



Sadren
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Content Warnings: War, violence, addiction.
Sadren is a folk hero to high Asthaom, celebrated for his hand in authoring its river and preventing Motu’s war. Once a devoted Lexarc, he betrayed the cause to warn Scaiuq of Motu’s imminent campaign, and was made a martyr by the god for his sins. He is at present a prolific poet and songwriter, and a deeply respected figure throughout Asthaom and beyond the ocean black.
Background
According to wartime census, Sadren is dead. Excommunicated from the fanatical Lexarcs, he fled West and became a casualty of Asthaom’s only war. He would have you believe that he really died out there. In many ways, he did.
An addict turned poet-priest, Sadren came to the Lexarcs
seeking penance and treatment. Few had faith in his turn of heart, but of all of them, Sadren took Lex’s teachings to heart the most faithfully. He chased a better life through rigorous study, zealous devotion, and good old-fashioned Temple Asceticism.But the Lexarcs had long turned their eye from theology to more “practical” matters. They had every reason to. Agriculture sapped the fertile coasts of high Asthaom, and each day the gods bled themselves dry for a thirsty diaspora. With no water left in the desert to sustain its people, they would soon be forced to choose exile—or death.
Their fortunes changed when a humble priest recovered a body from the ocean black. By total fluke, Sadren had found Saint Lex in the flesh.
Her return turned high Asthaom on its head. It was no coincidence that she should appear during their darkest hour. The desert rioted in celebration, sweeping up them both.
But as he quickly discovered, this Saint Lex was not the same as the one from his stories. A strange woman inhabited the Saint’s body, and she was restless, deadpan, and deeply disturbed with the way of things—a far cry from Lex’s charisma and compassion. Sadren didn’t care. Everything about the woman challenged his beliefs, and he couldn’t help but adore her for it. In turn, she grew fond of Sadren, and the two became very close. Their unlikely friendship vaulted Sadren through the Lexarcs’ ranks, and he enjoyed a sense of purpose and belonging for the first time in many years.
It wouldn’t last.
A sickness haunts Sadren, as it does the rest of high Asthaom. One-by-one his Lexarc brethren are taken with delusions of mythical water and xenophobic dogma. Crying out for change, and emboldened by the return of Saint Lex, Motu’s Lexarcs march West to Scaiuq. What begins as an excursion into terra incognita quickly becomes a desperate war for water.
In this land where gods abandon men, Sadren is forced to confront the ugly truth of his order, and of himself. There comes a night when he and Roan can stand idle no more. They flee to Scaiuq, warning anyone who will listen of Motu’s plans. They become the first to dissent, to cry out from within Lexarc ranks… and the first to realize that Motu’s love is conditional.
Sadren is martyred by the god for his betrayal. His ‘death’ is so unspeakable that no deserters follow in his footsteps.
Excommunicated, exiled, and left for dead, Sadren is a broken husk of himself. He is so grief-stricken that he truly believes he should have died a martyr. Unfortunately for him, he lived—and although he can’t imagine a future for himself with or without the Lexarcs, there are still others who won’t give up on him so easily.
Relationships
Tab between characters below.
Roan
Sadren pulled Roan out of the ocean black and into the strange socio-political fabric of high Asthaom. The two have since become unlikely friends.
Or perhaps they are likely friends. In a way, they are both nobodies. Sadren comes from a modest background as an ink printer, a meek and timid man that history won’t miss. Roan inherits a storied past that she doesn’t fully understand, and hasn’t been given the chance to figure out her place in. The two find common ground in not knowing who they are, yet.
But Sadren also has the sun in his eyes for Roan, and this makes her uneasy. He is a zealous Lexarc, and although he may not have found his stride yet, he hinges all of his worth on Motu’s teachings. To say that he’s desperate for Roan’s approval is an understatement.
Despite this, he is one of the first to recognize Roan as her own person, rather than a shadow of Saint Lex. Her dissident nature challenges Sadren’s beliefs, and brings out a gentleness in him that he hides from the world. Roan might not admit it, but sometimes the only thing stopping her from giving up and throwing it all away is Sadren’s deep well of compassion. His company keeps her grounded in the face of a destiny she didn’t ask for—even if the man can’t see past his own fanaticism, yet.
But their relationship hasn’t escaped the notice of those who find it useful. Motu keeps a close eye on his daughter, even as she pushes back against his Lexarcs and tries to find her own way. If she won’t listen to him, perhaps Sadren can change her mind.

Dai Hei
There were few lovers quite like Sadren and Dai Hei.
The two met as young men. Sadren was an inkprinter, then, a soft-spoken and mild-mannered man from a working-class family. Dai Hei was, well, Dai Hei. Anyone worth knowing in high Asthaom knew of him. He was the brash and handsome heir of the wealthy Dai family—widely considered a worthless layabout and a disgrace to his family name, but good for a cheap thrill.
By chance, Hei bumped into Sadren at his family inkprinting shop. They exchanged a few words, and that was it. Hei couldn’t get the man out of his head. He bothered the inkprinter whenever he could. Sadren was stunned by the attention, but flattered.
What followed was a whirlwind romance. To the public, it was like something out of a folktale—Dai Hei, the prince, sweeping the poor printmaker off of his feet. Hei’s antics drew out the giddy, theatrical side of Sadren that he didn’t know he had, and Sadren’s quiet, introspective demeanor brought Hei back down to earth. Together, they nurtured a deep love for the arts and for each other.
But their love affair belied other, darker things. Hei’s hedonistic lifestyle revealed the razor’s edge of their addictive personalities. Soon, every high had a low to match… And the two men went everywhere together.
When Sadren later seeks treatment from the Lexarcs, Hei can only follow him into the order’s arms, mystified. Sadren is taken in with their grand ideals, but Hei finds more comfort in the practical, and the communal. It helps that his family name does favors for him, here. The two even catch Motu’s eye when they rescue the god’s daughter from the ocean black. They seem destined for greatness with the Lexarcs, and for a time, life is good again.
But something changes between Sadren and Hei, something they can’t see until it’s too late. Hei wakes up one day as General Dai Hei, and is outfitted for war as Motu’s most esteemed Lexarc. He finds Sadren and Roan stealing away in the night, speaking of death and drought, speaking of Motu as a despot, a dog-headed god-tyrant who sows hate in the hearts of men and sends them away to be slaughtered for his cause. Speaking heresy.
Sadren begs Hei to open his eyes and see reason, but he cannot. He only sees his lover leaving him to fight in a foreign war, alone. Hei tries to stop the two traitors, but they slip like water from his grasp.
Sadren flees West. Hei is heartbroken.

Len
Sadren came to Len in crisis, and boy, Len could tell. Newly excommunicated from Motu’s Lexarcs, Sadren and Roan fled West to warn everyone they could about the god’s plans to march on Scaiuq. But at this time, Sadren was coming down from the high of a broken relationship, the indoctrination of a fanatical cult, and physical addiction. Len laid one eye on Sadren and immediately saw himself in the man.
And not just because he’s a mess. Len and Sadren are both Sarikote, though Sadren was born and raised at Merike.
Len recognizes a deep, internalized hatred in him: All this time he had been taught that Scaiuq is a land where gods abandon you, that the Sarikote are a godless people… But it hides a yearning that he doesn’t have language for.Len does, though, and he intends to tell Sadren all about it. The Sarikote consider their cousins in the diaspora to be family, even if the Akiat don’t always remember this. And Sadren? He might as well be Len’s brother from another mother.

Notes
- Sadren is blind. He lost his vision when Motu martyred him.
- Sadren’s mask is modeled after a condor. It’s made of carved bone, which is unusual in high Asthaom. Bone is typically used as an accent material, or left raw and unadorned, because few animals have bones that are large enough to be shaped into a mask. Acquiring such a material would be very expensive. For this reason, his mask is considered gaudy and ostentatious. It was later broken and repaired into the shape it takes now.
- Sadren’s cane is used like a white cane, to perceive obstacles in his path. It’s made of a thick creosote branch that is sturdy enough to lean on, as well.
Gallery
Posts
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003 – Sadren and Beverages
Anonymous wrote: To Sadren the Poet… do you enjoy a good beverage? What kind? Would you be open to grabbing one with a fan some time? (Return address is stated to be :just throw it bottled inta the ocean) My friend, What they don’t tell you about immortality is that your body forgets how to…
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Sadren
I’m a poet. Nobody in particular.

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