Caste: Caste-Warrior
Occupation: Omen Priest Acolyte
Age: 28
Real name: Xenxau tl Xao {Zheng-ZHAU tuhl Zhaoh}
Omen Priest Name: Acolyte Xao
Background:
28 years ago, in the year 3642 on the Great Calendar of the Gods, a child was born in the province of Hiulan within the Llanei Empire. The proud father of the child was a young warrior in the service of the Grandee of Hiulan, the father of present day Kostaan, and his mother was a petite woman renowned for her great beauty and witty charm. In those days they knew happiness, for they had gotten their second son, and the love between the young parents bloomed and shone. The servants still tell tales of those days, and usually the tales are about his father. Their father would sing merrily as he hurried home after duty, and when he passed beneath the chrysanthemum trees of Winter Avenue, his eyes sought their abode, a humble dwelling they had gotten as dowry from his father in law. In those days his eyes had a proud and loving gleam whenever he spoke of or looked upon his wife and two sons. He was considered a blessed man, for he had the prettiest wife in the entire village of Haufein and, some said, in the entire province.
Years passed and their sons grew older. The oldest son proved to be much like his father; strong, courageous and skilled; a true warrior. From his mother he got a quick mind and a handsome face, and their father was proud, for this son had all he could wish for. Yet the second son, Xao, proved to be quite different. He resembled his mother in every way: He was petite and hauntingly beautiful, but his small frame and frail arms proved ill suited for combat and however they tried, they could not make a decent warrior out of him. From the age of seven to the age of fifteen he got drilled, exercised every day, yet he showed marvellously little talent and only with the spear did he ever show any skill. He proved to be a mediocre warrior, easily bested by warriors with but a fifth of his elaborate training, and his father grew resentful. He never beat his untalented son, but his words lashed viciously at the young boy who quickly learnt what a failure he truly was. Oddly enough there was little or no sibling rivalry and the oldest son protected his weakling brother wherever they went, more akin to a protector and a benefactor than any actual equal. Yet the love between the brothers remained profound and whenever Xao needed it, his brother came to his aid.
More years passed and the parents grew estranged as the mother resented the treatment their youngest son received at the hands of the disdainful father. By now the father had been sworn into service of the new Grandee, Kostaan, as he succeeded the old Grandee after his fall in the battle of Dhengxao. They had moved away from Winter Avenue and the village of Haufein, and now they resided within the compound of the Grandee, as his father had become a veteran sergeant of the Grandee’s guard. Increasingly often the father slept on the silken mattresses of his concubines, instead of the cold bedroom he shared with his ageing wife. Still their old love sometimes sparked and on occasion the parents would sit forehead against forehead, streaks of tears on their cheeks, whispering about the past and the great love that once was.
It was at this time that one of his father’s concubines caught an interest for the boy, now in his early puberty. Her perfume smelt of roses, her freckled cleavage made him swoon, and soon he was tantalized by her erotic charms. She never took advantage of him, but instead she confided in him, told him secrets his young mind had trouble comprehending and stories he wasn’t mature enough to fully understand. Yet, despite his naïveté, or perhaps because of it, she continued confiding in him and he came to know that she had been tutored in the art of divination by her mother, a caste-menial brothel whore. So it came to be that she whispered her blasphemous secrets into the ears of the young man who crouched as close to her as he could get, and he breathed heavily, inhaled her sweet scent and felt the heat of her body. She taught him how to swim, as her divinations were water aspected, and how to meditate and seek counsel of the spirits and he proved to be an apt student, a natural talent. Then one day, years later, his father happened upon the concubine and her young apprentice by the riverside, as they sought the counsel of a minor river demon. Spotting the tiny, slithering, scaly black demon and realizing what they were doing, the Guard Sergeant attacked the sorcerous concubine in a fit of rage. Tears of anger and regret ran down his face as he shook her forcibly, smashing her head violently against the smooth, round stones of the riverbed. As the stones were bathed with her crimson lifeblood, Xao tried to intervene, but his father hit him with a powerful backhand slap that knocked Xao to the ground. It was the first and only time his father ever hurt him. One week later a sobbing Xao left his grief struck mother and his shocked brother, heading for a temple of the Ghost Gods which was located within their old home village, Haufein. His father stood silently in the doorway and when Xao looked at him, the old man turned his back on him, a gesture underlining what he had already told: He wanted no more to do with Xao; in his eyes his second son was already dead.
At the age of fifteen Xao took the wows of a Priest and entered the clerical ranks as an acolyte. Every third month his mother and brother would visit and they would sit on the grassy meadows, where they would drink tea and eat the spicy biscuits produced in Haufein, biscuits who brought back memories of happier days and their mother would cry and laugh. It was a happiness of sorts, yet the absence of the father painfully reminded them that a new age had come. Meanwhile Xao did well as an acolyte. His magical aptitude earned him apprenticeship with the temple sciomancer and he was tutored in the arts of necromancy and divination. He never learnt any other fields of magic, though his master made sure he was knowledgeable about them. Alongside his magical training, Xao was taught the art of acupuncture, massage, herbalism and first aid, and his natural healing talents proved to be very good indeed; with time his healing skills became secondary only to his sciomancer abilities. He was also taught in the ways of astrology, and soon he combined astrology with sciomancy to strengthen his divinations, yielding the most accurate Omen Priest divinatons for an acolyte his age. Sometimes he would employ his divinations to study his ancestors and he would divine the whereabouts of his brother as the army was sent to war in every odd corner of the Empire. These discoveries he wrote down in weekly letters to his old, worried mother, who greatly appreciated his efforts. Additionally the lithe young man excelled in the ritual temple dances and with time he became the prime male dancer of their ceremonies. His hauntingly beautiful, feminine features, a legacy of his mother, caught the eyes of many a bystander and had it not been for his wow of chastity he would probably have married long ago.
Description:
Xao is a lithe man, only 5’4” tall and weighing about 100 lbs. He is considered hauntingly beautiful and has strongly feminine features. His arms are frail and his legs are thin. In accordance to Omen Priest custom he keeps his scalp and face closely shaven. Most often he wears white flowing robes of silk with tiny, flowing, slash-marks of Old Jahi; an imitation of the Rib of God. The robe has a wide hood which is most often kept up, beneath which his delicately beautiful face is near always painted white with those snowy cosmetics the Mandutari favour. He prefers to walk barefoot, but wears beige leather boots in cold regions.
Present day:
Years and years of meditation in dark chambers and an ascetic lifestyle has made Xao a silent man, primarily expressing himself through dance or by presiding over the ceremonies of the Ghost Gods. When he is travelling Xao performs blessings and weddings, horoscopes and minor healing in exchange for shelter, food or money. He will dance at religious festivals and he will recite sacred ancestral curses or parts of the Rib of God on occasion. He will soothsay on religious holidays or when a divination is sorely needed, though he expects some kind of compensation if the divination is not critical. He travels lightly, with only a spear for protection and a sling bag full of scrolls and tomes of knowledge, as well as a couple of spare robes.
He is currently performing a rite of initiation, a two year quest necessary for him to become an adept within the ranks of the temple. The quest has just begun and the hierophants have not yet fully explained the nature of his quest, but instead provided him with a cryptic scroll they claim he will fully understand in due time.
Ancestral Curse: "The blades of the Mandutari prove sharp, and the skill of the Xenxau prevail”
