Zara Isfa El-Khayat
The former Cultist Commander turned Bandit Queen who rallied the bandit clans to preserve anarchy
Sergeant Zara Isfa El-Khayat (a.k.a. "Sarge")
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Standing fairly tall for a human woman, Zara is the very image of human physical perfection. She is tall but lean, extremely tan from years spent beneath the harsh desert sun, and her body is rippling with muscle that she often exposes to the harsh desert air. She is extremely fit, agile, and in fantastic shape, though she is also a curvy woman who most would consider a "Knockout Beauty", in possession of feminine charms and assets that she herself despises as inefficient for a warrior and Commander.
Her skin is covered in scars, wounds, and injuries she has accumulated over her years both as a Cultist Commander and a warrior roaming the desert dunes...some of these scars once bore religious significance to her, but now are nothing more than visible signs of her former life as a Cultist for the pro-human organization known as the Zealots of Purity.
She also, notably, has visible signs of distant Draconic Ancestry, such as her reptilian eyes that shine with a baleful yellow-golden light, and her skin that has a light scale-pattern to them if looked at in the right lighting. Though it is faint, and she is not nearly a true half-dragon, these signs and her slightly elevated physical stature and capabilities show signs of a distant Draconic Ancestor.
Body Features
Fit, Muscular, Tan, and possessing a great deal of curvy, womanly beauty that she often tries to hide. Her subordinates often joke her muscles, which she often leaves exposed and are so prominent she likely couldn't hide them anyway, are sharp and defined enough to grind steel against and possibly even powerful enough to crush a grown man's head against.
Her skin possesses a scaled-pattern to it if one looks close enough, a sign of her distant draconic ancestry that serves to protect her slightly from attacks. Her bulging muscles, fitness, and exceptional senses are also attributed to this ancestry.
Facial Features
Her face is weathered, scarred, but possesses a natural beauty that shines through regardless. Her eyes glow like those of a Dragon, and are reptilian lenses that shine with a baleful light. Her red hair often hides part of her face.
Identifying Characteristics
Her fiery red hair, reptilian golden eyes, and lightly scaled skin are all excellent indicators and identifying features.
Physical quirks
Her abnormally thick skin, exceptional eyesight, hearing and senses in general as well as her fantastic physical form are all quirks attributable to her distant Draconic Ancestry.
Special abilities
Though she is not a fully formed "half-dragon", she has elements of Draconic Ancestry, and has a natural resistance against flame which hints at perhaps Red or Gold dragon ancestry, as well as thick draconic skin that only faintly resembles scaly hide, and legendarily honed senses that let her see in low-light, pitch dark, and light with exception clarity.
Though she lacks true magical talent, she is skilled enough with it and familiar enough with its use that she can perform magical rituals and understand magical items and enchantments. She is rumored to be passively skilled enough to cast perhaps a cantrip or two, but this is mostly unconfirmed superstition.
Additionally, she is quite a scholarly woman despite her rigid military discipline, and is known to have an incredible amount of esoteric and most likely eldritch knowledge, as records of her time as a high-ranking Cultist. But one of the things she has a remnant of this time is extensive knowledge of extraplanar outsiders, and the rituals, bindings, and magics used to summon and bind them to service. For this alone, she is greatly feared, and this simple knowledge that runs as rampant rumors through those who know of her whisper of her as a "Demon-Binder". As the now sole remnant of her old cult, she is the last living repository for all the forgotten, esoteric, and eldritch knowledge they accumulated.
Indeed, her knowledge of the esoteric and of specifically outsiders and how to bind them borders on the extreme, such that she is believed to have the knowledge of countless forgotten and powerful magical rituals used to summon various outsiders and bind them to service.
Among these rituals are many that she is greatly feared for amongst the ranks of her own subordinates, chiefly a ritual referred to only as "The Purging". While the details of the ritual are unknown, Zara has been known to use this specific ritual on those unable to contain their desires and constantly let them interfere with their discipline or duties...to these unfortunate souls, she claps them in irons and leads them away, whereupon they emerge some time later as emotionless beings, devoid of feeling and more akin to sentient but unfeeling automatons than actual emotional beings. These terrifying "Gelded" are often made into slaves kept by Zara herself and sometimes the larger Collector Corps she leads, and only rarely does a Gelded emerge that is returned to active duty.
These rituals have led to her gaining a terrifying reputation as a "Woman with a ritual for every occasion", and inspires infinite terror in her subordinates that should they annoy her, she has a ritual to do any number of horrifying things to them.
Apparel & Accessories
She often wears light-colored robes with a hood that hides her face, and simple desert silk trousers complete with thick leather and iron boots. She has a belt at her hip to sheath her blades and other gear, but wears a simple leather half-top that comes down to her chest and stops, leaving her stomach and most of her arms exposed, though she wears shoulder guards and wristguards complete with fingerless gloves. When raiding or out on missions in the desert, she wears a full head-wrapping that reveals only her eyes.
Specialized Equipment
She wields a pair of lethal scimitars, and fights with the grace of a deadly dancer darting amidst the sandy dunes of the desert. Otherwise, she wears no protection, preferring to let her abnormally hard skin deflect blows for her to surprise her enemies, and relying upon her incredibly agility and strength to outmaneuver and overpower her enemies.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Formerly the regional commander in charge of the Zealots of Purity, a now-defunct cult whose goals included the complete subjugation and possible extermination of all inhuman life to raise a human-centric empire, Zara Isfa El-Khayat is believed to have been placed in charge of all cells of the cult in the Great Southern Desert as a punishment for her unusual personality which placed her at odds with her own organization.
Though her reasons are unknown, she initiated a war of sedition against the desert against the bidding of her superiors, sending her elite militarily trained cultists out into the desert to slowly convert entire villages and cities to her rule with the eventual goal of establishing dominion over the entire desert, and presumably forming an empire with herself and Humankind at the helm. However, it was not long before Kor'sarro Krieg intervened and, through a long series of protracated and lethal encounters, would eventually defeat her schemes and crush her armies even after they turned to Demonkind to attempt to sway the War in their favor, flooding the desert with armies of demons that would be defeated as well, at great cost to Kor'sarro Krieg and his beleagured forces.
Once her forces had been defeated and her enemy established The Sultanate of Malthri in the eastern desert, Zara fled for her life to escape the looming capture and execution she faced at his hands, and fled to the west, where she used her skills as a leader to browbeat and bullying her way into command of the Saltfort Bandit Clan, using their immense power and numbers to rally the other bandit clans beneath her banner through a mixture of brutality and cunning words.
With her ragtag group assembled, Zara began brutally and effectively beating her new bandit army into line, training them and honing their skills into the beginnings of the force they would soon become...the paramilitary group known as The Collector Corps, which served as an army of cutthroats and bandits who bullied the entire western desert into rallying behind Zara and her cause of keeping The Impaler Prince at bay. In the end, she successfully managed to establish a force mighty enough that when The Impaler Prince's exhausted armies came knocking, they had no choice but to halt their advance for the moment, facing mutual destruction against such an equally matched force.
Now, the east and west exist in a cold war of sorts, each waiting for a chance to overtake the other and project their leadership and laws over the entire desert...though many speculate she now connives and plans to re-establish her cult and once against attempt to retake the desert, none can truly saw what her motives now are. Indeed, some in the west even respect her, though they often fear her as well, for preserving the precious anarchy many had grown so used to...so long as her The Collector Corps are paid their dues, anarchy continues to reign in the The Golden Sands.
Gender Identity
Zara rather detests her own exceptional womanly beauty, and similarly detests those who go out of their way to treat her like a woman or treat her differently because of her curves and femininity. She prefers the simple and efficient terms such as "Sarge", "Sergeant", or "Commander" when being addressed, and especially dislikes those who refer to her as "Lady Zara", and though she dislikes "Ma'am", she at least tolerates its usage since it has a more formal and respectful sound.
Sexuality
Unknown. She typically responds with cold, clinical hostility to amorous advances, especially from those amongst the ranks of her subordinates, and has responded to repeated inquires or amorous advances against her or even such displays by her subordinates while on duty with annoyance and sometimes even outright torture or even castration to "fix" a subordinate's excessive lust or desire which she often sees as a hinderance to their duties and to efficiency, taking such fools as an opportunity to further her studies on pain.
Regardless of the truth, Zara is notoriously touchy and secretive about her sexuality, and if she does engage in such things, it is done outside the view of her subordinates and in private, away from others. Whether related to her own dislike for her own body or a simple efficient desire to keep her personal and profession life seperate, is unknown.
Education
With her intellect and knowledge of many scholarly subjects such as warfare, training regimens, and even philosophy and knowledge of extraplanar beings and the rituals used to summon and bind them, she is assumed to have had some education, but where she receieved such a tutelage is unknown, though it assumed to be somehow linked to the cult she once was a high-ranking member of, The Zealots of Purity.
Employment
Though she was formerly a high-ranking member of the pro-human cult known as the Zealots of Purity, her old cult has now gone defunct with its nigh-total destruction at the hands of Kor'sarro Krieg, the Impaler Prince, and his armies. She now leads The Collector Corps and serves as the "Leader" of The Golden Sands, keeping it in anarchy and serving to unite them, to deter The Impaler Prince's armies.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Successfully united the Bandit Clans of the western desert beneath a single banner, gained their respect through her brutality and capability as a Commander, and now holds a loose, mafia-like control over most of the western desert.
Failures & Embarrassments
Had her armies of cultists defeated and her plans destroyed at the hands of Kor'sarro Krieg and his armies, and even her last resort plan of summoning a Demonic Horde was thwarted, and she was thus forced to flee westward to escape capture and execution.
Mental Trauma
Unknown.
Morality & Philosophy
As a woman driven by discipline and efficiency, Zara's morality revolves around these concepts. She cares little for the botherings of morality, though she tends to lean towards and embrace evil as she appreciates the efficiency gained from quick brutality and the methods of evil rather than what she sees as time wasted on the ways of good. She prefers the simplicity and efficiency a quick beating or a torture session offers, and prefers these simple, heavy-handed methods over other goodlier ones.
She doesn't mind giving into one's desires and doing horrible things in the name of greed, lust, or other desires so long as orders are obeyed and discipline is upheld when it matters, and is fine with both her subordinates and herself fraternizing, goofing off, or slaking their desires on others or innocents(And somewhat expects it, from ex-bandits), so long as when an order comes, all is dropped to obey and their desires are put second. With her twisted sense of humor, legendary greed, and penchant for cold, clinical brutality, many of her subordinates relish the chance to be around her even when off-duty, as they find her an incredibly agreeable woman who not only shares their penchant for cruelty and greed, but enjoys the same acts of sin and violence they do...though the relationship of Commander and Subordinates never quite leaves, most accept it as natural to do as she wishes due to her 'Alpha Female' personality, and even respect her for it.
Despite her love of pain and torture, she is not a sadist, and holds these interests from a clinical lens, seeing them as tools to enforce and teach discipline that when applied correctly, break down others and re-forge them into beings stronger than they were before, or at the least as a way to weed out those incapable of true strength and discipline. She in fact frowns on wanton sadism, and other sadistic or cruel displays of power as equally as she frowns on generosity, pity, and good, as she sees them as equal wastes of time and equally useless things that detract from discipline and efficiency, and the accomplishing of her goals.
Taboos
Nothing is more Taboo to Zara than performing an act driven by emotion rather than efficiency. She similarly finds excessive lust or desire an annoyance and oftentimes an outright crime, and often enacts gruesome punishments on those who display these things and cannot keep them contained beneath discipline and order.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Desperately wishes to avoid the wrath of The Impaler Prince and her subsequent execution should she be captured by him.
To that end, wishes to use The Collector Corps to keep The Golden Sands in its original, anarchic state to dissuade The Impaler Prince Kor'sarro Krieg from leading his armies to conquer it.
If she can squeeze the inhabitants of the western desert of their money or their very bodies as slaves as thanks for this protection, all the better for her.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Excellent commander, tactician, and leader. Talented warrior. Very talented trainer and drill instructor, and skilled at beating discipline into the undisciplined. Keenly aware of and in-touch with other's feelings, personality, and emotions, and is able to capitalize on them and manipulate them to achieve her goals. Legendarily skilled torturer and inflictor of pain.
Unskilled at giving honeyed speeches or overly charismatic and grandiose words as a former Cult Commander would be expected to. Holds little stock in extremist ideologies on either spectrum, and has a hard time putting trust or faith in a cause or goal she cannot grasp or understand with her mind or own two hands.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes Discipline, Absolute Obedience, Training, Efficiency, Mercilessness, Ruthlessness, Breaking other creatures to find their limits and pain tolerances, Gaining more money/items/power, Humans, Fitness, Honoring One's Word, Those with powerful desires(Lust, Greed, Etc) who know how to temper and restrain them when needed
Dislikes Disobedience, Excessive Lust or Desire that interferes with one's duty and discipline, Mercy, Empathy, Inefficiency, Being Questioned, Unorganized Things, Having her command or goals challenged, Inhumans in positions of power or authority, Equality, Those who break their given word, Her body
Virtues & Personality perks
Though she is a brutal woman, her brutality is cold, clinical, and even-handed. She beats discipline and punishment into her subordinates, herself, and other creatures equally, and doesn't let her personal beliefs influence her actions. She desires discipline above all else, and so long as she is obeyed and her subordinates display this very discipline, they will be safe from her wrath. She also acts without bias, and holds all to the same exacting standards she holds herself.
Perhaps her most defining characteristic as a Commander and leader, is her refusal to order her subordinates to do anything she would not or could not do herself. So long as others follow the same discipline and obey the same standards she holds herself to, she is a brutal but fair Commander who is often fairly beloved by her subordinates for her even-handed immorality, or at least respected for her fairness...and feared for her ruthlessness to those who fail her.
In this same vein, she detests weakness in her own troops, and is famous for abandoning and kicking out those she deems as weak and unfit to serve...oftentimes, when she finds subordinates of hers she thinks are 'weak' and in need of strengthening, she will offer them an ultimatum: Accept a chance to redeem themselves, or be discarded and kicked out and left to die. This change, if they accept it, comes in the form of a session of brutal torture, where she systematically begins to break them down both physically and psychologically. If they endure or come out of it stronger, she will return them to service as better subordinates...and if they fail to endure or break and cannot be remade, she discards them as trash not worth the effort of killing.
These 'toughening' sessions she regularly doles out to her subordinates lead to an incredibly dedicated and eager-to-please army that, though many may wish to depose her and claim her command, none discount her or wish to displease her. Many in fact actively strive to please her and earn her favor, to the point of being labeled 'ass-kissers' and even 'masochists' who derive enjoyment and pleasure from the beatings and pain she inflicts upon them, and many often look forward to these occasional "toughening" sessions as challenges to prove their worth to her. It is precisely this breed of brutality tempered by discipline that inspires such fanatic zealousness in those she commands.
She is also the very definition of an Alpha Female, and with her natural ambition, confidence, and domineering attitude she almost invariably ends up in a position of command, authority, and power in any organization she finds herself in. Coupled with her supreme power as one with Draconic Heritage she has an almost Magnetic and Overpowering Nature which others, even those with Alpha tendencies, have a hard time disobeying due to both her natural Alpha personality and the Draconic pheremones or aura she emits which often makes others instinctively fear and understand her as one to be obeyed. Almost all find it natural to obey her, even the normally chaotic and strong-willed, and many find it natural to look up to her and to seek her approval and satisfaction...however, she tends to intimidate other Alphas, particularly men, as most are unused to such a domineering and strong-willed woman. She, for her part, is aware of her own nature and will walk over others who simply find it easier to obey her than not, unless they find the courage to stand up to her, though few do as she simply beats them back down into line for disobedience, or tortures them for more extreme disobediences.
It is for precisely those reasons that many find her a superb leader and commander, especially mercenaries, bandits, and others who value her cruelty, fear her for her torturing skill and clinical approach towards inflicting pain, but respect her for her discipline, drive, ambition, and power as well as her penchant for order.
She is also a woman of her word, and once given, will rarely if ever go against it, another trait considered by many to be strange for a former Cultist Commander.
Vices & Personality flaws
Has strong Human Supremacist and Human-centric beliefs, and dislikes inhumans. Unable to know when to cut her losses and recognize she is beaten often until all is lost. Has a twisted sense of humor, and is greedy on a level comparable to Dragons. Actively enjoys "hoarding" wealth or symbols of status, wealth, and power. Extremely obsessed with fitness and exacts an almost brutal training regimen on both herself and her subordinates.
Domineering to the point of extremity, and gives no quarter or mercy to those unable to meet her standards or demands. Sees mercy and empathy as weaknesses, and both gives neither and expects neither...a point which her bandit subordinates often consider her strongest virtue. Keeps a close eye on her subordinates, and manages them much closer than many of them are used to, even when relaxing or off-duty.
She often struggles with a desire to know what her subordinates are up to at all times and fights against tendencies towards being a Control-Freak, and oftentimes enjoys cannot help but indulge herself when faced with another creature who is cowed by her dominant personality to see how far they will go to obey and to not displease her, recording the results out of an almost obsessive scientific interest in finding each creature's limits, and how far she can push them before they rebel or refuse or break. Similarly, to satisfy her innate curiosity towards the clinical cataloguing of pain and suffering, she will sometimes spare enemies and be more lax than she should if it means torturing them and carefully and clinically discovering their limits and breaking them.
Personality Quirks
Has a clinical, dispassionate, and almost scientific interest in the suffering of other creatures and their mental and physiological limits. Though she takes no enjoyment from it, she wishes to catalogue the limits of living creatures to create a standardized unit of measurement to represent pain itself to make herself and others more efficient. Though many assume her to be, she is not sadistic nor cruel from the typical definition, and does so out of a cold, clinical interest in the "artform" of pain and suffering as a means to increase efficiency, discipline, and one's strength.
Finds pain and suffering fascinating from a clinical perspective, and enjoys finding the limits of both herself, her subordinates, and others as she believes doing so and breaking them makes them stronger, more disciplined, and able to resist such attempts in the future. Once a creature is broken, she believes creatures grow stronger from such suffering and often adds those she breaks into the ranks of her subordinates.
To a lesser degree, she despises her own body and the ample curves she possesses, which she believes is sorely unsuited for quick movement in a harsh desert environment. She longs for the body of a leaner, flatter woman so she can move unhindered and considers her own body an annoyance, often going to extreme lengths to wrap herself and hide her femininity both for asthetic and simple aerodynamics.
Hygiene
As a bandit in the brutal southern desert, she cares little for Hygiene as the opportunities to upkeep oneself are few and far between in the harsh, gritty landscape she dwells in. She often keeps a disheveled, unclean, sand-blasted appearance and rarely cares to clean the blood, sweat, or gore from herself wherever she goes, unless doing so would somehow increase her efficiency or that of her subordinates.
Social
Contacts & Relations
All of her relations in her old organization, the pro-human cult known as The Zealots of Purity, are presumed dead after they perished in the final war for the desert against Kor'sarro Krieg and his armies. Now, she leads The Collector Corps, a veritable army and paramilitary group made up of the dozens of bandit clans that once ran amok in the desert that refused to bend the knee to the rigid laws of The Sultanate of Malthri. She also has contacts all over the western desert, but rather as a woman who will have them destroyed or enslaved if they refuse her or insult her, akin to a mafia boss one knows, but dearly wishes not to meet or encounter in any capacity for fear of death, suffering, robbery, or other horrible things.
Though the nature of these contacts is often negative and fearful, she has unrivaled influence and power in The Golden Sands, and can have entire villages cut off from freshwater or have specific creatures blacklisted from operating in cities...her influence and power is enormous, as are the bandits which she leads in The Collector Corps.
Family Ties
Her family ties are completely unknown.
Religious Views
Her religious views are completely unknown, though from her time as a leader of the cult known as the Zealots of Purity, she is assumed to have the same beliefs as her cult was known to have, which were extremely pro-humanity beliefs and desires to see inhumans subjugated beneath human rule. Many assume she venerates deities who support such brutality such as Rashid, The Dreamcrusher.
Social Aptitude
She is a rigid, steely woman who holds discipline near and dear to the core of her being, and she possesses a great deal of "presence". She is talented socially, but as a motivator through fear and awe rather than truly charismatic words or personality. She is a disciplined drill sergeant of a woman who demands fealty, respect, loyalty, and absolute obedience from all who serve her, and will accept nothing less than this...she inspires through a mixture of fear and awe, as well as her sheer force of discipline and zealous drive for more power and control. Her unrelenting drive often inspires awe from those who are near her, and it is incredibly easy to get caught up in her zealous, disciplined energy and be swept up by her powerful force of presence, and commanding, powerful words and speeches.
Relationships
History
As Zara began the slowly and insidious corruption of the Great Southern Desert she hoped would lead to her and the cult she served as a high-ranking member of gaining dominion over The Desert, it was none other than Kor'sarro Krieg himself who stepped in to resist her. Opposing her deadly and insidious cultists who often hid within the populations of the Desert's settlements with scorched earth tactics where entire villages were put to the stake if it meant victory, the two became arch-rivals in a growing war that was fought for control over the desert. As the war escalated and Krieg, now labeled The Impaler Prince for the numerous "Iron Forests" of metal stakes that impaled the bodies of entire villages left killed in his wake, began to gain the upper hand, Zara turned to the esoteric texts kept by her cult and began summoning Demons and other Outsiders to bolster the ranks of her failing cultists, trained well though they were. Though even this strategy failed, and the Demon horde she summoned was outmatched and overtaken by The Impaler Prince's brutality, which proved suprising even to Demons themselves...and with her army defeated and her subordinates destroyed, she fled in humiliating defeat to the west to escape capture and execution. Now, with the entire western desert beneath her boot and a new army forged from the disparate bandit clans that once roamed the western sands, she stands opposed to him and the rigid word of law he brings, protecting the anarchy of the west as both struggle in a cold war to overcome and destroy the other.
Wealth & Financial state
As the Leader of the villanous The Collector Corps and the de-facto "leader" of The Golden Sands, she is constantly accruing wealth from the robbed travelers and the forces extortions taken from the settlements her bandit clans can reach and beat into line, and now holds the "throne" of The Golden Sands, though the role is not an official title by any means, rather one taken by force and maintained through brutality. She is extremely wealth and growing wealthier with each traveler robbed and each settlement extorted, and enjoys a great wealth of power and items.
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Sergeant Zara, Sarge, Sergeant Straightedge, The Dragon, The Demon Caller, Commander of the Zealots of Purity(Formerly)
Year of Birth
2011 AF
31 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Unknown, but likely somewhere within The Golden Sands.
Birthplace
Unknown, but likely somewhere within The Golden Sands.
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Her "throne" is officially in Kazeb, but she rarely uses it. Instead she resides most often in The Saltfort, the Bandit Citadel high in the Faminespire Mountains when she is not out on raids or missions with her subordinates.
Gender
Female
Eyes
Reptilian, Golden
Hair
Fiery Red, Medium-Length, Luscious and Wavy
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Extremely Tanned / Dark
Height
6'10ft, 2.1m
Weight
220lbs or 99.8kg
Quotes & Catchphrases
In all things, discipline shall be the first tool to accomplish them.
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments