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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8504132" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Of the people the party has actually met?Jafar el-Aly, the richest man in the richest city in the known world (Al-Rakkah, the city where the characters live, though only one of them was actually born there.) Jafar is conniving, utterly amoral (and sometimes immoral), something of an elitist, and only really cares about his mysterious habits and advancing his business interests. He'll gladly order the deaths of inconveniences if he thinks the potential benefits outweigh the potential detriments, but he does know when he's erred, and can apologize when he thinks it's worthwhile. The players know they can't truly trust him any further than they could spit him, but that within narrow areas he is...not "trustworthy" but "reliable." You can be sure he'll look out for his own best interests, and if you can manipulate the situation such that your goals just so happen to be a requirement for his own best interests, you can be sure he'll be there.Of course...[SPOILER="Spoilers!"]What they don't know is, "Jafar" is just the most recent human guise worn by a wicked black dragon from Yuxia, across the sea, having fled from punishment by his fellow dragons there. Dragons in Yuxia see themselves as "guardians," watching over the land and its people not as rulers but as guardians, guides, gardeners...basically there to protect and nurture. A few dragons go off, though. Whether believing that they're superior (which, in fairness, they are much more powerful, nigh-immortal, and highly intelligent), or feeling slighted and slowly building up resentment, or simply a malicious streak that grows with time--whatever it is, a few Yuxian dragons cease to be as benevolent as their fellows. These are given an opportunity to mend their ways, but if they don't, they will be hunted down, killed, and banished by their fellows so they don't ascend to becoming spirit-dragons (which would be significantly harder to deal with than physical ones, albeit less overtly dangerous). This one black dragon, however, escaped from Yuxia rather than getting caught, and the gold dragon sent to track this one down has only recently arrived in the region. The party has voiced furtive suspicions already, but are wise to not immediately resort to accusations--if "Jafar" knew they suspected him, he'd clamp down on all activities and just wait out the next decade or two, 'cause he has the time and they don't.[/SPOILER]There's also many dangerous but not strictly evil characters the party has run into somewhere along the line. Most prominent among these is His Majesty, His Eminence, Sahl Thaqib Humaidan al-Nazar yatt-Asmar, Prince of the South Wind and de facto ruler of Shalast-Asmar, the wind-swept Jinnistani city-state by the sea. A dashing gentleman several centuries old, though because he became a noble genie pretty early in life, he looks about 25-30, Prince Sahl is almost as dangerous with a sword as he is with his silver tongue. He's a master of Raqsa Shifrat Al-Sahhir, the Dance of the Wizard's Blade; he's enjoyed many a non-lethal duel...and has survived numerous duels to the death as well. But he mostly enjoys novel experiences and interesting events, so being introduced to the party as one of the suspects of a murder investigation very much caught his fancy, and he's personally extended an invitation to them to come visit him sometime soon-ish. He's neither evil nor good (he's probably TN with a very slight CG leaning) but he's probably the single most dangerous person they've met, and that's counting the spoilered stuff above.</blockquote>

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