Steps-in-Shadow
Ishmael "Steps-in-Shadow" was a Child of Gaia, and a member of the Sept of Bright Promise during the Dark Ages.[1] Steps-in-Shadow was eventually slain by Crusaders.[2]
Background
Ishmael was born on the streets and is likely to die there. His mother, a thief, was raped after trying to swindle the wrong drunkard out of his purse. His first cry came from a gutter in an alley and he has lived most of his life in similar places. The one lesson he learned growing up was that the only things one can have in life are those that are wrested from others, whether by force, the threat of force or guile. As he has always lacked the means to back up the former two methods, he has had to opt for the latter. Ishmael's First Change came while he was being pursued for the theft of a half-stale hunk of bread. He came to love being a werewolf, not for the sacred mission it encompassed or for the new worlds it opened to him, but instead for the power it granted. While he was never cast out of the Bright Promise, Ishmael's selfish attitudes endeared him to no one, until Aldo came along. Seeing in the Venetian a kindred spirit, the young Ragabash sides with Aldo in his bid for control.
Image
Ishmael's oft-haggard face is rimmed by an unruly mop of stringy, curly black hair. A scruffy beard fills his hollow cheeks out a bit and serves to conceal a few of the scars on his face. His nose slants very slightly to the right (from an old bread) and his beady eye look simply criminal. His right hand is gone, having been severed for robbery before his First Change, and Ishmael has, of necessity, learned to make do quite well with his left. While he dresses a little better nowadays, he cannot escape the air of shabbiness and poverty that continues to cling to him and mark him as street trash.
References
- ↑ DA: Right of Princes, p. 124
- ↑ DA: Spoils of War, p. 115