Briwala

Lawmage and sergeant of the imperial guard in Batria

Sergeant Briwala Khalil (a.k.a. The Law)

Article written by: Sylvara Stoutfeet, Royal Chronicler

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Childhood

Briwala was born in Hiarta, a small port city on the southern coast of Zakaria. She was born with a twin sister and, to her parent's horror, both of their daughters bore the taint of the lower planes on them. Feeling betrayed, the father left his home and, without listening to the pleas of his wife, jumped on the first ship he found work on and left. The ship returned years later but of Briwala's father... No one knew anything. Consumed by grief and disgust, Briwala's mother promptly abandoned her daughters at the great cathedral of Saga and left Hiarta, never to return.

The fate of the two baby tieflings was a sad one, but not in any way uncommon. The worship of Aasimars is a core tenant of the empire, tieflings, on the other hand, are considered a very bad omen and most parents would prefer to kill them outright rather than to admit their line has the taint of demons. That is, of course, a complete barbarism by my eyes, but nonetheless it's an undeniable reality in the empire.
Briwala told me very little of those early days, I had much more luck asking her sister Zahiri. Now, Zahiri has never been one to shy away from a lie, so take what I am about to tell you with a grain of salt. The two babies were taken in by a kind acolyte, she took them to the orphanage that the Catedral maintained and, with some resistance, managed to get both of them accepted into it. But upon learning of what had happened, the loremaster of the Catedral gave the order for the two tieflings to be purified and executed immediately.
The acolyte, whose name I am told was, Athefe, was horrified by the order, she confronted the loremaster and tried to convince him to rescind his order. But while her cause was just, prejudice still runs strong in much of the empire, it was no different there. The loremaster was outraged by her plea, he ordered her to be confined to the cathedral's study, where she would have to research Hurgeot's Invasion, he felt she needed to be reminded of the destruction demons and their ilk had caused in the past. Athefe saw that she would not be able to persuade the loremaster. She apologized, left his presence and promptly took Briwala and Zahiri from the orphanage and out of the city.
From here the story diverges wildly between what Briwala has told me and what Zahiri has told me. Since both are so opposite to one another I will try to find a happy middle ground with what I think happened.
Leaving the city, Athefe took the babies into the merciless desert. There they would most certainly have perished were it not for a merchant caravan that happened to be leaving the city as well. The caravan master took pity on them and allowed them to travel with the caravan, on the condition that the tieflings were not seen nor heard by the caravan at large. Athefe agreed.
What began as a way to safely travel from one city to another quickly became more than that. Athefe decided not to leave the caravan and continued traveling with them for years. Her tiefling daughters were mistrusted at first but as time went by the members of the caravan realized that they were no different from other babies, aside from the fact that they had tails and horns, of course. In time Athefe married one of the caravan guards and Briwala and her sister grew in relative peace and tranquility. Their early childhood was marked by traveling from one city to the next, they never called any place their home, during those travels they saw all sorts of wonders and grew to think of themselves as imperials, something not all that common in Zakaria on those days. The twins also learned a lot about traveling and the challenges of living on the desert, although on that front, their natural tiefling resistance to heat helped them greatly. They also, unfortunately, became quite familiar with the stares of disgust and to the abuse to which tieflings are always subjected to.
Briwala began to become cold and less sociable, the disgust of others made her feel inadequate, she also felt like it was her fault that she was the way she was. She preferred to spend time at the caravan's camp instead of exploring the city's they visited. She also avoided anyone from outside the caravan that came to travel with them. In time, she came to spend more time with books than with people. From them, she learned history, geography and most importantly, she learned the laws of the land. She understood that people who followed the law were good and those that did not were evil. Once she understood that, everything became clear to her, all she had to do is follow the law to the letter, that would make people like her, it would show them that she was not a demon, nor wicked, following the laws would give her the respect and tolerance she so desperately craved.
Zahiri, on the other hand, began to evolve a deep burning hatred for the people that treated her with disgust. She was particularly hateful of people that mistreated her sister. She could take any abuse she took and give it back tenfold but her sister was a gentler soul, one that began to believe what people said about them. Zahiri, on the other hand, took great pleasure in flaunting her tiefling nature to everyone around her, she felt pride at what she was and refused to back down, no matter what.
Eventually, Athefe found out that, much like their divine cousins, the Aasimar, the two tiefling girls had a knack for magic. While Athefe could not do magic, she knew the principles behind it and taught it to the twins. They quickly learned how to control the weave and in time, even without any proper training in arcana, they both learned to conjure a few simple effects.

Teenage Years

I suppose what happened next was inevitable given the circumstances. There is a lot of divergence on the circumstances but the fact still remains. Zahiri killed a man. The way she tells it, she was being insulted by the man, she laughed and flung insults back but seeing as it was going nowhere, the man decided to poke fun at her sister, that infuriated Zahiri. Her sister was the only good thing that their deadbeat parents had ever made in their life, she could tolerate insults to herself but not to her sister. She quickly breached the weave and produced a small flame in her hand, with a mischievous smile she flung the flame towards the man. Her intention had been only to scare and give the man a small burn to remember her. She was partially successful, the man's clothes caught fire and he jumped back in fear, he hit a small desk behind him, lost his footing and fell to the ground, as he fell the contents of the desk fell on top of him, a dozen or so flasks full of candle oil. The flasks broke on his body and soon the small flame became a roaring inferno. Zahiri was horrified, she turned around and fled back to the caravan camp at full speed, the agonizing screams of the men and the smell of burned flesh haunting her thoughts.

Once back at the caravan camp, Zahiri told the caravan master and Athefe what had happened, they both agreed that it was an accident and while her actions were reprehensible, they decided to protect Zahiri. The caravan quickly finished its business in that city and left for the next one. Zahiri's crime stayed behind. But rumors soon began to circulate among the caravan of what had transpired, some agreed with the decision of protection Zahiri, but many others thought that she had to be brought to justice. Those voices grew louder and louder until, eventually, the caravan master had no choice but to punish Zahiri. He banished her, she was to leave the caravan and never return. As she heard the verdict, she felt the claws of despair clawing at her heart, the caravan had been all she had known and all the people that tolerated her were at the caravan. But worst of all, the thought of never seeing her sister again filled her with so much dread that she could not control herself, she sobbed and pleaded for the caravan master to change his mind, but to no avail.
Briwala felt as much despair at the thought of separating from her sister as Zahiri did, she knew that her sister had broken the law and she had reprehended her for it but never seeing her again was too much for her. She gathered her things, said her goodbyes and left the caravan with her sister. Zahiri was overjoyed when she heard the news and now she had little trouble in leaving the caravan behind her. The two decided to go back to where it all started, they went back to the port city of Hiarta. Briwala had no way of knowing that at the time but when they left the caravan Zahiri had stolen a considerable amount of money from the coffers of the caravan master, so once they got to the city, Zahiri surprised her by promptly buying a house for them to live in. Briwala was suspicious but Zahiri explained that she had been saving money for years because she had no intention of staying with the caravan forever, Briwala bought the lie.
Even so, buying the house had depleted most of the money she had stolen, so Zahiri quickly set about finding a new job for herself. It was hard for a tiefling to find work on the streets of Hiarta and that frustrated Zahiri to no end. Eventually, she found work not on the city streets but on the waves of the ocean. A merchant ship was in need of someone that knew the cities of Zakaria well and spoke its many dialects. Because she grew up with a trading caravan, Zahiri fit the bill perfectly, she also found out that sailors were much less averse to tieflings than the average imperial citizen. That was a nice change of pace for her and in time she grew to love the sea as much as she loved her sister.
Briwala, on the other hand, was slow to find a job, she had no idea of what she wanted to do and she had been willing to do odd jobs here and there but the people of Hiarta were much less willing to give her those jobs, even if she charged less than others. With her sister away at sea for months at a time, she grew to become more and more depressed. It was then, that fate intervened in her favor. A thieves guild had been secretly formed in the city, crime had been on the rise and it was much more refined and organized than it had ever been before. The small garrison of the imperial guard had been out of its depth trying to deal with the massive wave of organized crime and so they called for reinforcements.

Servant of the Law

Hiarta had been little more than a fishing village mere 50 years back, now it was a bustling trade metropolis with good coming by sea from all over the empire and beyond. It was decided that Hiarta was due past to become an Imperial Province and with it came their own branch of the Imperial Guard. Briwala watched the installation of the new imperial guard with great curiosity, as did most of the city, more importantly, she saw the installation of Hiarta's first law-master. He led the investigations on the thieves guild and wherever he went, he saw laws being broken and quickly acted as judge, jury, and executioner. Briwala took to following the law-master, she still held to her belief that people that follow the law were good and those that did not were evil and this man, in her eyes, this avatar of the law, was the embodiment of good.

The law-master, Zamesh, quickly noticed the young tiefling following him wherever he went. He had no doubts that she was a spy sent after him by the guild, so he carefully bid his time and in turn, it was his men that were following her. He wanted to see her commit a crime, anything at all would do, anything that would give him the authority to take her in and interrogate her. As time passed he grew more and more frustrated that the young tiefling was doing absolutely nothing wrong, she was respecting even the more obscure laws that no one knew about and broke regularly without knowing. Frustrated he decided to plant a bait, while on patrol, he casually allowed a couple of gold coins to fall from his pouch and into the ground. He made it look like an accident and paid it no mind, no one would ever know if she picked those coins and yet... Briwala took the coins, ran after him and gave them all back. Of course, having known Briwala for many years I am not at all surprised but it brings a smile to my face to imagine how stunned the law-master must have been.
Anyway, Zamesh confronted her about everything and she confessed that she was simply fascinated by his work and his adherence to the law. Zamesh asked her to recite a couple of laws for him and after she had recited them flawlessly he offered her a place in the imperial guard. Zamesh took Briwala under his wing as an apprentice, she already knew enough magic to be able to cast simple spells, so he simply taught her law magic and soon she was patrolling the streets with him. With Briwala's help, the law-master redoubled his efforts and combed the city streets with renewed vigor and fervor, one by one the thieves guilds members were discovered and arrested, the people of Hiarta rejoiced as day by day the city became safer and safer and, to their utter surprise, by their savior's side they saw the tiefling that they had so mistreated in the past. I suppose many people would have abused this newfound power to take vengeance, but if you think that is what our heroine did, you clearly never met her before. Briwala let bygones be bygones, those that broke the law felt her wrath, those that did not, she treated with respect and civility.
Briwala quickly advanced in the ranks of the imperial guard and in time she became a sergeant. Even so, she was not particularly loved in the ranks of the guard, people in the imperial guard are sworn to uphold an oath, to be devout protectors of the citzens of the empire, but at the end of the day, they are still mortal, prone to failure and temptation. Many of the guards look the other way as a means to make some extra money, that infuriated Briwala, who found herself often having to go after her fellow guardsman instead of the criminals of the city. The worst came when her master was assassinated, she led a personal vendetta to find the responsible for the murder of Zamesh, the more she dug up the clearer it became that the hit was ordered by someone inside the guard. She turned against her superiors, in a vain attempt to clean the Hiartan imperial guard, but she quickly found herself helplessly bound by the same laws she swore to uphold. She was powerless to act against them.
Eventually, Briwala decided that better than be powerless in Hiarta, it would be better for her to go to Batria and take her complaints directly to the emperor. It was a naive plan, as she well knew, but it was better than doing nothing. She talked to her sister, that at this point was already a captain of her own ship and was making a killing by working as a corsair for the imperial navy. Briwala disapproved of her sister's occupation, a corsair was little more than a legalized pirate after all. The two sisters had slowly fallen more and more apart as their paths in life put them both at completely different spectrums. Nevertheless, she had a ship and Briwala was in need of safe and fast transportation. Zahiri laughed at her sister's naive plan but agreed that it was better for her to leave the city, so she agreed to take her to Batria.
Once in Batria, Briwala said farewell to her sister and set about getting an audience with the emperor, she had many suggestions as how to improve the imperial guard and many of them would only take a simple change in the laws of the organization. But alas, she was denied access to the emperor, unsurprising to me and no doubt to all the readers. But she was still deeply upset by it, she had come from so far away just to come empty. Even so, she did not give up. She decided to join the imperial guard of Batria. That was easily accomplished, her record was impeccable and her superiors were more than glad to see themselves rid of her, so her transfer went smoothly. She hit the streets of Batria with a vengeance and got herself quickly promoted to sergeant for her skill and dedication. Her plan is extremly simple, she is now close to the emperor, if she keeps doing great deeds for the guard and rising in rank, she will eventually be able to get the meeting with the emperor she so desperately craves and then she will be able to reform the imperial guard into what it was always meant to be.

What does the future hold for Briwala? I can't say for sure, I will keep an eye out for her, part of me wants her to succeed but is a world where we are all drowned in law really a better place to live? I am not sure. -Sylvara Stoutfeet, Royal Chronicler.

Sexuality

Confused law boner

Education

Briwala was schooled in the ways of the church of Saga by her adoptive mother. She was a reclusive child, finding herself more at ease among her books than among other people. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of the law and is quite good with languages, history and the political matters of the empire. The demonic blood that courses through her veins made her a sorcerer and as such has an easy time breaching the veil to cast magic, she had proficiency in magic from an early age and training with law-master Zamesh turned her into a quite impressive lawmage.
In the Imperial Guard, she received standard combat training, despite her proficiency in magic. She is now competent with a wide array of weapons and is very comfortable fighting in heavy armor. Even so, she has no need for weapons, her magic is all the offensive capability she needs in combat, the only thing she adopted from her training in the guard was a shield. She is more than comfortable casting spells with only one hand and her shield allows her to get very close to the enemy and still be casting her spells safely. Being a lawmage, her magical skills are geared towards boosting her allies and chaining her enemies up, she has some directly offensive spells at her disposal but she rarely uses them, overall she is a bastion of law and civilization, keeping chaos and lawlessness at bay.

Employment

Briwala works as a sergeant in the Imperial Guard of Batria. She works directly under the law-master of Batria and as such has the autorithy to act as jury, judge and executioner on the streets of the capital.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Briwala has achieved quite a lot in her life, she is the only tiefling in the imperial guard of Batria , the city of nobles is even harder on tieflings than other cities in the empire, but Briwala's record is so immaculate that no one can deny her. She has more feats to boast about to last her a lifetime, even so, her favorite is still her first. When she as a young adult, she helped her master take down the thieves guild in Hiarta. Even Batria still has an active, and quite strong I might add, thieves guild. So that feat is nothing short of impressive. her detractors would, of course, tell you that the thieves guild was very new and that is the only reason why they could take it down. I'm not so sure, I looked at the papers, crime has taken a sharp decline after Briwala moved to Batria, coincidence? I don't believe in such things.

Failures & Embarrassments

Even the greatest among us are not without failure, it is no different with Briwala. Oh, dear readers, how I would love to rant about all the things I know here, but my time and space are limited, unfortunately. So I had to select just a few of Briwala's failures. Well. For one, she did arrest me that one time for... "Publishing state secrets", a bunch of nonsense if you ask me, if the press is not free... Then what kind of empire will we end up living in? Well jokes on her, now I am the one writing her story. Not that I would write anything other than the truth! I am an integral author, dear readers. Either way, here are just a couple of interesting things about her.
The rest of this article has been deemed inappropriate and was censured by the Imperial Guard of Batria on the authority of Briwala Khalil.

Morality & Philosophy

She follows the tenants of the Imperial Guard . But above those, she follows a simple idea, the law is good, chaos is evil. To her, those that follow the law are good people and those that do not are evil and should be punished. It matters little to her the reasoning behind the actions. If a man stole from the rich to give to the poor, in her eyes he still is stealing, that is against the law and he is an evil man. On the other hand, if a man tortures his slave for his own pleasure, she would see nothing wrong with it. She might find his acts morally reprehensible but he would be within his right to do as he wished with his property. That does not mean she is not without sympathy, but she never operates outside of the law and if the law prevents her from acting she will not act. And to those she finds breaking the law, swift punishment is sure to follow.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Briwala has seen much corruption in the empire. From corrupt nobles to corrupt officials, she has had enough. She tried to work inside the system to make things better but the corrupt created laws to make sure they are immune to any intervention by the imperial guard. That irritated Briwala to no end, she wanted to put a stop to the corruption but if she broke the laws while doing so, she would be no better than the corrupts she wanted to put behind bars. Briwala tried changing the system but that didn't work, she has not yet given up on that plan and is also always on the lookout for the opportunity to arrest corrupts for other crimes. She would not be catching them for the crimes she wanted but they would still be behind bars or, if the crime was grave enough, enslaved and barred from any official positions forever.

Likes & Dislikes

Briwala has an unhealthy love for spicy food. I presume her heritage gives her some resistance to the worst effects of the heavy spices she eats. Because the food she eats dear readers... It's inedible. Other than that, she really, really, enjoys reading law books, I even heard her giggling like a maniac while reading those. What she can find funny on the pages of such a boring book is beyond me. She is also working on a book, I thought that could be something for us to bond over, but she is basically rewriting the laws of the empire and fixing all the loopholes and laws that protect corrupt people in power. I read a little of it and it's hardly what I could call an invigorating read.
If you have been reading everything so far, I doubt you will be surprised when I tell you that the thing Briwala hates the most is people that disrespect the law... I know... Shocking. But I'll make up for you with a couple of her secret dislikes. She hates chocolate and other sweets, I also found that to be bordering heresy dear readers, perhaps we should lobby to make hating chocolate a crime? Also, for some reason I can't quite fathom, she has a distaste of the color yellow. Maybe it reminds her of home?

Virtues & Personality perks

Briwala has a rigid code, she will never willingly break a law, I suspect that even if she was forced she would give a lot up before breaking the law. It's quite amazing really. Combining that with her amazing head for remembering laws and she is quite the guard. Her devilish heritage also makes her naturally adept at magic and gives her quite a great deal of resistance against fire.

Vices & Personality flaws

Briwala imposes her way of life on other people. She blindly obeys the law even when she does not agree with the particular law she is following and she expects the same from others. It might also just be my impression but it feels to me like she finds it quite pleasant to impose the law on other people. While taking pride in one's work is something I can understand perfectly, the pleasure she feels for her work feels... Odd. I'm no Mind mage, but I do believe she has some dominating tendencies and gets off on imposing the law on other people. But that is just my opinion, when I confronted Briwala about this, she got defensive, said something about me sullying the image of an officer of the guard and gave me a fine. At the time I was not the published author I am now, so I went quite a few nights sleeping in a stable and having to beg in order to even get anything to eat... Not that my opinion is biased or anything, I pride myself on being a neutral chronicler. But if any of your readers wants to send a letter complaining about the pain she caused this author... You will find her office's address at the end of this article.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Eleanor - Briwala found in Eleanor, not a woman that is as in love with the law as she is, but at the very least a woman that believes that the law should be upheld above everything else. Briwala has grown fond of Eleanor. I would venture and say that she fell in love with her but I'm afraid I might get arrested by Briwala. So I will not say it... :3

Family Ties

Zahiri - Briwala's relationship with her twin sister is... Complicated. And I fear explaining everything would require a book in itself. Painting in broad strokes. Briwala loves her sister and would do anything for her. I venture to say she would even break the law for her sister but I'm just speculating on that one. I had the... Pleasure? I'll go with pleasure. To travel with Zahiri once, she was quite lovely with me, a bit too lovely some might say. Not that I didn't enjoy her attention but I was on business! Anyway... When we came ashore, Briwala was there to greet her sister, the two traded insults, then blows and eventually, a whole magical battle took place in the docks of Batria, how that is not against the law is beyond me. I was just happy I managed to slip away with my life. Even so. I dare say that they were just lovingly roughing each other up like siblings usually do. I should know. I have 17 siblings, our family reunions can get quite chaotic, heh, I think Briwala would hate them. I have to invite her to one someday.

Speech

Briwala grew up with a caravan filled with the most varied people. She can, if she concentrates, speak plain noramadian as well as anyone else. But when she is speaking casually, she speaks with a heavy accent that I can't quite pinpoint. Its something completely unique to her and sounds like every word has a different accent. I admit that my Zakarian is quite rusty but I know for a fact that even when she speaks in her native language she has a weird accent. I guess it's the consequence of speaking with so many different people, from so many different backgrounds on a daily basis. Even so. I would dare to say that her accent gives her an extra charm. That might also be the only charming thing about her.

Wealth & Financial state

Briwala is not particularly wealthy. But she is quite well off. She told me she had no interest in money, but that people in power respect those that have it. So in her quest to get a meeting with the emperor, she turned herself into a pseudo bussiness woman in order to acquire wealth and impress him. While such base pursuits are lost in a simple artist like me, I can't help but admire the zealousness with which she pursues her goals.

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Current Location

Batria

Species

Tiefling

Ethnicity

Zakarian

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Sergeant

Year of Birth

730 32 Years old

Birthplace

Hiarta

Current Residence

Batria

Eyes

Vibrat red eyes

Hair

Short, raven black hair

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Light purple

Height

1m76

Weight

72 kg

Quotes & Catchphrases

Did you know... That what you just did is a crime?