Abyssals...not dead yet!

Deathlord: Mask of Winters

The Lord of Thorns

The new master of Thorns, a former Realm satrapy, the Mask of Winters comes to mind when those of Creation speak of Deathlords. His face is concealed behind a mask of enchanted ice, grinning maniacally or with a furious countenance, and the tattered funerary robes he wears are hemmed with silver letters that sicken mortals and slay animals that look upon them. The youngest Deathlord is a massive figure, made all the more imposing by his soulsteel plate armor, Grieving Shelter, that screeches as a wailing child in the rare event he is struck. Frigid Razor, his grand daiklave, is forged of pitch-black soulsteel and perpetually covered in frost.

Creation was, in fact, unaware of the threat posed by the Deathlords until the Mask of Winters conquered the city of Thorns a scant year after the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress. Riding in his dread fortress on the back of the dying Behemoth Juggernaut, the Deathlord swept away the pitiful defenses of the beleaguered Imperial tributary, and now he sits as the "benevolent ruler" of a new empire, a puppet king nominally in charge of the conqueror's newly acquired city. More disconcerting than most other known facts about the Mask of Winters is that, following the battle over Thorns, a massive shadowland spread to encompass the city in a matter of days, rather than the centuries of strife normally required for one so large. Still more disturbing, it continues to grow.

The Mask of Winters is the prototypical villain, a master of lies, deceit and war. While certainly not as accomplished as the First and Forsaken Lion on the battlefield, he has made greater gains in Creation than any of his peers, and at astonishing speed. His agents infiltrate the courts of anyone he deals with, including his fellow Deathlords, and he plots and schemes against everyone constantly. His goals are simple and direct: to rule both Creation and the Underworld completely and masterfully.

"I dreamed dark dreams in the days just before I drew my Second Breath. I saw the world swept over by clouds of ash, so that even the beautiful green savannah of my homeland was nothing but grey grass swaying in a grey breeze, and soon even that fell, weeping, into an endless void. I had this dream for nights on end and always lurking, deep in the shadow of nothing, was a two-faced mask of frozen tears.

"I didn't understand the dreams, not until the day my brother and I met those poor, lost ghosts and were touched by the power of the Solar Exaltation. In the grip of that first brush with strength I saw clearly, as if for the first time, and my sight was an arrow set on Thorns. In the fetid Shadowland that city has become I saw an echo of my dreams. In the citadel atop the monstrous, walking corpse called Juggernaut, I saw the icy mask that haunted my nights. And in the wail of the tormented dead, twisted into service and never let to rest, I heard the name of he behind the pain: The Mask of Winters.

"It was a name I had heard before, whispered fearfully in the councils of my people. He had seized Thorns for his own, and sent emissaries to Harborhead and the Concordat. But he had sent no messenger to the Marukan and had the stones to claim that our towns of Shenden and Three-Steeds-Dancing flocked to his banner without his dark influence.

"The Mask's destruction was the bright purpose for which I was Exalted. He no longer haunts my dreams but one day soon, by the might of the Unconquered Sun, I will haunt his."

-- Storm of Amber, Zenith
Thorns

During its height, Thorns was one of the greater cities in all of Creation. Thorns flowed with sophistication and cultural achievements. It was a center of great craftsmanship and competition for excellence. That legacy is now gone and Thorns sits under the dark shadow that is the Deathlord Mask of Winters and his armies of the dead. The remaining living citizenry lives in fear of their very lives, but they are a proud people and may not welcome the intervention of outsiders in freeing them from the yoke of oppression. The city now sits atop bone-white cliffs, a wreck of hollowed out ruins and monolithic structures. The citizens are slaves to the dead and are waiting for the last vestiges of life to die out.

Districts of Thorns
The Shroudvaunt District
The Shroudvaunt District is the center of the city, the heart of what was a once-thriving Thorns. Monolithic statues of the Mask of Winters dominate every major street plaza and the district remains quiet. It is the seat of government, reserved for visiting dignitaries and the living and dead citizens that serve the Mask of Winters. Although the Shroudvaunt District is exceeding pleasing to the senses, it is more of a tourist trap, a place where guests can be impressed by the Mask of Winters' benevolence and sophistication.

The Twilight Amphitheater
This impressive structure sits less than a mile from the Palace of the Autocrat, a depression in the ground. It is covered by a dome of black glass and black-iron latticework that shades the audience from any rain or wind. The Twilight Amphitheater offers only the finest of entertainments, usually state-sponsored pageants of a vast scale or operas written by the dead in the service of the Deathlord. The Mask of Winters uses the Twilight Amphitheater as another apparatus in his vast propaganda machine, attempting to use it to impress dignitaries with the beauty of the city and the culture that the city still retains.


Death Knights

Circle of Endless Journeys
Deathlord: Mask of Winters

Concubine of Laments and Brine
Caste: Day
Theme: curious childlike assassin

A child from the north, Concubine was an odd little girl that sang to the water. But what she sang to was the Fae Folk. Finally, the fae could wait no longer, and sought to consume the girl. The Mask of Winters whispered then, taking hold of the girl to exalt. What remained was damned, crazed, and fae-touched.

Hand that Ceases, Child of Final Breath
Caste: Dusk (Dawn)
Theme: ultimate warrior, untouched by emotion

Little is known of this man. He is dark, quiet, scornful yet emotionless.  He is a lord of blades, typically sword and scythe.

Vile Whisper
Caste: Daybreak (twilight)
Theme: twisted, sadistic sorcerer, scholar of the abyss
In life, his was nothing remarkable as the retarded child of a butcher in Nexus. His father never laid a hand on his wife, though one look would shut her up. And his mother was a drunkard, abusing Charles in devious and sexual ways in her stupors, loving one moment then hateful the next. Little Charlie Hays. he was a runt, thin, gangly, and retarded. He began learning his father's trade of butchery on slum cats and dogs. Eventually he turned that work on his father when the angry man told Charles he would amount to nothing, would not take a place in his father's shop, and should be sold to slaves. Charles might have been dumb, but some part of him understood.

So angry, he cooked up his mother into meat pies, to sell in the shop and prove himself to his father. When he went to toss the bones, cargo moving from ships smacked him in the head. Tossed over, rats laid into his flesh and the deathlord did the rest. He keeps his father in his clutches, alive still in Nexus.
Library
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Shorn Heart
Aysel/Diane
Caste: Moonshadow (eclipse)
Theme: fine lady, pained innocent, hesitant warrior of hell

The woman that was Diane...is no more. The moment she exalted, the woman she was erased away by the soul of the fallen solar. Aysel of Whitewall awoke, remembering fragments of a painful death, and equally heart wrenching life in those final days before her death.

She was once a member of a circle led by Gaius, dawn caste.

Deathlord: The First and Forsaken Lion

Goals
A face of swirling void and the dark, maddened visage of his soul, the First and Forsaken Lion is the purest expression of dark power and corruption. First among the Deathlords to turn to the cause of the Neverborn, and first among them in his personal prowess, the First and Forsaken Lion is perhaps one of the most powerful beings in all existence. He believes, despite previous setbacks, that he can use his legion, the Legion Sanguinary to march across Creation, killing, well, everything. Previously, he and Eye and Seven Despairs worked together to bring the Fair Folk to Creation in the wake of the Great Contagion as a coup de grâce. However, it's thought that, ironically, the Balorian Crusade actually saved Creation. His Neverborn master surly thought so, and encased him in Soulsteel armor that hurts him and is never to be removed. When this happened, he lost the inherent shape changing ability all Deathlords have. Though he is surely the most powerful warlord in the Underworld, the Forsaken Lion is also a superb scholar and has bound the Seven Divine Counselors to him, who spoke against him when he first appeared in Stygia. Centuries ago the Forsaken Lion rebelled against his Neverborn overlord He Who Holds in Thrall, thinking that his power was unassailable. Obviously, he was wrong, and now remains in everlasting, painful torment in his armor-prison. Abandoning his original citadel in the sea off the coast of Stygia, the Forsaken Lion followed the direction of his master to build the Thousand. Despite all this power, however, the Forsaken Lion has made very few inroads into Creation, and is little known there
Relationships
When the Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers failed her master, the First and Forsaken Lion pledged his service to the Neverborn in return for the Princess' continued existence and servitude. In fact, though no one may know, the Forsaken Lion is in love with the Princess Magnificent and punishes her so severely so that he may hide his feelings, but her contempt for him undermines any attempts of wooing her he might have. Secondly, he has an unfortunate habit of putting the Caste of his Deathknights before their actual abilities, leading to potential incompetence in areas where a particular Exalt might not be the best suited to do the job they were assigned.
Appearance
The Lion's seven foot form is encased in superheavy Soulsteel armor due to past indiscretions. He wears the heads of six of the Seven Divine Counselors of Stygia on his belt from a previous attempted coup. His face isn't visible behind his helmet, and none of his skin can be seen beyond his armor. His armor is draped in soulsteel chains, a prison for him and a leash for his fourty incubi-children.
Panoply
The First and Forsaken Lion wields Varan's Ruin, a powerful soulsteel daiklave forged from the ghost of a great hero. He delights in wielding his blade to redress the rare insult or defiance he faces, and still more to simply crush his foes beneath his boot. From the Thousand, a massive fortress, the Forsaken Lion rules the South of the Underworld and directs his 750,000-strong Legion Sanguinary. He's running into problems, though, as he's finding shortages in resources he needs to keep the army up and running. He keeps a Royal Warstrider, the Insidious Ebon Xoanon, but that's having problems getting the resources it needs as well. His most terrifying weapon is the Final Maelstrom, is yet to be completed. It's a quarter-mile wide flying battle cruiser. When finished, it should be along the same power level as The Five-Metal Shrike or the Thousand-Forged Dragons. The trick, though, is getting it to work.
Servants of the First and Forsaken Lion
Notable servants of this deathlord are:

* Meticulous Owl
* Walking on Laughter
* First Monsoon Raindrop
* Shatterer of the Way

Deathlord: Walker in Darkness

Goals
The Walker in Darkness started his journey to the void in the same Invisible Manse that he who would become the Mask of Winters did. Walker in Darkness got a head start, however, when Larquen Quen betrayed and murdered him. He appeared in the Underworld an amnesiac. The Black Psychopomp has many well-conceived plans for dropping all of Creation into the Void. He sees himself as Neverborn loyalist, a venerable Warrior-Priest of the Void. He's one of the few Deathlords that actually join his Deathknights in the field, as opposed to sending them out on missions unsupervised. He's personally destroyed many Eastern kingdoms by posing as some sort of prophet, or a savant or advisor. Since the took the Black Heron's previous Manse, he's been very wary about moving into the Great Forks, however, he has many ties to Sijan and eyes on Denandsor, as that might hold clues to his identity. In Sijan, he keeps an embassy and the Sijaneese think he might be a better ally than the Realm or Lookshy.

Relationships
Because of his religious fervor concerning the Void, he has a cordial relationship with the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible. As mentioned above, he has decent ties to Sijan. More than any other Deathlord, he believes the Caste of an Abyssal should indicate what they do, sometimes leaving those without the proper skills in charge of something their Caste traditionally oversees. He doesn't like the Mask of Winters even though he doesn't remember him from before. He feels that invading a city in full view of Heaven is detrimental to the cause of the Neverborn and, really, downright stupid. His favorite servent is a Sidereal he wooed from Heaven. She was originally a spy in his court from the Mask of Winters who he seduced away then "married."

Appearance
He is most recognizable as a tall, muscled man with blue skin and grey-white hair with piercing orange eyes. Many of those who live near his domain worship him as the Black Psychopomp, in which he wars black robes and face of a flayed skull.
Panoply
The Walker took over the Black Heron's old domain, the House of Bitter Reflections. Problem is, when she fled she cursed it. It has the unfortunate habit of making people in the bounds of it die and their souls consigned to the Void. His central citadel are the Ebon Spires of Pyrron, named for the First Age city where it sat. His primary weapon is a Soulsteel grand grimcleaver named Arm of Shades Below, which no non-magical creature can lift. If forced to fight, he wears a Soulsteel breastplate over red robes. He also owns a Soulsteel long powerbow called Raiton to the Heart. He, like many other Deathlords, has his own custom charms that help him out in combat. He has mastered at least two different Celestial Martial Arts, and one Sidereal Martial Art up to the Form Type.
Servants
Notable servants of this deathlord are:

* Shards of Basalt (to Her Army), leader of the Walker's army.
* The Visitor in the Hall of Obsidian Mirrors, the Walker's emissary and operative.
* White Bone Sinner, his Ambassador in Sijan.
* Green Lady, a Sidereal with mysterious motives

Deathlord:Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water

Goal
To bring Creation to destruction through both religion and force. Using Charms, the Silver Prince established a transhumanist religion on Skullstone with a focus on the nobility of the dead; being a ghost assumes a preferred state, almost like transcending form and achieving enlightenment. He arrived on Darkmist Isle in RY 87. He masterfully predicted his own return when he created the society, had many different faces as influential people throughout the years he didn't rule, and now once again rules as the Silver Prince. He returned to power in RY 764 in the guise of the Silver Prince. Currently, he is using an undead work force to construct a fleet of Soulsteel ships that combine First Age technology with necromancy at a secret base known as Island Five.
Relationships
The Silver Prince demands loyalty above all else from his subordinates and followers. He will never again Exalt someone not of his people and religion, as things did not turn out well when he corruped who would become Fallen Wolf of the Cutting Sea. He also swayed away Knights of Ghosts and Shadows from the Lover when he went rogue from her and joined him. He also has Unfolding Corpse-White Lotus in his court, though he know her real identity and that she spies for him on other Deathlords. He has one Solar under his command, Captain Moray Darktide, who Exalted fighting pirates. He keeps him far away, though, in case Captain Darktide discovers his plan.
His Neverborn master is Principle of Consumption.
Appearance
The Silver Prince is a huge figure in silver robes with Soulsteel ornamentation. He's considered handsome by many, though he wears a death-mask for formal occasions. As the Bodhisattva, he looked like a traveling aged healer in simple robes. Due to his natural shapeshifting power, he wears many many faces as needed.
Panolpy
The Bodhisattva's main base is Ebon Skull, carved into the side of an extinct volcano in RY143. He has access to many of Creation's Necromancers and Necrosurgeons. He has an army of zombies, and a consistant, replenishable stream of Soulsteel. His robes act as heavy armour, and he has a grand daiklave Howler in Darkness, has many unique properties to itself. When he does come into conflict, he'd rather talk his way out than fight, but if worse comes to worse he has very good fighting prowess and access to high-level Martial Arts. He's also a Void Circle Necromancer and Celestial Circle Sorcerer.
Servants
Notable servants of the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water are:

* Ebon Siaka
* Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
* The Unfolding Corpse-White Lotus
* Captain Moray Darktide

Deathlord: Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears

Goals
The Lover is viewed by most of her peers as a whore and dilettante, save for the Bodhisattva who remembers her from the first age and is frightened of her. Her seemingly incongruous goal is to show everyone in Creation extreme pleasure, as once they realize how hollow they are: "When pleasure ends, nothing of any value remains." Of all her peers, she doesn't seek revenge for her betrayal. In fact, she's happy they ended her, so she can show them the same favor. She rules her domain and the Fortress of Crimson Ice in the northeast of the Underworld.
Relationships
Other than the Bodhisattva, the other Deathlords look down on her. She was the first Deathlord to Exalt an Abyssal. For her servants, she looks for strong-willed individuals and let's the Exaltation augment what's already there. She also has a few Solar Exalted and several Dragon-Blooded under her control, who love her madly through the power of her Charms. Previously, she took over her fortress by seducing and destroying the monks that stayed there, and left them to wander her citadel in pangs of either sexual exhaustion or need to torment them.
Appearance
No matter what form she takes, she is incredibly beautiful. She's actually improved the shapeshifting abilities inherent to all the Deathlords by being able to take the form of the viewer's ideal sexual partner.
Panoply
The Lover gained control of the Fortress of Crimson Ice during the Great Contagion. She created the Laughing Wounds Style of martial arts. She also commissioned the construction of the soulsteel noble warstrider, Hateful Devourer of Love. Hateful Devourer of Love is currently in the hands of Lookshy, though that seems to have been her plan all along. She controls a Soulsteel rapier called Siren in Avern, as well as an eleven-sided mirror called the Mirror of Darkness. She's got many other artifacts and First Age devices. She doesn't fight unless she absolutely has to, preferring misdirection and obfuscation. If pressed, however, she is adept in at least three different Celestial Martial Arts.
Servants
Notable servants of this deathlord are:

* Melkin Fool in Red
* Mournful Aria
* Prince of Shadows
* Exquisite Pain
* Martyr to the Last Rest

Eye and Seven Despairs

Star of Dirt and Dust (False Identity)
Prioress of Bloody Sands

Goals

Eye and Seven Despairs doesn't really have that clear of goals, save for one. His main purpose seems to be torturing and tormenting those who hurt him before he died. He's made an intricate plot to turn them against one another using himself as the object of their lust. Before he died, back in the First Age, his circle tormented the young Twilight ruthlessly, going so far as to pluck out his mortal father's eye and give it to him. He killed himself shortly afterward. He claims to have been the first to sell his soul to the Neverborn. At the urging of his master, he opened a second front in the Field of Bloodied Bulls, but he's not really doing anything there, either. His laziness and disinterest aside, he's still a master craftsman and considered the best necrotechnician around. He and his "lovers" stay in Cold House in the South. Generally, he follows the lead of another Deathlord (when prodded by his master to do something) and leaps ahead.

Relationships

Other than tormenting the Exaltations of his previous circle, he also Exalted Red Famine, though he's getting very bored and considering defecting. Previously he allied with the First and Forsaken Lion to convice the Fey to invade Creation, but that ended when the gambit failed. Most other Deathlords who know of his actions think him foolish and ineffective. He previously worked with the First and Forsaken Lion to bring the Fair Folk into creation, following the Great Contagion but this ended in failure. Unlike the punishment the Lion received, however, the Eye claims his Neverborn masters ordered him to help, so was not punished in the same way.

His Neverborn master is Abhorrence of Life.

Appearance

When he isn't shapechanging or pretending to be the lover of his former circlemates, he looks like a desicated corpse with sunken eyes and no nose. He's also missing an arm, which he replaced with necrotech. When he wears the Star of Dirt and Dust identity he's a beautiful pale woman. When he's the Prioress of Bloody Sands, he's an old emaciated bald woman wearing bloody monk robes.

Panoply

As mentioned above, he is the master of the Manse Cold House, a stone manor in the south. It has a unique ability that one room in the Manse overlooks the Void; the only thing closer are the Neverborn. It's possible, though very dangerous, to leap from the balcony and land on the Tombs of the Neverborn themselves. Other than his Manse, he has huge access to minions, wealth and arsenal, though his obsessions cloud his vision in the way they should be used. When fighting, he uses the Soulsteel monstrosity that replaced his right arm, the Fatal Arbalest of Quietus and Eclipses, which can be used both in hand to hand fighting and as a ranged crossbow. When faced in combat, he overestimates himself, but his main goal is to stay out of combat completely. If he's pressed, he will dodge the attacks and run away. He has no war machines for his army, but commands a small unit, the Venomed Assembly to End Hope.
Servants

Notable servants of this Deathlord are:

Chorus at Midnight
Scar of Uproar
Red Famine
Star of Dirt and Dust (Deceased)

Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible
The Shining One
The Great Diaconate of Silent Vespers
Lord of the Hidden Tabernacle
High Priest of Oblivion

Goals

This Deathlord believes he can destroy Creation through theological argument alone. He promotes Ancestor Cults and Death Worship, and that the Void will bring the "joy of nothingness" to everyone. Through his writing (and liberal use of Linguistics Charms) the Tome of Endless Night is the final word on his religion of Oblivion the Shining Path. This writing is hundreds of volumes long, and some are so moving and elegant about the end of all things they can drive people mad, and many others are nonsense. All of this is progressed at his mobile Manse, The Hidden Tabernacle.
Relationships

His Abyssal servants are given a good grounding in his theology, and after that they're pretty much left up to their own devices so long as they don't go against what he teaches. He previously broke his most devoted servant's heart. She was such a follower of the Shining Path she begged the Bishop to end her life. Instead, he granted Celebrant of Blood an Exaltation, letting her live forever. Finally, the The Green Lady has infiltrated his court under the guise of an elderly man named Ten Thousand Virtues.

He corresponds regularly and cordially with Walker in Darkness, though they're strained allies at the most.

His Neverborn master, however, is frustrated with the slow rate of his progress, and goad his servants to act on their own to bring Creation into the Void.

Appearance

The Bishop has two forms that are known in Heaven. The first is that of a blind old man dressed as a priest of sage who exhudes wisdom and tranquility. The second he uses in battle, and is a gigantic canine-human hybrid corpse with things that jut through his skin. He enters battle unclothed, as this form is covered in poisonous black ichor. His green glowing eyes leak the same fluid.

Panoply

The Bishop is a powerful Martial Artist, choosing that over many Artifacts or Necrotech. He mostly weilds the Bishop's Crosier, a Black Jade shepard's staff. In addition to being an impressive weapon, it can turn into a bat, turn mortals into ghosts, and set many Hearthstones. He is fully adept in at least three different types of Martial Arts and has a smattering of others, including one he created for himself and the Shining Path. When he does fight, he takes the beastial form described above. While he doesn't usually supply his Deathknights with weapons, he sometimes allows them to train under a different Deathlord, though fully debriefs them when they return.

Servants

Notable servants of this deathlord are:

Celebrant of Blood
Ten Thousand Virtues
Harbinger of the Ghost-Cold Wind

Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils
Untamed Kethet of the Swarm

Goals

She had her greatness ripped from her. The Dowager is the one that pulled the Great Contagion from the far paradoxes of reality into Creation from the Well of Udr. She still fumes that the invasion of the Wyld undermined her pox. She occupies herself by ravaging local villages, slaying the adults, raising the orphaned children to adult hood, then releasing them back to their villages to rebuild, the repeating the process (as a gardener sows and harvests vegetables year after year, she harvests ghosts decade after decade). She also spends a lot of time staring into the mouth of madness that is the Well of Udr, hoping beyond hope to find something else that she could unleash upon Creation, ideally the "Anti-Creation."

Relationships

The other Deathlords find her mad and don't interact with her very often, though she is incredibly pissed off at both the First and Forsaken Lion and Eye and Seven Despairs, as she blames them for the failure of the Contagion. The only people she really interacts with are the people around her base, Noss Fens, that she culls. She lives within the Mound of Forgotten Seeds with her children. She will only ever Exalt one person at a time, and it is always a little girl who is named Shoat of the Mire.

Her Neverborn master is Abhorrence of Life.

Appearance

The Dowager has many different apperances depending on what she's doing. Most of her forms are animalistic or incorporate animals into her form, such as her asp-fingers. Some even rumor she was a Lunar in the First Age. In all forms, however, she has ram's horns and cloven feet.

Panoply

The Dowager is a very adept archer, using her Soulsteel long powerbow Root of Scorn when forced into battle. If someone is killed with it, their ghost immediately becomes the Dowager's slave. She's also considered the best Necomancer in Creation; her libraries have pretty much every text on the subject. She is also an accomplished Necrosurgeon, though she likes combining species. If she's forced to fight, she prefers to do it in her throne room, near the Well of Udr, so the would-be attacker has to deal with the mind numbing effects of the Well, making them even more susceptible to her attacks. If she's in close-combat, she prefers to wear a leonine war form, which increase all of her already impressive Attributes even more, and deals damage to all those who touch her. She is adept in at least two complete styles of Celestial Martial Arts.

Servants

Notable servants of this deathlord are:

Shoat of the Mire

Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers
The Black Heron

Goals

A beautiful, alluring and even shy-seeming creature, like any other Deathlord the Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers (also known as "the Black Heron") is a twisted, deadly and evil being. Instrumental in the spread of the Great Contagion, she quickly established her own principality in what is now known as Walker's Realm, settling in the poorly defended House of Bitter Reflections. The Princess' hubris and downfall were instrumental in the foundation of the city known as Great Forks, whence three gods led their followers to create a new realm and defy the Heron. Blind to her own coming doom, the gods wove a tale of triumph and drove the Princess back into the Underworld. Now the Black Heron leads a pitiful existence, her punishment short of only descent into Oblivion. Originally to be devoured by her Neverborn master, He Who Holds in Thrall, the First and Forsaken Lion pledged his service to the twisted Primordial in return for the existence and service of the Princess. Stripped of none of her powers or faculties, the Princess is simply subjected to the cruel and humiliating mastery of the Forsaken Lion. Right now her primary goal is to escape her subservience to the First and Forsaken Lion and be her own Deathlord again. Currently, she's attempting a plan to bring her back into her Neverborn master's good graces in a place called Dari.

Relationships

Princess Magnificent hates those who planned to overthrow her and put her in her position with fury. She would see the Eastern Forests burned if she could do it. She is barred from pursuing any avenues of power, though she has managed to defy this edict in one instance and has acquired her own sad, pathetic deathknight, whose situation is arguably as bad as her own. In the stronghold she's taken for herself, she also is slowly building a force of ghosts and Nemmissaries, though she has to be very careful the Lion doesn't find out. She also has one Deathknight in her power, Son of Crows, who she has in turn driven mad then placed at the head of her budding spy network.

Appearance

While not the temptress the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears is, the Black Heron is very beautiful in her own right. She typically appears as a ting beauty wearing a cloak of black feathers. Her eyes are green and her skin is like porcelain. She wears green silk under her robe, and wears a grand head dress like that of a black bird. Her feet never seem to touch the ground, and it looks like she's floating when she walks.

Panoply

The Princess Magnificent wields the Umbrella of Discord, though she has no cause to use it in the service of the First and Forsaken Lion. It is a testament to her ruthlessness that it's said she forged the Umbrella, which holds the bones and skin of five dead Solars, during the First Age. Her black feathered cloak has properties of its own, allowing her to fly and raising her movement speed. While she used to hold the House of Bitter Reflections, he she fled she cursed the land so no other Deathlord could ever hold it. The Lion had also built her a Warstrider for her own use named Joy in the Suffering of Others. When he presented it, he told her it was hers if she asked, which she has not done yet. When forced into combat, she uses her Umbrella of Discord to frightening effect, using it as a form-type weapon for at least one Celestial Martial Art she has mastered. She, like all Deathlords, knows quite a few custom charms to help her in combat.

Servants

Notable servants of this deathlord are:

In the Black Heron's primary descriptions (the Abyssal book and Second Edition Storytellers Companion), she is described as having only one servant, Son of Crows. This is contradicted by the character description of Water the Fields with Blood from the Cult of the Illuminated book, which describes him as the only deathknight of Princess Magnificent's.

Son of Crows
Water the Fields with Blood