Hushed Storm

Hush is a tall, lanky tabaxi with narrow shoulders and medium length fur. While they don't seem to have a lot of muscle, they nevertheless are quite athletic and move gracefully.

While Hush's arms and hands are more humanoid, their legs and feet are more cat-like with a digitigrade structure and tough toe-pads that Hush walks on. They also have a long tail with smooth fur that can help them balance and tends to have almost a mind of its own when Hush is distracted or agitated.

Hush has a round face with a relatively small nose that is surrounded by white whiskers. Like a cat's, their eyes are reflective and show up very well in low-light conditions. Their natural expression is neutral with mostly open eyes.

Hush has a faint scar across the bridge of their nose and a few notches in their ears that all appear to have healed relatively well. Also, they have a ring of black fur around their neck.

Hush's toe-pads are almost completely black, except for the second toe on their left foot, which is half black and half bright pink.

Hush is a great climber and thanks to their cat's claws and great sense of balance, they can scale even vertical surfaces with relative ease. Also, they can use their claws as an improvised weapon.

When they don't expect to require armor, Hush wears traveller's clothes with their cleric's vestments on top and the amulet that bears the holy symbol of Bahamut around their neck. Since their feet aren't built for them, they don't wear shoes.

When Hushed Storm came to the temple of Bahamut in Waterdeep, they did so under the guise of Golden Tale, a well-meaning but naïve acolyte of Bahamut, the dragon god of justice.

Having grown up in poverty, they used that persona to score a roof over their head while doing only very little work in return. However, as they spent time amongst the clergy and witnessed the charitable work the temple did, they started feeling guilty for exploiting the good will of their teachers and fellow acolytes.

Intending to expose themselves as a fraud, they volunteered in the temple’s clinic, certain that they had no real capacity to heal the sick. When they tried to explain that they couldn’t actually help their patient – a farmhand that had broken his arm – instead, the injury healed under their hands as if they had worked divine magic.

Confused and questioning whether maybe, during their long con, they had actually inadvertently become a cleric, they attempted to bless some water in their private quarters later, to no effect. From then on forward, whenever surrounded by others, Hush was seemingly capable of channeling Bahamut’s divinity, but whenever they tried to anything of the sorts by themselves, nothing of note would happen.

Unable to expose themselves without directly confronting one of their superiors, something that Hush felt incapable of doing, the Tabaxi decided to accept their fate as an involuntary cleric of the god of Justice and stay with the Temple.

For a few years, that rouse went well, until an acolyte was found murdered and the Alms that the temple had collected where nowhere to be found. An extensive investigation was launched and Hush, among the other acolytes, extensively questioned.

While they were tending to their evening duties, Hush overheard a meeting between the priests of the temple and the guards, during which one of the priests mentioned that the enclave Hush pretended to come from had no records of a Tabaxi named Golden Tale amongst their ranks and certainly hadn’t sent them to Waterdeep.

Fearing arrest for a crime they didn’t commit, Hush paid off Vaerys, a Tiefling smuggler they had formed a loose friendship with, to get them out of the city and have been travelling with them ever since, still haunted by the strange ability to work divine magic while observed by others, but unable to do anything of the kind by themselves.

Hush views themselves as neither male, nor female, although they prefer presenting themselves as male.

Even as a child, they didn't feel like they were female and started adopting he/him and they/them pronouns instead. Since their name isn't gender-specific, they kept their given name and view it as a connection to the family they had to leave behind.

Hush's attraction isn't gender-specific and more based on how compatible others are to them. They don't get much out of purely physical interactions and need a deeper connection with their partner to be able to enjoy deeper intimacy. While they would love to enter a long-term relationship, they haven't felt comfortable letting anybody get that close since they fled to Waterdeep.

Hush has had an extensive education while living at the temple of Bahamut, though it has been heavily slanted towards religious studies.

Hush has pretended to be a cleric for over half a decade and has helped a lot with all manners of duties at the time. Having been a thief before that, they are adept at sneaking around and picking locks, as well as coming up with excuses on the fly.

When an acolyte was murdered at their temple in Waterdeep, Hush's rouse was discovered and they had to flee the city, convinced they'd get arrested and wouldn't get a fair trial due to their long standing deception.

Growing up in poverty around four siblings, with no mother and a father that barely scrounged enough food together to keep his children alive has left Hush with a lot of trauma around food insecurity and the threat of homelessness. Even worse, having their entire life uprooted twice, has made them paranoid about being imprisoned, discarded or chased away again, and they suffer from anxiety when they feel like the people around them don't have a use for them.

Hush is a quick learner and easily grasps the connection between different concepts, however they struggle with studying something for a prolonged time and lose interest fast when learning something requires a lot of repetition.

Hush believes strongly that someone's standing in society shouldn't determine their ability to access their basic needs. Having grown up poor and remembering how hard their father worked to try and keep them and their siblings fed, in their opinion charity is a duty rather than a virtue for those that have the means to support the less fortunate. To them survival should always be considered more important than personal property, making theft for food or other necessities morally justified in their opinion.

However, despite believing that there are circumstances that make certain crimes permissible, Hush has a strong belief in measured justice. When someone breaks the law and causes others undue harm, Hush beliefs that they should be put to trial and punished appropriately. Particularly undue cruelty against those that can't defend themselves - children, animals and the infirm, for example - should carry harsh punishments and long sentences in their opinion.

Having seen first hand how much someone's experiences can shape a person, Hush does their best not to judge others through first impressions and to let their deeds speak for themselves. While they try to keep an open mind, they are not naive and don't turn a blind eye when real evil is done.

Withholding food or water for any reason; slavery; hurting and particularly beating children; causing unnecessary pain for animals, although Hush is okay with them being killed for food, as long as it's done quickly and with as little pain as possible; treating someone as lesser because of their race, gender or social standing.

Having made a promise to Bahamut to serve him and spread his worth while they were trapped in the death-house, Hush now strives to prove themselves worthy of his blessing and to prove to themselves that they can be more than a petty thief.

Hush can make themselves appear like a different person both in mannerisms and appearance. They are very perceptive and can remain unseen when necessary.

While good around people, Hush struggles in the wilderness and with orienting themselves, having lived in cities their entire life.

Likes

• Warm milk
• Bonfires
• Large Cities
• Valerian Root and Silvervine
• Summertime
• Theater/Acting
• Fish
• Boats/Ships
• Climbing
• Cats

Dislikes

• Getting wet, particularly water in their ear
• Getting treated like a house cat
• Thunderstorms
• Loud Noises
• The smell and taste of alcoholic beverages
• Coffee
• Mud
• Spiders and other creatures with more than two eyes or four limbs
• The undead, especially Ghasts
• Snow

Hush is generous, charitable, has a great sense of fairness and justice and stands up for the things they believe in. They are willing to compromise where they can, but hold firm on the values that are important to them.

Having spent years pretending to be someone else, Hush struggles to open up to others, often feels like it is easier to lie than to tell the truth and doesn't deal well with confrontation.

When Hush is very relaxed, they tend to purr and sometimes even tend to have just the tip of their tongue sticking out their mouth. When stressed, they tend to groom themselves vigorously, focusing on their hands, arms and tail since those parts are the most easily reachable for them while they're wearing clothing.

If they get the opportunity, Hush washes themselves daily. They detest being dirty and fear that dirt in their fur could cause it to felt together, becoming an untamable mess.

Hush believes in both the human and the draconic pantheon, and their allegiance lies strongly with Bahamut, the dragon god of justice. They generally have respect for most good and neutral deities they are aware of and a disdain for evil ones - especially chaotic evil, since they believe that the only reason for their existence is to cause innocents and good people pain and suffering.

While Hush is good at reading others and blending in, they struggle to hold genuine conversations or be really open around others. Overall, when trying to be themselves, they are very insecure and awkward and the only way they've managed to get past that is by completely hiding their true personality behind the mask of another persona.

Hush changes their mannerisms as frequently as others change their clothes, and can put together a wide variety of guises from that of a well-mannered, reserved upper-class citizen to a rowdy dock-worker that swears like a sailor. When they're not trying to portray someone else, they tend to be very soft-spoken and have a nervous, restless demeanor. When they feel nervous or threatened, they often groom themselves to try and calm their nerves and when they are on edge, their ears tend to twitch at the slightest touch.

Hush learned to make bobbin lace during their time at the temple and still loves to do it when they have the time and materials.

While Hush's voice and overall speech patterns are as malleable as their mannerisms and appearance, their actual voice is clear, surprisingly deep and very soft. They usually speak relatively quietly and after spending most of their adult life there in a clear Sword-Coast-Accent. They tend to roll their Rs, almost in a purring sound and have notable vocal fry.