Mercy

Art by @PiSharpArt

Mercy (*she/they*) is a half-orc monster hunter. As an NPC, Mercy is played by GM Connie Chang in The Second Stranger.

Mercy is the founder and leader of the provincial Hounds of Mercy, a monster-hunting mercenary group operating primarily in the Northern Badlands of Talmaad. Raised by monsters in the Uhkliin Chasm, Mercy has had a long and unpleasant dating history that stretches across the entirety of Andake.

## *Description*

### Appearance

Mercy is an imposing woman with light green skin and long, red hair shaved completely on the sides. She is muscular and broad, with a long jagged scar across her face and her left eye. She wears a black leather eyepatch and a simple tunic tucked into ragged trousers. Her eyes are a light amber, and short tusks protrude from her lower jaw.

### Personality

Mercy is boisterous, loud, and straight-forward. She can be rash, rude, and generally antagonistic, even to those she cares about. Mercy is a very troubled individual who has a history of jumping into toxic relationships, but deep down she craves intimacy. As the campaign progresses, Mercy becomes more open about her feelings, turning toward empathy instead of cruelty and jabs when she feels angry or hurt.

## *Biography*

### Backstory

Mercy has little knowledge of her birth or her parents. Her earliest memories are of the Uhkliin Chasm, where she was raised by monsters. Specifically, she was cared for by a pack of Dao Lao Gui. The Dao Lao Gui taught her how to hunt, how to survive, how to take care of each other. Mercy lived like this under she was around nine years old, when a group of monster-hunters came venturing down into the Chasm. The hunters killed the Dao Lao Gui, and “rescued” Mercy.

At this point, Mercy did not have a name, and the leader of the hunters, Hinsa, called her Ruthless or "Ruth" due to her wild nature. Mercy constantly butted heads with Hinsa until she was old enough to fight back. On her eighteenth birthday, Mercy killed the hunters who had taken her from her family, and spared but forever wounded Hinsa as an act of “mercy” -- hence taking on the name she chose for herself, “Mercy.”

It was around this time that Mercy met her first friend, girlfriend, and eventual-ex, Raavi. Raavi travelled with a blood-hunting mentor who traded with Hinsa's hunters, and was familiar with Mercy. When she found the half-feral woman wandering the Badlands of Talmaad, they reunited and joined forces in the first ever iteration of the Hounds of Mercy. Despite the deep love and understanding they shared, both Raavi and Mercy were young and immature; the clashed often and disagreed on how best to help people. When Raavi wanted to settle in Dabathati and start building a real community, Mercy saw that as a sign of rejection and the two broke up.

After leaving Dabathati, Mercy traveled to Kheer Tal, where she met and fell in love with the spirit of Uma-ori, Unmei. Unfortunately, Unmei is a literal spirit of a lake, and Mercy had to move on as her work called her elsewhere. They then travelled to the thrill-seeking shores of Nabal, where she met Champion-wannabe Atalanta. The two of them began a toxic, whirlwind romance until Atalanta met Voska. After realizing she wanted to pursue a more mature relationship with Voska, Atalanta and Mercy broke up. Heartbroken and angry, Mercy pursued her own 'mature' relationship with Duchess Rime Starwing of the Court of Ravens. This didn't last long though, as Mercy fell in with a the captain of the pirate ship the Last Kiss, Shi Yang. Mercy's relationship with Shi Yang was compulsive, obsessive, and volatile, and their breakup spurred a battle to the death that ended with Mercy losing her left eye. After escaping with her life, Mercy traveled across Andake to the northen reaches of Moroz, and began dating her therapist, Zhikyat Forma. Mercy didn't appreciate the constant psychoanalyzing, and broke up with her soon after. She then reunited with an old friend of hers and Raavi, Chaos, who had her own monster-hunting group.

Through these long years, the Hounds of Mercy also grew. Mercy's ability to understand monsters on an intimate level gave her an edge to the monster-hunting and relocation guilds in Andake. It was around the time that Mercy fled from Moroz that Øka, Raavi's bloodhunting mentee, joined the Hounds. Additionally, a young person named Wu-Ming appeared at the Hounds camp one day and didn't leave, and eventually Mercy decided or assumed that they were dating. Together, the Hounds then travelled to Kheer Tal once more, and Mercy 'casually' dated Selem Shi, who had much higher expectations for their relationship than Mercy was willing to give. Upon their breakup, Selem promised that if Mercy set foot in Kheer Tal again, they would have a battle to the death. Mercy left both Selem and Wu-Ming in the dust, and returned to her main stomping grounds around the Badlands of Talmaad and Moroz. In her travels, she picks up Jaran, Gentle, and Citlalli, who become the core members of the Hounds of Mercy pre-campaign.

### Early Campaign

A few days before the Cataclysm, Mercy is kidnapped by her ex, Zhikyat Forma.

### The Hounds of Mercy Miniseries

Running parallel to the events of the Second Stranger, the Hounds of Mercy vs. Andake follows Mercy, Jaran, Gentle, and Citlalli as they chase down Øka in the post-apocalypse.

### Campaign

A grand overview of [character] through the campaign...

### Epilogue

After the events of The Second Stranger, Mercy and Citlalli elope and get married at Unmei's Temple in a private ceremony. She continues her work as a monster-hunter, taking care to track any remaining Empty Beasts and release the souls stored within them. They also return to the Court of Ravens to pursue a relationship with her child, Spider Starwing.

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## Trivia

* Mercy one of the first NPCs introduced in The Second Stranger, appearing in a flashback scene with Øka in Arc One, Episode One.
* Instead of slashing like most greatsword wielders, Mercy utilizes a half-sword technique that focuses on thrusting and focusing on weak points on an armored opponent, which reflects her upbringing fighting the armored monsters in the Ukhliin.
* Mercy gave Citlalli a tattoo during their time on the Last Kiss, an artform she learned with Raavi.