Jahulmt-Zahm, the First Deathwalker (Jah-ulmt Zahm)
Summary
Among all the names spoken by mortals and immortals, few are as immemorial and everlasting as Jahulmt-Zahm. An uld dragon of an age and time no one truly remembers anymore, she has ever been known across dragonkind for deeds done and services rendered. Most non-dragons confuse her for some kind of goddess, but dragons themselves do not worship divine beings. They see them more as peers of a different sort, for dragonkind is too great and powerful to have need of worship. Respect, however, is a very different matter. It is believed that in the most ancient of histories, Jahulmt-Zahm was like any other wokma. However, her fascination with death and the other side of the veil proved endless. After all, to immortals, death is not an inevitability, but one such worry among many others they could encounter. How or why Jahulmt-Zahm chose this path is a secret only she keeps, but ever since, she has been a necromancer of unmatched skill and knowledge. She is the one who walks between life and death, a messenger and mediator of both who have need. Her endless travels across Veltrona have seen Jahulmt-Zahm taken to every corner of the world, above and below. Concerned solely with resolving the grievances between the living and dead, she is a beacon of hope and despair in equal measure. None, however, could deny that she brings closure that otherwise would gnaw at the heart for the rest of time. Such a thing is pricelessly precious, and for what fears people may have of her, they invariably desire her services. Despite her legendary presence and renown, something easily spoken of in the same breath as Kirichiki or other death goddesses, very little is truly known about Jahulmt-Zahm. Her travels go unnoticed, and no amount of seeking can find her if the seeker has no business with death. She isn't involved in many of the mundane conflicts of the world, having never been directly recorded in wars, political matters, or otherwise. She doesn't have disciples or teachings passed down, and any that do exist are imitators or second-hand recordings. A veritable phantom throughout time, it wouldn't be until the age of the Imperium that Jahulmt-Zahm became truly visible to the world. Drawn to the rampant slaughter, Jahulmt-Zahm raged against the imperial dragons. She tore into them with ferocious zeal, the many wronged dead at her flanks in tides of vengeance. Sadly, even for her legendary renown, the harsh reality of colliding with Imperious ended very differently. Unable to overcome the tyrant, Jahulmt-Zahm pivoted toward destabilizing her powerbase instead. Throughout the life of the Imperium, she meticulously assaulted its foundations, rallying aid in the process. The prominence of her name roused many lineages to the call, and a fair number historians consider her a key figure in the war against Imperious. It is during those times that more of Jahulmt-Zahm became known, and so the mystery around her lifted somewhat. When the calamitous end of the Imperium came when the World Gate exploded, many feared even Jahulmt-Zahm's timeless existence finally met its end. There's no record of her appearing during the Great Darkness, lending credibility to her apparent demise. It wouldn't be until the formulations of Votyoger began that she re-emerged into the public eye once more. Summoned by Bloodwing, she bid the Deathwalker to join Votyoger, and render aide in bridging the lands of the living and dead together. In doing so, the Draconic Forum could better pursue justice, and achieve meaningful peace after the age of the Imperium. To the surprise of many, the normally aloof Jahulmt-Zahm agreed. She took on the mantle of Head Investigator, the most perilous position in the newly made Forum. It would be her duty to find out the truth of any matter the Forum demanded, no matter who tried to hide it. As a necromancer, no less, she might even visit upon the dead to ascertain truths the living would've thought long buried. If not her reputation, there are many who would rather such a position never existed. Still, of all the names to trust, her's is one few could truly stand against.Dying is the horrible part. Death? Death is as beautiful as the life you lived; everything you could've been, and everything you'll become. Leave the quarrels of the living to life, and embrace the journey you are to embark upon.
Physical Description
Body Features
If she has anything resembling a body, Jahulmt-Zahm may be comprised of physical darkness than flesh and blood. In the general shape of a wokma, she has no skin, scales, or discernible bones, resembling instead a dark, liquid mass. Between that and her clothing attire, she's more like a phantom walking in the world of the living than anything alive as most people know.
She does possess four angled, jutting tower-like horns that emerge from her head that look to be the same make and material as her funeral mask. Given how they're on the outside of her hood, it's not clear if they're her original horns or merely something made to resemble them. In either case, they don't seem to be contiguous with her darkness body.
Her long tail is ordinarily wrapped in her robes and charms of death, sweeping around behind her like a guarding serpent. For what parts of it that can be 'seen', it is just as much pure darkness as the rest of her.
Facial Features
Jahulmt-Zahm's 'face' is that a funeral death mask, vaguely in the guise of a dragon woman. The white-stone mask is a type of porcelain, highlighted with a silvery tint and polish. The face depicted is a rather general one, clear enough to be a 'dragon' but not of any lineage anyone who ever hope to identify. The eye sockets are opened, being themselves holes into the darkness of her body, but functioning as 'eyes'. Two long porcelain whiskers emerge out where a wokma's normally one, unusually animated and capable of movement for something that looks like stone.
The mask itself does not animate or change expressions, unless those observing it do not look. In other words, if one's line-of-sight is broken, Jahulmt-Zahm can change expressions. She normally does so with flourishing movements of her arms or twirling around, changing one look to another in a flash. Even the briefest moment of her arm's sleeves obscuring her face is sufficient for this purpose.
It is a means of moving and conveying herself that is rather unique. Supposedly it helps the dead, who may struggle to understand the subtleties of a normal face.
Identifying Characteristics
Her physical presence is impossible to ignore, a combination of death's prevalent existence and the intense might of a dragon. Even if one did not sense these things, an 8-foot tall being of pure darkness is extraordinarily distinct on the surface of Veltrona.
Special abilities
Death's Beloved Daughter – Jahulmt-Zahm's relationship to death and its myriad forms is intimate and deep, beyond the comprehension of all others. It is a bond forged through an eternity of hardwork, stalwart dedication, and unwavering fortitude in the face of hardship.
Mistress Necromancer – An unrivaled mistress of the necromantic arts, there are few forms of it on Veltrona Jahulmt-Zahm doesn't know. Other mistress necromancers prefer to consider her some kind of goddess rather than daring to put themselves in the same category.
Unnoticed Presence – Jahulmt-Zahm moves unobserved throughout reality, such that even the air and ground are not disturbed by her passing. Generally speaking this means she doesn't make any noise whatsoever, hence wearing funerary charms which jingle to alert others.
Apparel & Accessories
The black robes of Jahulmt-Zahm are defined by the silver embroidery that run throughout them. It defines her shape and outlines the border between clothing and dark body. The patterns vary between pictographic representations of death's forms, such as Kirichiki, as well as symbols pertaining to life.
There is a particularly prominent stylization of live birth on her backside, framed by both living and dead dragons in reverent worship. As it goes toward her tail, the stylization changes to show a path toward adulthood, and then a misty ocean-like sky. Her tail itself appears to be some kind of border or boundary theme, vague as if to represent death's finality or the unknown infinite of immortality.
Jahulmt-Zahm wears a variety of deathly charms across her body, such as the the Half-moon of Enu, a rosary of Yonfao with unbroken beads, an ashen jar of Volapaws, the burial cross of Uatkara, and many dozens more besides. Notably many of them are as draconic as they are otherwise, rather curiously revealing her business in the deaths of other civilizations.
She wears a pair of silver gloves on her hands, serving to make them tangibly 'normal' looking. They're not necessary for her to interact with the other, but people feel better when there's a defined shape and not just darkness itself.
Mental characteristics
Sexuality
Pansexual
Education
What I know is as vast as the darkness beneath your feet. What I have seen is as endless as the star ocean above us. Of all the things there are in life, there is much still I do not yet know. Ask me of the lives those who lived, what, a hundred thousand of your years ago, and I could speak of them. Their struggles, their laughter, their dreams, their hopes, and the despair; I know it all. But, this thing? I don't know it. Yes, I could become a scholar to know all there was, but then life would hold no more mystery. No excitement. No wonder at what might be found. And, in the same breath, all that I do learn, excites me to see more. It is that duality that tears me apart as much as pushes me forward.
Mental Trauma
I have fear aplenty, for things you may know, and for things you will never have the words to understand. The war within my mind is always beset by them, and it is through eternal vigilance that I overcome them every time. If you would go to the unknown, there is one thing, one name, you must fear with all your being. Fear it so great no question to its nature exists, no wonder at discovering it, and no desire to ever welcome it into your heart. Do this, and you may yet save yourself if you are so unlucky as to find it: Orjania.
Intellectual Characteristics
Well-learned, articulate, and polite-to-a-fault, Jahulmt-Zahm is a ship in an everchanging world around her. For wokma, especially, whose perspective on reality is fundamentally different from other species, it is a remarkable quality to possess. Though she doesn't always know where her path will take her, age and experience have become the tools by which she fords any river or sea needed.
Her adaptiveness helps much in her dealings with the dead, who are a varied lot just as much as the living. In many cases far more strange and different than the lives they once led, learning to speak their language is a critical skill unto itself. Much like her funeral mask, Jahulmt-Zahm changes expressions and modes of thinking on the fly, and often with a performative flourish. She slips into all sorts of 'characters', becoming someone any sort of person can find easy to converse with.
Some wonder what her 'true nature' is like, but others believe it is that ever-shifting existence that is, in fact, who she truly is.
Morality & Philosophy
To Jahulmt-Zahm, good and evil are merely points of argument. She has heard and seen it all more than once throughout the eons of her life. To brave the depths of the dead, and to meet them on their terms, requires a mind capable of seeing from their perspective. A stronger mind can not only do so, but retain its own sense of self and value. Some argue such empathic understanding is foolish at best, and dangerous more often than not.
Yet, it is that profound sense of empathy that allows Jahulmt-Zahm to befriend so much of the dead.
She is not without her own moral or ethical compass, though it may be inscrutable to many. Scorning those of Forsaken behavior, warladies, murderers, and the such, she offers them the due respect needed to ensure their passing on. To those who yet live, she ruthlessly admonishes, and wields violence with utmost freedom in their punishment. To Jahulmt-Zahm, life is a wonderful thing to be lived to its fullest, be it in happiness or sorrow. Those who would interfere in this way of things are those she hates the most.
It garners her a capricious reputation, especially to those who do not truly grasp the reverence she upholds life and death by.
Current Location
Species
Age
Unknown (10,000+ years)
Children
Sex
Female
Gender
Woman
Presentation
Feminine
Eyes
Opaque black voids
Hair
None
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Liquid darkness
Height
8'1", 246cm
Weight
320lb, 145kg
Aligned Organization
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