Vaneda Ubi-Nowa, the Screaming Storm (Van-ee-da Oo-bi No-ah)
Jaezeera Sorenja (a.k.a. The Desert Wormsinger)
The Screaming Storm of the Vasharan Desert
The arid dunes and ergs of the Vasharan desert are dangerous, wild and treacherous. Filled with unknown dangers, empty ruins, buried tombs and constantly berated by glass-cutting winds and storms that swarm from the East. Yet one danger is known to multiple kingdoms of the Aetha'Shar continent that dwells within the crystalline sands. Originally known as Duebalroth Suque Eborusi Vaneda, daughter of Eborusi of the Duebalroth family. The daughter of a Mek'rodemzai high-born chieftain of the Dhae'vashta clan, a hardened nomadic clan of Feral Tieflings that claim the central Vasharan desert as their own.
She once held great interest in preserving their ancestral songs and histories, believed to be next in line for the Dhae'vashta as a future Wormsinger, the role her mother Eborusi held. But upon her coming of age to 13, when she was set to become one with the clan and add her own piece to the clan canvas, her rite of passage and song alerted a wandering Pride patrol of Ankh'herans - their clan was attacked and enslaved by the Pride Lords of Ankh'hera, aided by the ravenous bands of Hyanan Gnolls. While trying to flee, screaming, her voice broke. She saw her father and brothers be slaughtered by the Gnolls, unable to warn them, they were cut down. Her mother took her hand and ran to the clan camels, struggling through the ambush. Eborusi put her upon the camel, surrounded by their warriors to protect their chieftain, the Gnolls aimed their bows at them. Eborusi protected her from the volley of arrows launched by the Gnoll slave-drivers and unleashed her siren song, knocking many away and leaving their foes defeated - until a Pride Lord took the moment she inhaled from the scream to launch a precise arrow through her throat. The last thing her mother did was turn around, clutching the arrow and slapping the camel to run, choking on her last word - "Run". Vaneda managed to escape into the desert with only her headscarf and canvas piece in her possession. For two weeks, she hallucinated in the scorching heat, hungry and sunburnt, she was finally found and taken in by wandering traders of the Golden Road - though the unsavoury traders had intended on selling her to one of the flesh-markets. She was kept amongst the brothel as a slave, aiding the other enslaved Mek'rodemzai girls and whores - clanless and orphaned; she was 'Ubi-Nowa', daughter of none. She grew up angry, unruly- earning many beatings and even losing her left horn to a particularly bad beating for refusing to work with the clientele. The owner reminded her each time by beating her with the broken horn. But she persevered, taught through experience and her own cunning how to survive and lie and thrive in the dark underbelly of Ankh'hera. When she was 18, she had learned enough - and managed to become a cunning and desirable lady of the night; attracting enough clients to earn enough money in secret to getaway. But she was found out, and with all the pain she had been hiding - she released her anger with the Sor Khaal-Rad Qalab (Scream of Heart Thunder), killing the patron and her guards. She staged a release and took the enslaved Mek'rodemzai alongside her, and took to the desert. She has desired to hunt the one that slaughtered and took her family and clan from her ever since. After two weeks she found another broken clan of Tieflings, the Breorotha, who had also lost some of their members to the Prides enslavement. Working with them, she made it to the top, challenging the chieftain for a position, which she won easily, their voice unmatched to her life of pain and rage - and the power behind her voice won over many potential suitors and allies within the Breorotha. She took them over, and with her own voice, transformed the Breorotha into a gathering Warband of bandits, murderers and slave liberators - their numbers swelling further.
She still hunts for the Pride Lord that slaughtered her family - and has made a name for herself as a gifted Wormsinger - bringing down terror and disaster by luring in the desert worms into the Prideland territories, using the ambush to free and save as many as possible. The Breorotha have given her a name, to which they scream wherever they ride, shrieking into the night upon the borders of their enemies - and they remember it well. The Demon of the Dunes, the Screaming Storm.
Her raiders attack in the night, screaming as they ride and run through the villages and towns, burning them down and freeing the slaves - each time she takes the heads of any Pride member that uses the slaves of her people, dries them in the desert and charges through the villages, throwing them into houses and shops, on the streets or even in the rivers. Spreading her name and disappearing after summoning a sandstorm. Terrifying any and all that comes her way, often whomever she takes alive, she forces them to endure the screams and wails of her people - of those they have harmed, and leave one alive to tell the tale... but usually, wherever they wander to, she raids the village of whoever speaks her name.
Her people have been taken into slavery and worked to death to erect the great monuments of Ankh'hera, working under the Pride Lords & for the works of the Mystrasi. She could not condone the worship of gods and their love for them when they have shown that her people are only worthy as slaves for crimes and desecrations committed by their foolish ancestors near millennia before, and are still punished by this. She does not see the fairness in this, and does not believe that those born to the easy life of the city and stone walls deserve their splendour and riches - family is all one has in the world, and without that - you are truly alone. She finds beauty in the desert, it is clear, it is fair and it never discriminates - it upholds a cruel law, only the strong survive and must always adapt. Whatever means or advantage one can have, one must take or force into being - none are truly innocent.
Many found her to be a true beauty, though she hides it well, extenuating her natural appearance in a combination of practical swiftness, blunt cruelty and sexual pride. She preserves her people's history and culture, embracing the Songs that have kept them alive within the desert - tricking and fooling others in the desert, and usually lays claims to greatest treasure within the desert - water. Since one cannot eat sand or drink gold; she often leaves many to wander the deserts naked, penniless and humiliated, but always grants them half a waterskin and allows them to live... some might argue that this is a fate worse than death. She has a habit of gouging the eyes out of Ankh'herans, trapping those from Ozon'Siiari deep beneath the sands near termite/ ant mounds, and throwing the goblins of the Bronzimm Concord into pits of vipers and snakes and trapped in darkness. But wherever she travels, she screams into the winds - for the Mek'rodemzai this is to express their true feelings to the world. All she ever has is rage and anger, and she lets her enemies know that is what stalks the sands wherever she strides.
Species
Children
Eyes
Black Sclera, Light Blue
Hair
Long sleek raven-black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Dark magenta freckled skin
Height
5'6''
