#onahli

Name: Venin

Pseudonym: None

Age: 27

Species: Rynaveir

Occupation: Assassin/Mercenary

Sex: Male

Gender: He/Him

Sexuality: Asexual

Height: Tiny. 5′4″

Family: Orphaned at birth, no known relatives.

Affinity: Shadow (major) & Water (minor)

Weapon: Dirk (melee, like a sword), magic, biological excretions

Combat: Prefers stealth and close combat. Uses magic to escape if necessary, he’s not stupid or easily goaded into a fight he can’t win. Can manipulate shadows to make himself invisible and will use the acid and poison he produces naturally to give him an advantage. He is a survivor.

Brief:

A grumpy, stoic chap (no surprise given his past), Venin takes zero shit from anyone. He’s softly spoken if brusque and often rather rude, very precise with words and actions both, he’s also quite patient. But only with those who deserve his patience, everyone else is liable to get slapped. He doesn’t much care if he steps on feelings and he keeps his own very close to the vest. Even those closest to him find him somewhat inscrutable and baffling, though his primary motivation for pretty much everything seems to be his simmering hatred of slavers.

He considers himself a criminal, someone who probably deserves a little ruthless justice. In spite of thinking himself a bad person, Venin generally only targets those who have done something he finds irredeemable. He has little concern for personal wealth and isn’t really interested in money, beyond needing it to survive.

He struggles to make any sort of bond, be that with friends or for business. He’s standoffish, painfully introverted and isolationist. Venin enjoys silence and calm periods and is a methodical planner. He almost never does anything spontaneous. Given that he keeps himself at a distance from everyone, it would probably surprise someone to find out how much he cares about the weird found family he stumbled into. Woe be upon anyone who messes with them. He has a vengeful streak; he’s stubborn, determined and fiercely loyal.

Name: Osprey

Pseudonym: None

Age: 26

Species: Celachi

Occupation: Merchant/ Healer (Quartermaster)

Sex: Intersex

Gender: He/Him or They/Them

Sexuality: Demisexual (prefers females)

Height: 5′6″

Family: Father died in conflict with Rynaveir, mother lives in colony, no siblings

Affinity: Water (major) & Earth (minor)

Weapon: Non-combatant, good with magic

Skills: Not interested in fighting, instead he maintains a garden because he thinks it helps calm people down. Much of what he grows has medicinal properties of some kind too, or they’re edible.

Brief:

An actual soft nerd. Osprey is so gentle, so quiet. He very rarely speaks and never joins a conversation unless prompted. But he likes to smile and he likes when others are happy. He has been known to gift flower crowns to lift spirits. There isn’t a violent bone in his body; instead he’s a dreamer, a story-teller, a healer. Conflict makes him uncomfortable, even when it’s just an argument between his friends, it makes him squirm. He’s a pacifist who wants to be an adventurer.

He’s shy and softly spoken, it takes him ages to warm up to new people and more often than not he’s perfectly happy sitting by himself in the gardens. Though he does love having friends. He’s not a very confident person, either, but hates that he needs reassurance from others. Osprey likes to bottle up his emotions.

Osprey wishes more than almost anything to be more than he is. He is driven by a need to help others. Sometimes that’s small things, like helping someone find their cat, or their keys; but sometimes it’s more. He likes to feel useful, needed, that’s why he stays with Venin. It’s why he takes on so much responsibility. He is so determined to be someone they need.

And it’s his warm smile and excellent hugs that hold them together.

Name: Aleira/ Aphid

Pseudonym: Sweetpea (or just Pea)/ Lady Talura

Age: 28

Species: Haera

Occupation: Librarian/ Accountant (she’s not the Spymaster)

Sex: Female

Gender: She/Her

Sexuality: Homosexual

Height: 5′5″

Family: Monastery family

Affinity: None (manifested energy)

Weapon: Non-combatant, magic proficient

Skills: Aphid is a master at being someone else. She has a fascination with different societies and their upper classes, ruling structure and politics. She often finds excuses to visit courts around the world because she likes to dress fancy (it’s not because they’re hotbeds for spies, obviously).

Brief:

Polite and generally approachable, Aphid conceals her scathing wit and limitless potential for exasperation behind a practiced smile. She’s first and foremost an intellectual, common among her people, and keeps the monastery pedantically well organised. Aphid is a walking encyclopaedia, always the first stop for information of any kind. While she’s not interested in fighting, she’s fierce and not unwilling to deck someone who annoys her (her magic is useful for that). She will also not shy from saying something nasty or biting if the moment calls for it.

Aphid would rather have friends than enemies, something that has left her with a persona that she wears specifically for others. Those who are close to her can take solace in the knowledge that if she’s calling them on their shit it’s because she likes them. She does enjoy making friends, though; is warm and generous and always worried that her idiot friends will get themselves hurt.

A bit of a social chameleon, Aphid is anyone she’s needed. She’s also competitive, systematic, organised and easily irritated by someone messing with her stuff.

Name: Daeddrin

Pseudonym: None

Age: 28

Species: Eylin

Occupation: Prince (third in line)/ Warrior

Sex: Male

Gender: He/Him

Sexuality: Pansexual

Height: 6′4″

Family: Mother, father, two older brothers, little sister, one uncle (maternal) and a cousin

Affinity: Earth (major) & Wind (minor)

Weapon: Dual wields swords (sometimes axes), wears armoured braces on his forearms in lieu of a shield, also fists and anything else to hand, rarely magic.

Combat: Dae is a charge in head first and beat things up, kind of strategist. He meets problems with his fists more often than almost anything else. He is brute strength and door-kicking good fun.

Brief:

Daeddrin is charming and witty and clever and suave and he likes people. Here for a good time, for a laugh, for a bit of harmless flirting, there’s not much about him that’s serious. First and foremost, Dae likes to smile, to explore and to challenge himself.

Laid back, gentle, calm, good with kids, he is surprisingly soft considering he’s a bulwark in a fight. He likes a nice chat, enjoys meeting new people and hanging out with his friends. Most of this, however, is surface stuff. Anything deeply personal he guards closely. He talks very little about his family or his royal blood, if that line is crossed; his serious face is nothing to joke about. When he lets himself forget about all the heavy stuff, though, he’s sweet and dorky and a die-hard romantic. He’s easy to get along with for the most part since he keeps most relationships fluff but when he lets the serious stuff rest for a moment on a friend’s shoulders, that’s the moment the real Daeddrin can be seen. Soft, fragile and quite often a little bit scared.

It’s easier to be friends when everything is superficial, but he’s dying for more than that.

Name: Her real name is a mystery (Rahna)

Pseudonym: Blacklight, Crow

Age: 25

Species: Avex

Occupation: Thief/ Technician

Sex: Female

Gender: She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual

Height: 5′6″

Family: She doesn’t talk about family, presumably to protect them from criminals she’s wronged in the past. Has a mother and father, merchants, harmless folks who probably think she’s dead.

Affinity: Light (major) & Shadow (minor)

Weapon: Bow and magic, sometimes daggers.

Combat: When at range, her bow is her primary weapon, and typically, she prefers to stay at range. She’s been known to add ‘abilities’ to her arrows with magic, sometimes they produce a blinding flash of light on contact, or they might travel through shadows to pop out elsewhere. At close quarters, she almost exclusively uses magic. She blinds her victims or manipulates light to create illusions, cause people to stumble or induce panic; she can also create a shadowy mist to incite fear. Other skills include light barriers or shields, blasts of pure light energy and latent ‘trap’ runes. Her magic can also overload electrical circuits and gives her an edge when it comes to electronic locks and other mechanisms.

Brief:

Although friendly and charming, Blacklight ostensibly makes it her life mission to be as annoying and childish as possible. She enjoys pranks, bad jokes at inappropriate times, and teasing everyone. Easy going and spontaneous, Blacklight is energetic and always up for a new adventure. She’s talkative and extroverted and is a master at redirecting conversation without anyone knowing. For all her open smiles and friendly demeanour, she’s very secretive and keeps her past close. She’s vibrant and cheerful, always smiling and always seems so naïve, so guileless.

She’s brazen, often haring off into situations that she can’t handle alone. But she’s not stupid or full of herself and she knows when to back off, when a fight is too much for her or when something is a touchy subject and not up for joking. She’s also a little bit of a coward. But she’s like Venin, a survivor, and she’ll do anything she has to in order to keep surviving. If she has a serious side, it’s hidden very carefully beneath layers of whimsy and bad pick-up lines.

She is a loyal friend though, and once she considers someone as such they’re stuck with her. Forever. Something they may or may not come to regret eventually.

History:

The Rynaveir are typically a deep sea dwelling species. Their internal glow (visible in their gills and mouth) is the only source of light at the depths they’ve historically kept to. More recently (the last thousand years or so), the species expanded upwards and into shallower waters. Out of the crushing depths, the explorer groups began to evolve; they grew larger, developed eyes, and became much more capable on land. Though their eyes are still quite sensitive to light.

Eventually, this split within the Rynaveir boiled over. The sighted population believed themselves genetically superior, more intelligent, stronger, the better suited half of the species. Instead of wiping out their perceived ‘lesser’ brethren, they enslaved them. The blind populace was kept under tight control and breeding was allowed only at the whim of their owners for population control purposes. Within their society, the different halves were labelled as Greater Rynaveir (sighted) and Lesser Rynaveir (eyeless).

Whether pockets of Lesser Rynaveir escaped the enslaving of their kind is unknown. Greater Rynaveir are not adept at detecting things in the dark and may have overlooked some small holdouts. Seems unlikely that there are descendants still out there, though.

The Greater Rynaveir had significant limitations, however. As they were expanding out of the deep oceans it became apparent that, while they were larger, they were not stronger. Rynaveir are not a robust species and in the more heavily populated parts of the oceans, they are quite vulnerable.

Slavery had worked well for them, though, so the brighter members of their burgeoning society decided to try that again. This time with a little genetic modification thrown in, because that was a thing they were discovering how to do and it was exciting.

Another, developing oceanic species at the time, the Celachi, was an unusual divergence from several different breeds of shark. The aspiring Rynaveir scientists had many failures as they attempted to create the best race of slaves they could using the Celachi as a base. Eventually, they did meet with a sort of success. The Celachi as they are known in modern times are an amphibious race that are more robust than the Rynaveir and physically far stronger and more capable. They were meant to have quite limited intellect, but their development as a species was a little unpredictable. Parts of the species were more amenable to working as protectors and labourers (which was what they were meant for) than others. The more mentally developed Celachi did not much appreciate being slaves and freed themselves in a violent incident. The biological tampering of the Rynaveir resulted in frequent cases of genetic fault. Birth defects are quite common amongst the Celachi and some are very susceptible to disease.

The Rynaveir still breed the less intelligent Celachi as slaves that work alongside their Lesser Rynaveir brethren. The two species are cousins, in a way.

  Venin was born and raised a slave.

As far as owners go, his wasn’t the worst out there. A scientifically minded fellow who was determined that Rynaveir would join the other, more advanced, cultures of the world (something the Rynaveir have struggled to manage all this time, no doubt in part thanks to their anarchistic style of governing themselves and the opportunistic way they handle relations with others). Wealthy by Rynaveir standards, he had an estate on one of the islands within their territory. No islands were very large, but many held what might be considered small towns. The largest islands could support a couple of towns (though the term town is a little loose when applied to Rynaveir settlements).

Venin’s function, more or less, was to collect samples for his owner’s use. This often had him travelling away from their place of residence. Less obviously, he worked as the slave owner’s guard and secretary. He did a lot of work gathering information and was required to quietly ‘take care’ of anyone his owner considered an enemy. He was very good at this.

Although he was considered quite trustworthy by his owner, considering his efficient and precise work, whenever he was out of the estate he was usually accompanied by one of the Celachi slaves (since the Celachi were considered more reliable, less likely to run and always given instructions to stop a Lesser Rynaveir should they try to escape). Venin, though he often considered attempting an escape, knew it would be stupid to do so without aid.

There had long been an understandable tension between the two Rynaveir groups; although considered inferior, the Lesser Rynaveir actually didn’t have much of a disadvantage. When enslaved and brought up from the depths it took a long time for them to adjust, many died from the stress. But their small size made them unobtrusive and made it easier for them to thrive on solid ground. Although eyeless, magic runs powerfully through them as a race and, over time, they developed other ways of seeing by utilising this. Even the weakest of them – magically speaking – can use their strongest magical affinity to detect shapes in their surroundings. This fact is kept secret from their owners, though.

The Greater Rynaveir didn’t just have to worry about the coiling discontent among their Lesser slaves, however; other free Celachi groups had been trying to secure freedom for all their slave cousins. In doing so, they would attack settlements in order to free the Celachi slaves. One such band attempted to free Venin’s Celachi overseer one afternoon and were horrified to discover that he was actually more interested in freedom than the Celachi. They helped him escape.

The Celachi who freed Venin listened to the explanation that Lesser Rynaveir are more slaves than the other Celachi (who are kept deliberately stunted mentally to prevent them from contemplating escape). Osprey was the son of the Celachi who freed Venin. When Rynaveir retaliated a few days later, Osprey and Venin fled. Osprey’s father was killed in the conflict (his mother lived in a more secure colony elsewhere).

They travelled together, leaving Rynaveir controlled waters. For now. For the first time in his life, Venin set foot on a proper continent, outside of Rynave. This, more than anything else, felt indicative of his newfound freedom. It was a strange sensation, knowing he could do anything, go anywhere. Venin silently wanted to go back and try and free the others like him. End goal.

  The Celachi who were not retained by the Rynaveir as slaves became one of the most adept colonisers of the oceans. They are highly adaptable and, thanks to their magic and the biological tampering of the Rynaveir, can survive both saline and freshwater environments. Predominantly they act as caretakers and fisher people. They make sure the consumption of aquatic life is never too taxing on the environment and have farms set up in various biomes specifically to ensure the longevity of various creatures. Beyond this, they make excellent healers, despite that they are mostly a carnivorous race, they have some of the best knowledge of underwater flora there is, combined with their ability to thrive on land as well they have skills second only the Foren in the forests of the world.

They have no overarching government, each settlement runs itself, but typically they abide by a form of democracy. Celachi have little interest in conflict and the only race they have any real issue with is the Rynaveir, for obvious reasons. Without a ‘proper’ government, they have no organised military, either, but they are predominantly explorers. This also works in their favour when individuals act violently against others; it means that incidents are isolated.

Osprey had always craved adventure and excitement. He loved to read stories about great heroes and wanted nothing more than to be one of them. That’s why when his father and a group of others decided to go and see what they could do to help the Celachi slaves he desperately pleaded to go with. His mother, a kind and warm soul, didn’t want him to, but his father was sure he’d be fine. They weren’t going to do anything drastic (or they didn’t plan on it).

So when they brought Venin back to their waypoint, Osprey was thrilled to meet him. This was something worthwhile, he thought. When the Rynaveir attacked, though, and killed his father… that was less awesome. Fleeing for his life with an ex-slave wasn’t very much fun. Osprey has since decided that leaving the adventuring to others might be best, he likes being safe.

That said, he was pretty keen to go ashore. He’d been on land before, his mother was a herbalist and she taught him a lot about plants, it’s what led him to his garden and why he settled as a healer.

After he and Venin left Rynaveir territory and made their way to the nearest landmass, it was a matter of survival. Venin had very good skills for making his way through towns and cities, like an instinct (and probably being a slave for a wealthy individual had helped). Osprey was a little jealous and didn’t like that he relied so much on Venin’s assistance. He made it a point not to ask Venin where or how he got supplies, though.

They stayed nowhere very long, but did linger in a couple of larger cities. Venin took ‘work’ of a questionable nature that Osprey never pried into. While Osprey preferred to volunteer at shelters or healing centres and occasionally as a gardener. The longest they ever stayed in one location was the two weeks they spent in a sprawling port town two countries away from Rynave.

There, a quiet underground trafficked slaves, utilising the ports to get individuals around the world. Venin took great offence and immediately decided to put a stop to their endeavours. It was there, posturing as a representative from a Rynave settlement investigating the possibility of acquiring a few other species as slaves, he met Aphid.

  Among the Haera, family is about more than blood. The monasteries and other, smaller, settlements are comprised of many familial groups but even though that rarely means they’re related, everyone is considered family and friendships are highly emphasised. Children are raised by the clan as a whole rather than just their parents, inter-clan relations are very important for peaceful cooperation and trade, and learning is considered vitally important. Haera are incredibly sensitive to magic and are among the foremost experts on its various forms. They are a pacifistic people interested only in maintaining the serenity of their mountain home, though they do also produce the best wool in the world which is their primary export.

From her mountainous origins in the east, Aphid left her little academic home intending to scour the world for knowledge. Her primary avenues of interest are magic and politics, though she’s also fascinated by history and science. Considering Haera are fairly reclusive and don’t tend to get involved in world affairs, Aphid was remarkably intent on seeing everything. Initially, her travels took her to universities and the great libraries and some academies even.

Many tried to take advantage of her kindness and perceived innocence. They never tried again. Aphid knows how to take care of herself and her manifested energy always seems to come as a shock as if no one has ever encountered someone who can use it before. And maybe they haven’t. It is a rarer gift.

At some point that she’s never been able to accurately pinpoint, she stopped merely searching for knowledge and started looking for information. The distinction between the two is often glossed over, but she found that knowledge was just for the sake of knowing things, whereas information could give her an advantage.

Knowledge was learning languages to better communicate with other species to make learning about their cultures easier. Information was learning why the lords of Honsleith were so close mouthed about their marital affairs. In finding information, she discovered how corrupt and broken the world really is; a dark place where things are never what they seem. Where good people are crushed and the nobles are elevated. Given that Haera are all considered ‘lesser’, she took great offence to this, but instead of silently grinding her teeth at the state of things, she resolved to do better.

Haera typically didn’t get involved in world affairs, no. But Aphid found she enjoyed being – if not personally involved – at least aware of everyone’s affairs. She enjoyed the pomp of courts and the high standard of dress required and the manners and the gossip. She enjoyed creating personas to hide behind, enjoyed the ladies of the upper class, enjoyed playing their game. And bursting their bubbles, if applicable. Or messing up the carefully laid plans of the arrogant lords.

She remained foremost an academic, a counsellor, a librarian. But the possibility that she left… contacts in the cities she visited remains. Contacts being the polite term for people who keep their ears to the ground, who keep Aphid informed and keep an eye on the goings on.

When she made an appearance at a court somewhere it was because something needed to be done. Her timing in Uorvis, at the same instance as Venin and Osprey, was equal part coincidence as it was fortuitous. Aphid had been told that Haera were being kidnapped from institutions around the world, or stolen from their quiet homes in the mountains, and trafficked as slaves. Her people make unique property, reclusive and careful as they are, there are not many of them actively broadcasting their presence in the world and it infuriated her that this would happen.

But while Aphid had the information she needed to stop it, she didn’t have the means. Spying is one thing, but mercenary or wetwork was well out of her comfort zone. She had the information and Venin had the blade. When he materialised at court she knew something was going on and within hours knew what it had to be. Within the day she had his help and within the week her people had been returned home and the slaver group had been completely decimated.

They worked together within the city to right a few more wrongs and eventually Venin decided that having all the information was indispensable. Aphid, too, found that having a way to actually change things was something she couldn’t give up. Being able to make a difference meant too much to her.

Having caused a bit of a stir in Uorvis’ court, she decided it would be best to retire for a little while and let the world forget about her. Her contacts aside, at any rate. She joined Venin and Osprey (with whom she got on swimmingly), at her direction, they travelled to the mountains near her home.

Haera was once a much larger region than it is in the present day, many of the outlying monasteries have been abandoned but some are still in decent repair in spite of their long periods of neglect. Aphid used one as her own personal library, a repository of all the things she’d learned, full of books and scrolls and assorted magical artefacts. It was still a full monastery, however, a sprawling building of white stone carved into the side of a mountain, a glorious testament to the ingenuity of the Haera. Venin and Osprey moved in.

Osprey began his garden and, with help from Aphid, arranged for some quiet shipping to nearby waypoints that he could collect. His role as unofficial quartermaster for them came on accidentally, but Aphid finds it a great boon. Sometimes, he even acquires new books for her and as his reach expands, the type of book grows ever more to Aphid’s satisfaction. And sometimes, he even hears things pertinent to her work. She’s made plenty of new contacts thanks to him.

  Eylin is a large territory, a great sweeping desert region. Their politics are fairly typical of a monarchy and held little interest to either Venin or Aphid (and Osprey couldn’t care less). Their tendency to adopt lower class children (born with ‘royal colours’) into wealthier, noble families was perhaps the only thing of note. They were a fairly peaceful people, had no issues with their immediate neighbours and didn’t indulge slavery.

Royal colours refer to the eyes (wings) and the inside of the mouth and are purple and blue; children born with those colours are seen as noble. Middle class are more in the yellow and green range, while lower classes are oranges and reds. Hair (body) is almost always earthy in tone, dark russets and browns. The royal colours are not recessive and sometimes children of commonfolk will sport them. They are then adopted into a noble family; this keeps the bloodlines from in-breeding, since – although colour isn’t recessive – most nobles would never marry someone of a lesser colour.

The Eylin are one of the better functioning monarchies in the world, where the monarch is advised by a body of councillors and the needs of the people are always of the highest priority. The number of nobles who used to be commoners makes sure of that and the council is always comprised of various social colours to encourage fairness. The royal children are encouraged to engage with the commonfolk and the palace is always open to visitors. While fond of ceremony and grand appearances, nothing makes a nation stronger than its people.

The royal family had four children; the queen was born to a common family. Their eldest son, Neirin, a calm, composed boy who took his responsibility as heir very seriously; Cadael, the second son, was loyal and steadfast, was the epitome of a royal guard. The two were close, both in age and in friendship, they worked together and although Neirin would succeed his father, Cadael would definitely be his guard and advisor.

The family’s youngest and only girl, Eiwen, was gentle and artistic, preferring stories to adventure. Generous and kind, she did her best to provide for those in need and was far and beyond the grounding her eldest brothers needed, the one to remind them of their privilege and how best to use it.

Daeddrin was the third child, and despite understanding and respecting his position as a prince, he had very little desire to actually partake in any of the things he was meant to. His magic proficiency was pretty pitiful and his interest in following any plan for lineage his parents might have was courtesy at best. Unlike his sister (who he loves fiercely), Daeddrin wanted more than just stories.

He explained his need to travel to his parents as a matter of seeing the world they were a part of, to better understand culture and politics; to learn. And it was, in part. Daeddrin had always respected the cultures of others and is quick to apologise and rectify mistakes he’s made in ignorance. But also he just really wanted a little excitement, more than combatting bandit raids in their dusty corner of the world.

For a time, he travelled as a protector; someone who would aid those who needed it, free of charge (he does, after all, have the time and coin to spend). From helping elderly folks with mundane tasks to recovering stolen goods and breaking up street fights, he’d lend his arm to any who might need it. And he was plenty happy to flirt his way through taverns too, though he did his best to make sure his intentions were clear from the start.

He didn’t stumble upon Venin and the others in a typical manner. He was hired by a seemingly respectable woman who claimed she was a merchant having her goods destroyed or stolen by a petty rival. Which is how he ended up on the pointy end of Venin’s dirk.

It took a long moment before anything was said, and it was a heated discussion after that before realisation kicked in. That the woman wasn’t a merchant at all, but rather a supplier of arms to the underground gangs in the city, the goods being removed were the same ones being used to shake down the poorer business owners in town. At first he was a little sceptical of this, but Aphid always has receipts.

Daeddrin, irritated that he’d been fooled like this, gave his sword to Venin and even though his tiny new friend would’ve preferred a little tact in taking down the woman in question, Daeddrin had always been more of a kick-down-doors kind of guy. Needless to say, she regretted her decision. Briefly.

At first, Daeddrin wasn’t convinced that further helping someone like Venin (an assassin) and Aphid (a spy) was such a good idea. No matter their mild mannered gardening associate. But when it was pointed out that he’d very nearly helped keep a weapons trafficking operation in business (thank you, Aphid, you sassy shit), he reconsidered. It was nice to have facts and information on his side, after all. And learning that not everyone can be trusted is a hard lesson.

  Blacklight makes no apologies for being a thief. None at all. Her origin is the best kept secret she has, but it’s clear she started picking pockets and snatching trinkets from stalls very young. And she progressed to wheedling her way into the lives of the rich and powerful in order to swindle them, naturally. She’s charming and brilliant and seems so naïve and harmless on the face of it. No one ever really expects her to rob them blind.

The Avex are a forest dwelling people without much by way of actual social hierarchy. Considered by some other races to be less developed and therefore inferior, the Avex don’t much care for technology or science. They’re very magic oriented and, like the Haera, are one of few races in the world to occasionally produce children with manifested energy. They live in small family clans and keep mostly to themselves. Groups on the fringes are typically more interested in trade than the others. They have no formal military and specialise more in guerrilla fighting styles, they also produce some of the best thieves and assassins. Never particularly refined, they don’t have what other cultures would consider nobility and are equally disinterested in politics. They produce some of the highest quality natural resources anywhere in the world and have plenty of connections with other countries because of that. The borders of their territory have some of the largest and busiest trade centres in the world. Trade, they are very good at.

She grew up in a trade town, a bustling location where many different peoples meet, on the fringes of her homeland. The unusual mix of poor and wealthy where faces change with the seasons made it an excellent place to start. It’s just that when she began targeting wealthier individuals to steal from, she made no distinction on who they were as people. It’s something she regrets still, stealing from actual nice people. Especially when, she found later, there were so many awful rich people she could land in poverty.

Notably, she means Cleira, a nice young noblewoman who ran a shelter for orphans. Blacklight flirted because that’s what she does when confronted with a pretty face. She flirted and she pretended and she took all the gold Cleira had to her name. And then she vanished. And when she found out about the orphanage closing down later she felt awful. (Worse because she did kind of like Cleira and maybe there were other paths she could have taken, better ways of handling it. Cleira had liked her too, and the look in her eyes when Blacklight left still cuts deep.)

She resolved after that to at least do a cursory check on the person she was swindling before she took all their worldly possessions next time. And it worked just fine for a while, thugs and abusive mercenaries and corrupt lords and once even a gang leader, all were fair game. It was this that brought her to the attention of Aphid.

A lordling that Blacklight had discovered kept girls in his basement was her target, she had him all lined up for a delightful fall when Aphid intervened. Asking after her motives, her reasoning, what did she do with the money, a right interrogation it was. And why did Aphid care, she wondered? What did it matter?

Of course Aphid cared, as if she (or Venin for that matter) would let some asshole lock girls in a dungeon for his enjoyment. Make it hurt were Aphid’s instructions. Destroy him. So she did. With a little bit of help from Aphid, of course. And she made a point of finding Aphid later, not hard if you know where to look, made a point of giving her some of the money she acquired.

Daeddrin, who funded quite a bit of what they did (with help from Venin’s side jobs), only found it amusing that someone so young had swindled so much. Enthusiastic and determined to make up for past mistakes, Blacklight wanted to help them more than Venin really wanted her help. Too bad for him, he got it anyway. It’s hard to turn down someone so charming and capable even if she can be incredibly annoying. She does it on purpose.

  Together they fight crime.

Name: Dribblerawr

Pseudonym: None

Age: 11

Species: Leviathan

Occupation: Trickster

Sex: Male

Gender: He/Him

Sexuality: ???

Height: 4′7″

Family: Most of his family is dead. He has two older – twin – sisters, Khazamaran and Onahli

Affinity: None (manifested energy, specialises in trickery and shadows)

Weapon: Just magic, sometimes a dagger.

Combat: He’s not much into fighting, honestly, more of an evasive style that wears folks down until he can get by them without trouble. When he does engage it’s mostly with magic and generally he prefers to incapacitate than injure. Deception, illusion and trickery are his forte.

Brief:

As might be expected of an eleven year old, Dribble is cheeky, wilful and excitable. He thinks the adventures these guys go on are just the best thing. He likes getting up to mischief and teasing folks. He’s almost entirely guileless and doesn’t like lying (though he will if it’s to his benefit), mostly he just wants to have a good time. Earnest and cheerful, Dribble has little trouble making friends, he’s outgoing and chatty and entirely too trusting. He’s a good kid, but a troublemaker.

And they hardly need more trouble in their lives.

Name: Khazamaran

Pseudonym: None

Age: 13

Species: Leviathan

Occupation: Brawler/ Cult Leader

Sex: Female

Gender: She/Her

Sexuality: ???

Height: 5’1”

Family: Most of her family is dead. She has a twin sister, Onahli, and a little brother, Dribblerawr

Affinity: None (manifested energy, specialises in close physical combat)

Weapon: Magic. And her fists.

Combat: Not one for finesse, what you see is what you get. She has a powerful presence and even though she’s not imposing, she packs a punch. Which is lucky because that’s all she really wants to do in a fight. Nothing fancy, just fists.

Brief:

Khazamaran is angry. She’s lost a lot in her life including her entire race and culture and she wears this on her sleeve. Snappy and waspish, she’s not easy to get on with and isn’t interested in being friends. Mostly, she just wants to hit things. Not a bad kid, but driven to extremes, if not going full tilt she’s probably passed out, definitely a go hard or go home kind of girl.

Obviously, she’s not angry all the time, but her rage is often on a simmer. She doesn’t much care for holding her tongue, is easily frustrated or irritated and finds other people to be a bit of a letdown. She doesn’t half ass things and she doesn’t compromise. She’s petty, bitter and even when she’s at her easiest to tolerate, she’s barely nice. Passionate, driven and unyielding, she’s a determined force of nature.

She named Dribblerawr. Upon finding their culture gone, she figured naming their baby brother didn’t need to be fancy. So his name is a little spiteful on her part. He doesn’t mind, weirdly enough. Khaz loves her siblings, but in a strange, distant way. She wants so much better than what they’ve been given and so help her she’ll make sure they have the best if it kills her. Which it may yet.

Name: Onahli

Pseudonym: None

Age: 13

Species: Leviathan

Occupation: Priestess

Sex: Female

Gender: She/Her

Sexuality: ???

Height: 4′10″

Family: Most of her family is dead. She has a twin sister, Khazamaran, and a little brother, Dribblerawr

Affinity: None (manifested energy, specialises in healing and manipulation)

Weapon: Just magic.

Combat: Not much into combat at all, Onahli tends more towards mediation. She lives in a mountain colony (on the borders of the Haera territory) where she keeps to herself and does quietly nice things for those with her. She prefers to avoid fighting.

Brief:

In stark contrast to her twin, Onahli has long since decided that the trials of their past should remain in the past. It’s better to move on than dwell on things. So rather than think about that, she does her utmost to make life better for others. She’s calm, quiet, reserved and cautiously optimistic. She enjoys artistic endeavours and meditation; she smiles easily and often, is kind, compassionate, understanding and always willing to listen and offer advice if she can. Of the three children, Onahli is far and beyond the most mature.

That’s not to say she’s always a ray of sunshine, she has bad days. And on those days things are inexplicably darker, less lovely. Her patience is not infinite but she does her best not to snap or disparage, but there’s only so much a positive outlook can do.

The Leviathan children are an altogether different story.

Their people were a race that lived in almost complete seclusion from the rest of the world. They were advanced both technologically and scientifically. Their magic, even, was different to what is used by most other races. It’s less confined to one spectrum, it’s purer magic, more malleable and responsive and to the eyes of the uninformed, looks limitless in the power it offers.

Little is known about Leviathan culture beyond their pacifistic nature and their magical prowess and there’s nothing left to find now anyway. Their isolationist tendencies mean that almost nothing is known about what happened to them. It’s believed that their experiments with magic as a source of power for… well everything; from magically driven carts, to light sources, to mechanisms for protection; it’s thought these trials brought about their end. Even so their advances are legend. For more than one reason.

Something… something happened. And no one knows what. But one day Leviathans simply… ceased to appear. Sure, they’re isolationist, but the location of their grand capital city wasn’t secret. It was possible to see them, not visit, the Leviathans guarded their city jealously, no outsider was allowed within their glowing walls. It was a vast hub for all Leviathans, their population small and their city massive enough for all to live within. But some merchants did make trips to nearby trade centres in order to keep produce flowing. They were seen, people knew they existed, they were real and tangible creatures. Until one day they weren’t. They simply stopped appearing, their city turned to rubble overnight.

The reason for their secrecy is as mysterious as their disappearance. Perhaps the two are connected, but perhaps not. It wasn’t even noticed at first, so withdrawn were they, but of course, eventually someone realised they hadn’t renewed trade agreements in a while. Too long a while, in fact.

People searched, from all different races, individuals went to search for the Leviathans and their impressive knowledge. But nothing was found. There was simply nothing left. The city turned to rubble and ash and completely empty.

The site became an archaeological fascination for many. Years have been spent searching those ruins for any hint of what might have happened, but beyond the conclusion that it was truly devastating and likely instant, nothing new has been found since the event. Over two hundred years.

The Leviathans passed into legend along with their technology.

So no one really believed a Leviathan might still walk the world when Khazamaran and Onahli surfaced. Protected by the magical catastrophe that wiped out their entire race, the sisters and their unnamed little brother had been kept in a sort of stasis deep within the ruins. Why it took so long for disturbances in the ruins to awaken them is just another mystery. But emerge they did, slowly and disoriented, realising what had become of their people took a while but hit no less hard for that.

Onahli, a gentle girl who has no desire for anything grand, moved to an isolated part of the world and remained there. The mountainous regions where the Haera live offered her solace as she grieved her culture. And the Haera are a kind people, gentle and pacifistic, withdrawn from the world, meditative and full of magic. They are one of the few races to have developed manifested energies like the Leviathans once controlled exclusively. (Onahli wonders some days whether the development of manifested energies in the few races that now occasionally birth children without another affinity might not have something to do with what her people had been doing with magic before they died.) They are not Leviathans and they will never truly be a satisfying substitute, but they are alive where her people are not, and that counts for something. They remind her of home.

Her twin sister, meanwhile, took their little brother (and named him Dribblerawr out of spite which Onahli considers an insult to their entire culture) and set off into the world. Khazamaran wanted to make a name for herself, wanted to do something epic, something to prove the Leviathan are still here, still better.

It took a while to build a force, a cult more than anything. She dubbed them the Nahr. And with them, she did her best to carve out a place in the world all her own. Dribblerawr she used for her ends until he decided that wasn’t what he wanted. She was furious when one morning he was simply gone. Her rage was beyond compare. The Nahr did good work (or good in her mind anyway), and while they weren’t Leviathans, they worked towards her goal. If not establishing a new Leviathan city and rebuilding her people (something that’s probably impossible), at the very least she would have a tribute to them on a scale fitting their awesome accomplishments.

It didn’t work, of course. A couple of other nations decided they weren’t going to sit idly by and watch a cult take their lands and peoples – no matter who was in charge of the cult. Their force hit the Nahr hard but Khazamaran wasn’t going down without a fight. It took nearly ten long and bloody months before the Nahr were defeated and Khazamaran was chased out.

She disappeared into an arid mountain region (not the same one as her sister, it should be noted) to lick her wounds. After that, she decided to try something a little less ostentatious. Now, she infects the minds of lords for fun, distorts their perception and turns them into toys. The world’s political intrigue became her favourite thing to meddle with. Her desire to return her people to the place they used to be held in the minds of other (lesser) beings turned bitter and despairing. Now lost to the belief that the Leviathan will never be what they once were, that her sister is wasting her life in the mountains and her brother abandoned her, Khazamaran busies herself by starting fights between houses and counties as if the entire world is merely her private dollhouse.

Not evil, just misguided and frustrated, Khazamaran has been behind many of the incidents Venin and his friends have stopped. Perhaps what she needs is a little bit of compassion. But her sister refuses to meddle and her brother is honestly a little scared of her. Well he should be.

She’s terrifying.

For his part, Dribblerawr took his magic and dived deep into the oceans, knowing Khazamaran would find him on land, it seemed logical. It was there he heard of Venin. The Rynaveir never forgave the traitorous slave who spurned them and escaped. Now, Dribble isn’t much interested in serious matters; he’s a child, after all, he wants a good time and a place to rest his head. He misses his sisters but doesn’t think Onahli is what he needs.

He searches for Venin. Hearing whispers of the slave that escaped, hushed and reverent, made him wonder if perhaps this daredevil is someone he might have a good time with. He’s disappointed when he finds him.

There’s nothing fun about Venin at all. He’s grumpy and quiet and serious and Dribble thinks he should lighten the hell up. Unfortunately for Venin, Dribble’s magic lends itself well to mischief. He taunts Venin in so many ways; stealing things and slipping away, turning up in the monastery to rearrange stuff or frame Blacklight for taking Venin’s belongings. He paints the walls, he shuffles the books on Aphid’s shelves, he ties Daeddrin’s shoes together, he does everything he can possibly imagine to be a nuisance to them.

So when he’s caught – by Blacklight – it’s not what he expects.

She positively beams at him, insisting he help her out with some scheme she’s got brewing. And boy is that the wrong thing to do because suddenly Dribblerawr is caught up in something exciting and dangerous and he gets to flick through the shadows to make life hard for this one stubborn nobleman Blacklight has been conning.

And he has fun.

Somehow, in spite of his initial disappointment with Venin, he ends up staying with them. On the down low at first, Blacklight tells him it’s a secret and the others can’t know and it’s the best thing ever. Then when they find out he gets mixed reactions. Osprey is pleased to at last meet him (but lays down rules about the garden), Daeddrin tells him he never had a little brother and asks if he wants to train some time, Aphid rolls her eyes and tells him he’s never allowed in the library again. Venin is silent, as usual.

But in the end it’s mostly just a shock that they somehow adopted this tiny miscreant.

Eventually, Aphid relaxes a little and lets him see the books she has on the Leviathans. It’s not much but it’s probably the most information on them in one place in the entire world. He’s thrilled. And when he finds out that Venin is resolved to obliterating slavery one pit at a time, Dribblerawr merely tells him that the Leviathans executed slavers or those treating workers unfairly. That’s all it takes for their relationship to improve.

Although Dribble doesn’t stop pranking him. Both with and without assistance from Blacklight.

When Onahli hears about what’s happened to Dribble she’s quietly pleased he found a place to belong with people who will look out for him. People who won’t lead him astray or use him like Khazamaran did. And when she finds out about what her sister has been up to she’s softly disappointed. If she perhaps lends a little magical aid to Venin and provides Aphid with some information on stopping her wayward sister that’s… details.

What she wants most is for Khazamaran to be the girl she was when they were younger. Fierce and energetic and adventurous and willing to beat people up if they picked on Onahli for being soft or small. She misses her sister. Her best friend.

She hopes maybe Venin and his friends can bring her home.