Editing Saffron (section)

=History=
The girl who came to be called Saffron was born to a lowly peasant whore in the Imperial City. Named Saffron by her mother for her blazing red hair, she was raised in a poor but loving environment until her mother died when she was five. Saffron was left in the care of her mother's sister, a callous but not cruel woman who had no time for her sister's orphaned brat. Instead, Saffron was raised by the streets and very quickly fell in with one of the many criminal gangs that inhabit the Imperial City's underbelly. <br>


Unexpectedly, Saffron Exalted as a water-aspected Dragonblooded of surprisingly good breeding when she was twelve years old. Though she had never spoken of it, everyone assumed that Saffron's mother had slept with a Terrestrial of some note to produce such a strongly-aspected daughter. Saffron was quickly adopted into House Tepet and renamed Tepet Satsuki, a name she was never terribly fond of, and shoved into a crowded primary school with House Tepet's numerous other young lost eggs. <br>


There, she slipped under the radar: Satsuki was only one of many new adoptees, and due to her upbringing on the Isle it was deemed that she needed less attention than most. Though she was enrolled in the Spiral Academy when she was sixteen, she never truly fit into Dynastic society and instead chose to spend much of her time with her old criminal friends in the dodgy districts of the city at night.<br>


Due to her newly Exalted nature, Satsuki rose quickly through the ranks of her gang and eventually discovered that they were in fact a branch of the Five Shades organization, of the Clan Hidden in the Mist. She quickly learned how to be a very competent crime boss and absorbed their impressive martial arts like a sponge. Before long, she was very busy dominating other mortal-run gangs and making a tidy profit from their protection money. With the support of a not insignificant number of water elementals, Satsuki soon became a force to be reckoned with in the Imperial City.<br>


One day, however, she was caught red-handed in her crime by a magistrate, an air-aspected man called Ledaal Riku. He offered her a choice: she could inform on her gang and join him as an archon, or she could be dragged before the Senate and tried for her crimes. After some brief resistance, Satsuki eventually caved and decided to join Riku instead of being executed. She was upset to see her gang dismantled, but was lucky to have found an excellent tutor and mentor in Ledaal Riku. Over several years, he taught her the niceties of Dynastic etiquette and eventually saw her integrated very smoothly into the Scarlet Empire.<br>


Then things went to hell. About five years ago, Satsuki and Riku were investigating an ancestor cult tied to the sealed island of Peleps Varuna and inadvertently discovered that she had been given her Anathema slave-boy as a bribe from a notable member of House Cynis: Cynis Belar herself. Before they could act on this information, Belar somehow got wind that Satsuki and Riku had discovered her secret. They were captured by members of House Cynis and imprisoned in a hidden manse. <br>


Over the course of several days, Riku was tortured to death for everything he knew, and Satsuki knew she was next. However, luckily for her, her guards were a little more lax with her security and didn't know about her slippery criminal background. She escaped, and knowing that her life was forfeit upon Riku's death, she ran to the nearest harbor and stowed away aboard a ship bound for the northern coast.<br>


She eventually made her way to Wallport where, lacking something else to do, she reclaimed her old name and fell back into her old criminal ways, taking over a local gang. Mostly she was part of a smuggling ring illegally importing hard drugs and weapons to the Slave Coast, but also personally dabbled in some elaborate con-games victimizing wealthy travelers to Whitewall.<br>


One of those would-be victims was Lance, who saw through Saffron's deception and was less than pleased. However, he saw some use in her talents and offered her the opportunity to redeem herself in his service. She wasn't so sure about this redemption thing- he was an Anathema, after all- but she was even less enthused about dying and so took him up on his offer. Saffron and Lance have been traveling together for several years now and have settled into a very comfortable partnership.<br>