Han'ya/Graceful Rowan

Graceful Rowan

Caste: Zenith

Concept: Flower of Steel

Motivation: Redeem her Abyssal son

Attributes

Strength 2 Perception 3 Charisma 5

Dexterity 2 Intelligence 3 Manipulation 1

Stamina 3 Wits 3 Appearance 5

Essence 3 Personal Essence 16

Willpower 7 Peripheral Essence 37

Abilities

Archery (F) 3

Performance 4 (Dance +2)

Presence 3

Integrity 2

Resistance 2

Survival 2

Athletics (F) 3

Awareness (F) 3

Larceny (F) 3

Socialize (F) 3

Linguistics 1 (Riverspeak, Old Realm)

Virtues

Compassion 3

Conviction 2

Temperance 2

Valor 2

Compassionate Flaw "Heart of Tears"

Backgrounds

Followers 3 (She is the leader of a group of converts to the worship of the Unconquered Sun.)

Manse 3 (She and her followers dwell in a Solar-aspect Manse that they have converted to a monastery. Hearthstone is | Gem of the Primal Beat.)

Artifact 1 (She has a soulsteel hearthstone amulet given to her by her son as a farewell present after his Black Exaltation.)

Resources 2 (She lives off of the funds from her dancing days.)

Intimacies

Her followers

Her son

Her honor

Charms

Loaned my friend my rulebook. This to be assigned later.

Fluff

Orphaned before the age of 10, she lived a life on the streets of the city of Stone Circle. She had a talent for dancing, and capitalized on it. By the age of 17, she was famous all over the city, and people would literally kill to see her, although those who did so usually were mob bosses. When she turned 20, she met a merchant whose caravan had stopped in town, and they fell very much in love. She left with him, and they were married in Nexus the following year. She accompanied the caravan wherever they went, plying her trade in the cities they stopped in, and in four years, she bore him a son. They lived happily for ten more years, until a tribe of Wyld barbarians attacked their caravan. She escaped, but her husband was killed and son taken prisoner. She took several of the flamepieces they were carrying back to Chiaroscuro from Gem, and went to try and rescue them. She arrived just in time to see them immolate her son and the other prisoners. At that very moment, she heard the voice of the Unconquered Sun, and was Exalted. She killed the entire tribe, even the women and children, and collapsed exhausted. A traveling peddler found her lying in the burnt-out ruins of the camp three days later, having neither eaten nor drank for all that time.

Not knowing what else to do, she returned to Stone Circle. By this time, she had been largely forgotten, and this time she wasn't going to make a name for herself as a dancer. She emerged as a priestess of the Unconquered Sun, gathering a huge following within a few short months. The Immaculate temples of the city were enraged by this, and the city erupted in riots. She and her followers were driven out after taking heavy losses. They fled, and successfully defeated a Wyld Hunt sent from the city. After a year of exile they discovered a Solar Manse in the wilderness. They transformed it into a monastery, and began to convert the surrounding countryside. After another year, they returned to Stone Circle to find it devastated by an earthquake that had wracked the countryside. They helped rebuild the city, and were formally given amnesty and welcomed back, as the new Mayor was a staunch opponent of the Immaculate faith.

After Graceful Rowan returned to the Manse, she found her son waiting in the grand hall, and the followers she had left behind slaughtered. She was shocked. Before she could speak, her son explained that he and his sempai in the Deathlord King Under The Mountain's service. He explained that he had been sent to deliver a message, indicating the carnage that surrounded them. Weeping, she asked him how he could have done all this. He explained that his master had shown him the truth, that all things wither and die, that life is ceaseless suffering, and that Oblivion is the greatest of all things. She was horrified and repulsed by this, and was further enraged when he accused her of naivete and said that they were not all that different. She served her god, and he his. She angrily retorted that the Deathlords were not gods, and he laughed, saying the analogy wasn't foolproof. He then continued by saying he bore her no grudge for opposing her, and understood if she had to fight him. She attempted to persuade him to stay, calling him by name, and he replied that he was now no longer her son, he was the Disinherited Grandson of the Infinite Light. He gave her a soulsteel hearthstone amulet as a parting gift, and disappeared with a swirl of shadow.

She immediately called her followers back to the Manse, for it had become a shadowland. they spent the next six months fighting to reclaim it, and finally succeeded. When at last they returned to Stone Circle for the second time, they found it under siege by the forces of the Underworld, and ravaged from within by death cults. The general of the undead forces was none other than her son. She and her followers now fight to free the city, and she also desires secretly to redeem her son, who none but she know is the leader of the enemy. She seeks the secret to defeating them in the vast catacombs that underlay the city, filled with small shadowlands and Wyld-tainted areas, but full of First Age artifacts and lore.

Her anima banner, when iconic, takes the shape of an immense tree of uncertain species.

She is about 5'5", with lightly tanned skin, hair the color of ripened wheat, and ruby-red eyes. She is slender and looks about 19, and doesn't look like like a mother, more an angel or one of the Fae.