A Q&A Session with Ascending Bow of Hateful Ruin

1. Who is the most important person in your life?

·         A Death Knight lives to serve her Master, and thus the only truth I know is Walker in Darkness.

2. Where do you want to be in 20 years time?

·         “Want” is not in a Death Knight’s vocabulary, unless it is preceeded by “Master.” I shall be wherever my Master deems I am necessary.

3. What are you most scared of?

·         I am scared of nothing. I am scared for the nameless little girl that once was.

4. What makes you happy?

·         A Death Knight knows no happiness, only sorrow and hate and pain and pride. I smile as I cut down my enemies, I cackle as I uncover secrets others wish to never have found, I feel joy when I deceive and manipulate puppets to accomplish my Death Lord’s will. But happiness I do not feel.

5. What is your idea of a good evenings entertainment?

·         Running cross the rooftops, hidden in the cloak of darkness, my body numb to the ache of the bitter cold, in search of knowledge or prey.

6. If you were not an adventurer, what would you be?

·         That answer depends on how many layers you peel from my soul. If not a Death Knight, I would be a weak and insolent Solar exalt serving the back of an ignorant and foolish god. If I had never exalted, I would be dead as the rest of that little girl’s family.

7. What item would you not live without?

·         The chains I bear for Walker in Darkness, as they are from which my life hangs.

8. When was the last time you cried?

·         I do not cry. Once you have truly lost everything, there is nothing left to bring sorrow.

9. When do you want to have children?

·         What need would I have to breed? What use would helpless children be to one such as myself? I grow tired of your silly questions.

10. If you were an animal, what would you be?

·         A dead one.

11. What is your favorite bard song?

·         The gurgling moan that breaks free from his lips as I tear his offending vocal cords from his throat.

12. Do you prefer the town or the country? Why?

·         I am comfortable in both environments as one suited to my line of work must be. I crave the shadows, and both trees and buildings cast them.

13. What was the last thing that made you laugh?

·         The look of fear fighting with desire and confusion on the face of the last man I slaughtered in the throes of lust. Whatever his name was.

14. If made to decide, would you rather be deaf or blind? Why?

·         If I were deaf my back would be blind, for I could not hear mine enemies sneak up upon me. If I were blind my mind could not see through deception and manipulation as revealed in the eyes of those I deal with. Lacking in either sense would render me useless and ineffective in my life’s purpose. Therefore if I must choose, I would rather true death claim me.

15. What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?

·         I’m sure each one of my victims would claim their end was the worst.

16. If you had to describe yourself in five adjectives, what would they be?

·         Efficient, guarded, loyal, quiet, deadly

17. How do you want to die?

·         With honor, whatever that represents when my time comes.

18. What is the worst thing someone has done to you?

·         Although those cursed bandits stole my family from me, I tasted the crimson blood of vengeance. But First and Forsaken Lion robbed me of my last remaining image of hope, and further of my rightful revenge. I am unsure which slight is worse. But he will pay for both, I promise you. He will pay.

19. Who do you admire?

·         Walker in Darkness is an honorable man who opened my eyes to my true path, and I am proud to serve him.

20. How much is a pint of mead?

·         The cost is the time it takes for me to bat my eyelashes at the bartender

21. How old are you?

·         I am 22 years human, 6 months Solar exalt and 1.5 years Abyssal exalt.

22. What was your family life like?

·         I remember their laughter and I remember when it stopped. I remember not much else. My friend Damien is easier to remember, because he was the last one taken from me. But even those memories have faded till all I remember now are his eyes.

23. Where are you from?

·         I was born in Sijan, the city of the dead, and it was surrounded by dead that I lived, exalted and became corrupted.

24. How were you Exalted?

·         My family was slaughtered before my eyes and it was their deaths which led to my exaltation. Perhaps the Unconquered Sun took pity on me and granted me the powers I needed to seek my revenge. However, what little power he gave to me stood not a chance against the Death Knights of First and Forsaken Lion when they took my only friend, my Damien. Only the shadows saved me, comforting me in their silent darkness until Walker In Darkness found me and offered me true salvation via an Abyssal exaltation. Only one who has conquered the dead can defeat their Lords.

25. When did you meet your companions?

·         I have companions?

26. How has power changed you?

·         It has made me more powerful. And more deadly.

27. What do you think of mortals?

·         They are tasty when deep fried in sorrow.

28. What motivates you to be a hero?

·         If by ‘hero’ you mean ‘slayer of dreams’ then my motivation is vengeance. Always vengeance. I shall be the dagger slicing through the heart of the dreams of First and Forsaken Lion. His destruction is my purpose.

29. Who or what do you worship?

·         A Death Knight worships only the abyss into which all of creation shall ascend.

30. What would drive you to commit murder?

·         It wouldn’t take much. Really. Just ask me another foolish question and you’ll understand the truth in my words.

Ascending Bow of Hateful Ruin

The girl who was to become known as Ascending Bow of Hateful Ruin was born in Sijan. It is perhaps fitting that a Death Knight was born, exalted and corrupted in the land of the dead, and she often wonders if her destiny was pre-determined or if she had any control over it. Her tale seems quite simple, and if she had been born in any other city perhaps this girl would have married a boy, raised children with said boy, grown old with and buried next to said boy. As the gods would have it though, she was born into the land of the Death Lords and life would never be so simple.

Damien. The name haunts her dreams, spoken in soft whispers that feed on her memories. Now eyes are all she sees, startling green eyes that pierce the dark crevices of her soul and judge her weaknesses, her failings, her wickedness.

Born in Sijan. Exalted under the Unconquered Sun in Sijan. Corrupted by Walker in Darkness in Sijan. Nothing else matters for these are the only events which define her. She reached aged 22 in human years before her first cursed exaltation, 22 years of studies and rituals while slowly dying under the guise of living. Known for her cunning mind and gift for discovering untold knowledge, the girl became The Whisperer of Secrets, the ear to whom all of Sijan’s dead tell their truths upon their dying breaths.

It was a foolish girl who took this mantle, for few Whisperers hold their positions long when the living try to claim the secrets of the dead for themselves. When her family was slaughtered by ruthless mercenaries for “motivation” to meet their demands for information from the dead, she exalted as a Solar and sought her revenge. Six months of investigation, loosening tongues with cunning words or a sharp blade, and the bodies of her enemies lay dead in her wake. And there she stood, beholden to all of their accumulated knowledge, and very much aware of the fact that the Death Lord known as First and Forsaken Lion was the true seeker of the Whisperer’s knowledge.

With this information in hand but no idea how to act on it, she once again found herself in Sijan. Nothing had changed. Death was everywhere and it was nowhere. She ran to her Damien’s house, hoping that her best friend might soothe her angry spirit and offer the welcoming she longed for. Upon arrival she watched from the shadows as Death Knights serving First and Forsaken Lion took Damien as their prisoner. Though she was a Solar exalt, the girl knew she was in no position to take on 3 Death Knights alone. Her heart seeped with hatred for the Death Lord, he who had taken everything from her.

And that is when Walker in Darkness offered her salvation. He offered an interesting job prospect, to acquire information he wished that required her talents and in return he offered her the chance to seek vengeance upon First and Forsaken Lion. She fled from Sijan with her Master and not once did she look back. She never saw the striking green eyes staring after her.

Experience Awards for the First Session

Everyone receives 1 xp for showing up. Patrick receives an additional xp for the cookie he was awarded for telling Crimson Jaguar that he was here "to lead these children to their glorious end." Joey has already received 3 xp for his character background. Thus, we have following:

Crimson Jaguar: 4 xp

Mended Serpent Dancing in the Moonlight Waters: 2 xp

I've forgotten Michelle's character's name at the moment: 1 xp

All NPCs gain one-half of your average xp, so they are at 3(.5) additional xp

Found on RPG.net and Relevant: Solar/Lunar Bond

All the Incarnae could reasonably have predicted that something was going to exist after the Primordial War ended, that their chosen would exist, and Creation would exist, and that the one would have lasting effects on the other. And have planned for the eventuality. You can see a lot of that planning. But they all think differently, and plan for future problems differently.

The Sun is a straightforward solutions guy. His answer to the problems of an uncertain future is a be so good that he can handle anything. And the anything he expects to handle is direct threats; monsters from the Wyld, leftover behemoths, renegade Primordials, and so forth. Discreet, external, unambiguously Bad Stuff. So, he built his chosen that way, like him, because that's the best way to be. If a Solar can identify a problem, he can work, and prepare, and eventually, probably pretty quickly, stand in front of that problem and shut it down cold. The Sun doesn't anticipate problems, or plan for them, he identifiesthem and then solves them.

Meanwhile, the Maidens are cheaters. They're the opposite. They intentionally look ahead in the game, via crazy precognition magic and Samsara, and then, at the right time, just conveniently happen to have a solution already prepared for the problem. When ghosts show up, having never previously existed, well, gosh, it's sure convenient that their chosen have magic that puts the animate dead to rest, isn't it? Gosh, it's like they knew... And so, they skip all the intermediate steps and just insert the solutions to problems. This doesn't always work, because the Maidens still like a surprise now and then, plus the illusion of Free Will, so they just peek ahead a little bit, and stop as soon as they think they understand enough of the problem to solve it, rather than getting a complete walkthrough. This is frustrating for their chosen, because frequently they get to stroll around making it look easy, but sometimes they drop into a situation ready for a zombie apocalypse and realize they're actually dealing with a flash mob of unruly cosplayers.

Luna, on the other hand, plans for the future all the time, but she doesn't have cheaty future-looking powers. She plans the old-fashioned way, by thinking hard, sometimes with multiple brains at once. And she's powerful, but not infinitely powerful, so she can't always plan on steamrolling any threats. Plus, she's good friends with some who CAN steamroll just about any threat, so why should she bother? It's no fun to be, literally, a pale imitation of the Unconquered Sun. If there's a problem that can be solved with force, she can always pick up the phone and call the sun. If there's a problem that can be foreseen, she doesn't even have to call the Maidens, they'll know about it and deal with it on their own. Luna plans for the problems that Sun can't steamroll, and the Maidens can't cheap-shot. She's there to pop up when some jackass Ishvara thinks he's discovered kryptonite for the Sun and Creation is his for the taking, to deliver a quick kidney punch and send him crying back to Nirupadhika. Luna thinks sideways, to solve problems that weren't anticipated. And, I maintain, her chosen are built from that same philosophy.

So, then, what does this have to do with giving every Lunar a solar bondmate?

The answer is that the solar bond does not, in the end, exist for the benefit of the Lunars. It also does not exist for the benefit of the Solars. Luna wasn't trying to help either of those groups; they didn't exist yet when she was forging exaltions.

Solar Bond exists for the benefit of Creation, which Luna is Fiercely Protective of, after all.

I think Luna, in all her tricksy, tricksy, glory, looked around at things and tried to figure out what Creation would need the most. She tried to figure out what the greatest threats to Creation would be, and make sure her Chosen were set up to do something about it. And, being the sort of outside-the-box thinker that she is, the being whose first act upon creation was to win a knife fight with infinite potential varieties of herself and eat them, Luna realized that the greatest possible threats to Creation, in the long run, stemmed from the Solar Exalted.

Solars, in their purviews, are unbeatable. Like their patron, if a Solar sets about doing something, it will be done, unless opposed by someone of equivalent power.

Therefore, so long as the Solars exist and are reliable, Creation is safe. It's protected. It's secure. That's good.

It follows, then, that any real threat to Creation is necessarily going to involve either some enemy neutralizing the Solars, or the Solars themselves turning on Creation and becoming a threat. To threaten Creation, you must either take the Solars out of play, or turn the Solars themselves against the world.

Luna is the only patron who could make this determination. The Sun could conceive of his chosen losing, but there's nothing he can do to protect against that which he hasn't already done. He's made them the best he can. And he can no more imagine them turning against the world en mass than he can contemplate turning traitor himself. It's not how he operates. And the Maidens are totally unreliable. If they look ahead and see that Creation should end that way, they'll sit by and let it happen, and praise the workings of Samsara. Plus, there's no cheat code for beating Solars.

So, Luna spat on her hands and set to work, and built a solution Luna Style. To protect the world, she needed her chosen to protect the Solars; protect the solars from getting chumped when some unanticipated weakness popped up to take them off the field, and to protect their loyalty; to ensure that most of them always served Creation, and would not abandon it to build their own castles in the Wyld or tear it down with their own hands.

And, being Luna, she drew on her experience with Gaia and utilized her most powerful and terrible weapon: love. Gaia wished to abandon Creation, and would have, but Luna loved her, and was loved by her in turn, and so anchored her to the world. Luna bound Gaia to the good of Creation with bonds of affection, and not even the other titans could pull those apart.

So, Luna recreated that, in miniature, with her chosen. Each Lunar loves one Solar, values him, will fight for him. And each Solar, no matter how far he grows from humanity, no matter how old he becomes, has one person who loves him, and will seek him out, sooner or later, and stand with him.

Capture a Solar alive, and send him to the most distant shores of the Faraway, lost and unable to reincarnate? There is one being who will never stop looking for that solar, never give up, because love does not give up, and that being is equipped with every advantage Luna could give to survive any hardship and trail her prey across any distance. Bury a solar at the bottom of the sea, and the lunar will become a fish and swim to the rescue. Entomb a solar in the underworld, and the lunar will turn into a ghost and hunt him still. And whatever means you used to disable the solar, whatever trick or weakness you employed, will not stop the lunar, because the lunar changes like the moon, and can change weaknesses as easily as changing a face.

And, if a solar were to turn against Creation, become its enemy, still the Lunar is there. When the neverborn whisper to an Abyssal that the world has nothing good in it, that all is ashes and pain, there's one being who will stand there and call them liars, out of love. One being that can't be scourged by Resonance, can't be driven off by horror. No abyssal can truly say, "I hate all things, for all things hate me." When the Yozi sing their songs of failure and spite and envy, when they say that an Infernal has been given nothing good by Creation, and should give it back evil in turn, there's always a Lunar there to call them liars, and offer one good thing, at least. One being they can't be punished for associating with, for making compromises to, one being who will not flinch at monstrous form and inhuman changes. No infernal can truly say, "I despise all things, for all things despise me."

Obviously, this plan hasn't been perfect. The Lunars were driven off, for a time, and the solars were neutralized, and then many turned against that which they should protect, just as Luna thought might happen. But that's when you need a plan of last resort the most. And there's still time for this plan to bear fruit, because Luna's chosen are still there, they still love, and they were selected to never, ever, quit.

What Fesojynok Looks Like

Fesojynok's appearance is a cross between the three following people:

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He wields a pair of orichalcum Artifact flame pieces that look like a cross between the following images:

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The two pistols are chained together with a very long orichalcum chain, at the center of which is a setting for a hearthstone, which looks like a cross between the following images:

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(though, rather than dangling from the chain, the hearthstone setting is attached on either side to the chain)

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For anyone who is descriptively- or depictively-inclined, there are experience points on the table for describing/depicting Fesojynok. The xp will be awarded as if you had described or depicted your character.

Visual reference..

See the dude walking across the sand at 1.00 :)

Crimson Jaguar Character

Crimson Jaguar