Penance's page

Penance is a thoughtful man prone to bits of philosophy, a habit picked up from his time in Rahadoum. His overall knowledge is narrow but his pride dictates that he never outwardly shows this.

As one can imagine he finds it incredibly difficult to trust anyone and tends to take numerous precautions against an inevitable betrayal but over the years he has learned to keep such distrust to himself and allow others the chance to prove his instincts wrong.

But the black stone comes with its own portentous and terrible shadow bringing misfortune and death to those who tarry beneath its shadow. The rumors and superstition surrounding the rock have existed for nearly 500 years. In that time no travelers have dared camped beneath it without suffering its curse.

Which has worked well for the cult of Norgorber hidden in a large cavern network a short distance away from the stone and the source of the misfortune which befalls those travelers.

Desert assassins, thieves, and spies this cult has existed for as long as the stone has been erect. And why wouldn't it? They were the ones who erected it from the start. As a lure, as a sign, and as a warning.

The cult has no name of its own for labels and attachments are against Norgorber's teachings. Instead they hire themselves out as one group or another taking on names and habits when the time suits them. They willfully steal and shamelessly take the names of other groups seeing their own reputation as unimportant in the Shadow Scorpion's grand schemes.

Into this den of lies, death, and shadow was born the boy that would become Penance. Tearing from his mothers womb the sickly looking baby bore a terrible vigor and was drawn to death like a carcass fly. Typically, such a child would be sent to an orphanage, or otherwise abandoned depending on the parents wishes as life under the Shadow Scorpion is poorly suited for young children.

Intrigued, the head priest sought communion with Norgorber about what to do with the child. To his delight a herald answered and announced that the boy was drawn from a lineage of terrible Daemons. More than that, his was a rare breed that had the ability to tear souls out directly from living things, and with the correct preparation and ritual, hand them directly to Norgorber himself.

Such a boy was seen as nothing less than a blessing to the unnamed cult. And as such he was raised to be chief among their assassins and through summoning and divinations taught by Daemons the secrets of soul stealing, of defying the will of the cosmos themselves and serving the very essence of his victims into the his lord's black claws.

In addition to these tests came constant tests of silence, secrecy, and loyalty. Poisoning his food, sudden attacks, faked attacks and interrogations by authorities Penance was the constant subject to a culture of paranoia, fear, and secrecy. Trust no one. Trust, love, and friendship are merely the more subtle tools of conquerors. Guard your secrets or die.

For fifteen years the boy that would become Penance turned into a young man. In those dark caves lost in hot desert mountains the young man would see the sun but rarely and death often.
Before he was 13 the young man had mastered the necessary rituals and powers necessary to tear a soul directly from a body barely clinging to life and send that soul into Norgorber's realm. By the time he was 15 he had learned almost countless ways to kill a man, leave them incapacitated, or injure them in ways that appeared accidental to the untrained eye.

As his training intensified so to did the loyalty tests, the attempts on his life, and the harsh interrogation sessions. When the boy was not killing, or being taught how to kill, he was tormented relentlessly.

On his fifteenth birthday this came to a bloody and terrible end.
In their most extreme test of loyalty Penance's handlers told him to murder one of the "lesser performing" members of their order. He did so and was immediately attacked as a traitor to the order.
The idea is that they would capture and interrogate him and attempt to pry the information about the orders from him to test the limits of his loyalty and his ability to keep secrets.

What they could not imagine was that he would succeed in slaying his would be captors and escaping the cave network into the mountains.

Incapable of trust and now unsure of his purpose he fled west deeper into the mountains and into regions where few if any humans dwell.

While there he stole, killed, and scavenged whatever he could while he constantly prayed and meditated for some form of answer from the Shadow Scorpion. But, Norgorber speaks rarely and guides never. For a full year this cycle passed until the day that the young man ran afoul of a mountain lion while taking game escaping only when he fell down a steep cliff breaking three of his limbs and putting him on the brink of death
He was rescued by a man named Abad, who never gave his last name, who took the broken young man to his mountain hideaway and nursed him slowly back to health.

While there the young man learned that Abad was once a wealthy man and fervent worshiper of Abadar. Yet, after years of enjoying the wealth and prosperity that his life brought him he found that he was unsatisfied with his life and that despite his fatih that his soul felt empty, his life pointless.
In a fit of revelation however Abad had given all his wealth over to the poor, the sick, and to the Church of Sarenrae, while to Sarenism and using what was left of his money to wander into the Brazen peaks to meditate on the meaning of life and what it means to be good.

The young man, naturally, found the man insane. The young man openly questioned his philosophies and choices in life. Why give anything to those whom you have nothing to gain from? Why spend so much time gaining in wealth and power only to throw it all away?

The man would merely smile, nod and answer with questions of his own. What was the point of self-indulgence at the expense of others? What is life as a person if you can do nothing but live as a paranoid animal atop a pile of wealth?

Such questions only served to infuriate him, and as soon as he was physically able he stole away into the night carrying as much food and belongings as he could carry into the darkness.

But other hunters were on the prowl, for gnolls ruled the Brazen Peaks, and such a group so accustomed to the trails and the scent of weak prey easily tracked the young man. Chasing him, hounding him, reveling in the way they do at the scent of weakness and fear.

Still, even they were surprised by the boys ferocity when cornered and decided to kill rather than enslave him. They nearly succeeded if Abad had not intervened before the killing blow was landed. But, only at the cost of Abad's left eye.

As the injured young man and Abad led one another back to their cave hideaway the young man asked Abad why he would go through the trouble of saving him knowing that he had taken things from him and might have easily killed him.

Sheepishly Abad had answered that he was concerned for the boy being not completely healed from the lion attack and, a bit more selfishly, the young man had stolen his favorite bowl.

The answer, and the emotions that followed, marked a direct turning point in the young mans life. Guilt, shame, and an overwhelming sense of empathy from Abad forced the young man to consider his place in the world.

Over the next few weeks as the young man and Abad recovered the young man shared much of his history. The training, the tests, the brutal murders and ritual sacrifices. Much of it he expect Abad to be sickened by, even disgusted and angry. But instead Abad would simply nod and say nothing. Sometimes he would question whether or not all of that was merely preparation for a greater purpose. After all, Abad would argue, in order to make a clean cut you had to know of anatomy. In order to make an effective poison you had to understand a body's reaction to it. Even in the case of getting close to a victim you had to learn the social graces and necessary flattery in order to get close. Perhaps he could turn those around. Maybe he could use the turn the lifestealing energies of his otherworldly powers in reverse?

Contemplating these questions himself the young man decided that he needed to find such answers himself, not as a hermit in the mountains, but living among people. On the second anniversary of his flight from the cult of Norgorber he left Abad in peace and headed for the ancient city of Ipeq to answer the question of turning the arts of death and deceit into those of life and compassion.

Osirion marked many firsts in Penance's life.
The first of these revelations was the realization that cities operated under very different assumptions than that of the cult or the wilderness. The cult provided for his basic needs and taught him to steal, or kill for whatever else he may require in times of need.

The city required that the boy use his skills in ways he had never done before. Whether negotiating for work, stealing his daily bread, or otherwise turning his skills into different ways the boy's skills grew even as he was looking for ways to turn his life away from the path the Shadow Scorpion had set before him.

It was also the first time he ran into true prejudice against his appearance. The cult exalted him for his heritage. Abad didn't seem to notice or comment. But, those within the city that took notice of him shunned and feared him.

Sometimes he found this useful and would disguise his appearance to appear as some undead horror or another in order to fool the people he robbed into thinking he was a true monster. Most of the time however he found that it impeded his ultimate goal of turning his dark powers and skills into a positive force.

While in Osirian he also looked into the goddess Sarenrae. He found her teachings close to both his desires and his sense of often lethal pragmatism.Ultimately he turned to worshiping her in the hopes that the Dawnflower might counter the nightmare of his past in some form or another.

His chance for a life outside of the scavenging hole he was in came when a group of embalmers began seeking apprentices among the downtrodden of the city. The group had done well for themselves and as a matter of their faith in Abadar they believed in helping the poor by teaching them a skill always in demand in the crowded cities and tradition infatuated people of Osirian.

Inured from horror by their time with death the youth's appearance did not dissuade them from taking him on as an apprentice impressed as they were by his already encyclopedic knowledge of humanoid anatomy.

As an embalmer he was a natural and despite the low pay his exotic bloodline played into the superstitions of some clients who believe his presence might dissuade actual daemons from coming to despoil the bodies of their relatives. It also marked the first time the youth dealt with death from the viewpoint of the deceased's relatives.

He experienced a number of emotions as he carefully removed organs and wrapped the dead in their burial shrouds from those relatives; Grief, sorrow, disbelief, anger, and stoic calm. All of these had a dire effect on the youth as he remembered the numerous people he sacrificed in the name of the shadow scorpion and the many he consigned to that dark and terrible realm. He had down more than kill. A life might be weighed on that of many lives. But how can one repay the price of a lost soul? A dozen?

Unable to reconcile these feelings of guilt the youth decided that his path must lay in aiding the living through the living, not the care of the already dead.

He spoke with his then mentor Rahad Sati on this. Upset and confused that the boy would become so emotional while simultaneously being so skilled Rahad suggested that he take his skills to Rahadoum where the need for healing arts was great without the Dawnflowers servants spreading her healing grace. Perhaps he may find what he was looking for there?

Taking his advice the youth gathered his savings and traveled to the Kingdom of Man.

The youth was 18 by the time he arrived in the city of Rahadoum bearing a letter of recommendation and his life savings.
Enrolling into Azir University under their surgeon's program Penance at last turned his knowledge of the human body towards its repair rather its dismantlement.

Though forced to keep his worship of Sarenrae a secret he appreciated the way the Rahadoumi people continued to live their lives in a moral way despite their atheism and lack of real hope in the afterlife. In a way he found it somewhat inspiring as he continued his work.

As the years passed he performed well in his studies paying for his tuition in small ways all too happy that once in his life he never had to steal.

Still, he was frustrated.

He had long looked for a way to transform the life draining powers of his birthright into a positive force. Yet, all his research had indicated no such capability existed.

That is until the day he ran into an angel.

No meeting could have ever happened more by chance. The youth was walking home late at night when he simply bumped into the angel coming around the corner. The angel, for its part, was in headache inducing negotiations with Chelaxian representatives over the possession of the soul of a man who repented on his deathbed his worship of Asmodeus. Its mind elsewhere it did not see the young tiefling before it ran headlong into him.

Recognizing the youth for what he was immediately the angel's first impulse was to strike down the soul stealer immediately. But the shock, confusion, and sudden ray of hope in the pale youth's eyes stayed its hand.

Seeing the angel as a messenger of the Dawnflower the youth quickly stammered out his questions.

How do I turn this dark power to steal life and souls into a force for good?

How do I turn the arts of death and deception into those of life and glory?

How can one repent for not only murder but acts so heinous as to be impossible to perpetrate by mere mortals?

Without hesitation the angel answered.

To turn those powers into a force for good he had to turn them on himself. Reverse the process. Rather than reach into other and take. He must accept others into himself and give.

To turn the arts of death and deception into tools of good he must understand that like a sword they are merely a tool. Sarenrae understands that things that cannot be saved must be destroyed. For evil is a disease and as a disease the only way to stop its spread is their total annihilation.

As to repentance? That is on the mortal themselves to determine at what point they have repaid the cost of of their sins.

With that the angel left.

Not long after an investigator from the Pure Legion came calling. The results were unpleasant as the youth was forced to kill the investigator and his bodyguards.

Still, the man, having long forgotten his real name if he ever had one stole away on a ship and headed towards Varisia. From there he wandered from town to town, city to city, doling out healing, learning how to channel his powers into saving people, and occasionally using his darker skills to deal out necessary and often lethal justice.

Enrolling into Azir University under their surgeon's program Penance at last turned his knowledge of the human body towards its repair rather its dismantlement.

Though forced to keep his worship of Sarenrae a secret he appreciated the way the Rahadoumi people continued to live their lives in a moral way despite their atheism and lack of real hope in the afterlife. In a way he found it somewhat inspiring as he continued his work.

As the years passed he performed well in his studies paying for his tuition in small ways all too happy that once in his life he never had to steal.

Still, he was frustrated.

He had long looked for a way to transform the life draining powers of his birthright into a positive force. Yet, all his research had indicated no such capability existed.

That is until the day he ran into an angel.

No meeting could have ever happened more by chance. The youth was walking home late at night when he simply bumped into the angel coming around the corner. The angel, for its part, was in headache inducing negotiations with Chelaxian representatives over the possession of the soul of a man who repented on his deathbed his worship of Asmodeus. Its mind elsewhere it did not see the young tiefling before it ran headlong into him.

Recognizing the youth for what he was immediately the angel's first impulse was to strike down the soul stealer immediately. But the shock, confusion, and sudden ray of hope in the pale youth's eyes stayed its hand.

Seeing the angel as a messenger of the Dawnflower the youth quickly stammered out his questions.

How do I turn this dark power to steal life and souls into a force for good?

How do I turn the arts of death and deception into those of life and glory?

How can one repent for not only murder but acts so heinous as to be impossible to perpetrate by mere mortals?

Without hesitation the angel answered.

To turn those powers into a force for good he had to turn them on himself. Reverse the process. Rather than reach into other and take. He must accept others into himself and give.

To turn the arts of death and deception into tools of good he must understand that like a sword they are merely a tool. Sarenrae understands that things that cannot be saved must be destroyed. For evil is a disease and as a disease the only way to stop its spread is their total annihilation.

As to repentance? That is on the mortal themselves to determine at what point they have repaid the cost of of their sins.

With that the angel left.

Not long after an investigator from the Pure Legion came calling. The results were unpleasant as the youth was forced to kill the investigator and his bodyguards.

Still, the man, having long forgotten his real name if he ever had one stole away on a ship and headed towards Varisia. From there he wandered from town to town, city to city, doling out healing, learning how to channel his powers into saving people, and occasionally using his darker skills to deal out necessary and often lethal justice.

The first of these revelations was the realization that cities operated under very different assumptions than that of the cult or the wilderness. The cult provided for his basic needs and taught him to steal, or kill for whatever else he may require in times of need.

The city required that the boy use his skills in ways he had never done before. Whether negotiating for work, stealing his daily bread, or otherwise turning his skills into different ways the boy's skills grew even as he was looking for ways to turn his life away from the path the Shadow Scorpion had set before him.

It was also the first time he ran into true prejudice against his appearance. The cult exalted him for his heritage. Abad didn't seem to notice or comment. But, those within the city that took notice of him shunned and feared him.

Sometimes he found this useful and would disguise his appearance to appear as some undead horror or another in order to fool the people he robbed into thinking he was a true monster. Most of the time however he found that it impeded his ultimate goal of turning his dark powers and skills into a positive force.

While in Osirian he also looked into the goddess Sarenrae. He found her teachings close to both his desires and his sense of often lethal pragmatism.Ultimately he turned to worshiping her in the hopes that the Dawnflower might counter the nightmare of his past in some form or another.

His chance for a life outside of the scavenging hole he was in came when a group of embalmers began seeking apprentices among the downtrodden of the city. The group had done well for themselves and as a matter of their faith in Abadar they believed in helping the poor by teaching them a skill always in demand in the crowded cities and tradition infatuated people of Osirian.

Inured from horror by their time with death the youth's appearance did not dissuade them from taking him on as an apprentice impressed as they were by his already encyclopedic knowledge of humanoid anatomy.

As an embalmer he was a natural and despite the low pay his exotic bloodline played into the superstitions of some clients who believe his presence might dissuade actual daemons from coming to despoil the bodies of their relatives. It also marked the first time the youth dealt with death from the viewpoint of the deceased's relatives.

He experienced a number of emotions as he carefully removed organs and wrapped the dead in their burial shrouds from those relatives; Grief, sorrow, disbelief, anger, and stoic calm. All of these had a dire effect on the youth as he remembered the numerous people he sacrificed in the name of the shadow scorpion and the many he consigned to that dark and terrible realm. He had down more than kill. A life might be weighed on that of many lives. But how can one repay the price of a lost soul? A dozen?

Unable to reconcile these feelings of guilt the youth decided that his path must lay in aiding the living through the living, not the care of the already dead.

He spoke with his then mentor Rahad Sati on this. Upset and confused that the boy would become so emotional while simultaneously being so skilled Rahad suggested that he take his skills to Rahadoum where the need for healing arts was great without the Dawnflowers servants spreading her healing grace. Perhaps he may find what he was looking for there?

Taking his advice the youth gathered his savings and traveled to the Kingdom of Man.

Before he was 13 the young man had mastered the necessary rituals and powers necessary to tear a soul directly from a body barely clinging to life and send that soul into Norgorber's realm. By the time he was 15 he had learned almost countless ways to kill a man, leave them incapacitated, or injure them in ways that appeared accidental to the untrained eye.

As his training intensified so to did the loyalty tests, the attempts on his life, and the harsh interrogation sessions. When the boy was not killing, or being taught how to kill, he was tormented relentlessly.

On his fifteenth birthday this came to a bloody and terrible end.
In their most extreme test of loyalty Penance's handlers told him to murder one of the "lesser performing" members of their order. He did so and was immediately attacked as a traitor to the order.
The idea is that they would capture and interrogate him and attempt to pry the information about the orders from him to test the limits of his loyalty and his ability to keep secrets.

What they could not imagine was that he would succeed in slaying his would be captors and escaping the cave network into the mountains.

Incapable of trust and now unsure of his purpose he fled west deeper into the mountains and into regions where few if any humans dwell.

While there he stole, killed, and scavenged whatever he could while he constantly prayed and meditated for some form of answer from the Shadow Scorpion. But, Norgorber speaks rarely and guides never. For a full year this cycle passed until the day that the young man ran afoul of a mountain lion while taking game escaping only when he fell down a steep cliff breaking three of his limbs and putting him on the brink of death
He was rescued by a man named Abad, who never gave his last name, who took the broken young man to his mountain hideaway and nursed him slowly back to health.

While there the young man learned that Abad was once a wealthy man and fervent worshiper of Abadar. Yet, after years of enjoying the wealth and prosperity that his life brought him he found that he was unsatisfied with his life and that despite his fatih that his soul felt empty, his life pointless.
In a fit of revelation however Abad had given all his wealth over to the poor, the sick, and to the Church of Sarenrae, while to Sarenism and using what was left of his money to wander into the Brazen peaks to meditate on the meaning of life and what it means to be good.

The young man, naturally, found the man insane. The young man openly questioned his philosophies and choices in life. Why give anything to those whom you have nothing to gain from? Why spend so much time gaining in wealth and power only to throw it all away?

The man would merely smile, nod and answer with questions of his own. What was the point of self-indulgence at the expense of others? What is life as a person if you can do nothing but live as a paranoid animal atop a pile of wealth?

Such questions only served to infuriate him, and as soon as he was physically able he stole away into the night carrying as much food and belongings as he could carry into the darkness.

But other hunters were on the prowl, for gnolls ruled the Brazen Peaks, and such a group so accustomed to the trails and the scent of weak prey easily tracked the young man. Chasing him, hounding him, reveling in the way they do at the scent of weakness and fear.

Still, even they were surprised by the boys ferocity when cornered and decided to kill rather than enslave him. They nearly succeeded if Abad had not intervened before the killing blow was landed. But, only at the cost of Abad's left eye.

As the injured young man and Abad led one another back to their cave hideaway the young man asked Abad why he would go through the trouble of saving him knowing that he had taken things from him and might have easily killed him.

Sheepishly Abad had answered that he was concerned for the boy being not completely healed from the lion attack and, a bit more selfishly, the young man had stolen his favorite bowl.

The answer, and the emotions that followed, marked a direct turning point in the young mans life. Guilt, shame, and an overwhelming sense of empathy from Abad forced the young man to consider his place in the world.

Over the next few weeks as the young man and Abad recovered the young man shared much of his history. The training, the tests, the brutal murders and ritual sacrifices. Much of it he expect Abad to be sickened by, even disgusted and angry. But instead Abad would simply nod and say nothing. Sometimes he would question whether or not all of that was merely preparation for a greater purpose. After all, Abad would argue, in order to make a clean cut you had to know of anatomy. In order to make an effective poison you had to understand a body's reaction to it. Even in the case of getting close to a victim you had to learn the social graces and necessary flattery in order to get close. Perhaps he could turn those around. Maybe he could use the turn the lifestealing energies of his otherworldly powers in reverse?

Contemplating these questions himself the young man decided that he needed to find such answers himself, not as a hermit in the mountains, but living among people. On the second anniversary of his flight from the cult of Norgorber he left Abad in peace and headed for the ancient city of Ipeq to answer the question of turning the arts of death and deceit into those of life and compassion.

This column marks one of the few safe passages through the Brazen Peaks and is a helpful landmark to caravans and nomads who traverse between the two nations bringing trade and information with them.

But the black stone comes with its own portentous and terrible shadow bringing misfortune and death to those who tarry beneath its shadow. The rumors and superstition surrounding the rock have existed for nearly 500 years. In that time no travelers have dared camped beneath it without suffering its curse.

Which has worked well for the cult of Norgorber hidden in a large cavern network a short distance away from the stone and the source of the misfortune which befalls those travelers.

Desert assassins, thieves, and spies this cult has existed for as long as the stone has been erect. And why wouldn't it? They were the ones who erected it from the start. As a lure, as a sign, and as a warning.

The cult has no name of its own for labels and attachments are against Norgorber's teachings. Instead they hire themselves out as one group or another taking on names and habits when the time suits them. They willfully steal and shamelessly take the names of other groups seeing their own reputation as unimportant in the Shadow Scorpion's grand schemes.

Into this den of lies, death, and shadow was born the boy that would become Penance. Tearing from his mothers womb the sickly looking baby bore a terrible vigor and was drawn to death like a carcass fly. Typically, such a child would be sent to an orphanage, or otherwise abandoned depending on the parents wishes as life under the Shadow Scorpion is poorly suited for young children.

Intrigued, the head priest sought communion with Norgorber about what to do with the child. To his delight a herald answered and announced that the boy was drawn from a lineage of terrible Daemons. More than that, his was a rare breed that had the ability to tear souls out directly from living things, and with the correct preparation and ritual, hand them directly to Norgorber himself.

Such a boy was seen as nothing less than a blessing to the unnamed cult. And as such he was raised to be chief among their assassins and through summoning and divinations taught by Daemons the secrets of soul stealing, of defying the will of the cosmos themselves and serving the very essence of his victims into the his lord's black claws.

In addition to these tests came constant tests of silence, secrecy, and loyalty. Poisoning his food, sudden attacks, faked attacks and interrogations by authorities Penance was the constant subject to a culture of paranoia, fear, and secrecy. Trust no one. Trust, love, and friendship are merely the more subtle tools of conquerors. Guard your secrets or die.

It is in one of these places that under an ominous moon the Grippli known today as Penance was born. Of bright skin and toxic soul Penance was destined to be trained as one of the king's personal assassins. Tasked with keeping the song of the kingdom in harmony by removing those elements from it that could cause discord Penance was quite skilled at ensuring death and silence. The king and his advisers, and Penance did.

It might be thought that such an occupation would create a cynic. But, if anything it has given Penance's song brilliance and levity, for if life is so fleeting than every moment is to be cherished and loved. Every note of the song becomes important, nothing, not even the silence, should be taken for granted.

However, for some among the king's advisers such a willful servant with the ear of the king could drown out their own voice in the song of the kingdom and thus represented a threat to their verse.

Thus when Penance fell in love and sang his romantic song to a lovely mage's apprentice he was ordered to silence her as a message and warning to her master.

Love demanded that he rebel. Honor demanded that he comply. His shame in having to choose forced him to run.

Having given up his name and his song Penance is dead to his king and his people.

In a way this has worked out for him. It has given him cause to think on the greater song of the world and to hone his skills at silence on the big folk, the ugly folk, and those who dwell in silence and light.

He has signed on to this exploration ship to expand his verse and increase the glory of his own song. The Grippli that is Penance may have no past, no name, but the song of Penance may be quite grand indeed. Perhaps one day that Grippli's name will be devoured and subsumed into Penance and he can reclaim his lover.

Deep under the swampy canopies of hot jungles lie cities and civilizations largely ignorant of the songless and overly large human nations.

It is in one of these places that under an ominous moon the Grippli known today as Penance was born. Of bright skin and toxic soul Penance was destined to be trained as one of the king's personal assassins. Tasked with keeping the song of the kingdom in harmony by removing those elements from it that could cause discord Penance was quite skilled at ensuring death and silence. The king and his advisers, and Penance did.

It might be thought that such an occupation would create a cynic. But, if anything it has given Penance's song brilliance and levity, for if life is so fleeting than every moment is to be cherished and loved. Every note of the song becomes important, nothing, not even the silence, should be taken for granted.

However, for some among the king's advisers such a willful servant with the ear of the king could drown out their own voice in the song of the kingdom and thus represented a threat to their verse.

Thus when Penance fell in love and sang his romantic song to a lovely mage's apprentice he was ordered to silence her as a message and warning to her master.

Love demanded that he rebel. Honor demanded that he comply. His shame in having to choose forced him to run.

Having given up his name and his song Penance is dead to his king and his people.

In a way this has worked out for him. It has given him cause to think on the greater song of the world and to hone his skills at silence on the big folk, the ugly folk, and those who dwell in silence and light.

He has signed on to this exploration ship to expand his verse and increase the glory of his own song. The Grippli that is Penance may have no past, no name, but the song of Penance may be quite grand indeed. Perhaps one day that Grippli's name will be devoured and subsumed into Penance and he can reclaim his lover.

Whatever the case all that Penance will say about his past before the agency is that he bears a great debt and that the agency is allowing him to repay it.

Penance himself stays in a simple apartment with only a straw mat, some kitchen utensils and some books for comfort.

Those who know him say that he eschews all forms of weapons and refuses to even touch one. To say that this makes him defenseless however is a mistake, often a fatal one, made by those who test him. He prefers to defeat his targets using only his magic and his fists claiming tersely that weapons are merely objects of death. A hand can be used for many things, it can give life as well as death. A sword only knows how to kill and uses that threat implicitly. Whatever response one may have to that his prowess is undeniably brutal as it is basic and fundamental. Many mages can cast spells but few can utilize it into a boxers cross so fierce as to shatter jaws.

His personality is as straightforward as his fighting style. He cannot abide lies, or pointless deception. It is one thing to defeat an enemy through trickery, it is another to do it merely for thrills or personal gain. He also bears a slight disdain for mortals from "the lower realms" shaking his head at their senseless violence and overwhelming need to have over one another.

Yet this personality hides a kindhearted and musical soul. He is friendly to children and it's well known he sometimes divides his payment among orphanages around the city. Occasionally when he believes no one is watching or listening he writes eloquent poetry hinting at a lost love or strums an old guitar given to the agency as part of a payment for a small job Penance took part in shortly after being hired. The poetry always ends up at the bottom of a trashbin or the guitar suddenly goes silent if he's seen or catches someone listening in. Perhaps there are some things the man wishes to keep to himself.