Indrani

"How long are we going to live, either of us? Not long enough to see more than the smallest bit of Creation. If that’s my limit, I want to sample as much of that bit as I can instead of just getting miserable about all this Good and Evil twaddle. Ain’t no settling that, no matter how hard you try. If you get involved you just get chewed up like all the others before you, and I don’t owe anybody that."

―Indrani^{^[1]}

Indrani is a villain raised as a part of the children of Refuge by Hye Su. She is a close friend of Catherine's, and a part of the Woe.

Backstory[]

Indrani was born a slave in Mercantis, where she was highly valued for being "exotic". She was borrowed to serve at a closed circle auction because of this, where she met Hye Su. She was 9 years old when this occurred.^[2]

Indrani presumably then travelled with Hye Su to Refuge where she was trained by her, becoming one of her most skilled pupils and gaining the name of Archer.

Indrani strives to experience as much of Creation as possible, wanting to live her life to the fullest.

Story[]

Book 2[]

Indrani was given a mission to take charge of Hunter after he was captured and held by Warlock. She met Catherine Foundling, Hakram and Masego at Marchford when she charge into the room they were in, and beat the entire group just to prove a point. After that she took Hunter into her custody. She participated in the battle of Marchford, providing support to Catherine, Hakram, Hunter and Masego against the Demon of Corruption.^[3]

Book 3[]

After returning Hunter's ashes to Refuge following his death at Marchford, Indrani rejoined Catherine, after the Squire cashed in the debt Ranger owed from Hunter's actions, by asked for a guide to Arcadia, as fae was attacking Marchford. Indrani sent as a Fae expert from Refuge, and followed Cat into Skadi. On cat's request, she later teamed up with Masego to trick the Summer fae forces into attacking the Diabolost at Liesse.

After facing the Queen of Summer, Indrani along with Masego, Hakram, Catherine, and Vivienne were dubbed The Woe.

Indrani fought together with the Woe during the assault of Liesse. She then later used a month trawling through the hunted ruins of the city to recover Akua's soul for Cat.

Book 4[]

During the tenth Crusade, Indrani took on a duel against the Saint of Swords. Although, she made sure to wait until the heroine was exhausted.

After temporarily stopping the invasion of Callow, the Woe travelled to Keter in an attempt to use the Dead King as an ally to prevent future threats to Callow. Here Archer roamed free as a joker and fortunetelling distraction, while the battle of the Skein was done.

After Keter failed, Cat, Indrani and Akua travelled to the Everdark, hoping to win the drow as their allies. This quickly turned into a regular invasion, with Winter-infused Cat taking more and more drow as her subjects. During this time, Indrani and Cat started sleeping together, despite both being aware Indrani also had feelings for Masego.

Towards the end of the drow campaign, Indrani was caught by the results of Winter being ripped out of Cat and nearly died. This affected her more than she wanted to admit, and lead to her drinking even more than usual until Cat had a serious talk with her shortly after returning to the surface.

Book 5[]

Trying to save Masego from being under the influence of the Dead King, Indrani Guided the Grey Pilgrim into the ruins of Liesse using a less than easy alternate route. She had been declared a story sword for the purpose of getting Masego out from the Dead King's influence, as she was in love with him. After reaching the Hierophant, the Dead King promptly took over Masego's body and exploded Indrani's skull. This caused Masego to fight off the Dead King, losing his magic in the process.

With the use of the Grey Pilgrim's resurrecting aspect Forgive, Indrani was brought back to life. After this, she and Masego carved out a solid relationship without much physical touch, while Indrani still also was sleeping with Catherine. Something the Hierophant considers completely irrelevant for what he and Indrani shares.

Book 6[]

The Arsenal[]

Following Callow joining the Grand Alliance and the introduction of the Truce and Terms, Indrani became the leader of a joint band of heroes and villains, tasked with searching out new Named and offering them to be folded into the terms. in her band was the Harrowed Witch and Fallen Monk on the villain side. And the Vagrant Spear and Forlorn Paladin on the heroic side.

Bringing the newly recruited heroine the Red Axe to the Arsenal, Indrani goes to see Masego, which she by now is in a close domestic relationship with. As Indrani is away, the Red Axe encounters and kills the villain Wicked Enchanter, as she originally got her Name after he attacked and raped her. This triggers every Named in the Arsenal to go on edge and threatens the Truce and Terms, as a heroine just killed a villain, breaking the terms in the process.

The Arsenal residents manages to keep things from blowing up before Catherine arrives, while the Red Axe is imprisoned. Indrani then joins Cat playing detective and attempting to figure out the underlying conspiracy that made this all happen. During all this, Indrani goes to the Concocter to get more information, learning that her fellow childhood Refuge resident willingly worked with the Wandering Bard. This rips open Indrani's past bad behavior bullying the children she grew up with under Ranger. But also shows she has changed enough, that she wants to help the Concocter get out of the hole she dug for herself.

After the fae attacked, Indrani joins up with the Blessed Artificer against the Fallen Monk. And later she and Adanna joins Roland against the Exhalted Poet and several faes, where Indrani accidentally overestimates the Poet and kills him.

The Hainaut Campaign[]

On the way to Hainaut Lysander the Beastmaster dies in a battle against the undead. This puts focus on Indrani's broken relationship with the people she grew up with in Refuge, as Cat finds her fighting Alexis the Silver Huntress. Alexis was blaming Indrani for Lysander dying, and Indrani was deliberately escalating the conflict. This caused Cat to punish both of them, which among other things included her removing Alexis as the leader of the heroes of the armies Cat lead. After this, Indrani and Concocter joins up for a private wake for the villain, drinking themselves to sleep against a tipped over table.

During the battle of Hainaut, Indrani joined most the Woe and Akua as a strike team against some of the strongest Scourges. Ultimately, they killed the Pale Knight, but in return the Hawk (theorized to once hold the Name of the Archer) placed an arrow in Cat's eye.

Book 7[]

Indrani followed Cat and Akua into the city of Wolof during the early part of the Praes campaign. Hiding in the city for a day, before the group successfully stole all of Wolof's treasury.

An essential part of Cat's Story-planning for the Praes invasion was bringing all of Ranger's surviving students with her, as a story knife against Hye Su. This brought Indrani's fractured relationship with the Concocter and Alexis into focus. Especially with the Silver Huntress, as those two were mirroring rivals as well as having grown up together. Both Named were trying not to provoke each other, with Indrani even occasionally reaching out to the other, but a lot of bad history were in the way. During the Battle for Kala Hills Indrani and Alexis successfully worked together, shooting down parts of the enemy armies from a distance no other people could match.

In the Battle against Ater, Cat sent the three former Refuge children after Ranger in the city. They fought her twice, and eventually managed to beat her by deliberately working together as a unit. Taking a philosophical distance to the worldview Hye had taught them, and blaming her for the character flaws that ultimately got John and Lysander killed.

After confronting and fighting Hye Su, Indrani becomes claimant to the Ranger Name having admitted to herself and Creation she wants to be the Ranger. ^[4]

Appearance[]

Indrani is a dark ochre skinned warrior with delicate features, hazel eyes, and very healthy curves. She usually wears a fine white chain-mail, splitting in a skirt, a long leather coat with a hood, and a dark green scarf that covers the lower half of her face if not among friends or relaxing and next to never fully removes.

Equipment[]

Indrani uses an absurdly large enchanted Lycaonese longbow older than the Principate of Procer. Made by the Peerless Artisan, it was made from a material with inherent sorcerous properties, allowing its enchantment to never fade. It has so much tension in the string that when Nauk, the physically strongest orc Catherine had met, tried to pull the string back, he was unable to get it to budge an inch and nearly broke his arm doing so. Catherine estimates that it was worth two palaces in southern Procer.

Paired with her bow is a quiver, which she wears on her back. Filled with arrows closer in size and thickness to javelins, they are made from materials with inherent sorcerous properties, allowing them to slide through most wards as though they were not there. They are also stocked with mundane arrows and enchanted ones with various properties, such as being fireproof or exploding into lightning. She also has special arrows, such as some able to detonate into Goblinfire or dull iron ones for killing Fae. Her arrows are mentioned to be valuable and Archer always try retrieve them after a fight.

Archer's scarf is another one of her most treasured possessions. Stolen from her old slaveowner, it was the very first thing she owned, a gift from Ranger.

When not using her bow, she'll resort to a pair of twin longknives, though she has a supply of other knives available.

Relationships[]

...

Powers[]

Archer is a martial themed name that specializes in the use of bows and arrows. She is an extremely skilled marksman, capable of hitting moving targets accurately from miles away. Her skill was such that she could hide a second arrow in the curve of the first, or even redirect her opponents' arrows to strike other targets by shooting it with an arrow of her own. She is also familiar with other projectile weapons, such as crossbows, being able to deduce power and bolt size of the weapon used based on a wound in a corpse.

Indrani was personally trained by Ranger and was mentioned to be the strongest of her five pupils. As a result of her training under the best swordsman in Calernia, she is skilled in using multiple weapons, and not just archery. When not using her bow, Indrani prefers dual wielding longknives, that she employs in combat using her quick strikes and flexibility to strike at a foe's weak points. In addition to her longknives, Archer has been observed using various other knives and blades. Her skill with the blade was such that she was able to fight the Saint of Swords in close combat and survive.

Even without her weapons she has shown proficiency in hand to hand combat, besting both Squire and Adjutant in close-ranged combat using quick strikes and redirection to overcome her foes. As a result of the necessity of drawing back an absurdly tense and powerful bowstring, her Name grants her great physical strength. Her raw strength was so much that even a Villain as strong as Hakram was unable to overpower her.

Her other skills include her senses, which were mentioned to rival that of the Sovereign of Moonless Nights, a Fae Queen with supernatural senses, even by Named standards. She could see in the permanent darkness of the Everdark perfectly fine and has demonstrated a great sense of smell. She was also able to sense cracks between Creation and Twilight, allowing her to pioneer sidling, the ability move between the two without need for gates, and possessed skill in the art unmatched by all other Named save perhaps the Grey Pilgrim.

Indrani is also shown to practise carving with her knives. Though her initial works were mentioned to be shoddy, they have improved over the years, and by Book 6 she was shown to be a skilled carver, capable of making beautiful carvings of scenes and even a good figure of Catherine Foundling.

Archer is also skilled at mountaineering, cooking, wilderness survival, tracking and stealth. Under Ranger, she was given a comprehensive education in sorcery, abstract mathematics and languages, capable of speaking Tradertalk, Lower Miezan, Chantant and Kharsum. She also has some skill in leadership, capably leading a Band of Five comprising of herself, the Vagrant Spear, the Harrowed Witch, the Fallen Monk and the Forlorn Paladin.

Aspects[]

See: Allows her to see enemies from long range affording her the ability to snipe them from afar as well as to scout out these enemies if she chooses to just observe enemy movements. Archer has been observed using this Aspect to bag kills over entire miles. Catherine mentions that See does not boost her archery, instead allowing her to gain elven eyesight and foresight rivalling that of Ranger.

Flow: An ability that allows Archer to gain great skill and timing for a temporary period of time. Catherine mentions that Black, Ranger, the Saint and the Spellblade were more skilled than her, but Flow allowed her to approach their levels of combat prowess. When used with her bow, Indrani becomes capable of firing a continuous stream of arrows at her opponent, capably hitting them accurately even as they rushed at her. When used with her longknives, she gains skill rivalling her own natural prowess at archery and becomes capable of producing an uninterrupted stream of attacks each blow followed by another.

Indrani describes it as: 'The Flow that went beyond what earthly hands could master, hers to borrow for the shortest of whiles. Sometimes she wondered if that was what it felt like, to be the Lady. When everything fit perfectly, and you could place yourself within the parts of the world exactly the way you wanted.'

Stride: Allows her to travel great distances at speed and without fatigue, and find her way anywhere without becoming lost.