Acrasia Beldam (Ah-craze-ya Bell-dam)
Acrasia (a.k.a. Beldam/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
Physical Description
Body Features
A shapeshifter, Acrasia can assume many forms or disguise herself with glamour, but her true form is that of a slender woman of great beauty with shoulder-length sleek hair of darkest black. A pair of dark grey canine ears sit atop her head, and a grey, foxlike tail emerges from her lower back. She has sharp fangs and claws on her hands and feet.
Identifying Characteristics
Acrasia's ears and tail are her most distinctive features and the most direct indication as to her true nature. Acrasia also posesses the Mark of the Hunter, which glows while she is in the Faewylde.
Special abilities
Acrasia is gifted in Huderezh, specifically the aspect of Fáistine, being able to manipulate and introduce streams of Fate to warp reality in unexpected directions. To further her powers, she seeks to destabilize and corrupt, using the chaos to introduce uncertainty into a situation, allowing for her the draw from once unlikely outcomes to alter reality itself.
Acrasia is especially skilled in illusions and transformation magic.
Apparel & Accessories
Acrasia can appear to wear whatever she chooses, but typically appears in a dark red dress ending in triangle-like points resembling a blooming flower. She wears a cape, jet black on the outside, but moving and glittering like a star-filled sky on the interior. Acrasia wears leather greaves, but typically shuns footwear entirely.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Early Life
Little is known of Acrasia's past, existing largely in rumors and falsehoods, but some facts can be gleaned. Acrasia was born somewhere in the Kastellin Basin at some point prior to 388 SI to a poor farming family. She proved a skilled Louzaouer, proving particularly adept at Fáistine and illusions. Acrasia joined her elder sisters, Ate and Duessa when they left home, traveling along the Aon River as brigands and witches, always on the outskirts of civilization. The trio adopted monikers as they gained local notoriety, Ate became known as the Queen of the Broken Heart), while Duessa adopted the title of Queen of Liesand Duessa (Queen of Lies). Acrasia herself took on the name the Queen of Desire. Despite these lofty monikers, the trio achieved little notoriety beyond their local surroundings until a fateful meeting that entwined their fates with Conomor, the Black Dog of Poher.The Black Dog of Poher
In the Val Sans Retour deep within the Goat Brekilien, the three sisters made a pact with Conomor and his patron Hellequin, gaining mastery over the secrets of Druidecht, allowing them to cast spells far beyond their simple Hedge Magic. The trio quickly became integral to Conomor's rise in power, taking part in the Sack of Pont-Ivi (Ivybridge) and the killing of Jonas Fourtongue. Acrasia suddenly found herself with something she had never had before: Stability and power. She conceived a grand working of her magic, a pocket dimension that would serve as both a safehold and pleasure garden for Conomor and his close allies. It was here that Conomor first hosted Macliau, the treacherous Archperfect of Gwened. While Ate and Duessa worked to corrupt and undermine their enemies abroad, Acrasia focused her passion on her Bower. In addition to serving as a refuge for her allies, the Bower also became a twisted trap for those who moved against them, corrupting those who entered and twisting them to Acrasia's whims. With the newfound position of power and stability, Acrasia formented a grand plan, the creation of a pocket dimension to serve as both a safehold and a pleasure garden for Conomor and his allies, the Bower of Bliss. It was here that Conomor first hosted the treacherous Archperfect of Gwened, Macliau The sisters took an active role in the Siege of Naoned and Gwened, smuggling bizaoued bleiz into the cities and the surrounding fortresses. They took on the roles of noblewomen, beggars, soldiers and traders, introducing the cursed talismans into the city, while offering more direct promises of sex, wealth and power to key figures. When the city fell, the trio were in the thick of the chaos and bloodshed. They took part in other campaigns as Conomor turned his attention to the allies of Budig II, High King of the Bretoned. Acrasia and her sisters set their sights on the last remaining threat to Conomor's rule, the Sidhe Princet Muldumarec Artegall. This proved their downfall after a trap set for Armel Guyon went awry. Trapped in a silver net, Acrasia watched as her sisters fell to Guyon's blade, her beloved Bower set alight in a cleansing fire. Acrasia was not present at the Battle of Relec when Conomor was defeated.The Wandering Witch
After Conomor's defeat, Acrasia largely vanishes from the historical record. Her sisters dead, her home burned and her patron defeated, Acrasia wandered the Armorican Peninsula, angry and spiteful, cursing any who crossed her path and living as a beggar and thief. She followed conflict like a fly to a corpse, working as a camp follower in the War of the Red Hand (737 SI), where she would sell her services as a curse-weaver. She had a brief resurgence during the Fomorian Interregnum (~812 SI) and the civil wars leading up to it, but never to the levels she had once had. She spent the years deep in the Val Sans Retour, alone in the smoking ruins of her Bower, occasionally destroying an unlucky traveler.A New Lease on Life
Acrasia herself doesn't know what brought her to leave the Brekilien and travel to the shores of the Pleg-Mor Menez-Mikael in 964 SI. As she sat down on a small islet with an eel pie and boulee of Chouchen to watch soldiers drown in the treacherous quicksand, she felt a rare moment of contentment. Her mood soured after she became aware of a group of Caballos successfully rescuing some from the fast-changing tides without drowning themselves. Annoyed, she set off across the sandflats to correct the interruption of her morbid entertainment, but faltered upon drawing near and seeing the face of her enemy, Armel Guyon (Actually Marrok Bisclavret, a knight of Dol.) Seeing Guyon, or at least someone she thought was Guyon, lit the long dormant flames within her. Acrasia returned to the forgotten shrine of Hellequin and summoned the horned king, making a new pact to exact her revenge upon the line of Guyon.Red
Now a Ki-Noz of the Ar Chase Gouez, Acrasia took great pleasure in shadowing the broken band of Caballos around Kathalia Bisclavret following The Black Crown Affair (1208 SI), hounding them with misfortune as they fled into Letha. She set fires to give away their location to patrols, unlocked doors to let in wild animals, spilled rations and spent all hours of the night loudly making noises. As Kathalia's group reached a port, Acrasia slipped on board their ship, acting as a counsel and ally, driving a wedge between Kathalia and her ally Aisha min Iram. When the ship was caught in a storm, Acrasia summoned Hellequin, bringing the broken knight into the Hunt.Gender Identity
Cisgender Female. However, Acrasia has no qualms about presenting herself as an androgynous male with her glamour. A Poulpiquet, Acrasia has difficulty telling Bediz apart by gender during casual meetings.
Sexuality
Pansexual. Acrasia is open about her sexuality and lust, often seducing her victims with physical temptations. She shows no personal preference for any gender in her choice of partners.
Employment
Acrasia has a long tradition of magic, working as both a Louzaouer and Similherez. She is also a Ki-Noz of the Wild Hunt, and its de-facto leader after the death of Gaius and the betrayal of Kathalia Bisclavret. The current state of the Hunt has left Acrasia to largely pursue her own goal, untethered to those of Hellequin.
Mental Trauma
The deaths of Ate and Duessa, and the destruction of the Bower of Bliss all but destroyed Acrasia, and she fell into a bitter and sullen depression for centuries. The events of the night still haunt her pysche and she has dedicated herself to the corruption and destruction of Guyon's descendants.
Intellectual Characteristics
Acrasia is easily bored, prone to petty sadism and mean-spirited pranks.
Morality & Philosophy
Acrasia is a creature of unbridled passion, but with a sinister edge, driven by bloodlust, carnal desire and a twisted cruelty as she entices and manipulates her prey to fall. She relishes corruption, seeking out respected members of society or those with a reputation for nobility, dragging them down with her games and spellcasting. Acrasia especially seeks to destroy those driven by a singular goal, be it a quest, vow, or even a magikal ere-hud, disrupting their efforts and bringing calamity wherever possible.
Taboos
Like most Fae, Acrasia is under a number of ere-hud, including an allergy to iron and silver. Acrasia draws her power from the "Bower of Bliss", a magical grove of trees deep within Faewylde, her lifeforce tied to the deceptively verdant oasis. She has been rebuilding it since the Battle of Menez-Mikael.
Show spoiler
Acrasia, as a Ki-Noz, is bound to Hellequin and the Hunt and has the Ere-hud associated with her role. Her body cannot be marked by other than Hellequin, with blemishes, wounds and markings fading to nothing after their initial appearance.Acrasia is rendered powerless by a fishing net that has lain at the deepest seafloor for a year and a day. While entangled, she loses access to her arkane powers.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Acrasia delights in corruption, often targeting those who annoy her out of boredom or spite with malicious pranks, ere-hud and other arkane attacks. While she is always acting in the interests of herself or the Hunt, she has been known to become an agent provocateur for other factions both Bediz and Fae, often to create strife and chaos, playing multiple angles to obtain greater calamity.
Acrasia's power over Fáistine draws from uncertainty, and her actions are often meant to cause chaos, allowing unlikely scenarios to become possible.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
A shrewd manipulator, Acrasia is skilled at social subterfuge, finding the correct ears for a whispered rumor or the corrupt temptation to lay a target low. She thrives off physical desire, driving those she targets to their base instincts of lust, greed or rage.
Compared to other Ki-Noz. Acrasia lacks physical strength, instead relying on others to do her fighting for her or her skill in Huderezh.
Likes & Dislikes
Acrasia holds those held up as moral role models in contempt and seeks to corrupt respected members of society or the self-righteous wherever possible. Her grudges are typically intense, but short-lived, and she typically loses interest once her goals have been achieved after a period of single-minded dedication. Once bested by Sieur Guyon, a Knight of the Alliance of the Brekilien, she has particular ire for his descendants, currently Kathalia Bisclavret.
Vices & Personality flaws
Acrasia is a hedonist, living for her own self-pleasure with a constant cycle of wealth, lovers, alcohol and violence.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Acrasia has served a wide number of masters, most notably Conomor, King Nevenoe I and Hastings Fireforged. She most recently served as a hunter under Gaius, until his death.
She has contacts throughout both Faerie and Bedouar, a network that she draws on as the political stakes of the world grow higher and the systems more complex. Acrasia is recognized as a representative of the Hunt by the Queen's of Summer and Winter, protected by Hospitality while in their domains and often serving as a ally of convenience for their own plans. Acrasia's touch can be seen in Bedouar as well, under hundreds of alias's and personae, whispering in the ears of kings or shouting from the center of a mob.
Family Ties
Acrasia had at least two sisters, Ate and Duessa. Details about her larger family in the Kastellin Basin are lost to history and memory. With the death of her sisters, Acrasia has no surviving blood relatives she is aware of.
Relationships
Nicknames & Petnames
Acrasia calls Kathalia:
Species
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Queen of Desire
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Sex
Female
Gender
Female
Presentation
Feminine
Eyes
Yellow, wolflike
Hair
Long, straight, raven black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
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