Ilana Shariarti

• Ilana is about 5'3'', or 160 cm. She usually wears her hair long, though she does tie a bit of it back to keep it out of her face.
• She lost nearly all of her clothes on the way to Sanctuary. All that's left is her main outfit, jacket, and headscarf, all of which she sewed herself.
• She prefers modest, airy clothes that don't show off too much skin and are easy to move in, and likes to accessorize with golden jewelry.
• She did all the embroidery on her tunic herself.

Ilana's early life is nothing special. Born and raised in Afghanistan, she was the only child of an impoverished family, and while her parents loved her very much, they were constantly working to put food on the table. Both her parents frequently changed jobs to keep up in Afghanistan's tumultuous economy, often taking up work as day laborers and leaving Ilana in the care of a neighbor during the day. Seeing her parents work themselves to the bone as she grew, Ilana resolved to make so much money her parents could stop working so they could all spend more time together as a family.

Sometime in her teenage years, Ilana learned of Otor, the god of order and control. Hoping for more control over her own life, she began to pray to Order's Command daily, constructing a miniature altar of her own when she could not find any temples devoted to the god nearby. She continued to add to this altar over the years, and it grew to be her most precious possession. Her daily prayers eventually came out to be more like a casual conversation; while one-sided, they often gave Ilana a chance to gather her thoughts of the day and prepare accordingly for the next. When her day went well, she praised Otor; when it went poorly, she argued at her altar until she had vented her frustrations.

It didn't matter to her if she was the only worshipper of Otor she knew. As long as Otor was listening, that was all she needed. But it's hard to tell if Order's Command is listening when the only indication is your day's gone as planned.

Ilana studied and worked relentlessly throughout her teenage years to save up enough money and gather enough scholarships to attend college so she could earn a degree in chemical engineering. She was eventually successful, attending the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai around fall 2044. A scholarship student through-and-through, Ilana found herself missing out on several aspects of campus life that required more than a little spending money and often turned down her friends' invitations to go out in favor of studying more. Despite choosing chemical engineering as a degree, Ilana struggled to make sense of the subject.

Ilana's advisor eventually suggested she take fewer classes per semester in order to relieve her academic burden, and she reluctantly agreed. She was taking longer than she wanted to get her degree, but as long as she got it in the end that was all that mattered. She continued praying to Otor throughout the semesters; even if she couldn't tell if she was receiving a blessing or not, it gave her peace of mind, and she would celebrate every passing mark with a moderately more lavish offering than usual. Her altar had grown in its complexity and scope, and she now kept it in a small case for ease of transport.

Eventually, the end of the academic road was in sight. In the fall of 2048, Ilana realized she was due to graduate in the spring of next year. She had nearly made it, and prayed to Otor for a safe trip to the finish line.

Perhaps that should have been the first hint that God had not been listening.

Around the winter of 2049, shortly before final exams, Ilana received a letter from one of her parent's neighbors containing devastating news. Her parents had both collapsed of overwork, and a doctor's visit had uncovered numerous health problems and illnesses that would spell their end. Realizing her parents were dying, Ilana withdrew from the semester at the last second, putting her education on hold and traveling home to take care of them in their final months.

What followed was a long, painfully drawn-out eight months. Ilana could do nothing but do her best to keep her parents comfortable as they gradually wasted away, desiccating before her eyes into shriveled shells of their former selves. Desperate, Ilana's devotion to Otor increased to a fervor, begging for her parents to pass peacefully and without further incident. Order's Command, I implore you. Please don't let them suffer any more than this. Let them pass on to the next life in tranquil rest.

Once more, it seemed God did not heed her. In August of 2049, Ilana's parents finally passed within hours of each other after clinging to threads of life for several months. Ilana mourned their passing, but she was not given the luxury of doing so for long. In the years since she had left, her parents had racked up quite a debt, and in their absence it fell to her to pay for it. When she had finally shooed all the creditors away and finished paying for her parents' funerals, Ilana was left with almost nothing for herself. With no other option, she was forced to drop out of college.

Unfortunately, Ilana had yet to realize how bad her situation had gotten. She already had a reputation around her town as worshipping a god no one else had seemed to have heard of; on top of the revelation that her parents had owed so much money and left it to their only daughter to pay off, it was enough to leave her reputation in tatters and an outcast in her own community.

Unable to see a way to leave, Ilana decided to make the best of a bad situation and picked up a job as a day laborer at a local pomegranate farm, just as her parents had when she was a child. The work was hard and the pay was low, but it was all she could do to tread water and avoid drowning. Despite her bad circumstances and daily exhaustion from working on the farm, she still found time each day to pray to Otor, but her prayers were far more embittered and she often cut them short.

Ten months after her parents' passing, Ilana awoke one day to a marking on her forehead. Three hours and an earth-shattering phone call later, she began preparations to travel to Sanctuary, home of the Blessed. The idea of being a Blessed did not excite her because of the idea of a new purpose in life; Ilana decided to go because she was tired of feeling so alone. Perhaps in Sanctuary she would find fellow worshippers of Otor. At the very least, there would be a group of people she had at least one thing in common with. A captive audience, a community she was unambiguously a part of. It seemed Otor had finally answered her calls.

Ilana worked quickly to raise funds for her travels, selling off just about everything she owned, including her family home. Her portal site was located in southern India, so she bought a train ticket to cross the border and packed up what was left of her belongings—a few changes of clothes, a photo of her parents, a book or two for the trip, and of course her altar to Order's Command. Tucking everything into a shoulder bag, Ilana set off for the border, following a map she had drawn to help her reach her destination.

Shortly after crossing the border, Ilana ran into trouble. In the middle of switching trains to head for the coast, she encountered a group of mercenaries wielding Empire weapons. The Empire had, naturally, caught wind of the Blessing and was taking advantage of the infant avatars of the divine to take them out before they were real trouble. Terrified, Ilana ran for it—straight into a troop of Eastern Alliance soldiers, who intervened and slaughtered the mercenaries entirely. Rattled by her narrow escape, Ilana agreed to accompany the soldiers; the captain explained they had been commanded by Sanctuary to escort her to the portal site. At the time, Ilana was far too shaken to question this.

However, as she calmed down and they approached a military base, Ilana began to question their claims. How did they know the portal site, which she had the only map to? Why had they not met her at the border? And rather than going to the portal site, why were they heading to a military base? It was then she realized that the Eastern soldiers were not interested in bringing her to Sanctuary; rather, they had other, more nefarious plans. Whether they intended to lock her up as a living weapon or had some other use, she didn't know, but she fought back and escaped, blending into a nearby marketplace. Unfortunately, Ilana dropped the map she had made, and by the time she reached the portal site herself, the soldiers were already crawling about, waiting in ambush.

Desperate to reach her destination safely, Ilana prayed to Otor one final time before tucking the altar into her bag and making her way up the path. Halfway up, she tripped an alarm and the soldiers gave chase. She managed to reach the portal site seconds before the soldiers did, running into Sanctuary-dispatched guards who agreed to hold the soldiers off while passed through. Ilana entered the portal site, on the edge of the cliffs, and did not see the portal at first.

Instead, she saw the Eastern Alliance captain who had tried to capture her. The two fought; Ilana wielded a staff she had picked up in the marketplace, but the captain destroyed it easily. Their confrontation ended with Ilana dangling over the cliffside as the captain held her by the strap of her bag.

"Choose," he said, "to live, or to fall."

She cut the strap and fell.

With the portal located directly below her, Ilana quite literally fell into Sanctuary in what she would later call a leap of faith. Her choice had cost her everything else she'd owned, including her precious altar, but it was fine. She could always just... make a new one.

If God didn't like it, maybe they weren't worth praying to.

Happy to argue, always needs to have the last say. She doesn't always win, but she does make it heated.

Having grown up poor, Ilana learned a thing or six about weaving, sewing, and patching up cloth. She made and embroidered her own clothes, and she's quite handy with a needle, whether it's to mend a torn shirt or stitch up a ragged wound.

With 90% of a degree, Ilana has enough knowledge of chemistry to bullshit her way through a job interview. She's resourceful enough to find practical uses for it as well, whether it's causing a brief explosion, a loud sound, or melting someone's face off with piranha solution.

Produces warmth at the very end of her limbs.

Converges sunlight into a single point.

An effect of being acknowledged by the Ethereal Domain. Intuitively detects the time of day, season of the year, or phase of the moon. Basically every astrology bitch's dream.

Enhances natural rays of sunlight, directing them into a burning point.

Picked up at the training grounds. A simple wooden quarterstaff with a slightly heavier head and an iron tip. Used mainly as a magical focus.

A gift from Fraulein, though she doesn't remember where it came from.

A basic sewing kit purchased in town to replace the one she lost.

An outfit gifted to her by Amaryllis after she ruined her only set of clothes by diving into a lake to save a life. She sorely wishes she had left him down there.