#cheliax

Alter Ego Dedication

“Fay“ © Ivana Abbate, accessed at her gallery here

[Unlike the other characters I’ve been posting for Monster Girl Summer, this one is Mine. Abdalla Aulorian is my character in a long form, freeform Pathfinder game run by @strawberry-crocodile​. Her main NPC, who I have an enemies-to-lovers relationship with, will be posted in a couple of days. This is Abdalla immediately before the campaign started.]

Abdalla Aulorian CR 7 LE Outsider (native) This woman has pale mauve skin, shoulder length black hair with red streaks, and ridged horns growing from her brow. Her left leg is differently shaped from her right, with an elongated ankle and a horse-like hoof.

Life is cruel to Abdalla Aulorian, and she has learned how to be cruel in return. Born as the sixth child in a particularly ambitious branch of the Aulorian family, her mother made a deal with the contract devil Jebelat to have her turned into a tiefling. She was treated as a whipping boy and basically a servant by her parents and most of her siblings, and she lashed out violently. To teach her some discipline and make her useful, she was shipped off to the Sisters of Eiseth. On the plus side, the Sisters did accept her as a trans woman, and helped her transition. On the other hand, they did so with humiliating rituals and beat what little independence she had out of her thoroughly. At the end of her training, Abdalla signed her soul over to Eiseth and bears her unholy symbol as a brand on her breast. If my soul was to be owned by hell, she rationalized, I might as well choose who my master will be.

From the nunnery, Abdalla went into the Chelish military as an officer. Although a few of her fellow cadets thought that as a tiefling she should be kept to non-commissioned status, those that complained too loudly had a nasty habit of turning up dead. Her assistance in crushing a halfling slave revolt near Laekastel won her a title, Demibaroness, and she was successful enough in the war against the Glorious Reclamation to claw her way up to the rank of general. She has some regrets, and plenty of nightmares, but is proud of her ability to survive in as hostile a system as she has. She hasn’t spoken to her parents in years—they fled their manor in Corentyn to a summer estate in Vyre, just in time for Ravounel to declare independence. Whether her family are keeping their heads down, fought back against the Silver Ravens and were captured or killed, or just used this opportunity to cut Abdalla out of her life… she doesn’t know and doesn’t particularly care. Now that she is a general, Abdalla regularly volunteers to lead troops into enemy territory, hoping either to win a plot of land to retire to or to be put out of her misery in combat.

General Abdalla Aulorian has survived as long as she has by being able to control her own emotions. She lies habitually, presenting herself as a loyal workhorse for the military and dutiful supplicant to Eiseth. In truth, she deeply resents Eiseth, Cheliax, her family, and herself for her very existence. Abdalla’s rage and self-loathing has been channeled into infernal power. She uses her few spells to augment her own physical abilities and for a modicum of protection. Abdalla never had much patience for ranged weapons, and relies on her soldiers to provide artillery support. Although she is fleet of foot, Abdalla’s gait is awkward due to her mismatched legs, and she finds both running and riding to be difficult. 

Ahhh Cheliax, my favorite Golarion nation! Everything about how it came to be with the Even-Tongued Conquest to the SHADOW that it has become. It is fascinating.

So Cheliax was formed in the earlier 4000s when this governor decided to just secede from Taldor when Taldor was dealing with Qadiran invasions, and he was so influential that he became known as the Aspex the Even-Tongue because of how little bloodshed happened with this 'conquest'. He took what would be Galt and Isger by force, but Andoran and the strix came through his diplomacy alone, and that is a remarkable feat. They even had a holiday for him called Even-Tongued Day!

You look at Cheliax now and it's like, okay, this nation that was formed from a relatively peaceful secession is now... run by literally devil fascist state where slavery is a state protected business and everyone is a second rate citizen if you're not a wealthy Egorian elite.

HOW?! It's uncomfortably close to some stuff in real life, but I really love to look at it in this fantasy lens.

Cheliax was the star of the Inner Sea. It was massive. It held everything from Korvosa in Varisia to Nidal to Isger to Galt and Andoran... that is HUGE. It was the fated land of prophecy, where Aroden was supposed to reappear in Golarion to herald the start of a new Age, the Age of Glory.

But it never came to pass.

Aroden straight up died (we think) and the entire country erupted into violent civil war.

For FORTY YEARS every noble family torn the entire country apart to take control for themselves. It was long and violent and bloody, with the areas that would be Galt and Andoren taking the opportunity to secede in the turmoil. The Hellknights even warred with each other, that's how bad it was. Different Orders pledges themselves to different families they thought backed their specific ideals and they tore themselves apart. Several orders rose up, unofficially formed from mercenary groups to desperately enforce order. Several Orders were erased from history with how ruthlessly they were eradicated by other Orders. That's how bad it was, that even the Hellknights were not a single unified force in this.

It wasn't until one family resorted to literally selling their entire line to Hell to win that the war started to turn. The Thrunes managed to convince the bulk of the Orders to back them (the Pyre and Thorn resisted, which, GOOD), and it was the single greatest mistake the Orders ever made. Restore law and order now and deal with the consequences later, because 40 years of civil war have passed and Cheliax won't be around any longer if we keep fighting...

And now the entire country has been sold to Hell by the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune. The once peaceful life with the strix is no more, as the armies of Cheliax try to eradicate them. They've lost Nidal and Korvosa and Kintargo and Galt and Andoran...

Cheliax is an infernal shadow of what it used to be, and nothing paints a better picture of this than the former capitol of Westcrown, whose pure white marble is cracking and still has entire districts left to rot, overrun with undead and thieves.

Lady Konomi want’s me to try and play ball with Mendev’s Royal Council... except I'm an Azata of freedom and they want to buddy up with Cheliax. Konomi must be tearing her fur out when I blatantly ignore any and every choice that isn’t the most devastating insult to my former masters that I can come up with.

“Commander, Mendev is trying to ally itself with Isger so-”

“Fuck those Cheliaxian dogs, slaving assholes can go and choke. If they have a problem with it tell them I said Queen Abrogail can die.”

“I refuse to tell them that, Commander.”

“Don’t worry, I had Daeran tell them for me.”

“You WHAT!?”