Anastasia, like so many of her kin is unmistakably of demonic ancestry. She stands slightly taller than the average human woman, on cloven hooves (not unnerving in the slightest). Apart from her violet hair, small fangs and goat-like horns, her most disarmingly demonic quality are her golden eyes. Naturally alluring, despite lacking any interest in seducing her foes/peers (unless the situation calls for it out of practicality for survival). In terms of age, in tiefling terms she would about the equivalent age of an adult human (20-30).
Anastasia's origins would curdle any noble cleric's blood...
Her story begins a long time ago with her father, in a small fishing hamlet on the Lost Coast. The young man found himself a prodigy in his small village, he possessed a small amount of magical talent. His mothers favourite son, he was petted and spoiled from an early age. As many young people do, the young wizard set off into the wider world on his 18th birthday and managed to scrap through the entrance exams into a Magnimar's prestigious wizarding guild. However although he possessed an inflated ego, he lacked magical talent. He soon found himself outmatched by his peers and ridiculed for being a country bumpkin relentlessly. The poor young man, alas, even more unfortunately fell head over heels in love with a noble's daughter, whose brother was also enrolled in the guild. He of course, declared his affection guilessly and was brutally rebuffed.
Filled with impotent rage, the young wizard began researching darker methods of obtaining the fair ladies affection, namely against her will...
One night when he was researching deep in the library, he accidently summoned a succubus. Rather than draining him instantly, the succubus, saw the young fool as far more useful to her alive. The young wizard had immediately fallen under seductive charm upon seeing the creature, forgetting the pretty noble girl. He fell to his knees and offered to be the demon's slave in exchange for her affections....
A strange number of disappearances began to escalate in the city over the next few months. Then people were found dead in their beds, usually young lovers or handsome men. Over time suspicions began to arise in the guild that dark forces were at work...
The source of the dark energy was tracked to deep within the catacombs of the wizarding guild itself. However by the time the combined might of the city's spell casters and clerics staged their assault, all they found was a young man, skeletal and half mad, sobbing uncontrollably, whispering 'She said she's take me with her...I love..my love...come back!' over and over like a mantra...
The young wizard was expelled from the guild, but with no strong evidence to link him to the crimes, he was sent home to the little fishing village he had spurned for greater things so long ago...
....The young man returned to his little village and his loving mother, and for a time things were peaceful again. He was still a shadow of the cocky, boastful boy you'd left a few years ago. But overtime weight returned to his frame and he awoke less often screaming in the night.
However fate is sometimes cruel and one day the young man's mother found a bundle of rags on her doorstep. She, being a kind woman, reached down and picked up the pitiful creature. Inside the bundle lay a small baby, mewing like a kitten. However as the woman looked closely at the babe, she recoiled in horror, fangs, hooves and golden eyes. A demon. The woman screamed and holding the bundle away from her ran to the nearby cliffs, but before she could hurl the baby into the sea, her beloved son caught up with her. He grabbed the child out of her arms and immediately was transfixed by the same eyes of his lost love. His mother begged her son to destroy the child, but he was overjoyed seeing the baby as proof that his love had not abandoned him. He wrestled the child out of his mothers arms, then because she would not relent, he pushed her over the edge of the cliff onto the rocks below.
He was left on the edge of the cliff, holding his daughter. Sparing not a moment to mourn his mother, the young man wrapped the precious bundle in his cloak and then fled his home village, never to be seen by his family again.
* * *
Anastasia always knew her father loved her, but with the wisdom of small children she could see that her father's love bordered on obsession. She was guarded by him as his greatest treasure, forbidden to play with other children that came across on their travels. Her father impressed upon her from an early age that she was 'special'. But as she grew older, Anastasia began to realize unlike her father, the rest of the world, thought she was special on a very different, sinister way. Woman would hide their babies when she walked past, children ran away, villagers would hiss. No matter how often her father praised her beauty, the reality of her appearance and its impression on others was inescapable. Her father was more than when it came to the subject of her mother, he was deranged. He painted pictures, drew her likeness on clothes to hang inside their lodgings, he had the rough shape of a horned woman, fashioned in copper, which he would kiss frequently. They were searching for her, he would tell Anastasia and when they found her, she would take them both away to a fantastical place. As she grew older Anastasia began to realize the depth of her father's madness. The failed wizard, no longer young, was haggard now in appearance. They were little more than beggars chasing a dream...
Then one dark moonlight night Anastasia awoke to the sound of his thin pitiful cries, the kind a rabbit would make when in the jaws of a fox. Looming above her father's bedroll was a great winged beast, with claws raised and glowing golden eyes. The creature was picking the remains of her father's flesh from its teeth as he gurgled below it.
'You'll understand, he was useless in the end. Pathetic. All humans are' the creature said, rising up out of the shadows. Anastasia recognized the eerily beautiful face that had haunted her childhood.
The creature extended a claw, 'We can hunt together if you want, you're of my flesh after all, I can show you how to attract much more delicious prey, than that bag of bones' she hissed.
Anastasia screamed and fled into the night, as the creature cackled behind her.
Anastasia stumbled out of the community of shacks that her and now deceased father had inhabited, she made it to the edge of the ramshackle community before the screams began…
‘God’s have mercy!’
‘He’s dead…ripped apart!’
‘What beast could have done this?’
‘It was the demoness, that little bitch he had tagging along with him!’
Anastasia’s keen hearing picked up the last cry and she was filled with dread. She had experienced prejudice for her appearance her entire life, but accusations of murder…that was an offence that would have her killed, either by the mob or by the law.
Wrapping her cloak around her, the young tiefling ran off into the back streets of the strange city, she and her father had only reached two days before…
*****
Anastasia lived or more accurately survived for the next few years on her wits. She had many professions, most of them short-lived. Tavern wench, street hawker for a magic emporium, petty thief, she even gutted fish on the quay side. Her father had been a man raised in a fishing hamlet after all and they’d often fished for their food.
Anastasia was offered several ‘jobs’ in seedy establishments, praising her fine features and her exotic beauty. However the thought of resorting to such acts, even to survive, disgusted her.
On the other hand she did find that she could easily persuade people to do what she wanted. Some people were more easily effected than others, usually men. She found she could conceive hard-faced inn-keepers to let her sleep in their basements, mean spirited bakers to spare a burnt loaf. Over time she began to manipulate others with greater effectiveness and with better results.
Then she began to hear their thoughts…
Such a power has been sought by many a great sorcerer, but to Anastasia it was a curse. It was constant, a roaring, cluttered mess of knowledge. She could barely think herself, she could hardly sleep with the noise in her mind. The weight of sorrow, thrill of happiness and all the other swirling vortex of emotions assaulted her from all angles.
She became less a beggar and more a pitiful madwoman, wandering the streets in her rags, muttering whispered words, unable to think for herself.
Some took pity on her and she was fed occasionally, that was not enough to keep her healthy and she soon became skeletal and hunched. She would have died and perhaps the world would have been better off with one less Tiefling, but fate again was kind or cruel depending upon interpretation.
Anastasia was lying curled in a heap in an alcove one night, outside what she did not know or care was one of the greatest wizarding colleges in the known world. She was muttering in her sleep, the collective thoughts of whoever passed by. When the shadow of a figure was cast over her, the person seemed to listen for a few minutes to Anastasia’s ramblings, as if mulling a decision over in their mind. Anastasia suddenly felt herself picked off the ground, gently, she hadn’t been handled with such gentleness in long time.
****
Over the next few weeks, the figure, who it was revealed was a young man by the name of Ricben, cared for Anastasia. As Anastasia became to regain her health, she began to notice her surroundings. Ricben rooms were that of a young wizard, notes littered the desk and spilled onto the floor, potions and instruments were carefully placed on numerous shelves.
Ricben explained that he was developing a ‘new type’ of magic through his research. He blathered on about words like ‘telepathy’ and ‘cosmic influencing’. Anastasia didn’t give a damn what he said as long as he kept feeding her soup and let her sleep in his bed a few more nights. Ricben had given over his bed to his patient and had taken to sleeping next to her on the floor. When she gained greater strength Anastasia reached out into his mind to gauge his intentions.
The young man was very fascinated by her, not only her demonic appearance but he had realized she had the ability to read others thoughts and emotions. Although she sensed he wanted to study her abilities, she did not sense that he lacked any compassion for her. Ricben was thoroughly a very kind and sweet young man, a little foolish and guileless perhaps, but inherently good.
Overtime Anastasia regained her ability to walk and speak, Ricben questioned her thoroughly about her abilities and origins, desperate for any shred of knowledge. He kept asking her about oceans and read to her in a strange language to see if she could decipher its meaning. He said that the books and scrolls were written about the ‘Old ones’. He also waxed lyrical about a ‘grand cosmic plan’ and the return of the all-knowing God from the ocean. When he spoke like this Anastasia felt a shift in his mind, a creeping darkness. However she chose to ignore it. She had never had anyone in her life, apart from her father, who had shown her such care and gentleness.
It would have been better if Anastasia had been ruthless, took off into the night with the foolish Wizard’s gold in her pockets. Unfortunately for them both, Anastasia fell in love with the young wizard and overtime his desire to learn about the Tiefling became more personal rather than a scholarly exercise.
****
They were happy for a time, Ricben helped Anastasia learn a way to control her abilities, so could regain a sense of mental independence. Anastasia in turn allowed any experiments that Ricben wished to perform upon her. However he always took great care never to hurt her…at first. He also taught her magic that she could use to defend herself and illusions to hide her true appearance.
Anastasia felt as if she had a new life, she could stroll along the quay with her lover without stares, shouts or being spat on. She felt that she was finally free from the burden of her mother’s blood. The young wizard even proposed and they married in a tiny, isolated chapel with an elderly half-blind cleric (who preferred his ale over asking difficult questions).
****
However as time passed Anastasia began to sense a change in her husband, a creeping darkness. He became more reclusive, he ate barely anything and slept a few hours a night. She would often to wake to find him still scratching his quill fervently as dawn broke. He became thinner and his smile disappeared as well as his gentleness. The experiments would hurt now as he had exhausted other gentler ways, he became increasingly annoyed at his lack of results, he spoke to Anastasia only with short, sharp words.
Then one morning Anastasia was awoken by her husband, he had a beaming smile on his face and the past months worries seemed a memory.
‘I’ve done it!’ He cried ecstatically, ‘I can hear them, all of them!’
Anastasia didn’t fully understand these words, it didn’t seem to matter, she had her husband returned to her and that was enough.
****
Ricben seemed more stable and sane, they went back to taking long walks by the Quay side and everything returned to normal.
Anastasia discovered soon afterwards that she was pregnant. Ricben was overjoyed and the promise of a child pulled his fragile mental state back towards reality.
Anastasia’s pregnancy was uneventful until it came to giving birth. The labour was agonizing, Anastasia suffered the pain for two whole days before Ricben was forced to find a midwife. They had been too afraid to hire one, having heard too many tales of midwives drowning Tiefling babies at birth.
The old crone that Ricben came back with, pronounced that the child was already lost. She helped Anastasia bring the babe into the world, but her prediction was correct, the child was born dead.
****
The death of the baby sent Ricben over the edge, he became deranged. He ordered Anastasia not to bury the body and took to his books in frantic research.
That night Ricben gathered up his notes and old black tome, he told Anastasia to bring the child.
They made it to the quay side around midnight. It was a full moon and the water was black as ink.
Ricben unmoored a boat and persuaded the frightened Anastasia to get into it. Then he rowed them away towards the open ocean…
***
The dawn was red the following morning, stark and bloody.
The fisherman had been awake for hours already preparing their boats to go out onto the open water.
The sight of one more small boat on the horizon was not uncommon and no one took much notice until it came to shore.
As it came to rest next to the dock, the clattering and chatter stopped abruptly.
Inside sat a Tiefling, her hair and horns laced with seaweed, her clothes sodden with salt water. In her arms squirmed a baby, its eyes glowed an unnatural green in the morning light.
The Tiefling ignored the assembled men, and stepped out of the boat and onto the shore.
The fishermen watched as the Tiefling holding the baby walked away, they were filled with an inexplicable but overwhelming sense of dread.
***
Anastasia's year out (4711 AR)
Anastasia spent the year with her daughter Lilith, leaving her in the care of 'Guardians' in a small seaside hamlet, just after celebrating her child's sixth birthday. Alongside caring for her daughter, she spent time researching her patron.
As a result her powers grew (Charisma +1) but her sanity became even more suspect. Anastasia was always quiet and unnerving in appearance, however now she not only converses to herself in infernal, but also sings to herself. The melody is faint but haunting and sounds somewhat like a lullaby. The party might also notice her violent streak has become more pronounced...
Anastasia stumbled out of the community of shacks that her and now deceased father had inhabited, she made it to the edge of the ramshackle community before the screams began…
‘God’s have mercy!’
‘He’s dead…ripped apart!’
‘What beast could have done this?’
‘It was the demoness, that little bitch he had tagging along with him!’
Anastasia’s keen hearing picked up the last cry and she was filled with dread. She had experienced prejudice for her appearance her entire life, but accusations of murder…that was an offence that would have her killed, either by the mob or by the law.
Wrapping her cloak around her, the young tiefling ran off into the back streets of the strange city, she and her father had only reached two days before…
*****
Anastasia lived or more accurately survived for the next few years on her wits. She had many professions, most of them short-lived. Tavern wench, street hawker for a magic emporium, petty thief, she even gutted fish on the quay side. Her father had been a man raised in a fishing hamlet after all and they’d often fished for their food.
Anastasia was offered several ‘jobs’ in seedy establishments, praising her fine features and her exotic beauty. However the thought of resorting to such acts, even to survive, disgusted her.
On the other hand she did find that she could easily persuade people to do what she wanted. Some people were more easily effected than others, usually men. She found she could conceive hard-faced inn-keepers to let her sleep in their basements, mean spirited bakers to spare a burnt loaf. Over time she began to manipulate others with greater effectiveness and with better results.
Then she began to hear their thoughts…
Such a power has been sought by many a great sorcerer, but to Anastasia it was a curse. It was constant, a roaring, cluttered mess of knowledge. She could barely think herself, she could hardly sleep with the noise in her mind. The weight of sorrow, thrill of happiness and all the other swirling vortex of emotions assaulted her from all angles.
She became less a beggar and more a pitiful madwoman, wandering the streets in her rags, muttering whispered words, unable to think for herself.
Some took pity on her and she was fed occasionally, that was not enough to keep her healthy and she soon became skeletal and hunched. She would have died and perhaps the world would have been better off with one less Tiefling, but fate again was kind or cruel depending upon interpretation.
Anastasia was lying curled in a heap in an alcove one night, outside what she did not know or care was one of the greatest wizarding colleges in the known world. She was muttering in her sleep, the collective thoughts of whoever passed by. When the shadow of a figure was cast over her, the person seemed to listen for a few minutes to Anastasia’s ramblings, as if mulling a decision over in their mind. Anastasia suddenly felt herself picked off the ground, gently, she hadn’t been handled with such gentleness in long time.
****
Over the next few weeks, the figure, who it was revealed was a young man by the name of Ricben, cared for Anastasia. As Anastasia became to regain her health, she began to notice her surroundings. Ricben rooms were that of a young wizard, notes littered the desk and spilled onto the floor, potions and instruments were carefully placed on numerous shelves.
Ricben explained that he was developing a ‘new type’ of magic through his research. He blathered on about words like ‘telepathy’ and ‘cosmic influencing’. Anastasia didn’t give a damn what he said as long as he kept feeding her soup and let her sleep in his bed a few more nights. Ricben had given over his bed to his patient and had taken to sleeping next to her on the floor. When she gained greater strength Anastasia reached out into his mind to gauge his intentions.
The young man was very fascinated by her, not only her demonic appearance but he had realized she had the ability to read others thoughts and emotions. Although she sensed he wanted to study her abilities, she did not sense that he lacked any compassion for her. Ricben was thoroughly a very kind and sweet young man, a little foolish and guileless perhaps, but inherently good.
Overtime Anastasia regained her ability to walk and speak, Ricben questioned her thoroughly about her abilities and origins, desperate for any shred of knowledge. He kept asking her about oceans and read to her in a strange language to see if she could decipher its meaning. He said that the books and scrolls were written about the ‘Old ones’. He also waxed lyrical about a ‘grand cosmic plan’ and the return of the all-knowing God from the ocean. When he spoke like this Anastasia felt a shift in his mind, a creeping darkness. However she chose to ignore it. She had never had anyone in her life, apart from her father, who had shown her such care and gentleness.
It would have been better if Anastasia had been ruthless, took off into the night with the foolish Wizard’s gold in her pockets. Unfortunately for them both, Anastasia fell in love with the young wizard and overtime his desire to learn about the Tiefling became more personal rather than a scholarly exercise.
****
They were happy for a time, Ricben helped Anastasia learn a way to control her abilities, so could regain a sense of mental independence. Anastasia in turn allowed any experiments that Ricben wished to perform upon her. However he always took great care never to hurt her…at first. He also taught her magic that she could use to defend herself and illusions to hide her true appearance.
Anastasia felt as if she had a new life, she could stroll along the quay with her lover without stares, shouts or being spat on. She felt that she was finally free from the burden of her mother’s blood. The young wizard even proposed and they married in a tiny, isolated chapel with an elderly half-blind cleric (who preferred his ale over asking difficult questions).
****
However as time passed Anastasia began to sense a change in her husband, a creeping darkness. He became more reclusive, he ate barely anything and slept a few hours a night. She would often to wake to find him still scratching his quill fervently as dawn broke. He became thinner and his smile disappeared as well as his gentleness. The experiments would hurt now as he had exhausted other gentler ways, he became increasingly annoyed at his lack of results, he spoke to Anastasia only with short, sharp words.
Then one morning Anastasia was awoken by her husband, he had a beaming smile on his face and the past months worries seemed a memory.
‘I’ve done it!’ He cried ecstatically, ‘I can hear them, all of them!’
Anastasia didn’t fully understand these words, it didn’t seem to matter, she had her husband returned to her and that was enough.
****
Ricben seemed more stable and sane, they went back to taking long walks by the Quay side and everything returned to normal.
Anastasia discovered soon afterwards that she was pregnant. Ricben was overjoyed and the promise of a child pulled his fragile mental state back towards reality.
Anastasia’s pregnancy was uneventful until it came to giving birth. The labour was agonizing, Anastasia suffered the pain for two whole days before Ricben was forced to find a midwife. They had been too afraid to hire one, having heard too many tales of midwives drowning Tiefling babies at birth.
The old crone that Ricben came back with, pronounced that the child was already lost. She helped Anastasia bring the babe into the world, but her prediction was correct, the child was born dead.
****
The death of the baby sent Ricben over the edge, he became deranged. He ordered Anastasia not to bury the body and took to his books in frantic research.
That night Ricben gathered up his notes and old black tome, he told Anastasia to bring the child.
They made it to the quay side around midnight. It was a full moon and the water was black as ink.
Ricben unmoored a boat and persuaded the frightened Anastasia to get into it. Then he rowed them away towards the open ocean…
***
The dawn was red the following morning, stark and bloody.
The fisherman had been awake for hours already preparing their boats to go out onto the open water.
The sight of one more small boat on the horizon was not uncommon and no one took much notice until it came to shore.
As it came to rest next to the dock, the clattering and chatter stopped abruptly.
Inside sat a Tiefling, her hair and horns laced with seaweed, her clothes sodden with salt water. In her arms squirmed a baby, its eyes glowed an unnatural green in the morning light.
The Tiefling ignored the assembled men, and stepped out of the boat and onto the shore.
The fishermen watched as the Tiefling holding the baby walked away, they were filled with an inexplicable but overwhelming sense of dread.
***
Anastasia's year out (4711 AR)
Anastasia spent the year with her daughter Lilith, leaving her in the care of 'Guardians' in a small seaside hamlet, just after celebrating her child's sixth birthday. Alongside caring for her daughter, she spent time researching her patron.
As a result her powers grew (Charisma +1) but her sanity became even more suspect. Anastasia was always quiet and unnerving in appearance, however now she not only converses to herself in infernal, but also sings to herself. The melody is faint but haunting and sounds somewhat like a lullaby. The party might also notice her violent streak has become more pronounced...
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