Asami Sorceress of Difelin

Shimimab is an exile from her homeland in Paratan. She lives in the Lower City of Difelin where she works, as her father and his father before him, as a cobbler.

She is a wife and mother of seven children in her lifetime. All but two of those are dead now, and she fostered away even one of those who survived. Her surviving illegitimate son was living on the streets of Paratân as a rogue and ne'er-do-well when she left the city in 1512YS. She is estranged from her husband, who continues to live in Paratân without her.

Appearance

She wears the expensive, flowing silk robes of distant desert-dwelling foreigners, except when she's working as a cobbler, at which time she wears a thin leather smock over more conservative Yoruan clothing.

When dressed in the traditional garb of her homeland, she often wears a wool and silk aba or a dolman with linen pants. She also wears silver anklets that jingle when she walks. She wears low, soft leather boots on her feet in inclement weather, and sandals in fair weather. Her footwear is of her own design and manufacture.

No matter what else she wears, she always carries a traditional double-edged janbiya knife on her belt, partly for protection and partly as a display of her status. The blade has a wooden handle and a Paratâni steel blade, but is not of any particularly high quality or value, being an average example of its type.

Although in her homeland she often wore a head and/or face covering to "preserve her womanly modesty" according to local moralist law, she now shuns these affectations in Difelin, giving in to her proud and haughty nature. Her wild, black, unruly bird's-nest of unkempt hair frames her dark-brown face. Her skin is flawless save for ritual scars savage enough to be memorable. She has gentle grey eyes.

Despite her small stature (5'1" tall and 107lbs/7.7 stone), Shimi is a mature and imposing woman of forty-three years. The scars on her face (three horizontal and parallel scars under each eye) stand out in high relief against her otherwise flawless dark brown complexion.

Possessions

Her personal treasure is a religious symbol of a cresting wave, representative of her patron tutelary goddess, Abaimi of the Sea Breezes.

Although she once had a net worth of 62,500 gold Asami dinars (55,625 Yoruan silver ôra), most of her wealth was lost when she fled into exile rather than being stoned as an adulteress and a heretic. She now has 1,100 silver ôra cash on hand, and earns 167 ôra per month from investments. She also earns a salary of one silver ôra per month from her work as a cobbler in Lower City. Altogether, this affords her a middle-class tradesman's lifestyle.

She rents a secret magickal research laboratory from her special connection, a sage/healer in Difelin named Véný.

She owns several expensive, flowing silk robes from her homeland, as well as a few suits of conservative Gallav-Yoruan clothing native to Difelin and some dresses from Aukriath.

Personality

Her goddess's ideals are honesty and truth, and Shimi believes her goddess's motto: "Truth will always win out." She believes in the principles of question and verify, then verify again. She believes that people will always see what they desire to see, and not always what truly exists. All men and women may cast illusions, even those who are not sorcerers and those who are ignorant of their actions. Danger lies in unquestioning belief. The nature of her faith is calm, meditative, and methodical. She believes it is better to take no action than to take impulsive action, and she is always seeking to rein in the rashness of her personality. At home, her goddess is not worshipped as part of the Pantheon, and the Pantheist League actively persecutes followers like Shimi.

She is very stable, and has a proud and haughty disposition, but tends to moodiness. She is extroverted and rash, with a foolhardy bravery. She has a dreaming intellect and is very honorable about the truth. She has a hard-hearted nature. She is a thrifty and avaricious woman. She is lustful and as pious as an average Asami. She has an interest in history.

Shimimab is flighty and may seem scatterbrained. She is prone to dance at the passing of a breeze and to give thanks for even the most stifling of desert winds. Other sorcerers may wonder how the students of the wind ever manage to get anything done, but it is obvious that they do. While Shimi does not openly flaunt her magickal power, when she does utilize her arcane learning, the display is worthy of note. Just as her element blows the sand, ripples the water, and fans the flame, Shimi has a tendency to interfere with the plans of those who study other elements. She is never overtly antagonistic in her actions; they just seem to get indirectly in the way or affect the workings of other sorcerers. Amazingly, few sorcerers hold this meddling against her, because they often help one sorcerer by hindering another. As long as the sorcerers of the wind do not become too biased in who they chose to hinder, they will be regarded as a balancing tool that keeps the other sorcerers somewhat equal.

Shimi regards this as her most important duty. She strives to keep the balance and prevent anyone from overpowering and unjustly injuring his fellows. While this has gained her allies, it has also made enemies for her—Shimi must always be careful whose toes she treads on. Sorcerers who revere the wind find other sorcerers to be somewhat quarrelsome and more than a little tedious. They regard the rest of "magickdom" as a group of squabbling children who must be carefully watched lest they injure themselves or others. Despite her disregard for the maturity of other sorcerers, Shimi knows to respect the power of these "children." Angering the wrong flame sorcerer could have very damaging repercussions.

She has a husband back in Paratân and two grown, living children, both illegitimate: one whom she raised herself, while the other was placed into fosterage. She had five other children, but none of those lived to adulthood. The youngest is only two years old and was still alive when she gave him up to fosterage, but he will not live to see the age of four. She was exiled from Paratân for her promiscuity and her worship of Abaimi of the Sea Breezes.

Motivations

She is an avaricious woman, and frustrated that she had to leave so much hard-earned wealth behind when she fled into exile. She is determined to restore herself to her former financial status, and is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to do so.

Having spent so many years in a loveless, dangerous marriage, she also wants to see an end to arranged marriages in general, and abusive marriages of domestic terror in particular. It took her many years to embrace her sexuality and self-worth, and she would save other women from the troubles she experienced herself.

She also believes that it is her duty to maintain the balance of power between the sorcerers of Difelin. She doesn't know who they all are, since many of them are in hiding, but she studies those she knows about and looks for signs that any of them might be overpowering or unjustly injuring others.

Politics

She is mostly friendly with or respectful to other casters (with exception(s)), but does not participate in any organizations of casters. She knows that magic is held in suspicion by the general population and prefers not to draw attention to her talents. Her attitude toward work for hire is that she might perform minor spells for a respectable price, and only if she has nothing else to do, but she will also discuss greater matters, particularly if a large sum of money or valuables is involved.

Her support for King Jóleifr is uneven; she supports some of his policies, but not all of them. However, her support is waxing stronger the longer she lives in Difelin.

She has adopted an attitude of guardianship over the city since she arrived, seeking to maintain the balance of power among those spell-casters she knows of, and to prevent any horrible magickal calamities from occurring.

Contacts

Allies

Véný the Sage

She has a special connection to a sage/healer named Véný. She and Véný met recently during Shimimab's "golden voyages" through the Samrabensian Sea when Véný was traveling to the dread lands in the far south in search of rare medicinal herbs for her studies. Véný is a suspicious and distrustful 88-year-old Sasanach woman held in low regard by her scholarly peers, but she takes pride in her work, which involves the study of supernatural and unusual medicines, heraldry, signs, sigils, and a smattering about non-humans such as the Shynn and the Avacs. Although Véný is fearful that her research will be stolen, Shimimab earned her respect and trust during her expedition to the lands of the dreaded southern sea, and Véný allows Shimimab to rent her research library in order to conduct magickal research of Shimimab's own. As a powerful sorceress in her own right, Véný also acts as a mentor and tutor to Shimimab, guiding her magickal studies.

Lord High Sorcerer Ulfurethr

She is the special connection of the Lord High Sorcerer Ulfurethr, who considers her a "master scientist in exile" and seeks to learn the secrets of Asami magick from her, even as he disdains her base-born status. For her own part, she perceives Ulfureth to be an arrogant, condescending snob, but respects him for his wisdom and compassion. It was he who guaranteed her foreign national status in Difelin when the Asami ambassador would have had her extradited back to Paratân to answer for her crimes, and he has never turned his back on her since. However, she is wary of his chaotic nature. She knows of Ulfurethr's coterie of known sorcerers, but chooses not to associate with them, to preserve her safety and security.

Enemies

Shimimab has not lived in Difelin long enough to make any true enemies, and keeps her powers disguised so as not to attract attention to herself. Nevertheless, in her homeland, she made an enemy of a desert tribe that is more powerful than she is when she and her former lover swindled them in a business deal. Shimimab and this tribe have a mutual hatred of each other that is likely to come to murder if they ever encounter one another.