Chalyss Storme

Daughter of the Darke Lord Graal, one of four siblings still alive, and the youngest. Chalyss' full name is Chalyss Rachel Storme, and she was born to a woman named Doreen Storme, a powerful witch and coven leader. Doreen struck a bargain with Graal; she would bear his child and he would increase her power a hundred fold. But at the last moment, when Graal was to claim the child, she absconded Chalyss, fleeing into the dark morning. For thirteen years, Chalyss and Doreen ran and hid from the enraged Graal, who hunted them. Doreen's mother, Colleen, owner of StormeKings Shipping in England, often managed to supply her daughter and granddaughter with money to use. And sometimes Doreen would use her own magicks and, Chalyss suspects, her body for the times when Colleen could not risk sending aid. Chalyss has lived, at least for a week, in almost every country.

Never around long enough in one place to make friends, her life was a hectic one, full of fear and fleeing from someone she did not know. Eventually, Graal caught up with them on Chalyss' 13th birthday. Hidden by more than a drape, the young darkling watched her mother be torn limb to limb by her father, a black man-thing. Graal could not find Chalyss, however, though neither knew why at the time. The authorities took possession of the girl until her Grandmother could move into the States and care for her. It was Colleen who arranged for a birth certificate and pushed enough money in the right places to keep her Granddaughter from being sent to therapists. Shortly before her Grandmother took her in, Chalyss learned of Kurlee and Moe, two small demons who claimed she was their "mother", their creators, borne of her desperation and sadness. Chalyss managed to keep them hidden for years, never knowing what they truly were. When Chalyss was 18, Colleen fell ill of a rare blood disease and flew back to England to enlist the help of doctors there.

During the next three and a half years, Chalyss (called Rachel) went to college studying to become a jazz musician, and met Sherron Keefer there. The two became fast friends, closer than sisters. Rachel became the "adopted" daughter of Sherron's parents and caught the eye of Sherron's younger brother, Emmanuel. Rachel often had nightmares of her mother's brutal murder, but as she reached her 21st birthday, the dreams were worse than ever. A new serial killer emerged in the streets, dubbed the Scarlet Slasher by the idiot media, and Rachel would dream of the murders knowing the details before they were released. She eventually told Sherron of this as it was causing her great distress, and Sherron advised professional help, which Rae flatly refused. Both young women believed Rae to be somehow bonded to the Slasher psychically. The dreams of the killing continued until the night Rachel dreamt of Sherron's death, the last she would dream. But it still wasn't until after the funeral that Rachel learned she had been the Slasher, when her demon self finally merged completely with her human self, and ended the conflict...for the Slasher had been the demonhalf fighting for its own existance in the world.

Learning this, Rachel ran to Kurlee and Moe for help, knowing only she was the killer, not what she truly was. Kurlee (Moe is mute) explained certain things to Rachel who, much to her surprise, discovered her heritage. Since then, she has also discovered Kurlee and Moe's real intent and forms. They had been the ones keeping Graal from finding her since her mother's murder, and they alone. Their reasons were simple..Rachel was good breeding. No one but the two demons know their own agendas, but they seem to include children of Graal. As Rachel would later learn, Sylff was also used in this manner, seduced by Moe in sleep, impregnated and callously used to produce Ruinlings (those of Full Demon and Half Demon parents). Rachel was actually happy to discover she was pregnant, though she had no idea how that could be possible since she was still a virgin at 21, but when she attempted to tell Kurlee and Moe the news, they revealed themselves to her, being really Tiamat and Khasm, ancient Lords of staggering power. Refusing to allow Tiamat to raise the child, Tiamat literally tore the embryo from Rachel's womb and placed it in her own, leaving Rachel to wallow in pain and the knowledge that her firstborn was a son. Rachel survived and met up with her son, S'karr, a year and a half later. He was full grown by that time, as Ruinlings will be, and after some heated battles she did not want, she ended up slaying her son as he lay begging her for mercy, as she had once stopped Sylff from doing to her Ruinling son, Hellrazer.

There is much Rachel will not tell about her life, and will only hint to the fact that she was married a short time and now widowed. Though she will answer to the name Rachel, she prefers being called Chalyss while at the Tavern. Her skin color marks her clan heritage; red with yellow eyes. As other children of Graal, she has the bloodgift of travel, and is known as the Rifter, the child Graal desired from the beginning of time. She has the power to create rifts between the veils of what is seen and unseen, our dimension and the ethereal. Her ancestors were the fierce Fomorians of Ireland, slaughtered by their kin, the Tuatha De Dannon. Chalyss is a serial killer, and has murdered men, women and children alike, for the sport, though she was unaware of her actions at the time. She bears this burden of slayings which include her best friend, Sherron Keefer, who's body will never fully be found. Attempting suicide, she discovered she could not cut herself, and even small caliber weapons cannot harm her.

Only a being stronger than she may hurt her. And as killing offers a Darkeling strength, she is quite powerful, having also been forced to slay other Darkelings. Chalyss has low level shapeshifting abilities, healing, and the ability to speak in tongues. She can instantly recognize a lie, but may not know the truth. She can control or at least greatly influence the actions of any demonic being lower than she, but can be influenced by those higher. Holy weapons and incantations affect her only slightly as she has steeled herself against these trappings and is a follower of faith herself. She may hide her demon nature from a creature less powerful than herself, and, in turn, be hidden from the truth of the demonic nature of a being more powerful than herself. Her rifts allow her to transport whereever, but not whenever, she wishes. Unfortunately, too much use of the rifts will collapse the barriers between veils and unleash the Hell-trapped demons onto Earth, allowing them dominance over all. Brute force works best on her, but woe to the one who forces her to give in completely to her darkeside!

Chalyss has human, halfhuman and demon forms. Some time ago, Chalyss tried to battle Anubis in a misguided effort to find him a new Master (before Serafelle). The half-Oni, extremely powerful, forced her to give in completely to her demon side, something that has only happened once before. Fortunately, Kattosha, a merc, was there to talk Chalyss down from it, but it affected the Darkeling's half-demon appearance. For when a Darkeling like Chalyss allows her demon blood full reign, it produces a collar of binding, only visible when in half-demon form, and alters the netherarmor worn in this state. Her new headress is large and spikey, her "bikini" armor of chainmail, as are her armguards and tall boots. Spiked knuckleguards adorn her hands and add power to her strikes. Even more recently, Chalyss has begun to master her telekinetic abilities...actually, this is misleading. Using the energy in her rifts, Chalyss can form objects and rearrange molecular structures. She is still learning to master this.

At one time, Chalyss accepted the aid of the child god, Majeck, and bore a Crystal sliver in her cheek from it, to control her demonside (it drew power off this side to control her). In exchange for this dubious gift, she pledged to kill Tappan for Majeck. The godling had granted her a crystal dagger to do so, and its Love. But words from Spirit Starchilde had her concerned and she feared what an additional master may mean for her. Later, she went to the Valley of Silences with Xelloss and attacked Mori-Graar, It's High Priest, for torturing Anubis and taking his voice-box. That did not go well and the sliver was ripped from her cheek.

UPDATES:

Much has happened to both Chalyss and Anubis since Majeck used her to get Madame La Marquise's attention. The most important is that Chalyss was finally broken under Serafelle's torments to she and Anubis, whom Sera had bound as a Pleasure Priest. DayStar, the Destroyer Sword Chalyss was bonded to eventually got tired of the insane Darkeling and razed her mind...when she realized exactly what she'd done, DayStar called on Khasm to help her "fix" Chalyss again. Chalyss was "cloned" and Talitha Daystorme was created by Khasm as an attempt to replace Chalyss for Anubis. That simply didn't work out for any involved, so Khasm eventually stepped in again, irate, this time, with Valyn for raping Anubis under the compulsions of his collar (Sera had given Valyn Anubis to play with for a while). Khasm left Valyn alive and unharmed for the most part, absconding Anubis from the Balois Estates and remaking his body, giving him a new soul, and tampering with his memories. Anubis accepted the position of High Priest to Tiamat and Khasm.

Then, the Maker of Dragons remade Chalyss, doing for her what he had for Anubis. The old bodies, with their collars and, in Chalyss' case, the Jewel were either disposed of or are still held in a suspended animation somewhere. Chalyss and Anubis went on to be engaged the very night of their freedom and were married privately soon after. Chalyss' current body is not her original, but is exact. Her soul is a new one unbound to anything, and given to her by her full Lung son, Yukio Kagami, as was Anubis'. She's back to where she started from and very happy about it....and more than a little surprised Khasm helped them as he did.

Most recently, some past events came back to haunt Challie... Voragonna, Elder Goddess of Destruction (and all those nasty war things), caught sight of our hapless heroine and exacted her vengeance. Why? Well, Challys doesn't know, since Khasm messed with her head when he remade her, making it impossible for anyone or anything to place images, real or false, in Chalyss' and Anubis' heads concerning the time they were collared. All the ghastly acts Chalyss had committed when her mind snapped, her servitude under Serafelle and the inflitration of Voragonna's temple (and WorldPlane) to free Jeryth, the fallout, her death, Anubis' Pleasure Priest training she was forced to watch, all of it.... can no longer touch her; it slides off her brain, unable to penetrate. So Vora was pissed as all heck, Chalyss was clueless and, as usual, stubborn... and again, Chalyss has become a man. But this time its a bit different; the Goddess rebuilt Challie from the atoms up, as if he'd always been a he --even his demonhalf form is masculine. Any way to get him back into a woman? Doubtful, unless one of the Creators takes pity on him, but it wouldn't be for his own sake, and Anubis can probably handle this one without losing sanity, just nurse a broken heart. Since Anubis isn't into men and Chalyss still holds his old preference for men (the mind is the same, save for the chemical differences), well, it doesn't look like this marriage is going to last.... and to make matters worse, his darling nephew, Zelgadiss, whom he dearly loved (not that Zel remembered Chal anymore with that crazy headstuff going on), is dead! After a long time of debate, Anubis and Chalyss have settled on a divorce, not that any State would acknowledge a male-male marriage as anything more than symbolic anyway... and it goes against the morals of both their religions. Brokenhearted and anger-torn. "Poopy mood" doesn't quite do justice to Chalyss' attitude at the moment.

(Of course, that's the new Chalyss. The old one, whom Khasm rebuilt into the new one for Anubis, has been in some kind of stasis since the collar broke her. Even Khasm, a Creator, could not go against Laws willy-nilly, especially when they were being upheld; one can simply not steal a soul from a mesh when it was rightfully and legally bound. This was Khasm's dilemma and the reason he made a new body for Chalyss, transferring everything over to the new darkeling, imprinting the soul given by her own son, Yukio, with the old signature and even giving the new version the ability to control the rifts. The old body lay dormant in suspended animation, soul still bound to the mesh, still a slave of La Marquise and Serafelle. Somehow and for some reason that old body has awoken, shaken off the coil of slumber and is alive and well again. She's been dormant for some number of years, has no idea she ever married Anubis, that she's now a man or many other things. The original has returned to life... all she knows is she can no longer open rifts and therefore must call on the Jewel for teleporting. Eventually, she's going to find out what's been going on and sooner or later the she is going to meet with the he... and all hell will break loose.)


Anubis Shuten Douji

Anubis and Chalyss paired off after a long absence on his part and months of struggle on hers. She is very happy this has happened, for she's loved Anubis for some time now, and finally has his love in return. During a prank of Serafelle's, Anubis became a woman and Chalyss a man. Together, and by whim of Tiamat and Khasm, Chalyss became the father of Anubis' twins, T`aman Shen and Yukio Kagami. The first a quarter demon, the latter a full Lung. Chalyss and Anubis are husband and wife(FINALLY!!).


Machah


Machah is Chalyss' much older half sister, whom Chalyss has only recently learned the existance of. More personable than her other sister, Sylff, Chalyss likes her very much, but finds her an enigma. Machah doesn't speak of her past very openly. Chalyss has learned, however, that Machah is very powerful in many ways, and greatly respects her wisdom and advice. Machah is still learning to live in the modern world, and has caused Chalyss some financial problems as she keeps putting swords through most electronical devices, considering them possessed by small, noisy demons. Chalyss also wishes her nomadic sister was easier to get a hold of in times of need.


Sylff


Sylff was the first member of her clan, or any other, to establish contact with Chalyss, and that was originally to enlist her aid to kill Sylff's son, Hellrazer, a task Sylff has been trying to accomplish for untold centuries. Chalyss prevented the death blow, however, being moved by the Ruinling's pleas for mercy from his mother. Hellrazer escaped and Sylff cursed Chalyss for the failure. Sylff and Chalyss have since become very good friends, and close indeed. Only Sylff could reach Chalyss through her sorrow at murdering her son, S'karr. Sylff respects her sister and will stand up for Chalyss at any given moment.


Zelgadiss Greywers

Zelgadiss is a Chimera, part human, demon and stone. A shy 15 year old, Chalyss has found him to be nervous about his unique appearance, but extremely loyal to his friends, as she is herself. She genuinally adores the young man, and would not hesitate to aid him in any way he needs...even he does not ask or want it. She now considers him her nephew, and her clan has taken him in, protecting him as fiercely as they do eachother. Due to certain events in the chimera's life, Machah mindwiped him, to protect him. He no longer remembers Chalyss as he did before, associated her only with the pathetic Darkeling he saw when she broke under the collar. Also, Zel is now dead.


Valyn de Balois

The Drow Valyn de Balois...a Dark Elf Chalyss had considered a friend until he betrayed her and tricked her into taking a TearJewel, binding her in servitude to the Marquise and Serafelle. Khasm has freed her from the binding of the Jewel at long last...and whether Valyn still considers Chalyss a friend or not, she isn't sure. She, however, still loves him as one, despite what was done to her. Chalyss has always been stupid that way.


Xelloss

When Chalyss first met Xelloss, she had much the same reaction most do... she wanted him dead. His incessant chattering, without saying anything, annoyed her to fury. She did not kill him, but did discover he made a good punching bag. After the initial irritation, she asked the right questions and actually got to know him...what she learned she liked, but he did frighten her by knowing next to everything about her, especially if it concerned her demonside. Unfortunately, Xelloss slipped up and gave her information she was not supposed to have regarding Tiamat and Khasm...and they punished them both for it. Again, Chalyss and Xelloss disobeyed the orders of the two gods and were punished...they were forced to breed, as Tiamat was interested in learning what their union could produce. Despising physical contact of any kind, epescially of a sexual nature, due to previous heartache, and Chalyss having been used for breeding before by Tiamat and Khasm, the punisment was effective and painful for both...but Xelloss is now the father of Chalyss' second child, and she will defend Xelloss against those who would attack him.


Khymeara Da`Anae

Khymeara is the product of the forced breeding between Xelloss and Chalyss, a new kind of ruinling, the first female one ever, and definately the most stable. With Mazoku blood instead of god's blood, Khym is even more promising than Tiamat and Khasm expected. She has a little girl's mind in a woman's body, is something of a jokester, loves to laugh, and totally adores/favors her father. She has all the memories and powers of both parents, stronger than her mother but less than her father, though still formidable in her own right.

CONTACT

Chalyss' good friend and battlemate, Contact. First enemies, now almost sisters. Contact and Chalyss have the agreement to pretty much leave eachother alone in the tavern, but that is not always possible.


SNOWFIRE

Yndia Reed, the R.UN.ner Paul and Tee saved from Warpole and a Hunter Squad while Chalyss was in England. Yndia and Chalyss are very close friends and old hat at working together in a fight.


PAUL MAUL

A failed prototype for a new breed of Hunters...a technohunter. This one glitched first in the labs and then out in the field. Now it has taken on the personality of a deceased natural known as Paul Malone, and is a very large threat to the GUARD, but a very good friend and ally to Chalyss. He also lives in her house with Gild, Snowfire, Contact, and Talon.


TALON

The First...Talon is the nickname Chalyss gave Vashti when they first met and fought, Talon's werewolf side out of control. They are now close as sisters and extremely good friends. Chalyss tells her almost everything.


GILD

A young thief first found by Snowfire on the run from the GUARD, he and his twin Chase helped her escape and brought her back to Chalyss, who offered to let them stay at her house. They accepted, and awhile after, Chase was shot and killed in an unrelated drive-by shooting. Chalyss is worried about how Geoff is handling his brother's death.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES

KELVA

Kelva is the escaped drow slave Chalyss befriended months ago and gave the name Kelley. Chalyss swore to be her protector after she scared the young girl quite badly one night, and she has tried to uphold that vow as best she can ever since, but fears she has only caused the girl more trouble. Serafelle had Chalyss attack Kelley until she agreed to don a TearJewel, which Chalyss gave her. Kelley has since then met gods and seen things no human should have to witness. Chalyss feels responsible for this and wishes she'd never have pulled the young lady into her problems. Kelva has since gotten rid of the TearJewel and was awarded an orb/ring of DarkeLight by the Creator Tiamat for witnessing the destruction of Hades. This orb makes Kelva a minor Creator and a very powerful force.

VASIS EBONWIND

Vasis was a young empathic priest in training when Chalyss met him, and consequently Jewelled him as well to anger Orcus, a demon Lord. She felt terrible afterwards, but at least he has some protection now...and is currently a novice Pleasure Priest of Serafelle.

DONACORI

A little halfling, part shadowelf, part dragon, Chalyss thinks it's just the cutest thing she's ever seen, and thoroughly enjoys lavishing attention on it. Even though she is not pleased with what it has to do, or what is has done, she finds him abslolutely adorable and understands its pain over Spirit/Jilhessa. Dona, however, has matured overnight and is now very much a he.

BEYR KCIN

An elf she met through Vasis, Beyr and Chalyss hit it off well and Chalyss finds her quite good company,....the elf packs the food away and has an amiable nature.

JULIAN MOORE

A robot from Mars and a smartmouth, Chalyss first saw him on the bar counter with one of her etched sundae glasses, eating her icecream. She got over it quickly and even put wards up over the boy to protect him from Valyn's cruel spells, which the robot cannot handle. She likes him well enough and has even told Vashti to keep a well-stocked freezer for him, icecream gallore.

KATTOSHA

The woman, a merc, who was able to talk her down from her full demonhalf when Chalyss fought Anubis of Cruelty/Loyalty. She loves this woman as a sister and was not pleased when Teksi brought her the woman's sword hand for the copper ring. She grieves the fact the woman is dead and is unaware, as yet, that Katt is now a vampire under Iuz's rule. (DECEASED)

LORD PALADIN

The only man she ever looked up to as a father figure, never having one of her own. She loves him dearly and wishes the best for he and his family, but is uneasy......his wife is bound to Graal.

SCORSCHA

Daughter of Kattosha, this one she really hated, but Aerik went in and utilized his bond with Chalyss. Now she loves her as a good friend. Scorscha is the only one who can go on both lists. And with the advent of Chalyss getting a new mind, body, and soul...free from the Jewel as well...her thoughts are again her own. She may no longer love Scorscha.

ENEMIES AND HATES

ORCUS

The Demon Lord Orcus.....Chalyss actually has a tiny bit of a soft spot for this guy....he's so fun to tease. Though he has almost killed her several times and would love her dead, he has not, as yet, done so. And she enjoys confusing him. Orcus, however, has been destroyed by the Mazoku Nyran, for beating on poor Khymeara. He is very, very dead. Now, he's alive again and in a new Eshvan body thanks to Serafelle.

DENEGOL

She intensely dislikes this one, part dragon, part Fae, twin to Sahal, whom she likes. If she knew the full story behing the youth, she may change her mind, but as she does not, she hates and fears him...he has proven to be able to counter all her defenses including the Jewel, and that does not set well with her at all. Denegol is married, by The Eternal Night's law, to Chalice, Chalyss' full Darke Lord side.

HADES, A GOD

The god of the underworld, Chalyss has no idea what made him start bothering her...but has become pregnant with his child, a pawn in one of his schemes. Not only does Hades terrify her, but so does the Ruinling son she she has borne him. Hades, his twisted aspect, has been destroyed by Tiamat.