Atazai

Atazai
Status
Race	Elothean
Gender	Female
Guild	Moon Mage
Instance	Prime
Relatives	Knows she has siblings but has never looked for them.

Description

You are Atazai, Racketeer of M'Riss, an Elothean.
You have tilted almond-shaped emerald eyes. Your black hair is short and thick, and is worn in a careless, windblown arrangement.
You have tanned skin.
You are tall for an Elothean.
You are young.

You are in good shape.

You are wearing a deeply hooded cloak of black silk lined in silvery-grey, a dark blue robe streaked with grey wings and clasped with a silver nightingale, a cobalt blue bag, an ash grey buckler, some black velvet gloves and some knee-high ghoul-skin moccasins.

Early Life

Zai was born somewhere near Steelclaw Clan, north of Shard. Upon seeing her pale, almost translucent eyes and deep black hair the Midwife called for the baby to be killed immediately. Her parents agreed but could not find the will to kill the infant outright, instead abandoning it deep in the fallow fields east of Shard.

Her own memories start when she was four and believed the couple raising her in the Middens were her parents. Her 'mother' was a custodian to a minor Rivercrossing importer while her 'father' cleaned horse stalls for a prominent Horse Care company. These two professions put her in contact with a wide array of people and influences, chief among which was a Gor'tog thief named Uskul who became a patron of hers. Uskul visited Crossing at least once a month to buy and sell horses and to relay information on caravan schedules, manifests, rosters, and routes to his guild.

Uskul funded the private education of a number of Middens children in an attempt to cull future leaders of the district. By age thirteen Zai figured out her 'parents' weren't her real parents but felt no need to search for them. She ran away from home and began running interference for a few gangs, always trying to play the middle and come out on top. Her refusal to either be guilded or join a criminal organization led to the Thieves Guild deporting her to the island of Surlaenis.

This forced move was the major turning point in her life. Within fifteen roisaen on the island she had to knife a man who attempted to jump her, and fifteen rois later she was offered a shore gig for a pirate outfit based on Hara'jaal. The offer was interrupted by two Tribunal Dragoons who recognized one of the pirates and she was escorted to the safety of the Sentinels.

The Moon Mages of the Sentinels took her in and gave her legitimate work yet she was drawn to the underbelly of that tropical paradise. She did personal work for a time, crawling through mountains and jungle to map out as many illegal still and crop locations as possible. She gathered information on who ran the operations and who smuggled the goods off the island before setting up her own meetings with prominent local criminals.

At the age of fifteen Zai assissted a mediator in action and territory disputes between the four main criminal elements based on Surlaenis. The talks were a success to all four parties and to the local government and the mediator trickled small credit down to Zai. Just before her sixteenth birthday she was offered an off the book off the record position with the Surlaenis Moon Mage guild to gather information and carry out small tasks they could not be associated with.

Within a year she petitioned to become a Guilded Moon Mage, and though her superiors agreed she should be accepted they asked that she travel to the mainland to join, where there was more access to training for a young warrior. She didn't need any funding, but when they offered she took it, finding this a perfect chance to cut out on Surlaenis before she got pulled into its affairs any deeper.

Atazai the Lunar Magician

Zai was accepted into the Moon Mage guild by Guildleader Tiv in 392 AV after a long discussion over the various paths a lunar magician can take in life. Tiv gave Zai the names of a few Moon Mages he felt would be good influences for her spirit.

While on Surlaenis she had become accoustomed to periods of extremely bad luck; once in the guild she began exploring writings and theories of luck and Fate. These studies helped lead to the strong faith in Luck, and thus in the Aspect Zachriedek, that she developed.

Though first centered around Riverhaven she soon began exploring the wilds nearby. After being swept down the Faldesu almost to Throne City and the inlet she began spending considerable amounts of time swimming. Before she gained her twentieth circle in the guild she was able to swim the Faldesu River and, with help, the Jantspyre River.

She spent most of her early career traveling the mainland persuing magical and academic studies. During this period she maintained a good reputation in the guild as a straight flyer, having left her criminal ways behind. This lull in her spirit was ended when she met Latathi, a wizard of a somewhat ill-repute for murder and anarchy. After spending a brief time in Mer'Kresh under his direction she came back to the mainland and began vigorously working her combat skills.

Atazai the Warrior

With no immediate desire to live in Crossing again she accepted a room from Guildleader Tiv and resisted joining the Crystal Hand. When her combat training was beginning to lag she then resisted the move to Reshalia her contemporaries were taking, instead traveling during war-time to Hibarnhvidar where she did what she could to assist the city against the armies of Lyras.

After the war Zai stuck around the western province renting a room at Momma's Bed and Breakfast by the month and working with local Officials to maintain outbreaks of bucca, imps, and cave trolls. Months passed and the Coon in her guided her to the valley of Vela'tohr and His altar there. At the time there was a problem with the flora and fauna of the area, all affected by a sickly curse, so she honed her battle skills further defoliating blood-vines and maiden's tresses and obliterating cursed dryads and nyads.

During the winter of 395 a cursed clan of ogres descended on Vela'tohr intent on slaughtering everyone they could find. The onslaught was fierce and a strange infection began to spread among the defenders. The main body of defenders had come from Hibarnhvidar to aid but soon fell back to the city fearing the new disease. A small group led by the Dwarven Cleric Vecuto, which included Zai and the Empath Marssi, gained stealthy access to the depths of the ogre caves and met battle with a Bone Elf, his S'kra Mur apprentice, and their risen.

Though the Elf was defeated it took a great toll on Vecuto, and they found the apprentice to be a much tougher challenge than the master. Eventually the group took the S'kra woman as prisoner and set off to take her back to Vecuto's Guild in the valley. Marssi had healed the party of all physical ailments and Vecuto had cleared them of ill spiritual affects, yet on the way back to the Guild four members of the group grew fell and set upon the rest slaying half the party in an incensed rage and freeing the tempermental S'kra alchemist who spat curses fled into the wilderness.

Atazai the Unknown Criminal

Some months passed as she roamed the western province and when the dreams of the ocean began she felt the time came to leave. A stay in Shard did not comfort her so she made it very brief before travelling north to Crossing. As it is to many adventurers, the city was a bad influence on her.

While keeping rogue Forest Geni and atik'et populations under control she fell back into the violence and chaos of the street life. Zai joined the Magen Road Gang (an applicant alongside her trusted friend Marssi Darssi who became the Face of the Gang) filling the role of Moderator when there were workable disputes in town, keeping herself out of the illegal side of Gang operations. This gig didn't last too long; the Gang parted ways after House Magen came under scrutiny for various financial misnomers that surfaced in tax records. No connections to House Magen and the Magen Street Gang were ever verified, though the Gang seemed to have unlimited funds during their run and many of their criminal members escaped sentencing on charges of murder, racketeering, extortion, and bribery.

The Gang split up, most of the higher profile members moving south of the Segoltha River while the more common thugs integrated themselves into other Crossing criminal organizations. Atazai decided instead to move back to Qi'Reshalia. Her dreams of the ocean had gotten intense, real intense, and the mainland side of the Reshal Sea was not cutting it.

She arrived back on Surlaenis for the first time in three years, renting a bungalow on the sea cliffs over looking the Reshal. Finally her dreams settled and she found peace of mind again. The island held part of her past, so she soon found all manner of people coming to her recalling debts and favors from her teenage years. The pestering was fine at first but she was soon waking in foul moods and refusing to leave the remote cliffs. Release from these annoyances came in the form of a formal invitation to meet with certain members of the Council of Mer'kresh.

Atazai the Known Criminal

It is assumed she accepted the Council's invitation, as she hired a caretaker for her bungalow and vanished from Surlaenis. For a few months she was absent from any news of adventure or politics or criminal activity.

The next record of her comes in records of a citizenship change to M'riss and the purchase of a shack on Fever Point. This was followed by official announcements that Zai was on the Council's payroll as a tour guide and dive master, leading tourists on excursions across Torbis Sanhalas Bay and Belarritaco Bay showcasing the abundant marine and coral life and leading safaris through the jungles of M'riss.

Along with her mundane jobs under the Council she was also voted onto the Board of the Fever Point Home Owner's Association which, though it has known ties to the Council seems to work as an independent criminal outfit that takes up where the Council would (publicly) rather not. Basing herself there on the Point, she made to reconnect with her old mentor Latathi but found he had been afflicted with a strange mental malady, so severe he seemed like a different person. It was fortunate, as she turned to the Warlock Asrion, a former member of the Goose Family Crime Syndicate for moon mage matters.

A year and a half passed without much incident. Zai kept a low and legal profile, though there were rumors that she and Asrion were asked by the Council to cease an experiment in the Dunes of Despair that reports indicate "may have caused massive explosions in the desert that hurled a number of Armadillo as far as the jungles around the Altanen River". No evidence was accumulated against the two, though the occurrence of several Armadillo rampaging through the Caracal and Lun'Shele Trekhalo jungles is well documented.

Her seat on the FPHOA Board gave Zai an opportunity to improve her reputation with the Council of Mer'kresh without being enmeshed in their inner squabbles and to increase the role Fever Point played in the Qi smuggling trade and led to the Council offering her a position with the Kresh Portage. She accepted and began work as a Face for the Portage.

She still holds this position and her employment consists primarily of supervising the loading and unloading of legitimate ships, dealing with ship captains, and overseeing cargo checks. Within a year she began taking off-island contracts in the same capacity, primarily in Rivercrossing, Riverhaven, and Ratha. Periodically she is arrested and taken into custody and fed generic questions about smuggling, errors in ledgers and manifests, suspicions of bribery, and details of Reshal pirate movements.

• Sells predictions for reasonable fees
• Sells Moongates for reasonable fees, mainland or islands
• Look her up! She'll do it.