Kerebos
Invictus Kerebos is, without exaggeration, one of the most intimidating and horrifying individuals in any stellar quadrant.
There are other settings where the leader of a faction like the Republic doesn't quite buy into the faith they preach-- they're manipulating their followers, using them for other gains, waiting to sacrifice them.
This isn't one of those.
No, Invictus Kerebos is a zealot. A true believer. Picture this: Invictus Aurelius, a strong man with a proud bearing, is the man who precedes her. He survives drinking from a poisoned cup, and Kerebos is a nobody, some farmer who has a gun only for the sake of protecting her own. But she meets him, and he's a liar. He's not a believer. She sees it in the way he hesitates to scour a dissenter. She watches him, and his hands shake when he breaks a bough to dedicate a new year's turn.
So she spends two years getting a job first in the Roaming Centurions -- a defense force that moves planet to planet to keep the peace -- and then in the Prelacy where she can protect him directly. It can't be true. It cannot be; he's just nervous. Kerebos tells herself this. Tells herself other things, too.
But when she meets him in purpose, he reeks of opulence. He annoints himself with wine and meat and celebration. He does not bow his head in respect to the Vestal Guards. What's worse, his court is just as corrupted.
Kerebos takes another year to ready herself for what must be done.
And she does it like this: on the High Equinox, when Invictus Aurelius strides onto his balcony to give a speech on that holy day, meant to honor the Green Mother, Kerebos moves from her spot alongside him and slits his throat with the blades of her tail. His death happens just like that: he's gurgling, the crowd is screaming, and she gazes at them, at his courtiers, at the corruption in his court, and she feels the touch of the Green Mother.
No.
Kerebos sees her.
She sees the Green Mother, and the Storm Father, and the Chained Beast. Their gaze settles on her, scouring her to the bone, ripping her apart in the eye of a storm. Her atoms feel like they've spun apart.
When it's done, she's been in stasis for two days, and she's never felt so strong.
Kerebos emerges from stasis,
puts the collar of the Invictus upon her neck,
and begins her work with the execution of every single false believer in the upper reaches of the Republic. They are sniffed out by Prelates, by Centurions, by the Vestal Guards. They are thrown to prisoners in death-games, they are bled from the back upon metal poles, they are speared from mouth to groin by wood carved with holy names.
Other organizations-- other stellar bodies-- try to condemn her, but Kerebos pays them no mind. They are weak. They are corrupt. She studies old books.
For the first time in centuries,
traders do not say the Invictus' name with scorn and mockery.
They say her name in fear.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Kerebos grew up in the rural fields of her home planet, the seat of the Halsyona Republic. She was one of five born to her litter, and only one litter-brother survived to adulthood. Life was hard in the backwater: plows and hoes and beasts of burden despite the opulence of great cities.
But there was one thing her little town had: faith.
They celebrated each holiday upon the calendar. The Equinox celebration saw all adults off of work; the Spring-Height sacrifices brought the most proud to their knees to contribute blood to a bowl that fed the fields. By the time Kerebos was ten years old, she could recite the facets of the Grand Soul--- and in more detail than the initial triad, as well.
Sexuality
Kerebos is exclusively attracted to women. She makes no secret of this fact, and one of her earliest acts as Invictus was to declare that the alread-existing laws of polyamory now included same-sex couplings, which had been an unofficial law for centuries.
She is selective with her lovers, of course. Only the faithful are worthy of her.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Kerebos assassinated the previous Invictus and survived an interaction with something psionic that, to this day, she cannot truly identify. To make the event make sense, Kerebos' brain has wired itself to remember that the interruption came at the behest of the Triatic Soul.
Current Status
Ruling from the center of power.
Species
Ethnicity
Currently Held Titles
Age
43
Children
Pronouns
She/her
Sex
Female
Gender
Female
Presentation
Androgynous
Eyes
Pale green, with dark sclera.
Hair
Slicked-back, long. Dark, saturated blue. Hangs behind her ears, which are cropped.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pastel ash blue fur-- dark, soft to the touch. Freckled heavily across her face and neck. Scars on her face and upper arms.
Height
6'5
Belief/Deity
Grand Soul
Aligned Organization
