Once, there was a maiden…
... who broke a face in the sea, broke the depths and broke
the sea, leaving only the white caps of the waves. "Why
did you do that?" asked the face.
"Rarely is travel peaceful," the maiden said.
[X] Moontouched. You are a sehzade, heir to the throne, and your gender changes with the moon or perhaps is absent altogether. Your people regard you with wariness, perhaps fearing you touched by fearsome Luna, and expect you to be wise in ways that they are not.
-> [X] Luna's whims sometimes reshape your body as you sleep.
[X] Ashni Tishtrya
[X] The Shah's Voice. Taira is a land built on conquest and trade, an empire of many peoples brought together by force and bound by chains of ambition and greed. Such a legacy demands an eye in the world outside, and this is where you serve. You have travelled much for your age, and your face is known across the East as the representative the Shah sends when the interests of Taira as a whole must be represented. Your eyes are yellow, a sign of favour from Mercury, Maiden of Journeys.
Though always recognizable from a slender and athletic build, pale skin and consistent facial features Ashni's body sometimes changes while asleep. Eventually Ashni realized that it is always one of the many guises of Luna. Not that this helps predicting such changes at all.
Being moontouched has shaped Ashni's whole life, as much as being sehzade has at any rate. Ashni's parents never particularly minded but Ashni's father did demand that in an official capacity Ashni should present consistently as one gender. Seeing no sense in trying to fight against public perception Ashni attends court as a woman, for they are wise and cunning. A convenient mask behind which to hide indifference or frustration.
Ashni is rarely content to be in one place for a long time, the longer Ashni remains in one place the more piercing the gazes of strangers and the less Ashni feels welcome. As a youth Ashni used to run around the palace, and then to rode around the city. Now Ashni travels across the nation. Yet as much as remaining in one place for long is something Ashni cannot do the longer Ashni is away from home the stronger the desire to return to familiar places and faces.
Ashni is frequently impulsive, somewhat insecure and despite or perhaps because of a political upbringing does not have the patience for the squabbles of court. Ashni hides insecurities and social failings behind a mask of calculation and mystery. As the Shah's voice Ashni commands enough respect and power that few try to embroil Ashni in schemes or feuds. When such things do seem to close in then Ashni simply leaves. There is always something else that demands the attention of the Shah's Voice, hopefully on the other side of Taira.