Ro Iki

This article is in support of Avalanche, a future science-fantasy novel about atonement, revenge, and the meaning of death. All articles for this project are told from the perspective of the protagonist, Ro Iki.

Me?

Hi, I'm Ro. I guard the mortuary and perform funeral rites. I'm also a recovering necromancer. Don't worry, the bodies of your deceased love ones are perfectly safe with me, I promise.

— A conversation that would go very poorly

I used to be powerful. Someone people said had a "promising future". Then I learned that future was being a powerful puppet to a selfish man. I trusted him, believed everything he said, and escaping those lies cost me everything.
I've tried to rebuild myself in Main City, where I serve as an acolyte to the Justice Shard. It's better than being a puppet, but the version of me that had a promising future would hate what I've become.

Age

26

Residence

Main City

Followed Shard

Justice Shard, no shardmark

Current Status

Acolyte of Church
Necromancy Reject of Cult (secret)

Place of origin

Necromancer Settlement (secret)

---

A Job's a Job

I can perform a perfect ritual in my sleep, but that's only half the point of funeral rites.
To a necromancer, death isn't sad. It's a... transition. We don't even have funerals. Here, it's a whole process. People sob and wail and lament. The other acolytes cry with them and say soothing words to offer comfort. I try, but I'm not like them. There's a piece I'll never understand.
They know it, too. They're kind to me, but I'll always be an outsider in their world. Different. Wrong. Sullied. I wonder if they'll figure out why I'm like this, and what they'd do if they knew. I doubt they'd let me anywhere near their dead anymore.

A Friend's a Friend

Kim's my only real friend. She showed me the cracks in what I was raised to believe. Made me start questioning. She's why I left Necromancer Settlement.
As an apostle of the Justice Shard, she helped me become an acolyte. She keeps my background secret, and nobody needs to know I'm a loathsome Necromancy Reject. Nobody but us can enjoy the irony of a former necromancer putting the dead to eternal rest.

Sometimes justice means lying on a few forms.

— She actually said this

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