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Zahi Akello: Detective, Former Soot Wolf

Started by pomelo, March 12, 2016, 01:43:06 AM

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pomelo

__________________QUICK STATS
Name Zahi Akello
Age 29
Gender Female
Species 7/8 Human, 1/8 Djinn
Ethnicity 1/2 Essyrni, 1/2 Kishahn
Height 5' 6" / 168 cm
Occupation Detective, former Soot Wolf, (double... triple agent?)
Residence Arca
Sexuality Heterosexual

__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description
Zahi is sleek, well-toned and athletic, but with the wiry build of someone who never had enough to eat as a child. She has an umber brown complexion and her hair is dark black-brown, thick and tightly curled and coiled so that, when unbound, it makes quite the mane. To keep it under control, Zahi frequently has it bound back in some sort of braid or knot. Perhaps the most obvious feature of the woman is her eyes; she has complete heterochromia, with one eye rich brown and the other a light hazel.

She dresses in an understated, utilitarian way, mostly in browns and grays. Linen pants, well-fit tunic, and sometimes also has a scarf either around her neck and shoulders, or covering her hair and shadowing her face. When needed, she has a mismatching array of light leather armor.

Covering her back, arms, and chest is an intricate pattern of tattoos, inked in black and gold on her dark skin. Though containing many images and symbols, the tattoos appear to be part of one theme. In truth, it is based on her memory of the inscriptions on an altar of stone in the forgotten temple outside of Zantaric, but she does not say this. In addition to these large and bold tattoos, on the ankle and shin of her right leg, as though it were crouched by her side, is a life-sized image of a stark, black rat. The true explanation for this is never given, though many are told.

Personality 
Zahi is a clinical, no-nonsense misanthrope. She views life as a matter of survival, principally hers. Zahi does not trust easily and her trust cannot be earned by authority alone; she's a closed book that opens for very few. Likewise her loyalty, at least to individuals, is bestowed neither automatically nor permanently. Zahi is fairly direct and candid and makes few overtures to diplomacy. Either she will hold her tongue, or she'll tell you what she thinks without sugar-coating or buffering anything. That said, she does not go out of her way to be rude or provocative. Her sense of humor is almost nonexistent (though not entirely, and shows up every so often) and she seems usually immune to sexual advances or flattery. When it comes to actual, genuine interpersonal relations, Zahi can be a little awkward; not well-trained in how to deal with messy things like emotions. But that doesn't mean she doesn't understand the importance of social relationships, especially in a job like the Blood Wolves, or now working in the Queen's detective service. And with colleagues she lets her guard down a little, understanding the importance of trust in such relationships.

When she was a Blood Wolf, she did her job efficiently and ruthlessly, relatively unaffected by the death of others. Despite this, however, Zahi does not like violence, per se. She views violence as a tool and, like any tool, one that will blunt with overuse. In particular, she did not like to use violence or intimidation any more than necessary in her role as the Red Jackal. She believes in leading through strength and respect, not through fear and showmanship. She has little interest in or patience for politics. But she did care about those under her, in her way, and takes her responsibility to them (and the rest of the Guild) very seriously. In truth, Zahi was never much of a 'criminal', except that it was the path laid in front of her. As antisocial as she is, Zahi prefers to work in the interest of the group rather than for personal gain. In this regard, her new line of work suits her best, though it's unlikely she would admit it.

Magic/Abilities
Due to her Djinn blood, Zahi is considerably stronger than a normal human, and has sharper senses. She is able to easily handle fire without being burned, and can take a flame from the hearth without it extinguishing. She keeps this ability very close to her chest, however, and few know of it.

Relationships
Behati Akello - Mother, Deceased. Originally from the Kishahn jungle, Behati was taken by traffickers at a young age and brought to Zantaric to work as a prostitute. When Zahi was still a young girl, Behati was violently murdered by one of her clients.

Yanai Aram - A drifter from Essyrn. Zahi's Djinn blood comes from Yanai. Of course, the two know nothing about the other's existence, and Zahi remains ignorant of her non-human heritage.

Unnamed Crime Boss** One of the key figures in Zahi's life was the crime boss who picked her up as a child. Staying with him from the later years of her childhood until she was a teenager (8 or 9 to 15 or so), she very likely would have died in the streets without him and during her time with him he ranged from a vague-father-figure to lover for her. Her feelings about him now, after fleeing from his side, are very conflicted.

** I would be open to people interested in playing this character!

Zahi also has had a long-term on-again off-again relationship with the Spirit Wolf, Bujari. It's super secret. She doesn't want to talk about it.

History
[Warning: Some mature content.]
Zahi was born a bastard child in a Zantaric brothel. Her mother, still a teenager when she got pregnant with Zahi, fought tooth and nail with the establishment's "proprietors" to keep the child, and was only successful when the rest of the women in the brothel backed her. As a result, as a young child Zahi was raised fairly communally by many of the women in the brothel. When she was seven, her mother was murdered 'on the job.' Knowing that, with the protection of Behati gone, an exotic-looking child like Zahi would quickly be seen as a high source of profit by the brothel owners, Zahi was spirited out of the brothel by two of the women who'd been closest to her. She was simply told that her mother was 'gone' and that she had to get away. Zahi wouldn't learn what truly happened to Behati until years later.

Zahi fled Zantaric into the ancient forests outside of the city. For nearly a year, she lived wild in the forest, taking shelter primarily in the abandoned temple at its heart. Winter drove her back into Zantaric where she scraped by as an urchin. Not long after returning to Zantaric, starving and at the end of her rope, she was picked up by one of the town's rising crime bosses. At first this was out of pity and with no intention of 'keeping' her, but he soon recognized that a child had its uses. A child could go unnoticed where many adults could not; and so Zahi was taken under his wing. She would be sent to gather information, apply and deliver poisons, or other activities where an adult would be conspicuous. He kept Zahi close and, when she was fourteen, took her as a lover. As a result of this, when she was just fifteen, Zahi found herself pregnant. A disagreement with her 'boss' about whether or not to keep the child - he wanted to, and refused to allow her a potion that would cast it away - led Zahi to a crude, back-alley abortion. Though effective, the dangerous operation and subsequent infections nearly cost Zahi her life. When it was over, Zahi ran away from her boss and his organization and left Zantaric for good.

Zahi gradually made her way up to Serendipity and Arca. She joined the Soot Wolves at sixteen, shortly after arriving in Arca. After spending her first few years in the guild as a thief, Zahi was singled out to become a Blood Wolf. It seemed like a natural transition to Zahi after the work she'd done in Zantaric, and it was a position she took seriously and excelled at. She spent ten years as a Blood Wolf before accompanying the previous Red Jackal on a mission to a former friend of the Red Jackal that turned into an ambush. They escaped, but the former Red Jackal was badly wounded. Deciding that the botched job was due to the weakness of the former Red Jackal, Zahi waited and let the man bleed to death. Afterwards, she was promoted by Rufus to fill the position.

When the Soot Wolves were infiltrated by a shadowy outside group, however, Zahi ended up nearly killed by outsiders posing as Soot Wolves. She had ended up in the hands of the city guard, of a junkie detective who'd nearly killed her himself. But in the end it was decided that a skilled scraper like Akello, with deep connections to Arca's underground, might be an asset. So she'd been given the choice - or 'choice' as she liked to think of it - between entering Her Majesty's service, and death. Zahi might have had some lingering loyalty to the Soot Wolves, but none at that point to the current Red Wolf, and quite a bit more to her own skin than to any of them. It had been an easy choice.


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