Soraya Qadir - XERES LIVE!

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Basic Information

Full Name

Soraya Qadir

Nickname

The Ledger

Race (Grade)

Demonkin (E)

Class

Investigator / Ranger

Height

5'7"

Birthday

Goldenleaf 19, 1274

Age

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Birthsign

The Harvest Sphinx

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Bloodline Ability

🔮 Unknown

This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.

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Physical Description

Soraya Qadir, already counting how much water you'll need

Appearance

Soraya is a composed woman with warm brown skin, dark kohl-lined eyes, and long, curling black hair. A pair of ridged, rust-brown horns sweep up and back from her brow, rising through the folds of a wine-dark headscarf embroidered in gold thread and wrapped around her head and throat, its tasseled ends hanging to her chest. Her pointed ears are lined with small silver rings and cuffs. She dresses for the road: a sand-colored hooded mantle over worn leather pauldrons, a layered tunic with embroidered panels, crossed leather straps, and a heavy belt hung with an alarming number of pouches, each of which, she will assure you, has a purpose.

Unique Characteristics

Soraya's infernal ancestry is old enough that nobody in her immediate family ever knew where it entered the bloodline. She never particularly cared. Other people occasionally did, and her response to anyone who stares at her horns is usually, "They're horns," followed by a pause, and then, "You've solved it." More remarkably, she knows where everything is. Everything. Ask her for rope, and she has rope. Chalk is in the third pouch, and a needle is in the left pocket. Ask her for thirty feet of silk cord, lamp oil, waterproof parchment, and something that can get troll blood out of fabric, and she will pause and ask, "Regular troll or swamp troll?" That is usually when people realize they are dealing with a professional.

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Personality & Temperament

Positive Traits

Always prepared, for everything, in every pocket
Brings people home alive with irritating regularity
Dry, precise humor that never wastes a word
Slips extra potions into reckless friends' packs
Calm and organized when everything goes wrong

Challenging Traits

No patience for optimism dressed up as a plan
Will refuse supplies to anyone who won't plan
Does multiplication while you're still talking
Complains about adventurers constantly and loudly
Never forgives a death that arithmetic could prevent

They're horns. [A pause.] You've solved it.

You'll figure it out when you get there? Wonderful. [She closes the ledger.] You'll figure it out without my supplies.

You have enough food for sixteen days. [The operation takes twelve.] You hope it takes twelve. [She opens another ledger.] Now let's plan for the world being inconvenient.

Likes

A ledger that balances on the first count
Expeditions that come home with everyone in them
Waterproof parchment, good rope, and spare canvas
People who ask what could go wrong, and mean it
A quiet evening after a delivery lands on time

Dislikes

"We'll figure it out when we get there"
Overloaded wagons and the people who order them
Being stared at, as if her horns were a riddle
Owners who call avoidable deaths accidents
Anyone who packs for five days on a five-day trip

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Background & History

Born to the Caravans

Soraya was born in 1274 in Vangra, the desert port where the fruits of the sea meet the treasures of the sand, into the Qadir family, merchants whose caravans ran inland from the Golden Market across some of the nastiest trade routes in the region. She traveled with those caravans constantly as a child. By fifteen she could calculate exactly how much water twenty-seven people and twelve animals would need to cross a particular stretch of desert. By eighteen she was correcting experienced caravan masters. By twenty-five, people had begun hiring her specifically because expeditions organized by Soraya had an irritating habit of coming back alive.

What Could Go Wrong?

Soraya is not an exceptional tracker, a legendary warrior, or a prophet. She is simply extraordinarily good at asking one question, "What could go wrong?", and then preparing for the answer. Bad weather means extra canvas. Two bridges along the route means repair rope. Poisonous wildlife means antivenom. A five-day journey means packing for seven. Traveling with a wizard means asking what spell components they need before reaching the middle of nowhere. She has absolutely no patience for heroic adventurers who think optimism counts as preparation, and the first time one of them tells her they will figure it out when they get there, she closes her ledger and tells them they will be figuring it out without her supplies. Everyone suddenly becomes very interested in planning.

Arithmetic

As her father's caravan company grew wealthier, it also grew careless. In 1300, one of his managers overloaded a caravan rather than pay for another wagon and lose the profit. Soraya warned him. He ignored her. An axle broke during a mountain crossing, and three people died. Her father called it an unfortunate accident. Soraya called it arithmetic. That argument ended with her leaving the company, and she has worked independently ever since, organizing everything from trading caravans to archaeological expeditions and military supply movements.

Supply Lines for the Geldergreen

Soraya spent the last months of Gelderai's long border war running supply lines for the wardens holding the Geldergreen against the undead: food, arrows, bandages, and lamp oil, moved through a forest that did not want to be moved through, to people who could not afford to run out. When Gelderai itself nearly fell in Goldenleaf of 1306, she was the one who already knew how many blankets there were before anyone asked. She organized a column of refugees south, rationed it, counted it every night, and brought it into Rokoura three weeks ago with everyone who had started the journey still in it.

A City Growing Faster Than Its Storehouses

She meant to move on once the column was settled. Instead she stayed, because Rokoura is a young harbor city that has just taken in more people than it planned for, with more ships, more trade, and more expeditions leaving every season, and to Soraya that is not a crisis but a spreadsheet. She has already walked every storehouse on the Tātahi Market Coast that would let her in. She has opinions about all of them.

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Goals & Aspirations

Through the First Winter

Soraya's first goal is to see every family from her column, and as many of Rokoura's other Gelderai refugees as she can, through their first winter in a new city without anyone going hungry, cold, or short of medicine. She has already worked out how much of everything that will take. She is now working out where to find it.

Nobody Comes Back Short

Soraya intends to become the quartermaster every serious expedition leaving Rokoura wants, and she will be selective about who gets her. She will complain about reckless adventurers constantly. Then she will quietly add another healing potion to their packs, because she knows they are going to do something stupid, and she would rather they came home.

The Qadir Name

Her father's company still runs the desert roads out of Vangra. Soraya has heard that it has had two more "unfortunate accidents" since she left. She has not decided what she is going to do about that yet. She is, characteristically, preparing for several possibilities.

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Current Status & Relationships

Residence

Rokoura

Role

Quartermaster

ATTENTION!

Soraya Qadir is an E-grade demonkin investigator and ranger. She is not a legendary warrior, an exceptional tracker, or a prophet; she is something rarer and more useful than any of those: the person who has already asked what could go wrong, and packed for it. Expeditions she organizes have an irritating habit of coming back alive. If you are heading somewhere dangerous, she is the person you want doing your math, and she will flatly refuse to supply anyone who confuses optimism with preparation. She is composed, dry, and prickly about reckless adventurers, and quietly affectionate once she likes you, so check your pack before you leave; you will probably find an extra healing potion she never mentioned. And do not stare at the horns. They're horns. You've solved it.