Ikestra Akahest 05/14/1996 ©1996 Greg Porter Ikestra is the beautiful eldest daughter of Vighani Akahest, a wealthy merchant living in Soqtruil, with a family villa on the middle slope of the Eternal Ridges. Ikestra is currently betrothed to the heir of a noble house, and exact details of the arrangement are sketchy. Those with an axe to grind say the marriage is to bring badly needed money to the noble's coffers, and noble blood to House Akahest, while friends of the family maintain it is a wonderful romantic relationship. Rumors of secret lovers on both sides of the relationship can be heard, as well as rumors of people within each House that want to see the marriage sabotaged. Ikestra Akahest Physical . Agility . Dancing . Beauty Mental . Intelligence . Savoir-faire . Negotiation . Charisma Spiritual . Aura Other characteristics . Two levels of status (overall family is three levels of status) . Two levels of Duty to family . Two Burdens of Enemies . Three Favors for altering fate Ikestra realizes the day-to-day intrigues of life in Soqtruil, but wears light armor only when pressured by her father. He is pressuring her to wear it all the time, a recent development which may have reasons that he has not yet made her aware of. Ikestra also has secrets that her family is not aware of, except for a few trusted servants who help her conceal these activities. She is slowly being drawn into one of the more extreme mystical sects who believe the inherent denizens of the metaplanes are higher forms of life who will eventually return to rule all of Hyperborea, and those who are their faithful servants will be well rewarded when this time comes. This sect is very dark and corrupting, but from the outside it has its blackness obfuscated by ceremony, ritual and a certain logical structure that appeals to many who seem to lack direction in their own personal lives. Her father would never approve of this if he found out, so Ikestra leaves the family estate secretly or under pretense of some other errand. Those few who have seen her cowled form in the lower streets of Soqtruil and thought they recognized her are probably the ones who spread the rumor of a secret lover.