Deathlord: Dark Embrace of the Glorious Shaping

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Morninglight

New Member
Approved by Forn Clakes


Dark Embrace of the Glorious Shaping


Sometimes named the First Dark of the Evening, the Lady Wrapped in the Flesh of a Thousand Artificers, the Mistress of the Shaping of the End of All Things or Tender is the Peace of the Night, the Deathlord known as Dark Embrace of the Glorious Shaping is one of the finest artificers in all the Underworld - and certainly the most free with knowledge. Like the Mask of Winters, she recalls her days as a Twilight Solar named Last Light of the Sun, for her death in the ruins of her Manse-Wall near what is now Cherak drove her to be the third Solar ghost to offer fealty to the Malfeans. Even the Dowager of the Irreverant Vulgate in Unrent Veils or the Mask of Winters cannot match her skills in artifice, and only the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water and the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears can match her in influence amongst the dead and living alike in the North.


Unlike the other Deathlords, Dark Embrace (as she is familiarly called) is happy to work with others to bring about the death of all things. She has a regular correspondence with both the Lover and the Bodhisattva, training their deathknights and ghostly artisans in the arts of jadecrafting and soulforging, for artifice is her passion and joy. Many are the students amongst mortals and ghosts alike that she has, people touched by death who enjoy the tutelage of the Deathlord herself now and again.


The First and Forsaken Lion finds her unthreatening, the Dowager finds her amusing and Mask of Winters finds her soft-hearted. The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible sometimes sends his more talented crafters to her while Eye and Seven Despairs had her add some enhancements to his mechanical arm. The Walker in Darkness respects her in his own way, and she has supped on the souls of spirits at his Spires, while the Princess Magnificent envies her freedom.


The House of Faded Arts


Closer to Cherak than anywhere else, the House of Faded Arts is built from tarnished silver and unpolished jet amidst a garden of preserved flesh and bone inspired by Pherenike's masterwork from the First Age. The shadowland, called the Valley of Night, was created a century ago by a sheer slaughter on the orders of Dark Embrace.


The House of Faded Arts is low-walled and broad, completely open to all comers. Deathknights, ghosts and mortals - even a Solar or Dragon-Blooded now and again - come and go on lessons or errands, creating new wonders and ancient blasphemies. That no one has caused any trouble is a mark of the respect Dark Embrace is held in - her alliances with the Bodhisattva and the Lover would see any fool destroyed in some hideous way.


Servants


First and foremost amongst Dark Embrace's servants is the nemissary Spear of Oblivion, who was her Half-Caste daughter Golden Shadow in life. Clad in the flesh of five Dragon-Bloods, one from each Aspect, wrapped around the bone of her own skeleton, she is a martial arts instructor of the highest calibre armed with a double-edged soulsteel dire lance called 'Fading of the Light'.


Aside from Abyssals loaned to her now and again by the Lover or the Bodhisattva, Dark Embrace has eight deathknights - enough to make a Circle plus three more Daybreaks to aid her in her work.


Wrought in Blood and Darkness was the first of her Abyssals, Exalted as a Dusk Caste four years ago on the battlefields of the Tepet legions' destruction by the Bull of the North. An unExalted Tepet scion, he lost his eyes to hungry ravens while still living, and was plucked away by Dark Embrace because of his beautiful face. He is black-haired and wears rubies in place of the eyes he lost, allowing him to see Essence flows. He wields the reaper daiklave called Edge of the Winter Wind.


The Broken Mirror of Glory was a Zenith Caste once, until her near-death at the hands of the Wyld Hunt and subsequent rescue by Wrought in Blood and Darkness caused her to lose faith in the Unconquered Sun. Careful shaping by Dark Embrace allowed her to accept tainting of her Solar shard, and now she serves as a priestess and counsellor to the students of her Deathlord, as well as being something of a sorceress. She is white-haired and lovely, for no deathknight of Dark Embrace dares accept the rotting path.


One of her Daybreak artisans is the necrosurgeon called Tears of Bitter Regret, the second deathknight Exalted by Dark Embrace. Like Wrought in Blood and Darkness, she had served with the Tepet legions as a medic, and almost perished in the Battle of Futile Blood. She compassionately creates appendages of soulsteel and bone for crippled mortals and other living creatures, forging them from the souls of inconsiderate healers who prolong the suffering of the sick living. She is black-haired and clad in grey, her only weapon a soulsteel lens.


Goals


Dark Embrace of the Glorious Shaping wants to personally craft the destruction of Creation, and like a good team player, is willing to help others in doing it. She teaches her students to love death and to accept it as part of the way of things, educating them in the peace that will come when all things die.


She intends to try and corrupt Yurgen Kaneko and other prominent Solars of the North into becoming her servants, but accepts this will be difficult, so she is working with the Lover on this project. She also has her eye on two or three Northerners to Exalt, or to send to other Deathlords to Exalt, including a curious little Cherak thaumaturge who actually survived a trip to the Fortress of Crimson Ice and likes to poke around in her Manse-Wall ruins.
 
I must say, Morninglight, your submissions so far have ben both inspirational and exquisite to read.  I love your Deathlord and can not wait to implement her into my own story, set in the North, in the near future.


However, I am still waiting to read more on your legendary Dragon-Blood, Ferem Amijka Faren  :wink:  :wink:  :wink:


~FC.
 
I'd like to see more of a personal description of the Deathlord: her appearance, her mannerisms, etc.  A few details about who she was as a Solar wouldn't hurt, either.  Also, I little more architectural detail about her Manse?  I dunno, this entry feels a little sparse.


I withold casting my vote in hopes that you'll add some more material.
 
Dark Embrace of the Glorious Shaping is much like she was in life: average-sized, golden-skinned, and dark of hair and eye. She is beautiful and seems alive like the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, but the tarnishing of silver or any other precious metal she touches reveals the effect she has on the world; it is this which gives her home the name of the House of the Faded Arts. Her modest rusty-black robes cover her from neck to ankle, her long hair pinned up with a six-inch soulsteel-and-moonsilver pin and delicate soulsteel-and-blue jade hoops pierce her ears.


The soulsteel-and-moonsilver pin actually alters shape into the serpent-sting staff called Teacher's Chastisement and the earrings become infinite jade chakrams called Left Hand of Knowledge and Right Hand of Ignorance.


As a person, Dark Embrace is intelligent, thoughtful, patient, wise and clever. She does not seduce nor manipulate her students, but offers them the plain facts on why everything must die, and those who enter her advanced courses may become honoured ghosts... or even Abyssals. Three of her Daybreaks were created so.


In the meeting which produced the opening of the Jade Prison, it was agreed by the rest that because of her skills as an educator, Dark Embrace would receive more Twilight shards than anything else.  She has made good use of them, and has even turned a Zenith into a Midnight Caste.


The House of Faded Arts is a relatively minor Abyssal Manse which produces a Death-Speech Stone. It is a school and academy, not a fortress, and the garden of preserved flesh and bone is done so artfully that they look like exotic plants instead of the remnants of once-living people.


Built with uncanny similarity to the Lotus House created by Ferem Amijka Faren, it holds many of the same An-Teng flourishes his Manse does - for Dark Embrace, like the venerable and mighty Earth-Aspect, comes from An-Teng. But where the lotuses on the Lotus House are stone, the lotuses on the House of Faded Arts are death-lotuses, a specially bred plant with effects similar to funeral orchids.


And to clarify things, Dark Embrace was Last Light of the Sun - who you'll know if you've been following my stuff. *hint, hint*. :)
 
Very well written.  You go into quite a lot of depth with this character.  I like it.
 
:applauds: This was a very good character submission and I look forward to hearing more about her or others that you create.
 

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