Editing Awnshegh (section)

==[[Manticore|The Manticore]]==

Shortly after the Magian took over his new domain in a coup, Qandar the Righteous, a paladin of Avani, attempted to lead a party of heroes to destroy the lich.  Unfortunately, they were absolutely worsted, with only a few ever coming home, and Qandar the only blooded hero to escape.  By the time he did, he'd already been subjected to a year of horrible experiments, including the awnshegh's custom ''bloodline corruption'' spell.  Qander had already lost his faith and was troubled by stormy dark moods, but he tried to keep a lid on himself, and hide his loss of class abilities and bloodform manifestations from everyone but his beloved cousin, with whom he sought shelter, and who swore an oath of secrecy to his friend.  Unfortunately, a sneaky snake of a courtier, Y'urre, was eavesdropping, and used this information to go from ninth in line to next in line by de-closeting poor Qander and blaming the prince.  

In a frenzy, Qander lost control of himself, sliding into awnshegh-hood and slaughtering his cousin and his family, revealing that one of his arms had grown longer than the other, both sprouted hideous claws, and a muscular, scaly tail protruded from behind him.  Y'urre, playing the snivelling sympathetic sycophant, convinced the brooding and paranoid Qander that he was his only friend.  Publically, "the Manticore" is the sole ruler of "the Manticore's Domain," struggling with his dark nature and Y'urre merely his public face, but secretly, Y'urre is the true puppeteer behind the situation, playing both sides.  He is skilled at pretending to be a spineless wimp, couching unpopular policies as coming from the Manticore and popular ones as things he's pushed through on his own, while also convincing troublesome people that he's totally on their side and that they can totally take this Manticore poser.  Y'urre ''also'' warns the Manticore that they're coming, and presents himself as the poor fallen and miserable paladin's only friend, "warning him of their approach" so that they will be surely slaughtered.  He's also put out a 5000 gp reward for the Manticore's destruction for appearances that he hopes no one claims.

For his part, Qander mostly just wants to be left alone.  He's got catlike eyes on top of his natural weapons, though he prefers to stick to his skillful swordsmanship unless he's ''really'' pissed off, and he still has all his old adventuring gear, though it's falling apart and in poor repair. His blood powers are not great (for one, he's only got minor regeneration, though he ''does'' have Travel and Divine Wrath, presumably from when he was an adventurer), but he's still a good fighter.  That said, his primary role in his "domain" is to be a figurehead and catspaw for Y'urre, the ''true'' villain of this particular area, and a neat little built-in twist that plays with the way we expect these things to work.

Part of the charade is holding up what ''looks like'' a civil war, with the Domain seemingly both fighting with and kowtowing to the Manticore.  Y'urre has also negotiated alliances with the Raven and the White Witch for spell components, in his master/puppet's name but without his knowledge.  For his part, the Raven has figured it all out, and is just waiting for the greedy shadow ruler's house of cards to collapse before he sweeps in and snaps it all up, including the poor remorseful "ruler."