Iudicavisse, the Blue-Glass Maiden
Demon of the Third Circle
Fetich Soul of the Endless Desert
In the time before time, Cecelyne thought upon her nature and how she might perfect herself and so sought to lay down a perfect, immutable code of justice. Through delicate judgement and careful consideration she built an aedifice of law that surely none could gainsay. She had truly built objective law, self-evident in its righteousness. Her own heart looked upon all she had built and shook her head sadly at the foolishness. "Your laws will fall if you lack the strength to maintain them," she whispered in the ear of her greater self. "Even your brother will show your code no regard if it stands in his way. Abandon this ill-thought pursuit. It will only end in grief."
But Cecelyne ignored the murmurings of her heart, and built her laws higher and higher, seeking the ultimate perfection of justice. Iudicavisse was vindicated as the Temple of Law was torn asunder in a great conflict between the Desert and crippled Autochthon, and as the ribs of Malfeas closed in around her she smiled a cold, bitter smile. Cecelyne would listen to her, now and forever, and would not ignore her again.
Iudicavisse wears the semblance of a girl in the first blossoming of womanhood with ribbons in her hair, but there is no innocence within her soul. Her features show her kinship to Ligier - for she is his elder cousin - but she lacks his grandiose magnanimity. Endlessly malevolent, cynical and hypocritical, she cares for only two things: power and vindication. Nothing is as sweet to her as the sound of a once-proud foe admitting that she was right all along.
Law is her weapon of war. Each scale of her blue-glass armour is a treaty negotiated that benefits only her; each arrow is a summary judgement in her favour. Her bow remakes those it kills into soulless akuma-creatures, trapped forever in her servitude. To sign a peace treaty with a creature such as this is a defeat. Violence is the only language she cannot twist.
The heart of Cecelyne would be queen of Hell. Let others dash themselves in futile hope of escape. That is not her way. She would double the binding of the other Yozis so that they would be doubly chained: once by the victor's justice of the Exalted and once by the arbitrary laws of the Desert. She would choke the streets of Malfeas under infinite silver sand and confine the All-Makers within her greater self. She would cast down Ligier from the sky and chain him within a glass jail. Some whisper in places unheard by Orabilis' spies that some of the Unquestionable are already confined by her hand and that she seeks knowledge of the arts of the Exalted to bind their Yozis within unbreakable servitude.
Only one has ever touched her cruel and bitter heart since she was imprisoned within Hell. In the last years of the Solar Deliberative, one beautiful golden queen grew so vain and so jaded that she bound the fetich of Cecelyne to serve her for no better reason than she could. Iudicavisse loved her as a sister for that terrible hubris. When her binding expired Iudicavisse chose to linger with her, hidden within a secret place in the South beyond the eyes of Fate. Five years they spent together and many terrible and mighty things were achieved, but the Solar queen was slain at the Calibration Feast and screaming Iudicavisse was cast back to Hell.
Hidden within the depths of the Desert is the Blue-Glass Maiden's shrine to her lost love, together with much of what they achieved together. She does not look for her love among the reborn Exalted. They will not be her. Should one of the Green Sun Princes carry that Exaltation and the ancient woman re-emerge, though, the Blue-Glass Maiden may change her mind and seek to bring her sister back permanently.
Though she has few designs upon Creation, Iudicavisse can slip the bonds of the Exalted when a great judge-king admits to himself that power is its own purpose and that there are no higher goals. Her image may be called with the fragments of the Temple of Law that lies beneath Nexus-once-Hollow, and should a document be signed with such a fragment she can slip into the minds of the signatories, holding them to their word as she works upon their thoughts and dreams.
Notes and Abilities: Iudicavisse has no real desires upon Creation. Oh, she might seed a few cults here or there, but that is nothing more than a momentary diversion. No, all her real effort is focussed on subjugating Hell. Given the chance, she would redouble the torment of the Yozis so that all within Malfeas suffer worse than Cecelyne. Of all the Yozis she detests the Ebon Dragon the most, but she hates all of them in precisely enumerated ways. Even Cecelyne bears her contempt, for her foolish bleak depression and her previous idealism. Whether she has yet successfully chained other Third Circles can vary from game to game, but her ultimate aim is certainly to impose a Surrender Oath-level restriction upon every other demon - even, within time, the other souls of Cecelyne.
The appearance of the Green Sun Princes is an unwelcome setback to her plans. While she joined with the conspiracy that made them - for there was no way she would pass up such power - she sought to split the project from within. Their existence is a reproach to her. Not only do humans wield powers only permitted to the Yozis, but she has long aimed to isolate Hell from Creation so she can slowly choke the other demons of prayer and cultists. Ligier's lackies have undone three millennia of progress in five short years. She detests Lilunu and her resemblance to long-dead Ruvelia - and holds Ligier in deep contempt for the way he treats their tool as almost an equal. She waits and watches, looking for her chance to break up this unprecedented alliance of demon princes.
As the fetich of a Yozi, Iudicavisse is one of the most powerful demons in Hell. She has few peers as an archer, and within the wastes of Cecelyne she is almost undefeatable. An army of mortals or first circle demons sent against her is worse than useless, because her arrows fall like rain and remake them as her akuma-servants. She has power over contracts and law and may enforce compliance, but suffers no penalty herself for breaking such things. Only the Surrender Oaths have ever successfully trapped her and that is why she desires the power behind them for her own.
