Sinesha

Sinesha was born to a wealthy Kaerok family, and though her noble parents doted on her, she grew into a greedy child who was disdainful of any she considered her inferior, which was almost everyone. She was also overly fond of her appearance – though it seemed fate at least had a cure for that. Not long after Sinesha had come of age she was caught up in a carriage accident on the road from Arnoc to Delanos. Her injuries were slight and she suffered no lasting physical damage apart from a slight scar on her cheek. Despite its small size, the scar became the focus of her vanity, and she agonized over her belief that her beauty had been ruined. She began to search for a way to remove the scar and turned to dabbling in magic. Sinesha was not a studious woman and had little understanding of the arcane. No matter what she tried, nothing worked, and what few sorceries she was able to attempt uniformly fizzled out. She slipped deeper into her obsession, convinced that her injury made her a figure of ridicule and refusing to be seen in public. Rumors spread among Kaerok’s elite that she was suffering some terrible sickness, or had committed a grievous crime and had secretly fled the kingdom. The Cult of K’Leth have their spies everywhere, and it wasn’t long before stories of Sinesha’s strange circumstances reached the Knights Revenant. As a wealthy and seemingly reclusive woman, Sinesha was a prime target for the Cult. Lady Margeld, a fellow-noble and friend, was already a member, and encouraged Sinesha to join with claims that the Knights Revenant could help her. Sinesha had little in the way of scruples and the Cult had no need to use their usual propaganda about the betterment of common folk to convince her to join. Instead, they persuaded her that a replacement could be found for her scarred body, one even more beautiful. All the Cult needed was her wealth, influence, and loyalty. She provided the Cult with all this and more, pledging vast sums of silver to the Knights Revenant, as well as the use of her family’s summer manse on the edge of the Redspike Mountains. Sinesha quickly advanced herself within the Cult, discovering that it was not so dissimilar to the nobility of Kaerok, with its factions, pride, and desire for wealth and control. After some years she attained what she sought, and was gifted the body of a beautiful young maiden which she greedily claimed. Sinesha planned to use the Cult’s dark magics to further enhance her stolen beauty, yet still she proved ill-suited to serious sorcery. But in her attempts – and through luck rather than skill – she made a discovery. Struggling to tap into ‘pure’ magic, Sinesha used the spirits within soul gems as a locus for both offensive and defensive spells. She leeched their energy to slow the onset of wounds, and their nascent anger to stir flame from blades. Overuse can shatter the gems, but there are always more, and Sinesha has never cared for others. Sinesha now hunts down the fairest women in Teleria and lures them into the Cult with the secret intention of harvesting their bodies for herself. As long as she continues to prove her usefulness, she will have the bodies she craves.