Xubane, the Starkiller (Zu-bah-ney)
Summary
A name long associated with fear among cultivators and powerful people, Xubane is a terror as old as written word in Nerzin. Her tireless mission against evil has long venerated and vilified her, countless generations bending around her awesome presence. Long ago in ancient times, a rachtoh sect focused on peaceful cultivation, living in the far northern mountains. They sought seclusion for their families and their delicate art forms, shrugging off the-then contemporary beliefs violence brought ultimate power. Their sect mistress oversaw dozens of generations of hopeful aspirants, her prodigal skill shaping them to greater heights. Yet for as far away as they hid, countless cultivators, mages, warladies, and more came to ply their trade and pillage the sect. Xubane, the sect's powerful guardian, ever fought off these vicious assaults with unwavering resolve. It would be a conspiracy born from within that broke her timeless guard. Betrayal is oft the most serious of crimes, but few hate it as deeply as the rachtoh. They can make even humans bow humbly at the unfathomable rage such a crime inspires. A new aspirant, one with skill vaunted to the high Heavens themselves, fell to insidious plots. Subverting Xubane and throwing open the proverbial gates of the sect, invading cultivators ransacked it with brutal glee. Xubane, mortally wounded herself, fought beside her sect mistress and closest of comrades in a vicious final stand. A landslide ended taking most of the sect and its secrets with them deep into an underground cavern system. In those key moments, Xubane beheld the faces of the schemers, hatefully searing them into her mind. Were it not for her sect mistress and dearest friends imploring otherwise, even in their dying breaths, Xubane may have very well given up. But she, out of them all, was charged to survive, and continue the sect how ever possible–a final duty for their venerable guardian. Alone in the darkness, Xubane laid broken, barely sustained by the trickles of mana she could absorb. It would be then an asuspicious encounter revealed itself, the likes of a spider. One that might be the size of mountains; or as small as a tagraxi, Xubane couldn't tell. The spider spoke to her then, and asked to broker a deal: would Xubane learn her cultivation method, in exchange for her life being saved? She, it turned out, couldn't bear children for her poor use of the method twisted her body terribly. Alone in the Underworld, the spider didn't want to ascend without passing it on to others. If she didn't, no one would eventually join her in the Heavens, making for a lonely eternity. Xubane, torn between vengeance and what remained of nobility, plead that she might taint such a profound method. The spider simply laughed, for she didn't care between good or evil–the world would change around her as she pleased. Whatever Xubane chose to do, she simply wanted to hear interesting stories when they met again. Caught between the offer and her sect's dying wishes, Xubane embarked upon the path of the Tyrant Spider. Years later, a terrible creature erupted from the veltron in the midst of a city. A spider monstrosity the size of a great house, its chitin a deep black but speckled with twinkling, beautiful gemstones. With many eyes burning like blue fire-water, it rampaged after the cultivation sects that lived in the city. All who could, save their weak juniors, fought it across the city. Scores of them were slaughtered and devoured, the rest broken and left feeble, and so it left, leaving city a ruin where the sects had lived. Everyone else, stunned by the rather selective damage, spun fantastical rumors that spread like fire across Nerzin. Coincidentally, a rachtoh bearing a striking resemblance to that same monstrosity started making rounds through the cultivation world. Armed with a strange but fearsomely powerful artform, she befriended the virtuous and scorned the wicked. Those who pursued power on the blood and sacrifices of others, she hated the most. Her name spread far and wide even quicker, and soon everyone began to fear the likes of Xubane. For, her simple mission brought untold destruction: eradicating every power hungry sect in Nerzin. Conquest is nothing new to Nerzin, but Xubane's ruthless and methodical pursuit stunned everyone. She wasn't aiming to take what was theirs for herself, but to reach even farther than their roots and tear it all out. One-by-one she toppled them, through her own strength, or through timeless plots and maneuvers too vast for others to stop. Some she never even touched personally, others moving at her bidding both direct and indirectly. For what could be said of Nerzin's ancient wars, historians unanimously point toward Xubane as the force that finally ended them. No more than the downfall of the Grand Star sect encapsulates her achievements, or her most deserving of titular names. Founded by a great warlady, the Grand Star sect ranked among the most dangerous of martial sects. In many respects peerless and capable no matter the battlefield, great numbers of cultivators sought to join their ranks. Their sect mistress herself even ascended to the Heavens, becoming a shining star in the night sky. If the ways of war were to end, the Grand Star sect had to be destroyed–so Xubane labored in quiet for centuries. Their allies devoured from within, replaced by controllable agents, and many more poisons and poxes arrayed, the Grand Star sect became isolated and easy. By the time of the final battles, nearly all of the cultivation world had been arrayed against the Grand Star sect. The reasons varied, many for their own, many more because of Xubane's influence. Regardless, one of the most brutal conflicts in memory waged over weeks in a slow, unrelenting siege. When their dire fate revealed itself, the Grand Star sect called for their mistress, and she audaciously descended from the Heavens as a war goddess. It would be, after many martial cultivators fell to her, that Xubane took to the field herself. Their battle shook Nerzin, from Aochen to Maika, perhaps even farther away than that. The heartlands reshaped beneath them, carved out and left with scars that remain even to the modern day. None expected Xubane to stand against a goddess so audaciously, and never so capably. Mortal and divine alike watched in captivated awe as the Grand Star sect's mistress was beaten back, and then defeated. In a moment immortalized in paintings across the lands, Xubane tore the goddess apart, shattering her very soul. The Heavens erupted in a brillant light, the so called grand star itself screaming as it simply annihilated from existence. A veltron-bound immortal dared to reach to the Heavens, and pluck one of its very own from it–the world flipped on its head, stunned beyond reason at such an event. So it was, the many who witnessed that incredible moment dubbed her 'the Starkiller'. In a roundabout manner, her success at tearing out the violent sects of Nerzin is what led to a much larger cultural shift. Notions of restraint, consideration, and temperance took root as the norm if only because those weren't the ones dying off. Others followed in Xubane's wake, taking up arms under banners she never rose herself, and so Nerzin's countless generations of violence met their end. Xubane soon faded from the public eye as a person, transforming into a legend more talked about than known. Some tried to pin the new age of peace to her, but many more remembered the destructive tyrant that swept through the lands. So it came to be they ever danced between a monster sent by the Heavens, and an evil that devoured the powerful to embolden itself. Yet, time takes on a different meaning to the timeless. Xubane crept through the centuries, hunting those who remained. The bloody sects dwindled throughout the years, new ones cropping up only to be left husks in a web-strewn trap. Those who survived, clever and skillful enough to evade her just enough, continued to hide. Some even chose to flee Nerzin, and she followed after, no matter how far across Veltrona they went. In her wake followed even more fanciful tales and myths, burying the history of who she was in time. Not all of those who burned her old sect to the ground had been caught. They, like all cultivators trying to defy the Heavens, yet lived thanks to their life extending tricks. But, she would find them. No matter how long it took; no matter where in the sunshine or darkshade they hid, she would. All of Veltrona would be thrown upside down if she had to. And that traitor, most of all, would finally face justice.Physical Description
Body Features
Being a cultivator of at the immortal body stage, Xubane is divine in physical health, and carries a distinctive magical presence. Unlike all other rachtoh, however, she's physically different in possessing four extra limbs out of her back, as well as a more robust physique. By her own kind's standards, she verges toward the monstrous more than the beautiful.
Generally more comparable to a muscular human woman than a lithe rachtoh, Xubane's physical prowess is self-evident but demure and quiet. Where others might be overbearing, hers is reserved in a way of almost hiding; waiting for ambush. Her star-speckled chitin is thicker, and the edges of it are generally swept into angular points. That is, where others may be round, she's closer to squares and triangles, giving her a jagged and dangerous undertone. Her overall physique aligns with a solidly feminine one, with a strong core and firm hips, complimented by demure breasts.
The four back limbs are essentially spider legs themselves, being jointed and with sharp points. They can easily curl around Xubane as well as reach around her, extending her potential reach up to twice her arm's length. Given they lack any real digits, they're most useful for casting spells, brutal melee attacks, and weaving silk in some form.
Facial Features
Her generally thicker chitin has hardened her face up, making it somewhere closer to a natural armored mask than anything else. The chitin itself sweeps out from her cheeks, jaw, and brows, creating simple, jutting 'spikes' that widen her profile and give her an almost thorny visage. Xubane's upper and lower canines are also larger than normal, not quite full mandibles nor jutting out of her lips, but viscerally distinct whenever she talks or smiles.
Four charged, plasma blue eyes sit in rounded eyes with tiny folds, her natural resting expression one of slight scorn or contemplation. They carry a natural roiling mana within them, making sure anyone who hadn't clued in at that point knew how magical she actually was.
Identifying Characteristics
Everything about Xubane is visually striking, but her star-speckled chitin and spider arms are incredibly distinct. For all the fear and superstition around the rachtoh, actual spider arms is not something usual among them, making her all the stranger to see.
Special abilities
Tyrannical Strength – Physical supremacy is the foundation of the Tyrant Spider style, and Xubane's raw strength goes beyond rational understanding. It is said she could grind a dragon's scales to powder in her palms, if she wanted to. Others terrifyingly believe she could smash a star in her hands if she ever reached up to the Heavens.
Metal Webwork – Mana-infused silk combined with metal magic create a deadly, on-demand weapon that can adjust into innumerable forms. Whether as a stationary trap, whip-blades, or even giving an edge to a dull sword, Xubane's craftiness with it is the stuff of rachtoh legend. Her silk is priceless for usage in protective clothing, a one-a-kind-event even great empresses would struggle to obtain.
Manavore – She can sup upon and devour the mana of others, strengthening herself in the process. Against cultivators or mages, such a technique is terrifying beyond compare.
Immortal – Xubane is a true immortal, unleashed by time.
Apparel & Accessories
Richly decorative in simple, but bold statements, Xubane carries the look of a (terrifying) goddess that can captivate as much as frighten people. Generally adorned in a more traditional, older dress style only seen among the long-lived and immortals, she seems to step out of history itself. Elegant almost to a fault, all to bely the rippling power underneath, few can ever truly forget her.
Xubane's attire can be arrayed in four layers:
The base layer is a fine white silk, acting as both her undergarments and underattire. Sleeves and pants legs go to her elbows and knees, respectively, giving proper cover and comfort against the heavier layers that will be laid on top. Entirely functional, parts of it peak out in the later layers to add framing to her visual appearance. Technically speaking this is also where her shoes are put on, themselves being simple, black feet-covering sandals. Given they are not seen much and entirely for purpose, they do have tiny, very cute swirling star jewelry embedded upon them.
Reinforced fabrics of a dark, grayish iron-like color lay on top of the base layer, acting like an encompassing dress that defines the overall figure of her attire. Long and wide sleeves descend from her arms, while a segmented skirt hangs from her belly down. The skirt itself has a front, back, and sides; leaving the 'diagonals' open so her legs can remain mobile. The fabrics themselves are made out of Xubane's metal silk, and have a sort of metallic reflectiveness to them that is eventually buried by the higher layers. Like the base layer, it is entirely function over form, and what parts can be seen later are for emphasis and framing.
The dress layer is where Xubane's iconic silk dress takes form. A soft lilac color defines the four-sleeved dress and ankle-length skirt, which in turn give shape to Xubane's figure. The dress itself is folded over her chest, but with a colorful opening at her collar bone. The many other layers converge there, built around her sharply contrasting skin in a way reminiscent to a flower or color gradient. A 'painting' across the the entire dress carries hues of turquoise, green jade, and brown veltron, depicting a vaguely stylistic scene. The bottom of the dress shows Veltrona, and as one goes up, it becomes an atmosphere, with Xubane herself the wonders of the Heavens and space at large. A white-and-gray, wide 'belt' covers her midsection, representing the cloudy skies and segmenting the two halves.
The final layer is a bazahn, itself a smattering of blues, greens, and streaks of fiery oranges. Reminscient of a distant nebula scholars can see with telescopes, it is made from crysium fibers, giving it a resplendent and immaculate look. The colors themselves seem to 'move' when in motion, appearing anything like flowing water to roaring fire. For her sensibilities, it is wrapped around her upper arms and then strung across her backside, where it is free to float at chest-height. Such a presentation appears demure, but with her unyielding aura, it displays a silent contempt to anyone before her. Her four back arms tend to rest or interweave with the bazahn, acting as support to it when they're at rest.
Choosing to minimize jewelry, Xubane has a few silver 'claws' that cap the angled, sharp edges of her face. A single strand of clear crystal gems hangs off the claw tips, giving her a sparkling appearance when light touches them. Eschewing any kind of hat, she tightly winds her long hair into a wide, comfortable top bun. Four metal hair pins keep it in place, their tips capped with jeweled knobs that each carry a different insignia. One of them is that of the Grand Star sect, and it is said she has many such hair pins, all denoting the sects she's torn apart.
Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Female
Sexuality
Bisexual
Education
For the time, Xubane had some of the best teachers and known-knowledge to study from. As her role as the sect guardian, everything was bent toward martial skill and personal aptitude in battle. Being completely aware of the dangers involved, she was studious and punctual about preparing everything for any kind of advantage she could use. Her resourcefulness in the end is what set her apart against many attackers, and she gained a limited reputation for being infinitely crafty.
After her sect's downfall, knowledge became her first weapon of choice against everyone else. Studying her enemy to know even their very own thoughts before they formed was the first step into preparing her traps. Without any fear of time, Xubane could manuever and manipulate pieces again and again, tightening a web around her enemy. When she herself made a personal appearance, absolute victory had already been established. In this respect the ryujin and jiuweihu who do know of her, give her a wide breadth if they come across one of her schemes. They've been around long enough to know how she works and how much of a pain fighting on her terms actually can be.
Mental Trauma
No matter how long it may have been, Xubane vividly remembers the day her sect ended. The horrors of being trapped underground as her loved ones died around her weigh freshly upon the mind. Although she has slowly worked through the most serious problems, it is a specter that hangs about her thoughts much worse on some days than others. For her, who swore vengeance on the blood of those slain, only finishing the last of those responsible will truly satsify her.
Intellectual Characteristics
Above everything else, Xubane is a calculative individual. She works on taking in the full spectrum of possibilities, sifting through what is or is not practical, and then designing her solutions from there. The eons of which she has lived only pushed this further and further. While she may not be a particularly great scientific mind, few strategists can go head-to-head and expect to survive. Fewer still can match her due-diligence and thoroughness in detail work. In a way, were she not completely absorbed by exterminating evil sects and hunting her infamous traitors, she could become a legendary scholar.
In the times she can be more relaxed, Xubane's natural busywork behavior shifts toward constructive venues. She rather likes architectural work the most, as it is both suitably complex and vast enough to capture her attention. The arts, at large, also tend to be an indulgence, and her fluency in them can astound a lot of people. Those close to her tend to regard this time as when Xubane is personable, being bashful and serious in a way someone overly honest only can be.
Morality & Philosophy
Although she embarked upon a different path, Xubane holds close to the tenets of her original one. Peace, in its entirety, is something she cradles in her bloodstained hands, ever trying to realize it. Veltrona is not cruel, but its constant hardships certainly impart that belief sometimes–Relentless, Forsaken, the very weather itself, not to mention the countless evils born out of the hearts of people. It has ever been a struggle for her to see a world beyond such conflicts. In time, though, as people learned and challenged these same questions, she saw Nerzin change before her eyes. When the ways of war were finally stifled for good, she thought peace would settle in for earnest in one area, at least.
Her ignorance, looking back on such wishful thinking, ever pains her. Oppression became the norm instead of slaughter, and although people yet lived–could such deplorable conditions be called living? Yet Xubane found herself paralyzed, for if she tried toppling such an arrangement, the wars she finally ended may return with even greater ferocity. Two evils sat upon either hand no matter what she did. Yet the world continued to change, and new upstarts promised different outcomes than she ever expected. The latest of them has proven the most curious: a direct contestant against contemptible tradition.
Xubane doesn't know if the peace her sect once dreamed can be realized. But she is painfully aware that, even though many thousands of years old, she is yet ignorant to all the things that can be. For her part, she endeavors all the same, trying to help those seeking a good and honest life in her endless web of machinations. Perhaps her blood-oath for vengeance yet clouds her perspective, something she is all too keenly aware of. What will come of that remains to be seen.
Current Location
Species
Children
Gender
Hermaphrodite
Eyes
Rounded, with folded corners; black sclera, plasma blue iris
Hair
Dark blue, middle-back length, with sharply cut bangs
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Shiny black chitin, dotted with countless reflective, starry colorful speckles
Height
Medium-short
Weight
Moderate
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