Profile
A strange being. Originally created by the demonic heiyao as a creature specifically intended to assassinate alfr, he eventually tired of carrying out their plots and threw off their shackles. He now makes his own way through the stars, neither hero nor villain.
He is rather terrifying, not only to the prey he was intended to kill but also most everyone else around him. He combines cleverness and guile with a resourcefulness that served him well as an assassin and a tenacity that carries him through even the bleakest of situations. His heiyao origin grants him extreme facility with liliu, and he can put even the most powerful mages among the Ensouled Folk to shame.
His most prominent feature is his tail, tipped with a stinger that can kill without fail if given even the merest opportunity to envenomate its target. It's not known exactly what the nature of the toxin he injects into his victims is, but those who have investigated the matter believe that the toxin is actually symbiotic, yeguai-like pathogens that respond to his will. This would explain his preternatural control over the effects of the toxin—painless death, extreme pain, paralysis, necrosis of specific body parts, a pleasant numbing, and so forth.
He is extraordinarily self-confident, very snarky, and quite cynical. It was in fact the first of these qualities that led him to subvert the mystical controls that the heiyao had placed upon him, defying their will with the full knowledge that doing so would invoke their anger. He would describe himself as working only for himself (not for the heiyao, nor their enemies the tianhunren, nor the Ensouled Folk). In practice his fiercest ire is directed towards his former masters, and he will make common cause with heroes and adventurers if it means an opportunity to strike a blow against them.
He is quite adept at finding ways to amuse himself. Sometimes he will find alfr, pursue them relentlessly, corner them, make a show of threatening to kill them...and then tap them lightly on the nose with his tail and break out in laughter at their terror. Most have caught on by now, but still play along, although they hate it—their fear of being murdered by him outright has been replaced by a fear that, if they don't satisfy his amusement, he might still murder them. Sometimes he'll present them with gifts afterward, just to further confuse them.
Although it seems unlikely, he has made friends and found companions—there are those who he's come to respect, and those who respect him. He has his own standards and his own limits—he won't intentionally seek to infuriate or vex his friends, although he is more than happy to tease those who are up to parrying his wit and replying in kind, and he certainly won't backstab them for amusement or personal gain. As one used to heiyao ways of dominance and coercion, he is perplexed and fascinated by those who can outwit or outmatch him, but admire or respect him anyways.
He is not physically strong, but is fast and nimble. His preferred way of doing things is to slip in without being noticed, sting his target, and escape unseen. Failing that, he tries to keep his distance from his foe, wait for them to slip up and give him an opportunity to strike, and then withdraw. Traps, snares, and other strategems may be employed if he has the opportunity to set them up. He stands no chance in a straight fight against an alfr and, while still in the employ of the heiyao, suffered multiple messy deaths at the hands of his erstwhile prey. At that time his bound spirit would be reincarnated into a new body by his masters, allowing them both to continue using him and also to punish him for his failure. Since turning his back on them he has been unusually mindful about the prospect of death, fearing that physically dying will just deliver his spirit into their hands yet again.
(backstory/origin stuff)
A creature created by the evil heiyao in order to ferret out, hunt down, and murder any alfr that might be hiding out within the cities and worlds of the Ensouled Folk. He eventually threw off the shackles of his masters and now makes his own way through the stars.
In order to understand his origin, it is necessary to know something about the race of the ershizu, a single soul residing in two separate bodies simultaneously. Ershiren parents give birth to children with incomplete souls, and a mystical binding with the spirit of a companion creature is necessary to form a fully-Ensouled being that thinks, feels, and takes action as a self-aware unity. To create their hunter-killer, a heiyao performed a twisted mockery of this same binding ritual with the soul of such a companion, sacrificing itself in the process.
