Hekate Eos

Hekate was raised in a small village with less-than-sturdy walls, within a day’s ride of the city. She was discovered one morning, shortly around sunrise, by her father. He was a human who, prior to the apocalypse, had been an academic, but had taken to carpentry as a means to make a living in a small village that had no need for libraries, when the few remaining cities had enough academics. He had a dalliance many months prior at a rare, surprisingly rowdy party in the nearby forest, though he could barely remember what the woman looked like when the daylight came. The baby on his doorstep looked perfectly human...except for her dark purple hair, solid white eyes, and the tiny horns on her forehead. Then, of course, was the tail. Hekate Eos was raised by her father in the village until her mid-teens, where she was shielded from most prejudice aimed towards tieflings (due to her being so small when she arrived, and times being so tumultuous, the other villagers mostly overlooked her more infernal attributes). She spent her childhood and early teenage years poring over the small library of books her father had been able to bring along when he came to the village, and developed a great thirst for knowledge- and an aptitude for languages. She longed to travel to the nearest city and learn what she could from the university (or what passed for it at the time), but her father was always protective and wished for her to wait until she grew older. Adulthood came a bit too soon for Hekate, however, and when she was 17 her small village was hit by a troop of bandits (which frequently stalked common pathways, and which she had encountered to a lesser extent before). These bandits were much bolder than the ones that had previously stumbled upon the tiny gates, and caused ample destruction. Her father, unfortunately, met his end due to the havoc wreaked, and Hekate was alone. With little to tie her to home (her neighbors having become a bit less friendly as her horns grew large and curved, and as her tail grew deadly spikes), Hekate packed a small bag, what money was hidden away and not found by the bandits, a few of her most treasured books, as well as one of very few remaining maps, and set out for the city. She arrived a few days later (having had to pick her way through blocked off passages and hide from the less savory types on the road), and collapsed inside a small, poorly lit tavern. After staying a few nights, she found herself a small, cramped room near the university, and managed to cajole one of the professors into allowing her to assist him in copying old, damaged tomes in exchange for living expenses and education. It was while looking through these dusty, tattered books one evening that Hekate spotted something odd. One book drew her eye, even though it looked perfectly normal (compared to the rest, at least). Unintelligible text was scrawled across the front, and at a second glance the blackened leather binding the book seemed to almost shift- not in movement, but as if it were swirling and fluid. Upon opening the small text, Hekate was transfixed, and something called out to her from the vast reaches of space and time. In the span of what felt like centuries, but was in fact milliseconds, Hekate made a pact with an entity (who was in truth Dendar, the Night Serpent), in order to gain the most knowledge possible and control power beyond her wildest dreams. Or, perhaps, worst nightmares. That was 8 years ago. Hekate is now 28, tall and imposing, with long, deep violet hair, heavy, curling horns, a tail with fearsome spikes, and the same unsettling, solid white eyes. She tends to wear a heavy cloak over her usual dresses- that are generally simple and dark colored, with the occasional embroidery or ornament. She also wears her arcane focus- a dark, jagged, amethyst pendant- on a long cord around her neck; easily hidden from sight beneath her clothing, but quick to reach should the need arise. She can most often be found in the corners of the library, continuing to translate and copy old texts, or sometimes in the small tavern where she first arrived in the city, poring over a strange black tome with odd, shifting writing. She is quiet, and keeps to herself, but even when others are put off by her infernal appearance, she is able to easily relax them, and has made a few friendly acquaintances in a few of the merchant shops in the city. Her academic friends admire her thirst for knowledge and her talent for remembering information, and her life seems quiet and simple. However, the danger of her pact with Dendar is constantly looming, and from stories (both whispers from fellow sages and stories written in books) she knows that her sanity may not remain in her grasp forever.

And she has been hearing rumors of late of a devil near the city, and the devil’s questions to travelers on the road about people who may look just like Hekate.