Tales of Sword and Sorcery. (Inactive)

Game Master Berjkley

Though Zadj is known as a land of great wealth and luxury, not all of its people are able to partake in it. After falling on hard times, Farya's parents gave up the girl, then just a baby, in exchange for forgiveness of their debts. Farya has never known these parents, and all that she has left of them is her name. Instead, she grew up in relative comfort in a wealthy trader's household in Iraab. Though her status was unclear - neither slave nor adopted child - she was treated well, always having enough to eat and drink and play with. However, she was never allowed to leave the merchant's estate, becoming somewhat used to the solitude that her existence brought.

From her adolescence, though, the trader's plans for Farya became clear - she would become a servant for him, carrying out the dirty work he needed under the table while remaining unconnected on the surface. At first, he tried to have her trained in seduction, taking advantage of the stereotypical Zadjite image abroad, but Farya showed neither interest nor aptitude for such tasks. Realizing that his desires would not work out, the trader instead looked to Farya's strengths - quickness, sneakiness, and a good nose for finding weak points. As Farya matured, the trader let her take on simple tasks in the city, and when she succeeded flawlessly, on bigger missions abroad - smuggling, assassination, theft, and anything else he could think of.

Over the years, Farya has travelled extensively over the region, doing all sorts of unsavory activities at her patron's request, often out of touch with home for months at a time. After one of these stretches, about three years after she first left Iraab, Farya received a different kind of message. The message - with a seal of authenticity that she trusted - stated that the old merchant had unfortunately become sick and died after a night of drunken revelry, and that among his last wishes were that Farya be set free from her servitude. Unfortunately, the message also said that she would no longer be receiving support - monetary and otherwise - from abroad, at least for the time being. Stuck alone in the strange lands of Belthaar, far to the north of her homeland, Farya is suddenly forced to hire out her services to survive. She hopes that one day she can return home, but she has to make it back to Zadj first...

As a child, Farya's isolation caused her to be quite reserved, a trait that has helped her maintain her operations thus far. However, she's learned over the course of her training and her time in the field the value of interaction, both as a means to achieve her goals and to maintain her own sanity. While she usually tries to keep others at a distance out of habit, she's smart enough to know that that won't be possible going forward. Once blades are drawn, though, Farya turns into a different beast, unashamedly reveling in the slaughter around her.

Unlike her more lavish brethren back home, Farya's line of work demands that she not draw attention to herself. While a hint at her heritage is sometimes enough to crack open closed doors, she prefers careful application of lethal force instead. Trading revealing desert garb for leather armor and a dark cloak and glittering gold armbands for a pair of dull gold-hilted steel daggers that rarely see the light of day, Farya's looks won't kill, but her weapons surely can.

Hailing from the city of Sinju in the Prefecture of Qushu within the Thrice Blessed Empire of Taikang, Fa Ying was the First Son of a magistrate within the city. While his family followed the traditions of their forefathers, many within the city’s elite had become decadent and cruel. To this end, Fa Ying’s father sent him to one of the man monasteries to keep him from the corrupt way of his peers.

Sent to a school which taught the spiritual practice of KI and its practical uses in combat, Fa Ying perfected the use of the great war-bow. Such weapons were difficult to use for most people, but Fa Ying’s family were renowned for their archers. All was going well for Fa Ying until the fateful fall afternoon when members of the Imperial Guard broke into his family’s compound and arrested or slaughtered all within. Someone in the city’s bureaucracy had started a rumour that his family was skimming from the Imperial coffers. The monks at the monastery quickly outfitted the boy and sent him into the wilds of the Empire.

With no place safe for him, and no family to turn to, the youth bounced from job to job; acting as a guard on a caravan, helping with a rice harvest and even a short stint as a holy man in the dusty bazaar of some far western outpost. Finally, Fa Ying had reached the edge of the Empire and knew there was nothing left for him here, so once again he signed onto a caravan, this time a troop of strangers from the far west, and left the Empire for good.