Cruetraxa

Among many other damnable titles, Cruetraxa is known as the Mother of Blades, Queen of the Infernal, and the Unseeing Eviscerator. She is a Firstborn Demon and, if the stories are to be believed, one of Siroth’s oldest and closest confidants. After Lumaya's abandonment of the Dance of Darkness, Cruetraxa was among the first to urge Siroth to take up arms and assert his superiority. Among some Firstborn it is claimed that she had a hand in the origins of the primordial dispute, though that is false. Whether it is a lie spread by Cruetraxa’s enemies to undermine her standing and characterize her as a treacherous schemer, or one spread by her allies to further show her favor and influence with the great Siroth is unclear – perhaps it is both. Cruetraxa is said to have surrendered her sight to prove her loyalty to her god, a sacrifice that elevated her to her lofty position. Such influence, however, comes with a less obvious cost. Cruetraxa's position is eyed by countless others. Down the ages, Cruetraxa has turned her potentially precarious position on its head by casting herself as a Demonic matriarch, a mother-like figure and, at times, a kind of consort to Siroth, who has long seemed willing to indulge Cruetraxa’s Firstborn eccentricities in exchange for her fanatical commitment. She has taken on the role of adviser to many lesser Demons and Demonspawn – they venerate her and seek her counsel and favor, believing that with it they will have a more direct link to Siroth himself. Cruetraxa encourages this, offering much wisdom and assistance to those craving her guidance. Those selfsame Demonspawn find themselves indebted to her, but such is Cruetraxa’s subtlety and artfulness in the game of Anathraad politics that many only realize they have become her pawns once it is already far too late. Just how much influence Cruetraxa really has with the Shadow God can never be proven but, by characterizing herself as his most favored, she has helped ensure her position is rarely challenged, an unusual thing in the dangerous realities of Anathraad. While Cruetraxa has worked carefully to play the part of the matriarch of Demon-kind, her manifestations in Teleria are anything but tender and motherly. When the self-styled Queen of the Infernal marches to war, she often does so with a retinue of sycophants and Demonic courtiers. Such devotion to her even extends to other devotees of Siroth too, whether vampire, necromancer, or other, for the support of the infamous Mother of Blades is sought after by any kind of Siroth’s followers. Many are the Demonspawn who would sacrifice the bodies they have stolen to enter into Teleria just to secure a one-time audience with her. Cruetraxa has warped her host body into an appearance that is as beautiful as it is deadly, though always she remains sightless, her senses attuned to her surroundings in other, unnatural ways. As with that of many Demonspawn, the slender body Cruetraxa has claimed belies the unnatural strength that is at her command. Wielding her favored weapon, the multi-pronged glaive known as Soulspitter, her blows have the power to pierce castle gates and punch through the breastplates and bones of a half-a-dozen knights at once. The tendrils that adorn her head, each as sharp and armored as the rest of her form, dance and weave around her as she fights, often as dangerous to her allies as they are to the enemy, even the tiniest cut or nick inflicting terrible pain. If wounded by them, only the most foolish of Demonspawn would complain, for it is better to be in Cruetraxa’s deadly presence and injured than cast out from her unnatural sight and her favor unharmed.