Miz'ri Illueph (Mint Ju'lep)
-
Oh, Mint, you're just the worst…
And here's why!
Miz'ri. A fitting name for a child who suffered so much. Born the bastard child of a Crinti nobleman and an elf, her mother was ordered to dispose of the child however she saw fit when it was born and paid a handsome sum to do so. Still, no sum of money could destroy the maternal bond of a mother to her child, and so rather than leave her child to her destined, unspeakable fate, she handed her over to the Temple of Loviatar, Dambrath's official state religion. She gave her the name of Miz'ri, thinking less of the lifetime of pain Mint would be subject to and instead of her own heartbreak to have to give up her only child, and made sure that the girl would share the surname of her wretched father, who's title and honor were so precious to him that their life could be.
Thus Miz'ri Illueph arrived at the Temple of Loviatar in Cathtyr, to an upbringing as a priestess of the Maiden of Pain. Life in Dambrath reflected it's state religion well, even humor bore a cruel edge and the suffering of those without status was in many ways made more severe by the society's fascination with pain and suffering. Miz'ri, born into the faith, never knew a life without these hardships and thus came to believe them to be part of the norm. Cruelty became second nature to her, and as she developed more of a relationship with her ability to wield negative energy she quickly alienated and tormented everyone who dared to get close to her.
Her bullying began of course with other children. Friendship was a stranger to Miz'ri, and so instead of pursuing positive relationships she used her youth to learn the most potent ways to make her peers suffer. It started first with simple bullying and ridicule, escalating often to violence both physical and magical, but eventually Miz'ri outgrew these simple tastes, learning that the most potent place to wound another was the heart.
Thus she began her examination of kindness, studying her more desirable peers and the people of Dambrath who were known publicly for their generosity. She was entirely alien to this state of being, and her first attempts to emulate warmth and kindness came off as robotic, insincere, and ended almost always in anger and frustration on her own part. She was nothing if not obsessed with learning this new tactic, practicing on every stranger that did not know her reputation and background, and then when she ran out of travelers she began to disguise herself so she could further her craft.
Mint developed a love of this new hobby, she learned that the more demure and innocent she first appeared the more shocking and brutal it was when she turned and showed her fangs. It became systematic to her, the art of wounding her fellow men and women, and she was able to return her full attention to her studies as a priestess. Though she never believed she had truly departed from her divine duty, indeed, with each new victim of hers she was sure she could hear the cruel laughter of her Mistress.
The dynamic of Miz'ri at the temple was as bizarre as they came. Often times she would be subjected to torture of lash, flame, and cold, Loviatar's favorite forms of pain, and of course they would make her weep and cry for mercy, but some small part of her always appreciated the suffering she was going through. Like when she brought pain to others, even in the midst of her most brutal, agonizing trials, she swore that she could feel her Mistress watching over her, that with each new strike of the whip her deity's respect for her grew a minuscule amount, and to her that made it all worthwhile.
More soon maybe..?
