Shard

Hope Shard, the Fucking Professional is a cleric of Ashra and a junior member of Malachai's detective agency.

Appearance
Shard's appearance is typical of a human from the Benin Skyfall area, except for red-gold eyes which lead strangers to believe she is an aasimar. She has light brown skin and long black hair worn in a braid or bun while she is working. She is 5'8" tall and of average weight. She tends towards practical clothing (including all her protective items and armor, whenever possible) but cleans up acceptably for formal occasions.  She usually wears gloves.  Unlike most Nyasan clerics, she does not follow extreme modesty codes unless in a fundamentalist region, because her own religion has no such requirements.

Personality
Shard was raised to be extremely practical. She has a trained suspicion of everyone and everything, but somehow managed to avoid becoming bitter or cynical on a personal level ... so far. She has a commanding, blunt tone and is quick to judge others for poor preparation and planning, but is probably compassionate under there somewhere. So far, everything about the outside world has been a pleasant surprise for Shard.

Abilities
Shard is best at spellcasting and buffing others. She is still finding her niche within the party. She also has odd flashes of insight about things connected to the Old World, which may or may not still be accurate. She's also telepathic, which is kind of fun.

Weaknesses
Shard fights much better with allies than alone. She is not a physical combat cleric, as she could never cast Divine Power to her mentor's satisfaction. Like most clerics, she's far weaker without adequate preparation. Also, fuck antimagic fields and reflex saves.

History
Shard's childhood is ambiguous, in that she might have had one. She was raised and trained in the Maloch Institute, working with Leilah herself for the last few years of her training. Her experience of her god is mostly through strange reactions, thoughts, and emotions entering her mind. Being the only cleric of her faith -- and possibly the only person of her subtype -- taught her tolerance of other faiths and species, as long as they're around her tier level. (Shard has actually been raised to think like this.) She became a caster cleric when her attempts at Divine Power never succeeded at raising her BAB. After a couple of internships with the older clerics, she graduated the Institute and received a divine vision of where to go for her first real job.

In Aegis
Shard traveled to the Northern Continent to find Malachi Parov, whom she had never met before. About a month before tracking him down in Sirhom, she shared The Dream; her role was to give advice, blow a bunch of buffs that didn't help much, and fly out of harm's way. She found Parov and asked for a job in his detective agency. So far her main contribution has been to keep an eye on things and act responsible.

At the Dark Tower, Shard looked too deep into the hivemind nothingness fractals in Prince Edward's head. She would like to make sure there are no more hivemind nothingness fractals.

While on Kai Vaseri's demiplane, Shard found an altar to her god. When Mordred approached the altar, Ashra possessed Shard, nuked Mordred, and, along with Smoot, made peace with Kai. She also briefly summoned Leilah Maloch, who gave Mordred a minor annoying curse because anything more would be kinda unfair.

Relationships
Malachi Parov - The Boss. Seems pretty levelheaded so far, but I wonder if he's strung out on something... Also, his standards for food are pretty low. (Still can't get over the fact they cook food here instead of conjuring it! It's pretty fun, though...) He might be crazy now?

Zwei - She seems competent. And she speaks my language, literally. I like this one.

Olearius Smoot - Not sure what to think about him, I think he threatens Fort... He's funny, though, and alchemical buffs are always good. I didn't want to kill him.

Seleto DeBoer - Creepy, but possibly effective? I'm glad he doesn't talk like that any more.

Samoyev - Ow, my head! Trips the "familiar" detector, and has some interesting outbursts. Now he's someone else who doesn't seem as interested in me. Probably for the best.

Ariel/Puck/Echo - They clearly know some interesting stuff. Why don't people talk to them more? Seems to have wandered off...

Mordred Thog - Huh, I guess I murdered him in cold blood. Now he's probably not going to want to share the party with me. I'm still rather confused about all of this.

Meshioline - Possibly untrustworthy, possibly useful? He might become the kind of friend that you can't actually trust at all (you know, normal friends...)