Ser Jeanne Aster

"I don't need your blood money. My task is a righteous one."
Ser Jeanne Aster, honored as The Pious, is a zealot knight currently acting as the grandmaster of the Sin-eaters. Born in 4825, she is the adopted daughter and heir of Ser Beryl Aster, the founder of the Sin-eaters who led the original secession from the Templars. Beryl was the trusted apprentice of Lord Furnace, saved from her early life as a Providencial street rat and educated in the zeal of the Templars for several years until Furnace's apparent death during the Kokushi Crisis, beginning her disillusionment with the order. She finally snapped after the destruction of her home Providence, believing that the city had suffered as a result of the growing decadence and impiety of the Templars who had become increasingly tolerant of the occult. After the purge of the Circle of Knowing which left the largest Templar cell on Aquila in shambles, Aster led her comrades in a new holy crusade against the heretics as the commander of the Sin-eaters. 
 
By the late 4840s, Beryl's advanced age prompted the ruling Holy Sepulchre to elect a new grandmaster to assume the supreme leader's duties as the order's military commander and de facto leader. Jeanne, known as the Pious due to her heroic ventures in the Reach, was an early favorite; she herself being an orphan, one of the thousands displaced by the annihilation of Providence, Beryl saw much of herself in the tactful and bright-eyed Jeanne, and thus groomed her to assume her duties upon her death. Jeanne initially refused her nomination, citing her young age, possible nepotism, and her own lack of desire to lead others, always preferring to simply execute her own part to the best of her ability. Nevertheless, when it became clear none of the other cardinals within the Holy Sepulchre desired the position, she accepted the title of grandmaster, preserving her still-living mother's honorific rank of supreme leader. 
 
As grandmaster of the Sin-eaters, Ser Jeanne reinvigorated the order, believing that naught less than total mobilization would be sufficient to exterminate the rising threat of the occult heretics. The militant order had long based their operations deep in central Kilran, but increasing oversight from the Nova Aquilan government had finally made the zealot knights' presence redundant. She turned her sights toward the lawless continent of Occa, where a loose confederation of citystates were still struggling to maintain order in the wake of the sudden collapse of the Medriaan kingdom. There, the Sin-eaters began a protracted conflict over control of New Providence, fiercely opposed by the neighboring Albion as well as interlopers such as the Acolytes of the Beyond and criminal mastermind Finn Hamm. 
 
In the course of the New Providence war, Jeanne and the Sin-eaters came into covenant with the enigmatic Iago, who granted them knowledge of their occult enemies' activities as well as a powerful blessing of Light. Whatever her mysterious ally's true intentions may be, Jeanne remains wholly determined to drive the Old Ways from Aquila once and for all. 
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Category:Invidere