Name Sorgen Q'aiwyr Dea Rhedikar
Age 40
Gender Male
Appearance Eight and a half feet tall with a slender build, but well toned. Blue-ish skin and dark grey markings and longer fur, black hair and bright yellow eyes that sort of glow with reflected light. Has black hair which he wears somewhat long and partially shaved. Grows a goatee of the same shade. Part of his left ear is missing a chunk out of it.
Clothing He likes black. Thinks it's professional. However he can't seem to keep the shades very cohesive and usually winds up with a hodge podge of dark colors. He wears a heavy garment that resembles a cross between a scarf and a robe that he belts down around the waist. This is over the top of a thief's body suit that is open in the back save for four buckled straps holding it together. This is so his mane doesn't get tangled or too hot under a normal shirt. Shorts match the top of the suit with a space for his tail and buckle up both sides. He never wears shoes or gloves for apparent reasons.
WeaponsLong daggers if you want to get up close and personal. At the end of the day, though, he'd rather just blow your sorry ass up with one of a dozen different kinds of explosives, grenades, combustible sludges, acidic concoctions and other horrible things he comes up with... If it comes down to the wire he has extremely sharp claws as well.
Miscellaneous itemsThree gunpowder flasks, full to bursting. A heavy pack full of mysterious and quite dangerous things as well as more mundane supplies. A rolled cloak for bad weather or sleeping. A very long thin pipe and weed for said pipe.
Biography "We know you got coin, ya' little rat!" the fat blond boy and his friend towered over him after pushing him into the gutter. He scrambled backward but the alley only lead to a dead end. There was nowhere he could go.
"I don't!" the little human pleaded.
"You're such a liar! I know you got some! I seen you begging off sweet old hags and them merchants all day! Hand it over," the other boy yelled at him.
"No I don't!" he said again.
He crumpled in half after a hard boot was thrown into his stomach. Another found his arms, then his face, again and again and again.
"We'll find it when we're done then!" the fat one hissed.
Amidst the haze of pain and the pressure flooding into his head and drowning his thoughts he heard a rough, "Excuse me."
The beating slowed then stopped. He managed to open his eyes and through the tears a dark scarecrow like figure stretched over them. Glowing yellow eyes squinted down. It seemed to stagger and sway a bit as it put a clawed hand on each of their shoulders.
"Do you kids know a good place to dump a body or two... or three... or a lot, actually? Because there are going to be rather a lot of bodies."
"N-n-... NO!" one of the boys stuttered, "Let go you freak!"
The first boy wrenched away from the monster and bolted out of the alley. He was quickly followed by his friend. The small human found himself beaten down and alone with this beast. It stumbled backward under the weight of a massive back pack hanging from his shoulders before stooping down and looking him over with a jagged sneer. He quickly recognized the figure as one of the few Essanga that roamed through the town from time to time and frequented the markets. It's tail swished and it snorted. The stench of smoke, sweat, mildew and alcohol wafted over him.
"What about-- Stop crying!" he paused to make a noise in his throat, "What about you?"
The boy sniffled and shook his head. He didn't know what was going on. He just wanted to get away. To hide.
"Hm, no matter. I may have fudged the exact nature of clean up detail anyhow," the Essang said.
"Um..." the boy started quietly, "Can I go, please?"
"Go? Go where? You don't look like you have anywhere to go, if you don't mind me saying so. I'm sorry, sometimes I'm too forward... Wait. No. I'm not sorry. Anyway, where do you live?"
The boy found it hard to respond. This thing was making his head spin, "I don't live anywheres, sir. I just try'n get enough coin for food and what have you. Please don't hurt me. I wasn't doin' nothin'."
"Of that, I'm sure. Poor thing. I've joined your ranks of the homeless as of late and I find it rather uncomfortable to say the least. You have my--" the thing let out a loud belch, "sympathies. And speaking of recently becoming homeless, I do have a mission to get back to. Of course, I could use.."
He scratched his mane for a moment and glanced to the main street.
"You want coin is that it?"
After a hesitation, the boy nodded.
"Then let's talk coin," the Essang grinned.
It was late afternoon and the pair of them walked down a narrow street lined with apartments and spotted with merchants booths, criers and people hustling to unknown destinations. He struggled to keep up with the Essang's long strides even if he did have a slight limp holding him back. All of them spared a glance. The boy knew this area well. He often panhandled and begged here as this was a path many of the upper class or people with money at all tended to walk and they were walking in the direction of a more wealthy area of the town. All the while the drunken man-beast had been talking, though it was mostly to himself. At least the boy thought that's what was going on.
"You'll learn," he hissed, "When somebody wrongs you they do not get away with it. Nobody throws you out on the street, beats you, steals your belongings and leaves you with nothing. That was
my house and
my lab damn it! Renovations for a tavern. Pheh! I'll renovate something! I'll show them! I mean... You. You'll show them. For trying to take your money. Right. Do not let them... those bullies, get away with it. Do you hear me?"
The boy looked around in confusion and then nodded.
"You wait for them to be unaware, they can't see you coming, do not let them see you coming. There is no honor in war or battle, kid. A lot of you humans get your kicks in fighting 'worthy opponents' and going down in a 'blaze of glory,' 'honorable death,' all that stupid shit. If someone declares war, you do not make it enjoyable, you do not make it worthy, you do not show mercy. It is not a game. It is putting down the monsters. It is taking back-- Wait. Wait, wait. Where are we. I thought we passed-- There's the place with the fence, so then..."
The man-beast trailed off into nonsense and stood on his toes, looking up the street and then down a side path. He scratched behind his ears which were swiveling away.
"AH HA! It's the next street over. My apologies," he bowed and then started off again.
The two of them arrived at the rear of one of the largest human structures in the town. It was a mere four stories, dwarfed by many of the buildings in Lenaya, but here it stood above the rest.
"I know where we are," the boy chimed in quietly, "This is the offices for the Martelle family."
"Owners of half the buildings in this cesspool and the new owners of a once home, soon to be tavern. Brutes, extortionists, murderers, filthy, money-loving, cock-sucking, whores. Now if I remember correctly there's our two friends guarding the back entrance here and two at the front for the better half of the night," the Essang grunted while readjusting the pack, which was now straining to hold its own weight, "That just wont do."
The boy looked up the street to the two guards and then back at his new companion, "What you mean?"
"I believe what you are trying to say is 'What
do you mean.' Children," the Essang shook his head.
He quickly dug around in a pouch on his belt and fished out a small, slightly crumpled piece of paper with several stains on it. He examined it and then looked down at the boy with a deeply unimpressed expression.
"Improvisation is the gateway to genius. It'll have to do," without another waisted second he limped off toward the guards.
"Evening!" he cried.
"Evening..." one of the guards sized them up, "Past hours, whatever business you have will have to wait until tomorrow."
"Ah, that's unfortunate. I was very afraid of that. We don't really have business, as it were, but we are couriers and come with a letter for the Martelle offices," the Essang presented the dirty paper with all the flourish of delivering a royal notice, "I don't suppose we could entrust it to you? It's nothing too urgent or official after all."
They guard was taken aback, but slowly reached out for the paper after exchanging a glance with his partner, "I suppose."
He took it and snorted. The snort turned into a chuckle and he shook his head, "What is this, some kind of a joke?"
His other hand came off the hilt of the sword to unfold the paper. The Essang's curled talons slammed into his face with a lightning fast punch that left the guard crumpled on the ground. The boy fell backwards and missed much of the chaos in his hurry to get away. When he was able to focus again, the Essang had a very long knife pressed to the other guard's neck and was leaning down into him.
"Let go of the sword," he threatened.
The guard did as he was told and put his hands up, "Alright. Alright!"
As fast as he had done the first, the man-beast slammed the man's head into the building and left him laying there with his partner. The boy was in shock. He felt a lump in his throat welling up and fear suffocating him. He stumbled to his feet and started to sniffle.
"Don't start that again," his companion whispered, "we have to move fast, you hear? Remember that coin."
He dug the keys out of one of the man's pockets and was through the door.
"Come now," he ushered the boy in.
Once inside he dropped his pack on the floor with a loud,
THUD and hurried to open it. Out of it he pulled a thick spool of strange wire with a handle on either side and handed it to the boy.
"Start in this corner," he pointed, "Leave a trail of this wire along the base of every outer wall on this floor. Outer wall means the walls that form the outside of the building. Understand? When you are done continue the trail up the stairs to the next floor. Once you are there, do the same. I will meet you on the last floor. Be quiet, do not touch anything, do not tangle the wire, do not jerk the wire, do not snag or cut the wire. Be very gentle with it is what I'm trying to say. Kid, you do not want to make this stuff angry."
The boy nodded but stayed to watch as the man-beast pulled one of many small, square, paper-wrapped bricks from his pack and set aside a strange device with a crank, many, many toothed gears and a wheel with some numbers etched crudely into it.
"What is--" the boy started.
"Move!" the Essang hissed.
***
Night settled in quickly, but not before they had made it out of the building via the rooftop. The boy sat on a hill over-looking the sleepy town's southern side. He envied the rich people who lived there. At night their lanterns sparkled in a way that looked like stars among the houses and trees. He ripped another bite from the leg of meat his new friend had hurriedly purchased for him as they made their way out of town. It was heavenly. And his stomach was begging to protrude. He couldn't remember the last time he felt full. He settled in now against a tree and relaxed. Or at least tried to. The Essang hadn't stopped moving since they got here. He limped back and forth until he made a trail for himself in the grass. On each pass he would look out to the town, look at the stars, then to the horizon and then count backwards on his claws a few times. Then he would nod and continue the pacing.
"Are we in trouble?" he finally piped up.
"No. Not right now," the Essang whispered, "You probably will escape any sort of trouble what-so-ever if you keep your head down."
"We did something really bad, didn't we?" he asked.
"Well... yes... No way around that. But you're eating aren't you? And you have money in your pocket don't you?"
There was an awkward silence between them.
"I never said I was a good person. I only said you would get paid."
More silence. The Essang sighed and continued his pacing.
"You're weird," the boy said through another full mouth, "Why'd ya bring us out here?."
"Hmpf," the man-beast smirked, "A leg up on my escape for one... and for another... You like fireworks do you?"
"What's that?"
"Never mind. It doesn't matter what they are. The point is you're in a good place right now. I remember doing this with my family when I was a child. Setting up the shows and then watching, that is. Those were some of the best years of my life. They were artists obsessed with pushing their craft to the limits. New compounds, new colors, new patterns, new timing, new fuses. Every combination produced something wonderful. The more complex the combination, the more exotic the result. But it was flawed. So very, trial and error. No efficiency, no end goal, no purpose, no motivation. I couldn't do it. I'm no artist. I need my work to have a more
definite nature."
A
BOOM erupted from the depths of the town. A brilliant orange flash lit up the hill they sat on.
BOOM BOOM BOOM. Three more followed in rapid succession. Dust was blasted up into the air in a large cloud that sat where the Martelle offices used to be. A stream of fire thrust itself upward into the sky before disappearing. Only to be succeeded by several gigantic bursts of gold and red.
A deep, soft, calm laughter came from beside the boy. He looked up. The Essang's eyes were lit up like flames and he grinned from ear to ear.
"Fireworks," he said, "Well, it was a pleasure working with you but now I leave this wretched town forev--"
Another smaller but still very notable blast went off a short distance from the epicenter and caused a fireball that burst up and caused a shock-wave that reverberated in both of their chests.
"WOOPS! Damn it all. Delayed charge. Still can't get the damn timers right. Useless materials. That would have been the flour mill next door... Anyway. Don't spend all that coin in one place, kid."
Before the boy could speak again, the creature had disappeared into the trees for good.
ExtraHe walks with a bit of a limp but is able to move very quietly and quickly when he has to. He always seems to reek of pipe weed and tree sap.
Species NameEssang. Essanga when used in the plural form.
Location in the worldThey are a prolific species and have the numbers to spread to many of the forested areas of Aeon. However they prefer to live in small clans in either small townships built into the trees or rock faces or in nomadic groups. Most of the population is on the border of the Tsurask bogs where they have been warring for ages. They have a massive capital city built into a cave system to the north of Leneya. They are hesitant to talk about the location with other species though it can be found on some maps or located by those with better educations or a knowledge of the lands. The routes to the city are not usable in the winter due to the passes being snowed in almost constantly or other bad weather. Younger Essanga have a difficult time staying in one place and tend to move around quite a bit even if they do not belong to a nomadic clan. Often times they can be found hanging around human cities or on main roads. However other species are not so welcome in their settlements.
Species Appearance
They are a humanoid race with undeniably cat and sloth-like traits. A fine layer of hair covers the entire body and is longer in some places than others. It is most notably shorter on the face. They come in a variety of colors, most being dark, such as blues, violets, grays, blacks and reds. Albinism has been seen but is rare. Males average between eight and nine feet tall with a seldom few ever reaching ten. Females average around seven or eight feet. They have a very slender build and long limbs. A mane starts at the back of the neck in the hairline and grows down the spine to join with a long tail. The mane is naturally thicker in males. The hair on the spine will stand on end or fluff up when the Essang feels threatened. They have very long ears which can swivel in a multitude of directions. Their teeth are all pointed and very sharp like a shark's. When a tooth is broken or lost another takes its place. This has a tendency to give them very unattractive smiles. Being a nocturnal species they have large, reflective eyes. Their eyes are so reflective that during the daytime or under any sort of direct or saturated light they appear to glow. Myths have spread that they do not have pupils, but this is due to most humans only ever seeing them in the day when the slit pupil closes so tightly it is only a sliver in the center of the iris. While they have excellent vision at night it is rather bad during the day. They are extremely agile, fast and limber creatures and while they excel at athletics, those with intellectual skill are held in higher regard among their culture. Their life span tends to be somewhat longer than that of humans. If in good health, they can easily reach 150.
Species HistoryFor centuries they have been warring with the Tsurask over resources. With the bog spreading into their territory they are losing hunting ground and prey. Out of spite both species engage in guerrilla skirmishes all over the border. The animosity runs deep and the two species will often attack each other on sight regardless of where they are or if there is any reason to do so. The Essang claim to have been on Aeon long before any other species, but evidence to support this is non-existent. The Essang only started keeping written record roughly 1000 years ago while other species have more extensive histories. In times before the capital city was established they consisted of hundreds of smaller clans that were suspicious and unfriendly toward each other. Through many skirmishes and much diplomacy the clans were brought together and a courier system was set up in order to keep a patriarch aware of the movements of all of his clans. The tradition continues today, though it is made much easier with the use of writing and the Patriarch is merely a figurehead these days. He presides only in ceremony over a council of clan representatives.
Vash
