Teshra-Gemet, the Red Sparrow (O Pardal Vermelho), is the most powerful of the Arisen in Rio de Janeiro.
Biography[]
Teshra-Gemet was a member of the Mesen-Nebu.[1] and most likely worked in an administrative capacity, managing the people and resources the guild needed.[2] She underwent the Rite of Return on her son's fifth birthday, but had promised that she would make up the celebration to him later.[3]
As one of the Arisen, Teshra-Gemet turned her skills in navigation, sailing and business into a career in trading. She eventually set up a cult in Iberia around a trading house. During the Reconquista, however, Teshra-Gemet's dark skin became a liability, as "Moors" were increasingly unwelcome in the Catholic kingdoms.[4] As her influence among mortals waned, she turned to piracy, while commanding her remaining cultists to insinuate themselves into Protestant communities beyond the reach of the Inquisition.[5][6]
In 1555, France established a colony for Huguenots on an island in the Guanabara Bay.[7] Teshra-Gemet saw an opening and joined the Protestants there; when the Portuguese attacked the colony from their own settlement of Rio de Janeiro, she shifted her base of operations there, poaching additional cultists from the Tupi and Botacudo worshipers of the First Meret.[8]
By the time the First Meret next rose from Duat, Teshra-Gemet had ingrained herself in Rio in a way that was difficult to dislodge. She presented herself as the city's leader to the Orixás, seven West African mummies who came to Brazil with the trans-Atlantic slave trade beginning in the 1650s.[8] When Portugal's royal court fled to Brazil in 1808, Teshra-Gemet was challenged by O Corte Segredo, but the meret, shaken and low on Sekhem, were no match for the Red Sparrow in her own domain. They reached an agreement consolidating Teshra-Gemet's control of Rio, as long as she stayed out of the affairs of the greater Portuguese empire. She also mediated between the newcomers and the First Meret, as Bantanath of O Corte Segredo was the one who had sent the others away from Carthage thousands of years ago.[9]
When the crown of Brazil was separated from Portugal in 1822, Teshra-Gemet no longer felt obligated to stay out of politics. In fact, she became a mentor and surrogate mother to five-year-old Emperor Pedro II, who reminded her of her own son from the days of Irem.[3] Posing as an Afro-Brazilian nanny named "Dadama," Teshra-Gemet was the power behind the throne for decades,[10] and even flirted with the idea of turning Brazil into a second Irem.[1] Then Pedro announced he was going to abolish slavery. Teshra-Gemet warned him that it would cost him his crown, and after that conversation they never spoke again.[10]
During the tumultuous days of Brazil's Old Republic and the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas, Teshra-Gemet did not profit as much as the other Arisen of Rio. She founded a shipping company, RS-Global Transport LLC, as a new front for her cult in 1935.[11] When Hamset proposed capping one of the Fountains of Ma'at with the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Teshra-Gemet agreed to back the project in exchange for favors to be named later from the Tef Aabhi. That favor turned out to be relocating Brazil's capital, so that the vagaries of national politics would have less impact on her city.[12]
In the 21st century, Teshra-Gemet has faced repeated attempts by O Corte Segredo to undermine the Orixás and the First Meret in the "Game Wars" - drawing international sporting events to Rio, which lead to the clearance of the favelas. Christ the Redeemer is also a magnet for Amkhata, and the current Sothic Turn has all the mummies of Rio active at the same time for the first time in the city's history.[13] Her grip on the city is fragile, and without a meret of her own, she could not stand against the rest of the Arisen if they actually presented a united front.[14] However, she has one of the most widespread cults in the city, and her corporate front gives her access to more resources in terms of both relics and cash than any of the merets except perhaps O Corte Segredo.[15]
Teshra-Gemet maintains a tomb in the RS-Global Transport headquarters in the heart of downtown, allowing her to call on both mortal security guards as well as geomancy to defend it.[16] She is also the nominal guildmaster of the Mesen-Nebu, but she has actively discouraged other Alchemists from settling in Rio because she doesn't want the competition.[17]
Description[]
In her mortal visage, Teshra-Gemet appears to be a woman of Moroccan descent, heavily tanned, with rope burn scars on her palms.
When manifesting the Sybaris, she is briefly overlaid with an image of a spirit-falcon, along with the hazy silhouette of herself as a ship's captain, complete with sextant in one hand[2].
Gallery[]
Character Sheet[]
Concept: Arisen Pirate Queen
Decree: Spirit
Judge: Shet-Kheru, the Orderer of Speech
Guild: Mesen-Nebu
Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 4; Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 2
Skills: Academics 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 2, Computer 1, Crafts 2, Drive 2, Intimidation 2, Larceny 1, Politics 2, Streetwise 2, Survival 4 (Sailing), Weaponry: 3 (Swords)
Merits: Cult (Enterprise; Reach 4, Grasp 4), Fighting Style: Two Weapons 2, Guild Status (Mesen-Nebu) 2, Tomb (Geometry 5, Peril [traps] 4)
Affinities: Divine Flesh, Guardian Wrath, Pharaoh Reigns Anew, Wisdom of the Ancients
Utterances: Revelations of Smoke and Flame, Torn Veil of Forgetting, Water of Life and Death
Pillars: Ab 4, Ba 5, Ka 3, Ren 1, Sheut 1
Sekhem: 10 if roused during this story
Willpower: 5
Memory: 4
Virtue: Fortitude (Teshra-Gemet was not always this successful—she forged her success through surviving adversity, as a female Moor in Iberia, as a pirate, and as a colonist.)
Vice: Pride
Initiative: 5
Defense: 3
Speed: 11
Size: 5
Armor: 0
Health: 8
Notes: No equipment when newly arisen
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 26
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 MTC: Mummy: The Curse Rulebook, p. 256
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 18
- ↑ MTC: Mummy: The Curse, p. 256-257
- ↑ MTC: Mummy: The Curse, p. 257
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 14-15
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 14
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 15
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 16-17
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 19-20
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 21
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 22
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 23
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 25
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 26-27
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 32
- ↑ MTC: Cursed Necropolis: Rio, p. 40