Aelfisune (Ah-lee-ff-ee-soo-nae)

(a.k.a. Sune / Aelif)

General Description

Standing at only a petite 5’2” with a waifish, androgynous figure; Aelfisunes presents quite a fascinating visage even by Rie’Shaes' diverse standards of beauty. It is safe to say nobody has ever quite quite certain of their true gender of even true race - and by all accounts none seem to mind enough to probe for this information as the flexibility of their style and appearance accommodates all tastes and flavours: Leading them to become one of the most sought after companions by high-class clientele of their illustrious establishment "The Gilded Chain".
Their face is heart-shaped, with plush velveteen painted lips and strikingly long lashes that frame large almond eyes of warm honey yellow. When they speak, it is always softly and with the unmistakable purr of a foreign accent (almost a buzz if one listens closely enough). They have an eloquent grasp of the local language and it is obvious they are well-educated and well-mannered.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

A Stranger is often most tantalizingly irresistible because their mystery never ends.. So why would I wish to ruin the fun? After all, my business is built upon the cravings of others!

— Aelifsune

Nothing is truly known of the circumstances of Aelfisunes' birth and journey through life; for the tale they tell will always follow a unique whimsy according to each individual inquiring enough to ask their past, so it is advised to take the following story with caution and understand that much of what you are about to read is the accumulation of rumour mongering and story-telling.

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From Rags to Riches

Aelf’s early life was as an acolyte of the Maiden of Mercy, they was left abandoned by their parents at the doorstep of Myria'cresnes' temple. Their oldest recollections are of difficult but fond years in a crowded dormitory of other orphaned children. It was a hard but safe time in her life and it was abruptly ripped from her when worship of Myria'cresne was forbidden inside the city and the Templars of Aurleath reclaimed the temple and began to re-educate the children that were left behind...at least until the moral accolades couldn't justify the annoying drain on their resources. The remaining children were ultimately turned away and the door slammed shut forever.

Terrified of being taken into slavery or worse as they were now strays on the street those who remained pooled efforts and eventually settled in a condemned area in the slums. It was against the teaching they had been fostered with but each of vagrant youths learned to use their cunning, and sticky fingers to scrape by on, and things worked for a number of years. Aelf Spent their first decade only a little worse for wear, and they was content despite everything. But the slums were not a sanctuary for lost souls no matter how enduring they might be, and misfortune eventually found them in expensive diseases, horrible accidents, and hopelessness. Much of their real education came from losing what they couldn't protect, and the death of loved ones shadowed them into adulthood. They spent its early years wandering aimlessly and sustaining themselves by thieving and trickery. It was all they knew - and beyond that, they felt they deserved recompense from those who could afford to lose a little. Maybe they was hoping for trouble, but even when it found them they managed to scrape by...as though they had siphoned all the luck from those before them

Eventually their self-destructiveness faded alongside their purpose. Exhausted now, they travelled just to pass the time. But one day became another, and one discovery or act of unexpected kindness followed the next. Ever so slowly, and never with any thunderous realization, Aelf began living again. Their horizons expanded and they became wiser; yet still, they straddled the line between a second-rate today and an irrecoverable yesterday. The world carried on with a swift gait that seemed insistent on leaving them - their memories, loved ones, their lives - behind like it were just an ugly thing to improve.

They later found stability and success in the city in form of dancing and entertainment; one of the staple trades of such a bustling city is always the night life. They had such a waifish figure and enticing face it was an easy scheme for them to find work and money from the clientele of the entertainment district. They worked from the lowest dregs of life to fortune as maturity blossomed upon their body, it hardly seemed like they had ever been on the streets at all after a time.

And then, The Gilded chain came into their ownership - through the generous patronage of the anonymous elite of Rie'shae, and since that opportunity fell into their lap, they have lived lavishly since.

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Secret Origins

It began under the light of Myria'cresnes' Moons

It is said the the story began when a beautiful young acolyte of Myria'cresne had a dream: she had dreamt of unformed figures were arguing before her, a heated dispute about who was most deserving of her life-long devotion. One which cast an un-bearable light and caused her to turn away her sight for fear of blindness had proclaimed that it was only by the guiding light of their moons which gave them faith and it should be them to be given rightful supplication - while the other which cast a void of darkness and sucked the very warmth from her as she looked upon it argued that it was the concealing shadows which always followed that tempered their resolve and kept them faithful and so it was them who most deserved devotion and that the Priestess would be theirs.
She awoke from this dream troubled by what she had experienced, questioning and unable to fall back asleep the Priestess would leave her bed and seek out the hallowed grounds of her deity and contemplate what it had all meant. It was while she was there in those sanctified ruins with the shadow of the moons creeping through the temple that a figure would present themselves before her.
"You question your faith?" the voice spoke to her, a voice low and smooth like silk.
Surprised by the figure and un-settled by the question, she lowered her eyes from the waning moonlight towards the shadowed figure; unable to make out their features as wisps of darkness blurred them into the inky darkness that encroached upon the temple.
"You are wrong" She spoke defiantly into the inky gloom "My faith will never waver. I know it is only by the guidance of the light that my true path shall be revealed."
"But are there not many paths that bleed from that blinding light, that only the shadow may show?" She watched transfixed as the moons' light slowly left the temple; the tendrils of murk licking at her feet as the figure began to move closer.
"Have you not considered it is the shadow of the moon that truly guides you, teaches you, grants you the protection you seek?"
A muted silence lingered in the ruins as the Acolyte pondered these words with uncertainty, time passed so slowly as she watched darkness engulf the temple.
"I had not considered this." she admittedly meekly.

The pair stood shrouded in by the concealing gloom for some time discussing the duality of the Moons' faces and the path the Priestess-to-be had taken, the faceless shadows' debate almost indisputable to the young acolyte of the moon; impressing itself upon her as it melted away any resolve she held of the guiding light. It is said that by the end of their talk the shadow had enthralled her so deftly that within the temple of the Moon she cast off her faith in light and professed devotion to the shadows of the moon instead, becoming the first of Erostets' maidens.
Erostet later bestowed upon his Maiden a child: the turned Acolyte seeing this as her true path set out to bring this deity-given infant into the world to spread truth and faith of their Shadowed god, and for a time, all was well - until the the night of the birth. For despite Myria'cresnes' dominion of mercy and light, she was inconsolably wroth of the betrayal and had cursed the Maidens' womb, and the agony of her labour endured the full turn of the moons before a squalling babe came bloodied into the world; misshapen and monstrous, with skin pallid and empty eyes.
The Maiden looked upon her child in horror, realising that she had fallen so far from her path by the guile of Erostet and cursed by Myria'cresne. She abandoned the wailing infant in the darkness it was concieved; alone and forsaken by its own kind.
The white-eyed babe lay for days in the viscera of its own birth; eventually losing its own voice as it cried into the void for someone, anyone...
From the gloom Erostet saw fit to take the child upon itself, swaddled in shadows and taken into realms unknown. It was given no name by their God nor treated with tender affection, for there is no warmth in the dark. Despite this it was fostered in the darkness of the void and grew, and as time ebbed on it was brought others like itself who were cursed and forsaken. The Maidens of Erostet who fell from the light all bestowed misshapen babes and gave them to their God to raise in the void.

Lingering shadows

It was at its' maturity that it first found itself faced with something other than the featureless siblings it had been raised amongst. It was a creature like the memories of its' mother, with dusky skin and coloured eyes, almost kaleidoscopic in array of colour to an otherwise world of ink and nothingness. It was a Dral'azie, a Maiden of Erostet who had come willingly and feared little of straying into the darkness. The maiden entered the void and became the painter of each of the shapeless within the realm. It was given a name, and told it was something blessed, that it would go out and spread the truth of their God amongst the world as only it could. It was taught to use its' voice again in many strange tongues and learned to change its' features to become more like them. At first it was clumsy, it mistook details and formed hideous configurations but it learned to imitate the Maidens' likeness to mirror perfection. It was when this stage of training was complete that the Maiden took it from the void and into the world, they went to small settlements where it was told to practice its' abilities - and so it did, it became each of the settlers slowly and silently, learning how to become the perfect imitations of each of its' targets. One week an elder, another a child; with each new face it became closer to them.
It became a wandering acolyte of the Maiden, they travelled through the underworld teaching of the shadows yet never revealing its' true shape and nature. And so it continued to work towards bringing more shapeless siblings into the void and spreading the word of Erostet. For that was after all, all it truly knew to do.
Years had passed and as the faces and lives of so many had been learned, the sparks of curiosity began to arise in the Acolyte; it was silent at first, just a thought in the back of its' mind that perhaps it had learned enough about them to be able to show itself in its true shape, the thought became a question to which answered by the Maiden it accompanied "Your shape is a blessing from Erostet that others will not understand, you cannot show yourself to non-believers." It was satisfied for a time with the dismissal, having never known to falter from what it had known all its life. That was, until the Maiden had told it to take the name and face of a noble Dral from the house of Versorinn and to spread their teachings amongst this influential family.
It did as it was asked and stole away at first as one of the attendants, to learn their ways and patterns so best to become them, it was unassuming in shape and meek in nature. It learned what was needed and soon it found its' time and place to replace one of the young scions of the Matron, one of the many adolescents that roamed the estate. It became Daevion, he was ambitious and challenging; with aspirations of becoming a powerful Psionic who becomes invaluable to the female dominated world. He lived this life for a time before it became aware of himself in ways it had not understood before coming to this life. He began to question why he could not become powerful for himself, to take this life back to Erostet and to become something more.
It took many weeks for the feeling to consume him, it became a storm within his mind and distracted him from his original purpose; it got him noticed by the Matron. It was not long after this that he became it again, it became nothing. For the nature of Psionics is to know what is unseen and the Matron had known, and was learning of all that the imposter was doing within her home. She stripped it back to its' misshapen form and locked it away deep within the estate and began working on experimenting with it. It was forced to live many lives and wear many faces not from learning but through torturous force, it wore the faces of the dead, the otherworldly and purely fictional to learn what its capabilities truly were. This became its life, to serve the Matron as spy and infiltrator.

Sexuality

They present themselves to be entirely flexible and open with their sexuality.

Employment

It is widely discussed and debated how exactly they came into the proprietorship of such an exclusive and high-end establishment in the Entertainment quarter of Rie'shae however it is unanimously agreed upon that since the opening of "The Gilded Chain" it has seen profits soar and the variety of prestigious frequenters to the establishment lend itself to Aelifunes' own form of celebrity.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

They strive to live in safety and comfort, doing so has always been their primary motivator. Though it has never hurt that luxury and celebrity is accumulated as a side-effect of their talents

Virtues & Personality perks

• Trustworthy and a wonderful listener
• They are always the delicately mannered
• Charitable to the less fortunate and stragglers of the world
• Witty and an excellent conversationalist

Alignment

Chaotic Neutral

Current Status

Proprietor of The Gilded Chain

Age

Undetermined

Birthplace

Unknown

Current Residence

The Golden Chain

Pronouns

They / Them / She / Her / He / Him

Gender

Neutral

Eyes

Honey-Yellow

Hair

Alabastrine

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale Grey

Height

5'2"

Weight

112 lbs

Belief/Deity

Erostet

Ruled Locations

• The Gilded Chain