Fekhah

## **Fekhah, The Smoke Bride**

Fekhah is the feared guildmaster of Anrain Adventuring Association, the position she inherited from her father upon his death. Even despite the fact she’s rarely seen in public, Fekhah cares deeply about her presentation, wearing expensive clothes even for mundane situations. Due to the unimaginable amount of cigarettes she smokes and the augments of her vital organs her skin turned to sickly gray, which she hides under heavy make-up. Thanks to her artificial lungs and her moderate air magic skills she can weaponize the smoke she breathes if needed. Additionally, she can hold her breath for hours and most gasses have no effect on her.

Fekhah is cold, cruel and profit-driven, with little morals still left. She leads both the public front and the unofficial assassin department of her guild with iron fist, and never hesitates to blackmail, cheat or even kill to achieve her goals. She’s willing to go out of her way to prove people wrong. Even thought she is very reluctant to share her profits and sees most people as more than assets, there are a some she cares about, and is willing to look after.

## **Story**

When Fekhah heard the lung cancer diagnosis at the age of 24, and her healer said the only way so save her life would be to quit smoking, she swore to find another way just to spite him. 4 years later, with more money the healer made in his entire life in her pocket and the thick gray smoke never leaving her side, she laughs in his face.

She never really had issues with money. Her father was the owner of Anrain Adventuring Association, a guild supplying various adventurers and profiting from their findings, and she herself was supposed to take his in the future. In the meantime, she was studying economics at the Satran Academy, partying, scamming people, playing with air magic... and smoking. Smoking was something everyone around her associated her with even more than her cunningness, and everyone loudly joked that soon it will kill her. She laughed it off, even when her laughter mixed with coughing. Even when the pain in her chest would not go away. She only stopped laughing when she started coughing up blood. There was no time to lose on laughing, and she got down to business.

Once her father retired and she took his spot the income of the Association was increased by over 30%, which Fekhah was quietly spending on the strongest painkillers made from kraken flesh. During this time she made many shady friends, like a corrupted lawyer, Saran street artist, kharr hemomancer, and a punk from Anrain called Cer, who insisted that they could make more money by offering assassination services, one of the few things Fekhah would refuse to do. Still, she hired people the Association previously would stray away from, and send them on jobs of questionable safety, ever for adventurers. The common sellswords meant nothing to her, and if they perished she cried not for the loss of a person, but for the loss of the money they equipment and training costed. She was heartless, and it paid off… but not enough. At some point, even the kraken painkillers were not enough and when it happened Fekhah’s own pain won with what remained of her morality. She agreed to Cer’s proposition, and soon the bloodstained money began to flow though her smoke-filled office.

Yet, it was too late. Her lungs were rotting alive, and the only treatment option left was to replace them. The problem was, she would die before she could afford it, and the only remaining options she had was an arranged marriage with another local businessman, or to sell everything she had. The first option filled her with disgust, but the later was even more terrifying. Luckily, her would-be-husband died tragically the day before their marriage under mysterious shadowy circumstances, with all of his fortune conveniently left for his smoking bride. Just a few days later Fekhah woke up after the surgery. Her old rotten lungs were replaced by a top-shelf custom augments, freeing her from the pain.

4 years ago, a healer told her she had to quit smoking or she would die. Now, with her own little crime empire and the veil of gray smoke she visited him again, just to prove a point. Without the painkillers on her bill, the business was growing better than ever before. She made more shady friends. She returned to her old hobby of air magic, this time to play with her smoke. That fool Cer who helped her all the way through turned to be more important than a common sellsword or just another shady friend.

Life is beautiful when you live it at the cost of others.

## **In-game**

Fekhah is a battlemage who is exceptionally good against burst assassins. She can easily punish anyone who tries to fight her in short melee range and kite any pursuers at mid-short distance.

Abilities
At 5 stacks of Asphyxiation the enemy takes 5 damage and is stunned for 2 seconds.
 Smell of the Embers
Each wave deals 3 damage and applies a stack of Asphyxiation.
 Fume Veil

## **Trivia**

* Fekhah's backstory about committing crime to avoid death by lung cancer was inspired by Walter White from Breaking Bad.
* During the beta testing of update 3.2 Smell of the Embers used to knockback enemies. This was removed due to being "annoying as fuck".
* Smell of the Embers grants all enemies it hits 100% knockback resistance for 1 tick just before applying damage.
* Originally the texture of her in-game head had a visible cigarette, but it was removed due to realms censorship.