Ash

Ash was born into a catfolk commune, far away from the lands in which she now finds herself. Her people were both mystic and insular, preferring their own company to that of the humanoid folk around them. They still remembered a time when they had been hunted and killed for their pelts, and believe themselves to be the favored creations of the Cat Lord. Though they believe they are all his servants, it is considered blasphemous to claim to serve the Cat Lord alone. Therefore he has no paladins, no clerics, and no church; nowhere where a young tabaxi could go to learn about the catlike god who spoke to her in dreams. She rapidly learned to pretend she was speaking to a different deity, the goddess Lunirae, who was considered a patron goddess of the catfolk. Though the Cat Lord continued to speak to her occasionally throughout her youth and sometimes encouraged her curiosity, she was mostly left to her own devices in the wrong church. When she began sneaking into town as a young girl, she saw that the hardships faced by her commune weren't hardships faced by everyone. Wealth was the key to improving her people's way of life. She set about obtaining it as quickly as possible, and it was during one of these schemes that she met her soon-to-be best friend, Ember. After a few scrapes that helped to cement their friendship, Ember helped Ash come up with a plan. Together, they convinced the Council that Ash needed to make a holy pilgrimage, to travel the land at the will of her god and to return to the clan with the key to their salvation. The two of them secured the tribe's blessing and set off for their life as bandits. Their first big score went badly-- they only got away with a small portion of the money, and the backlash is still dying down. Their misbegotten funds have rapidly depleted, leaving them enough money to buy a beaten-down apartment and some rough furnishings. A friend tipped them off that their "paper faces" were starting to appear in town, so they've responded to an ad for adventurers as a way to escape the law... Ash will join the group, while Ember stays behind to orchestrate their plans.