Stio Malos

Stio Malos was an Inquisitor of Nesarian origin who initially served in the Dara Mossa, but became famous for his service in the Dara Morca. Stio is today immortalised as "the man who loved a demon", and he is the most prominent symbol of the Dara Morca's commitment to only protecting the innocent, not barbarically murdering every monster they came across.

Stio was born in 1819 to a Christian family of minor Cafanian nobility. Being the third-born son, he was not in a position to inherit his father's titles, so his parents allowed him to pursue his obsession with the Inquisition, which was established from an early age. He proved to be proficient enough with the sword, but his real talent was with firearms; he was a natural marksman and proved to be an exceptionally quick learner. Throughout his life, but especially in his childhood, he had a strong love of reading, particularly the ancient myths from the Age of Titans.

Stio joined the Inquisition when he was 17, rapidly proving himself and becoming confirmed as an Inquisitor at the unprecedented age of 18 in 1837. He joined the Dara Mossa, the order responsible for hunting down criminals which normal law enforcement agencies are incapable of dealing with. He participated in few missions, but quickly gained a reputation for working quickly and mercifully. When the magical revival began in early 1839, when he was twenty, Stio saw what was coming and joined the newly re-invigorated Dara Morca. His resolve was only emboldened by the Civil War which began later that same year, as his duty to protect the innocent became even more important; the people faced enough threats from men, let alone extradimensional monsters.

Having read the old tales, Stio knew vaguely what to expect, and his first assignment against the Dreadfolk was successful; in November of 1839, he tracked down and executed a Ferigan which was responsible for murdering two civilians in Zathola. In February of 1840, he identified a Succubus which had been prowling the streets of Hevoles in Ascaria, and convinced them to return home to the Dreadlands. In May, after a long hunt, he found a lost Savuan roaming the highlands of Cortath, whom he was ordered to execute - but he deemed the creature to be no threat and aided him in returning home to the Dreadlands. His next mission would be the one that made him famous.

Stio was called to Meriadana (the capital of Infria) in August of 1840 to investigate a report of a Savuan causing trouble. When Stio found her, he rapidly discerned that, much like the Savuan he encountered in May, she was no threat. She was hiding in an alleyway, protecting herself from the rain by huddling inside a crate; shivering, terrified, naked and deeply malnourished, Stio took pity on her. He gave her his coat and took her to the local Inquisition house, where she was fed and soon fell asleep. The creature revealed her name as Vesha, and begrudgingly explained that she had fled the Dreadlands to escape death and that she was unable to ever return. She did not yet reveal why, but she would explain at a later date that her clan had been destroyed and the survivors were being systematically hunted and executed, so she had no choice but to run.

Not knowing what else to do, Vesha followed Stio as he attended to a new report of a Khaogan attack. Upon seeing the devastation wrought by the demon, Vesha joined Stio in his hunt for the creature, and helped him to slay it when it was found. Without completely explaining why, Vesha then decided that she would join Stio in the Dara Morca, and after a lengthy debate with the admissions council she was granted the rank of Inquisitor at some time in November or December of 1840. As they took on more missions together, Stio and Vesha became close friends, and then grew closer still - and in early 1842, they married. Since the Orthodox Church in Inecuria forbids marriages with non-Christians, it is presumed that Vesha joined the Church, though whether or not she truly believed in the faith remains debated.

Although the magical revival began to show that it was only temporary once the Civil War ended, Stio and Vesha remained in the Dara Morca, investigating reports of lingering Dreadfolk, which turned out to be baseless rumours with increasing frequency. In 1860, when Stio was 41, the couple investigated a report of a rabid Bonewolf, which turned out to be true - and, most historians think, the last Bonewolf ever sighted in this world. The Bonewolf attacked with sudden ferocity and latched onto Stio's right leg, mangling it below the knee, before Vesha decapitated the creature with her magic. Stio's leg had to be amputated - and this, in combination with his steadily advancing age, convinced him to retire the following year. As a leaving present, a reward for 24 years of distinguished service, the Inquisition granted him a very fine and very expensive Elavitan prosthetic to replace his missing leg. Whilst on his travels, Stio had fallen in love with the country of Avamorica, so he settled there with his wife, where the two lived peacefully until Stio's death in 1892. In their retirement, they adopted two infants orphaned by the war - a boy and a girl - and named them Velu and Maria.

Vesha, being theoretically immortal, outlived her husband. Velu, by this time a man, had always been curious about how a Human had come to marry a Dreadfolk, and so he asked his mother to tell her story. Utterly fascinated by the tale, he wrote it down in secret, and later had it published, where the story rapidly spread across the continent and became immortalised in the popular consciousness. As Velu's account ends here, what follows of Vesha is largely unknown, but she did remain in contact with her children until their passing.

Since Vesha is never recorded as dying, she is assumed to still be alive, and still present in this world. Various rumours of her exist, none of them founded upon any provable evidence, but they persist nonetheless; urban legend tells of a masked female Inquisitor with red eyes, horns and reddish-purple scaly skin, who keeps the continent safe by secretly combatting the horrors from beyond. Christians in particular propagate this myth - or, at least, enjoy the fiction of it - as they believe her to be some kind of warrior-nun who dedicated herself to Christ after her husband's death. The Imperial Inquisition, for its part, explicitly rejects that she remains in service to them, and claims it has not received contact from her since her retirement.