Sebastienne

Sebastienne Dane
Status
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Guild	Thief
Instance	Prime

Introduction

Sebastienne Dane, known to some as 'the Empress', is a human female in her mid-20's. A legendary thief who is unapologetically selfish, higly emotional, and quick to draw blood, she is possibly the most high-profile criminal and one of the most despised characters currently in the Dragon's Realm.

Early Life

Sebastienne was born in the city of Riverhaven in Therengia. Her father was a trapper and hunter and it is from him she gained her love of the swamps and marshes surrounding the city. Her mother was a practicing herbalist and alchemist and passed along a great deal of her knowledge to her daughter. She closely resembles her mother in physical appearance, and adopted her proper manner of speech. Her relationship with both parents was excellent.

She excelled in her studies and is highly educated for a child of the common class, thanks largely to close friends of the family who were educators and willing to provide her opportunities most commoners would have to pay a great deal more for.

Sebastienne was a well-behaved and normal, if introverted, child. She was liked by both children and adults and none had the slightest indication of what she was to become as she neared adulthood.

A Tempting Future

Sebastienne claims that in the beginning of her 15th year she was approached by a woman offering to show her a glimpse of a possible future, one where she featured prominently. It was made clear to her that achieving this future would make her many enemies along the way and that the chance for failure was high. The reward should she succeed, however, would be more than worth it.

Intrigued and believing there could be no harm in seeing, Sebastienne accepted the offer and in the months following was shown, piece by piece, a future that greatly excited her. The visions received were extremely vague but indicated Sebastienne would rise to a position of power that would satisfy her and have an impact on the world as a whole.

Details in the final vision convinced Sebastienne that the woman was actually Dergati. Unable to resist the temptation of a divinely inspired future that promised far more than life as an alchemist, she set about taking her first steps on her darkened path.

Into the Shadows

At the close of her 15th year Sebastienne fled Riverhaven suddenly and without warning, leaving in her wake two missing parents. No signs of struggle or conflict were present at the Dane residence, and the authorities soon assumed them dead. Bodies have never been recovered.

Unprepared for the sudden flight, not to mention life without parental shelter and money, Sebastienne soon found herself destitute and keeping to the shadier parts of the Crossing. For over a year she lived hand-to-mouth, her skill at stealth and stealing developing out of necessity. Her activities and developing relationships in the Crossing soon brought her to the attention of the local underworld, who finally approached her and spoke of her potential. Weary of being poor and motivated by a growing darkness in her heart, nothing could stop Sebastienne from becoming a guilded thief. She was inducted by Kalag the Black just days after her eighteenth birthday. Upon hearing the details of her flight from Riverhaven the guild assured her she woud never be questioned in relation to her parents death.

A Friend and Mentor

Fortune favored Sebastienne near the end of her 18th year with her meeting of a guildmate, an elven lady named Sinone. Having been abroad for some time, Sinone inquired about the state of affairs in the Crossing and Sebastienne offered to share news with her. From this conversation a fast friendship developed and Sebastienne was soon living with Sinone as her ward and student.

With food and shelter now taken care of and under the eye of Sinone, a skilled thief, Sebastienne's advancement accelerated rapidly. Sinone also freely shared the tenets of her personal (and somewhat cruel and selfish) philosophy. Sebastienne found it much to her liking and claims Sinone as a very strong influence in shaping her into what she is today.

Life of Crime

After years of intense training and study under Sinone, a much more skilled and aggressive Sebastienne stood ready to continue seeking her promising future. Having had no further visions or contact with Dergati since her 15th year she was unsure of precisely what to do, and decided making her presence known to the world would be a logical start.

Adopting the underworld alias 'the Empress', Sebastienne began a vicious crime spree. Desiring a reputation and believing that doing considerable damage to her victims would deter investigation or pursuit, many of her acts were quite blatant and frequently caused multiple fatalities. Between her willingness to commit murder and several high-profile thefts, Sebastienne was soon known to many residents of Zoluren, Therengia, and Qi. It was her next move, however, that would make her reputation as a bold and unpredictable thief.

Trouble on the Mainland

With an excess of goods stolen from various victims Sebastienne decided to do the insane: she publicly announced her intent to hold an auction in the Crossing, placing up for bids the merchandise she had stolen, a great deal of which came from her adventuring peers. In an attempt to put the Zoluren government between a rock and a hard place, she pledged a percentage of her profits to the Zoluren orphanage, which had been seeking funding for some time.

Not surprisingly the citizens of Zoluren were outraged, as was the government. Her guild, already reeling from a recent raid that destroyed the Crossing headquarters, was similarly upset. Her sanity and intelligence were openly questioned; surely she had to know such a thing could only end in disaster for her.

With the aid of the trader Martyka and the backing of a handful of peers who found the entire situation humorous or potentially profitable, Sebastienne went ahead with the auction despite a warning from her guild to call it off or face the consequences. Trader guildleader Ansprahv condemned the auction and Brigadier General Zukir raided the event, arresting Martyka and Sebastienne and ordering the crowd to disperse.

Martyka was released soon after, but Sebastienne found herself a guest of Ulf'hara Keep's dungeon for over two weeks. During this time she had a meeting with Zukir and Vorclaf, boldly telling them both that she was a dangerous weapon and that if Zoluren did not want to be wounded by her it should consider wielding her instead. Zukir icily declined the offer of service. Though Vorclaf was far less hostile to the idea, he stated that she must earn his trust before he could consider her useful. She was then heavily fined and deported to Aesry.

With both the Zoluren government and her own guild angry at her, Sebastienne wisely chose to keep her distance, remaining in Qi for over a year before quietly returning to the Crossing. Despite not making a single sale and spending two weeks in prison, she considers the auction a success, clearly indicating her intended purpose was to attract the notice of the government.

Exposing a Necromancer

Sebastienne learned of #redirect Veyne through Uris, who offered her one of the stone rings Veyne had been giving to followers. She accepted the ring with the intent of learning more and possibly handing him over to one of the governments, should he prove to be someone of interest. Her posession of a ring remained a secret for some time as she refused to wear it and rarely spoke of it.

Sitting in on meetings with Veyne quickly convinced Sebastienne that he was a madman at best and at worst something much nastier. His other followers placed little trust in her; on several occasions shouting matches occurred between her and the others. Worse, Therengia had banned all ring-bearers from the province and Zoluren, who Sebastienne was hoping to hand Veyne over to, expressed no interest in him at all. Prospects for profit or amusement were looking dim.

Word of her accepting a ring finally began to reach outsider's ears, leading to Caelumia approaching her and requesting her aid in finding out precisely who and what Veyne was. Sebastienne was unaware that Caelumia was working for Kougen at this time. She began to feed information back to Caelumia, culminating in two attempts on Veyne's life in the city of Shard; the first a failure and the second a success. With Veyne dead and his body available for examination his abuse of necromancy was blatantly obvious; an attack by the Xala'shar moments after also left no doubt as to who he was.

Her work for Caelumia was essentially complete at this time, and efforts to ferret out traitors by Bluewither and other ring-bearers had made it clear to them that Sebastienne was not loyal to Veyne. Before leaving Shard, Sebastienne spoke briefly with Leucius, telling him as she had told Zoluren that her skills were available to Ilithi should it have need of them.

Having both completed her work and severed her ties to Veyne, Sebastienne now sought re-entry to Therengia. A letter proclaiming herself free of necromancy was written to Lord Larohald Trigomas and, after some negotiation on her behalf by Caelumia and others in Therengia, the cleric Valkri was selected to administer a test in front of witnesses to determine if Sebastienne was indeed uncorrupted by necromancy.

Sebastienne was found untainted by necromancy (though Valkri did claim a taint of some kind was present on her soul -- Sebastienne takes this as further proof that it was indeed Dergati she spoke to years before) and cleared to re-enter Therengia. She still posesses Veyne's ring, keeping it locked away in her vault. As with Zoluren and Ilithi, she made her willingness to serve Therengia as an agent clear to those who witnessed her test.

Two Danes

With occasional downtime to enjoy during the early part of the Veyne incident, Sebastienne had met a young lady by the name of Ignifera. A scholar from Dirge with a similar disposition and outlook on life, the two became fast friends and were soon courting.

With nothing pressing on her plate after Veyne, Sebastienne was able to spend more time enjoying her personal life and plans for a bonding were soon being made. Permission to host the event in Cloudspire Keep was obtained and friends and allies throughout the realm (most all of them on the wrong side of the law in one way or another) happily attended.

The two ladies announced their bond before the crowd, and Ignifera took both the last name Dane and one of two rings bearing the newly-designed Dane family crest:

This sleek ring has been polished to a mirror shine, and at first glance appears to have been carefully etched with the visage of a feminine face. Closer inspection reveals that the facial features lack distinction; the eyes are slightly hollowed sockets, the nose is a barely perceptible bump and there is no mouth. Slender, downward sloping horns complete the unsettling image, curving in upon themselves to frame the face.

The Dane family was born and its arrival celebrated with a night of debauchery that left most of the guests with abundant wounds and fewer favors. The party made such a mess that the cleaning staff, upon seeing the aftermath, requested (and was given) double price for their services.

Current Whereabouts and Activities

Dergati has now ignored her for just over a decade and Sebastienne is beginning to fear that she has misjudged the situation with her goddess. She is cautiously but dilligently seeking answers to the questions she has about both her childhood visions and why the one who gave them to her now seems uninterested.

Sebastienne currently divides most of her time between a ship anchored in the Crossing and Rossman's Landing, venturing elsewhere only when work demands it. She has made her willingness to undertake most any task for suitable compensation clear to almost every major faction (including the Dragon Priests) as well as to individuals; many of her adventuring peers have worked with her on one task or another.

She has repaired her relationship with her guild, undertaking several tasks for them in the last year. Though not quite convinced that her high-profile methods of operation are the right way for a thief to do business, they do seem to have accepted that she is good at it, and that it can at times be useful to them.

When not working for others she pursues her personal goals and tries to further the power and influence of the Dane family, which she is not opposed to expanding if she finds the right people. She also keeps a close eye and ear on the political climate, seeking, as always, opportunity for profit or amusement.