Euphonia Root

Euphonia Root is the second of the four Darklord-candidates of the Domain of Conquista. Provided she wins the Dread Election, she may exert her full powers as Darklady over the domain for two years; even if she is not elected, she still retains a shadow of that power.

Background

Novice

Born to a simple peasant family in the northern cantón of Conquista, Euphonia was distinguished at an early age by possessing great physical beauty. Under other circumstances, she would have been married off to a man of means, providing her family with financial benefit. To her parents' frustration, their daughter developed a strong belief in the goddess Taiia at a young age, and no amount of physical punishment or shouting would dissuade her from entering the clergy.

Euphonia proved a diligent student at temple, taking well to the regimented life of a novice. The only wrinkle during this period was that she had trouble deciding which path to follow after her graduation. She could have joined a sect that focused on mastering body and soul alike; a sect that used modern technology to spread the message of Taiia to the masses; or a sect that provided sacred prostitution to the faithful in order to grant them a spiritual unity with the goddess. In the end, she elected to become a member of the Iron Suns; the sect that sought to unite old-time religion and cutting-edge science to bring the people to the goddess and the goddess's message to the people.

Priestess

For her remarkable zeal and skill with the use of the Conquistan radío, Euphonia was appointed a prestigious position, managing a crucial transmission station, where she saw to it that radío traffic passed smoothly around the northern cantón and hosted what might be called a radio show to spread the word of her goddess.

Although she was initially well-pleased with and honoured by her appointment, Euphonia gradually grew bored due to the isolation of her position. At the temple where she spent her novitiate, she had been surrounded by like-minded people, with whom she might speak, spar and make love if the mood took her. At the ciduadela del radío, the place where she worked, the most she ever saw were middle-aged deliverymen who came to bring her supplies.

Euphonia could have easily asked for reassignment to another steading, or even just for a leave of absence, but pride prevented her. In spite of its downsides, her position at la ciduadela del radío was just that prestigious, that the idea of admitting she was unsuited for it went completely against her self-image as a strong and devoted priestess. Rather than to admit defeat, Euphonia profaned her position without realizing that she was doing so; she learned to spin spells of Enchantment into her words when she hosted her radío show and sang the praises of Taiia, luring men of a specific age and appearance to her in her place of isolation so that they might 'attend' her there.

For a time, this worked out well for her; the men who came to la ciduadela del radío were confused as to why they had made the journey, but found themselves well-received and eventually left happy. Matters started to devolve after a young boy came, not in confusion but in fear and anger, believing that Euphonia was a witch who had magically coerced him to abandon his fiancée and come to her. The boy threatened Euphonia with a pistol, and she killed him on the spot with her axe. Rather than accept that she had wronged her victim, Euphonia's pride did not allow her to see him as anything other than a madman who had, indeed, been bedeviled by witchcraft -- to see her, a blessed Daughter of Taiia, as anything other than an object of admiration and worship. Surely the fiancée he had spoken of was the witch in question, and even now lurked in a disguise of innocence.

Inquisitor

Having now convinced herself that there was some secret conspiracy against the Temple of Taiia (and herself in particular), Euphonia started using her ability to enchant others over the airwaves for other purposes besides her own entertainment. She started sending out a call for people who specifically did not believe in blessed Taiia to come to her. When they arrived, as confused as the men Euphonia had charmed into entering her home and her bed, the priestess murdered them with less concern than she might have shown for swatting flies.

And for a time, this worked out well for her. Euphonia felt vindicated in her actions and in her faith, seeing her serial murder of people whose sin was often limited to not believing in her goddess as another holy service to Church and State; she was culling Evil itself from the world, all alone, in addition to her work managing the radío station and singing the praises of her goddess. This changed, however, when the one who believed least in Taiia in all of Conquista heard her call and came to visit her.

Euphonia was paralyzed with shock when a monstrous creature, half man and half goat, entered la ciduadela del radío and embraced her. Although this was in fact the then sole Darklord Cliffton Willgoat, Euphonia believed that she had been visited by il Demonio, the god of evil. She survived the night, mostly because she was too overcome to even try fighting back, and Cliffton was content to leave her alive and whole in body -- but not in mind.

Statistics

Lawful Evil female human Cleric 6 / Ranger 1 / Goatsman 6