Iseul Tarana
From Gameresource
[edit] there's still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
In every war, there are need for healers, and especially after the flames have died down and the time for rebuilding has come. Tarana leaves what fighting to be done to others: there are enough others who can ruthlessly hunt down rebels and crush what resistance remains, who take pleasure in that bloodthirsty work. He has never enjoyed fighting, though he has engaged in it when necessary: he will fight if he must to protect others, however, but it is not a task he has heart for, really. He serves the regime as a physician, using his medical knowledge to try to heal, to make medicines to replace what Solar magic and artifice did, a quiet presence and gentle hand to relieve the people's suffering and set them back on their own feet, to not only heal their wounds but put them on the path to being able to live without the miracle of Solar wonders. In addition, whether he would or no, the regime tends to use him for PR purposes.
He was born in the East, in the territory governed by Ivory Heart, one of the Twilight Caste, who was gifted in many things...not the least of which was the art of crafting various forms of life. Her particular passion, fueled by her paranoia, lay in the realm of diseases, particularly magical ones, which she crafted as biological weapons and stockpiled in case of attack by other Solars. Occasionally, she would test one on the populace, to see how well it worked.
Tarana was an apprentice physician, sixteen and still learning, when plague struck, and it was a disease neither he nor his teacher had ever encountered before. His teacher died early on, and Tarana himself became sick, but continued trying to take care of all he could, for as long as he could still stand, trying to save anyone he could, until at last his own endurance ran out. He was expecting to die, and in his fever-dreams, a silver lady came to him, and smiled. and he Exalted as one of the Lunar Exalted.
Despite his best efforts, he only managed to save a few people, the illness killing swiftly but burning itself out and disappearing as quickly as it had come. He was found, still faintly glowing, kneeling by the bedside of his sister: she had died not too long before, and after the last rites had been given to the dead, was taken to Meru. He had no contact with his Solar mate for several years, for she refused to see or speak with him until he had learned enough to satisfy her minimum expectations to not be a complete embarrassment to her with how inexperienced he was.
Little did he know that his Solar mate was the one responsible for the plague that had killed his loved ones and many of his friends from his mortal life. Ivory Heart was a cold, distant woman: their relationship was not one of equals or one of love, for she was far older then he, and very set in her ways, as well as contemptuous of his youth...or really, contemptuous of everyone who she perceived to not be as brilliant as she was...which was nearly everyone. She had not cared for the woman who had borne his shard before Tarana did, hadn't cared for her at all, but at least she was not some boy just out of childhood, and had been almost a proper match for her intellect. Ivory spent as little time with him as she could, and when she did see him, completely disregarded any insight about anything he may have had, but refused to allow him to speak to her unless she spoke to him first, preferring him, when he was in her company, to be silent and pretty. Because he might as well be something pretty to look at if he was too stupid to be a proper conversational partner.
At least she let him do what he wanted as long as it didn't disturb her experiments. This state of affairs continued for some time, until the fragile balance was shattered, when not only did he learn that Ivory Heart had been responsible for the plague that had killed his loved ones and he had Exalted during, but she had done similar experiments before...and was conducting one at present. And for the first time, he defied her...and tried to go out to tend those stricken by the new illness, to try to save and protect them, since she had long ago forgotten the meaning of that.
Ivory Heart would not allow him. She forced him to do nothing, to remain in the glass courtyard, twisting the bond he had to her in order to force him to bend to her will, even as his heart and will fought the bonds and yet remained helpless against her power and the ties forged by heaven, by sun and moon, failed to protect those he had tried to protect. Eventually, the plague ran its course, and Ivory returned to feverishly creating more, back to her laboratory, her paranoia driving her, and did not notice when Tarana returned to Meru. In fact, did not notice and would not have cared if she had noticed.
Which was, in fact, her downfall. Those who would become the Night Sky Regime, who had noticed Tarana's unhappiness and discontent with Ivory before, and now had noticed the utter severing of whatever attachment or even fragile attempt to try to please and get along with Ivory approached him then, and found him willing to listen, throw his lot in with them especially after he heard of other atrocities many of the other Solars had committed, on the same scale as Ivory Heart's. Not all of them were doing so, to be sure...but enough. Enough.
Enough.
By some miracle, Ivory actually went to that Calibration party, despite her rampant paranoia: Tarana has no idea why, but praises the gods for that miracle. And died there, and all her passcodes for releasing or even accessing the plagues she had made died with her.
And since then, he has worked on behalf of the Night Sky Regime, trying to help and to heal. Because someone has to.
[edit] there's still a little bit of your ghost your witness
Tarana is a small, slightly built young man, standing just over five feet tall in his bare feet, slender and seemingly fragile: his features are fine-boned, delicate in a doll-like way, and more then once, he has been mistaken for a woman...even when not using Twin-Faced Hero. He wears his white-blond hair long, in a braid that hangs down to his waist: the astute can see that there are white crane feathers in the braid, growing in his hair. He usually has a serene, peaceful expression on his face, and when he speaks, he speaks very softly, almost a whisper unless he makes a conscious effort to speak up. His taste in clothing tends towards the extremely simple, almost severe: high collars, long sleeves, no ornamentation.
[edit] life taught me to die;
Name: Iseul Tarana
Caste: No Moon
Concept: angel of mercy
Totem: crane
Motivation: to heal the wounds of Creation
Intimacies:
Attributes:
Str: 1
Dex: 4*
Sta: 3
Cha: 3
Man: 2
App: 5*
Per: 3
Int: 5*
Wits: 4*
Abilities:
Socialize 2
Lore 3
Occult* 3
Ride 1
Melee 2
Craft: Water 3 (+Craft Air)
Survival 2
Medicine 5*
Investigation 2
Resistance 3
Dodge 3
Awareness 3
Linguistics 1
Integrity 3*
Charms:
Third Dexterity Excellency
First Stamina Excellency
First Intelligence Excellency
Third Intelligence Excellency
Righteous Lion Defense
Counting the Elephant's Wrinkles
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Spells:
Emerald Countermagic
Emerald Banishment
Knacks:
Humble Mouse Shape
Twin-Faced Hero
Quicksilver Second Face
Virtues:
Compassion 4
Conviction: 3
Temperance: 3
Valor: 2
Limit Break:
Willpower: 7
Essence: 3
Personal:
Peripheral:
Limit:
Backgrounds:
Artifact **** (Resplendent Satchel of Healing. It was the one thing that he took from Ivory Heart's possessions before he turned over the rest of her estate to the NSR.)
Manse ** (Wood manse.)
Backing: Night Sky Regime **
Wealth ** (purchased: silken armor, moonsilver wrackstaff, moonsilver hearthstone amulet, collar of dawn's cleansing light )
Heart's Blood **
Reputation ***
JB:
DDV:
PDV:
MDV:
MPV:
XP: 30
Spent: 27
Unspent: 3
Purchased: 1 dot of Artifact (4th dot), 2 dots of Reputation, Emerald Countermagic, Emerald Banishment
