Moonrise Mask

Name: Moonrise Mask - Len
Age: 20
Exaltation/Caste: Lunar / Changing Moon Caste
Affiliations: The Delzahn nomads, the Silver Pact/the Winding Path, the White Veil Society

Bio:
It's much easier to tell whether or not some Delzahn children are likely to decide to be Dereth, even at a young age. Len was never a very physical boy. He rode as well as his peers did, but he spent far too much time indoors with his mother. By the time he had come of age to have his own horse, almost no one was surprised when Len came back from his journey to adulthood with a poem. Least of all Len's mother, Jasere, who had spent fifteen years at that point grooming her child for induction into the White Veil Society.

Len's mother had served the White Veil Society faithfully for years, acting as their eyes within her sept and one of only two such agents in the nomadic Delzahn tribes. Her intention was to groom one child to take her place and offer the other to her husband, though she had a few contingency plans with her husband's other daughters. Fortunately, Len was a perfect match, and the moment she returned from her journey into adulthood, she was properly inducted as a White Veil initiate. Propriety, manners, subtle messages, watching people...training for proper Society agents begins at an extremely early age. Len had been receiving cursory training for her entire life, and only now knew the purpose of it.

During her sept's return to Chiaroscuro for resupply and trade, Jasere took her daughter into the city for a proper introduction to the White Veil Society in Chiaroscuro, which had set up shop in a teahouse called the Pale Jasmine. They met with a few waitresses and courtesans, a brewer, a bartender, some card sharks, and a few patrons, and afterwards, Jasere asked Len to tell her which of them were members of the Society. Len, being a perceptive young lass, had picked up on almost every clue, from barely visible white cloths to denying obvious information rather than affirming it. She made the bold guess that every one of them had been an agent or initiate, and impressed Jasere so much that she took her daughter out for a slightly stronger drink to celebrate.

It was drugged.

Len woke up hours later in a dark cellar, her dress ruined and a set of knives and hot irons situated menacingly off to one side. When two men entered and demanded to know about this secret group she had met with earlier, her constant denial was met with torture. And yet, even after what felt like months (but was really only a few days) of having her body wracked with pain and her mind assaulted with psychological torment, she refused to give in. She knew that her mother would find her eventually...and she did!

But Luna found her first. One evening, the cellar ceiling crumbled and caved in at the perfect angle to let in a single beam of moonlight. This quickly coalesced into a heavily pregnant man who bent forward to kiss Len's forehead. The crest of the new moon shined on her crown almost immediately, and she grinned quietly to herself as she felt her body mending. Within seconds, she had become a tiny white rabbit, slipping out of her restraints and bolting out of the busted and crumbled old glass structure. It was child's play to convince the first guards she saw to go bust in to arrest the men who had tortured her for days, and just as simple to silently convince the men to resist arrest...violently.

Minutes after Exaltation and high on her new power, Len went on a joyride around the city. She ran into her mother by accident, who was worried sick. Apparently she had tried to do a trust exercise, fake a kidnapping and so on to make sure Len was ready to join the Society, but the man she'd contacted for it had been an outside agent. She'd been looking for days. Len reassured her with her standard cheery smile, confirming both that she was perfectly alright and hadn't revealed a thing. She left out the part where she was now one of the Immaulates' "Tricksters" and had sent two men to their deaths in petty revenge.

The ruckus she raised, however, didn't go unnoticed. Chiaroscuro is under heavy Lunar influence, and it didn't take them very long at all to snatch him up and tattoo him to prevent mutation. Then, off to the Pact for trials!

Limit Break:

Appearance:
It would be completely honest and accurate to describe Mask as the prettiest woman in the world who isn't. Short, slender, with delicate features and flawless skin, Mask is a marvel to look upon and he knows it. In fact, he frequently charges his body with Essence to ensure he's even more beautiful. His silver hair is immaculately groomed, shoulder-length, and often done up into intricate syles and ornamented with jewelry.

No matter where he's going or what he's doing, Mask has constant control over own wardrobe thanks to Changing Plumage Mastery. As such, he's never out of things to wear, and often takes great time and effort designing new dresses, skirts, blouses, gowns, and anything else he might want to play with. When inside Chiaroscuran territory, Mask ensures that any outfit includes the signature gray Dereth sash, but when he's away from home, he enjoys not wearing it and seeing how far he can push his luck.

Mask's Tell is his white hair (which persists in every form) and floppy bunny ears. His tattoos crest delicately up his limbs, spiraling at his shoulders and hips, then branch slightly up and down his torso and back. A particularly intricate little swirl rests directly below the small of his back. All of this tends to be invisible at all times, due to his Hide of the Cunning Hunter charm. He keeps his ears hidden inside his hair most of the time, but even when he doesn't, there's not much cause for him to hide them. Most mortals and many Exalted are none the wiser.

Backgrounds:
Allies: Mask is the only Celestial Exalt in the Chiaroscuro chapter of the White Veil Society. She has several ninjas under her command, though only a few are enlightened enough to know the relevant martial art. Of these, most are enlightened mortals and a couple are god-blooded. The strongest is an outcaste Air Aspect called Clouds-In-Sun, and she functions as Mask's official second in command...and her Madame, since the idea of a mortal being under Dragon-Blooded command makes it much easier to tolerate.

Backing: Despite his "lower rank" in the Pale Jasmine teahouse command structure, Mask is the second-highest-ranked White Veil member in Chiaroscuro. He functions as the Society lieutenant for the establishment's owner, Taraf Pasha. Taraf prefers to keep his own identity a secret for all but a few members, using Mask both as his mouthpiece and his fall guy. Naturally, this gives him a bit more authority, which is only multiplied by being a Celestial Exalt.

Contacts: Being the local matriarch-apparent to the White Veil Society means that Mask is extremely well connected within the city. His major contacts are Urt Beor in the local Guild offices, and Zaal Pasha the Tri-Kahn's office. Additionally, it's not difficult at all for him to dredge up a squealer somewhere in the city. He is the most beautiful woman in all of Chiaroscuro, after all.

Potential Plot Hooks:
- Mask is definitely not a member of any secret societies, especially none which identify themselves by white cloth worn in the area around the face. He is not a ninja, because ninjas don't exist. It would be frankly ludicrous to claim that he keeps contact with agents from all over Creation, acting with the highest offices of government in order to ensure the future of Creation. He absolutely never inducts aspirants into this alleged secret society.

- While known to be just about anywhere, Mask tends to hang out in and around Chiaroscuro when she's not doing anything else of note. She doesn't run the local Pale Jasmine tea house and inn, but instead works as one of the waitresses and courtesans there. This allows her to keep an ear to the ground in the biggest teahouse in the South, which exists in the most metropolitan city in the South, and in general keeps her remarkably well-informed. If it exists in Chiaroscuro (and it probably does), Mask either knows about it or will soon enough.

- Mask isn't the only Lunar in Chiaroscuro, but he's possibly the most active in his pursuit and support of the Delzahn. Tamuz has made it very clear that no Exalt is to solve serious problems for the mortals of the Delzahn tribes, but even as he says so, he and the few Lunars he has planted within the nomads' culture manipulate and strengthen them against the weathering of the ages. Mask is just the most recent to be added to the fold, and his interests the most contained within the city. After all, Chiaroscuro has become something of a safe haven for "Anathema," and what better location could he be to work for the good of all Creation?

Past RPs:
Character Questionnaire - 5xp