Under the ashen skies of Nikeza, where Tialevor the Tyrant-God sits upon his Ashen Throne, the Blacktongue Assassins enact their sacred contracts.
These arbiters of shadow and death, wielding deadly Ashglass blades, weave a dark tapestry of power and intrigue.
They serve as the unseen hand that tempers the fiery disputes of the Ashen Alfar houses of Aera, turning potential wars into whispers of assassination by slaying the right targets.
In their absence, the city would collapse under the weight of ambition and betrayal.
Duneleaper Riders
Astride their bounding Duneleapers Zeek, the Blacktongue Assassins traverse the desolate ashen Scourgelands to reach the targets who live far away from the metropolis of the Tyrant-God.
These towering arthropod creatures, camel-like in resilience and flea-like in their prodigious jumps, carry their riders to distant targets swiftly.
Their chitinous carapace is not only a natural armour against blades, arrows and natural hazards of the wastes, but a resource to exploit when one of them fall in battle. Chitina is a valuable material in a land where metal is scarce and reserved for the elite.
Blademaster Mordrin Duskblade
"In the dance of blades, truth
is laid bare. Face me, and meet your destiny with honor."
-
Mordrin Duskblade
The shadow of honor falls long and dark in the courts of Nikeza, and none cast it greater than Mordrin Duskblade.
Esteemed Blademaster of the Blacktongue Assassins, wielding an even more intricated Ashglass ritualistic armor, Mordrin upholds the guild's ancient code with the edge of his blade.
In the Arena of Nikeza, filled with the nobles of the Ashen Alfar houses, Mordrin's presence is an omen of a spectacular duel. With each graceful movement, Mordrin offers the target of his guild the dignity of combat, a tradition that respects the martial prowess of the Ashen Alfar and ensures that even in death, there is honor.
Shadowmatron Zervana Blacktongue
"In the silence of the shadow,
my will becomes the decree that binds this city's fate."
-
Zervana Blacktongue
The enigmatic matriarch of the Blacktongue guild, Zervana Blacktongue commands from the depths of Nikeza's darkest whispers. Ageless and cunning, Zervana's name is synonymous with the quiet terror that grips the hearts of the Ashen Alfar nobility.
Her word is a sentence; her silence, a reprieve. Behind her veiled gaze lies the intricate web of Nikeza's fate, spun with strands of secrecy and sealed with the lives of those who dare defy her subtle yet absolute authority.
Having spent years in the underground cities of the Slathaai, Zervana is a master of the spells of Animancy and Necromancy, making her an even more feared figure among Nikeza's most dangerous figures.
Nephelia, the Death Dancer
"Grace and death are my
partners; with each step, I draw the final breath."
-
Nephelia, the Death Dancer
Nephelia twirls amidst the chaos of blades, her dance a deadly spectacle. Each movement is precision, each flourish a stroke of fatality.
In the dance of death, she is both the performer and the executioner, a vision of lethal beauty in the dark metropolis of Nikeza.
Ashurak the Avid Zeek King
In the desolate ashen wastes of the Scourgelands, dwell the Zeeks, a race of giant arthropods whose forms are as varied as they are terrifying.
Among them are the Avid Zeek, notorious for their voracious appetite for metal ore, which they consume to reinforce their already formidable chitinous shells.
These creatures burrow deep into the ash-covered earth, carving out extensive hive networks in their relentless pursuit of metal. No mine has left untouched by this plague, as the Avid Zeek presence have made metals almost inaccessible during the last age in Aera.
At the pinnacle of this voracious breed sits Ashurak, the Avid Zeek King. His is a presence that commands the vast, interconnected labyrinths of the Avid Zeek, a subterranean realm of echoing tunnels and cavernous chambers that possibly connect all mines of the Scourgelands, filled with the clatter of countless mandibles.
Ashurak's reign is unchallenged, his size and strength a legend whispered across the wasteland. His very emergence is an event that spells doom for those who tread too closely to the sacred mines or dare to plunder the depths of his domain.
In a land where survival is a luxury, Ashurak's rule is absolute, his kingdom an empire built beneath the ash.