<strong>Name:</strong>Taegrin Ziati, the White Cobra<br/><br/><strong>Personality and History:</strong>Taegrin's no stranger to waking up somewhere unfamiliar, uncertain why he's there or what's to become of him. In some ways, it feels like coming home.<br/><br/>The White Cobra is an elan, a transhumanist aberration created by means of a secretive psionic ritual. Like most elans, Taegrin was chosen because he was exceptional. Noble at heart, in affect, and of station, he was further blessed with beauty and with grace: his mastery of dance as an art brought him to the attention of visiting powers well beyond the borders of the little kingdom he called home...but these things were not enough. What brought him to the attention of those who would be his makers was his changed psyche, after years abroad in foreign courts, where his pursuit of local dancing traditions (and the occasional local dancing lady) led him into the mysticism of certain ecstatic traditions of dancing, and from there into the first glimmers of psionic awakening - and the eye of an elan cult in service to an Outer Thing, who sought through wild meditations and mental shifts into pure emptiness to chisel away at the tyranny of Time itself. That was the first time he found himself imprisoned for sinister purpose, and the most transformative: he was made an elan, broken by the unbearable mind-warping of an Outer Thing, rescued by a princess clad in iron, and released to his home...to find himself too different in perspective, let alone essential nature, to call it that any more.<br/><br/>Taegrin instead sought out his heroine, who turned out to be a warder in service to the Knives of the Loom, a religious order that hunted down and destroyed those who would bend time and fate to their whim. The metaphysics and philosophy were of little interest to the young man who became the White Cobra, however; he wanted only stability and direction, and the cause gave him that. The rest he grew into. Swordsmanship was an art expected of the high culture of his homeland, and he found in its disciplined flow the delightful echoes of dance bounded up in borders that gave him a sense of security - something he desperately needed, after coming so close to drowning in the total freedom of insanity. He was a fine student, and his skill and clear heart - untainted by his experiences - advanced him within the order and the wider world. Soon enough he was the slayer (and occasional seducer) of all manner of insane arcanists and tentacled horrors, acquiring impressive titles like the White Cobra (there was an incident with a phrenic dire mongoose), developing new and excitingly flashy martial techniques, and privately mourning the loss of his promising dance career. Well, you can't have everything.<br/><br/>Of course, when you go about making enemies of rogue mages, wicked psions, and clerics of chaotic powers, you can expect the odd malevolent teleportation, plague of assassins, or abduction and indoctrination attempt: Taegrin's become almost as skilled at being captured as he is at slashing open evildoers who meddle in things best left to their natural order. He affects a sunny disposition and a good sense of humor about that kind of thing, because he has enough experience to dull the fear, because it's an coping mechanism, and because it occasionally annoys a wild-eyed priestess of the god of taking oneself too seriously into making a useful mistake. He does his best to conduct himself with honor, compassion, and merit, although he tends to lose his moral center when placed in conflict with the aberrant and the mentally unclean - which hasn't always been to his disadvantage. Still, that's the exception rather the rule. On some level, it's all a bit of a charade: something got lost in the transition from human to posthuman, some essential spark of self, and what he's really doing now is imitating his idealized memory of the girl who saved him all those years ago...but, well, like I said: you can't have everything.<br/><br/><strong>Goals:</strong>Taegrin wants to save someone else the way he was saved, only this time he doesn't want to be just a little too late. He wants to explore his psionic potential safely, chained to the discipline of his swordmanship. He wants a chance to come to terms with being irrevocably transformed, body and mind, with someone who understands what it is to have one's identity unmade by the designs of another.<br/><br/><strong>Race:</strong>Elan<br/><strong>Traits:</strong>Savant (Perform [Dance]), Fate's Favored<br/><strong>Class:</strong>Warlord<br/><strong>Archetype:</strong>Bushi (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hHsiSKoL2nR4oWgzPKQwXfqYENuNkDmBiX323SlTPfc/edit)<br/><strong>Tradition:</strong>The Knives of the Loom are an elusive brotherhood subject to much rumor and conspiracy; despite their image, however, they are often in good standing with the noble class and governments of nations they pass through due to their willingness to lend aid at pivotal moments and in times of crisis and their lack of interest in claiming accolades - there are no small number of men and women in power who have found benefit in their careers by accepting a Knife's timely offer. Despite the occasional sinister implication, the truth is that they are present at such moments because they search for them: the Knives are the priests, paladins, and devoted knight-errants of a dozen gods of time of fate, dedicated to hunting for rifts in destiny where the tapestry of reality has begun to come undone. They oppose the meddling of powers divine, arcane, and psionic, the works of vestiges and the ruin brought by Outer Things. Their symbol is a weaver's loom with a frayed thread being pared away by a knife. They offer Riven Hourglass (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rmHuI_JcLiDJ2_g0jyrP0lQ1a8wyXh-yL4-3njLpnZk/edit) and the Autohypnosis skill.<em>(Trading for Golden Lion and Diplomacy)</em><br/><strong>Abilities:</strong>Tentatively Strength 18, Dexterity 12, Constitution 12, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 18 (+2 Elan racial).