Øka Hyen

Level 20 Art by @Gremlynnart

> *"The love of a god is not a blessing... it's a scar."*
>
>

Øka Hyen (*they/them*) is a half-drow aasimar bloodhunter and the Paragon of Sen. They are played by Sea Thomas in The Second Stranger.

Born Prince Mokoya Hyen of Xiong, Øka is an ill-tempered and troubled monster-hunter seeking retribution and redemption. Their specialties lie in blood-hunting, hemomancy, and the necrotic art of transformation.

## *Description*

### Appearance

Øka is a half-drow person with slate grey skin, lightly freckled and scarred. At the beginning of the campaign, their dark hair is shorn close to their head. They have blue eyes with darker blue sclera and two pupils in each eye. Their most prominent scar bisects their lip, and snakes down to their chest. A variety of silver piercings adorn their skin, including two silver earrings, a double bridge piercing, and a septum ring. Øka typically wears dark trousers, a sleeveless black turtleneck, and cloth wrappings on their arms and legs.

Over the course of the campaign, Øka receives a tattoo of a longsword on their left arm, a bloodweapon from Raavi. After becoming a Paragon, Øka's hair grows out and is worn in a braid that reaches down to their feet. They have two sets of large white wings and eight concentric blood halos that rotate slowly behind their head. One of their eyes changes every time they blink. They wear their typical garb with a silver plated bone chest-piece and a wispy, iridescent robe stitched with bone.

### Personality

At the beginning of the campaign, Øka is standoffish, rude, and hot-headed. They repress feelings that seek to overwhelm them, and suffer in feelings of guilt and monstrosity. Over the course of the story, Øka learns what it means to trust and to let themself love and be loved, even as a broken, monstrous person. They find solace with the other Paragons and Keepers, face their past with their sword in-hand, and accept even the darkest and most vicious parts of themself.

## *Biography*

### Backstory

Prince Mokoya Hyen was the second born child of the Emperor of Qiulong, Xiong Zhen, and their Fourth Wife, Consort Arden Hyen. Mokoya grew up surrounded by the royal politics of Qiulong and the divine necromancers within. They affectionately helped raise three younger sisters: Toya, Liang-ya, and Sambaya. Despite having sixteen siblings and seven other step-parents, Mokoya’s upbringing was rather isolated – their mother Arden was a former commoner, the only commoner to grace the walls of the Slumbering Palace as a consort or wife to the Emperor in this dynasty. Mokoya struggled to fit in with the other dream interpreters of the palace, but found solace in swordplay and the necromantic arts. They also befriended the future dream prophet – Halo – early in their childhood, and the two of them agreed to be married after their twenty-fifth birthdays.

Mokoya’s world shattered just before their eighteenth birthday. After taking the Imperial Exams, Mokoya agreed to sneak their sisters out of the palace to visit the Sacred Grove, a large swath of magical bamboo forest. On the trip, Mokoya and their sisters were attacked by a qilin afflicted with some kind of rage. The qilin killed Mokoya in the same moment that they slayed it while protecting their sisters. Øka was revived, though the exact details of this resurrection remained a mystery. Mokoya was set to be executed for the slaying of a holy beast, but their mother-father Emperor Zhen came to them in the night and freed them. Mokoya Hyen would become an exile, a runaway prince, wanted in Qiulong for treason and sacrilege. Mokoya Hyen fled into the night, cut their hair, and Øka was born.

Øka fled north toward Talmaad on foot, and after weeks of bone-shattering, weary travel, they crawled into an empty animal den and waited for death to take them. Thankfully, a bloodhunter by the name of Raavi Jin found them, and took Øka under her wing. Raavi was the foreman of the Udjval Mines in Dabathati, the capital city of Talmaad. Øka lived under her tutelage for several years, the secret of their past gnawing at them as their adept powers for hemomancy grew.

After several years working in the mines and gaining prowess as a bloodhunter, Øka joined the Hounds of Mercy at Raavi’s request. The Hounds of Mercy, a mercenary guild specializing in tracking, hunting, and relocation of monsters quickly became a family to Øka – an unhinged, messy, dysfunctional family. The Hounds were founded by the colloquial Mercy herself, who eventually lauded Øka as her Second in Command. The Hounds continued to pick up new members, and Øka met Citlalli, Gentle, and Jaran through the group, the latter of whom they would begin a tumultuous relationship with. After rescuing Mercy from one of her many toxic ex-girlfriends and finally having a real bonding moment with the Hounds, Øka broke off from the group to follow a lead about one Dr. Hitsagutan Oluso, who may have some answers about what happened to them that fateful day in the Sacred Grove.

### Campaign

Over the course of the story, Øka learns what it means to trust and to let themself love and be loved, even as a broken, monstrous person. They find solace with the other Paragons and Keepers, face their past with their sword in-hand, and accept even the darkest and most vicious parts of themself. Øka’s story is one of immense growth, monstrosity, divinity, and change.

And love. Always love.

### Epilogue

After the events of The Second Stranger...

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## Trivia

* Øka doesn't believe in vampirism, and thinks it's just 'weird hemomancy'.
* After becoming a Paragon, Øka slept for nearly three-days straight.
* Øka's lineage is more specifically half-drow, human, and half-orc.
* Øka is ambidextrous.