Life is
pleasure. It consists of an endless series of moments that bring joy and
happiness. The birth of a child, the taking of a lover, the
thriving of a community, the death of an enemy. These moments shape who we are and serve as landmarks on the path to our
destiny. The Primordials created the Maiden of
Serenity to oversee this aspect of life and fate. All that concerns joy, dreams
and pleasure are hers to give. Now it falls to the Chosen of Serenity to
oversee the continued health and happiness of Creation.
In the First
Age, the Chosen of Serenity were charged with maintaining the health and
well-being of Creation’s mortal populace. With their guidance, every gamily was
fed and clothed, given shelter and entertainment and kept healthy and fertile.
When it came time to dispose of the corrupt Solars,
it was the Chosen of Serenity who planned the banquet at which the fallen
champions of the Unconquered Sun were betrayed and ambushed. Drunk and
distracted by the Sidereal’s entertainments, the Solars were easily struck down without warning by
Dragon-Blooded assassins.
In the wake of
the Great Contagion, the Chosen of Serenity were given the task of returning
some measure of joy and prosperity to the world. They oversaw the reestablishment
of farms and herds, the rebuilding of towns and cities and the recovery of the
mortal population in the wake of disease and war. The Chosen of Serenity also
oversaw the reestablishment of the slave and drug trades, the building of
brothels and gladiatorial arenas and the growing prosperity of the wealthy and
decadent.
Among the
Bronze Faction, the Chosen of Serenity see to the health and prosperity of the
Realm and its tributary states. They work to ensure the continuing fertility of
fields and herds and use food and entertainment to undercut and potential
peasant rebellions. In addition, the Chosen of Serenity act as matchmakers and
marriage brokers among the Great Houses of the Scarlet Dynasty. Such efforts
ensure that Dynastic marriages will continue to produce useful political
alliances and well-bred Dragon-Blooded offspring. The Bronze Faction Joybringers’ duties also include managing the endless
number of public ceremonies and rituals performed by the Immaculate Order. Gold
Faction Chosen of Serenity carry out similar functions ― recruiting Solars, arranging unions between important Threshold families
and serving as priests within the Cult of the Illuminated and local fertility
cults. Independent Chosen of Serenity undertake such duties as well, but a
growing number have abandoned the caste’s traditional undertakings in favor of
the vice trade.
The Chosen of
Serenity are always born among those who work to bring joy and pleasure to
others. While many are born to toymakers, traveling performers and merchant
caravans, others draw their first breaths in whorehouses, drug dens and the
slave dwellings of the Dynasty. Many Chosen of Serenity continue to find
themselves most comfortable in surroundings similar to those in which they were
raised.
Caste Markings: The eyes of every Chosen of Serenity
have blue irises, and their pupils appear to be filled with minute blue flecks,
causing them to resemble a star-filled night sky. During powerful expenditures
of Peripheral Essence, the Sign of Serenity appears upon the
Anima Effect: The
Auspicious Abilities:
Common Natures: Architect, Bureaucract,
Caregiver, Conniver, Hedonist, Jester, Leader, Paragon, Savant, Visionary
Associations: The color blue, the element and season
of wood, the astrological house of the Cerulean Lute of Harmony
Sobriquets: Heaven’s Courtesans, Joybringers
Concepts: The world’s greatest actress,
apprentice artificer, the queen of whores, instructor at a Dragon-Blooded
academy, professional matchmaker, priestess of a fertility cult, slave trader,
king’s favored vizier
If you think we’re not
very influential, look around at
all the objects around you just
lying there. That’s all us.