#93 The Reinvention of Anya

June 22, 2022

#93 The Reinvention of Anya

Having infiltrated the very heart of the Salas Nova Dawnbringer Crusade, Anya Liedl proceeded to grow rapidly in influence within the Sigmarite enclave. In order to maintain her control, she limited the number of mortals to whom she gave the blood kiss, but rather founded a secret cult of vampire-worshipping mortals, the Disciples of the Red Redemption. However, by drawing upon her innocent and youthful appearance, Anya's methods of influence were often more subtle.

The family who so naively took her in as an 'orphan' provided not only the recipients of her first blood kisses, but the cover under which she was able to operate in public. Donning a white veil of mourning, she presented herself as 'Anya Sorrowkin', a tragic and innocent young orphan of war, helpless and dependent upon the grace and mercies of the good people of Salas Nova. She also circulated a persistent rumour that she was in fact the heiress of a huge fortune back in Glymmsforge which was currently under the control of her grasping, manipulative aunt (a story which perhaps reveals a subconscious resentment of her blood-mother Lady Beauvoir).

The combined opportunity for publicly-lauded charity and possibly fiscally-expressed gratitude was enough to make the nobility of Salas Nova fall over one another in their efforts to help and support Anya Sorrowkin. It was not long before her power in the Sigmarite settlement was more than anyone could have imagined for a little girl who grew up in the slums of Glymmsforge.

Through her mortal family's fate, she also enjoyed unusual links with other factions of the undead in the Barfunweltz area. Her father's soul had long ago been claimed by the Procession of the Foolish Martyrs, her mother had given herself up to the Raptured Court of flesh-eaters, and Anya herself had killed and reanimated her own brother Dieter as a deadwalker zombie.

Such ruthless ambition, political influence and necromantic power inevitably subdued other undead creatures. Anya Sorrowkin recently took into her service the Gravewyrm, a giant winged serpent she found scavenging among gravesites not far from Salas Nova. When need arises, she rides her monstrous beast, but only if she is sure her she will not be recognised by the Sigmaite fools.

While Anya maintains her orphan girl persona in Salas Nova for the time being, she knows the time will soon come when her lack of physical ageing will arouse more suspicion than her veil can avert. Even now she plans for the day she will be forced to move on to new schemes, making herself invaluable to the Bloody Pilgrims on the battlefield, although her spy network still cannot rival that of Lady Beauvoir.