San-Janis

*“If one chooses sides on emotion then the rebel is the guy to go with. He is fighting for everything men claim to honor, freedom, independence, truth, the right... all the subjective illusions. All the eternal trigger words. We are minions of the villain of the piece. We confess the illusion and deny the substance.”*

-San-Janis

## History

Born amongst the elves of the Final Empire, San-Janis lost her mother at a young age. Martially inclined and possessed of a violent temper, San-Janis was taught the art of bladesinging by her father, who sought to channel her anger into skill and temper it with focus. The form did not come easily to her, but she became fiercely determined to master it. And master it she did, eventually becoming one of the Final Empire's three blademasters, along with Magnus the Immortal and Fang Gorm.

Deeply contemptuous of the Emperor and his Lords, San-Janis fought for decades to preserve the independence of the elven people. However, she did not make contact with Jotunheim's Rebellion, believing the the Childlike Mage to be one of a kind with the lords. As such, she was was left behind when the doom fell upon the world.

Cut off from her people, San-Janis immediately blamed the rulers in the Dome for the catastrophe, and swore vengeance. Not long after, she came across Farcraft and his emerging group of companions, who like her wished to overthrow the Lord-Emperor. She challenged Farcraft for the right to command the new rebellion, but for the first time since she became a bladesinger, she was defeated by the legendary warrior. Awed and humiliated, she swore service to him. During the battles under his command, she met and fell in love with the artificer and sky pirate, Vitreous Vrinn. The two would forever become inseparable. At a certain point, she would be captured and locked in the Iron Cage by the imperial general Fax Gallengrand, after a failed attempt to assassinate him. Vitreous would call on the aid of a band of adventurers to free her, a group that included the future Emperor Silvius. After the resurrection of the ancient hero Brennen, San-Janis would continue fighting against Nim Lawfey under Farcraft's command. There she would accompany Brennen and Farcraft to Gorm's Bastion on for the grueling ten year Siege of Sarindel, which the rebels would ultimately lose. She was present for the Burning of Emperor's Tooth, where Brennen put an entire city and its population to the torch. There, she attempted to kill the Phoenix Mage for for war crime, but was restrained by Farcraft. She afterward swore to have nothing to do with him, and did not accompany the group that accompanied him to Xiclotl on Vitreous' ship. When Farcraft disappeared, she was one of the rebels who denounced the plan to crown Silvius and Brennen and Twin-Emperors of the new empire, declaring that they were replacing one tyranny for another. Nonetheless, she was overruled. As a gesture of magnanimity, Silvius permitted her to swear loyalty to her personally, freeing her from the obligation to obey Brennen. Vitreous convinced her to accept these terms, reminding her that she owed Silvius her life and freedom.

For the following two decades, San-Janis acted as a military commander in the Final Empire, holding the rank of Brigadier General. She worked to train a cadre of Bladesingers such as herself, and accompanied Vitreous anywhere he went, so long as it was not to the northern capital, where she refused to set foot.

## Personality

Cold and arrogant, San-Janis rubbed everyone she met the wrong way. She refused to grant credit where it was due, and acted as if she were god's gift to man. She did not believe that anyone else had a right to command her, and often flouted orders. She was nonetheless a fiercely moral woman, despising tyrants wherever they arose, and was loyal to her loved ones, few as they were.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

When San-Janis heard of the existence of Sunken City, she was horrified. It reminded her of the Iron Cage, and her conscience roiled at the thought of an alliance with a monster such as King Raine. When Ramander of Oranor came out of the blue meet his uncle Vitreous and tell him of the Janissary effort to free some of the prisoners, she would convince Vitreous to help by spiriting the newly freed prisoners to safety. Despite Vitreous' misgivings of the timing of all of this, he would accept. San-Janis would meet Conall, Khanante, Philoktia and Khamsa on the shore, and vow to protect them. When Raine and his knights came to battle the Janissaries, San-Janis faced the King of Atlantis in single combat, spilling his blood onto the sand. The Atlanteans were driven back and the prisoners saved, but Raine would declare war on Aglazdere, prompting the Final Empire to follow suit. The War of the Philosopher-Kings would begin. Raine would inform Emperor Silvius of the perfidy of his loyal followers, prompting great frustration on his part. Silvius would separate Vitreous and San-Janis, ordering them split up. Vitreous was sent to the northern capital - the one place Silvius knew San-Janis would not follow him to - to work on the creation of the magitech navy. Shortly before his departure, he and San-Janis would conceive a son together. His pregnancy would keep her from participating in the war, forcing her to remain in the Thunderdome. There she would spend the next nine months as the principal military adviser to Emperor Silvius, who was largely confined to the southern throne out of the necessity to maintain the storm wall. It was her suggestion to ally with Cordelia of Aurum, leading to the only successful alliance between opposed Philosopher-Kings (an alliance of three, if Brennen's partnership with Silvius was further considered). Some who knew both San-Janis and Silvius would accuse San-Janis of an outlandish plan to secure a marriage pact between Silvius and Cordelia, replacing Brennen with the Princess of Aurum and granting her the Northern Throne as a war prize. In any case, Silvius was in no way interested in such a thing, and the idea went nowhere. By the time San-Janis birth, the Final Empire was beginning to crumble around them, besieged on all fronts, and San-Janis was increasingly desperate to wield her blade in defense of her people. Immediately after giving birth to her son, Veridis, she would request Silvius' permission to join Colonel Luminar in the fight against the Wild Hunt. Silvius would forbid her from doing so, saying that she was still too weak, and needed to stay and raise her son. San-Janis would disobey him, leaving Thunderdome as soon as she secured a nursemaid to take care of Veridis. She would join Luminar at the front, but perish in battle alongside him within days.