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The Lotus Blooming in a Pool of Ash and Steel

Description

The Lotus is a whip-thin, imposing figure in silk and soulsteel; the soulsteel breastplate is simple and aesthetically pleasing, while her silk hakama is deep, matte black with swirling, grotesque designs stitched in flawless, shining black thread. Her long, black hair is tied in a topknot, leaving a tail hanging loose down her back. Her skin, pale, is flawless, and her expression is almost always one of polite conceit and haughty arrogance. She keeps one hand on her sword's hilt at all times, ready to draw it at a moment's notice, and her posture is so straight and so correct that it almost looks painful.

Personality

I have asked for your surrender twice, and each time you spat in my offer of mercy. I must confess that my patience is beginning to wear thin, and I must rescind my promise of a quick death. The Neverborn, and I, shall enjoy your suffering.

The Lotus is polite. Unfailingly polite. So polite, in fact, that her demeanor and her attitude throws off her would-be attackers. Concerned with propriety and face, the Lotus is always courteous and deferential; people would think her kind and genial if it weren't for her complete lack of empathy with anything else living or dead. She chooses her opponents carefully, in attempts to ensure a fair fight, and if her opponents are honorable as well as equally polite to her, she will offer them the quickest and most painless death she can manage (which is more than what most deathknights will offer their victims).

Utterly devoted to her master, The Silk-Bound Warden of Egregious Mistrust, the Lotus strives to be his face and his sword on Creation's bright surface. She is Oblivion made flesh, she believes, and when she smiles, men die.

History

Not long ago, in the Realm, an ugly little girl was born to a minor Mnemon household. This little girl was shunned by her peers and her family, frighteningly pale of skin and dark of eye that she was. She never smiled, for no one taught her how. She never laughed, because she hated how the others laughed at her. Anger was her first emotion, and she learned to swallow it, and let it grow into a ball of hatred deep in the pit of her stomach.

The girl was given her lessons, as any child of Dragon-bloods would be, and her parents prayed that the blood of the dragons would skip her -- obviously one so strange to look at, and one so disturbing of demeanor would not be destined for Exaltation. When they were certain that the Dragons had not chosen her, she was summarily shunned from the family, given a small wing of the home manor far from prying eyes, and, her family hoped, forgotten about.

So she remained for several years.

Rumors are hard to quell, however, and the stories of the strange-faced young woman were whispered at parties and trysts. The rumors became so great that her mother, denied a position within the Thousand Scales because of it, ordered the girl's food poisoned with hopes of ending the shameful farce once and for all. And it did, of course.

The girl, now a young woman, at the food, and the poison raced through her weak body, making her head spin and her skin burn. She clawed at her throat, gasping for air, and with her last breath, dug into the vengeful pit of anger in her soul and asked for the power of revenge.

"Poor, ugly child," said a silky, dangerous voice in her ear. "If I give you this, will you be mine forever?"

"Yes," she gasped, and the Black Exaltation washed over her.

Her family was dead by morning, killed in the most horrible and humiliating ways possible. The ugly little girl was dead, and the Lotus Blooming in a Pool of Ash and Steel was born.

Statistics (2ED)

Name: The Lotus Blooming in a Pool of Ash and Steel
Caste: Midnight
Concept: Unfailingly Polite and Honorable Samurai
Anima: Great folds of black silk and wicked-looking chains that splay out in all directions.
Motivation: (something suitably epic and evil)
Deathlord: The Silk-Bound Warden of Egregious Mistrust

Attributes
Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3
Charisma 3, Manipulation 4, Appearance 2
Perception 5, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Abilities
Athletics 2, Archery 4, Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 2, Dodge 4, Integrity 3, Linguistics 4, Lore 3, Melee 5 (Fighting Honorable Opponents +2), Occult 3 (the Gods +2), Performance 3, Presence 5 (Intimidation +1), Ride 3, Socialize 4 (Being Polite +2), Survival 2, War 5

Backgrounds
Artifact 4, Familiar 3, Leige 3, Underworld Manse 3, Whispers 2

Virtues
Compassion 1
Conviction 4
Temperance 4
Valor 3

Willpower 8

Essence 4
Personal: 20
Peripheral: 48

Charms
Archery: First Archery Excellency, Pulse of the Prey, Splinter of the Void, Banished Bow Arsenal
Melee: First Melee Excellency, Ravening Mouth of Melee, Savage Shade Style, Five Shadow Feint, Unfurling Iron Lotus, Elegant Flowing Deflection, Vengeful Riposte, Death Deflecting Technique, Hundred Razor Circle
Integrity: Third Integrity Excellency, Eternal Enmity Approach
Performance: First Performance Excellency
Presence: First Presence Excellency, Chaining the Weak
Occult: Spirit-Sensing Meditation, Corpus-Rending Blow
Linguistics: Screaming in Silence

Combos
Cold Win Turns to Rain: Pulse of the Prey, First Archery Excellency, Splinter of the Void
Won't You Come and See Loneliness?: First Presence Excellency, Chaining the Weak
The Lotus Blooms: Death-Deflecting Technique, Vengeful Riposte, Unfurling Iron Lotus, Corpus-Rending Blow, Five Shadow Feint, First Melee Excellency, Savage Shade Style

Combat
Equipment
The Bell Not Hidden (Soulsteel Reaper Daiklave) (Artifact 2)
Speed 4, Accuracy 16, Damage +7L, Defense 6 (Parry), Rate 3, Attune 5
1 Hearthstone Slot: Underworld Labyrinthine Eye

No Blossoms (Soulsteel Short Powerbow) (Artifact 2)
Speed 6, Accuracy 13, Damage +7L, Rate 2, Range 250, Attune 4
1 Hearthstone Slot: Underworld Gem of Echoes

Soulsteel Breastplate (Artifact 1)
Soak 9L/9B/8A, Hardness 3L/3B, Mobility -0, Fatigue 0, Attune 2

Join Battle: 6
Dodge DV: 7
Parry DV: 6 (The Bell Not Hidden)

Join Debate: 6
Dodge MDV: 8
Parry MDV: 5

Soak
Natural: 1L/3B/0A
Armored: 9L/9B/8A, 3L/3B Hardness

Possessions
The Bell Not Hidden (soulsteel reaper daiklave), No Blossoms (soulsteel short powerbow) + ammo (20 broadhead, 20 frog crotch), soulsteel breastplate, soulsteel hearthstone amulet, soulsteel Collar of the Dawn's Cleansing Light, Underworld Gem of Dignity, Underworld Labyrinthine Eye, Underworld Gem of Echoes