Guisenna Kazal

Guisenna Kazal 

Age: 27

Height: 5’9’’

Occupation: Wanderer; Mercenary?
Class: Scourge Warlock 

Family: Not anymore

Guisenna is a wandering Tiefling. She speaks very little about her past, except to Saoirse, and even then she rarely goes into detail. When Saoirse, her lover, asked why this was, Guisenna merely replied that she was cut off from her past-- it is no longer of her, nor she of it. 

Guisenna now wanders around as a mercenary, taking jobs where she can find them to sustain herself in towns. 

Guisenna is searching for something, something dark and likely evil. She needs this artifact for her infernal pact, though whether she needs it to fulfill her end of the bargain, or to some other end, she doesn’t say.

Backstory: Guisenna’s story actually begins with her father. Hope Kazal was a Cambion of unusual character [neutral good]. He was born under the name Ykarsh'shkan, but chose Hope when he married Guisenna’s mother, Adeline Kazal, and took her name, forging himself a new identity. Unfortunately, enemies from the past were not so easily shed. Many demons grew to hate Hope, some because he worked directly against them, especially his sire.

About 15 years later, Guisenna is a young, bright tiefling whose thirst for knowledge borders on the obsessive. One day, while alone amongst her father’s old hunting-journals, rereading them for the nth time, she hears a voice contact her. It is a demon, and it wanted to talk to her. Feeling herself prepared and cunning, a daughter of her father, Guisenna establishes this first contact and continues to speak with the demon, playing the odd game of wit, Guisenna winning often. Feeling confident with the demons ‘frustration’ at losing, Guisenna agrees to strike a bargain with the demon. [WHAT WAS THE BARGAIN THO??? hmmmm]

As a reward, the demon “reluctantly” gives Guisenna a way into her father’s forbidden books. Feeling confident in the demons loss, Guisenna doesn’t notice that it is manipulating her until it is too late. She finds a book and begins reading a spell from it to summon what the demon told her was a minor demon, one that she would surely not be able to handle, no matter how weak. Thinking the demon petty and sour from his loss, Guisenna takes the bait. She steals away into the forest with the book, locating the spell and reciting it at what she believes is a safe distance from prying ears. As soon as she starts to read however, Guisenna begins to feel tired, as if the spell itself was sapping the strength from her. She tries to drop the book but her hands lock into place, and when she tries to stop speaking it feels as though the words are being ripped out of her, and the dawning realization that she is in way over her head fills her with terror. As the book falls from her shaking hands and she collapses in exhaustion, she feels the ground shake as a massive fiend manifests before her. It seems to look at her, grin, and then move away, towards her house.

It’s at least five minutes before her shaking limbs can hold her, and already she can see smoke in the distance and hear screams, and fears the worst. By the time she reached her house, it was partially demolished, with much of the structure on fire, though it is clear that the fire is a result of the damage and not the primary cause. Something else is clear-- many of her siblings are dead. Guisenna tries to find her father, only to see him in the grip of the fiend. Hope yells for his daughter to get to safety, when the demon gives her a mocking bow. Guisenna stares at the fiend in horror, and when she looks at her dad, she can see on his face that he knows it’s her fault. He manages one word before the fiend cruelly squeezes his fist shut, crushing his head. Guisenna blacked out.

When she awoke, the sky was dark and the fiend had left. She got up, hoping to find that it was all a dream, but was greeted by the sight of her destroyed home, and the barely identifiable bodies of her family.

After that the memories become fuzzy. Guisenna was run out of the village, which had not been spared the fiend’s rampage. It became apparent to the villagers, who were already mistrusting of a family of Tieflings and Cambions, that Guisenna was the cause of the disaster. After stopping by the ruins of her home and collecting a handful of things that mostly survived the destruction, including several of her father's old books, and one journal which escaped the fire. It was her father’s first journal, and above all other things, Guisenna treasured it.

Guisenna spent the next few years homeless and trying to stay alive, all the while feeding her hate and channeling her anger and guilt into determination, becoming stronger as a warlock. Her new powers through the pact made it easier to survive, but when she turned 17, she knew she couldn’t stay away from society forever. She began to sell her skills. At first she fell back on her education, relying on her ability to read and write to find a job. It soon became apparent however that Guisenna did not work well with others. She was bitter and surly, and often stole away from work to glean information on the goings on of the world, although she was too noticeable and found herself, annoyingly, to be the topic of most conversation around her. People also did not generally trust her, and before long Guisenna got into a brawl. 

After that, Guisenna became aware of her aptitude for fighting, using the powers given to her through her pact. She quit her job (more like straight up left) and set out for a new town to find more work, this time branding herself as a mage-for-hire. Her first employer was a paranoid merchant who required protection while travelling between towns. He didn’t precisely have faith in her abilities, but agreed to ‘let her come’ provided she wasn’t a burden, thinking maybe the girl just wanted to have company for the road. Guisenna proved her worth, however, when she saved his life by quite ruthlessly dispatching some a group of robbers-- the other hired swords took care of the rest. The most of the robbers Guisenna took down remained alive and were tied to be delivered to guards at the next town. One robber died, and while Guisenna played it cool to keep face in front of her employer, she had nightmares for the next few days.

After this occurrence, Guisenna gained a bit of merc cred. She was paid and able to buy better equipment and food. This pattern went on, with Guisenna becoming more experienced in dealing with people, both with violence and with business. When she turned 23, she began to hear stories of small villages and towns being destroyed, with few witnesses left alive. All of them spoke of a horrific demon whose sole desire seemed to be causing as much death and destruction as possible had appeared out of nowhere and laid waste to their homes and families. Guisenna knew what they were talking about, and her old hatred and anger rekindled. She began her hunt for any rumors, knowledge, jobs-- anything that could lead her to this demon, and then to its’ master-- the one who forged the infernal pact with her. She vowed to use this power to slay the demon of her pact, and also began to search for any item that would help her do so. She vowed to finally avenge her family, no matter the cost. 

Along the way, Guisenna met Saoirse. Saoirse helped her gather rumors-- being a bard made people more open to speaking with her than a taciturn, somewhat constantly cold and angry Tiefling warlock. Guisenna began opening up to Saoirse, though she could not admit anything about her early life, or what happened to her family. The guilt and pain, and-- eventually-- the fear of losing Saoirse made her keep her silence.  They eventually became lovers. Awkward and inexperienced as Guisenna was in this area, it was Guisenna that made the first move. Their relationship is definitely quiet, and one that Guisenna considers to be a point of calm waters amongst her otherwise turbulent life. Together they travel to find the one responsible for orchestrating the deaths of Guisenna’s family, and his fiend puppets, though Guisenna often finds herself wondering what Saoirse is getting out of the arrangement...