HERALDS CAMPAIGN
The White Dama
The White Dama, previously known as Reymah ne' Benethiehn, was the leader of Second Revelation. She was sealed in a No-Box, and her current fate is unknown.
Reymah was born seconds before her twin sister, Seleniah, to Emerito and Letah ne' Benethiehn. Like many children born during 'The Widowing' under the reign of King Voltaine II, there were complications from birth and their mother died weeks later.
One of the most powerful men in the wake of King Voltaine's execution, Emerito was visited by a wandering mystic known as 'The Drifter', who proclaimed his daughters would change the world with their deeds. Emerito spared no expense in giving his daughters the best education one could afford in Voltaine. He began to acquire tomes and hired tutors, to teach the girls how to read and write. They even received private tutoring from Scilo Duhn pre-ascension. and this enigmatic but wise Drifter, reappearing periodically to teach them of history long forgotten.
They eagerly devoured every scrap of knowledge given to them, learning everything from history, science, Merse medical practice, and when the Violate King invaded Enaeth, advanced military strategy and logistical planning. Their hunger for knowledge eventually drove Benethiehn to illegally acquire heretical texts not approved by TAERA.
Reymah grew up isolated and peculiar, even by Barony standards. With no interest in the Barony's 'Infinite Gala', she and her sister worked on their plan, their dream, to begin renewing the world as the First Heralds did, and usher in an era of scientific advancement to create a paradise without chaos.
Their strange, yet peaceful upbringing was destroyed when Emerito was tried and executed for the heresy his daughters enabled. Devastated, Reymah became Baroness Benethiehn, and struggled to tend to her dissolving estate, rampant sister, and the constant whispers of heresy surrounding their name.
Despite Reymah’s medical knowledge and prayers Seleniah’s rampancy rapidly grew worse and she died in her sisters arms in 2382. Lost in grief, Reymah liquidated the estate less than a year later and fled to Astele, guided by the riddles of the Drifter.
In Astele, Reymah, posing as an amateur antiquitist, became drawn into the conflict later known as 'The Courtship of the Isles'. She struck a friendship with 4 young men, who would go on to form the preeminient empire in a crumbling dynasty.
Reymah, worshipped as a divine 'Celestial' by the local populations, and having exhausted herself as Prime Minister and chief engineer of warfare for her new warlords, found herself succumbing to delusions of grandeur and rampancy. In her madness, she begun to experiment on her followers, creating designs for living weapons instead of artificial ones, all in pursuit of her sisters dream, warped by Reymah's own increasingly disturbing dreams and obsessions.
This would be discovered by her Emperor. Aghast at her heresy, their friendship ended and she was exiled to Enaeth in 2387. She would never make it; her ship was destroyed by a Scion, with all hands lost. Reymah would never be seen again.
It was here, lost at sea, that Reymah's prayers for a greater power to manifest itself revealed to her. She washed up on unknown shores and was recovered by the Drifter; a man she learnt was lost to time, leading an organization that would supersede the gods, and end the cycles of chaos.
Reymah was introduced to the Prelates of Presage; a project the Drifter had started during the dying days of the Atheist War, researching human evolution and Augury. Finally allowed to work without restriction or ethical consideration, Reymah advanced the project significantly despite her growing madness. Now a Prelate, Reymah was guided by Astrahl on what he called a pilgrimage to the sacred site of his own; A1.
Guided by the Drifter's servant, the Asva, Reymah traveled through Arath, and experienced first hand the folly of god and man. The futility of worship, and fatuity of the divine. Her pilgrimage complete, Reymah entered the fell cavern and underwent the Descension process in 2389. She met with the Drifter upon leaving the cave, and was gifted the remnants of his organization to oversee in his absence. She renamed it 'Second Revelation' and assumed the title the White Dama.
Returning to the Presage Site, the Dama was guided by an unseen voice now screaming through her skull on the cure for her Rampancy; an Amygdalaotomy.
By madness or design, the operation was a success despite significant side effects; The Dama could no longer experience emotion or pain.
She would spend the next 5 years traveling the world as the 'White Woman', and with the Asva as her guardian, began recruiting powerful allies to her organization; from east Arath she would meet an age-old ally of the Drifter; hidden in the Bedlo Strand she would find a former enemy desperate for lost glory; in the Arathern desert, where she would find and make her most monstrous creation; from the Prelates themselves to oversee her projects; wandering without goal would she find an old friend from a past life; deep in the mountains of Etekerekct she would find seven sisters fighting a losing war; In Torrens, a murderer turned artist of the flesh, to replace what was lost; and finally, a bastard, who despite everything, survived.
During this time, the Dama became a creature of folklore for many frontier villages in Enaeth as a miracle maker; curing injuries thought fatal; protecting villages from bandits or worse; empty grain houses becoming full overnight; and even, some would say, able to share images of the future.
For some of the most starved or decrepit villages, a visit from the Dama was the difference between life and death. Some offered their service and faith to this sad, unearthly woman, which she would accept. Some would further still leave with her, abandoning their lives to join the Dama in her quest for unification.
During these later years, the Dama would find and recruit the terror cult Broken Mantra, scattered from their failed terror plot, foiled in Torrens in 2396. She guided this cult to occupy the Fallen Litany as their base of operations.
Despite the mistrust and self-interested nature of her allies, all respected and feared her leadership, united as they were in her dead sister's dream, long warped from madness, despair and obsession; a paradise without chaos; a world without gods.
Biographical Information
Age:
36
Race/Gender:
Yuan-Ti/Elf Female
Born:
2362 3G.c
Voltaine
South Eridinea
Descended:
2389 4G.c
Exposed to The Watcher
Heretic of Perception
Died:
2398 4G.c
City of Rhyne
Locked in No-Box
Campaign Information
First Appeared:
Session 12
Aliases:
The White Goddess
The White Woman
Affiliation/s:
Occupations/s:
Baroness
Cup-Bearer
Strategist
Prime Minister
Prelate
Prophet
Devotion/s:
T̴̫̺̂͑h̵̡̅̅e̴͙̪͐̕͜ ̷̢͂̀̅Ḯ̶͍̟d̶̗̭̿̀̊i̶̥͎͋ö̸̠̮͔͐t̸͕̪͈͛͐̊ ̸͓̄W̸̛̳i̴̠͒͝t̶̲̹̠̊n̴̘͖̳͌ë̷̛͈̞́̇ͅs̵̙̈s̵͈͈̓̂͘
The Dama was an exceedingly tall and willowy woman, with pallid, deathly scaled skin and ink black hair. The irises of her eyes were frosty white, and the pupils ovoid and pointed.
Before becoming the Dama, Reymah was noted for her intense manner and focused interests. A sharply dressed woman, Reymah was never seen without her green crystal necklace, and later her White Filament crown gifted to her in Yin.
After her descent, the Dama was thought of by the Ruhk as 'a moving corpse'; whatever warmth or emotion had by Reymah long since expunged by the Descension Process and her botched brain surgery. Her crown, now renamed The Blindfold Corona, sits over her eyes like a pair of horns, leaving a thin gap for the bridge of her nose and protecting allies from a direct view into her eyes.
In her first encounter with Second Sunrise at the Fallen Litany, Grippsly was able to blast at and destroy part of her face before dying. She treated this mess of exposed muscle and bone with a calcifying agent, but was unable to replace her missing eye due to the necrotizing effect of Grippsly's augury.
It was later revealed that the Dama had, in her madness, undergone extensive biotic enhancements created by the Carnelian Faras; 8 arms had been attached to the Dama, each with a piece of Orin's flesh, transformed into an eye through unknown means, placed in the centre of each palm. What goal the Dama may have had in doing so is unknown,
In her recovered works, it has since been conjected that the Dama was a polymath genius, with expertises in biology, economics, engineering, history and strategy.
Having access to Amansir manuals, military training and other, unknown guides, the Dama was also one of the few experts in Augury-enhanced combat, otherwise known as 'Presage'. Her black shadows bore similarity to Grippsly's own augury, and other projects encountered by Second Sunrise, implying a relation between the Dama and her experiments.
Since undergoing the deose that make eye contact with the Dama die instantly. It is unknown how far this ability works, or the effectiveness of it at range. It is assumed she is unable to control this ability, as she keeps her eyes covered at all times behind her circlet.
The only known survivor of this ability is Grippsly, who was killed by her and resurrected afterwards, a permanent imprint of the Dama burnt into his retinas.
