Nisreen Saladeen

Biographical information

Birthplace Born Died Age 24 Home You'll get a different answer each time Sexuality Pronouns

Physical description

Race Human (Kaliti) Sub-Race Gender Female Height 5'5" Mass 110 lbs. Hair color Dark Brown Eye color Bronze Skin color Dark

Political information

Affiliation(s) Occupation Fortune Teller Clan(s) Caste Domain Masters Apprentices Alias(es)

Out-of-character information

Writer VigiloConfido Created on Avatar Nekhare, the Oracle by Kelly Tan

Appearance and Equipment

* Medium dark brown wavy hair, bronze eyes, dark skin, 5'5", thin and slender build. Has a nosering and pairs of golden rings on each middle finger. Her fingernails are painted in a golden color, and on the backs of her hands she has golden ankh tattoos. Golden tattoos beneath her eyes and beneath her lips.

* Usually wears an elaborate and gaudy outfit: a white sleeved dress; golden bracers; ornate and jeweled cloth corset, gorget, and falcon-headed hat; blue sash belt tied into a bow; sandals.

* Usually armed with the Deck of Nine, which may or may not be an actual weapon.

Skills and Abilities

The Deck of Nine: A magical deck of seventy-eight cards, of which twenty-two are used for fortune telling and fifty-six are used to bestow the temporary gift of Fated Magic upon the wielder (limited time and once a day). The Deck can be summoned and unsummoned by the wielder. The Deck can also summon and unsummon itself. May or may not be sentient.

** Fated Magic: Magic that grants other magic. It is, however, entirely dependent on the draw of a card—which is to say, fated or random, depending on how you see it. Could be elemental magic, could be conjuration, could be blood magic or necromancy, who knows? The potency of said magic is also dependent on the value of the card drawn.

Cartomancy: Nisreen's signature form of divination with which she can divine someone's fortune in a four card reading. Is it accurate? Fate knows.

Not quite an Alchemist: A believer in many things, focal points of personal energy called "chakras" being one, Nisreen also likes to employ certain herbs, waters, stones, and crystals to help "balance" these chakras. While this may or may not be actually effective, this interest in minor alchemy does lend her a bit of useful knowledge for the making of potions and elixirs.

Personality and Characteristics

Major

* Believes deeply in Fate, which she sometimes calls The Great Tapestry. All things are connected, all things are woven. Her cards reveal tiny portions of The Great Tapestry, and in this she finds exuberant purpose.

* Mischievous. Scheming. Can be secretive, and does like keeping knowledge close in hand and maintaining a sense of mystery about herself.

* Has a natural flair and elegance, and gestures often in flowing motions when speaking. Nurtures a grandiose air of importance about herself. She is, however, occasionally thrown off, especially by the unexpected, but is quick to recover and to act like nothing interrupted her image.

* Plays to a crowd. Showwoman. Craves attention. Extroverted. Always acts like she's welcome and included, and thus can insert herself effortlessly into just about any social encounter.

* Superstitious to a high degree. Observer of rituals, sacred things, curses, omens, prophecy. Follower of the Annunaki Pantheon, but is pantheist at her convenience (which can get her in trouble).

Minor

+ Not above being petty.

+ Gives heavenly backscratches.

+ Enjoys watching the folly of others (particularly in gambling, which she thinks is silly), especially if they struggle against fate.

+ Loves lavish and gaudy things of all kinds. Also likes extravagance and opulence. Would absolutely have four strong adoring fans carry her around everywhere on a palanquin if she could.

+ Doesn't mind being a little obsequious if it means ultimately getting her way.

+ Highly prone to sympathetic vomiting/retching. Don't be mean and intentionally do it in front of her.

Biography and Lore

Wanting

Nisreen Saladeen was born in Annuakat to an indentured servant and a freedwoman. As the fourth child of six, she ended up with the unenviable distinction of being the least remarkable among her siblings—neither was she the oldest, the youngest, the tallest, the cutest, nor the smartest. The curse of the middle child in full.

All Nisreen wanted was attention, but she never really got it. At least not from her parents and siblings.

There Must Be A Reason

Nisreen in her childhood helped her father and her mother in their duties to Prince Benu Unqid, the normarch to whom they owed their loyalty and service. A child prince, only a year older than Nisreen herself, he felt isolated as well, for he cared little for the princely responsibilities foisted upon him by his family and wished tacitly to be a kid.

They struck up a friendship which lasted for two and a half years. Due to differences in their stations, they had to keep it as secret as they could (mostly for Nisreen's safety). Nisreen was brimming with energy and was always up for play and sharing with Benu a simpler world he couldn't know; Benu always had eyes and ears for Nisreen, giving her the attention she'd always sought, and he lived in the lavish conditions that she was absolutely enchanted by. These things they gave to each other.

Until the young Prince was one day assassinated.

Or so Nisreen thought, and still thinks to this day.

One Last Gift

Nisreen was crushed. Her family tried to console her, but their (in her opinion) meager efforts weren't good enough.

Instead, Nisreen decided to venture into the depths of the Unqid palace. Shortly before Benu's assassination, he had mentioned something "extraordinary" in the abandoned underways. She wanted to find it. She might even pretend that Benu was there with her, gushing over her cleverness and bravery, when she did.

She snuck into the underways, descended down the perilous and darkened corridors, and indeed found something extraordinary hidden away in a chest bearing the Unqid family name. A deck of cards. A deck of magic cards, for they appeared and disappeared in puffs of sand within her palms. She recognized most of the card faces; fortune tellers were rare, but Nisreen had seen a few, and they used decks much like this one, save they were mundane. And she noticed how these fortune tellers worked.

Nisreen decided to try to read her own fortune with the Deck. She drew the cards. Interpreted them.

And to her, the cards were crystal clear: One Last Gift, they said.

For quite a while, she cried in sorrowful and cherished memory of Benu.

The Great Tapestry

The Deck of Nine was the key to the life Nisreen had always wanted.

Across the Empire she slowly made something of a name for herself—in esoteric circles, anyway. Her fortune tellings started small: some here on the streets of Annuakat, some there on the streets of Maraan, and so on. Coin was tight for many years, but soon the breakthroughs came. First middling merchants asked for her fortunes, then lesser nobility, then commanders, and more. Her fees grew (her detractors would call her a charlatan, but her fortunes and services were the pinnacle of such upon Arethil!), and with her newfound coin she could buy all of the lovely adornments she'd always desired. She wasn't rich, and her spending habits helped ensure that, but she got by far better than during her childhood. Fate, which now believed in wholeheartedly, had been kind.

But! Then would come her great calling! Her place within the Great Tapestry!

For the Deck of Nine was missing nine cards. The Cards of the Annunaki Pantheon, the Six and the Three, were scattered far and wide across Arethil. As steward of the Deck, it was her Fate to complete the Deck and return it to its full glory.

How pristine!

Nisreen Saladeen