dangerous. She not only fears Anathema and roaming armies but other dynasts as well. She had a twin sister of the same name; she was general’s champion of a small satrapy not far from Great Forks. She accepted the founds escort’s job in the Threshold in order to see her sister. Unfortunately when she reached the fortress she was already dead.
Mikoma had a conventional childhood, for a dynast… Her sister’s presence was her light during these hard days. She went to the Spiral Academy and her sister to the House of Bells, after this separation they never see each other for years.
She likes the prestige and wealth of the Princes of Earth, she hates vulgarity and being ill treated. She is refined, her parents tried to marry her 10 times already, she always refused arguing she would marry only when her sister will, but that was a lie to hide her most precious secret: she is sterile, a shame for a dynast, if her parents ever learn that she’ll be disgraced.

Cathak Mikoma is called the Blue Lady because her skin has a deep blue colour and her hair has dark blue as well, she always wears blue silk kimonos.

Red Master of Pestilence, Master of Cholera

He is the god of Cholera on Creation, a powerful god in the Age of Sorrow. As anybody can imagine he is not very appreciated, even if he has few followers in Great Forks, but he is prayed by thousands, praying him to avoid this lethal disease, his portfolio could be really dangerous for a city the size of Great Forks, so all the rites are respected. Red Master of Pestilence lives in Yu-Shan but he enjoys walking on a battlefield aftermath, harvesting the souls of the wounded.
Even if he is a bit sadistic, he actually thinks his role is important for humanity, he helps regulating the ever-growing number of people in the most populated regions. From times to times he saves people from disease, he is always sensitive to orphans’’ stories.

Red Master of Pestilence looks like a half dried out corpse, dry and rotten, surrounded by a humming swarm of flies. His eye-sockets are empty for years but he doesn’t need eyes to see the world around him.

He recently made a pact with two Solars in Great Forks, these ones asked him to spread cholera in a Dragon-Blooded fortress, he agreed in exchange of a future service from the two Exalts. This pact can bring him many troubles in Yu-Shan, so he tries to keep it secret.

Smiling Fox, abbot of the Sacred Tree Monastery

Smiling Fox was a monk dedicated to his duty. As one of Anura’s servants, the goddess of places kept secret, his task was to keep secret Fury of the Deep’s sanctum. Fury of the Deep is the powerful elemental in charge of the Thousand Snakes Mountains. All his life, Smiling Fox kept this secret place hidden, he trained monks for this duty; all of them were well trained in martial-arts and in the art of silence. They lived a simple life in the monastery.
The Sacred Tree Monastery was built to protect the elemental’s sanctum. A secret passage was hidden behind a statue in a courtyard. In the caves between the monastery and the sanctum, Smiling Fox and his predecessors bred a race of scorpions, white blind scorpions. Any light got them angry, a powerful ward against intruders.
Unfortunately, a Guild-spy, Cutting Word, suspected the role of the monastery and sent her executive, a mute assassin called Silence. This one killed the monks while they were asleep, finishing with Smiling Fox, torturing the old man he found out the monastery’s secrets. Left dead the old man found the courage to write one word on the floor with his own blood: “silk”.

Lian-Sû, Patriarch of the Sû family

Dark skin with a sharp and angular face, the man looks strict. He has long dark hair braided and an oiled goatty in a horn-like shape. In his mid-forties the man has an air of grandeur and dignity; he usually dresses in very dark blue silk robes, and always has a large purple hood embroidered with many gems.
Lian-Sû is a sophisticated man and very intelligent as well. He doesn’t really like the politic situation that obliges him to play tricky and complex games, but he is really attached to the people of Blossoming Autumn and the family business. The people of the village work for the Sû family for 5 generations, strong relationships exist between the Sû and Blossoming Autumn’s folks. Lian-Sû’s father, Ilam-Sû gave his son the duty of managing the tea production. The Sû family is the owner of all the fields. Ilam-Sû was strongly opposed to the idea of selling the whole production to the Guild and his son followed his steps, he wants to keep the business on a family level.
Lian-Sû is a very honourable man, the only more important thing than his honour is his family. He loves all of them and could do anything for them.

Lâm-Sû, Lian-Sû’s brother, dead.
Ming-Sû, Lian-Sû’s wife.
Pagan-Sû, Lian-Sû’s cousin.
Fyâm-Sû, Lâm-Sû’s wife

Lian-Sû and his brother have 4 children each, these ones take the Sû name when they reach adulthood (15) and after they pass a rite of passage: harvesting and producing Jade Dew.

The Ruhar, a very dangerous mutant!

These strange small creatures used to be humans! They live close to the town called Forget, they kidnap people to eat them, but sometimes they use women for birth, a fate far worse...

The Ruhars have been changed by the domain of water where they live, these caves had slowly changed them in monsters. Now they are small enough to move fast in their tiny caves, they have hands and feet webbed, the colour of their skins is white.

Their ears are small and useless except for big noises, because of the constant sound of the waterfalls. But their eyes can see in total darkness.

They stalk their preys silently, they hunt with a terrible poison, dangerous enough to kill even an exalted!!!!

The Ruhar's language is a mixed of body moves and facial expressions, but they use their tongues to scare their enemies.