Ravenna
Cho is the commander of the Leviathan Street clan, and one of its founding
members. She oversees the clan's tea house out of an airship named the Iron Lotus, where patrons can enjoy tea,
alcohol, fine dining, and gambling. The Iron
Lotus is a former battle cruiser Locksley & co. captured during the
Hyperion Insurrection and brought home with them.
Cho
was born in Blackmire a few hundred years ago, in a temple dedicated to her
father, a god of oblivion and death named Athonai. Although he is known as the
Slumbering God, Athonai is not one to be underestimated. He is an Elder God,
and his strength is not dependent on the prayers of his followers. His power
comes from the Abyss from whence he came.
Demigods
born to Elder Gods are extremely rare. Even before the Gods' War, the Elder
Gods rarely took interest in mortals or the mortal
realm. It was the Ascendant Gods who returned to the dally with mundane
mortals. Most of the younger Ascendant Gods were actually born in the mortal
realm. They were never mundane, though. They were strong and ageless, growing
more and more powerful through conflict and experience. The most powerful
immortals attracted followers of their own. The attention and spiritual energy
of their supplicants only added to their strength, allowing them to
transmogrify into gods.
The
gravely ill and the infirm have always gone to Athonai's temple for a quiet
end to their suffering. A dignified, ceremonial death with the assistance of
Athonai's sedate and scholarly priests. After the supplicant is vetted by the
high priestess, he or she makes an offering to Athonai at sundown. They pass
their last hours in a calming purification ceremony that lasts the night. As
the sky starts to lighten with the approaching sunrise, the supplicant is given
a consecrated elixir called the Tears of Athonai. And then the supplicant
gently succumbs to a permanent slumber under the warm light of the rising sun.
Despite its
highfalutin name, the so-called Tears of Athonai is really just a potent type
of morphium. This particular opiate is made from a rare, delicate, red cactus
flower cultivated on temple grounds.
Cho
grew up treated like royalty, with all the respect and deference due a demigoddess
and heir apparent. She was raised to be a ruler, a high priestess like her
mother, Ursula. Cho was always practical, though, and never had any interest in
such finery or ceremony. She saw the temple as nothing more than a gilded cage.
When
Cho was in her late teens, she ran away from her pampered life, preferring the
excitement, danger, and anonymity of the lower levels of Blackmire. She had developed a fascination
with death during her time in her father's temple, a macabre fascination she
took with her when she left. Along with two friends she met in Downside, Cho founded
the Bone Scythe demon hunter guild.
Over
the centuries, Cho became less and less pleased with the way her guild was being run. The management structure she and the other founders had set in place to run
the day-to-day operations was becoming increasingly autocratic. Management had
begun placing their own agendas over the welfare of their guild members.
Eventually, she decided it was time for the
Bone Scythes to be torn down. But Cho has never been one to act on impulse. From
an early age, she showed a proficiency in Zheng Fu, a three dimensional board
game of skill and strategy.
(The
object of Zheng Fu is to capture the opponent's most important game piece, the
citadel. The rules are relatively simple, but the game's innumerable
possibilities of moves makes it the most complex game on the planet.)
Cho
is patient and cunning, and she always looks at the bigger picture before
making her move. When
Management ordered the death of one of their members, she decided it was the perfect time to act. She
passed along Management's internal memo to one of her favorite students, Locksley Rhaynes.
Knowing Locksley's protective nature and propensity for violent impulses, Cho ignited
the spark that would raze everything she once built.
A
few years later, while Blackmire was embroiled in the Hyperion Insurrection, the
denizens in the lower levels of Blackmire suffered the most. While Locksley and
some of the others were conscripted into the militia, Cho stayed behind to
battle the growing desperation and lawlessness in Downside. She roused Dia to
action and they started recruiting people with skills, people who wouldn't let laws get in the way of doing what was right. And then they
started rooting out the corruption.
When
Locksley & co. returned to Downside after the uprising had been defeated,
they discovered Cho and Dia had been fighting a war of their own. The
destruction of the Bone Scythe guild left a power vacuum, and even
worse elements were attempting to fill the void, but with fewer rules and more
violence.
Now
they had the numbers to firmly clamp a lid on their pot before it boiled over. They
began systematically engaging the local big baddies, and took over Downside for
themselves. The band of immortal criminals evolved into the Leviathan Street
clan, sealing their covenant with loyalty oaths and matching leviathan tattoos.
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