Ashara Kharestra's page

About Ashara Kharestra

Ashara Kharestra frequently wears dark clothing, her armor light and flexible and adorned with deep violet scarves and skirts from time to time, depending what work she's doing. She often wears her long black hair down around her deeply tanned face, her smoky green eyes being the only contrast to her coloring. She has several intricately curved violet lines tattooed across her forehead, and usually wears a tiny amethyst jewel fixed to her brow where they meet.

Ashara grew up in Absalom among her somewhat extended Varisian family. Like most of her people, she was always very capable at staying one step ahead of others, a graceful dancer like her mother, and a clever spy like her father. It was his frequent involvement in the fledgling Shadow Lodge that led to Ashara being introduced as a potential Pathfinder. The plan was for her to act as a double agent, and report back to the Shadow Lodge about the Society's activities. However, once the Shadow Lodge gained legitimacy under the leadership of Grandmaster Torch, Ashara took to her role as Pathfinder, and became less and less involved with the extremists, like her father.

She was still a loyal member of the Shadow Lodge, and unable to offer up complete trust in the Society, however her goals now consisted mainly in looking after the well-being of her fellow Pathfinders rather than trying to bring down the Decemvirate. Ironically, she carried a special Wayfinder stamped with the seal of the Decemvirate, which was given to her for turning in one of the more dangerous extremists of her own faction, the sort of person who gave the Shadow Lodge a bad name. In the end, the discovery that one person she trusted, her leader Grandmaster Torch himself, was one such extremist, and had always been, led her to ultimately question the faction she had been a part of for so long. After his escape, the Pathfinders sought no retribution against her, and she decided to tentatively offer the Society the trust she had so long denied them. She still keeps a watchful eye toward her fellow agents, though, as she always has.

On one of her adventures through the Blackros Museum, Ashara was brought into contact with the realm of Shadow, and found it not uninviting, in its way, depsite the dangers it offered. She came away from the adventure with a strangely inscribed ring bearing some of that energy, and has been spending some time becoming better acquainted with it. The marking on the ring, strangely enough, matches the odd tattoo in the middle of her back that she was born with. She now wears the trinket on a chain around her neck as she becomes accustomed to its energies. Since acquiring it, she has also spoken to a skilled magical crafter who has tranferred some of this energy to her blade, making it able to strike even things which have no physical form.

Most recently, she has noticed that she has been able to dodge attacks much more adeptly, and suspects it may be partly due to her opponents' inability to see her clearly. In fact, she has discovered that, even when she has nothing to hide behind, she can often pass undetected until she wishes to be seen. This has made her even more curious to see what other secrets can be unlocked within this realm of Shadow.

Perhaps the most notable thing she has noticed during her adventures is that each time she is wounded, frightened, or brought close to death, a little of her own life energy seems to drift away into Shadow. Disturbed by this, she has tried to recapture or recall as much of herself as she can still feel. The wayward energies have, quite surprisingly to Ashara, begun to take on a form and energy of their own as she calls them back out of Shadow. Recently, this mass of Shadow energy, echoes of her own deaths that never were, has begun to whisper back to her, and she has begun to realize that while still tied to her and her own energy, they are taking on a sentience and memories of their own. As this entity is herself, and yet not, she has decided to give it a name: Mara.

**NOTE: Contrary to confusing website issues, Ashara Kharestra has always been Shadow Lodge.