Yazan Ashwater's page

The twin brother of Ozirex Ashwater, Yazan Ashwater was born in Belkzen, the daughter of a half-orc priestess and an Ogre Mage. Yazan's mother concealed her and her brother from her father, and raised them as orcish warriors. However, Yazan's father discovered her mother's deception when she was seven, and slew her. Ozirex challenged their father, but the Ogre Mage only laughed, telling Ozirex to return when he was worthy. Yazan was relieved, knowing that her brother would surely perish in such a confrontation.

Yazan rarely spoke after her mother died; most of the orcs of her clan believed it was merely sullenness at the death of her mother, and did nothing to console her, believing as most orcs do that an orc with a grudge makes for a better warrior. But Yazan was not sulking. Rather, the shock of her mothers death had led her to conclude that she could trust no one to stand up for or protect her. She tended to remain silent because she was observing keenly those around her. She learned to understand the hearts and minds of others, and to conceal her own feelings with a stony scowl. She learned how to put fear in the hearts of others with her words.

It was around this time that Yazan developed her fascination with fire. She would often sit staring into the campfire, and her flinty eyes seemed to catch the light in an unnatural way. Her innate resistance to flames and heat allowed her to pick up burning brands without injury, and she often played games with the other orc youths, challenging them to hold the burning had of a torch as long as she could. But upon realizing that she had a resistance to fire, the other orcs often decided that this was "cheating" and tried to burn her with other implements like red-hot bits of metal or larger fires. Yazan has many burn scars from this period.

Most notable is a large maze of scars on the right side of her face, when a young orc warrior named Ungnar burned several of his fingers into uselessness trying to grasp the head of a torch as long as her. Enraged by the loss of his own "bet" against her and the realization that she could not be hurt by small fires, Ungnar (who afterwards was known among orcs as "Ungnar Gaphand" due to his disfigurement) threw her into the camp's central bonfire and pressed her face into the fire with his boot. Despite often being the butt of such harsh humour, Yazan never complained or cried out when burned by fire; she endured it stoically, and was fascinated by her own scars afterwards.

Rugel Smokehair

After Ozirex had left the tribe to join a raiding party when he was 15, the tribe migrated to the northern end of the Hold of Belkzen, and upon arriving in the region she soon noticed a large fire on the top of a distant hill. Most of the orcs seemed uninterested in it, so she chose to investigate it herself. When she reached the top of the hill, she found a Kellid shaman tending the fire. When he saw her he was wary; he had built up the fire as a signal for the tribes in the nearby Realm of the Mammoth lords, to notify them that a tribe of orcs had moved into the area. But she was not an orc, and showed that she was more curious than hostile, so he began to talk with her, and found that she was fascinated by what he had to say.

The shaman's name was Rugel Smokehair, and he was an adept who worshipped Feronia, the goddess of the Sacred Flame. Scorned by much of civilized society, Feronia was a goddess still often worshipped by the Kellids. She represented not only the destructve aspects of fire, but also the protective ones; fire keeps animals and the darkness at bay and is the basis for crafts and human civilization. Feronia, Rugel explained, was a goddess of liberation and fertility, and not simply a lady of destruction and ashes. She was above concepts such as good an evil; while she was famous for being the mother of the Empyreal Lord Ragathiel, she had also been the wife of Dispater the arch devil.

The more Yazan heard about Feronia, the more she realized that Feronia must have already played a role in her life, and that she needed to know more about this goddess whom she believed was already her patron. She sat up for hours with Rugel Smokehair, asking him questions and learning all she could from him about Feronia. By the end of the night she was a convert to the faith of the Lady of the Sacred Flame.

However, Yazan was not the only member of the orc clan to notice the fire. Ungnar Gaphand had also noticed the fire, though much later, and had snuck up on Yazan and Rugel during the night. Realizing that the bonfire was in fact a watch fire intended to alert their enemies, and that rather than alerting the tribe, Yazan was consorting with this enemy, Ungnar realized that this was an opportunity to gain status within his tribe and to avenge his lost fingers on Yazan. Ungnar returned with a band of orcs, who surrounded the hill and caught Rugel and Yazan just before dawn. Ungnar denounced Yazan as a traitor to the tribe, and despite her smooth tongue the evidence seemed damning to the rest of the orcs. They threw Rugel and Yazan into the bonfire to burn to death.

Yazan's innate resistance to fire was not enough to protect her from the severe heat of the bonfire. As it burned her she felt her skin harden in response, but the fire still burned her. She looked over and saw Rugel, also on the pyre, but he refused to cry out in pain. Instead, he mumbled something, and a cloud of smoke formed over the fire. "Go," he croaked to her with his last breath. "Feronia has paid for your escape."

Among the Kellids

Her bonds burnt, she stumbled out of the fire, and in the cover of the smoke changed her shape to that of an ordinary orc. As the sun rose the orcs were momentarily blinded, and Yazan ran down the north side of the hill and lost herself in the tall grasses. When the smoke cleared the orcs were confused by the lack of her remains, but chalked it up to her infernal origin.

She made her way north, and after a few days

- Lived among Kellid tribes in Land of the Mammoth Lords
- Decided to try to help overthrow white witches of Irrisen
- Chased out of Iarna after trying to free the Magma Elemental powering the hot springs
- Fled via the Saraby Trail to the Land of the Linnorm Kings
- Worked as mercenary in Land of Linnorm Kings against Irrisen until she got tired of the stalemate
- Went into the Nomen lands and joined a marauding band of Nomen
- Her bandmates came up with a plan to sneak into the Mierani Forest to steal some elven treasure
- Her band walked into an ambush by elves. Most of her bandmates were killed but she was captured
- She was originally scheduled to be executed but was given the chance to live if she would help fight the menace in Celwynvian

Without a helm or cloak Yazan looks quite striking. She has skin the color of burnished copper, with a rough texture that suggests very fine scales, like a fish. On the left side of her face these scales are marred by a lattice of burn scars. She has upward-pointing tusks at the corners of her mouth, indicating her orcish blood, and her fingernails and toenails curve into short claws, not long enough to be dangerous, but long enough to indicate her inhuman ancestry. Her tusks, claws, and eyes are all the color of burnished gold, and her eyes have no irises or pupils. She has a 4' long tail with a broad leaf-shaped tip which she can grasp things with. Her hair is wiry and black, except for a gold streak at her temple. She smells faintly of brimstone and woodsmoke, and she has a gravelly voice. The light at the edges of her shadow ripples with heatwaves as if her skin is red hot, but it is actually cool to the touch.

When her bare skin is in contact with wood or other flammable materials for too long, scorch marks tend to appear (though these materials never quite burst into flame). Her clothing and equipment always seems to collect soot and black smudges and never quite gets clean, to the point that Yazan has painted her armor black, and tends to buy black clothing and gear in order to hide this phenomena.

Even among the orcs she was a freak, and now that she is among humans she knows she will never be "normal." She has learned how to use this to her advantage, and create fear in others. She believes that those who fear her are less likely to hut her. She has poor manners that she exaggerates when around civilized people, as a way of getting them to keep their distance.

But Yazan is lonely, and deep down wishes that she were 'normal.' She tries to draw herself into groups of people, though so far the only people that have really respected her have been those who want a fearsome ally, not a friend. She is willing to do favors for others because it is the only way she knows to get others to appreciate her.

Native Outsider: Tieflings are outsiders with the native subtype.

Medium: Tieflings are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Tieflings have a base speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision: Tieflings see in the dark for up to 60 feet.

Skilled: Oni-Spawn Tieflings gain a +2 racial bonus on Disguise and Intimidate checks.

Spell-Like Ability: Oni-Spawn Tieflings can use darkness alter self once per day as a spell-like ability. The caster level for this ability equals the tiefling's class level.

Fiendish Resistance: Tieflings have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.

Fiendish Sorcery:

Prehensile Tail: Many tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. This racial trait replaces fiendish sorcery.

Languages: Tieflings begin play speaking Common and either Abyssal or Infernal. Tieflings with high intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Infernal, and Orc.