Latest revision as of 01:16, 6 April 2010

The Wife of Man

Background: Long ago in the Wyld, a queen of enormous might strode. Where she walked, the Wyld trembled, the nobles bowed, and all of the world held its breath at her beauty. She had all she could wish for, until one day she sat upon her mountaintop thrown and spotted a mortal man, handsome in form and simple in manner. She fell in love, entranced by the mortal’s uniqueness. She descended from her palace and entered his humble fields, clothed in regal robes and attended by all manner of nobles. He rose as she approached and nodded respectfully.

“I have fallen in love with you,” she proclaimed, “and I would kiss you.”

“I cannot,” he replied, “For your might is so great that should I kiss you, I would surely die.”

So she gathered her armies and conquered an empire.

“Kiss me,” She commanded “And I shall give you this empire, all the earthly power you could wish.”

“I am a simple man,” he said “And though I wish for glory, I would carve it out of the world with my own hands. I would rather a simple farm I built myself than a kingdom built by another.”

Thus did the Queen learn of the simplicity of man.

So she gathered her finest scholars and learned all of the secrets of Creation.

”Kiss me,” she asked, “And I shall give you all the knowledge of the world.”

“I am a frightened man,” he said “And though I wish for knowledge, I do not wish to know how I die or that certain doom faces me tomorrow. Better that I live in ignorance than I learn of my own powerlessness.”

Thus did the Queen learn of the fears of man.

So she knelt before him and bowed her head.

“Kiss me,” she pleaded “For I love you, and would do anything for your love in return.”

“I am a lonely man,” He whispered “And for the love of a good woman, I would kiss you.”

Thus did the Queen learned of the needs of man.

She rose up, and kissed him. As he foretold, her power was so great that his form was destroyed instantly. She shed many tears, wailing in grief. She mastered the arts of the All-Consuming God-Monster and tore herself asunder. Then she rebuilt herself based upon the secrets she had learned, shaping herself into the perfect image of what men needed from women. Finally, she destroyed her memory, her former identity, and only the Wife of Man remained.

She entered Creation seeking her husband, and though she had forgotten herself, she had not forgotten her need for love nor the lessons she had learned, for she had written them into her soul. Foremost, she loved men and submitted to them so that they would love her and submit to her in return. Second, she offered them not riches, but simplicity: a simple wife in a simple home. Finally, she hid her true nature from them, for they feared the knowledge of their own powerlessness. Yet the heart of a queen beats in her chest, and though the love she receives sates her in some measure, she also longs for independence and power, longing she doesn’t understand. She seeks to remember her identity, tormented by the gaps in her memory. Perhaps in time, the Wife of Man can resolve the ache in her heart and become the Queen once more.

Description: The Wife of Man is beautiful but seemingly human. She is short, coming up to man’s chin, with a buxom and fertile body. Her hair is brown and simple, her dark eyes sparkle with devotion and her face is cute and sweet. She wears the modest dresses of a peasant woman, preferring the colors brown, green, orange and dark red, and she wears simple slippers on her feet. Sometimes, she wears a ribbon in her hair or wrapped around one hand, particularly when she is in love. The world around her is soft, and she fills her houses with lovely knick-knacks, flowers, simple furnishings and fine dishes.

Role-playing Tips: The Wife of Man loves. Her tender touch soothes those around her, her delicate kisses steal away pain, and her gentle words comforts wounded pride. Whenever she comforts others, they love her in return and her will is bolstered. The Wife of Man has a Caregiver Nature. She gains Willpower whenever she receives tangible proof that she has helped another.

The Wife has learned the power of submission, but her regal heart resents it. She yearns for power without understanding what it is. Though she recoils from it, she secretly desires freedom and independence from man. Whenever the Wife of Man rebels, defies authority, or otherwise expresses independence, she must channel Conviction. Her Lure cannot force her to channel more than once per scene. When she has exhausted the last of her Conviction, she forgets herself, just as she did so long ago, for she suffers from the Curse of Namelessness(+2 diff to Conviction rolls or Lore rolls, +2 diff to those who attempt to interrogate her). Often, she wanders away from her old home and when she remembers herself again, she settles with a new husband, a new life.

Even though she doesn’t fully understand what she is, she still needs to feed. Although she can feed from ambient emotion, she yearns for deeper emotion. Her hunger deepens and deepens, her eyes soulful and despairing until her husband, loving and caring, pleads to know what he can do to help her. When he submits in this manner, she sips from his love (Compassion) or his simplicity and honesty (Temperance). Because she loves only the worthiest of men, drinking too much of her husband’s Virtue usually results in her losing interest in him and falling in love with another, which encourages her to express her independence, which in turn rends away her memory and ruins her life.

Thus, the Wife of Man lives in a perpetual cycle of falling in love, feeding, falling out of love, forgetting, wandering away, and beginning anew. It should be noted that the Wife of Man usually carries another name, a different one for each community she resides in. Sometimes she is Cari or Jaime or Mary or some other name entirely. Only Raksha who know of her refer to her as the Wife of Man, often to her confusion.

Statistics

Features

Style: The Wife of Man loves all the world, and in return, the world lovingly allows her to bend its rules. She has a pool of five(5) dice from which she may draw to increase the power of his stunts: She may add up to one die per stunt Creation, two dice in the Bordermarches of the Middlemarches, or 3 in the Deep Wyld. She regains this full pool at the end of each story.

Birth: The Wife of Man is, in fact, the remnant of a great and powerful noble. Though most of her power has been cast from her, she retains more magic than most young Raksha. Thus, she has many additional Charms.

Ally: The Wife of Man is always either married or in love. Her companion is always worthy and powerful. While her Ally changes from time to time, she always has someone of power at her side, willing to go to great lengths to aid her. Generally, he is a powerful mortal, god-blooded or Outcaste, but as the Celestials rouse again in the fading days of the Second Age, she may find herself wedded to such a powerful being.

The Secret of Man

Samhara Oath

Mutations: A limited form of Hiding the Wyld’s Touch.

Staff Shaping Weapon Statistics: Speed -5, Accuracy +2, Damage +4, Defense -1, Rate 1 (Piercing, Clinch)

Wording: “I love and submit to the worthiest of men that he may love and submit to me in return”

Commitment: 1 mote

Description: The Wife of Man wrote into her soul the very truths she had learned of the needs of man, so that she could always delight him. So long as she loves others, they see her as something to be loved in return. She has the aspect of old friends and lovers in her voice and movements, granting her one additional automatic success on normal Social dice actions. However, she must love the most worthy of men. She measures this by the potency of their Virtues: Compassion, Temperance, Conviction and Valor in order of descending importance. Should she meet someone new with greater virtues than her current husband or lover, her devotion will shift to him. Her tendency to feed from Compassion and Temperance, of course, complicates her situation greatly.

Promise of the Safe Return

Spell of the Waking Circle

Cost: 10 motes, 1 gossamer

Casting time: 1 Scene

Cup Shaping Weapon Statistics: Speed -5, Accuracy +4, Damage +4, Defense +1, Rate 1 (Piercing, Clinch)

Mutations: Assumption of Wood, Abiding Gift

Commitment: 3 motes

Description: The Wife of Man gathered together all travelers’ dreams of home and the women they left behind and knitted it into a beautiful scarf. When someone she loves prepares to leave, she spends a scene fretting over them and searching old chests for her dusty talisman. She wraps the scarf around their throat and kisses their cheek, sealing the spell. For the remainder of the story, the wearer of the scarf automatically succeeds at any Stamina + Survival + Returning Home roll – explicitly, they receive one success after accounting for the difficulty and penalties of the roll are imposed. If someone opposes the target of the spell with Charms or Stunts, this spell doesn’t automatically succeed rather it grants two (2) bonus successes.

In the Wyld, this spell manifests as the longing for home and love that fills the hearts of all creatures. She unravels its calico-yarn skeins and ensnares her opponents in its comforting strands, tangling them into deep relationships with her.

Other Notes: The Wife of Man is always adored by her community. Their dreams, offerings, emotions and hopes all fill her pockets with gossamer, making her wealthy by many Raksha standards. The Wife of Man does not fully understand her nature, and she remains almost entirely in Creation. She has no fealty to Raksha nobles, thus she has no pennants or Cysts, and nor does she rule over any commoner fae. Perhaps, as she remembers herself, this may change.

Commentary

The Wife was one of the first lady Raksha I came up with, and the most popular amongst the ladies I showed her to. Personally, I find her interesting in her approach. She's very useful as an NPC or a story hook. She can serve either as an intriguing ally with subtly dangerous tendencies, or she can serve as an unusually innocent enemy, a "villain" that doesn't know she's evil, who corrupts and insinuates herself with her very presence. As a player character, she can also be interesting. She's very "normal," which allows most people to understand her well. Her motivations aren't terribly alien. Yet at the same time, she's enormously powerful. This gives the player the unique opportunity to play both a very "weak" and very "strong" character at the same time. However, she has a "niceness" that will put off some.

Still, I like her, and hope you guys do too.

Oh, last comment. Her Oath isn't terribly legal, but there was an example in the book of a "modified Charm mutation," so I thought I could do the same. Just so you know.

~Mailanka

Awesome. I aspire to have characters with a backstory as evocative or full of hooks as this. -- OhJames