Kaspen

## Background

Like a majority of rats, **Kaspen** was born within the **Outwash**, in the lower sewer warrens where litters and nurseries are rife with crowded young. She was a rather unremarkable pup, however, she took to cleaning and grooming herself from a very young age, as opposed to festering in the filth that many rats do, as it was so hard to avoid. Being a female **Rat** Kaspen was already quite uncommon, but what made her stand out eventually to the nursery wardens was her perfect symmetry, something that was deemed very beautiful amongst rats. She was boil-less, smooth and lacking in any imperfections that the rats had developed over the years, some of which nearly unavoidable from birth. She was taken to a separate nursery, further into the warrens.

Although not dirt free, these warrens were much cleaner; they were part of the **Lord’s** plan to raise a generation of gifted rats, **Scravenak** eventually became part of this same program, but it was not until later, meanwhile another noteworthy rat, **Esketta** was also being raised there. Kaspen was unaware of her purpose there, but the nursery carers had decided she would become somewhat of a diplomat, being the most presentable to other species living in Outwash due to her “softer and kinder” appearance.

Kaspen was raised with much reverence however, which made her a little jaded, and growing up only exemplified her persuasive personality. It was before long she managed to develop a small cult of personality within her group. She really did care for those she felt were under her charge, their service humbled her a lot, but her very domineering personality always kept them in check, and she always wanted more. She was accustomed to getting her way, and she soon felt that the world owed her; after all, other rats seemed to love her.

To cut it short, she became a massive hedonist, living in the best conditions, unusually for Rats, especially as she was not using force in the slightest, other than her intimidating height to smaller rats. She wanted to try everything; she would often leave to the surface with a small band of rats to indulge in whatever she could: foods, the smells of flowers, sensations of strange cloths and soft fabrics, which soon brought her to finding the ruling class of the smoke people.

They had everything she wanted, fine foods, beautiful sculptures and arts, everything was perfect to her. She ordered rats to take what they could from their highly guarded storages, it was risky, but she wanted to try everything, it was from here she got her fine bows and garments, and most interesting to her the wine. She quickly became addicted to it; she got drunk very quickly, but adversely sobered up very quickly. These raids became more common, but with said raids she was going against everything she was taught, after all, instead of easing diplomatic tensions she was instead ordering places be ransacked for their fineries, especially for things rats did not care for.

The Lord took notice, slowly however, he tried to turn a blind eye to the failures of his gifted pool, but soon it became very hard to. Security had increased massively for the smoke people, making it hard to achieve much for many inexperienced rats and pups, ex-humans and white eyes alike had been venturing into the warrens in search of easy goods that had been freshly taken from the smoke people, namely food, ignoring much of the useless clothing, and most damming of all, Smoke drones had been equipped with weaponry, clearing out surface level nests.

It was with much broiling rage that the Lord finally ordered her to leave, sending the newly appointed Scrive to give her the order. Scrive, being quite egotistical himself, took this as an opportunity to speak down to Kaspen, condescending her after finding her and her crew hiding out in the water purification chamber of the Outwash’s river mouth. A lot of back and forth ensued, with the smug Scrive taking every opportunity to belittle her, she soon reached her limit, feeling he was out of line. She pushed him, catching him off guard and sending him tumbling back into the burning, unfiltered waters of the chamber. Kaspen’s heart dropped knowing what she did, quickly gathering her followers to leave to a safer area.

The burned and mewling Scrive crawled from the pits, returning to the Lord on scent alone. The Lord’s newfound fury reached no bounds, and he ordered Esketta, his chief executioner to hunt her down. Although some rats that associated with Kaspen were slain, she and a majority of her crew managed to escape through the deep warrens, deeper and deeper through the unexplored areas, she soon realized she had ended up in another plane, Ashfell. A large dusty desert scattered with rusted junk and random objects, she soon made a home there, alongside many other settling rats and the stuff they had brought with them.

Utilizing Ashfell’s strange links with the other planes, Kaspen has managed to make quite a career for herself, sadistic acts on a client’s target, often times kidnapping them, or in certain strange cases on the client themselves. Her services are flexible, and honestly she would take what she can get often times, sometimes others will come to her asking for a place in her servitude, bringing her goods in hopes they can stay within her domain. She enjoys this, loving the authority of ruling over her own little kingdom.