Salome
06-06-11, 10:59 PM
Salome Shestova
Age: Twenty-Eight
Race: Human
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Gray
Height: 5’0”
Weight: 124 lbs
History
Six years ago, a young woman named Salome Shestova stood before the noble court of Knife’s Edge. She was a softer girl then, pleasantly plump and blessed with very long hair, and clad in the luxurious, heavy, and voluminous dress of her station. But her smile was knowingly cruel when it wasn’t sardonic, even then, and she raised her chin in imperious defiance whenever claims were made against her.
She was rightly accused and the case against her was proven thoroughly.
“This court, esteemed throughout the nobility of Salvar and sanctioned by Church and His Majesty in Knife’s Edge, has heard all the evidence against you, Salome Shestova, and has rendered its verdict. There is little doubt to your guilt, despite your defense,” the judge intoned from his podium on high.
“Yeah,” Salome sighed, “I figured.”
“Be silent. Before I decide on your sentence, your father has requested the opportunity to speak to your character. As he is a respected nobleman of good standing, and much aggrieved by your bad acts, I will permit it. Sir, if you please.”
Anton Shestov stood and approached the podium. He stood far to Salome’s left, beside the prosecuting lawyer, who shook his hand sympathetically. “Thank you, honored judge,” he said.
The judge nodded his greeting, and with a wave of his hand indicated that Anton may speak. The nobleman took a moment to gather his thoughts.
“My daughter,” Anton began, and his voice shook. “My daughter was a good girl once. If twenty years ago you told me she would grow up to stand before the noble court in Knife’s Edge, I would have spat in your face. She had a sweet smile back then, the sweetest smile. It melted my heart to see it.”
“Come on, Dad,” Salome sighed, “he asked you to be a character witness, not for my life story.”
“Be silent, witch!” the judge spat, hammering his fist down on the podium thunderously. Anton flinched at the word, and lowered his head.
“Please,” the judge said after a moment, “continue. I wish to hear all of it.”
“As you wish,” Anton Shestov said. “Salome was born twenty-one years ago.”
“Twenty-two,” she corrected.
Anton ignored her. “As I said, she was a sweet girl, but three unmistakable aspects of her person began to develop. She was good at getting where she wasn’t meant to be, she had a propensity for taking things that did not belong to her, and she began to show skill in the magical arts when she was no older than five.”
“Four.”
Anton paused for a brief moment and frowned deeply. His voice wavered when he spoke again. “It seemed so harmless then, amusing even. She was so sweet. And her voice! Oh, she was a prodigy, a fully-fledged contralto of the highest order even at eight. She could have put the greatest divas of the day to shame. She could drive grown men to tears with her voice alone…”
“Oh, Dad,” Salome gently and mockingly chided, abashed with a glaringly false show of humility. She affected an over-the-top image of a flattered girl, sans the blush.
“Be quiet, or I’ll have your silly tongue cut out,” the judge growled.
Anton looked to be on the verge of weeping. “We tried to encourage her wholesome talents. We hired the best vocalists we could afford to train her, but she drove them all away with her games. We sent her to the nearby under-college to foster her magical talents, but she was expelled in six months for laziness. She told them she couldn’t read, and she was repeatedly punished for performing unsanctioned spells and rituals. I am ashamed to admit these things now. We should have known, even then…”
“Lord Shestov,” the judge said gently. “The charges against your daughter are quite serious. Two good men are dead; men who gave their lives protecting the citizens of Salvar. And a third will never walk again. The property damage alone is staggering. I am told it will be years before the Novikov Estate is returned to a functional state.”
“I know,” Anton said, and hung his head in shame.
Salome cocked an eyebrow.
“The manner in which these crimes were committed suggests a scheming mind incapable of mercy, or empathy, or gentleness of any sort. That they were committed by a woman of noble birth is all the more troubling. Furthermore, and as we heard in court, these crimes were magical in nature. The blackest arcana were unskillfully meddled in, and the consequences were dire. As a result, I am compelled to sentence Salome Shestova to a minimum of thirty years of imprisonment at the Gaol Occulta, under maximum security, at which point she would be reviewed for rehabilitation and resocialization if she still lives.”
Salome’s father bowed his head low and choked down a sob.
“However,” the judge said, “Anton Shestov, father of the guilty party, your demeanor says much about your opinion regarding these events, and your principled character is not in question. Your contributions to Salvic society are numerous and universally commendable. As you are a nobleman of impeccable virtue, I permit you to vouch for your daughter Salome Shestova and return her to your home, where church and state will be content to allow you to punish her as you see fit, and see to her rehabilitation yourself.”
Anton sniffled and raised his head in surprise.
“Anton Shestov,” the judge intoned, “do you agree to vouch for the guilty party, Salome Shestova, to take her into your home, and to take on the responsibility of confining and rehabilitating her?”
“Your honor,” Anton said with palpable relief, “your generosity is…beyond words. I don’t know what to say, I…”
The nobleman bowed his head for a moment to compose himself. Salome pointedly made eye contact with no one, suddenly very interested in the ornate artwork on the courthouse’s ceiling, and the tiniest smirk began to grow at the right corner of her lips.
“What my daughter has done is unforgivable,” Anton said at last. “Lives have been lost, incalculable damage has been done to people and property. I don’t know that amends can ever be made. However, Salome is my daughter, my flesh and blood, my beloved child…”
Salome’s eyes locked smugly on the judge.
“…and so it is with the heaviest heart and the most difficulty I have experienced that I reject the court’s most generous offer.”
Salome’s smirk died on her lips. Her eyes widened, and in credit to her self control, she turned her head slowly when she went to regard her father. He did not as much as glance in her direction.
“Very well,” the judge said. “Then thus is the sentence. It is my order that Salome Shestova be immediately escorted to the Gaol Occulta under heavy guard, and there imprisoned for thirty years, when her case will be reviewed by whatever esteemed man inherits this seat.”
Salome neither fought nor cooperated when the guards began to drag her away, and her steely gray eyes never left the ramrod-straight and unmoving figure of her father.
Personality
Salome is amoral and selfish, and her obsession is magical knowledge – especially when it is forbidden to her or deadly to the point of suicide. It isn’t that she doesn’t understand virtue or justice, or true companionship, or the joys of close friends and family, she just doesn’t feel the need for any of it. She could care less about authority of any kind and sanctity means nothing to her. Despite all that, she honestly comes across as a rather pleasant person to be around. She’s light-hearted and carefree, she’s intelligent, she’s funny, and she laughs frequently and like she means it. She is mentally ill – Salome would be the first person to admit it – but you’d have a hard time telling until she put a knife in your back for her own advancement. And even then, it wouldn’t be personal.
Appearance
Sal is short, lean, athletic, and intense. Her stint in one of the most severe prisons in Salvar served to harden her without breaking her, and instilled in her a compulsive need to move. She seems perpetually ready to pounce or jump or run, and sitting still is a near impossibility.
Salome might be considered petite if not for her muscular physique – one somewhere between accomplished gymnast and feminine brawler - which suggests constant and intense exercise and little in the way of food. The result is a slight but dense young woman, a slinky creature more alley-cat than tiger.
Her youthful countenance and incisive gaze is put off by the frigid steeliness of her large blue-gray eyes, the allure of full lips marred by a cruel smirk, and her full-bodied blonde hair has been shorn short and wild and is braided haphazardly as the whim strikes. Her skin is uniformly pale, having been hidden away for some six years now. She has a number of scars across the palms of both hands – the long memories of a sacrificial dagger’s kiss – and an ornate, circular black tattoo decorates the inside of her right forearm with arcane symbology.
Skills
Athletics: Salome is a capable climber, tumbler, gymnast, and free-runner.
Infiltration: Salome is knowledgeable in the inner workings of locks, and is otherwise experienced in stealthily gaining entrance to places in which she does not belong.
Arcana: While Salome will admit to being a subpar scholar, few will deny that the girl has a natural affinity for magic. While she almost never grasps all the working parts – the why-it-works – she has an uncanny knack for knowing what a given piece of magic will do and whether or not it’s pertinent to her interests. To the horror of most mainstream spell-slingers, Shestova tends to “play it by ear,” and her magical manipulations are instinctive rather than carefully premeditated. Her gut feelings are usually right. Usually.
Outwardly, Salome’s experience with the arcane typically manifests as an ability to “sense” magical phenomena, and to recognize arcane influences that are otherwise invisible to a mundane human being.
Spellcraft: Salome can work spells. She’s very much out of practice, but her natural inclinations have always steered her toward ectomancy and the on-the-fly manipulation of other latent energies. Before her imprisonment, she was beginning to experiment with her own spiritual (and sanguine) energies, but such practices were impossible in prison. Whether she will continue those experiments is unknown.
Ritualism: Salome has forgotten most of the magic she used to work without pre-preparation, or has found it too difficult or dangerous to try and repeat her old tricks after being out of practice for so long. As such, much of the magic she works now is done by strictly following ritual instruction and within the confines of inscription. (In other words, she can write and follow written instructions to perform magical feats, but nothing that would have an effect on other player characters, except for pre-arranged storyline purposes).
Social Graces: Salome was born to Salvic nobility, and picked up one or two things about how to be civil. She’s a capable and convincing speaker, a charismatic leader, and a hell of a liar in a pinch. Granted, knowing how to be diplomatic doesn’t mean she will, unless it serves a particular purpose.
Salvic Nobility: Salome is a Shestov, an old Salvic family well-known in Knife’s Edge. The Shestovs have gone in and out of favor with the rest of the Salvic nobility over their two-hundred-year history. They saw a great deal of prosperity in the last forty years, but that has begun to wane. In the wake of the war between the Church and Crown, the Shestovs have begun to suffer from so-called “noble poverty:” their fortune is almost completed tied up in assets that can’t be liquidated. Despite the complicated relationship she has with the rest of her family, Salome retains her family name and the recognition that goes along with it, and she has a fair claim to the Shestov estate.
Physical Abilities
Agility: Salome is pretty (1.5x) dexterous, as a result of her intense physical training and her tendency toward burglary.
Endurance: Between her iron will and considerable lunacy, Salome displays a notable (1.5x) level of stamina.
Magical Abilities
Ectomancy
Summon Sprite: At will, Salome can spend perhaps seven to ten seconds casting to summon an ectoplasmic sprite from residual spiritual energy in a given area, which is bound to her will. The sprite itself is really just a condensed ball of “ghost-stuff” that floats around glowing with an eerie, ethereal blue-green light. It must remain within Salome’s sight to maintain cohesion. At any time, Sal may choose to weaponize the sprite and launch it in any given direction at about the speed of a loosed arrow. A sprite launched in such a way can cause absolutely no damage to inanimate material objects. If the sprite passes through a living thing, the point of “penetration” will be severely numbed for a scant few minutes – the sensation is akin to a limb which has “fallen to sleep.” The affliction wears off relatively quickly, and no actual damage is done, but it is a disturbing feeling and can serve to discourage attackers, and makes deft or complex movements a little more difficult.
If the weaponized sprite pierces an incorporeal being, such as a ghost, the being is usually at least partially (and temporarily) dispersed. The weaponized sprite can sometimes be used to disrupt magical constructs and patterns, such as those which animate weak undead or minor enchantments, but such effects are hit-or-miss at best.
Equipment
Prison-Issue Uniform: Salome is dressed in poorly designed and poorly maintained prison uniform. Really, it’s just a raggedy cotton shirt and an equally worn out pair of cloth trousers. Not very stylish at all, useful for preserving modesty and…well, not much else. And it doesn’t even do that all that well.
Tattoo: The tattoo on the inside of Salome’s right forearm is a basic circle of power. It serves as a shortcut in basic spellcasting, allowing her to skip some somatic and verbal requirements here and there.
Age: Twenty-Eight
Race: Human
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Gray
Height: 5’0”
Weight: 124 lbs
History
Six years ago, a young woman named Salome Shestova stood before the noble court of Knife’s Edge. She was a softer girl then, pleasantly plump and blessed with very long hair, and clad in the luxurious, heavy, and voluminous dress of her station. But her smile was knowingly cruel when it wasn’t sardonic, even then, and she raised her chin in imperious defiance whenever claims were made against her.
She was rightly accused and the case against her was proven thoroughly.
“This court, esteemed throughout the nobility of Salvar and sanctioned by Church and His Majesty in Knife’s Edge, has heard all the evidence against you, Salome Shestova, and has rendered its verdict. There is little doubt to your guilt, despite your defense,” the judge intoned from his podium on high.
“Yeah,” Salome sighed, “I figured.”
“Be silent. Before I decide on your sentence, your father has requested the opportunity to speak to your character. As he is a respected nobleman of good standing, and much aggrieved by your bad acts, I will permit it. Sir, if you please.”
Anton Shestov stood and approached the podium. He stood far to Salome’s left, beside the prosecuting lawyer, who shook his hand sympathetically. “Thank you, honored judge,” he said.
The judge nodded his greeting, and with a wave of his hand indicated that Anton may speak. The nobleman took a moment to gather his thoughts.
“My daughter,” Anton began, and his voice shook. “My daughter was a good girl once. If twenty years ago you told me she would grow up to stand before the noble court in Knife’s Edge, I would have spat in your face. She had a sweet smile back then, the sweetest smile. It melted my heart to see it.”
“Come on, Dad,” Salome sighed, “he asked you to be a character witness, not for my life story.”
“Be silent, witch!” the judge spat, hammering his fist down on the podium thunderously. Anton flinched at the word, and lowered his head.
“Please,” the judge said after a moment, “continue. I wish to hear all of it.”
“As you wish,” Anton Shestov said. “Salome was born twenty-one years ago.”
“Twenty-two,” she corrected.
Anton ignored her. “As I said, she was a sweet girl, but three unmistakable aspects of her person began to develop. She was good at getting where she wasn’t meant to be, she had a propensity for taking things that did not belong to her, and she began to show skill in the magical arts when she was no older than five.”
“Four.”
Anton paused for a brief moment and frowned deeply. His voice wavered when he spoke again. “It seemed so harmless then, amusing even. She was so sweet. And her voice! Oh, she was a prodigy, a fully-fledged contralto of the highest order even at eight. She could have put the greatest divas of the day to shame. She could drive grown men to tears with her voice alone…”
“Oh, Dad,” Salome gently and mockingly chided, abashed with a glaringly false show of humility. She affected an over-the-top image of a flattered girl, sans the blush.
“Be quiet, or I’ll have your silly tongue cut out,” the judge growled.
Anton looked to be on the verge of weeping. “We tried to encourage her wholesome talents. We hired the best vocalists we could afford to train her, but she drove them all away with her games. We sent her to the nearby under-college to foster her magical talents, but she was expelled in six months for laziness. She told them she couldn’t read, and she was repeatedly punished for performing unsanctioned spells and rituals. I am ashamed to admit these things now. We should have known, even then…”
“Lord Shestov,” the judge said gently. “The charges against your daughter are quite serious. Two good men are dead; men who gave their lives protecting the citizens of Salvar. And a third will never walk again. The property damage alone is staggering. I am told it will be years before the Novikov Estate is returned to a functional state.”
“I know,” Anton said, and hung his head in shame.
Salome cocked an eyebrow.
“The manner in which these crimes were committed suggests a scheming mind incapable of mercy, or empathy, or gentleness of any sort. That they were committed by a woman of noble birth is all the more troubling. Furthermore, and as we heard in court, these crimes were magical in nature. The blackest arcana were unskillfully meddled in, and the consequences were dire. As a result, I am compelled to sentence Salome Shestova to a minimum of thirty years of imprisonment at the Gaol Occulta, under maximum security, at which point she would be reviewed for rehabilitation and resocialization if she still lives.”
Salome’s father bowed his head low and choked down a sob.
“However,” the judge said, “Anton Shestov, father of the guilty party, your demeanor says much about your opinion regarding these events, and your principled character is not in question. Your contributions to Salvic society are numerous and universally commendable. As you are a nobleman of impeccable virtue, I permit you to vouch for your daughter Salome Shestova and return her to your home, where church and state will be content to allow you to punish her as you see fit, and see to her rehabilitation yourself.”
Anton sniffled and raised his head in surprise.
“Anton Shestov,” the judge intoned, “do you agree to vouch for the guilty party, Salome Shestova, to take her into your home, and to take on the responsibility of confining and rehabilitating her?”
“Your honor,” Anton said with palpable relief, “your generosity is…beyond words. I don’t know what to say, I…”
The nobleman bowed his head for a moment to compose himself. Salome pointedly made eye contact with no one, suddenly very interested in the ornate artwork on the courthouse’s ceiling, and the tiniest smirk began to grow at the right corner of her lips.
“What my daughter has done is unforgivable,” Anton said at last. “Lives have been lost, incalculable damage has been done to people and property. I don’t know that amends can ever be made. However, Salome is my daughter, my flesh and blood, my beloved child…”
Salome’s eyes locked smugly on the judge.
“…and so it is with the heaviest heart and the most difficulty I have experienced that I reject the court’s most generous offer.”
Salome’s smirk died on her lips. Her eyes widened, and in credit to her self control, she turned her head slowly when she went to regard her father. He did not as much as glance in her direction.
“Very well,” the judge said. “Then thus is the sentence. It is my order that Salome Shestova be immediately escorted to the Gaol Occulta under heavy guard, and there imprisoned for thirty years, when her case will be reviewed by whatever esteemed man inherits this seat.”
Salome neither fought nor cooperated when the guards began to drag her away, and her steely gray eyes never left the ramrod-straight and unmoving figure of her father.
Personality
Salome is amoral and selfish, and her obsession is magical knowledge – especially when it is forbidden to her or deadly to the point of suicide. It isn’t that she doesn’t understand virtue or justice, or true companionship, or the joys of close friends and family, she just doesn’t feel the need for any of it. She could care less about authority of any kind and sanctity means nothing to her. Despite all that, she honestly comes across as a rather pleasant person to be around. She’s light-hearted and carefree, she’s intelligent, she’s funny, and she laughs frequently and like she means it. She is mentally ill – Salome would be the first person to admit it – but you’d have a hard time telling until she put a knife in your back for her own advancement. And even then, it wouldn’t be personal.
Appearance
Sal is short, lean, athletic, and intense. Her stint in one of the most severe prisons in Salvar served to harden her without breaking her, and instilled in her a compulsive need to move. She seems perpetually ready to pounce or jump or run, and sitting still is a near impossibility.
Salome might be considered petite if not for her muscular physique – one somewhere between accomplished gymnast and feminine brawler - which suggests constant and intense exercise and little in the way of food. The result is a slight but dense young woman, a slinky creature more alley-cat than tiger.
Her youthful countenance and incisive gaze is put off by the frigid steeliness of her large blue-gray eyes, the allure of full lips marred by a cruel smirk, and her full-bodied blonde hair has been shorn short and wild and is braided haphazardly as the whim strikes. Her skin is uniformly pale, having been hidden away for some six years now. She has a number of scars across the palms of both hands – the long memories of a sacrificial dagger’s kiss – and an ornate, circular black tattoo decorates the inside of her right forearm with arcane symbology.
Skills
Athletics: Salome is a capable climber, tumbler, gymnast, and free-runner.
Infiltration: Salome is knowledgeable in the inner workings of locks, and is otherwise experienced in stealthily gaining entrance to places in which she does not belong.
Arcana: While Salome will admit to being a subpar scholar, few will deny that the girl has a natural affinity for magic. While she almost never grasps all the working parts – the why-it-works – she has an uncanny knack for knowing what a given piece of magic will do and whether or not it’s pertinent to her interests. To the horror of most mainstream spell-slingers, Shestova tends to “play it by ear,” and her magical manipulations are instinctive rather than carefully premeditated. Her gut feelings are usually right. Usually.
Outwardly, Salome’s experience with the arcane typically manifests as an ability to “sense” magical phenomena, and to recognize arcane influences that are otherwise invisible to a mundane human being.
Spellcraft: Salome can work spells. She’s very much out of practice, but her natural inclinations have always steered her toward ectomancy and the on-the-fly manipulation of other latent energies. Before her imprisonment, she was beginning to experiment with her own spiritual (and sanguine) energies, but such practices were impossible in prison. Whether she will continue those experiments is unknown.
Ritualism: Salome has forgotten most of the magic she used to work without pre-preparation, or has found it too difficult or dangerous to try and repeat her old tricks after being out of practice for so long. As such, much of the magic she works now is done by strictly following ritual instruction and within the confines of inscription. (In other words, she can write and follow written instructions to perform magical feats, but nothing that would have an effect on other player characters, except for pre-arranged storyline purposes).
Social Graces: Salome was born to Salvic nobility, and picked up one or two things about how to be civil. She’s a capable and convincing speaker, a charismatic leader, and a hell of a liar in a pinch. Granted, knowing how to be diplomatic doesn’t mean she will, unless it serves a particular purpose.
Salvic Nobility: Salome is a Shestov, an old Salvic family well-known in Knife’s Edge. The Shestovs have gone in and out of favor with the rest of the Salvic nobility over their two-hundred-year history. They saw a great deal of prosperity in the last forty years, but that has begun to wane. In the wake of the war between the Church and Crown, the Shestovs have begun to suffer from so-called “noble poverty:” their fortune is almost completed tied up in assets that can’t be liquidated. Despite the complicated relationship she has with the rest of her family, Salome retains her family name and the recognition that goes along with it, and she has a fair claim to the Shestov estate.
Physical Abilities
Agility: Salome is pretty (1.5x) dexterous, as a result of her intense physical training and her tendency toward burglary.
Endurance: Between her iron will and considerable lunacy, Salome displays a notable (1.5x) level of stamina.
Magical Abilities
Ectomancy
Summon Sprite: At will, Salome can spend perhaps seven to ten seconds casting to summon an ectoplasmic sprite from residual spiritual energy in a given area, which is bound to her will. The sprite itself is really just a condensed ball of “ghost-stuff” that floats around glowing with an eerie, ethereal blue-green light. It must remain within Salome’s sight to maintain cohesion. At any time, Sal may choose to weaponize the sprite and launch it in any given direction at about the speed of a loosed arrow. A sprite launched in such a way can cause absolutely no damage to inanimate material objects. If the sprite passes through a living thing, the point of “penetration” will be severely numbed for a scant few minutes – the sensation is akin to a limb which has “fallen to sleep.” The affliction wears off relatively quickly, and no actual damage is done, but it is a disturbing feeling and can serve to discourage attackers, and makes deft or complex movements a little more difficult.
If the weaponized sprite pierces an incorporeal being, such as a ghost, the being is usually at least partially (and temporarily) dispersed. The weaponized sprite can sometimes be used to disrupt magical constructs and patterns, such as those which animate weak undead or minor enchantments, but such effects are hit-or-miss at best.
Equipment
Prison-Issue Uniform: Salome is dressed in poorly designed and poorly maintained prison uniform. Really, it’s just a raggedy cotton shirt and an equally worn out pair of cloth trousers. Not very stylish at all, useful for preserving modesty and…well, not much else. And it doesn’t even do that all that well.
Tattoo: The tattoo on the inside of Salome’s right forearm is a basic circle of power. It serves as a shortcut in basic spellcasting, allowing her to skip some somatic and verbal requirements here and there.