Name: Sadie Halloway
Real Name: Sahdiira Acenath Hal'Awiir (*1)
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Race: Human (mixed Mulan, Turmish, and Chondathan)
Date of Birth: 9th of Highsun, 1351 D.R.
Place of Birth: Waymoot, Cormyr, Faerun, Toril
Father's Name: Hal'Awiir Mesu Rahmadi (*2)
Father's Real Name: Fenyanamun Aswadi-Sefu'Set (*3)
Father's Nation of Origin: Mulhorand
Father's Race: Human (Mulan, Turmish)
Father's Occupation: Merchant (retired)
Father's Age: 64 (deceased)
Mother's Name: Briana Rahmadi (maiden name Gelman)
Mother's Nation of Origin: Cormyr
Mother's Race: Human (Chondathan)
Mother's Occupation: Librarian (retired)
Mother's Age: 48 (deceased)
Father's History
Khalfani'Set Nassor Khalid (*4) was a High Priest in one of Mulhorand's smaller temples of Set in the town of Maerlar. His only son, Fenyanamun Aswadi-Sefu'Set was a muscular, attractive young man who's future of taking his father's place seemed assured. His knowledge of Set's teachings and personal magnetism seemed to make him the perfect candidate to follow in his father's footsteps, but what he kept well hidden was that all of his hatred and cruelty was directed at his own father and at no other.
Khalfani'Set made the mistake of giving his son over to his chamber-slave, Halima (*5) upon whom he had forcefully sired his son, believing in his arrogance that any son of his would grow to be just like him no matter what. The early influence and teachings of Fenyanamun's mother, who was a kind, gentle woman broken by her station in life but determined that the child she gave birth to would not be like his father, instilled in Fenyanamun a compassion for the weak and helpless, while the natural talent for murder that he inherited from his father manifested instead as a burning desire to exact vengeance upon his father for his mother's treatment. A desire he would one day sate.
When Fenyanamun was 17, his father announced that there would be a sacrifice on Midwinter night. While the temple of Osiris performed their annual rite to ward tombs against the pillaging of robbers and necromancers, the Set priesthood would be performing a human sacrifice in a rite that would attempt to weaken the wards. Halima would be the sacrifice.
Three weeks before the ritual was to take place, Fenyanamun crept into his father's bedchamber and, using one powerful arm to hold a pillow over his father's face, stabbed Khalfani'Set in the chest over and over until the older man's struggles ceased altogether. Then, taking the staff of office from beside his father's bed (a solid gold sceptre four feet in length shaped like a snake with a jackal's head, with rubies for eyes) he strode out of the room, still covered in blood, and into the main temple. There he declared himself the new High Priest and demanded that his induction ceremony coincide with the midwinter sacrifice. Since murder was not an unheard-of method of promotion among Set's clergy and everyone had assumed the charismatic young man would take his father's place some day anyway, this was quickly agreed to.
When a Mulan priest is inducted into the clergy, he (or she) will have their head shaved and painted with the insignia of the Temple, and their body anointed in oil blessed by the other members of the same temple. Fenyanamun ordered that, just prior to the ceremony, the walls of the main temple should be coated with oil as well to re-consecrate the temple itself with his own ascension to power: symbolizing his unity of purpose with the temple and that the temple and the man are one. He also ordered that a channel full of water, two feet wide and three feet deep, be laid in the floor of the temple to run from just under the sacrificial altar to outside, so that the faithful not privileged enough to be admitted to the ceremony may drink water mixed with the blood of the sacrifice.
On Midwinter's night Fenyanamun's head was shaved, then priests said prayers to Set while painting the blue circles of office on his head and covering his body in oil. The temple walls glimmered with a sinister scarlet radiance as the light from the braziers reflected off of their oiled surfaces. A terrified Halima was lead in and tied to the top of the altar, while her son looked down on her with cold eyes, dagger in one hand and sceptre of office in the other.
Once the attendants had stepped back, Fenyanamun quickly kicked over a brazier, spilling burning coals across the oil-slicked floor to strike the walls, which immediately went up in flames. Then he slashed the ropes that bound his mother to the altar and escaped with her through the channel of water while the temple burned like the very fires of Hell itself.
As the pair raced across the desert on the backs of horses he had prepared for the purpose, the screams of those burning to death behind them eventually faded; only to be replaced by the sinister cries of jackals. Fortunately, due in part to their head start and in part to fear causing them to run faster, the horses kept their lead and after a terrifyingly fast journey through the cold desert night the sounds of Set's animal minions fell far behind; and then finally vanished altogether.
Stopping to rest both themselves and their horses several dozen miles from where they started, the two sat on a sand dune to watch the sunrise. As they sat in silence, both in shock and tired, suddenly Halima cried out in agony. Fenyanamun killed the desert asp that had bitten his mother, cutting its head off with the sacrificial dagger, but it was too late. Halima died in his arms as the first rays of dawn warmed the sands, killed by another of Set's chosen creatures.
After burying his mother in the sands, Fenyanamun struck the horses on the hindquarters to send them off to lay a false trail, then made for the coast on foot while covering his tracks with a horse blanket. Finally arriving, nearly dead from hunger, thirst, and heat, at the riverside town of Rauthil, Fenyanamun tried to wash the blue circles of office from his head only to find that his skin had been permanently dyed. He had been branded by Set.
Covering his head with a turban improvised by ripping the hem from his robes, he pried one of the rubies from the sceptre and used it to purchase a camel and supplies. From there he made his way to the coastal town of Sultim where he used the other ruby to buy passage on a trading vessel bound for Bezantur in Thay.
Finding Thayan culture to be too much like the one he'd just left, and Thayan trade with Mulhorand too likely to result in his being found, he had a smith melt down the sceptre (in exchange for the extortionate rate of one third of the resulting gold) and made his way west over land.
For two years he travelled, living mostly by hunting, avoiding towns while his hair grew back to cover the marks of the priesthood. Finally he arrived in Suzail where lack of much contact with Mulhorand made him feel safe. Using what was left of his gold, he purchased an interest in a small trading coster that specialized in importing spices and perfumes and exporting steel and timber. Eventually, after a further 20 years of hard work and intelligent management, he bought out his partners and settled down, believing the nightmare to finally be over. But Set has a long memory and infinite patience.
During his stay in Suzail, Fenyanamun called himself "Hal'Awiir Mesu Rahmadi" (*6). While building his business, he met and eventually married a Cormyr woman roughly his own age, Briana Gelnam, who worked as a librarian at Suzail's main library. For 9 years the couple remained in Suzail, happy but childless.
Shortly after "Hal's" 48th birthday, and a couple month's before Briana's, the couple closed "Hal's" shop and retired to Briana's hometown of Waymoot to live in peace and quiet. Shortly after doing so, though, Briana become unexpectedly pregnant. Nine months later, she died giving birth to a baby girl; Sahdiira Acenath Hal'Awiir.
Sadie's History
As a child of mixed parentage in a small village, Sahdiira's early life was not an easy one. Constantly bullied by the other children and without a gentle mother's guidance, she never made friends in spite of starting to call herself "Sadie Halloway" in an effort to "fit in" better. Her having to defend herself, along with genetics from her father's side, did help her to grow into a strong young woman. She also inherited her mothers love of books and learning.
Her father never told her about his past, nor did he speak to her much about her mother. The first subject he thought too frightening for a young girl, the second too painful for him to speak of. Sadie grew up believing that her father really was simply a retired merchant, and never learned very much at all about her mother. Her childhood wasn't completely without communication with her father, though. He taught her to speak fluent Mulhorandi, gave her some basic instructions about her heritage, the Gods and Goddesses of his homeland, but never spoke the name of "Set" out loud. He always wrote it down the few times he dared broach the subject, and then only to warn her away from anything and everything to do with that foul deity. He also taught her basic wilderness survival and encouraged her to learn other more scholarly subjects; taking her on trips to nearby Arabel to visit the library and mage guild there. Eventually, as Sadie got old enough to look out for herself and he started getting too old to look out for her, she started going without her father. She'd tell him she was going to Arabel with friends, but that was a lie to stop him from worrying. Sadie had no friends.
One day, as she was coming back to Waymoot from a trip to Arabel, she saw a massive column of smoke twining it's way into the sky above the village, like a grey serpent striking at the clouds. She ran the rest of the way home, but it was too late. Her house, the little cottage she'd been born in and lived with her father in her whole life, was burned to the ground. All that remained of her father was a charred husk. Shocked and in grief, Sahdiira could do nothing but stand there crying while the village bucket brigade put out the last of the flames. What neither she nor anyone else could see from the ground was that, when viewed from the air, the ashes formed the image of a jackal's head in profile, with bared fangs.
Sadie was 15 years old.
Left with, quite literally, nothing but the clothes on her back, she returned to Arabel where being a familiar face around the library helped her to get a job helping to catalogue newly arrived books, eventually even graduating to the honoured task of helping to repair damaged tomes. Her inquisitive nature led her to explore the dangerous Netherese ruins below Arabel while living in that city, and when, after four years, she wrote a dissertation on the possible relationship between the ancient Netherese and the Bedine of the Anauroch, she was taken more seriously and offered the chance to study elven ruins in the Hullack Forest and nearby swamps, and given instruction in reading elven script.
Sadie proved adept at field research, and found the work rewarding. It combined her love of nature with her love of learning. Exploring old ruins in the pouring rain (having to bash the occasional skeleton or goblin in the head to get there, of course), copying down ancient runes found on crumbling statuary, reading over notes from a days work while camping under the stars, all this made Sadie feel closer to being "at home" than ever she had before. But still not quite. When she spent too long in the woods, she'd miss the comforts of the city. Going back to the city, she'd start to miss the peace of the wilderness. Sadie was forever restless, forever alone, forever longing for whatever extreme she didn't have. And she still is to this day.
Eventually, Sadie started doing side projects. Accepting commissions from magi and other scholars to locate certain lost tomes and artifacts. She became skilled at lock-picking and disabling snares set by ancient peoples to protect their treasures. By the time she was 22, she'd found the private commissions so lucrative that she was able to quit her job at the Arabel City Library and travel more extensively. She was just returning to Waterdeep with a scroll on the nature of the negative energy plane that a Waterdavian mage had commissioned her to find for him when suddenly a mist rose up around her and a sinister figure emerged from the shadows……….
Whether the dark shadow of Set had anything to do with this, only He can know.
Current Profile
Strong, intelligent, and fairly attractive, Sadie nevertheless has trouble making friends. Her lack of socialization as a child leaves her with little or no understanding of other people. She often says the wrong thing, causes offence when she shouldn't, takes offence when she shouldn't, and generally messes up every inter-personal relationship she attempts, though not because she doesn't actively try to make friends. She goes out of her way to be extra nice to everyone, which in itself causes problems; Her habit of being extra sweet to people and using pet names for them offends some, and causes others to believe there is romantic interest where none exists. Sadie simply gets along better with books and animals than she does with people. When she does manage to make friends, she never makes plans that include them. Instead, she passively waits for them to invite her to outings or simply to spend time with her. The constant rejection she experienced in her childhood has caused her to habitually expect rejection throughout her life, and so she avoids it by not asking people to spend time with her. Instead waiting for them to ask her. The bullying she endured as a child has also made her overly sensitive to criticism and taunts. She tries make to friends, but somehow, eventually, someone gets angry. In the end, Sadie usually winds up spending most of her time alone, waiting for busy people to remember she's there or wandering the woods to hunt (or simply to be there). She has a natural way with animals and finds their simple motives of food, fear, and mating to be comforting in the face of the bafflingly complex behaviours of people.
Sadie's inability to properly empathize with other people is only matched by her keen mind when it comes to intellectual pursuits, and her appreciation of the finer arts. Literature, history, archeology, architecture, and visual arts all fascinate her, and she herself has a natural gift for storytelling and songwriting, though her musical performance could be better.
Sadie is constantly restless. When she's in a city, she longs to be in the wilderness. When she's in the wilderness, she yearns for the city. When she's alone, she wishes for a friend. When she's with others, she often wishes she were alone again (if for no other reason than because she's made someone angry by saying the wrong thing).
Sadie speaks Common and Mulhorandi fluently, each without a trace of the other's accent. She can also read and write Elven, but has some trouble understanding it when it's spoken unless it's spoken very slowly, and her pronunciation when speaking it is not the best.
Sadie has no idea about her father's dark past, but occasionally tiny glimpses of her grandfather's traits can be seen in the dark turn some of her stories take, or the sardonic and cruel twist her comments sometimes have; Especially about women who are more attractive than herself. Even more especially if those women find it easy to behave in a coy and flirtatious way around men. Of course, this unreasoning hate of "girly" women (the sort who bat their eyelashes and have mastered the art of showing cleavage while seeming not to intend to) is pure jealousy. But Sadie neither knows it, nor would admit it if someone were to point it out to her.
NOTES
(*1) Sahdiira Acenath Hal'Awiir (sa-DEER-a AH-ken-naut HAL-ah-WEER), roughly translates to "Faithful Little One, Daughter of the One who is Shining"
(*2) Hal'Awiir Mesu Rahmadi (HAL-ah-WEER MAY-soo rah-MAH-dee), roughly translates to "One who is shining, son of he who is praised by Ra"
(*3) Fenyanamun Aswadi-Sefu'Set (fen-YAH-nah-moon ahz-WAH-dee SAY-fu-SET), roughly translates to "Assassinating Dark Sword of Set" or "Secretly Conquering Dark Sword of Set"
(*4) Khalfani'Set Nassor Khalid (kal-FAH-nee-SET NAH-sor kah-LEED), roughly translates to "Set Shall Rule in Victory Forever"
(*5) Halima (hah-LEE-mah), roughly translates to "gentle". Slaves usually did not have surnames like the merchant class, nor the long, poetic names of the nobility and priesthood.
(*6) A name, followed by "son of", "daughter of", "born of", or "first born of", or "third born of", et cetera, followed by the father's first name, was one of the common naming conventions used by the merchant class of Mulhorand, the even more long and poetic names being reserved for the nobility and priesthood. Obviously choosing a name of the merchant class was a way to hide his identity from any assassins sent by the temple, but the exact meaning of the name he chose (see note number 2) was to declare his purity of purpose to Ra, the Sun God and father of all the Mulan Gods, and to implore Ra's protection. Calling one's self or one's child "Blessed by" a God was fairly common and, far from being considered an affront or hubris, was a way that the Mulan people would ask the God in question to make it true. It was also an example of the man's dark humour. His murder of his father was instrumental in his plan to burn the temple down, thus "turning night into day" in honour of Ra. So, with irony in mind, Fenyanamun is calling his father, the priest of the evil Set, "praised by Ra" because killing his father was the first step to lighting up the night with flame.
