Jehsalia Ruststone

Biographical information

Birthplace The Spine Born Died Age 26 Home The Spine Sexuality Pronouns

Physical description

Race Half-elf Sub-Race Gender Female Height 5'6 Mass 130 lbs Hair color Black Eye color Gray Skin color Tanned

Political information

Affiliation(s) Occupation Knight Sworn of Anathaeum Clan(s) Caste Domain Masters Apprentices Alias(es)

Out-of-character information

Writer Riot Created on Avatar https://www.artstation.com/feelmong

A Knight of Dusk sworn to the Knights of Anathaeum, who fights with fist and shadow, and can commune with the dead. She is a fierce defender of the order’s values--nurture the land and the bounty it provides for all, and protect the common folk whose lives form the bedrock of society.

A woman of average height, and a lean build of whipcord muscle. Jehsalia’s hair is wispy and perpetually wind-tossed; a single braid down her back is her only attempt to tame it. An old scar crosses the front of her throat as if from a small blade. Black runic tattoos run all along both her arms from wrist to shoulder.

What little armor Jehsalia wears is leather and chain, relying instead on her Steel Body technique to provide the bulk of her defense. She dresses mainly in dark colors, accented here and there with brighter hues such as gold or silver.

[Pursuit of Life] Steel Body
A high-level magick that blesses Jehsalia’s body with the strength of steel, without sacrificing flexibility or speed. A strike powerful enough to remove a limb becomes a shallow cut instead, and opponents who try to engage her with their bare fists are apt to come away with broken hands. Jehsalia always maintains this magick if she is awake and lucid. It is highly effective against damage of a physical nature, but somewhat less useful when guarding against magical attacks.

Hand-to-hand Combat
Though trained in the basics of most knightly arms, Jehsalia prefers her fists above all others. Combined with her Steel Body, Jehsalia herself is the weapon. Her punches hit with the force of a mace; her kicks fall with the weight of a warhammer. At the right angle, her blows can even break a low-quality sword or lance.

She is quick and agile, able to scale walls from the smallest of handholds, or dodge attacks through twists of her body that would impress even a circus acrobat. As powerful as her Steel Body is, her enemies may find that the difficulty in fighting her isn’t dealing damage, but catching her in the first place.

[Pursuit of the Loch] Shadow Servant
Jehsalia is able to summon her own shadow into a corporeal being, allowing it to fight for her. This Shadow Servant does not need to stay attached to her, but can travel up to 25 feet from her person. Any farther, it dissipates and returns to being her normal shadow.

The Shadow Servant is as skilled in hand-to-hand techniques as Jehsalia herself, and can morph its own shape as needed, becoming ropes to bind a target or a blade to run her foe through. Though the Shadow Servant cannot bleed, enough damage to its mass will cause it to dissipate as well.

[Pursuit of Death] Death Speaker
Jehsalia is able to commune with spirits of the departed, either by scrying their final thoughts and emotions from wherever their essences linger, or by allowing them to temporarily possess her body and speak with her voice. Deathspeaking’s main purpose is to gather information, though Jehsalia has occasionally helped a spirit find peace simply by letting them say that which they could not when they yet lived.

Jehsalia is sensitive to the presence of undead entities, even if they are invisible, but not necessarily if they are warded against detection. She cannot commune with undead that are actively trying to kill her or her allies, as their spirits are too agitated to form a stable connection.

Jovial and easily amused, quick to foster camaraderie with her fellows, even if they don’t reciprocate. Her bright attitude is probably a surprise to those who think all Dusk Knights are gloomy, dour death seekers. Indeed, Jehsalia might be too forward; she’s the type of person who sees little point in holding back if she thinks someone has something they need to hear. She makes a great friend for those who want honest opinions, and often trods upon the feelings of those who prefer to hear bad news with some semblance of tact.

Jehsalia is deeply concerned with matters of honor and duty, and strives to conduct herself such that no one can say she disgraced the order’s creed. She is amicable with others who share this upstanding outlook. If the situation called for it, Jehsalia would not balk at giving her life to defend the land or its people. She’s seen the other side of mortality, and what awaits after death doesn’t frighten her.

Some twenty years ago, several knights were dispatched from Astenvale Monastery to put an end to cultist activity in the western forests of the Spine. The cultist stronghold was quickly located, its inhabitants no match for the knights’ righteous might. They left a trail of corpses behind them as they pushed deeper into those dark tunnels, the gray stones now colored rust with blood.

In the final room, the knights made a startling discovery--a group of children, not victims or captives, but the cultists’ own progeny. Upon seeing the knights, the older ones tried to take the knife to their younger siblings, and then themselves, per the final instructions left by their parents. In the confusion and chaos, the knights only managed to save three of the youths. It was decided that the surviving children would return with them to Astenvale, made wards of the order, and trained as knights themselves.

One child chose a different path, and slipped away while out on a training exercise with fellow squires, never to be heard from again. Another succumbed to illness shortly before his tenth birthday. The third decided that her life would be spent defending the weak and upholding justice, as atonement for the suffering her parents had inflicted.

When the knights purged the forest of the cultists’ influence, Jehsalia had been young enough to receive their runic tattoos but not how to use them. Through guidance from her mentors--Knight Master Hawken especially--and her own trial and error, Jehsalia learned to harness shadow magic and speak with the dead, powers once used to terrorize peasants now wielded as a force for good.

In time, she completed her trials as squire and was inducted into the Sanctum of Dusk as a full-sworn knight, ever charged with upholding the order’s creed.