Wings/ShoatoftheMire

Shoat of the Mire

"What should I do? Where should I go? Is there truly a place in this world...for someone like me?"

The current Shoat of the Mire is...different. Then again, it is precisely because she is different that she was chosen by her liege.

She wordlessly watched the Procession of the Swine tear apart her family before she was taken to the Dowager's lower halls. And she endured.

When the Dowager's servants gave knives to her and the other children, and a nameless adult to use them on, she wordlessly buried the blade and pretended not to hear the her victim's cries of agony. And she endured.

When the other children degenerated into the obedient, deranged monsters the Dowager wished for them to become, she wordlessly watched them kill each other for the pettiest reasons. And she endured.

When she, along with the other two young candidates, were locked in single room and told only one would leave, she wordlessly watched a young boy kill and then eat a young girl she had sometimes played with. And she endured.

When that same boy attempted to do the same to her, she wordlessly killed him with her bare hands and turned him into her sustenance. And she endured.

When she was Exalted and exposed to the philosophy of the Void, the chilling breath of the Labyrinth and the unfathomable presence of the Neverborn, she wordlessly accepted her damnation. And she endured.

The current Shoat endures.

The current Shoat does not break.

The current Shoat desperately clings to her existence and to her sanity; a bulwark of stability in a world of darkness and madness.

Because the current Shoat, more than anything else, wants to live.

As long as that hope persists, a flicker of the purest white will shine from within the obsidian shard that empowers and imprisons her soul.

The current Shoat is truly and undeniably a hero.

The Dowager likes her new Shoat, as much as the Dowager can "like" anything. While shy and unassuming, the latest girl to carry the name Shoat of the Mire is steadfast, studious and hardworking, very unlike her unstable and often whimsical predecessors.

Yet, at the same time, the Dowager fears her new Shoat, as much as the Dowager can "fear" anything. She knows that, unlike her previous deathknights, her new Shoat is not under her full control. Shoat obeys not because of mindless devotion, but because it keeps her alive. She trains not because she is commanded to, but because it makes her stronger.

Shoat has no dreams of betraying her liege or something like that. She is terrified by the Deathlord. Shoat has no ambitions, desires or aspirations. She just wants to live, to remain a part of this world. She wants to find a purpose, a place where she can truly be herself, whatever that means.

She is not looking for happiness. She does not even know of such a concept. She might not even understand what it is that she wants--she IS a child, after all.

To put it in words, "a sense of belonging".

Until then, the extraordinarily small and lovely Shoat of the Mire wordlessly endures.

Appearance: the current Shoat of the Mire is tiny and extremely thin. A little over three feet tall, Shoat covers her body with a tattered white gown and her impossibly lustrous black hair, which cascades down to the small of her back blessed with a natural perm. Solemn and tired-looking gray eyes explore the world behind curtains of midnight hair. Neither her apparent age or her unkempt looks, however, can fully conceal her fae-like, ethereal beauty.

Character Stats

Caste: Dusk
Nature: Survivor
Anima: A white female figure bound and completely wrapped in obsidian chains, her face covered by a dark cowl.
Concept: Insecure Soul-seeker

Attributes:
Strength 2, Dexterity 5, Stamina 2
Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 5
Perception 5, Intelligence 3, Wits 3

Abilities:
Archery 3, Athletics 3, Awareness 4 (When Indoors +1), Dodge 4, Endurance 3, Linguistics 1 (Riverspeak, Old Realm), Lore 1, Martial Arts 5, Melee 4 (Daiklaves +3), Presence 1, Resistance 2, Stealth 1, Thrown 3

Backgrounds: Artifact 2 (Dowager's Fang), Liege 5, Manse 1

Virtues:
Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 5, Valor 1

Flaws: Child (3 pt), Small (3 pt)

Willpower: 9
Health: -0,-1,-2,-2,-4,Incap
Essence: 2
Essence pool: 15/31(34)

Charms:

• Athletics
  

Flickering Image Strike
Raiton's Nimble Perch
Shadow Races the Light

• Awareness
  

Fivefold Sensory Exercise
Ominous Portent Method

• Dodge
  

Fivefold Shadow Form
Flickering Wisp Technique
Flitting Shadow Form

• Melee
  

Blade-Summoning Gesture

• Hungry Ghost Style
  

Essence Discerning Gesture
Hungry Ghost Form
Shrouded Claw Attack

Combos:
Intangible and Inevitable (Fivefold Shadow Form + Flickering Image Strike + Flickering Wisp Technique + Raiton's Nimble Perch + Shrouded Claw Attack): Shoat flickers out of vision and instantly appears in front of her target, her hair swaying in the chilling breeze released by her anima as she walks THROUGH his body. She then flickers a second time to reappear some distance behind him.

Equipment: Dowager's Fang; small cloth pouch with unknown hearthstone.

Combat:
Base initiative: 8
Soak: 2B/1L/0A (unarmored)
Dodge: 9
Attacks:
Fist: Speed 8 Acc 10 Damage +2B Def 10
Kick: Speed 5 Acc 9 Damage +4B Def +9
Soulsteel Knife (Dowager's Fang; as soulsteel short daiklave) (Martial Arts): Speed 9 Acc 13 Damage +6L Def 13
Soulsteel Knife (Dowager's Fang; as soulsteel short daiklave) (Melee): Speed 9 Acc 15 Damage +6L Def 15
Soulsteel Knife (Dowager's Fang; as soulsteel short daiklave) (Thrown): Speed 9 Acc 11 Damage +6L Def 11

Expanded Backgrounds

Shoat's weapon, personally given to her by her mistress, is the soulsteel knife Dowager's Fang. The blade has the stats of a Short Daiklave. Dowager's Fang is considered a Form weapon for Hungry Ghost Style. This does not allow Shoat to use other knives with Charms of that style. Finally, the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils can, at will, discern the location of the person carrying Dowager's Fang anywhere in Creation or the Underworld. She may also see and hear through the eyes and ears of a person attuned to the knife. This is a perfect effect.

Shoat's Manse rating corresponds to a hearthstone she carries, which the Dowager took from the corpse of a scavenger lord who got too close to the Noss Fens. Shoat is obviously not attuned to the stone, nor she has any idea of what it does or to what manse it belongs to.

Other Notes

Shoat is a starting character, plus 15 XP used to build her Combo.

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