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STATISTICS:
STR
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DEX
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CON
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INT
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WIS
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INT
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Allies:
▸ Friend: Valentin
▸ Brother: Nanto Seikun
▸ Friend: Yumi
▸ Friend: Avalim
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B I O G R A P H Y
The people of Sornieth look to their deities for guidance, and those who distrust the deities may find themselves swayed to the fold of the Shade. These disparate worshipers all have one thing in common: they entrust their lives—and their afterlives—to something greater than they.
Although the Shade makes many promises regarding the afterlife, the deities are notoriously silent on this matter. Many worshipers have queried, “After I die, what will become of me?” The standard reply is, “It is what you do before death, not after, that is important.” But the question of “after” remains....
Thus many have come up with their own notions of the afterlife: Were you a malicious person? Then down to the infernal darkness you’ll go, where you’ll find yourself in the company of similarly vicious souls, all grappling for power in a world where it no longer means anything. Their cruelty unabated, they inflict the most horrendous crimes upon each other. Indeed, hell is other people.
But if you were genuinely benevolent and kind, you can expect nothing but kindness in the afterlife as well. Up you will be borne, on wings of angels, to an afterlife of brightness and light. There you will be welcomed by those who went before you, and you will dwell in peace forever.
It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? The question now is: How do you get there?
The sun set, and the pull of the night became stronger. Newly-released souls were tugged out of their bodies and carried along by swift winds. “What’s this?” they asked. They blinked at each other in befuddlement; many had expected that they would immediately appear in Paradise or the Inferno.
One of them gasped out, “It’s the gods....We’re being taken to the gods!” This caused waves of consternation or elation among the mass of souls. Some tried to fight against the pull, but could only look helplessly at the mountains scrolling past. Others turned their faces forward eagerly.
Whatever their initial reactions, all were confused when the figure finally stepped into view, there upon the edge of a jutting cliff.
The cliff was several miles above sea level, perpetually covered in ice and snow. But the mysterious figure did not seem to feel the cold; neither did he fear the height. The moon shone on his face. Blue skin...dark markings. His hair tumbled around his face like a stormcloud as he pushed back his scarf. His eyes were as pale as the landscape beneath him.
“Who are you?” the souls queried. They clustered around, inspecting him carefully. Was he a necromancer? Were they about to be bound for some heinous purpose?
“I am Hokuto Seikun,” the man introduced himself in a soft, smoky voice. The souls searched their memories for this name but dug up no matches—though some of them were irrevocably chilled when Hokuto concluded, “I am a soulseer.”
The reason the gods do not comment on the afterlife is this: The afterlife is not their purview. The gods, for all their power, have no say in what happens to souls after death. Thus it falls to other beings to decide what becomes of them. The names for these beings are varied: psychopomp, arbiter, valkyrie....Hokuto uses the word “soulseer”.
Hokuto sleeps in the daytime, and he rises with the moon and stars. As the sun sets, he hears the gentle rush of souls coming towards him like waves heading towards a shore. He steps out of his cave, stands upon the lonesome cliff. And he waits.
They come to him in an ephemeral tide: all shapes and sizes, ages and ranks. Although Hokuto can hear their voices, he has learned to deafen himself to their pleas. He is a soulseer, not a necromancer or a lifegiver. He cannot avenge or resurrect those who have died. He can only judge them.
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Misc:
▸ Favorite Activity: Lounging in his cave
▸ Theme Song: Ominous Memories by Yoshimi
▸ Hoards: Crystal ornaments
▸ Favorite color: Pink
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____In the here and now, the souls lingered. They rose up, circling the peak like so many fish. Hokuto looked up at them and beckoned. A tattered shape drifted down to him, unable to resist that pull.
“What is your name?” asked the soulseer.
“I am Silversword, sir,” answered the young man. He seemed embarrassed by the moniker; he wrung his slender hands.
The moment he spoke his name, images flickered across Hokuto’s mind. He perceived that the young man had been born with an entirely different name. His life had been hard; he’d grown up as a thief, swiping with those quick and nimble fingers of his. His actions had given plenty of people grief...but there had been no malice behind them. He had stolen just enough to survive, maybe feed his comrades and have a bit of fun, but no more than that. He’d slipped while running from the authorities, fallen into an aqueduct and drowned.
Although the laws of the land are strict, soulseers have more freedom in their choices. This can be a burden sometimes. Hokuto pondered for several moments: Should he send this young thief to Paradise, or condemn him to eternal torment in the Inferno?
Eventually, the answer came to him: In Paradise, the thief would have no need to steal. His cheerful, gentle spirit would shine there, unburdened by hunger. He would be unable to compete against the aggressive villains who lay in the Inferno; he had not caused enough grief in life to merit such torment.
“You have lived to the best of your ability, your unfortunate circumstances notwithstanding,” Hokuto told him quietly. “Ascend, and be at peace.”
The young man’s face split into a brilliant smile. He was released at last, and the ranks of waiting spirits parted to let him ascend. Up into the sky he went, vanishing beyond the stars.
____More souls and more...to Paradise—or the Inferno. Another soul hovered beneath Hokuto’s gaze. A scholar of sorcery. She gave her name as “Mikaela” and waited anxiously for her fate to be decided.
Hokuto examined the images of her life. Mikaela had been a notable scholar, working alongside other mages. One of their experiments had gone wrong, and the resulting blast had injured Mikaela. She had succumbed to her injuries after many days of agony.
Although Mikaela had done her work well, she had not been fair. She had been too focused on her success to aid those around her. Worse yet, when it had seemed as though some colleagues might surpass her, she had spread ugly rumors to drag them down. Great scientists had had their reputations tarnished, and promising researchers had been denied careers because of her spite. One of them had even been thrown out into the street; he couldn’t understand what he’d done wrong. Though he’d declared that he was innocent, it was his word against the senior scholar’s—and who would believe a nobody like him?
Hokuto’s eyes flashed. “You have used your intellect to ruin those who would have aided you.”
Mikaela paled further. Above, the ghosts circled more slowly, obviously listening. They watched expectantly as she stammered, “Well, it was just...I never thought that—”
“A mind so keen would have thought things over more carefully,” Hokuto chided her. “You have denied success to other good souls. Their work would have been a boon to many, but you have taken that away. And it can never be restored.”
And with that, he held out his hand, palm down. The scholar gasped as she felt the tug of the Inferno; her robes fluttered as if caught in a strong wind. She held her arms out in supplication, and Hokuto could see her lips moving, but he had stopped listening to her some time ago. He always did, whenever he had to make this particular decision. No matter what each soul had done in life, condemning them to eternal torment was never something he did gladly.
And then the scholar vanished, sucked into the Inferno. The souls above murmured quietly amongst themselves and resumed their patient circling. Hokuto looked up at them again. He held out a hand, and another soul obligingly detached itself from the main group and drifted down to him.
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____More souls, and more...Most of them went to Paradise, for in life, they’d been mindful of their actions and words. When Hokuto sent them skyward, nearly all of them smiled or bowed gratefully. Rare were those who stared at him in dismay, who protested against this gracious judgment.
One of them stood before Hokuto now. The huntress’ clothing was torn; blood still caked it from where she’d been clawed by a Hoarfrost Mauler. “Let me go back,” she blurted before Hokuto could ask for her name.
He looked at her in annoyance. She rushed on, “Please, I have a daughter! It’s just the two of us at home; nobody else knows she’s there!”
“What is your name?”
“Princess,” the woman answered. Her cheeks flushed, but she lifted her chin as she said it.
Her name ignited the images in Hokuto’s mind. A low, snow-covered hut...a fire...A racking cough drew his attention. A small girl huddled next to the fire, and she picked up a log and tossed it onto the flames, where it smoldered. She coughed again and shrank back, huddling deep inside her robes. At intervals she would look up with anxious eyes, glancing at the door. Waiting.
Hokuto shook his head, and the vision dissolved. “I am sorry,” he began, and for a moment his eyes betrayed his regret.
Princess cut him off: “You’re not going to send me back to her? That’s monstrous! She could die!”
“There is nothing I can do.” Hokuto’s expression hardened. “What happens to her is beyond my grasp.”
Princess’ clothes began to flutter. The pull of Paradise was strong, and she asked frantically, “What will become of her?!”
“She has lived a good life so far. If she continues to do so—”
“Then I may see her again,” Princess whispered. Tears trickled down her cheeks as her clothes blew in a phantom breeze. “She’s a good girl,” she choked out, her voice fading fast, “so I know that’s true...but to only be able to see her again...that way...”
And then she was gone. The remaining souls looked down on the soulseer, their luminous faces subdued.
There were other lives picked over that night, other souls judged. Hokuto finished his work well before sunrise, and then he returned to his cave to sleep. His slumber was dreamless....It was probably just as well. Otherwise, Inferno or none, he would be in torment, too.
____When the winters grew longer and the winds began to batter the mountainside, Hokuto left his cave. He journeyed by himself, following the birds.
He had a brother in the south: Nanto Seikun, himself a soulseer. Hokuto was always welcome in his brother’s lair, and they supported each other when their work threatened to overwhelm them. To know that someone else shared the soulseer’s burden....It did much to ease Hokuto’s heart.
Those who had met both brothers had sometimes asked: Why didn’t one live with the other, the better to cheer each other on?
Each soulseer claims a territory, and when they leave, the souls in that region are diverted to other soulseers living nearby. When a soulseer’s powers awaken, they move as far away from home as they can—or else they may find themselves judging their families’ souls. There are those who have gone mad after discovering terrible secrets about their loved ones, who have been forced to send them to the Inferno.
Thus, Hokuto takes a risk whenever he journeys south. An accident, an inauspicious encounter, and he may arrive at his brother’s doorstep, himself a wraith awaiting judgment....But for now, he needs the company. He’s sure his brother does, too. For now, he is alive. And he will take what he can get from life while he still breathes.
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Bio template by Mibella, find it here.
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