Morain

Edicts:

• Never leave a comrade behind.
• Keep your head down and don’t get noticed.
• Take risks when you could win big.

Anathemas:

• Abandon a mission.
• Rely on others to fight your battles.

Where is your Scar?

• Peaks up over their right collar bone.
• They were previously faking their scar being on their hand, which they wore gloves for, but with The Scarring 2, they don’t really. Have to really worry about that much anymore
• Morain’s offsite identification is in a gravebox, not far off from where Thane got left, labelled as a John Doe. They have to pass by his burial spot if they want to actually retrieve their identifying information.

Things they believe

• Sanctity of mortality (immortals continuously consume resources long past where they would naturally give back to the universe and will eventually leave things stagnant if left unchecked)
• Value of life

Things to remember (For Jay):

• Immortals are evil not because of their active actions but because them passively still consumes resources, the soul and someone's effect on the world can't stop growing and it's impossible to be a living creature without affecting the world, their effects naturally outweigh those defined by death and if left alive will eventually eclipse all the potential the universe has leaving it a stagnant place unmoving similar to an entropic force.
• The imperium doesn't believe they can fully sever the ability to become immortal but rather it is a tide mortals must fight against similar to fighting against entropy
• The universe belongs to those who live in it and will return body and soul to it, not those who will consume it endlessly and never return their body or soul to it
• The emperor is thus the ultimate embodiment of this someone so committed they are willing to give even their history to the universe as thanks for the gifts of life.

NPCs

Thane Crellet - Mentor

• Halfling, he/him, mid-late 50s
• Family friend that they saw occasionally, popped in and out of their life over the years. Parents seemed mostly unconcerned with what
  • Growing up, taught a few moves, went “oh hell yes lets fucking go”
  • Decided early on that they wanted to follow in their mentor’s footsteps, and the option was. Either end up with the state military industrial complex or end up being mentored by Thane. So Thane went well I guess you’re stuck with me now
• Ended up being sent on mission together to Senaria to investigate what was going on, not finding out abt the Scarring until it was too late to leave
• Thane was killed trying to protect Morain while on mission
  • Which is fine. They’re not mad. They’re not upset at all. Don’t put it into the papers. Ok they’re a little mad
  • Led to where they thought they were meeting up with Kaleo, but actually walked straight into an ambush
  • It seemed like a targeted attack, Morain just Barely managed to make it out with a half-dead Thane
• They tried to drag him to a clinic, but it was a little too late by the time they found one
• He died in an alley, leaving Morain with his locked down comm unit and them barely understanding what their next move is supposed to be
• Morain has been trying to get into the unit with very little success and has very much fully locked themself out of it by accident

The Attack

• Kaleo had messaged Thane about several possible new locations to investigate, and told him there was crucial information that couldn’t be sent over comms in case it was linked directly to them
  • I don’t know the limits of what i can put here for like. What can be workable. Looks at you with big wet eyes
    • I think Thane would have known more but didn’t tell you. What you could have known is that it related to The C. Based on context clues The C was some sort of immortal group that was sometimes referred to as a single entity. The C was allegedly connected to the group with cyclical names, he had a word he called them but he seemed afraid that you would be tempted by them if you knew too much too quick. It did imply they were able to make people immortal with fairly low effort.
• Thane had a weird feeling about the situation, told Morain to be On Alert, and they scoped out the place ahead of time but it seemed. Fine?? There was nothing crazy suspicious with it, so it was a kinda like. Damn i Guess its ok moment
  • It, in fact, was not ok
• It was Genuinely supposed to be an empty office building. Everything they got said it was supposed to be empty. And Then It Was Not. they got up 3 floors, opened the doors and stepped out and Immediately got shot at by like. 4 guys with no sign of Kaleo. After Just confirming that they did see Kaleo alone
• They managed to take out 2 of the guys, with the other 2 slowing down as they managed to make a break for it, but thane purposefully took a few too many shots that were intended for Morain
• They slumped in the alley, and thane started talking about what morain needed to do after this and morain was like. What. what. What do you mean. Stop talking like that its FINE youre FINE. and thane just kinda gives them this pitying look. Says he’s sorry, tell your mom she was right.
• And morain does Not cope well when he finally ends up bleeding out while they’re trying to lug him around looking for a doctor

Zack Provided Info:

• There's a group of people that did not manifest scars and were immune. He believed that they knew of the runelords but were a distinct faction
  • The group was using spiral imagery, the one he seemed to have killed on his own showed no DNA degradation despite being a Lashunta, meaning immortal.
  • He would have given you the basic info of "if you see anyone with a name that invokes a cycle such as Palinode or Echoic, to report to him"
• He also would have told you some basic tells of something odd, such as:
  • creatures not knowing what they should/visa versa
  • that liches when threatened will step towards their soul instinctively unless they trained that habit out
  • to listen to the creatures making sounds unintentionally/only when others aren't around
  • how to cut yourself slightly to fool a polygraph
  • to always confirm what is someone's room when you get the opportunity especially in the field you should not trust them.
• As is the saying in spywork, "there is only one spy who is a thief, everyone else is just trying to get back what they're owed"
  • that being said do not physically steal unless necessary

Sivesse Elethwyn - Mom

• Halfling, she/her
• A lawyer who was Fully expecting Morain to follow in her footsteps and was extremely surprised when they decided to Not do that
• Was fairly against Morain leaving on an unknown mission, but trusts that they’ll come back alive with Thane’s guidance. She grew up with Thane, so she trusts his decisions, even if she doesn’t fully like them.

Firn! - Parent

• Moyishuu, any/all
• Stage performer with a small cult following, but never seemed to get enough traction
• Definitely more of a free spirit, delighted that Morain wasn’t just staying home all day. Which was very much a point of contention in the house
• Their parents had very differing work/life schedules and beliefs which caused friction at home
  • This led to Morain’s eventual decision to turn to becoming an inquisitor

Kaleo - Contact

• Thane met with them a handful of times in different districts, though Morain only officially met them once during initial contact
• At the time, they kept a disguise on, expressing concerns over being identified.
  • They were a standard humanoid height
• 95% of the info that was sent Thane and Morain’s way was legit, so there didn’t seem to be any issues as they got closer and closer to maybe figuring out some answers
• As far as Morain knows, they could be anywhere or anyone now, and Morain has been frantically trying to pull together information about how or why they were betrayed.

Luutzak - Contact

• Vesk, she/her
• Tall for a vesk, scar SUPER prevalent over the bottom half of her jaw that like. Makes it look raw and uncomfortable
• Regional manager for a local gunshop that’s recently seen a boom in sales due to the Scarring
• She trades in both credits and favors, and she recently had a few friends of hers that had been reporting in on weird activity around the district that were one by one getting taken out after she had asked them to investigate things that Thane was asking about.
• She had reported good information before, but has been reluctant to send anymore people out since it could result in more people she knew getting killed, especially with the restart of the Scarring.

Paxil

• 
• Human, he/him
• Sketchy as HELL. Prefers to contact others first through burner phones/the sf equivalent to try and avoid being traced.
• Technomancer who’s been targeting the tech of high earners and notable figures who’ve not been publicly active as of late, infecting them with spyware and passing the info off to interested buyers. He specifically reached out to Thane about selling info he got recently, but Thane had still been determining if it was a good/safe deal when they got burned.

Novla Zan

• Ijtikri, He/him
• Pale yellow-green, lost one of his shorter limbs during the initial week of the scarring.
• Overall a very chipper, helpful person despite what’s happened, though quick to shut you out of his supply and contacts if you fuck him over.
• drug dealer that survived the first scarring by purposefully lacing a sale and causing a client to die, blamed it on overdose. No other deaths directly connected to him as far as Morain is aware
• Morain got incredibly fucked up after having to deal with Thane’s death, blackout levels
• Woke up on Novla’s couch 2 days later fully out of it
• Has since been keeping contact with Novla, getting info here and there from what he’s heard from others in exchange for either Morain buying it off of him or acting as courier between people

“Backstory”

• Quanverium University college student on the track team who was over a few districts when the school got Officially locked down
  • claim to be a student of theology with a focus on Solara Imperium religion explaining why you have so much knowledge about immortals and spirit worship
• You could have a part about how you came back to the school to see the soldiers talking about people matching their descriptions
  • (this part is true and was when Thane was alive, he was the one talking to a soldier informant while you also were there)
• after finding out about the safe building, you tried to get in but were locked out.
• You tried to secure supplies from the Lao shipping company but your party was killed by traps and you managed to escape by the explosion
  • (this part is a lie you followed the party to the location when they left the building),
• realizing the hole could be excavated you had already made your way to the brutaris field where they happened to be going.
  • (This is a lie, you overheard comms from within the building)
• You've already killed in order to survive the second scarring so you aren't a threat and are willing to help them with the threats in the field
  • (This part is true)