Editing Character:Ziyad Antarah (section)

== Questions ==
HOW OLD ARE YOU? I am twenty-nine, not that I would admit that to most but a woman of your beauty intrigues me. 

WHAT WAS YOUR FAMILY LIKE? My father was an Orkhan, leader of our sept within our family. He was a wealthy merchant who amused himself by keeping the sept ready for war, never have I seen men more blood thirsty than a group of bureaucrats playing at the game of war. Or cousins in the desert and those among my former tribe that make war their profession, like one of my uncles, they are both more merciful and more competent. 

My father wished me to join the family business but I took less of the merchant business in and more of my studies as a child. We Delzhan of the cities are taught both civilised pursuits like history, numeracy and art and the ancient ways such like riding and warfare. I disappointed my father as despite my talent for duelling I never cared much for it. For settling matters of honour it sufficed but beyond that it bored me. 

My mother was a terror and the head of our household. She reared us till we were handed to the teachers and ran my fathers books. She was supportive as a mother is of sons even if when my interest in poetry surfaced she may well have been the one who thought I would take the grey. When I did not she was surprised and when I shamed the family she was the only one who would still talk. 

WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I am from Chiaroscuro, a city of wonder. Maybe someday you will go there, I alas am forbidden to return. 

HOW WERE YOU EXALTED? Many will speak of me, most say I am quite the womaniser. In that they are quite correct, though I have loved every woman I have met. I do not believe I shame them, though most of their husbands do. But that is side tracking.

My Exultation came to me when I found myself talking down the Tri-Khan, in his own garden, surrounded by his guard after being caught in intimate relations with his harem. Because of it I survived without becoming a Eunuch, which my lady I will be delighted to prove to you later. 

WHEN DID YOU MEET YOUR COMPANIONS? I once had a companion named Shofei. Shofei wasn’t always as she ended up, once she was brighter... and colder but both forms were so full of life. The first form I knew her in helped me loot a ruin a few days ride from my home. I was mortal then and the blessing the Sun had given her was a terrifying and helpful resource in that blasted ruin. I didn’t run into her again until I had exalted myself and been made an outcaste. Alone and directionless I ran into a woman who looked like the girl I once met but was just a child. Feeling sympathy and knowing I owed this woman a debt I have become her protector from those who would manipulate her and her strength. After all it was a purpose, so she became my ward. When she died I lost a purpose, one I am still searching for and her Reincarnation, Starcc has little in common with her. He and I have no real relationship at all, except a mutual friendship with her Lunar Mate, the boy Cael.

Cael I met in the debacle of a bathhouse visit in Nexus's last day. He was young and despite being a street child reminded me of my own youth. His love for Shofei was plain and even as her guardian I could not deny his part in her life. He has proved a good friend, odd in that I have known him for such a short time. But he has proved to be absent of the avarice and vice that I have encountered in most of the other Chosen I have met. 

Nuwa is an idealist. She also was at the Bathhouse brawl Shofei grew involved with where I met Shofei. We properly met later during the Scourging of Nexus that night. Fighting for our lives against the Mask's army and the subsequent flight from that city, I feel I grew to know her well. Her philosophy is a strange one but one that seems to search for the good in people, all people and that I admire, even if I cannot share it.

Anshu I also met during Nexus's Final Night. He is an ex-Immaculate and though my opinion of him has been slow to form, he seems to respect the will of people and try to do good. That is something I can respect.

Solitary Talon was another I met on Nexus' Final Night. I must admit as beautiful as she is I dislike her. She is a sybarite of the highest order and though trained in diplomacy amongst those she is familiar with is quite caustic and unnecessarily haughty. She is used to command, wealth and priviledge and I believe she is used to thinking herself better than others, perhaps having been taught this from an early age. Working with her poses me no problem as I am familiar with her kind and can ignore it well enough but despite being a fellow artist, I think I will choose to keep my distance.

Silvera Arc is probably the companion I have travelled with since our fligh from Nexus that I know the least about. She and her mate Ta'an Aesin tend to keep the company of Solitary Talon and thus I do not tend to associate with them. 

My Lunar Mates I met in a moment of great weakness. It was after I had executed Shofei's murderer, partially to prevent Cael from doing the deed but mostly for my own need for vengeance. Wihtout their appearance I may well have been lost to despair. Thw two of them are twins which is why I assume their pairing with me is the way that it is but even then they are unusual for what little I know of the Chosen of the Moon. Sisters both and ex-slaves I think, I really wish I knew them better.

HOW HAS POWER CHANGED YOU? Other than making me stronger, faster and better? I would say not that much at all. It may though have made me consider long and hard that perhaps I should endeavour in to me selfless, after all that is why I have pleased so many wives dutifully ignored by their husbands.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MORTALS? We were all mortal once. Many of us seem to conveniently forget that. Most of the chosen I have met have only had their mortal flaws accentuated by being chosen and I am no exception. They all seem to forget that by virtue of being chosen we should strive to be better. This is a mortal world and we are just exceptions to the rule. Ultimately though this is there world we just happen to share it and this leaves us with a decision: Attempt to make the world better, attempt to make the world worse, or do nothing?

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU? Help or Hinder. One seems much like the other, so I write to make the world a little more tolerable. I collect the great work of the past. To preserve it and hopefully surpass it, bringing joy with word and turn of phrase. I seek to save people in my own way because my way helps or at least it doesn’t hinder.

WHO DO YOU WORSHIP? As a Delzahn, even an outcaste, worship is practical. We worship whoever we believe can help us, after all why worship one god when another may be more able to come to your aid. Worship is like a, a currency for favours with the gods. That is all the purpose it serves. 

WHAT WOULD DRIVE YOU TO COMMIT MURDER? Murder? Once I would have said little could drive me to cold-blooded murder. I had killed in duels and I had killed in self defence but I would not call that murder. I used once to wonder what would drive me to murder, now I know. The death of someone I cared for would drive me to murder, vengeance of that order would drive me to murder. The answer pleases me no more than it does you. I think that I have hac enough of these questions...