Ayin Rends-Words

Character Page for Ayin Rends-Words in CrazyIvan's "Nothing Certain" Exalted Game

Exalt: Inferal
Caste: Fiend
Anima: More and more of his body fades, to be replaced by animate shadow reminiscent of his bisclavaret parentage; his shadow itself spills across the floor, no longer constrained by his physical form
Concept: Well-Intentioned Magnificent Bastard Chessmaster

Character Details

Bio

First Age Bio: Perhaps the most well-known Eclipse Caste of the Age of Dreams was Desus, whose exploits during the Primordial Waf and after were the stuff of legend even among other Solars, but the other members of his Caste, while less publicly-visible, were no less busy.

Niya Wordweaver was one of them, a girl the Quicksilver Falcons despaired of turning into a confident socialite. She preferred subterfuge to society, paperwork to performance, and spent more time tinkering with gadgets than on her appearance. In short, everyone suspected that at some point her Exaltation must have gotten confused and chosen a Copper Spider instead. When the time came to negotiate a treaty with the raksha permitting Creation's armies access through Wyld waypoints to assail one of Oramus' hidden subsouls, she was sent as part of the delegation largely because the Deliberative was hoping she would get killed off and her Exaltation recycled to a more appropriate bearer.

Surrounded by the opulence of the raksha court, the other Eclipses began their usual process of bullying, exploitation, and use of powerful magics to manoeuvre their way to their objective. Niya just listened. To the disgust of her colleagues, the fae found the reticent young bookworm a thousand times more alluring than the brightly-arrayed Deliberative peacocks, and they plied her with treasures and tales, all of which she accepted with quiet gratitude and grave attentiveness. The Solars began to squabble amongst themselves, refusing to believe that someone as plain as Niya could draw the attention of the Fair Folk away from them. Weren't they interesting? Tragic? Brimming with epic potential for narrative?

As they descended deeper into the pattern laid down by that Freehold's Unshaped, Niya continued to nod and listen.

One day, she strode into the throneroom where the more prominent raksha gathered in some semblance of a court. At the foot of the great dais lay the bodies of a number of Solars, either dead or comatose, ensnared and drained by fae magic, too weakened and blinded by their own internal strife to recognise the trap laid for them. In her hand she held a small ceramic egg. She showed this to the Nobles.

"You have been generous and given me many gifts. Allow me to offer you one in return. In this egg is your Heart. You have hid it amongst these many semblances, but as each came to me with poisoned words I leached the venom from them and spun a true story, one that has wrapped its strands around your very Essence. Everything you are is in this egg. Holding your life in my hand, I give it to you freely."

She laid the egg down carefully on a cushion, and strode away.

Weeks later, the other Quicksilver Falcons returned to Creation, shamefaced and humbled. Each in their hearts held a burning taper of vengeance for the indignity wrought by Niya, but in their keeping they also held a contract, signed and sealed and witnessed by Heaven, pledging the Deliberative the support they had sought.

Nobody mourned Niya when she died. The Dragon-Blooded commandos sent to kill her returned shamefacedly to their commanders, bringing news that her soul and Exaltation had already fled her lifeless form when they came upon her. Shattered on the floor at her feet they had found her last project, which had occupied the last years of her life and which they believed to have been another Solar folly. They poured into Lytek's hands the remnants of what had once been a delicate ceramic egg, its shell thin as paper. What the Right Hand of Power did with those remnants few can attest to, but Niya's shard, fallen into the hands of the architects of the Reclamation, appears to be remarkably stable in its perfect recall of the First Age...

Appearance

A bespectacled young man of pleasing countenance, Ayin often gives people the impression that he's something of an ascetic, with his long lean face and soulful expression. He very quickly sheds that guise when confronted with the prospect of temptation (either his own or that of others), revealing a predatory grin and eyes that glitter with nothing of human sympathy; something of a congenital weakness afflicts his eyes, and he affects a pair of ground glass lenses that correct his vision. They give his gaze something in the way of cool hauteur. He dresses simply more by necessity than anything else, having a terrible head for numbers and a distressing tendency to squander huge sums of money. This never appears to be a problem: for some reason or the other, Ayin is never short of friends willing to spot him some loose change (or their inheritance, or entire estate) in a pinch. His Exaltation has not radically altered his appearance -- the bisclavaret appear mostly human, after all -- except for his hair: upon close examination, his hair is composed entirely of homogeneous shadow, instead of discrete solid strands. The substance is permeable to the touch, although anyone touching it feels a slight resistance, and a pleasant coolness, as if they were running their hands through cool dark water.
Ayin, pondering Oblivion

Motivation

To acquire the Regalia of Peace and Order

Urge

To corrupt and take over death cults

Character Sheet

Attributes

Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 3

Charisma 1
Manipulation 7
Appearance 5

Perception 3
Intelligence 3
Wit 3

Abilities

Caste:
Bureaucracy 3 (dealing with red tape 1)
Linguistics 2 (somethingtongue | Old Realm, High Realm
Ride
Sail
Socialize

Favoured:
Occult 5 (Mind-Hand Manipulation 1)
Integrity 3
Investigation 3 (interrogation 1)
Presence 3 (lying 1)
Craft 5

Others:
Martial Arts 2
Stealth 2
Lore 5

Virtues/Willpower/Essence

Compassion 5
Conviction 3
Temperance 1
Valor 2

Willpower 10

Essence 4
Personal 22
Peripheral 49 + 10 (Flames Lit Within)+ 0/10 (Feast of Falling Tears)
Committed 16 (Mind-Hand Manipulation, Loom-Snarling Deception)

Background

Backing (the Ebon Dragon) 1
Those who venerate the Ebon Dragon, or who are descended from him, instinctively recognise that Ayin bears some faint mark of the Yozi's favour

Cult (Yozi) 1
Cultists of the Ebon Dragon venerate Ayin in their prayers.

Influence (over Ophidian subsouls) 1
Setsuhou, the bisclavaret serving as Ayin's coadjutor, was well-known among the subsouls of the Ebon Dragon as a consummate spymaster. While they cannot know for sure how much of Setsuhou's memory and resources are open to Ayin (practically none; the Green Sun Prince's powerful ego has all but obliterated all traces of the demon's original self), the fear that some juicy blackmail material is floating around in the back of Ayin's cranium tends to earn him at the very least wary courtesy.

Lunar Bond 5
Ivan, I'll leave this to you. Surprise me

Past Lives 5
Ayin's memories of the First Age, especially pertaining to the various magics that his former Eclipse-Caste incarnation researched, having a passionate interest in the cataloguing of Charms.

Savant 2
Ayin's training in Malfeas dealt primarily with artifice.

Charms

Ophidian
First Ebon Dragon Excellency x4
Shadow Spite Curse
Ebon Dragon Mythos Exultant
So Speaks the Ebon Dragon
Loom-Snarling Deception
Witness to Darkness
Eldritch Secrets Mastery
Life-Blighting Emptiness Attack
Hollowing Echo Venom
Nemesis Self Imagined Anew
Soul Crack Exploitation
Endless Suspicion Vigilance*
Feast of Falling Tears*
Memory Poison Mastery (IM)
Twisted Yesterdays Curse (IM)
Golden Years Tarnished Black (IM)
Everything Gets Worse (IM)
Glories That Never Were (IM)
A World of Fools (HFE) x2
Resplendent Shadow Heart (HFE) x2

Pyrian
Factual Determination Analysis
Cosmic Transcendence of Conviction
Essence-Dissecting Stare
Counter-Conceptual Interposition
Mind-Hand Manipulation
Principle-Invoking Onslaught
Analytical Modelling Intuition
Counterpoint Inquisition Defence
Force Suppression Barrier
Tool-Transcending Constructs
Experimental Acceleration Mastery
Flames Lit Within (Broken-Winged Crane)

Cecelyne
Transcendent Desert Creature
Stone-Flayer Touch

Malfeas
By Pain Reforged

Adorjan
Sacred Kamilla's Inhalation
Broken Silence Laughter Defence

Heretical
Emerald Angel Unfurling

Sorcery
Sorcerous Enlightenment of the Ebon Dragon x1

Spells Emerald Countermagic, Slave-Spawn Summons, Summoning the Heart of Darkness

Martial Arts Black Claw Style: Open Palm Caress
*custom Charm

Combo

Invisible Weapons of Spite (gratis)
While Ayin does not enjoy combat, he has found it necessary to develop some capabilities in that arena, and he has done so by ensuring that he never appears to be the aggressor in any conflict. Even if prompted to open hostilities, Ayin always affects an air of injured bewilderment, as if his trust has been betrayed by a sudden and treacherous attack, and his chosen weapons never leave a trace. While in his favourite guise as a Lost Egg Terrestrial, he favours using Principle-Invoking Onslaught to duplicate the effects of an Elemental Bolt Attack.
First ED Excellency + Life-Blighting Emptiness Attack + Principle-Invoking Onslaught + Force-Suppression Barrier + Counter-Conceptual Interposition + Endless Suspicion Vigilance + Open Palm Caress + Broken Silence Laughter Defence + Counterpoint Inquisition Defence

Don't You Remember...
First ED Excellency + Golden Years Tarnished Black + Broken Silence Laughter Defence + Counterpoint Inquisition Defence + Analytical Modelling Intuition

Combat

Weapon

Speed Accuracy Damage Defense Rate

Parry DV:
Dodge DV:

Soak: A/L/B
Hardness: L/B

XP

XP Total: 200
XP Spent:
XP Available:

XP Expenditures

200 Charms