Dissolvegirl/BlackTiger

Black Tiger

http://www.silentrequiem.net/ashes/bt_uncolor_sm.jpg click to view character sheet

Introduction

Black Tiger was the character I came up with almost a year ago. It went something like this: my husband decided to run a game he was always buying the books for, Exalted. He'd almost run a game before-- Dragon-people or something?-- Boring guys who hunt demons, or whatever. I wasn't terribly interested, but hey, it was my husband. After piecing together what I could from what I remembered him telling me, I decided to make a Night Caste loosely based off of Yuffie from FF7. Young, impetuous, with a burning desire for artifacts. A ninja-thief, as it were (ooooh, so original). Then I found out there were Wolverine claws you could use with martial arts! Sweet! And it's tiger style?? Awesome! This totally goes with my catgirl obsession! I'll name her Black Tiger! She'll be from really far south, so she's like a walking shadow. That'll be awesome with her ninjaness. I love it!

A year later-- and a lot more enthusiastic about Exalted, and a lot less obsessed with playing catgirls-- Tiger is my favorite character I've ever played in any RPG. In-game, she's now older than me (22), and she's come a long way from "plucky 16-year-old ninja looking for a thrill." Her emotional journey has been awesome, and the experience with my RP group and my ST has been phenomenal. What a great way to get into a great game.

History

Black Tiger, born Black Shadow, was a slave from Gem, working for a local gem trader. She was being trained to become a bodyguard when she was older, as her parents were both accomplished in that area. When she was old enough to find out she could buy her way out of slavery, she dedicated herself to the task, stealing whatever she could, whenever she could. It was easy; she had a natural talent, and everyone in the trader's mansion never payed any attention to her; it was the same when she slipped away to the city outside. She was silent and respectful at work, silent and light-fingered after hours. The problem came one night when she apparently pickpocketed from the wrong person; he realized his purse was missing, and he and his three burly compatriots cornered her in a dark alley. That's when she Exalted-- and the money from those corpses was enough to buy her freedom. Upon freeing herself, she changed her name to Black Tiger, refusing to ever be discounted or ignored.

Eventually, she made her way north, into the Scavenger lands-- and into a small city named Good Harbor. It was there that she met her first fellow Solar, a big burly Dawn named Thorn Bullrusher. He was friends with a treasure-hunter who sometimes stopped by the area, a Twilight named Jules. Eventually, they rescued an Eclipse named Nate from the Wyld Hunt, and for a long time, their circle was complete.

Black Tiger today

Her impetuousness gone, she has spent many long years honing herself for one purpose: revenge. The solar ghost who once shared her Essence became the 14th Deathlord, the Maiden of the Final Sunrise, and she has been hunting down, killing, and tormenting all of her former circlemates. She killed Tiger's closest friend, and the Maiden has been trying to convert or kill those who carry the shards of her entire circle of 13 night castes.

The circle Tiger belongs to has its own plans and agendas, but the fact that the 14th Deathlord is swiftly taking over the Underworld is not a fact to be denied. Someday, the ghost of Steel Nightengale will prepare to sweep through creation-- and when that day comes, one Solar will stand in her way. Whether or not her Circle wishes to face the onslaught is entirely up to them.

(Update: Black Tiger died in combat with the 14th Deathlord, who screwed up her concentration while casting Void-Circle Necromancy.)

Stories, etc.

Dissolvegirl/HatredRidesOnWings - A cut-scene. The story of how Black Tiger regained a pair of the wings that were her birthright, and the beginning of her long road to revenge.

Comments

A circle of 13 Night Castes? That's a plenty big circle! I assume they're not all PCs. - Quendalon

NoooooooNoNo. They're her circlemates from her past life. During the primordial war, there was a circle of 13 Night Castes that the 13 Wings of the Raptor were made for. One of her circlemates double-crossed the others while fighting Octavian, and most everyone was killed. When her incarnation, Steel Nightengale, died, her ghost became the 14th deathlord, and I guess just bided her time until she was ready to come forth and start consuming the other deathlords. (I'll fix the wording.) It's all history that my ST, Mnemosynis, came up with. :) Cool, no? --Dissolvegirl

It's a bummer when PCs die. I hope Black Tiger got a good death scene, or failing that, at least a good funeral scene.\\ _Ikselam

Nope, she actually got pretty jipped in that regard. Since she took 17-some levels of damage, the ST ruled that she couldn't even get a dramatic death speech. There was no body left for a funeral per se, although spirit aurochs sent by Ahlat ate her remains as some sort of honor. The really anticlimactic thing was when one PC wept and railed over his NPC Abyssal girlfriend getting killed, and no one really remembered Black Tiger had just died. When they did, they just went searching for whatever cool artifacts of hers hadn't been vaporized by the Essence explosion to divide amongst themselves in a D&D-type fashion.

It was highly unsatisfying, but I knew since the whole 14th Deathlord plot started that fighting her was going to be how Tiger died, and so I'm cool with that. -dissolvegirl

That Blows i half play my Characters for a "good death". - Issaru

Any Exalted deserves a good death... Time itself should stop for a death speach if you're -fighting your life-long nemesis- for goodness sake!
-- Darloth (P.S. And the artifacts is just crass!)