@Device(PostScript)
@Make(Report)
@Style(Spacing 1.5, Leftmargin 0.75 inch, Rightmargin 0.75 inch,
       SingleSided, Font = TimesRoman, Size 10)

@comment(Set these values appropriately for each character profile)

@string(name="Zanannim allo-Kiera Iared me-Jason")
@string(realname="Zanannim allo-Kiera Iared me-Jason")
@string(playername="Player Name")
@string(id="726394")

@include (/mit/abstract/Characters/Sheets/cover.mss)



@MajorHeading(@value(realname))

By the Great Lord of Chaos and all of his servants, you are
overreacting!  What would your colleagues think if they saw you,
Zana'nnim Iared, the last of the Realm Executioners, fearless
swordwielder of the Circle of Bloodletters, experienced Peer of the
Realm, cowering in such dread?  What would they say, more, if they
knew the reason for your trepidation was not an approaching
assassination, or some imminent political battle, or a battle against
some great foe, but a simple @i(family reunion)??!!!??  Well, laugh
they may, but @i(they) don't have to deal with your father.  You
haven't either, for a very long time, but it looks like you're going
to have to, now.

Your father, Zanna'nnim Benjamin (he @i(used) to be me-Iared, but he
dropped that years ago), was a Rose Warrior, back in the days when the
Warriors were a respected fighting force, before the days of the
Sceptre Uprising.  'Course, Dad never made it that far...in fact, he
dropped off the face of the earth abut a decade before that.  You were
pretty young at the time, so you barely remember the trials, but your
mom told you the whole story years later, when you were old enough to
understand.  

It all started with the Eastern Conflict.  Your dad led a regiment
during that war that never returned; or rather, that returned with
only two survivors:  Benjamin, who returned unscathed, and Malachai
Jonah, a soldier in his regiment, who nearly didn't make it back.  It
was Jonah who brought your father up on charges of treason, of
leading his regiment into an ambush.  Your father was cleared, of
course; there wasn't any evidence against him.  Shortly thereafter, he
vanished; you later learned that he had become manservant to the
Wizard Kalere'ge.    

Your mom, who was a Peer at the time, brought you up amidst Realm
politics, but you were never especially interested.  You weren't her
eldest son, so you didn't think you would ever have to worry about it.
You were far more interested in being a warrior, even if the war
@i(was) over.  Somehow, you've always had this morbid fascination with
death.  

In retrospect, it was rather ironic when she landed you a job as the
Realm's Executioner.  You didn't really enjoy it much, but it @i(was)
your job, and it served a necessary purpose.  Still, you took no
satisfaction in the dispatching of helpless opponents, even if they
had been declared guilty of capital offenses.  You did it solely as
your duty to the Realm.

Until the day your son Ristad was accused of treason to the Realm, of
selling information to the enemy.  You didn't believe it, of course,
until he was tried by the Table of Peers themselves and found guilty.
In fact, you didn't really believe it then, either, but by then it
didn't matter.  He had been found guilty of a capital offense, and not
all the father's love in the Universe would change that, nor all your
denials free you of your duty.  You were Realm Executioner.  Your
resposibilities were clear.  And never in your life have you felt them
more heavily than when they weighed your arm, and your sword, on
Ristad's bare neck.

After that, of course, you couldn't continue.  You resigned your
office, sheathed your sword, and set out into the wilderness.  It was
only then that you began to understand why your father had chosen
self-imposed exile on the Castle; being accused of treason must have
been as much an end of his life as your forced infanticide was of
yours.  What else was there?

You wonder sometimes whether you would have ended up impaled on your
own executioner's sword if you hadn't met Storm.  Storm was a warrior,
a true warrior, and he understood the ways of war better than anyone
you've ever met.  But his warfare was not the way of armor and the
clash of steel on steel, but rather the way of shadow, of stealth, of
skill, of spirit -- the Art of the Assassin.  It was this that he
taught you, the secrets of focussing your inner spirit, your greatest
fears, hopes, dreams and aspirations, all this and more, your very
soul, was forged into your @i(jivatmaya), your blooding blade.  The
blade that none can wield without its name.  The name, a reflection of
your own soul, your guilts, your secret shames:  Kinslayer.

You and Kinslayer became a well-known team, and you eventually came to
the attention of the Circle of Bloodletters, fellow students of the
Art.  After a period of trial initiation, you became one of them,
joining the select brotherhood of Storm's disciples.  You discovered
that the Art of the Assassin was a broad one, and it encompassed many
modes of thought and belief, of action and nature, and were eager to
learn more of your new brothers when you received a sudden indication
of the claim your true family still had on you: the Symbol of the
Peers that appeared emblazoned on your chest.  A sign that you had
been called upon to serve your nation as a governor -- a sign, too,
that more of your kin were dead.  You returned to the Capital City,
arriving in the midst of a great battle, and there you and Kinslayer
aquitted yourselves honorably.  It was there, too, that you met
Arpachshad Seth, Mahal'ael Enoch, and Malachai Jonah, kinsmen of the
other suddenly-deceased Peers.  Benedicht Judas, as well, was there,
and as the only Peer with experience he claimed the right to decide
for the Table.

While you did not consider yourself inexperienced, you were perfectly
willing to listen to a wiser voice; however, Enoch and Seth both
displayed considerable knowledge of subjects political and it was
largely due to their efforts that Judas' part in the Sceptre Uprising,
and his assassination of the other Peers, became known.  He was driven
from the Table, his line cut off forever, and the four of you, united,
managed to defeat the House of the Sceptre.  Since then, you have
performed your duties as a Peer with honor.

It was shortly afterwards, after your investigation of the Rose
Warriors, that you received an unsigned, untracable note reading "You
have felt my sting."  Along with that note came a body of legal papers
and evidence that conclusively proved your son's innocence.  You had
been tricked into slaying your only offspring, for a crime he had
never committed.  You swore then that when you discovered the person
responsible, he would die in the same blood, by the same hand and the
same sword, by which your son was slain.

Your first official act was to repeal capital punishment throughout
the Realm.  Death, you came to realize, is a most final punishment,
one that should be meted out by one's own hand through one's own
convictions, not one that should be ordered through another.  When the
personal involvement is no longer, travesties of justice can occur.

After the Uprising was settled, the Peers were called upon to
abjudicate several major cases of treason, and in the course of these
cases the Rose Warrior known as Soth was brought up for questioning.
You investigated thoroughly and discovered not only that he had been
guilty of treason to the Realm during the Uprising, but also during
the Eastern Conflict.  You prosecuted him, or tried to, but he was
gone.  It was largely because of Soth's treachery, and the accusations
that had been levelled against your father, that the Rose Warriors
were disbanded and the Guard of the Realm instituted.  It is
interesting to note that the Rose Warriors have scheduled a reunion
upon the Castle this week.

For now, however, you have other concerns: your responsibilities to
the Table and the Circle have become urgent.  The Circle stands
accused of multiple assassinations in violation of much of the
Bloodletter's Oath.  It becomes necessary, to redeem the Circle's
honor as well as to prevent its discovery, to discover the renegade
assassin and mete out the justice of the Circle.

You are here with two other Bloodletters: Sorsha, a ptaav biologist,
and Vellad, a halfbreed physician.  You know little of Sorsha, and all
you know of Vellad is that he, too, was trained by the @i(an-ishtoya),
the great master.  He is perhaps too adamant about that, for he was
not the only one, but his halfbreed heritage no doubt gives him much
to overcome, and his zealousness in that context can be forgiven.  In
any case, he is the leader of this circle within the Circle, and as
such he deserves your respect and cooperation.  There's also Stratus,
the grandson of the @i(an-ishtoya), who seeks to follow his father's
footsteps.  He strikes you as immature, demanding the place rather
than seeking to establish his worthiness to it, and in your opinion he
doesn't have what it takes.  However, he deserves his chance, and
perhaps his actions upon the Castle shall serve to redeem him.

In addition to your underground work, however, you have a crucially
important role to play in the Table.  COERCE, somehow, managed to
convince your fellow Peers that they should meet with the Clans in a
peace summit, so now the charade of a treaty will be gone through once
again.  It is that and nothing more; already was a treaty signed with
the Clanlands and already was it broken.  To sign more treaties with
the Clasp would be a vacuous gesture, a sign of weakness on your part,
and worse, a non-verifiable peace.  Once sworn, you would feel
honor-bound to cease activity against the Clanlands -- they have
already demonstrated no such compunctions.  Jonah, your fellow Peer,
seems to think much the same way, but Enoch is adamantly in favor of
arriving at a peaceful resolution.  Seth, of course, is an enigma now
that his age has caught up to him; perhaps it would be best to replace
him with his son before he destroys any chance the Realm has of
success.  You should bring this before the Table.

Another matter which you will have to give thought to is the issue of
the Line Benedicht.  Undoubtedly, Judas himself deserved to be cast
out from the Table, and in the heat of the moment disinheriting his
kin seemed a quite reasonable solution.  However, you are acutely
aware of the dangers inherent in punishing a child for his father's
sins, and it has recently occured to you that there is no reason to
keep the Line Benedicht in subdual; furthermore, it sets a poor
precedent.  Raising such a point right now would have to be done
subtly, if it is to work, however, it would have the advantage of
adding a tie-breaking vote to the Peers.  You have brought along the
Benedicht crystal, the item in which his symbol-spell was stored.  The
Peers have but to say the word and it will be set free to find Judas'
heir; alternatively, it may be transferred directly to a new line.

In any case, it appears that you will have a busy couple of weeks on
the Castle, and if the Gods are with you perhaps you will be able to
avoid your father.  He has never forgiven you for his grandson's
murder, nor for your mother's and elder brother's deaths and your
succession, and although this is among the least of your worries in a
practical sense, still he weighs heavy on your mind and on your soul,
and that weight may soon come to impede your efficiency.  Indeed,
perhaps you are thinking in the wrong way.  Perhaps it is time for
this ancient conflict to be resolved.

Good luck.

@newpage

@heading(Items and Abilities)

You begin the game with the following items:

@begin(itemize)

The Benedicht Crystal

Your jivatmaya

A memory cube with your son's image

A copy of the Articles of the Realm, abridged edition

A copy of proposed ammendments to the Articles

A longsword that belonged to your father

A small ruby pendant on a thin silver chain

@end(itemize)

You have the following abilities:

@begin(itemize)

Weapon Skill- Executioner's Sword 4

Drain Soul (with your jivatmaya)

Escape Ability

Sense of Honor

Specific Mindblock (regarding the Bloodletters)

@end(itemize)

@newpage

@include(/mit/abstract/Guides/lore.creation.mss)
@include(/mit/abstract/Guides/guide.realm.mss)

@section(Organizations)

@include(/mit/abstract/Organizations/peers.realm.mss)
@include(/mit/abstract/Organizations/circle.bloodletters.mss)