Kraken/AmberFlower

Name: Amber Flower
Caste: Dawn
Nature: Bravo
Concept:
Anima: The flower on her armour, a stem of golden sunlight, and six pale violet petals. As her essence expenditure grows, the petals and then the stem turn to pure white light.
XP <nowikiKraken/Spent: 264/30/234 </nowiki>

Attributes</b>
<b>Strength 3, Charisma 3, Perception 2
Dexterity 5, Manipulation 2, Intelligence 2
Stamina 4, Appearance 3, Wits 3

Abilities</b>
<b>Athletics 5, Brawl 5(Duels 1, Smashfists 1), Bureaucracy 2, Craft 2, Dodge 5, Endurance 5, Linguistics 2 Lore 2, Medicine 1, Melee 1, Occult 1, Performance 2, Presence 5, Resistance 4, Socialize 1, Survival 3, Thrown 3, Awareness 2

Languages: Riverspeak; Firetongue, Old Realm

Backgrounds</b>
<b>Artifacts 3 (Hearthstone Bracers, and a Smashfist, both made of Orichalcum)
Resources 3 (Amber recieved a sizable sum from her father when she left home. Some careful investment has let her keep most of it.)
Manse 4 (A powerful Solar Manse.)

Virtues</b>
<b>Compassion 2, Temperance 2, Conviction 3, Valor 3\\ Virtue Flaw Berserk Anger
Willpower 7
Essence 3
Personal 16
Peripheral 38/29

Health Levels 0*1, -1*4, -2*6, -4*1, Incapacitated

Merits and Flaws</b>
Ambidextrous(1pt), Double Jointed(1pt), Reduced Social Attributes(3pt)

<b>Charms</b>
<b>Athletics Graceful Crane Stance(3m), Lightning Speed (1m)
Brawl Ferocious Jab(1m), Fists of Iron(1m), Wall of Fists Technique(5m), Thunderclap Rush Attack(3m), Invinciable Hand of the sun (10m), Hidden Hammer Strike (3m)
Craft Flawless Handiwork (3m/success)
Dodge Reed In The Wind(1m/2d), Reflex Sidestep Technique(2m), Shadow Over Water(2m), Seven Shadows Evasion (6m), Flow Like Blood (5m+wp)
Endurance Ox-Body*2(-1*2, -2*4), Armored Scout's Invigoration(3m/point), Front-Line Warrior's Stamina(5m, 1wp), Essence Gathering Temper (1m), Tiger Warrior Endurance (6m+wp+HL)
Medicine Body Mending Meditation(10m)
Presence Harmonious Presence Meditation(6m), Magestic Radiant Presence, Terrifying Apparition of Glory (10m+wp)
Resistance Whirlwind Armor Donning Prana(2/point), Hauberk Summoning Gesture(3m), Durability of Oak Meditation(1m/2B), Iron Skin Concentration(3m)

Combos</b>
<b>Swift Blossoming Rage (7xp) - Thunderclap Rush Attack, Ferocious Jab, Wall of Fists Technique, Essence Gathering Temper, Iron Skin Concentration
Amber Flower streaks glowing flower petals behind her as she sprints at an attacker, her strongest blows exploding in bright flashes as they land, each blow warded accompanied by a spray of petals. When she is hit, her skin is like iron and the pain invigorates her

Combat(using powercombat rules)</b>
<b>Soak 16B/14L/12A or 4B/2L/0A, Base Initiative 8, Mobility Penalty 4, Fatigue 3, Dodge 8/4
Fist: Speed 8, Accuracy 12, Damage 6B, Defense 13, Rate 5
Fists of Iron Technique: Speed 8, Accuracy 13, Damage 8L, Defense 13, Rate 5
Clinch: Speed 8, Accuracy 11, Damage 6B, Defense 11, Rate 1
Orichalcum Smashfist: Speed 5, Accuracy 14, Damage 11L, Defense 16, Rate 8

Description
Amber Flower is a tall woman, with fiery red hair, and gold flecked tawny eyes, a very light dusting of freckles on her face. Her body is lean and powerful, but moves with a suprising, almost impossible grace. Around her neck she has a ring. This golden ring, three ropes braided together, diamonds inbetween the strands was given to her lover, Glorious Tiger, on the eve of her twenty first birthday.

She wears a finely crafted suit of Superheavy plate, made of the finest steel Great Forks smiths could manage, joints engineered with precision, designed to last a thousand battles. The plates on the arms are smooth, as are the legs, though the breastplate has the picture of an ashflower in full bloom, the six petals looking strangly sowrdlike, speaking of Fortitude, of Glory and an Eloquence of the arts of battle.

Her Hearthstone bracers are made out of orichalcum, a fine tracery of the metal making them up. The right hand bracer has a beautiful woman constructed of the fine strips of Orichalcum. The left hand bracer has a beautiful man on it, holding the Hearthstone socket. Both look similar, possibly twins, Flower thinks...

On one hand is Malus, a chunky glove made of Orichalcum, fitted for the right hand. The back hand is embossed with the dawn castemark, the Hearthstone socket of the bracer set into the centre. The fingers of the Smashfist are covered in finely carved scales, the joints set with pins of white jade.

The Citadel of the Dawn Ascendant is located in the mountains around 50 miles west of Denandsor, The Empty City. The manse itself is contructed mostly of gleaming white marble. Rising from the head of the eastfacing valley there are 8 bastions of marble, their crenellated tops ringed with gold the eastmost basition having large gates of ironwood bound with iron and twilight magics. The bastions are all linked to the central spire by underground tunnels. The spire itself rises from the peak of the mountain, pure white marble, patterns of white jade and the glass of windows forming abstract scenes of battles long forgotten. Within the manse, the furnishings are spartan at best, much faded from their former glory, though one who knows of such things call tell the luxury in the central rooms. The Hearthstone room itself is at the centre of the spire toward the top, arrays of mirrors within the tower ensuring sunlight always falls on the orichalcum plate above which the stone floats, spining slowly, its rotation following the sun about the sky.

History</b>
Amber Flower grew up in the gladiatorial arenas of Great Forks, her father a retired fighter himself, who won him freedom and was sensible enough with the winnings to rise to ownership of his own arena. Whenever she was out of lessons, Flower could be found watching the gladiators, watching them sparing, watching them training, watching the bloody fights.

It was perhaps no suprise that she would try her hand at fighting, training her body in the privacy of her rooms, in houses in the empty parts of the city, running in the cities parks, cajoling lessons from her father's gladiators. At 17 she fought her first true bout in front of a crowd of people. She was beaten almost to unconciousness but she didnt give up, even after the blazing rows she had with her father, who was determined she would have a better life than he had. She would have none of it, continueing to fight, to train and, as she grew in experience, to win. And won she did, both fights and the crowd, her grace and style making her a popular fighter. Often she would fight masked, to avoid her fathers wrath, and it was in one of these masked conflicts that she first me her lover, nursing the wounds from that fight for quite some time.

It was during in one of the high-society parties her father held on occasion, to distract her from fighting she privately suspected, that she met him again striking up an almost instant raport with him, the rest of the party passing as something as blur. Over the next few months they met alot, in the city's nicer restaurants, in its drug houses, in its baths, and unbeknowst to the pair of them, in its arenas, developing a powerful rivalry there.

Out of the area, they explored each others hobbies, he watching her in fetes and athletic events, she helping his burgoning exploration of the smith's art. It was from him that she discovered her love of weapons, not to fight with, but simply to be appreciated as objects of art. It was from him that she learnt a hard lesson.

On the eve of her twentyfirst birthday he proposed to her, giving her a beautiful ring, spending the night together, a magical night. The next day she killed him. It was another masked bout, in one of the largest arenas in Great Forks, and it was a glorious fight. She in her heavy armour, but almost unarmed, merely with a Cestus strapped about one hand, a punch dagger in the other, him clad in cloth, merely a breastplate to protect him, armed with a shield and a mace. Driven on by thier rivally, the fight was fierce both bleeding from a dozen nicks after a few short minutes. The next moments she would not forget soon, his mace smashing into her side, her katar being dragged across his throat, the crowd cheering, lifting off his mask, recognising him, dropping to her knees, holding him as he died in her arms.

She left Great Forks after that, saying farewell to her father and her family, trying to leave his menory behind her, for a time, signing on as a caravan guard, to let her travel, bartering for weapons when she could, building her collection. She travelled with the caravans for a year or so, before she changed, joining a scavenger lord as a guard instead, travelling into ruins, seeing a great many wonders.

On the edge of Denandsor they were attacked, toward the end of the night, a fey prince leading a small group of wyld barbarians. Her companions fought hard, but when the prince cut one of them in twain with his impossibly perfect blade then whirled on her, a thrust for her heart she barely deflected, pentrating her thigh, they broke and fled, leaving her to the prince of madness. Alone, abandoned, surrounded by wyldspawn, a fey blade in her leg, she should have died. Instead she Exalted, sunlight blazing on her forehead as she felt the first rays of dawn overtake her. Power flooded her, driving the barbarians back, exploding into a rage against the prince, her fists now shattering the glass of his armour as the blows fell. She vanquished him and looked down upon him, the world swiming in and out of focus from the power coursing through her, from the sporific on the glass blade, and Glorious Tiger smiled back once more. She fell to her knees, and was lost to the world.

When she awoke it was dark about her, the fey price has faded, leaving his blade, her glow having faded, her injuries still severe. She picked herself up and the sword, and started to walk, ignoring the pain in her leg, the ache in her bones, the agony of her heart, following a half remembered dream west, and up into the mountains. She walked without food, without water, and then she climbed, until she saw her destination ahead of her, a blaze of gold and white as sun rose again. At the gates of the Citadel she collapsed once more, before she summoned the strength to push the gates open. She was home, though she knew it not.

In the Citadel she found found food and water, and for a while she found peace, exploring the passageways of the manse, attuning to it, setting the stone into the bracers she found, marvelling in their craft. A gauntlet she found also, fiting her hand like it was meant to be.

Finding Malus convinced her that it was time to leave here, for a while at least, to carry on her quest for forgetfulness, for glory and self-forgiveness...

<b>Possible Plothooks

• Amber Flower might be found anywhere in the Threshold, following rumours of exotic weapons, or just trailing a caravan.
• It is possible her father, concerned for his daughter's location (and unknowing of her 'fate') might employ some people to look for her, especially if some rumours were to have reached him.

Fiction
Homecoming - A tale of Blossoming Zephyr, her First Age incarnation