Skarlat

HeroForge image of Skarlat

Skarlat, or Princess Skarlat of the Kolshet Empire as she is properly known, is an alu-fiend daughter of Keisara and Himbo. Like both her parents and some of her siblings, she has ascended to the rank of Hero Deity but is even more obscure than the others.

## Biography

Skarlat is the youngest of Keisara's children, born to Himbo as a living representation of the alliance between the two hero deities whereby Keisara would send reinforcements to Himbo's Brothel to fight off the invasion of Cu if it looked like Cu was going to overpower Himbo's forces, and in return Himbo would not abduct Keisara's citizens from her empire and would provide easier access to her brothel from the empire.

Due to Himbo's nature as a mother of monsters, Skarlat was unusual even by alu-fiend standards: she is unusually short for an alu-fiend irda, her eyes are a milky white colour, and she is slightly hardier than one would expect. Her short stature, especially in a nation dominated by giants, caused her to develop a Napoleon complex. She started learning sorcery to better herself and was driven to outperform every spellcaster she considered to be better than her. This drive eventually resulted in her becoming one of the empire's hero deities. As part of her attempts to gain power, she acquired grimoires and mastered their usage. Her spells tend to be more unusual in nature as a result of this. She also is one of the leading experts on esoteric and eldritch lore on Erah from her studies.

When she reached adulthood, Keisara gifted her an archipelago near the eastern isles, which she had Abadon turn into a demiplane for her. Skarlat went to this archipelago and decided that each of the islands was too small for her. She used her epic magic to move the islands, turning them into a single, giant, tropical paradise island. She built herself a lair on top of the highest mountain of her domain, where she maintains an observatory to study the stars, as well as a laboratory and library for her grimoires. She occasionally sends invitiations to adventurers to come to her island (or just outright abducts them), who she then challenges to something as a form of entertainment.

She acquired the Natorum Demonto and tried using its unique property of gaining the traits of a creature it absorbs to access the power of the Fog of Dyndar. She broke the seal on the Fog's prison and placed the grimoire within. Over the next few days, the Fog was gradually absorbed into the book until the book gained the Fog's potent transmutation abilities. Skarlat requisitioned Jahegso'n from Kleightus to use as a guard for the book, using magic to keep him on a demiplane until he was needed. A one-armed adventurer climbed down the well in the village of Dyndar and managed to acquire the book. Jahegso'n tried to stop him, but he was defeated by the adventurer, although he managed to cut the ropes holding the adventurer's weapon to his arm's stump. The adventurer made it out of the well before being struck by lightning and dying. Skarlat was enraged by this, and it took hours for her to calm down. Jahegso'n needed severe medical attention for his body afterwards. She then acquired the mostly burnt up remains of the adventurer from the village and reanimated him as a zombie slave. The next night, Skarlat determined that the book was within the village due to manifestations of its power emanating from the book. She sent Jahegso'n up the village to search for the book and to subdue whoever possessed it, using her magic to grant him a number of buffs to allow him to better deal with the fog that arose due to the book. Jahegso'n spent hours going from house to house, killing roughly half the village's population using whatever was on hand in their huts. On his way to murder the headman, he came across a group of adventurers in the fog outside his hut. Jahegso'n attacked and the fight escalated until he'd killed most of them. Jahegso'n identified Jet as the one possessing the book, so he knocked her out. Once the final combatative villager fled, Skarlat had the fog dissipate and reclaimed the book from Jet. She then took Jet with her to her lair under the village and used the book's power to continue corrupting the area, turning everyone there besides herself and Jahegso'n into goblyns loyal to her. She then took them all to her island so she could plot her next form of entertainment.

She took part in the conference leading up to the Giant Crusade, where she learned about Serra being in possession of the Pa Doden. Two months later, she paused time on the party's ship and paid Serra a visit. Serra promised to give her the book in a few weeks once she had freed the souls of Taz and Zed. Skarlat was impressed by the respect Serra showed her and with her negotiating skills, so she accepted. She was upset though that she hadn't been able to mess with and of the party to force Serra's hand, so she instead said she'd have some fun with Serra's brother Arne. She then left and restored time to normal.

## Powers and Abilities

Skarlat is a renowned sorceress, with her sorcery being what ultimately allowed her to ascend to the rank of hero deity. She also hoards and amasses knowledge, particularly of the eldritch, esoteric, and arcane types, and so she has access to many unique spells and a good number of epic magics. While she is not the most powerful spellcaster in the Kolshet Empire, she is close. She also has a number of more unusual abilities resulting from all the grimoires she has studied.

As an alu-fiend, Skarlat has a number of abilities relating to charming and controlling others, as well as a number of the standard cambion abilities. Her shapechanging abilities from being an alu-fiend supplement her natural irda ones, meaning she felt no need to focus on her irda powers like her mother, Keisara, did. This did mean that she was able to focus on improving her abilities in other ways, and to do so she made a number of pacts with other powerful entities.