Diplomat
Diplomats are the intermediaries. They
live in the between — in that space between the teeth of a demon and the flesh of
its slaves, the memory of a lover and the touch of his hand, the fall of a
kingdom and the rebirth that follows. There are no two creatures so alien that
a raksha Diplomat cannot seek the common ground
between them and, finding it, use it to bind them both to his will in an
agreement all three find satisfactory.
The tool of the Diplomat is the Staff —
not the weapon and not the distaff, but the staff of law, on which they record
the bargains and promises of their kind. Their purpose and hunger is to build
the alliances and bridges that link the raksha (and
others) together through all the timeless years of their existence. In so
doing, they bind and channel the Conviction of the rabid monsters of the Wyld, feeding from the Essence cast off by that binding.
The Diplomats hate Creation because it
does not bind itself to their bargains. The humans and animals and gods of
Creation are oathbreakers, abominations physically
capable of promising one thing and doing another. This is sickening, horrible,
filthy and wrong. Worse, it is corrosive. If a Diplomat wishes to cope with
Creation at all, she must come to understand its ways and learn the structure
of the machine. In Creation, if forced to it by the weave of events, even a
Diplomat can inadvertently break her word.
In one respect, Creation redeems itself.
The Conviction of its fanatics has a rare and heady flavor. Those driven to
live in Creation’s reaches sup on the dreams, souls, passion and radiance of
zealots, fanatics and ecstatic cultists. For the ravisher, nothing is sweeter
than devouring the will of a dedicated victim. She drains her victim’s
integrity and drive until his only remaining conviction is service to whatever
oaths the raksha chooses to extract.
Caste
Traits: Diplomats excel
at the arts of intrigue, wayfare and manipulation.
Their Caste Abilities are Linguistics, Occult, Ride, Socialize and the
assassin’s art, Thrown.
Grace
and Virtue: Diplomats
feed on Conviction. They favor the Staff Grace and its Charms, which channel Conviction
and manifest diplomatic power. The Staff has the power to create and support
social order.
Controlling
Grace: Valor controls
Conviction. Diplomacy is strongest when allied to the Sword and weakest when
opposed to it. Imperial Raksha — noble Diplomats who
master their Warrior aspect — are the nobles most fitting the Diplomat
description above.
Associations: The northern direction, the color blue,
the place between, the shinma Nirvikalpa,
the social world and unity.
Sobriquets: Rajanya,
Constraining Storms, Shapers of Law, Silent Chains, Culture Dancers, Summit and
Chasm Folk, Beguilers, Poison Knives, Tulpa
I’m
proud of you.
Sacrificing
your life for this pathetic little village —
I can
taste the integrity of your choice.
I set in
motion the cycle of events that brought you here;
that
brought this doom of the wolf god’s wrath; that lets you
save
them by standing in its way. It is by my word and my
hand
that this is necessary. But it gives me joy to know that
you
are not chained. That it is your own nature and your
own
desires that keep you here, bound in death’s shadow to
this
little town, waiting at the stake —
For the
monster to come.