Role

Chapter 8

Rayangha grew up in a small jungle village whose culture, language and
dress roughly correspond to those of rural India ala Kipling's "The
Jungle Book". From an early age she showed an affinity for the natural
world, though she didn't fully understand the implications of this. She
wasn't an especially evil or sadistic child, but was irrevocably changed
after being shown a series of disturbing visions. These were thrust upon
her by a shapeshifting mystic at the behest of the "yaksha", or "ancients"
as they are known outside her culture. Instead of a "near death"
experience she had an "actual death" experience, after which she was
revived by the ancients in conjunction with an anti-venom potion concocted
by the mystic. Experiencing these visions was extremely traumatic and
drastically changed Rayangha's demeanor. From that point forward she was
consumed with a desire to destroy all those who seek to harm the web of
living things within which the yaksha reside.

Awakened to a larger spiritual reality and able to hear the voices of the
ancients, but also half out of her mind and mostly feral, she just barely
survived long enough to regain her faculties. At this point the voices
whispered that she should seek out magic, similar to the mystic who had
subjected her to the ritual. She did so, but in so doing was forced to
spend time in the great cities of stone since they were the only place
such knowledge could be acquired. This imposition only deepened her hatred
of such places and caused it to metastasize into something even darker.

She is now thoroughly wicked, delighting in the violent destruction of
any so-called "innocents" who number among those the yaksha have whispered
to her should be destroyed. Unlike some, however, she can still recall
a time when this was not the case and she was "different". She does not
lament what she has become, though, and considers it to be her true nature.
While her own deaths, whether the specific one from the ritual or any
others, are not to be celebrated, neither are they something to be feared.
Rayangha was born of the jungle and, when her flesh at last expires, will
return to it once more.