Pertoniti the Spectacular Charmer of Love Sublime, Imperial War Master

Skill List

Role

Chapter 9

A commercial exchange was made between Pertoniti and Merf, the former offering to sell
an axe taken from Kaplogu, the latter showing initial interest, but desiring instead to buy
some of Pertoniti's life force to help charge his weapon.

In their conversations, Shamise had mentioned that it was inappropriate for a follower to
value their lives so little as to throw them away. Did Pertoniti love his life so little to
diminish it even slightly for Merf? The arial weighed the thought of a fuller purse against
the weight of his life for only a fraction of a moment. The answer was a prompt no.

It is a little thing to write of it, but the realization held significance to Pertoniti.

Role

Chapter 8

Although governing the largest empire in recent history, Kraldinor made time to
actively proselytize. A week after his meeting with the goddess, a pigeon bearing
a message for Pertoniti came to the palace from Shamise, stating that the emperor
had spoken with the herald and asking the young warrior to journey to the Inn of the
Eternal Star.

Shamise was a Chosen, a tattooed follower of Rayihn, and her movements bore the
influence of Rayihn's teachings. She flowed to the door and took the arial's arm, treated
him to pie from her ovens and chilled drink from her larder, and she engaged him in
conversations meant to frame his understanding of Rayihn, her faith, and her followers.

At length they spoke of the different facets of love, the power of water to cleanse and to
crush, and vanity versus arrogance. Briefly they spoke of the healing that was necessary
in order for them to reach the point where they could love themselves and others in a
healthy manner.

Later, Kraldinor checked on Pertoniti to ensure that the arial had met with Shamise per
the emperor's desire, an administrator's thoroughness that was not lost upon the Blade.

Role

Chapter 7

He avoided looking at her. Several minutes went by, her staring
at him, he humbly staring at the drops of water condensing on the
flagstone, until Rayihn became bored with the detentes and spoke.
''You can look at me, you know. I do not mind.''

Her voice was like chimes on the night's breezes, hauntingly clear
and seeming to harmonize with itself. He looked up at her, then
again at the floor. He wasn't sure if he heard her voice with his
ears or it entered his mind: What do you see?

''Peace. You seem so at peace.''

I am indeed quite comfortable with who I am. Share your history
with me, Pertoniti. Let me know who you are.

Unbidden, images rushed through his mind of his childhood, his
marriage, of his life after Chitha was taken from him. Sword
training, battles in the bush, coins dropping between his fingers
like water into the imperial collection box.

Do you hate, then? No, you only want to make Thera better.

''I am not destined for anything so grand. I am not a noble, nor
a great leader, but I still must try.''

No, we all can be great, and I know now where we will begin with
you, Pertoniti. I want you to think about what is great about you,
and then we will talk more.

Role

Chapter 6

''Come to me. You know where I am.'' This from the emperor,
a message carried by a dull-faced northlander with a gash cut
out of his left nostril. A journey across Thera to faraway lands,
a week of dusty roads, rat-infested ships and the ravages of
malaria. What one does for one's king.

Pertoniti places his hand against the stone panel and gently
pushed it aside, and the hot moist air of the bathhouse immediately
became a cloud as it hit the cool night air. He entered, blinking
furiously as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he saw the
attendants heaping freshly heated stones into the iron cage,
another bare-chested servant pouring water over them with a
hiss and sputter. Pertoniti walked past them to the main
reception room, where Emperor Kraldinor, Rydell, Khonso,
and Malduc were being received by a stunning woman whose features
were untouched by the hot humid air. The goddess Rayihn.

The emperor introduced Pertoniti to the goddess, and after the
brief acknowledgment the guests each spoke to her in turn and
departed. Men and women came and went, leaving behind gifts and
scrolls with the marks of many great houses. Pertoniti panted,
for he was quite unaccustomed to the great heat, but eventually
everyone had left but the goddess and the arial.

Role

Chapter 5

The transition from citizen of Ayr'Trinil to imperial citizen is not always easy,
nor was it for Pertoniti. Two sorts of people seem drawn toward enlisting in the
Empire, those like Pertoniti who feel that everyone benefits from a sense of order
in their lives, and another subset who instead relish the dark atrocities that they
may commit in the name of the imperial decree. In truth, the arial did not like these
people at all, for they were like rabid dogs on a leash, looking at every moment for
an opportunity to slip the collar of law.

The Empire, though, was on the mend. Shortly after the cobbler enlisted in the
ranks and picked up a sword for the first time, the high priest was chosen by the
immortals of the Empire to lead this institution to glory. Despite casualties, the
new leadership began filling the council immediately, promoting perceived
competence and casting out the unworthy, and the halls of the palace were
rapidly filling as a result.

Pertoniti understood that he must set aside his loathing for those who filled
the positions within the imperial army from the positions themselves: a true
craftsman can make something useful even with flawed tools, and a master
craftsman can reshape his tools to make something beautiful to behold. He was
but an apprentice now, but this cobbler would some day rise to master, and
when that occurred he would see to it there was a steady supply of Prosimian
leather for the people of Thera to walk upon.

Role

Chapter 4

Alcohol cannot drown despair, although an ocean of ale can cover
a memory for a time. Inevitably, what we desire to remain in the
depths bobs back to the surface like a bloated corpse, and so it
was with Pertoniti and the thoughts of his wife. One uncounted
morning after another he woke with tavern-floor straw in his mouth,
but the sight of an imperial boot was the sign that arial's life
was about to change. It was a boot, square-toed with tight blind
stitches, crocodile leather dyed with Arkham crypt-black, filigreed
with Redhorn gold with its telltale red and green-hued impurities.
It was, simply, a work of art.

Pertoniti looked up at the boot's owner, a tall man with a prodigious
black sideburns and an air of affable authority. The stranger helped
him to his feet , and in a booming voice he said, ''HELLO, LADDEE!''
before buying the arial a bowl of hot porridge and two slices of bacon,
over which he introduced himself as Argyl, an Imperial Recruiter

''Ne jes any recruitah, min' ye, but the chief recruiter fo' the
Seantryn Modan regimen' an' pride o' the Imperial High Council isself.
The Emperor, may 'e live a tousan years, be needin men like you, men
wit a drive to do somethin wit dere lives, but jes needin a bit o
structure an' discipline ter help dem reach dere potential.''

As the porridge began to act as a salve to Pertoniti's throbbing
head, he learned that Argyl had been on holiday in Udgaard, but he
had been snatched up as an escort for Kraldinor, the Imperial High
priest, who was on a political mission to Evermoon. Word was the
Outlanders had been raiding all over Thera, and with the aid of armies
trained by the Fortress of the Light and the Battleragers they had
successfully launched a campaign of terror against every major city
in the western world. The Empire was fast becoming the last hope for
peace, and Argyl was not going to let the opportunity to help a fresh
young face build a good future for Thera.

The plight of Thera resonated deeply with Pertoniti, and while they
talked Argyl drew up the paperwork stating that Pertoniti was a recruit
from Seantryn Modan. The arial was directed to travel from Hamsah Mu'tazz
and look for someone on the docks in an Imperial uniform and present them
with his commission.

Role

Chapter 3

Pertoniti has set out in search of his beloved Chitha, whom he believes
has been enslaved by the Outlanders. He adopts the belief that the world
needs order for it to function properly, for if the rule of law yet existed,
his wife would be safe and his life would not have been disrupted. Those
within the Tribunal lack the will to extend the benefits of order beyond
the confines of a handful of cities to all of Thera, and so he looks elsewhere
to see to it his rule of law may reach the farthest corners where it is most
needed.

Pertoniti does not see himself as evil. He recognizes that his motivations
require that he make tough decisions for the benefit of the world, but he acts
out of perceived necessity, not out of an innate desire to do harm. He views himself
as the stern father the world needs for its own good. Other, lesser beings, may
embrace evil for their own ends, but they are tools to advance his altruistic goals,
though the day must come for him to replace them for something better. Only a handful
love the world enough to sacrifice those necessary for the good of the whole, and he
will train his body and spirit to become that person.

Role

Chapter 2

The assistant cobbler arrived at the shop and pulled out the leather blanks
they had cut the night before, and in preparation for the day he took his punch
and began creating the needle holes they would use when they stitched the day's
batch of sandals, shoes, and boots. The cries of the dying reached his ears long
before he could smell the smoke of wood, straw, and burned feathers.

Ayr'Trinil was under attack.

The smoke was a haze in the crowded corridors of the city, and Pertoniti's eyes
stung and watered as he raced back to his hut. The Outlanders, as some called
them, were brutes whose raids were not unknown to the homeland of the arials,
but until recently their flock had been small enough that those raids were a
dark dream from childhood, a story the elders used to frighten youth and counsel
tight-fisted merchants to more readily pay their taxes for the watch. Pertoniti
hopped, skipped, fluttered down the rocky streets toward his wife, aware despite
the lies he was telling himself that the smoke was becoming thicker, its scents
carrying sinister news and dread fancies.

The goatskin flap lay upon the ground, blue fire lapping at its edge like
the blue fires seen on an exotic drink. Pertoniti dove into his hut, but it
was empty. His meagre belongings had been ransacked, and the raiders, and
Chitha, were gone.

Role

Chapter 1

In a hut below Ayr'Trinil, caught between the stench of the rotting flesh
of the mausoleum and the stream of offal depending on the direction of the
wind that day, the assistant to the cobbler ruffled his feathers and opened
one pale yellow eye. Hilltop-warblers had begun singing their day's greeting,
and within an hour the sun would begin to warm the mountainside. It was time
to go to work.

Pertoniti shook his wings and stood, letting his naked talons emerge from
beneath his fluffed torso. He may make boots for a living, but there was
not a boot out there that he cared to wear when he took roost for the night.
Chitha, his wife, remained asleep, her a threadbare cloak draped over her
spare shoulders. After he cleaned himself in the chilly water filling his
washbasin, Pertoniti went across the floor of their one room hut and quietly
withdrew a piece of coarse oatmeal bread from the white-pine bread-box.
Moments later, the goat-skin door to their hut fell closed behind him as
he began his trek up the mountain toward his cobblery.

There were many things about his job he despised. He hated living in such
squalor at the bottom of Ayr' Trinil. He hated being the underpaid assistant
to a merchant, kept poor enough that he would never be able to raise enough
money to open his own shop. He hated the smell of the chemicals used to cure
and dye the leather used in their shoes. Although he was good at it, he hated
taking orders from the drunkard and fool that owned the exclusive license to
make shoes within Ayl'Trinil. He longed for a better life for his Chitha and
the children that might one day be his. Pertoniti hated that he loved his wife
too much to say No to her.

Immortal Comments

PK Gank-O-Meter

PK Statistics

Skill List

Title History

Arena Statistics

PK Wins

PK Wins

PK Deaths

Leveling History

Timeline

Mob Deaths

Edges

Flaws

Racial Edges

Class Edges

Edges