Cathak Jory

(Slightly redone in chargen with the group)

Cathak Jory – Water Aspect Dragon Blooded Exalted
Str: 2 Dex: 3 Sta: 2
Cha: 3 Man: 4 App: 2
Per: 2 Int: 5 Wit: 3
Linguistics: 1 (Old Realm)
Abilities:
Lore: 3
Occult: 4
Stealth: 3
Bureaucracy: 4
Investigation: 4
Larceny: 4
Dodge: 3
Melee: 3
Presence: 2
Socialize: 3
Martial Arts: 1
Sail: 1
War: 1
Archery: 1
Performance: 1
Backgrounds:
Artifact: 4
Breeding: 3
Resources: 3
Contacts: Intelligence: 4
Contacts: Finance: 2
Contacts: Magistracy: 2
Contacts: Thousand Scales: 1
Contacts: Guild: 1
Merits and Flaws
Enemy – Cathak
Silver Tonged
Cache
Heirloom – Book of Lineage for House Cathak
Obligation – 2 (All children must be to House Tepet)
Charms:
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Emerald Countermagic
Demon of the First Circle
Infallible Messenger
Observer Awareness Technique
Finding the Water’s Depth
Thoughtful Gift Technique
Weapons: Jade Reinforced Breastplate
Daiklave
Yassal Crystal (Large)
Collar’s Dawn of Charging Light
Willpower: 7
B: 14
L: +12
Compassion: 3
Temperance: 1
Conviction: 4
Valor: 2
Essence: 3
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 29
Committed: 10
Jory was the third son in the line. For four generations, each controlling lord had had four children. Their blood line was always powerful but not in the top tier of house Cathak. They created a formula that worked fairly well. The first was to rule, the second became the master of secrets, the third worked for the Empire and the fourth learned the sciences. But Jory did not satisfy his father's expectations for military stratagem so he decided that sending him to work in the Imperial bureaucracy would work better. The diviners said he was likely to exalt in Water, despite the family's propensity for Air, from his mother's bloodline, but since he never exalted, his father quietly made arrangements for him to become a monk upon graduation instead since he proved moderately adept at martial arts.

He exalted the day his brother (the second) died, he exalted as water, not air. Jory's father took this as a sign from Heaven, and had Jory enrolled in the Heptagram, academy for sorcerer's only four months before he was supposed to graduate. But he proved an excellent student at sorcery, and was able to use these skills plus the contact network his brother had established to be an excellent master of secrets. As a sorcerer he was tolerated. His father had more tolerance for him than others in the house primarily because he was still able to perform many useful roles for the house.

Seven years ago, his older brother and father died in the day of great tragedy. Jory would become the ruling lord instead. Jory didn't want the job, but he had no choice. In some ways, he has done well, but feels less than up to the task.
Upon taking this mantle, he discovered the true source of the line’s power. They had been cheated out of their rightful portion of Cathak’s inheritance by the ruling council. In retaliation, Jory’s great grandfather Aliet Cathak had replaced the Book of Lineage, the artifact that listed the rightful portioning of all inheritances within Cathak delineating what belonged to whom and to what with an exceptionally clever forgery. For 20 years the Expediency Council ruled using the false document, when Aliet made known his deception. The power of the council would be shattered if the revelations were made known. As a result, Aliet and his line were restored the lands and power that were taken from them with the understanding that the Book of Lineage (still properly maintained and updated by Aliet) was never made public for fear of the damage to the delicate balance of power amongst the factions in the Expediency Council.
For sixty years a cold war began with the Council trying to retrieve the Book, and Aliet keeping it from them. Aliet’s spy network grew to exceptional proportions, and while Aliet and his descendants resented the council, they also desired the best for the house, thus using their network to aid Cathak gain as much Imperial aid as possible.
Upon learning that this crime had been going on, Jory was ashamed, since he felt that the line’s lands had been rightfully restored and that Aliet should have returned the book a long time ago, and that his ancestors should have done the same. And in the process of taking the book back to the Expediency Council he learned that the Council had entered its master stroke, killing his final living brother, seizing the family’s lands and thinking that they had taken the book from its rightful holding place. He further learned that his brother s and father had been killed for the same reason.
Jory fled Cathak lands where he was banished on the public pretense of ‘dishonoring the council’ and other nonsensical vagaries, whilst Jory took with him the Book, his inheritance and the family’s spy network. He also cleverly used his exceptional skills at Bureaucracy to lock up all the family’s lands in binding contracts for five hundred years such that those who stole them might be able to rule, but would never profit from them. He also managed a heavy degree of imperial interference and mandates thus ensuring the people he left behind were at least somewhat protected by the wrath of the rulers as well.
Unshielded and without a house, he made arrangements with House Tepet while they were still powerful, offering his resources and skills as a companion to the promising young Lintol Tepet whom he befriended and taught some sorcery that he had learned at the Heptagram. When the house fell, Jory became determined to help the house rise again to prominence by whatever means necessary.