Orphea

Orphea

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• Orphea, aka Echo of Immortal Love
• Caste: No Moon
• Totem: Barn owl
• Appearance: Orphea is a beautiful woman with a heart-shaped face who appears to be physically in her late twenties or early thirties. Pale and slender from her years in the lands of the dead, she has warm hazel eyes with long, dark eyelashes, though when her anima flares her eyes go black from corner to corner and take on a slant reminiscent of her totem. Her hair is a ghostly, dead white, often worn long (but this varies), and her fingernails are likewise long and delicately enameled. Orphea favors dark clothing, usually black or purple, of an archaic fashion popular in Stygia, and usually goes barefoot to show off her slender ankles. Her jewelry consists of finely-worked silver kept tarnished black, except for a golden wedding ring on her left hand.
  
• Warform: In her beastman form, Orphea's face morphs into that of a barn owl, and her entire body is covered in light, soft feathers. Her arms become wings, tipped with agile talons where her hands would be. A long tail of mottled feathers trails behind her like a train, and she moves with a sinuous, inhuman grace. Though she often keeps them hidden, Orphea's moonsilver tattoos take the form of beautiful, stylized images based on the Sijanese Book of the Dead, commonly used to guide ghosts on the path to Lethe.
  

Motivation

• Strangle the Neverborn until they give up my daughter

Intimacies

Natural

Negative

The Neverborn (Morbid fascination)
Rising Smoke (Guilt at abandoning)

Positive

Flower (Maternal fondness)
Family ties (They're important)
The Dead (Are people too)
Social order & tradition (Respect)

Supernatural

Positive

Cymbeline (Love)

Reinforced with Righteous Lion

Anima

A ghostly silver owl flies above her, its wings spreading a silent, almost tangible darkness over everything below. This veil of anima banner makes it difficult to see and attack her, and amplifies her occult power.

Attributes

Physical

• Strength 3
• Dexterity 4
• Stamina 4

Social

• Charisma 4
• Manipulation 4
• Appearance 4

Mental

• Perception 4 (+1 Secrets)
• Intelligence 5 (+1 Neverborn)
• Wits 4

Abilities

Caste

Survival 2 (+1 The Labyrinth)

Favored

Occult 5 (+3 The Underworld)

Unfavored

Athletics 1
Awareness 2
Bureaucracy 2
Dodge 1
Integrity 4
Investigation 4
Linguistics 2 (Native: Riverspeak. Others: Old Realm, Airtongue)
Lore 4 (+1 Ancient history)
Martial Arts 4
Performance 2 (+2 Prayer)
Presence 4 (+1 Seduction)
Resistance 1
Socialize 2
Stealth 1

Backgrounds

Artifact 2: Tenfold Fangs

Created for Aja, the Waxing Moon member of the Black Nadir Concordat, this artifact resembles a set of ten artificial nails made of black jade and tipped with moonsilver. When the set is attuned for 6m, the nails adhere to the bearer's fingers and cannot be forcibly removed without a stunt. The nails have the stats of moonsilver razor claws.

Artifact 3: Clarity

A beautiful diamond and orichalcum perfume bottle, this artifact usually appears empty. When attuned for 3m motes, the bottle fills itself with a clear golden perfume. When applied (a 2m activation), the perfume's clean, clear scent inspires clarity of mind in its creator, granting +2 INT and +1 MDV (both Parry and Dodge). However, everyone else who smells this perfume instead smells a delicate, carnal musk, inflicting a -1 MDV (again, Parry and Dodge) penalty towards the wearer as they are distracted by erotic thoughts (1wp to resist per day, Emotion effect).

Each application of scent lasts for one scene; multiple doses may be stacked to increase the perfume's duration, but bonuses and penalties do not stack. Should the bottle be de-attuned while the perfume is still in effect, its benefits fade over the course of the scene (regardless of how many doses are currently worn).

Manse 2: Stone of Mending Flaws

During her travels, Orphea once went to Nexus, the City of a Thousand Lice. She quite quickly found herself drawn to a young man called River Runs Dry, an enlightened mortal Scavenger Lord from the Southeast. Aside from having a very attractive bound servant (Ignatia), he was charming and witty, and eventually mentioned to Orphea his plans to investigate rumors of a ruin to the north, on the edge of the Black Chase. Concerned for his safety, Orphea accompanied him on his journey, which eventually led them to an abandoned, small castle in the middle of an eerie forest.

The interior was a cobweb-covered nest filled with eclectic piles of junk and treasure; River found more than enough wealth to retire in comfort, and Orphea found a gorgeous moonsilver pendant (and the manse's hearthroom behind a false bookcase). The castle intrigued Orphea, so she persuaded River to allow her to keep it- not difficult, given the creepy location and the magnitude of his new wealth.

Archive: Once Orphea tore down the cobwebs that covered the place, she discovered that the castle had an extensive library. Spidery handwriting contained notes in Shogunate-Old Realm, clearly written by a reclusive scholar of the occult who was obsessed with study of the nearby shadowland. Though it's never mentioned specifically, Orphea suspects the castle's previous owner was a Lunar from the tone of the writing. His books contain information on the Black Chase (Occult), as well as a handful of necromantic spells he clearly found useful (Summon Ghost, Flesh-Sloughing Wave, Banish Ghost, Piercing the Heel, and Iron Countermagic)

Hidden Passages: The entire castle is riddled with secret passages and hidden doors, behind bookcases or tapestries or worked into murals.

Contacts 1: Mortician's Guild

Orphea still keeps in contact with her husband and several old friends who have risen in the ranks of the Mortician's Guild. Orphea and Rising Smoke are currently separated due to the emotional trauma they both suffered upon losing their child, but they still keep in contact through letters.

Contacts 1: Stygia

During her stay in Stygia, Orphea met many important figures in the Monarch's court and made a distinct impression. One of those she spoke to most often was Weeping Raiton Cast Aside, the self-proclaimed herald of the Neverborn. Weeping Raiton was always pleased to wax lyrical about her masters to Orphea, even if her conversation was always laced with attempts at conversion. Orphea in turn found the deathknight's insights to be extremely useful, and the company pleasant enough.

Allies 1: Mistress With The White Hands

Orphea's best ally in Stygia was always the Mistress, the Councillor of the District of Paper Lanterns and owner of the House of Dolls. In exchange for Orphea's not inconsiderable necromantic and political support, the Mistress aided Orphea in her quest for knowledge. After a significant period of cooperation, the two formed a fast friendship.

Whispers 3

Orphea follows the Ajaian school of necromancy, learned from an ancient copy of the Book of Bone and Ebony she found collecting dust in Twinborn's Death. Following the book's instructions, Orphea was guided through the Trials of the Void, culminating in the Trial of Decay. As per the book's suggestion, for her final trial she travelled down to the edge of the Void itself and stared directly into it, contemplating its utter nothingness. In this nightmare-like communion with the dreams of the Neverborn, Orphea found necromantic enlightenment...and something else.

When Orphea emerged from her trance, she found herself lying naked in the Labyrinth, drenched in blood and utterly alone. Her hair, which was once nut-brown, had turned utterly white. Though she has long since recovered from the shock of her initiation, Orphea still hears the whispers of the dead titans, something that she embraces as a boon in her quest to become more intimately connected to the Neverborn. But since her trial, Orphea has occasionally noticed an absence in her memory, and has the most annoying feeling that she's forgotten something...

Heart's Blood 5

Elementals

Nymph: Named Nephele. Fell to mutual seduction when Orphea met her on the Eastern coast of the Inland Sea.
Mercury Ant: Hunted through the Underways, brain eaten to indulge Orphea's curiosity about their alleged hive mind. Has a poison that makes people horny.
Fire Butterfly: Named Ignatia. A bound servant of a Nexan Scavenger Lord, wooed by Orphea with scrolls of poetry praising the butterfly's beauty.
Carmine Lily: Found in a shadowland in the East, was very intriguing and therefore eaten. Bears the story of a spell used by a deathknight called Searing Stars Asunder to raise the dead.

Ghosts/Plasmics

Griefbee: Feed on strong emotions, produce a honey that distills them. Favored by ghosts.
Walker of the Midnight Sun: Humanoid figure concealed by tattered robes and a mask with a Dusk castemark. Champions of the Neverborn, hunted on the Isle.
Lethe Serpent: Exterminated from the Mistress' brothel, to win her goodwill. Creates lethe venom.
Resplendent Burning Lotus: Found in the gardens of Soul's Lost district, drains a victim's Essence to create languorous dreams and visions. Turns white to red.
Mistress With The White Hands: One of Orphea's best allies in Stygia, a comrade-in-arms in the Dual Monarch's court. Traded her favors and form for Orphea's patronage.

Humans

Ledaal Daisuke: A young Water aspect man, part of a small, impromptu Wyld Hunt Orphea dealt with while on a vessel sailing around the Isle. She sunk their vessel after dealing with them to cover up the evidence. A graduate of the Cloister of Wisdom, was travelling to Deshan to oversee some of his family's slave holdings there. Very faithful, had a crush on his sorceress cousin (Ledaal Catala Yukina) who lives in her family's manse in the East. Breeding 1, APP 3. (Memories retained through Predator's Insight)
Rising Smoke: Orphea's husband, took his form (unbeknownst to him) when Orphea returned to him after her five-year sojourn to Stygia.

Animals

Great Eagle: A giant eagle, hunted from Gerd Marrow-Eater's flock- can bear riders. Orphea owes him a debt for this.
Portee Ivory: Fetter to a Dynast's ghost (Tepet Lien). Allowed Orphea to experiment with becoming a ghost's fetters in exchange for a casting of Five Gifts.
Other animals: Ice weasel, gravehound, rainbow trout, angler fish, dolphin, mosquito, black widow spider, gecko, rat, pidgeon, mouse, bat, lobster, polar bear, reindeer, etc.

Charms

Dexterity

1st DEX Excellency
Instinctive DEX Unity

Stamina

1st STAM Excellency
Bruise Relief Method (Heal bashing damage quickly. Gift.)
Halting the Scarlet Flow (Heal lethal damage quickly. Gift.)
Moonsilver Stomach Conversion (Eat and gain sustenance from anything. Gift.)
Steadfast Yeddim Meditation (Ignore wound penalties)
Ox-Body Technique x4 (Gain additional health levels)

Charisma

1st CHA Excellency
Outworld-Forsaking Stance (Perfect mental parry vs. CoD. May also raise physical DVs.)
Feral Smile Tactic (Those affected may not make social attacks against the Lunar, and their Join Battle automatically fails.) ^{[InkM 29]}

Manipulation

1st MAN Excellency
Instinctive MAN Unity
Mask of White Jade (Perfectly conceals intentions; willpower surcharge vs. magic)

Appearance

1st APP Excellency
Hide of the Cunning Hunter (Hides tattoos and other distinctive markings)
Glance-Oration Technique (Communicate using only subtle gestures)

Perception

1st PER Excellency
Flawless Perception Focus
Wyld-Sensing Instincts (Sense where the Wyld is closest, strongest, and how dangerous it is. Also aids in detecting Wyld taint.)
Outland-Navigating Guile (May apply the benefits of Wyld-Sensing Instincts to the Underworld, Malfeas, Yu-Shan, and Autochthonia)
Eye and Fingertip Wisdom (Know contents of containers, or exact layout of a structure) ^{[Glories:Luna 27]}
Holistic Knowledge Transmission (Absorb general idea about the contained knowledge in a book, data crystal, or similar) ^{[Glories:Luna 27]}
Eye of the Cat (Automatically see things that cannot be seen. Can see dematerialized spirits.)
Instinctive Essence Prediction (Gain information about used Charms)

Intelligence

1st INT Excellency
Flawless INT Focus
Righteous Lion Defense (Committed Intimacy becomes inviolable)
Counting the Elephant's Wrinkles (Gain eidetic memory)
Lessons in the Blood (By tasting a target's blood, gain access to their abilities and memories. Only once ever per target.)
Predator's Insight (By eating a target's brain, gain access to everything they ever knew. May spend 1xp at end of Sacred Hunt to retain knowledge forever.) ^{[Lords 75]}
Flesh-Sculpting Art (May mould flesh) ^{[Glories:Luna 28]}
Iron-Circle Necromancy (Gain access to Iron-Circle Necromancy)

Wits

2nd WITS Excellency
Lodestone Reckoning Manner (Gain perfect direction sense)

Knacks

• Humble Mouse Shape (May Sacred Hunt animals as small as a mouse)
  
• Emerald Grasshopper Form (May Sacred Hunt animals as small as a fly)
  
• Towering Beast Form (May Sacred Hunt animals as large as a yeddim)
  
• Prey's Skin Disguise (May Sacred Hunt humans)
  
• Hearth and Flame Shell (May Sacred Hunt elementals)
  
• Ash and Tears Banquet (May Sacred Hunt ghosts and plasmic entities) ^{[Glories:Luna 34]}
  
• Intimate Training Recollection (Gain a floating Ability dot from consumed forms, only in Abilities rated at zero. Often put into Ride, Larceny, or Medicine)
  
• Flickering Star Infusion (Consume a form's Destiny. Ongoing effects (astrology) target Lunar when in assumed shape; Instant effects (Infallible Messenger) target her no matter her current form. May refuse such effects.)
  
• Subtle Silver Declaration (In True form, may increase difficulty of spotting Tell by two. In false form, hides entirely.)
  
• Hybrid Body Rearrangement (May spend 1m (pox), 2m (affliction), 3m (blight) or 4m (abomination) to manifest mutations indefinitely. Must be drawn from Heart's Blood library, motes not committed.) ^{[Errata 48]}
  
• Changing Plumage Mastery (May change superficial details of forms, including color, hair length, birthmarks, clothes, etc.)
  
• Internal Form Mastery (May use the higher of Lunar's or form's Dexterity.)
  
• Compassionate Mirror Nature (Sacred Hunt is completed when the target is Incapacitated.)
  
• Courtesan's Possession (Sacred Hunt is completed when the target is slept with.)
  
• Deadly Beastman Transformation [+1 to STR/DEX/STAM, Thick Feathers (+2L/B soak), Glider (limited flight), Impossible Joints (+2 Athletics/Stealth), Night Vision]

Spells

Iron Circle Necromancy

• Blood Mirror Speech (Sends a message written in blood to a target, appears next time they look in mirror. May respond.)
  
• Door of the Dead (Cast on a reflection, opens a passage between the Underworld and Creation. Remains open for 3 actions.)
  
• Five Gifts (Ghostly targets gain 5 willpower, may become addicted to the spell. MDVs halved in regards to caster for next social attack.)
  
• Gathering a Ghost's Strings (10m version conjures visions of a targeted ghost's motivation and fetters. 20m changes a ghost's fetters (resisted by WP roll, difficulty 5). Changes fade after 5 months.)
  
• Without Pity, Without Scorn (When targeting fetters, it renders them inert for 5 weeks. When targeting a ghost carrying fetters or tokens (DEX+Occult to hit), permanently severs those fetters that the ghost carries.)
  

Combos

Nightmare Visage

• 1st Charisma Excellency
• Feral Smile Tactic

Traveller of Beyond

• 1st Perception Excellency
• Wyld-Sensing Instincts

Supernatural Instinct

• 1st Perception Excellency
• Instinctive Essence Prediction

Essence

• Essence: 5
• Personal: 0/25
• Peripheral: 30/60
• Committed to Charms: 0
• Committed to artifacts: 10m
• Willpower: 7/10
• Anima status: Coruscant

Virtues

• Compassion: 3

• Channels remaining: 3
  

• Conviction: 5

• Channels remaining: 5
  

• Temperance: 4

• Channels remaining: 4
  

• Valor: 3

• Channels remaining: 3
  

Limit Break

Curse of the Mother Hen
Current Limit: 0

Conflict

Physical: Human

• Join Battle: 6
• Dodge DV: 5
• Parry DV: 6
• Soak: 4B/2L/0A

Attack

• Razor claws: Acc 14, Sp 5, Rate 3, Dmg 8L
• Punch: Acc 9, Sp 5, Rate 3, Dmg 3B
• Clinch: Acc 8, Sp 6, Rate 1, Dmg 3B (P)

Movement

• Move: 4yd/tick
• Dash: 10yd/tick

Physical: Warform

• Join Battle: 6
• Dodge DV: 6
• Parry DV: 7
• Soak: 7B/5L/0A

Attack

• Razor claws: Acc 15, Sp 5, Rate 3, Dmg 9L
• Punch: Acc 10, Sp 5, Rate 3, Dmg 4B
• Clinch: Acc 9, Sp 6, Rate 1, Dmg 4B (P)

Movement

• Move: 5yd/tick
• Dash: 11yd/tick
• Fly: 15yd/action level, 5yd/action gaining altitude, 50yd/action diving

Social

• Join Debate: 6
• Dodge MDV: 10
• Parry MDV: 4

Health Levels

-0
-1, -1
-2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2
-2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2
-2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2
-4
Incapacitated
Dying (x12)

Personality

A very social woman, Orphea is often found watching the everyday lives of the Creation-born with a small smile on her lips. On a personal level, she is quite kind and always has time to listen to others, dispensing wise advice when she thinks it would be well-received. When speaking about her ultimate goal, however, her smile fades and a glint of madness enters her eyes. Though she clearly deeply cares about many things, one gets the distinct impression that, on some days, Orphea would sacrifice anything to get her daughter back.

Orphea is open to working with anyone (or anything), partly because of her quest for knowledge and partly because she simply has a very open mind. She has even worked tangentially with Deathlords in the past: though she disapproves of them on a fundamental level (particularly the Lover, for whom she fosters a burning hate), Orphea realizes that they may be her best source of information in her goal to understand and control the Neverborn. Abyssals who oppose the Deathlords she considers to be very likely allies, regardless of other considerations.

She considers fellow Lunars to be part of her extended family, always welcoming them into her home and feeding them if they are hungry. Solars and Infernals Orphea has less experience with, though she would be interested in learning more about the living titans: there might be some parallels she could use in her research...

History

Life in Sijan is stately, ordered, and graced with the dignity of the dead. Those who live there appreciate the complex web of family and tradition that permeates the lives (or unlives) of all Sijanese.

None understood this better than Orphea, a young scion of an expansive family full of uncles and half-cousins and great-grandparents. She grew to maturity surrounded by the wisdom of her ancestors, learning the frailties and triumphs of the human condition at their knee. When she was older, she put this wisdom into practice and soon became a famous and popular matchmaker for those who didn't want to leave such things to chance. She even found herself a husband, a handsome and talented mortal mortician named Rising Smoke, and after a year of marriage Orphea gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter: Cymbeline.

Years passed for the young family, and though their lives were never perfect, Orphea was happy. Until one day, when Orphea was out buying bread, the now 8-year-old Cymbeline's hand slipped from her grasp. Intent as she was on haggling, Orphea didn't realize her daughter had gone until it was too late. The mischievous young girl, curious and intrigued by the forbidden districts of Sijan's dark underbelly, slipped past the guards on ancient tombs and entered the dark and dangerous mausoleums where even experienced morticians feared to tread.

When Orphea realized her daughter was missing, she instantly felt that something was wrong. Dropping everything she had, Orphea began a frantic search for her child that eventually led her deeper into Sijan than she'd ever gone before. Charming the guards on Sijan's deepest tombs, she followed her daughter further and further down, until she realized with sickening horror that she had entered the Labyrinth itself. It was there she found her daughter, teetering glassy-eyed on the lip of a gaping maw of utter darkness. Before Orphea could grab her, the girl slipped into the Void as her mother cried out in despair. Knowledgeable as she was about the Underworld, Orphea knew exactly what that final darkness was, and knew that she couldn't follow.

That night, under a dark moon, Orphea sobbed and railed against the fate that had taken her daughter, frightening even her grieving husband with the rage of her despair. All night she cried, trying to grasp the finality of what had happened, but unable to accept that she had lost her daughter. Finally, she rose from her knees determined to enter the Void and retrieve her daughter, refusing to acknowledge the impossibility of the task. As she rose, however, she noticed a silver light enveloping her, and power and hope filling her soul. A small voice whispered in her ear, “Perhaps there is another way.”

The very next day, Orphea was retrieved by the Silver Pact, who told her all about her new condition and helped her understand her power. She was quickly caste as a No Moon, but didn't linger long with her fellow Lunars- she had a child to save.

Orphea slipped into the Underworld and made her way to Stygia, where she spent the next several years of her life immersing herself in the ebb and flow of the Underworld. Though she played Stygian politics well, her concern was not the Dual Monarchs, nor the Deathlords: it was the Neverborn themselves, and she studied them and the Void itself in exacting, sanity-shattering detail. Orphea spent long hours in debate with Weeping Raiton Cast Aside, the self-proclaimed avatar of the Neverborn in Stygia, and endured days upon end of combing the libraries of Twinborn's Death for the secrets of the dead titans.

Eventually, Orphea found what she was looking for. It was the smallest of hints, a suggestion at the passion at the hearts of the Neverborn, but it was enough. If the Neverborn were fettered to Creation, then that is what she would become. Once she became the tether that held the dead titans to existence, she would beg, plead, bargain, strangle- she would do anything at all, until they relented and returned Cymbeline to her. After that, her research went smoothly; learning to become the fetter of a ghost was positively trivial in comparison. Orphea expects that applying such techniques to the Neverborn will not be easy, but at least now she knows where to start.

After years of living in the Underworld, counting days by the Calendar of Setesh, Orphea returned to Creation. If she was to become the world, first she must know it. She began to travel, roaming the world, collecting the form of every species she found, and filling herself with the knowledge and essence of Creation. Along the way, she made a few friends...

Character Summary

Orphea is first and foremost a scholar of the ancient and the arcane. At the moment, she is traveling Creation to learn more about it, and to collect the Heart's Blood of every species that she can. Because of this, she's quite the proficient shapeshifter and has a form for nearly every situation. Her area of expertise, however, is in research and discovery of knowledge. Her powers allow her to digest information from a book in seconds, and in dire straits she can gain knowledge from the blood or brains of humans, elementals, or ghosts. On a personal level, Orphea still plays the matchmaker, peacemaker, and sensible mother for any group she's in, using the knowledge she's gained through experience (and some social Charms) to promote harmony. She also has fairly formidable mental defenses, even if her physical combat prowess leaves something to be desired. Orphea generally tries to avoid combat through flight or intimidation, but if that fails she will attack with all the ferocity of a cornered beast.

Goals

• Collect every myriad form that makes up Creation
• Become Creation, and therefore the fetter of the Neverborn
• Force them to pull Cymbeline out of Oblivion
• ???
• Profit

Family

Cymbeline

Orphea's lost daughter.

Rising Smoke

Orphea's estranged husband, now a reasonably senior member of the Mortician's Guild of Stygia.

Circle

The Flower That Never Blooms

• Orphea took Flower under her wing after they coincidentally met in the Labyrinth some time ago. Orphea is very fond of her and is trying to help guide Flower through her quasi-adolescence.

The Wolf at the World's Edge

• Part of the retrieval pack that collected Orphea after her Exaltation in Sijan. Orphea hasn't seen him since.

XP

• Earned: 250
• Spent: 249

Resistance 1 (3xp)

Stamina 2 to 4 (18 xp)

Martial Arts 4 (6xp)

Awareness 2 (2xp)

Knacks x12 (96xp)

Favored Charms x11 (88xp)

Necromancy Initiation (8xp)

Spells x3 (24xp)

Predator's Insight (1xp)

Backgrounds (3xp)

• Unspent: 1