Neevan's page

Neevan is a young Vudrani woman of modest appearance among her own people. Her skin is among the darker tones known among her people, with large and ever-alert light brown eyes. Her scalp is completely hairless, having been treated in her time at the monastery to permanently remove the follicles, save for a single long braid of black hair growing from the back of her skull, grown out to waist length in the tradition of her order in reverence to the god Irori. At the end of the braid is fixed a thick silver ring. A small oval sapphire is afixed to the middle of her forehead.

She is dressed simply and lightly, allowing nothing to obstruct her movement. Tightly bound white wrappings cover her upper torso and a form-fitting, pale blue pair of short leggings go down to just below her knees. A plain, thin belt hold a couple of pouches and a waterskin, and a pair of worn, slipper-like shoes covers her feet.

The musculature of her body is extremely well toned, but in terms of hardness rather than bulkiness; she is still obviously limber and flexible. When she moves, while there is no arrogance in her poise or step, there is an absolute certainty, as if she knows precisely what each muscle is capable of.

Neevan is humble, obedient, and mindful of her duties, as a Khivatri should be. She wishes to please her betters and prove useful to them. She is stoic when it comes to personal pain, but can be moved to the edge of panic by having the order she has lived by for so long taken from her.

She finds satisfaction in doing what she is told, since serving others is the key to cleansing her karma. She is not so daring to actively seek happiness for herself, but finds joy in the happiness of others. She hates to see unnecessary harm done to others, but if ordered to visit it upon someone she will comply.

Neevan has only the vaguest memories of her parents. She believes that it was their love for her that made them offer their daughter to the Khivatri. She prays to Irori that they will be allowed to follow her footsteps in their next lives.

She has an air of sadness about her now because of the recent loss of her two most beloved masters. She cannot help but suspect that it was a sort of punishment for having grown so bold as to even dream of pursuing her own desires, and has now buried her personal feelings more deeply and focuses exclusively on her duties as a Khivatri.

Neevan was born in an unnamed village tucked away in one of Vudra's heavily forested valleys. Populated entirely by Vudra's "untouchable" under-caste, there was no real future for her in this life or the next except poverty and struggle, until she was taken by the Khivatri order at the age of five.

With her entrance into the Khivatri, she became something less and more than she was before. Her freedom was gone, but she was given purpose and was risen above the pariah caste into which she had been born. For ten long years, she and others like her were trained in the arts of Irori, reforging and strengthening both body and mind, all to prepare them for their lives in servitude. Once her training was complete, she was sold along with a few others to a wealthy Vudran merchant.

She served him for two years, protecting him and his interests as a bodyguard alongside several of her order that the man owned. When the merchant's daughter left for distant Jalmeray in the Inner Sea region, she and another Khivatri monk she had befriended, Pavdi, were given to her by her father as protection. Astounded as the simple monks were by the sights of Jalmeray, Neevan and Pavdi never faltered in their duty of protecting their master. The merchant's daughter had a strong rebellious streak, however, and chafed at their presence. Convinced that the monks were given to her primarily as a means for her father to keep an eye on her, she sold them off to a Katapeshi slave trader six months after arriving in Jalmeray.

Neevan and Pavdi were taken to Katapesh itself, and sold to a Munerator(gladiator manager). She and her friend fought others, and each other, for the entertainment of others for the next year. Far too many times both of them came close to death at the other's hands, but not once did they complain. They merely did what their owners told them to do. Eventually, Pavdi was sold to a high-paying buyer after a particularly impressive bout, one which left Neevan with both arms broken. He only had enough time to say his farewells and for Neevan to wish him well before being taken away. After her owner had her healed, she was put back to work, for the first time without any of her Khivatri brothers or sisters at her side.

She served in the ring for a few more months, before having the good fortune of catching the eye of an adventurous but elderly Katapeshi sage after an impressive fight of her own. The old man was interested in exploring the ruins of northern Katapesh and southern Osirion, and he needed the extra protection. He was kinder to Neevan than her previous owners, sometimes treating her less as a slave and more like a daughter. He also seemed to delight in challenging her to think for herself and to follow her own suppressed desires within the bounds of her restrictive code, but he always backed down when it seemed too much for her to handle, such as the time when he simply asked her to choose their next destination and she broke out in tears at not even knowing how to answer. She was never certain what she meant to the old man, but she suspected deep down that she was more than just a servant to him. The silver ring she wore at the end of her braid and the blue oval gem set on her forehead were gifts from him, and the first material possessions she actually owned besides the clothes on her back.

She travelled with him for two years throughout Katapesh and Osirion, protecting him as he pursued his research until he passed away in his tent one night. Neevan stayed by his side until the end, ready to take her life when she no longer had a master to serve in accordance with her code, but the old man had other plans for her. Before passing away, he handed her a document he had written and approved a year earlier. After his death, her ownership would be transferred to his estranged son, Nasir. The two had had a falling out a decade earlier, but the old man still cared for his son and did not want Neevan's life to go to waste needlessly.

Neevan carried her old master back to the city of Katapesh to be given to his family for burial, and then set out to find her new master. Travelling alone for the first time in her life, Neevan stumbled into trouble several times, completely unprepared to deal with the world on her own. It was only her fighting skill and her quickness to apologize that kept her alive as she searched Katapesh for Nasir. Once she finally found him, he was not what she entirely expected. An adventurous sort himself, Nasir was of a much more roguish nature than his father, always looking for a quick fortune and a bit of a conman at heart. He was saddened by the news of his father's death, but absolutely pleased to have such a gift. Finally he had someone to work with him who would not simply flee when things got too heated. Neevan followed her new master wherever his search for fortune took him, whether it was performing music on the street, attempted tomb raidings, bounty hunting, or more unsavory ploys, she did all she could to keep him safe. Unfortunately, Nasir moved too quickly for her much of the time, and his luck never seemed to hold for very long. His schemes kept them on the move and sometimes on the run, but still she did not complain, even when he blamed her for his bad fortune.

Nasir never stayed very angry at her for long though, and in truth, he treated her as more than a servant much like his father had. It was awkward for him when he took her as a lover, because he was never entirely certain whether she agreed to be with him simply because she was his property. In truth, she did care for him much as she cared for her father. Her desire to protect both of them ran more deeply than it had for her previous masters, though she couldn't quite understand why, so inexperienced was she in such matters. Regardless of these complications, she served him loyally until one fateful night in Absolom.

Having stayed at the city at the center of the world for several months after having to flee Katapesh for a time, Nasir had still managed to make enemies there as well. Eventually he and Neevan were found by a local crime boss who Nasir had managed to wind up in debt to after a failed scheme. Cornered and with nowhere to run, Neevan was prepared to die trying to defend her master, but Nasir tried to talk their way out of it. He tried to bargain with the crime boss for his life, offering him everything he had, the locations of several caches of hidden wealth that didn't actually exist, and finally, the ownership of a Khivatri monk. The man was savvy enough to know that most of Nasir's offers were nonexistant, but he did accept Neevan. Neevan looked to Nasir desperately, almost ready to beg him not to give her away, but she quietly accepted her fate as was proper for one of her station.

Her first order from her new master was to beat Nasir to death. She tearfully obeyed.

She was quickly sold to a valued associate of the crime boss, a travelling merchant who doubled as a go-between for many of the criminal's interests in Avistan. She silently and obediently accompanied him northward.

This is the most recent owner she has as far as the backgrouind goes at the moment unless one of the new players wanted to own her coming into the game. Otherwise, I was hoping this last owner would be the one she has somehow angered and is now looking to get rid of her.

In Vudra, everyone lives according to the caste system and generally accepts their place in it. The lowest of these castes, so low that they're not even considered part of society are the "untouchable" castes, who are regulated to doing the most unsavory tasks for Vudran civilization if anything at all. They have no real rights at all, and the lowest of their castes aren't even considered people anymore. It's accepted as truth that people born to the lowest castes are there for a reason, the sins of their past lives have darkened their karma. And once you're born into the lowest of them, there's no rising from it. You'll always be reincarnated into that caste as punishment.

A priest/monk of Irori came up with a way to rescue these people from their eternal condemnation. He established a monastic order called the Khivatri that would pull in members of that caste during childhood and reshape them in Irori's image.

The idea is this: People are born to the lowest caste because of their personal weaknesses, mostly their selfishness to some degree or another. The only way to rise above the sins of your past lives and to cleanse your karma is to abandon the self and the needs of the self. You give up your freedom(and the lowest castes barely even really have that as it is) and personal desires for the sake of self-improvement, and only through service to another can you transcend to higher level in Vudra's religious/caste system.

Untouchables who are brought into the Khivatri order are no longer considered untouchables, but instead are Khivatri. It's a higher mini-caste than the untouchables, but they're still at the bottom of Vudran society and are still considered by many to not be people.

Khivatri train until early adulthood under the monasteries' harsh tutelage. They're are trained in the martial arts, to serve without question, to supress all personal desires, and to protect their future owners. After their training is over, they are sold off into Vudran society(at very cheap rates).

According to their code, Khivatri must serve and obey their owners, no matter their orders. If a khivatri's owner tells him to jump off a cliff, he will jump off the cliff. And a Khivatri must have a master. If a Khivatri's owner passes away without selling or giving him or her to another, the Khivatri must take their own life(the traditional way is to break one's own neck). This has also caused trouble for a lot of good people who came into possession of a Khivatri; as soon as they told the slave that they were free and refused to take them as a slave, the Khivatri will kill themselves.

Some Khivatri serve one owner their entire lives. Some serve a succession of many owners. They can be sold or given away, and as soon as the transaction is done the Khivatri must serve their new owner with absolute loyalty.

Most Khivatri serve primarily as bodyguards, as that is the primary training for all of them. But some serve their masters in other ways, as entertainment(often fighting, multiple owners arranging Khivatri duels aren't uncommon) and menial labor. An odd few are even kept in harems or even taken into marraige by their owners(though this is extremely rare and nearly unheard of in Vudra itself).

There is no stigma in Vudran society against selling or giving a Khivatri to non-Vudrans, for a few reasons: Khivatri "aren't really Vudrani", and the unshakable loyalty they display serves only to impress upon other cultures the strength of Vudran society(after all, if these are the lowest of their castes, then how great must the higher castes be?)

A Khivatri has no possessions except what their owner chooses to give them and let them keep.

Khivatri remember their given birth names, but always refer to themselves with the humble "this one" unless ordered to do otherwise by their owners. And even then, they will call themselves whatever their owner wishes.

In the monastery and when not told to do otherwise, Khivatri are dressed simply. And in another demonstration of emulating Irori and giving up their previous selves, they all go hairless save for a single braid of hair at the back of their skulls. Again, they will dress however their masters demand. A number of Khivatri have died in the past due to their owners dressing them in showy, impractical attire or even ornamental armor.

While a Khivatri told that he is free will try to take his own life, they can be ordered to "act free" to whatever degree their owner wishes. In countries where slavery is illegal, this is how Khivatri owners keep their property without drawing suspicion. This is also how kind and good owners often treat a Khivatri under their care. Their behavior is still highly ordered, and their greatest responsibility is still to ensure the safety of their owner, but a Khivatri can eventually "come out of their shell" when treated this way. It can be frightening and even traumatic for many Khivatri to suddenly have so much leeway in their lives, however.

A Khivatri who betrays the code and does not kill himself will usually be hunted down by the training monks of the order, but traitorous monks are exceedingly rare as they understand that the way of the Khivatri is the only path to transcendance available to them.

Khivatri can turn up almost anywhere, having been sold in the slave markets or changing from hand to hand elsewhere. The majority of them are owned by merchants or spellcasters, and the adventurous examples of the latter cover a lot of ground.

A Khivatri can be given to another in exchange for other goods or as a gift, and it is acceptable to pass ownership of one to another after death in accordance to one's will.

Khivatri - The Slave Monks of Vudra

To serve is to live.
To serve is to grow.
To serve is to transcend.

The caste system of the Vudrani people is many layered, moreso than most outsiders ever realize. Each caste has its own subcastes, each with their own customs, taboos, and an established place within Vudrani society, or outside of it.

The lowest of castes, the Maveen, or "untouchables", lie at the lowest strata in caste society; so low as to not even be considered a true caste. Yet even this class of people has its own subdivisions, such as the Givatri.

Composed of criminals, heretics, deserters, outcasts from other castes, and all of their descendants no matter how many generations removed, the Givatri are considered by Vudrani society as the lowest of the low, and the Givatri themselves are taught to believe as much. Having no real rights, they are exiled to small enclaves, permitted to eke out a meager living amongst themselves and not permitted to interact with other Vudrani, even other Maveen. Their existence is a sort of living damnation. It is believed that all who are born Givatri, as with all castes, are born so for a reason: The weight of their past lives. To be Givatri is to be barred from reincarnation into a higher station; once one is Givatri, one shall always be Givatri.

Yet there is one way, and only one, to rise from the ranks of the Givatri and to become something more. The greatest hope of all Givatri is for one day, in one life, to be taken into the ranks of the Khivatri order.

Established by the grand monk and devotee of Irori, Haran Sanjat, the Khivatri are a rigid, state-sponsored monastic order founded for the purpose of cleansing unworthy souls of negative karma, though many suspect the other benefits of the order's practices is the true reason for its continued existence.

Haran Sanjat taught that Irori's path towards self-perfection should be open to all, even those among the Givatri. But he also realized that improving such tainted souls would require steps that even his brothers in his order would balk at. He continued his work despite their protests, knowing that the only way to purify these souls so that they could take their next step towards Nirvana was to tear away everything that had driven them such a lowly state.

*****

"There is no shame in knowing one's place."

"A hammer, no matter how well made, is useless without a hand to use it."

Current Level:
Neevan
Female human monk 6
LN Medium humanoid
Init +3
Defense
AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+1 AC Bonus, +1 Dodge, +3 DEX, +2 Amulet, +2 Bracers)
Monk AC Bonus: +1
hp 62 (1d8+CON+favored class bonus)
Fort +6 (5 base, 1 CON) Ref 8 (5 base, 3 DEX) Will 8 (5 base, 3 WIS)
(SPECIAL: Will Save: +10 against enchantment spells and effects)

Offense
Spd 30 ft. (50 ft. when unarmored)
melee Unarmed Strike (1d8+3(STR)) (+8 to hit)
Flurry of Blows attack bonus: +3/+3

Statistics
Str 16 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 9 Wis 16 Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB 9 (6 Monk Levels + 3 STR)
Feats normal feats: Dodge, Deflect Arrows, Improved Grapple, Weapon Focus(Unarmed Strike)
bonus monk feats: Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes, Mobility
bonus regional feat: Secret of Steel-Shattering Spirit
Skills Took one extra skill point from favored class + human bonus(5 total every level)
Acrobatics +12 (3 Dex, 6 ranks, 3 class bonus) (SPECIAL: +18 to Jump checks, always count as having a running start)
Climb +9 (3 Str, 3 rank, 3 class bonus)
Escape Artist +10 (3 Dex, 4 ranks, 3 class bonus)
Perception +12 (3 Wis, 2 ranks, 3 class bonus)
Perform(dancing) +4 (1 rank, 3 class bonus)
Sense Motive +8 (3 Wis, 2 ranks, 3 class bonus)
Stealth +12 (3 Dex, 6 ranks, 3 class bonus)
Swim +8 (3 Str, 2 rank, 3 class bonus)

Languages Common, Vudrani
SQ AC bonus, evasion, fast movment, maneuver training, still mind, slow fall(30 ft.), high jump, purity of body, ki pool(magic)
Gear
nunchaku
monk's clothing
waterskin
pouch (for rations)
trail rations (no meat)
chalk (5)
silver ringlet
blue gemstone
Amulet of Natural Armor +2
Bracers of Armor +2
Cloak of Resistance +1
Elixer of Hiding
Handy Haversack

Money:
0 gp

Total Ki Points: 10