Character:Veil-Winged Shrike

"Now then, before we go into the specifics of the accord, please allow me a moment to slip into something a bit more... comfortable."

• Veil-Winged Shrike
• Caste: Eclipse
• Concept: Kung-fu Dancing Diplomat
• Veil-Winged Shrike is one of the premier beauties of the Scavenger Lands, as brilliant and harsh as sunlight reflecting off the edge of a drawn blade. Her build is actually substantially more trim and athletic than her usually-languorous demeanor might suggest: slim-hipped, long-legged. She moves with an inhuman grace, the slightest movement suggestive of a sublime dance. She usually dresses to make the most of her beauty, clad in the barest minimum necessary to preserve her modesty, accentuated by the addition of dozens of fluttering veils that shift with the breeze and her own movements. Her long, red-highlighted golden hair, in contrast with her bronzed skin, is usually left in a series of long, thin braids, each one tied with a ribbon and a tiny bell; Shrike jingles softly as she walks, the music of her hair answered by the matching bells on her bangles and anklets.

Motivation

• Liberate Thorns

Intimacies

Natural

Negative

• destroying the Deathlords and Abyssal Exalted (fierce hatred)
• being the best dancer (vanity)

Positive

• Mari (love)
• The liberation of Thorns
• reluctance to be straightforward (coy)
• Wrath of Fallen Kings (respect for prowess)
• Determination of Mountains (fondness)
• Wind of Lament (wary attraction)
• Killing Frost (Solar bond)
• Rika (fondness)

Supernatural

Positive

• resisting mental influence (love of own autonomy) Elusive Dream Defence

Anima

As a Quicksilver Falcon, Shrike's anima power enables her to make oaths binding. For the cost of 10m 1wp, she may sanctify an oath she is witness or party to by touching the hands of those involved. Anyone who breaks the oath (including Shrike herself) will suffer 4 botches at critical actions. Heaven itself will act to ruin those who are forsworn. Shrike is also protected by ancient pacts, granting her and her companions diplomatic immunity when treating with the spirit world, demons, and the Fair Folk. Finally, Shrike may learn non-Solar Charms for twice their experience cost and +2m to their activation cost.

Attributes

Physical

• Strength 4 (+3 Crown of Thunders)
• Dexterity 8 (+3 Crown of Thunders)
• Stamina 4 (+3 Crown of Thunders)

Social

• Charisma 3
• Manipulation 3
• Appearance 5

Mental

• Perception 3
• Intelligence 2
• Wits 4

Abilities

Caste

Bureaucracy
Linguistics 4 (Flametongue (Native), Old Realm, High Realm, Low Realm, Riverspeak)
Ride 3
Sail
Socialise 5

Favored

Martial Arts 5 (+3 defensive fighting)
Presence 5
Performance 5 (dance +1, oratory +1)
Lore 5
Integrity 5
Occult 5
Athletics 5

Unfavored

Medicine 3
Resistance 2
Awareness 5
Investigation 4

Backgrounds

Resources 5

In a surprisingly-short time after her Exaltation, Shrike found herself in possession of unimaginable wealth, wrung from the purses of various blackmailed or seduced merchant princes whose empires she has usurped. The flow of silver and jade eases her way in the world, and from her fingers fall the wealth of nations.

Manse 3 (Stone of Compassion)

A dark garnet set into the central mount of the Crown of Thunders. It adds 3 dice to every Compassion roll... even if its user would rather it didn't.

Artifact 5 (the Crown of Thunders)

The ultimate symbol of Solar dominion, placed on the brow of Solar Queen M-r-l- by the hand of the Unconquered Sun himself, the Crown of Thunders is the symbol of the Creation-Ruling Mandate once held by the Solar Deliberative... and when Veil-Winged Shrike, led by visions and rumour, excavated the ancient artifact and placed it upon her own brow, she laid claim to that mandate and all it entailed. The Crown's gifts are manifold: it bolsters its wearer's physical gifts, while granting them an aura of supernatural command. For the invocation of 10m, the wearer adds 5 dice to all social rolls for a scene. For a further invocation, her commands become irresistible to mortals, while granting her an added 3 successes against Exalted who resist her righteous rule.

Contact 1 (Rika, taimyo of Lookshy)

Commander of a Lookshyan Field Force, Rika remains one of the most staunch supporters of the Solar Circle that has recently delivered Lookshy from the Deathlord invasion and assumed the reins of power there.

Cult 5 (based in Lookshy)

Growing since Shrike publicly ushered in a new era of Solar governance in Lookshy, and enhanced by her subsequent actions to stiffen the resolve of its people against the Deathlords, it has grown to become a thriving organisation with adherents all across the Scavenger Lands who hail the Veil-Winged Shrike as the very visible harbinger of a new Solar golden age, a divinity of unparalleled beauty and grace who safeguards their freedoms and delivers them from evil.

Ally 1 (Chinchirrikit the agata)

Shrike's faithful demon-wasp mount.

Merits

Each Merit

Describe the Merit and it's cost

Flaws

Each Flaw

• Describe the Flaw and it's cost

Charms

Socialise

• Wise-Eyed Courtier Method
• Taboo-Inflicting Diatribe
• Mastery of Small Manners

Martial Arts

Snake Style

• Striking Cobra Technique (3m, supplemental)

Solar Hero Style SHS2: Electric Boogaloo

• Fists of Iron Technique (3m, reflexive)
• Dragon Coil Technique (3m, reflexive)
• I Cannot Be Caged (permanent)
• Sledgehammer Fist Punch (1m, reflexive)
• Solar Hero Form (4m, reflexive)
• Immortal Blade-Deflecting Palm x2 (4m, reflexive)
• Solar Counterattack (3m, reflexive)
• Crashing Wave Throw (+3m, permanent)
• Orichalcum Fists of Battle (permanent)
• Heaven Thunder Hammer (+3m, permanent)
• Thunderclap Rush Attack (permanent)
• Dancing With Strife (permanent, overdrive)
• Leaping Tiger Technique (3m, 3m+1wp, reflexive)

Presence

• Majestic Radiant Presence
• Terrifying Apparition of Glory
• Injunction of the Lawgiver (Facets)
• Hypnotic Tongue Technique
• Hastening Night's End
• Glorious Imperative x2 (Facets)
• Mind Yields to Glory (Abyssals)

Performance

• Heart-Compelling Method
• Husband-Seducing Demon-Dance
• Phantom-Conjuring Performance
• Demon-Wracking Glory (Abyssals)
• (Sidereal) Compassionate Essence Replenishment (Sidereals)
• Allure of Divine Beauty (Facets)
• Memory-Reweaving Discipline
• Mastery of Passion Nuance (Facets)
• Divine Transcendence of Performance
• Creation-Spanning Whisper (Facets)

Integrity

• Integrity-Protecting Prana
• Temptation-Resisting Stance
• Elusive Dream Defence
• Epic Zeal of Compassion (Infernals)
• Champion of Compassion Meditation (Facets)
• Phoenix Renewal Tactic
• Rising Sun Soul (Glory to the Most High)

Investigation

• Judge's Ear Technique

Medicine

• Wound-Mending Care Technique

Awareness

• Surprise Anticipation Method

Athletics

• Graceful Crane Stance
• Spider-Foot Style
• Monkey Leap Technique
• Unparalleled Acumen Meditation (Lords of Creation)
• Feather Foot Style

Occult

• Spirit-Detecting Glance
• Spirit-Cutting Attack
• All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight
• Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

Spells

• Emerald Countermagic
• Demon of the First Circle
• Infallible Messenger

Resistance

• Ox-Body Technique x2

Lore

• Immanent Solar Gloryx3

Spirit

• Principle of Motion

Combos

• Dance of Woven Clouds

Drifting like a cloud, her sleeves and scarves fluttering like wisps of mist about her, Shrike negligently brushes away attacks with the temerity to target her, and closes with slow, leisurely steps. Opponents find their attacks smothered in defence as yielding and muffling as velvet; they find themselves overwhelmed by attacks like a silken cloud. Second MA Excellency + Sledgehammer Fist Punch + Dragon Coil Technique + Immortal Blade-Deflecting Palm + Solar Counterattack + Solar Hero Form + Surprise-Anticipation Method

• Tongue-in-Ear Assault

Shrike is not used to taking "no" for an answer. Her manipulative genius has transcended human capability, and her temptations possess a truly supernatural allure. At the same time, while remaining so pliant to the desires of others, she has miraculously managed to retain her core principles, to the point where the blandishments of others hold no sway over her. First&Second Performance Excellencies + First Presence Excellency + Terrifying Apparition of Glory + Husband-Seducing Demon Dance (modified by Allure of Divine Beauty) + Heart-Compelling Method (modified by Mastery-of-Passion Nuance) + Elusive Dream Defence + Memory-Reweaving Discipline

• Shadow-Routing Rebuke

Blazing with confidence and holy flame, Shrike denounces a creature of darkness as an enemy of Creation and pronounces the judgement of the Unconquered Sun, causing the very fiery elements themselves to strike out against the hated foe. First + Second Performance Excellency + Demon-Wracking Glory + Immortal Blade-Deflecting Palm + Surprise-Anticipation Method

Essence

• Essence: 5
• Personal: 25/25
• Peripheral: 45/86 (56+30)
• Overdrive Capacity: 15 (currently 0)
  • Overdrive Conditions: gain (stunt's rating) motes whenever stunting a thematically-appropriate action with Solar Hero Form active
• Committed to Charms: 23 = 7 (Principle of Motion) 5 (Integrity-Protecting Prana) 5 (Elusive Dream Defence) 6 (Unparalleled Acumen Meditation)
• Committed to artifacts: 18= 10 (Crown of Thunders) 8 (Perfected Kata Bracers)
• Willpower: 10/10
• Anima status: Quiescent

Virtues

• Compassion: 5/5
• Conviction: 4
• Temperance: 1
• Valor: 2

Limit Break

• Virtue Flaw: Red Rage of Compassion. All the suffering the character has seen fills her with an unquenchable rage. She immediately attacks the most obvious cause, without consideration for herself or the situation. The character’s rage overcomes sense and reason. She is unlikely to perform even simple acts such as putting down objects in her hands or drawing a weapon. However, she does not suffer wound penalties while in this state. Characters without obvious targets enter a terrible rage, moving erratically from area to area, smashing objects without consideration for value and lashing out at anyone foolish enough to interfere.
• Partial Control: The character must immediately attack any source of suffering, but she can apply her rage effectively, using weapons, Charms and spells normally. Without a nearby target, the character seeks out oppressors she has seen before and does not calm down until she finds one. She will also attack anyone who attempts to stop her. She suffers normal wound penalties in this state.
• Condition: The character sees innocents suffering and is unable to effectively intervene.
• Duration: One scene in combat or hours equal to Compassion

Conflict

Physical

• Join Battle: 9
• Dodge DV: 6
• Parry DV: 11
• Soak (L/B/A): 14/20/12

Movement

• Move: 8
• Dash: 14
• Jump: 18

Social

• Join Debate: 9
• Dodge MDV: 10
• Parry MDV: 5

Health Levels

• -0, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated
• (wounds are designated as bashing, lethal or aggravated)

Equipment

She wears the Crown of Thunders (with an inset Stone of Compassion, +6m/h, +3 Compassion dice), which increases all her physical attributes by 3 at the cost of 10 motes of attunement. For another 10 motes, she adds 5 dice to all social actions. For yet another 10 dice, all mortals become incapable of attacking her and are compelled to follow her commands. This effect extends to Essence wielders if their MDV is less than her social roll against them, to which she gains 3 automatic successes. If they fail to defend against this unnatural mental influence, they can spend 2 Willpower to become immune for a month and a day. Shrike also keeps a number of demonic retainers in her retinue for special occasions. She has an agata for transport, a peronelle (+6L/+12B) which she only dons when she knows a confrontation is unavoidable or at least likely, and a sesselja is in permanent residence in her bowels.
Fists of Iron (from Fists of Iron Technique)

• Punch Spd 3 Accuracy 19 (+5 PKB, +5 OFoB) Damage 11B/L P (+5 PKB, +5A OFoB) Defence 5 (+5 PKB) Rate 5 Parry DV 13
• Kick Spd 3 Accuracy 19 (+5 PKB, +5 OFoB) Damage 14B/L P (+5 PKB, +5A OFoB) Defence -1 (+5 PKB) Rate 4 Parry DV 10
• Clinch Spd 3 Accuracy 19 (+5 PKB, +5 OFoB) Damage 11B/L P (+5 PKB, +5A OFoB) Defence - Rate 3 Parry DV -

Shrike's natural unarmed attacks count as orichalcum artifact weapons.

History

Veil-Winged Shrike was originally born Golden Swallow. Of Southern stock, she grew up in the Scavenger Lands, just one of many children of exotic backgrounds enjoying an otherwise uneventful childhood in the peaceful city of Thorns. Her mother, who when her husband was away would sigh and mutter to herself that she should have never left the desert, taught her the dances of her tribe, which Golden Swallow, named for the brilliant hair she inherited from her father, learned easily. As she grew up, she became renowned for her dancing, and was soon helping her mother earn money during the days of her father's frequent absences by dancing in the marketplace or in taverns. As both her talent and her beauty grew, she became highly sought-after as a person escort, and although her mother disapproved, Swallow would sometimes slip away on assignations. Despite the hurt that brought tears to both their eyes, her mother never asked where the occasional financial windfalls came from.

At one point she caught the eye of a recently-promoted lieutenant in the city's militia, for whose sake she foreswore her occupation. Her mother too was delighted to know that her daughter would have the chance to lead an honest life. Swallow's fiancé doted on her, and Swallow was infatuated with her gallant, loving soldier.

Then the Mask of Winters came, and everything changed. 

During the fighting, her fiancé abandoned her post and sought her out, finding her cowering with her mother while screaming civilians ran through the rubble-filled streets. He smuggled the two of them out of the city. He had time to lift a hand in farewell before a passing war ghost casually vivisected him. Swallow's mother had to drag the girl sobbing and cursing away from the doomed city.

Together, they didn't make it far. Swallow's mother had a weak constitution after living a life of poverty and deprivation, and although Swallow was younger, she remained in a state of comatose grief, refusing to so much as walk under her own power, preferring to stay and share the fate of her beloved. In desperation, her every tortured breath bringing up gobbets of blood as her brief exposure to the rigours of war and to the necrotic Essence of the Mask and his deathknights, her mother did the only thing she could do: she approached a band of slavers who had been scavenging in the wake of the Mask's army, taking refugees as prisoners, and sold her daughter into slavery to keep her alive. She knew that the slavers in question would never risk their lives or their profit by straying too near doomed Thorns, and true enough, after a few more days of savagery, they moved off to Nexus. Swallow's mother watched them leave, their captives crammed together in the back of a wagon. Two nights later, she died of exposure to the elements in a ditch.

The first few days of captivity were hard for Swallow, but relatively bearable. The slavers were too preoccupied with getting clear of the warzone with their hides and slaves intact to do much other than push their beasts of burden onwards. She remained uncommunicative, not speaking to any of the other captives. They started calling her 'Veil', for the fabric she ripped from her dress and wore at all times as a sign of mourning, which she resolutely refused to remove.

She arrived in Nexus with her fellow captives, and with little fanfare she was sold to a rich merchant. She was worked hard but not unkindly, although she never spoke or made a sound unless she was unmercifully beaten for her disobedient reticence, which the merchant's steward took for surly rebelliousness. The trouble only started when, four years after she was bought, the master's son came home from his tour of Creation. Time away from home had made the boy confident, and worldly, and cruel. He surrounded himself with friends of advantage, through whom he hoped to gain advancement, and he showered them with his father's wealth in an attempt to ingratiate himself into the inner circles of the powerful. One day, he met at a salon held by a friend a most rare dignitary: a Terrestrial Exalt, a new arrival to Nexus who seemed poised to be one of society's new sensations. He invited the Dragon-Blood to his abode, where the man was waited on by Veil. Perceptive and with tastes the callow youth could not have understood, the Terrestrial realised that beneath her veil and mask of grime, Veil was beautiful, and proceeded to vent his lust on her. At first, Swallow did not struggle, unresisting as he hiked her dress up around her hips and groped her painfully. It was only when he tried to tear the veil from her head that she resisted, battering him uselessly with her small fists as she wept and wailed. That veil was the sole remaining reminder she had of the happiness that she had been robbed of, and she would not surrender it and the memories it stood for without a fight.

The Terrestrial struck her a resounding blow that robbed her of her strength, and tore the scrap of cloth from her head. As he grunted and strained, something inside her broke, flooding her with celestial radiance and a newfound strength. She turned her head and fixed tear-stained eyes, now clear with purpose, on the spectating youth. She commanded him, and he obeyed, drawing the distracted Dynast's sword from its sheath and striking the Terrestrial down.

After that, Veil vanished. The merchant's house suffered swift reprisal from the Dynast's House, of course, but nobody would miss one escaped slave-girl. And nobody survived the wrath of the Dynasts, and so there was no one to remark on the striking similarity of one vanished slave with the new dancing sensation, who called herself Veil-Winged Shrike, and who moved with a sultry confidence and grace that could derange a saint.

Personality

Shrike is... complicated. While anyone could come to the conclusion that she's a manipulative bitch who sells her body for approval and advancement, very few would realise that the tenderness she exhibits is entirely genuine. At her very heart, Shrike is a softy. She had her childhood and home torn from her, and that provides the only steel she has with which to stiffen her spine in the face of the things she must do in order to enact her vengeance. She is, in some ways, terribly confident - in her beauty, in her skill, in her influence over others. In others, she is terribly insecure. Shrike knows that hers is a glorious and righteous road, even if it leads her by strange ways, but she believes it to be an ultimately solitary one. She knows that one day, when they have had what they needed from her, her allies will leave. Her instruments and minions and servants will leave, bound only by the promise of ambition or profit. She tells herself she is not afraid of the day, that when it comes she would have achieved her purpose and have nothing to regret.

Sometimes she even believes it.

XP

XP

• Earned: # 443
• Spent: # 405
  • (Charm) Phoenix Renewal Tactic
  • (Charm) Epic Zeal of Compassion
  • (Charm) Spider-Foot Style
  • (Charm) Phantom-Conjuring Performance
  • (Charm) I Cannot Be Caged
  • (Charm) Solar Counterattack
  • (Charm) Immortal Blade-Deflecting Palm (Conviction flaw)
  • (Spell) Infallible Messenger
  • (Charm) Crashing Wave Throw
  • (Charm) Champion of Compassion Meditation
  • (Charm, Sidereal) Compassionate Essence Replenishment
  • (Background) Contact 1: Rika
  • (Charm) Orichalcum Fists of Battle
  • (Essence) ESSENCE 5 BITCHES
  • (Charm) Dancing With Strife
  • (Charm) Demon-Wracking Glory
  • (Combo) Shadow-Routing Rebuke
  • (Charm) Immortal Blade-Deflecting Palm (repurchase)
  • (Charm) Heaven Thunder Hammer
  • (Charm) Allure of Divine Beauty
  • (Charm) Memory-Reweaving Discipline
  • (Ability) Lore from 2 to 3
  • (Background) Cult 1
  • (Background) Ally 1 (Chinchirrikit, agata)
  • (Ability) Lore from 3 to 4
  • (Ability) Lore from 4 to 5
  • (Background) Cult 2
  • (Charm) Immanent Solar Gloryx3
  • (Charm) Mastery-of-Passion Nuance
  • (Charm) Thunderclap Rush Attack
  • (Charm) Divine Transcendence of Performance
  • (Charm) Creation-Spanning Whisper
  • (Background) Cult 5
  • (Charm) Unparalleled Acumen Meditation
  • (Charm) Rising Sun Soul
  • (Ability) Athletics to 5
  • (Charm) Monkey Leap Technique
  • (Charm) Glorious Imperative x2
  • (Charm) Mind Yields to Glory
  • (Charm) Hero's Fatal Resolve
  • (Charm) Feather Foot Style
  • (Charm) Spirit-Cutting Attack
  • (Ability) Socialise from 0 to 3
  • (Charm) Wise-Eyed Courtier Method
  • (Charm) Taboo-Inflicting Diatribe
  • (Charm) Mastery of Small Manners
  • (Ability) Occult from 3 to 5
  • (Charm) All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight
• Unspent: 42