Janya Moon

"*There is chaos in this world and there is chaos within. Alas, the latter has always proven more difficult to conqueror.*"
—Janya on the fight against evil.

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**Janya "Zhi" Moon** is an assassin of the Viz-Jaq'taar. She is also a member of the Eternal Companions. As a student of history and literature, Janya often travels the world searching for lost tomes and parchments that may provide insight to the Burning Hells and High Heavens. She writes poetry in her free time and owns her own a library in Caldeum. Being a member of the Viz-Jaq'taar, she is a highly skilled and dexterous fighter. Janya remains close friends with Alec Kylar and Hyuga. In Caldeum, she is known as **Greed Killer** by friend and foe alike.

## History

Janya was born on the island Xiansai, her parents both peasants from a small village. Her hatred for magic began when she was fourteen years old: she experienced a haunting dream brought on by a Vizjerei mage. In the dream, a demon devoured the soul of her parents, siblings and herself. The nightmares continued for several weeks but eventually a Viz-Jaq'taar assassin came to her village where she lived and confronted her; unbeknownst to Janya was the fact that the Vizjerei mage was actually a citizen from her village. The Viz-Jaq'taar confronted the Vizjerei, creating a long, vicious fight that resulted in the assassin's death. After that, Janyai bared witness as the mage used his dark magic in the streets and unleashed the destruction in his path. After a bloody conflict that lasted several hours the Vizjerei against the village denizens, the mage fled and was never seen again.

Weeks after the horrific event that struck her village, a group of Viz-Jaq'taar arrived to find their fallen comrade and the village in dismay. The Order helped rebuild the village and restored peace to the peasants that survived. Janya offered her service to the assassin group, begging them to train her, in which they accepted. With no surviving members of her family left, she departed off the island of Xiansai with her newly chosen family.

### ***Order of the Mage Slayers***

In 1258 A.K. the Viz-Jaq'taar brought Janya to the secret lair of their order, located in the Kehjistan jungles. There, they began teaching Janya how to read and would give her lesson about the nature of the mage clans, specifically the uncanny ability to summon demons of the Vizjerei. Her ability to read, a feat uncommon among lowborn individuals, gave her a striving interest in history texts. On one occasion, the order's leader, Natasha, gave Janyai a lesson on the Mage Clan Wars. When time came to start her combat training, Janya found her interest in ready more exhilarating. None the less, her combat abilities came swiftly and naturally to her, but not without brutal training from her masters.

At the time of becoming a Journeymen, Janya received her first mission from her masters: eliminate a deadly acolyte who was tampering with dark magic. In her assignment, she was only given his name, Weller, and the mage clan he was in, Vizjerei. After three months of traveling the realm and searching Weller's location, she received a tip that lead her to a hidden den in the thick forests of the Sharval Wilds. Upon finding the den, she waited days until she made indirect contact with the acolyte. Janya lured Weller into a trap, ambushing him in the forest and capturing him alive. She brought Weller to the city of Entsteig, where he had a large bounty, and publicly executed him in the streets on her own authority. After holding up the acolyte's severed head, she proclaimed to the citizens of Entsteig, "*Behold the glorious future of the Vizjerei!*"

After she completed her first mission and returned to the headquarters, Janyai was punished for her insolence in Entsteig. Her comrades explained the Viz-jaq'taar are to stay anonymous in their work and not to publicly display their efforts to eliminate mages; forbidden to complete contracts and assassinate mages from then on, she was assigned as a book keeper of the order. Janya found great comfort in her new position, despite the disappointment she caused. She spent hours within the order's library, writing and studying about other cultures, religions and clans. Eventually, her masters granted her permission to travel the realms of Sanctuary to continue her studies. Janyai traveled north to the Jewel of the East and began researching demons and the Burning Hells within the Great Library of Caldeum. Aside from her scholarly work, her order also appointed her to act as a close watcher over the Yshari Sanctum.

### ***Greed Killer***

Janya's stay at Caldeum initially proved to be less of a punishment and more of a sanctum to her environment. Within months she posed as a civilian and became well acquainted with numerous commoners of Caldeum including merchants, nobles and warriors. As a civilian under the name **Zhi**, she wrote and published news bulletins within the city; several organizations came to her attention such as the Fighters Guild, Iron Wolves and several crime syndicates. Jayna's priority while in her facade was to do two things: spy on the mage clans within the city's Yshari Sanctum and oversee the activities of the Trade Consortium Council. She also began to recruit lowborn orphans to gather information she could not. At night within the urban underworld she would pose as a sellsword and eliminate targets for a reasonable price.

Among the noblemen that lived in the upper districts, one in particular struct Jayna's cords: Lord Ashito of House Oparo who sold mana crystals to magic users. While under Jayna's radar, Ashito's empire became widespread across the streets and caused magic wielders to become 'mana addicts' which created unstable reactions to their casting. Almost a year into her investigation, she managed to steal documents that proved Ashito's underworld activities but was nearly captured in the process. This ordeal forced Ashito to unleash his enforcers to begin a manhunt for Jayna.

For over a month, Jayna spent her every waking hour on the run from the underworld enforcers sent after her. While she avoided capture, she sent her spies to delivery the documents surrounding Ashito to the leaders of the Viz-Jaq'taar. Collectively and systematically she began to pick off the enforcers and thugs that sought to kill her all while tracking the movements of Ashito. While the skirmishes commenced over several weeks, Ashito's greed lead him to to bribe the city guards into his pocket and before long he was able openly conduct his business in broad daylight. Lady Natalya, leader of the Viz-jaq'taar, sent a dozen of her best assassins to reinforce Jayna in Caldeum upon learning of Ashito's corruption and the documents mailed by her spies.

On October 15th, 1263 Jayna successfully traced Lord Ashito and assassinated him while he departed to his royal apartment, but she was captured by House Oparo in the process. She was tortured for three days before being liberated by her reinforced comrades of the Viz-Jaq'taar. A climatic skirmish then commenced within the royal apartments of House Oparo and by dawn many of its members were killed or captured. The next morning, Jayna was given the nickname "**Greed Killer**" by the city news bulletin. As a repercussion for the purge of House Oparo and the assassination of Lord Ashito, Janya, along with Lady Natalya, was summoned to court by the Trade Consortium Council to answer for their actions. The councilmen granted the Order clemency upon discovering the corruption proved by the documents that Janya had stolen weeks prior.

With her facade gone, Janya's reputation as an assassin became a controversy within the city. The noblemen of Caldeum showed disapproval for her belligerence, while the smallfolk praised her efforts to purge the corruption that overflowed into the streets. Pleased by her actions, Natalya kept Janya stationed in Caldeum to operate more efficiently with a half dozen assassins under her command. The councilmen also rewarded Janya with a private estate and, upon her request, a library to conduct her studies. Now known by her reputation as Greed Killer, she made her presence more known in the Caldeum underworld as a private sellsword and expect tracker, in turn allowing her to seek out any active dark mages.

### ***War of the Coronation***

When the Emergence of Evil first began in the Western Kingdoms the Viz-Jaq'taar were forced to respond by containing the chaos, most specifically by overseeing the major cities of Sanctuary. Janya and her assassins kept Caldeum under constant watch but word soon reached them that Mephisto's presence in Kurast lead to the capital's downfall. Lady Natalya and many other assassins began to go missing in actions while others reportedly died in the fight against evil. In response to Travincal's destruction, Emperor Hakan I migrated north to Caldeum to rule and convert into the new capitol. The coronation of Emperor created a civil war that stretched for several months until the destruction of the Worldstone.

Though desperate to send aid to Kurast and assist Lady Natalya, Janya found it difficult to contain the outbreak of civil war between the noblemen of Caldeum and the newly migrated noblemen from Kurast. The Trade Consortium Council escalated the conflict by sending out thugs and enforcers to publicly humiliate Kurastian noblemen in the streets. Riots and protests were also a daily problem in Caldeum. The Iron Wolves were summoned by Emperor Hakan I to bring order to the city, yet the mercenary group found the task extremely daunting and called upon Janya and her associates to help bring the city to peace. By the time the civil war had settled down, Janya received a message from Lady Natalya that the Worldstone had been destroyed by the late Lord of Destruction, Baal.

## Character and Appearance

While in combat, Janya wears little armor and relies on her her agility to avoid harm. She wears a mask to conceal her identity from authority and mage clans. Having traveled the world for most of her life, she has developed a keen ability to learn and adopt foreign languages. She claims to have killed many people, including children (who were possessed) and undead. Despite her wish to work alone, she is in fact very social with her allies and often brings gifts to those who are closest to her.