Basic Information Name: Azane Aliases: none (unless perhaps somebody actually visited Oerth recently) Gender: female Race: Human (Suloise) Age: 21 Profession: (Ex-)Gladiatrix just stumbled into Sigil Languages: Common, Halfling, Orc Accent: a rather thin accent, which a scholar might place as some kind of Suloise derivative Physical Information Height: 5'9" / 175 cm Weight: 155 lbs / 70 kg Body build: athletic, toned more for agility than strength Skin type: rather smooth Hair style: normally, a long ponytail that looks quite deliberately tied and styled Scars: none major Tattoos: no Colouring:
[b]Hair:[/b] reddish blonde [b]Eyes:[/b] pale urple [b]Skin:[/b] very fair [/li]
Mental Information Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Philosophy: Sometimes it really does seem everyone is out to get you. Why can't they just let me get on with my life? I guess you need to take what you want... Deity/Beliefs: Agnostic Personality:
(work in progress) [u]Homesick[/u] [i]Oh, the jungles of my childhood...[/i] [/li]
Additional Information Gear: light armor clearly chosen more for effect and mobility than heavy protection; a leather bag she seems very much attached to Jewelry: a slave collar about her neck Habbits/hobbies: "I never had time for those." General Health: very good Favorite Drink: "It's better than what they used to serve us." Weaknesses: <does your character have any weaknesses? Addicted to alcohol/drugs.. fear of dark...>
I fondly remember my childhood, in the lush jungles of Amedio, where dinosaurs roamed, peaceful vegetarians and powerful predators a like. I think I must've been fascinated with them from pretty much when I learned to crawl, and how my family eventually gave up trying to protect me, instead allowing me to train a small one as my first pet. They're quite smart creatures, you know...
And I remember how my childhood ended, when I counted barely a dozen summers. The raiders came from what I later learned was the Hold of the Sea Princes, and if they'd just been looking to loot, plunder and kill, it would've been merciful in a way. No, they were slavers. I recall hiding with my pet - I called him Gaqo, brother in the old tongue - in a hollow tree, praying to whatever gods I could think of, and finding none where there for me that day. Something startled my pet, it gave noise, they found us...
Gaqo gave his life and in a way, he saved mine: a captain was intrigued with my having had a dinosaur pet and when they set sail, most of my village in their holds below decks, he had me working with a hatchling. That determined my fate, in the end, a "fair-skinned savage beastmistress", fighting in arenas for the amusement of others. Yet I think I fared better than those girls who were sold supposedly to make proper wives, which I doubt was truly the fate in store for them.
Gaqo wasn't the last freind I lost, of course. As a gladiatrix, my life soon developed a pattern. While I was training a new pet, they'd put me into easy fights, ones I could easily win, building up the "fair-skinned savage beastmistress" as an attraction. But when they felt my latest companion was ready, the fights would quickly become ever harder, and the culmination would always be the same: a bout where I got beaten so badly I could no longer control my pet, which would then be butchered - but I, I always got a "merciful" thumbs up.
I stopped counting how often this happened, to make loosing yet another companion easier to bear. But recently, recently they actually made a mistake. I managed to hide another hatchling, one that reminds me so much of Gaqo, and I thought perhaps I could train him well enough before they discovered him to have a chance, a chance at either ultimate victory, or more likely, as punishment, final defeat.
Then something unexpected happened. This odd rift appearing caused quite a commotion, and I had no time to grab anything beyond what I was wearing and my bag, the one hinding my new Gaqo, but I thought it was worth taking the chance, the chance for both of us to be free, our own masters, wherever!
Now of course, I'm not so sure anymore. I never had to face this many horrors in the arena! Out of the frying pan, into the fire, as the saying goes. And they allow slavery, too. Damn, I need to get this collar off somehow...
So. Pets in the streets are frowned upon, whereas devils, demons, dragons, drow, efreet, green slimy blob cube things, imps, tentacle-faced slavers and tieflings are perfectly okay. And that's apparently because the latter are supposedly intelligent enough to see how totally necessary the law in this place is, whereas any beast would instinctively feel that's a load of ogre dung.
As far as I can tell, the city really works like a giant slave pen. The Harmonium and the Mercykillers are apparently the thug gangs that rule everything by force, the Fraternity are their brainy snivelling toadies who'll rat anyone out. The rest of the factions, which seem to be a good number including Bleakers, Godsmen, the d'Kridis Cartel and the Xaositics that I've heared of so far, are like the smaller gangs that keep squabbling over silly little things instead of banding to gether one night to just slit the bullies' throats.
What I haven't figured out yet is how that Serenity lady figures into all of this. Garen, the snivelling toady I got most of this from, did not seem inclined to actually talk about that at all. She seems to be the actual ruler and the red thugs work so she can enjoy law and order, so I'm pretty certain she must be Nine Hells of an arse.
Can't believe I'm saying this, but there's no place like home.
Little progress in learning about all these factions, though the one longer talk I head really made a lot of sense. See if I can find that fellow again...
The upside is, Gaqo had a right healthy appetite the last couple of days, and quite the growth spurt. I guess I'll find out just how intolerant they really are of pets, because today, he's coming with me.
Found an elf who took me to Brux. Good place for a first hunting trip with Gaqo, not as claustrophobic as Undersigil and certainly tastier prey than in the Gray Wastes.
I note with some surprise nobody actually did harass Gaqo in the bazaar, though one of the guards clearly was pondering it.
So guess what, Gaqo actually scares some of these madmen hereabouts. Efreet, demon-women, odd metal box thingies, green slimey blobs and what not are normal to the people of Sigil, but a dinosaur apparently is a rare sight and for some reason, that's grounds enough to worry he might actually use his teeth to bite, whereas the local vampires - and I definitely saw one in the mortuary - are presumably herbivores then?
Well, at least I'm rid of that accursed collar now, thanks to this Kelth fellow (I will need to ask about his teeth sometime). The process brought back all the memories so strongly, though. Could I have made a difference by refusing to play along as the frair-skinned savage beastmistress the way I did, all those years? Doubtful, really, but not ever refusing was cowardly. Surely they wouldn't have just killed me outright, considering how valueable the attraction - I - apparently was. (After all the only other dinosaur-handlers I saw in all those years were Olman.) Maybe I could've, I don't know, gotten the masters to make some kind of concession that wouldn't have benefitted just me?
Well, maybe risking something for more than just personal gain in this new cage will absolve me of some of that guilt...
