Countess of Karvena, head of House Balventia, the Integrationists’ candidate bride for Baahir — and one of the most powerful divine gifts in Hazad, reputed to be able to bring the dead back to life.
What We Know
- Daughter of the late Lucius Atius Balventius and Fadia Orissa.
- Politically a Pragmatist herself, though her family leans Restorationist. (S2)
- The Integrationists see an opportunity to marry her to Baahir. (S2)
- Her seat, Karven, is a pilgrimage city; her house gift is Divine Channeling — a religiously resonant match for a future Sultan, and a politically explosive one (see Royal Court Factions).
The Gift (GM)
- Despite not being formally a member of the clergy, she possesses one of the most powerful divine gifts in Hazad.
- It is reputed that she can conduct the Ritual of Rebirth — which can bring a mortal back to life, if the Maker so wills it. Compare The Faith of the Maker: some Blessed can perform the miracle of rebirth, but only sparingly and in service of the Maker’s will.
- This makes her unusually influential within the Eastern Church — a lay noblewoman with standing in a church whose head is the Sultan.
The Party’s Route to Her (S6)
She has gone from a name in a faction map to the party’s next assignment.
- Ismad is providing a letter of introduction to House Balventia — because the house has been involved with the church for centuries and is therefore the way in to the Order of the Dawn, the monastic order that kept the Monastery of the Dawn over sanctum #1.
- Uncle has been cultivating her for years. She is not a cold approach; she is an asset the party is being handed access to.
- Boundaries, from Ismad: be careful raising the sanctums and the new cosmology with her — though it’s not totally off the table. And do not raise Haroun’s temptation with her at all.
- She is also the recommended channel — she or her scholars — for researching whether the Order of the Phoenix used divination magic during the war forty years ago. Which bears on Estelle.
- Baahir’s verdict on her, relayed by Ismad: she “was not pretty.” That is the heir of Hazad on the Integrationists’ candidate bride.
Why She Matters Now
The Curse on Titus— overtaken (S6). Father Jamar, produced by Ismad within an afternoon, lifted the curse overnight. The expensive conversation the wiki has been dreading for a session never had to happen, and the party owes Lusia Balventia nothing.- The marriage question. A candidate bride for the heir who can also, reputedly, raise the dead is not merely a religiously resonant match. She is a strategic asset in a court where Sultan Fahim is secretly in poor health and the Crown Prince Awad is freshly dead. See Royal Court Factions.
Speculation
Awad is dead and there is a woman in Hazad reputed to raise the dead. Nobody in the sessions has raised this, and the silence is itself informative — either the ritual is far more constrained than its reputation (“if the Maker so wills it” is doing enormous work), or it was tried, or someone decided not to try. Worth asking Uncle carefully. See The Death of Crown Prince Awad.
Speculation
Marrying her to Baahir would put the most powerful divine gift in the country inside the royal household. Marrying her to anyone else keeps it out. That is a motive for several factions to care intensely about who she weds, quite apart from Karven and its pilgrims.
Speculation
Ismad’s instruction is the interesting part. He will introduce the party to her, and expects them to research a monastic order and possibly Phoenix divination through her — but the sanctums are “not totally off the table” while Haroun’s experience is flatly forbidden. That is a very precise line. Ismad is willing to risk her learning that the party is hunting old temples; he is not willing to risk her learning that a Hazadi noble was called to by something in one. The distinction is doctrinal, and it tells the party what the Eastern Church would actually burn them for.
Speculation
Her guards fought at the Ulpia estate the night the capital rioted — Balventia men and servants consolidated with the party’s defense (S6). The party is about to ask her house for a favour, and has just spent a night bleeding alongside its people. That is worth more than a letter.