Mysphodel Artanos
Chief Reciter Mysphodel Artanos (a.k.a. The Reptile)
Mysphodel Artanos seized control of the Steel Reciters in 12086, replacing the long-standing family hierarchy with a merit-based system of advancement. She is assumed to be the de facto leader of the organization, though she shares the equal title of commander with her companion/lover(?), Fletcher Toutant.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Mysphodel was born of mixed parentage, possibly a rape, with some mild Yuan-Ti pureblood contamination. Her mother was a low-end adventurer seeking to fight and delve her way out of a miserable life in the quags, and the pregnancy was nearly too much for her; she ended up abandoning her infant daughter on the steps of St. Ulven's Home for the Penitent, an orphanage in the Quags which, unbeknown to the young mother, had deep connections with the Ophitic Cults thriving in that part of the city at that time.
Mysphodel was raised as an orphan though she was aware from a young age that her mother was still alive, just unable/incapable of caring for her. This knowledge and the competent but unloving care by the nuns of the order gave her a strongly independent streak and a reliance on her own wits and abilities to get out of virtually any situation.
She was unlucky in getting the interest of any legitimate adoptive parents, but her mildly poisonous blood and immunity to poisons, granted to her by her unknown Yuan-Ti Pureblood (Malison?) father, did attract the attention of the local Past Lives gang, as well as the Crows who were active in that part of the city at the time. As a young teen she was made into a messenger and runner on the streets and proved herself more than capable of defending herself from both the gang's enemies and anyone who thought he might get a little too fresh, which left a Crow captain dead in a pub basement one night; the Crows corralled her and intended to kill her for the crime, deserved though it might have been, but she was rescued by a Minonoise Wood Elf named Fletcher Toutant, an agent for the Steel Reciters who had been spying on her from afar, impressed by the potential he saw there for his own organization.
Fletcher introduced her to the Katakalon and Dougarian families controlling the Steel Reciters for the past century, and Dauod Dougarian, the de facto leader of the clan, made her his personal servant, partly for a lark; he found she was a natural assassin, however, and his laughter quickly turned to geniune admiration. She grew up from a gangly teen to a lithe, emotionless killer under his direct tutelage.
However, as she grew a few years older, she began to resent the power of the crime families and the excuses they made for their members who were of the family but fools or incompetent at the work. She also didn't appreciate how her friend and rescuer, Fletcher Toutant, was treated by the family - he was a triple outsider, being not only not a member of one of the ruling clans but also Elven, and Minonoise rather than Imperial or Khazigiri. On the one hand they did employ him - as one of the finest archers on the continent, they'd be fools not to do what was necessary to keep him, but they did very little more than that. The mistake the families made was first, in pitting them against each other on a job - well staged so that for months each thought that they had been betrayed by the other, but Fletcher couldn't bring himself to kill her when he had the chance, and Mysphodel trusted her suspicion that she was being manipulated somehow; the main error on the part of the families was in assuming Mysphodel's placid, unemotional responses meant that she had no head for scheming.
In fact, the schemes were her great source of pleasure, though what pleasure looked like on her face is unknown; her cold demeanor earned her the nickname 'The Reptile' much more than her vague Yuan-Ti characteristics, the poison in her blood and the delicate green and red scales on the backs of her hands - usually hiden by gloves anyway. Mysphodel tripped up one of the younger sons of the Dougarian clan in a lie that led her to unravel the whole charade; and in true Steel Reciter fashion, she brought hell itself with her in her vengeance on the families; literally, with the involvement of the Arcanaloth named Taraset, who had been the behind-the-scenes patron of the assassin families; when she was able to shift his loyalties to her and to those loyal to her, the old order was swiftly wiped away. However, she also betrayed Secira to his own rivals in a massive double/triple-cross that left him momentarily stranded in Carceri. and more impressed than angry. The net net was that the degenerate old guard families no longer control the organization, and it is now organized with a tight central heirarchy based on merit. Several of the younger Katakalons and Dougarians opted in their own best interest to switch to her side, so though it may seem surprising, some of the captains are currently from the family; but the family name is not the source of their power, any longer.
Mysphodel still goes on the diciest of missions, but after the purge, which also employed the tacit involvement of the Varangian guards, the Steel Reciters at their highest levels work for the Autarch; they are the sharp edge offensive weapon on the other side of the Varangian Guard Defensive coin, though this is kept quite secret for obvious reasons. As such, she and her top workers go on infiltration and assassination missions abroad from time to time, leaving her captains and lieutenants in charge of operations on the ground inside the empire. Though based in the capitol, they are an Imperial force with an international reach; the Reciters have field offices in Mairie, Aividais, Mentuopolis, and Maro Di Desi in addition to each of the Imperial National capitols and the HQ in Khazigur. Mysphodel has frequented all of them, and via a ring of teleport can be found in any of them at literally any time.
Education
Brought up under Kataklon And Dougarian tutelage in the Steel Reciters, Mysphodel is a master assassin on all levels; not merely an expert in the use of blades and poisons but educated in diplomatic protocol, a competent singer and musician, an excellent card and chess player. a fluent speaker of Imperial Common, Minonoise, Kylman, Tozzite, Dovalni and Khafric, in addition to Dwarvish, Draconic and Orc; She spent several months learning the Fiendish tongues and protocols with the Arcanoloth Taraset as well, as part of the terms of their reconciliation.
Current Location
Ethnicity
Year of Birth
12060 ADE
26 Years old
Children
Eyes
light brown
Hair
short black
Height
6'1"
Weight
133
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