Aikia

> *"The hearts of all are filled with corruption and impurity. The sole question that remains unknown, 'What is their price?'"*
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## Gameplay

### Languages

Common, Infernal, Elvish, Draconic, Dwarvish

## Music and Sound

### Lyrical Theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBTMRWD93g

## Personality

Bold, decisive, but vindictive and vain. As a young woman, Aikia was kind and thoughtful, but gradually her powers took their toll- she saw the dark thoughts directed to her by all who surrounded her, including her adoptive "Uncle" the don of the Cartel.

As time went on, Aikia gradually lost more and more of her mind, her vindictive streak became darker, and her insanity grew to the point when she would frequently have attacks of paranoia and madness. She would be sitting at a dinner table one minute and jammin a salad fork through another's cheeks for some perceived thought she detected that was just her disintegrating mind playing cruel tricks on her.

A romantic, Aikia dreamed throughout her youth that a prince would save her from the hell she lived, like in a storybook, and confronted with the coldness of reality she began to hate everything.

## Known History

Born on the streets to a demon father and a human mother, Aikia was abandoned when her mother ran off, hoping she would die.

Although at first she was lost, she soon found her way to a brothel, where she served a specific type of cruel clientele who hungered for her part-demonic body. This was when her powers awakened- surrounded by the darkest carnal desires of the filthy underbelly of society, she began to read those minds around her.

Her skill became useful to the Brothel mistress, who used her to check clientele were actually able to pay for their sessions, and were not planning harm on the working girls. She was expected to do this while still selling her body, causing rampant bitterness and fury to tinge her world view further. In this time, she began to dream that a prince would save her from this life, and be her king.

Eventually, word reached the Don of the Cartel about this strange young Tiefling's powers, and the Don proceeded to put pressure on the brothel surreptitiously, eventually causing it to break apart. Then, when it was about to break, he swept in and offered a vast some of gold for the girl's life. The brothel accepted.

The Don kept up the act of being a caring Uncle to Aikia, however he was not immune to her abilities as she believed, and although Aikia was grateful to him for taking her from the Brothel, she knew he was just as dark and twisted as the ones who had taken her in that place. During this time her mind began to experience strange fuzziness, and she would regularly start to drop items or otherwise act clumsily.

She tried to make friends, picking two boys at different times one of whom was the assassin called Dagger, but afraid that a man would try and steal her, her uncle refused to allow them near as much as he could.

Although she tried to convince a young man she had feelings for to escape with her, he refused- scared of what the Don may do. This was the catalyst for her decision to kill the Don and take over the Cartel, so that none would get in the way of her love.

After assassinating the Don, she took his position as head of the Cartel. She led it to a new golden era, her beloved at her side, but it was not long before the mental blackouts and strangeness got more severe- she discovered that she was suffering from Neurosyphilis, and it had already damaged her mind to the point where no restoration could heal the wound. Her uncle had known about this, but had refused her medication or restoration so that he could better control her- and now it was too late to halt it's progress.

The disease began to claim her more still of her mind, she began to experience shifting moods and schizophrenic episodes. She would lose control of her psychic abilities, and become unable to differentiate her imagination, her thoughts, her hallucinations and the genuine minds of those around her- even believing to read thoughts from people near her that were actually the thoughts of the clients of the brothel when she was young.

To help her remember, she commisioned a portrait of herself and the man she once tried to convince to run away with her. But it was not long before her madness caused her to, mid painting, execute the portraitist brutally and suddenly. In this state she drove away her beloved, who had stayed by her side, as she refused to explain to him what was happening- she did not trust him anymore, as she was unable to tell what were his thoughts and her own.

Unable to tell the real thoughts of those around her from the paranoid delusions and whisperings of her braking mind, she secluded herself in her bedroom, seeing only the mindflayer doctor that was bound to serve her and ease her mental troubles.

More than anything, she wanted to see her beloved again, and the magical lock on her bedroom door could only be opened by his voice, saying the phrase "I'm home."

In the last months of 1753 DE, beneath the unfinished last portrait of herself and her lost love, her mind having long rotted away, she died in her sleep.

## Relationships

### Aikia's Beloved

This Tiefling was the catalyst for much of Aikia's descent in to madness and evil, knowingly or not. She picked him up believing that he was a girl and a tiefling like her, so she would be allowed to play with him. However, upon discovering he was a boy, she tried to keep this fact secret from her Uncle- who soon found out and banished him from their house. He would be allowed to stay as a Cartel thief, however.

She admired his spunk and ability to stand up for himself despite the bigotry that they both, as Tieflings, faced in the city, and fell deeply in love with him. However, he refused to run away with her, scared of the Don's wrath, and never dared make a real romantic overture towards her when she took her Uncle's position as Don, perhaps afraid of disturbing her work.

Until her death, she held a candle in her heart for him.

### Dagger (Cartel Leader)

She chose Dagger because she saw him beating up another thief who was attempting to steal his take, and she was taken with him. She thought he was impressive for the way he defended himself, and felt that he would not fear her Uncle's wrath the way others might.

Although she never grew as close to him as her Beloved, and he would be jealous of the closeness they shared, she still looked at him like a younger brother, and doted on him as such.