HandofOmega/Deathlords
Bride Bedecked with Bloody Garlands
HISTORY: The Bride Bedecked with Bloody Garlands, also known to the Kingdoms of the South as The Gracious Slice, was one of the last Solars to Exalt during the First Age. Chan Dar, a young woman barely past a normal human lifespan, was as reknowned for her radiant beauty and gracious manner as she was for an innate talent for sorcery. Her wedding to a young Lunar hero was but days away when the Terrestrial Insurrection struck. Curiously, although even she could have laid waste to scores of Dragon-Blooded before they succeeded in taking her down, she simply closed her eyes, and let them cut her down without a word. It was this assassination, of one seemingly untouched by the Great Curse and the sins that brought their judgement upon her kind, that made her death one of the most difficult of all for them to carry out. It is unknown what the Malfeans promised her or why she accepted their offer, but accept it she did, and she was reborn as The Bride. She has acted as the voice of reason and the conscience (if such can be said to exist) among her fellow Deathlords, urging unity when their separate goals and methods pull them apart. As time passes, and the Deathlords grow farther apart, she redoubles her efforts to increase communion among them, rarely with success. Those who whisper of such things claim that her ultimate goal is to create a (twisted) surrogate family for all that she lost in life. If true, then it is a goal clearly doomed to failure, one way or the other.
DESCRIPTION: The Bride Bedecked with Bloody Garlands presents herself as a pale young girl of about 16 years, dressed in a shining white wedding dress elaborately woven from Prayer Strips, upon which are written 346 Blessings of Ill Fortune, which trail behind her like shed feathers; her blood stains the dress, seeping through the wounds she received from the Dragon-Blooded. Her feet are bare and leave bloody footprints; her shadow is that of an old crone; her scent is that of an extinct flower whose name she'll trade for one's memory of one's first act of lovemaking, which memories she keeps in a necklace of Yasal gems. She wears a cascading veil of Moonsilver mesh, through which can sometimes be glimpsed her large, innocent-looking eyes, eternally weeping tears of blood. Her voice is distant and breathy, her speech has a lilting accent with an odd emphasis on certain syllables, and she is given to dizzying verbal circumlocutions.
The Bride carries a bouquet of Winter Blossoms (see Creatures of the Wyld), which she hurls at enemies (treat as Perfect Throwing Knives) and which drain Essence as well as blood. Like the other Deathlords, the Bride also knows all Solar and Abyssal Charms, all sorcery up to the Solar Circle and all Necromantic spells.
THE OASIS OF BLISSFUL REFLECTION: Deep within the harsh wastes of the South lies a Shadowland which, in apparent defiance of both the desert and shadowlands, is full of growing plant life. This Oasis is a deceit, however; all the plants that grow there are poisonous, all the water that flows there hallucinogenic. This lethal Garden of Deathly Delights is tended by the Reverend Sorrow, a powerful ghost lord who serves the Bride as major domo of the Chapel of Eternal Parting.
The Chapel of Eternal Parting is the Bride's Citadel, a tortuous structure of bleached bone, like unto a fracture of the Labyrinth jutting through the skin of the world. Within, all is unaccountably cold for the desert, and sound echoes confusingly. Laid out in the manner of a First Age temple, it is more a blasphemous parody of a holy place, tended by dried zombies in formal wear, witlessly enacting ancient rituals. The Bride herself can often be found at the altar, praying for guidance from her Malfean master.
THE BRIDES' SERVANTS: The Hidden Left Hand of Silence is a rotund, jovial Southern woman dressed in the scarlet habit of a long-extinct order of nuns. This Midnight prefers socializing to fighting, and travels the towns of the South, giving aid and advice with a ready wit and an engaging manner. So disarming is she, that few notice the increasing trail of suicides that follow in her wake...
The Sagacious Doctor of Wicked Maladies is a Daybreak caste who shrouds himself in a voluminous black cloak that is actually a Wings of the Raptor Artifact, modified to extend into giant bat's wings. His mouth cannot be seen because of its high collar, nor his eyes through his dark spectacles. Sometimes even his shaven head is covered with a wide leather travellers hat. Soulsteel Razor Claws help him in his flesh and blood "experiments" as well as in his fly-by attacks...
Cemeter Sorrow is the living son of Rev. Sorrow, and, known to very few, the Bride herself. Through means that only the mad would inquire into, she somehow succeeded in impregnating herself with the essence of her ghostly lover, and birthed a living child. Incubating within the womb of a ghost has caused him to develop peculiarities unique even for a Ghostblood. Tall & thin, with white hair and pale amber eyes, Cemeter has a certain androgenous grace about him that would net him a score of lovers anywhere else. As it is, he has been around few live people, and is fascinated by any visitors the Chapel receives. Cemeter is immune to all the poisons and drugs in the Oasis, save one, known only to his parents. He has had the equivalent training of a Dynast, has a Pyre Hawk familiar, knows quite a few Charms, and is quickly learning much about Necromancy. The Bride's ultimate intentions for her son are unknown, but some say that she is awaiting the event of his first love with great...interest.
THE BRIDES' GOALS: The Bride seeks to unite the Deathlords into an effective team and family; unlikely, as her compatriots tend to see her as more than a little deranged and ultimately harmless. She also believes that the Lunar she was engaged to has recently been reborn somewhere in the world, and would pay much for news of his whereabouts or his presence, but for what purpose is unclear. Perhaps she wishes to finally complete her nupitals, only this time beneath the gaze of the Malfeans...
THE WIDOW RAVENOUS FOR UNBOUND PREY
HISTORY: The Widow, also known as The Weaver of the Starless Skein, is one of those Deathlords who remembers little of her existence before her present incarnation. She has little use for the living, save as the occasional snack, and focuses her attentions on combing the Underworld for lost and unique Relics and Artifacts. Her web of agents and informants is cast perhaps further across the Deadlands than any other Deathlords', whom she is adept at distracting. The major obstacles to her plans to date have in fact been the rulers of Stygia, certain powerful Ghost Lords of well-fortified kingdoms, various Nephwracks of ancient standing, and the odd Ghost Hero who stumbles across something he shouldn't have. But the Widow is cunning enough to arrange things so that she always gets something she wants, even in the face of apparent loss, and it is only a matter of time until the entire Underworld is caught within her silken grasp...
APPEARANCE: The Widow appears as a tall, thin woman in an elegantly-sleek black dress. She has six arms and four fingers on each hand. She wears a wide-brimmed hat from which depends a silken widow's veil all about her, all the way to her feet; an unfelt wind constantly stirs the gauzy veil, which she only removes for combat. Her face is covered by a Starmetal mask, featureless except eight abstract eyes worked into it in an astrological pattern. She only removes this to feast on those she bests, and even those sworn to her cannot bear to look upon her countenance when she does.
Her main weapon in combat is the Khartomb Set, 24 rings of Soulsteel that she is attuned to. With a thought, the rings unravel themselves into monofiliment fibers, effectively giving her the Sidereal Charms "Rain of Unseen Threads" and "Nest of Living Strands". Their Soulsteel nature, however, also drains Essence from targets successfully snared and affects ghosts. A consummate Martial Artist, the Widow also knows all Abyssal Charms and ghostly Arcanoi, all sorcery up to the Celestial Circle and all Necromantic spells. Most interestingly, the Widow appears to have discovered, through prayers and sacrifice to her Malfean masters, something not unlike Sidereal Astrology, that only functions in the Underworld. Certainly her ghostly enemies and allies have been subject to grave and good fortune according to their dealings with her, which furthers speculation that the Weaver may in fact have been not a Solar in life, but may have actually been a Sidereal instead...
THE LUSTROUS OBLIETTE is the Widows Citadel. Filling a vast valley in the Northern Underworld, it is a complex webwork composed entirely of Wraiths soulforged into fine Jade strands. The near-seamless joining of each strand creates an optical effect of solidity, until one looks really closely...
THE WIDOW'S SERVANTS: Few among the Widow's servants are allowed to keep their true forms, and most of those must be content with getting a few arachnoid features via Moliation. The vast majority of her army are fully moliated into spider-like monstrosities, esp. her horrific Barghasts. The Widow disdains Abyssals, and spares no effort to physically humiliating any she finds within her territory, although she has thus far restrained herself from destroying her comrades' property.
THE WIDOW'S GOALS: Aside from hoarding rare items and slowly gathering intelligence and influence among the lands of the Dead, nothing is known of the Widow's ultimate goals, although those few who know her are certain that she has some concrete aim in mind. Anyone who learned something for sure would have something nearly priceless to offer the Deathlords and the rulers of Stygia...
