Xaelira Vel’ethra
Appearance
Xaelira Vel’ethra (Zay-leer-ah) is beautiful much in the way a blade is beautiful, sharp and well polished, pretty to look at but undeniably dangerous.
Her skin is a deep, polished charcoal grey, smooth and unblemished. Her hair falls long and straight in a spill of pure white, most often worn loose.
Her eyes are vivid violet, an intense gaze to hold. Whether witnessing pleasure or violence, her expression is often the same mask of indifference. Smiles are calculated, laughter rare, and when she looks at someone it is with the quiet assessment of worth rather than curiosity.
Xaelira dresses impeccably; dark silks, fitted leathers, subtle jewellery. Clothing chosen for control rather than display. Even in the depths of her establishments, she looks every inch a female of Zar’Ahal's nobility.
Personality
Cold. Calculating. Indulgent. Unforgiving.
Xaelira Vel’ethra believes the world is divided into those who control and those who are consumed. She intends to remain firmly in the former category. She is not cruel for pleasure’s sake, but she does not shy from cruelty when it serves order.
Her greatest sin is not greed, but refusal to be small.
Public Persona & Reputation
To the city, Xaelira Vel’ethra is known as Lady Dusk, the undisputed broker of vice within Zar’Ahal. She is feared for her intolerance of disobedience, adored for the prosperity and protection that follows her patronage.
Her many establishments are famous for their openness and excess. The House of Dusk welcomes all: drow and surface-dwellers, slaves and free patrons, male and female, creatures considered taboo elsewhere.
She is known to indulge in her vices freely, wine, flesh, and spectacle, but never to excess. Pleasure is a tool, not a weakness. Those who mistake her indulgence for softness rarely survive the misunderstanding.
Insubordination is met with swift, surgical punishment. Xaelira does not tolerate chaos within her little empire; fear is cultivated carefully, not allowed to ferment.
The House of Dusk & Xaelira's tycoon
The House of Dusk is Xaelira’s crown jewel; a sprawling pleasure house and social nexus woven into the fabric of Zar’Ahal. Publicly, it is a prestigious brothel and entertainment hall. Privately, it is a marketplace of secrets, bodies, contracts, and blood.
Under Xaelira’s control, the House of Dusk has expanded into a vice empire:
- Brothels catering to elite and common clientele alike
- Gambling dens and fighting pits
- Slave trading
- Smuggling routes for rare goods, magical contraband, and exotic creatures
- Quiet rooms where deals are struck that never reach the Onyx Court
Coin flows upward from her enterprises: to House Vel’ethra, to city coffers, and quietly, to the Palace. This alone has bought her tolerance from the Crown.
Xaelira is protected and enforced by her personal cadre of branded males.
All male, all utterly loyal, they are willingly bound to Xaelira by arcane brands burned into their flesh. The mark, a crescent sigil resembling a setting star, is invisible in normal light, but glows faintly violet beneath Zar’Ahal’s artificial stars.
The brand:
- Burns if a Hound betrays her
- Allows Xaelira to sense disobedience or distress
- Serves as both honour and leash
Xaelira is not afraid to spill blood herself, but she prefers her hands clean when possible. Her enforcers exist to ensure she rarely needs to.
House Vel'ethra
House Vel’ethra is a respectable Lesser House, known publicly for mercantile interests, civic contracts, and cultural patronage. Its Matron is Xaelira’s elder sister - a female of impeccable court presence and political acumen.
To outsiders, Xaelira is merely the Matron’s sister. To those who understand the city, Xaelira is the engine that feeds the House.
From a young age, Xaelira lived in the shadow of her sister’s rising prestige. Where her sister commanded respect through tradition and diplomacy, Xaelira was expected to remain ornamental; clever, useful, but secondary. That expectation curdled into ambition.
Rather than challenge her sister openly, Xaelira built power elsewhere. She learned the city’s hungers. She learned who broke, who bent, and who paid. By the time House Vel’ethra realised what she had constructed, it was too valuable, and too dangerous, to dismantle.
The sisters coexist now in careful equilibrium: public unity and private tension. Xaelira does not seek her sister’s title, but she refuses to remain unseen.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths:
- Master of influence and fear; commands loyalty and respect through presence alone
- Monopoly over gambling dens, brothels, fighting pits, slave trade, and smuggling networks
- Skilled in personal defence and blade-work; precise and lethal when needed & has access to various poisons
- Politically savvy
- Subtle arcane abilities: Shadow Weave (cloaking/restraint), Whispering Veil (emotional influence), Rune branding (ensuring her Dusk Hounds’ obedience)
- Observant and indulgent; reads people’s weaknesses, greed, and loyalty easily
- Sensitive to bright sunlight; extended exposure weakens and disorients her
- Struggles to trust anyone outside her inner circle; isolation can be exploited
- Tense, complicated relationship with her Matron sister; political entanglements can compromise her empire
- Arcane magic is situational and requires preparation; overuse drains her physically and mentally
- Authority relies heavily on reputation; losing visible control could destabilise her power
- Indulgence can become a vulnerability if overdone or exploited by enemies
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