Fear's Umbra
Five Days Darkness's representative is an older man with black, long hair. His hair tends to hang over his face, failing to hide a hooked nose and a patch of discolored skin on his cheek. His eyes are green-tinged on the outside and gray in the center. His limbs are long and angular, like those of an insect, and he moves with slow, easy motions, unless fighting, in which his actions tend to be savagely jerky, almost clumsy in fact.
He was once (most recently) a scavenger lord, one of a rare breed that could sell information as readily as weaponry. Many of the trinkets he's found in four decades of searching he has kept for himself. He has an elegant pipe of red jade, which is perpetually filled with smoldering hashish, which he smokes incessantly. This makes his speech slow and laconic. He has a chain of silver bells that jingle whenever someone is talking about him. He has a soul-steel chainmail shirt. He has a folding servant, which he keeps on the saddle of his Arzeki horse. He carries three black blades that appear to be made of crude iron. They have enchantments that allow them to hit dematerialized spirits and they are typically coated in venom. Several other small artifacts of a useful nature are secreted on his person or hidden in a stash in Nexus.
He was once a scavenger lord, but he was also once many things. Born in the realm, a trader in antiquities, an officer in the realm's legions, a drug dealer in Nexus, a thief in Great Forks. He has lived long and seen a great deal. In the end, his only real expertise is his knowledge of the occult, particularly wards and enchantments.
Fear's Umbra received his name and his demigod status from Five Days Darkness. They met in a tavern in Nexus, and after a fairly short discussion, the scavenger became an agent of the god. He has spent the last five years helping him enact his plots.
The Shadows Spy[edit]
"Since making my way back from Mayhiros Tesos' estate, I have felt a shadow dog my steps. It is a living thing, hiding in the tall Marukan grass; it watches my students and me as we train in our temple's courtyard. Distracted, I have let the children run through their katas as I bent my head with Pasiap's Humility; I have set them to spar while I watched with the Air Dragon's Sight.
"My Charms have found nothing. But I can sense no hostile intent, simply curiosity. Is it a fellow Child of Mela who watches me, some Lost Egg forced to learn her Charms on her own? Is it a spirit, respectful of my Essence and interested in discussing one of the finer points of Immaculate theology? That would be a welcome change; too often here in the Scavenger Lands the spirits are to arrogant to listen to words, too often on the Blessed Isle the spirits pay lip service to the faith from fear. I would relish the chance to discuss the faith.
"I am patient. I can wait. I sip my tea, I probe with my Charms, I prepare my arguments. My shadow will reveal itself, eventually."
-- Ragara Junet, Immaculate Abbot of Nexus
