[b]Solarel[/b], The Walker of the Mountain, The Varangian, The Empress' Champion, The Hunter of Huntresses, The Exile
[b]The Infamous[/b]

[i]The muscles and scars of one who has lived hard, the softness and kindness of one who has dreamed beautifully. 
A sword of gold and a sword of silver, one given by a Spirit and the other by an Empress.
For every curse, a blessing. For every blessing, a curse.[/i]

Daring +1
Grace +1
Heart +1
Wit +1
Spirit +1

Angry - Frightened - Guilty - Insecure - Hopeless

[b]Undeserving:[/b] When you become Smitten with someone, say why, give them a String, and answer this question:
[i]Why do you think they would be wrong to forgive you?[/i]
[b]Your Wicked Heart:[/b] When you Figure Out a Person during physical conflict, you may additionally ask one of these questions, even on a 6-:[i]
What are you most ashamed of?
How could I get you to betray your ideals?[/i]

[b]What Cannot Be Undone:[/b]
[i]I am proud that I sacrificed childhood dreams of power, glory and Imperial favour for the path of honour, though it took me time to learn.
Once I Walked the Mountain; I stood alone before a God named Vaeled armed with but a spear and I triumphed. She was mine and I hers. And then I traded her for the cursed armour Aeteline and never learned what became of her. This causes me grief still.
I have sworn never to draw my blade without understanding both sides in the conflict.[/i]

[b]Wicked Past:[/b] When you hear about a villain for the first time, you may decide that you know them from your past. If so, give them a String on you to ask a question from the Figure Out a Person list and take +1 forward against them.
[b]Make It Right:[/b] When you allow yourself to be vulnerable to someone you hurt during your villainous past, they choose 1
- Decline to engage; they gain a String on you
- Lash out; you Stagger
- Guide you; they mark XP and give you a task to help make amends
- Show vulnerability; you take +1 forward to interact with them
- Forgive you; you each clear a Condition and this move no longer triggers with this person

[b]Talons of the Past:[/b] When you gain a String on someone associated with your villainous past, or vice versa, mark XP. The first time this happens for a given person, you each can define a secret or vulnerability you know about the other.

[b]Who’s the Monster?:[/b] When you expose the hypocrisy of someone who is supposedly virtuous, roll +Daring:
10+: Gain a String on them and choose 1 
7–9: Choose 1
- The wrongness of their act is exposed to all; they mark XP if they change their mind. If they don’t, they must attack you or take a Condition.
- Your words sting; they take a Condition.
- You impress an onlooker; gain a String on them.


[b]Histories, Names, Important Notes[/b]
[hider]
Hailing from the planet [b]Roevg[/b], [b]Those Guided By The Sage Zaldar[/b] are a post-singularity alien species. Their basic biology is as an anthropomorphic bipedal reptilian, however they are all deeply integrated with the nanotechnological fallout from their species' ascension. They are born with cybernetic implants and deep connections to the digital wreckage of their former glory, which can deepen and change as they grow. There is an immense deal of individual variation amongst Zaldarians and the technologies they manifest, everything from scale colour to the presence of hair, number and functionality of organs, or even things like integrated weapons. There appears to be some sort of intelligent guidance, or at least environmental impact, on these alterations; since contact was made with humans and hybrasil Zaldarians have been observed evolving features more pleasing to and compatible with both.

Zaldarians are bound by the concept of [b]Motive Balance[/b]. Not requiring food or water, Zaldarians exist entirely on energy. They can harvest this in a variety of ways, from direct exposure to sunlight or fire - Zaldarians can tolerate temperatures of over 1500 degrees comfortably, allowing them to walk on lava - or even through converting kinetic impacts into power. What comes in must come out, however, and a Zaldarian must discharge accumulated energy rapidly; maintaining a full store of energy is akin to holding one's breath. Often this is done through sudden bursts of physical expression, but has also been known to occur with the Zaldarian bursting into flames or shooting lasers from their eyes. Drained of energy a Zaldarian is slow and lethargic.

The Zaldarians exist within the [b]Sacred Realm[/b] - the remnants of their pre-ascension internet. Strange entities broadly called [b]Shedym[/b] move through this realm, sometimes visible or audible to Zaldarians even if they have no physical components. These forces often influence physical reality through the activation and work of omnipresent nanobot swarms. Zaldarians have no ability to command shedym, and even their shamans can barely influence them, but the majority range from benign to wildly helpful. A commoner might possess a loyal Spirit that even the Empress might never tempt from her side.

[b]Geists[/b] are the lowest entities, fragments of scrapcode with the intelligence of an insect or small animal. A Zaldarian might have a cup geist whose purpose is to use nanobots to fabricate a cup whenever the Zaldarian calls for it, and then dissolve the cup when the Zaldarian no longer needs it. 
[b]Spirits[/b] are mid-ranking entities, often possessing forms too complicated to be trivially fabricated. They perform a range of complex functions - a Spirit might perform repairs on mecha, or act as an independent cyberwarfare ally, or create a mystic sword and suit of dresslike armour when invoked with a battlecry and ritual dance. What Spirits one has access to does much to determine how a Zaldarian's life journey will go, though they come and go as they please.
[b]Gods[/b] are the enormously powerful spirits that manifest in the forms of giant mechanical monsters. Gods are perhaps military in origin, as unlike lesser shedym they are aloof, hostile, and violent. They might generate on any world within the bounds of the former Zaldarian empire, self-manufacturing over the course of months or years into a powerful combat form that can only be engaged by a Mecha. The majority of Zaldarian mechs are Gods, defeated and bound and called [b]God-Armour[/b]. Commonly this is done by a warrior with God-Armour of her own, but the tribes of Roevg consider 'Walking the Mountain' - an unarmed warrior conquering a God - to be an act of profound heroism to be attempted by the bravest champions.
[b]Ancestors[/b] are poorly understood - they are thought to be the digital ghosts of fallen Zaldarians, pre and post Ascension. They cluster around interesting people and events providing a constant and slightly distracting rhythm of conversation, advice, directions and opinions. On occasion, when a Zaldarian is in a deep sleep or coma, it has been known for the Ancestors to control them directly as a sort of strange democratically directed zombie.

Zaldarian society is based in [b]Instanilios[/b]; the Evercity - the most intact remnant of Zaldar's golden age, and the only truly space-age city under their control. This is a magical city, alive with a tightly bound network of spirits and geists, and the only place where Zaldarian [b]manufacturing[/b] is still performed. Zaldarian manufacturing is a superstitious and poorly understood art where technologies of incredible potency are created without any ability to address the flaws inherent in that technology. An example is a powerful laser weapon that refuses to fire at any mecha with blue colouration as the weapon's Geist recognizes that as the banner of the long-forgotten nation that designed it. It is even possible for the artisans of the Evercity to construct new Gods of their own; something the Tribes regard with terror and awe.

The Evercity is ruled by the [b]Empress[/b], who is elevated and supported by the [b]Knights[/b]. The Knights are a warrior caste who have bound Gods to their service. Honourable conquest of a wandering God is considered the traditional way to become a Knight - either in borrowed God-Armour, or as an armoured Knight fighting a God to gift it to a child or favoured retainer. The Empress is elevated from amidst the ranks of the Knights following what ranges between a civil war to a series of incredibly high stakes duels. One of the rights of the Empress is to command the artisans in the construction of new Gods. Receiving God-Armour without a battle and becoming a [b]Varangian[/b] is regarded by the Knights as some combination of cursed, cowardly and dishonourable, meaning those elevated by the Empress' grace tend towards being isolated loyalists with no support other than their sovereign. Imperial rule is profoundly unstable and depends entirely on the opinions of the Knights who support or oppose the throne.

The [b]Tribes[/b] are the nomadic remnants of life elsewhere on Zaldar, warrior cultures based on raiding and conquest. Often they quake at the passage of the Gods, but every so often a great warrior Walks The Mountain and obtains a suit of God-Armour for her tribe. From there the new warlord has two options: Travel to the Evercity, swear fealty to the Empress, and become a Knight, or remain and seek to use her God-Armour to tame more Gods. Godblessed tribes are considered a dire threat by the Imperial administration and are either bribed or manipulated into going to war with each other or outright destroyed by the Knights. This is a rational fear, for the Evercity has been conquered twice in the past by barbarian warlords who went on to crown themselves the new Empress, installing their own loyalists as the new generation of Knights.

The [b]Empress Voctine XCI[/b] made her mark on history when her scouts encountered Hybrasil. Seeing an opportunity she immediately mobilized all her Knights and went to war. In order to secure the loyalty of the champion Solarel who had Walked The Mountain only days before the war was to begin, the Empress offered her the cursed God-Armour [b]Aeteline[/b], a manufactured suit of unsurpassed power. Clad in Aeteline, Solarel became the Empress' champion and the face of the war, an unstoppable dervish who hunted the Huntresses.

Solarel, however, was a tribal warrior, with a simple adherence to the legendary [b]Code of Zaldar[/b]. The Code was a series of instructions on how to conduct war, how to treat with enemies, how to respect and command the defeated. She fought with honour and was too new to Imperial politics to understand that this was a war of conquest, annexation and slavery. Solarel's adherence to the Code made her clash increasingly with the Empress' loyal Knights and eventually break with them all together. With Solarel's defection, a rival faction saw the chance to rise in rebellion and seize the Evercity from the Empress, driving her into hiding with her few loyal Knights and Varangians. The [b]Empress Naelkai II[/b] was crowned soon after.

Though Solarel had only ever fought honourably, and though her refusal to fight for the Empress was what had allowed the uprising to succeed, she was considered far too politically dangerous and unreliable to be allowed to remain in the capital. She was stripped of Aeteline and banished from Zaldar. This was not the end of things, though, for soon after it was discovered that Aeteline refused to accept any pilot who had not vanquished Solarel in honourable combat. Now the hunt was on: Whoever could win a duel against the exiled Varangian stood to win the finest suit of battle armour produced by the artisans of the Evercity.

[/hider]

XP: 1

Strings
Mirror 2
Isabelle 2
Angela 1