:: Random NPC—Mani, Draconian Monk ::

Short in stature, but with long legs, Mani cuts an almost frog-like figure among the other draconians of the Iguanar horde. At a drunken glance, some might mistake her for some overgrown Ranai, if it weren't for her thick hide of frosted scales and tiny, squinting, articulated eyes. Always drawn to a more traditional form of dress, she can frequently be seen practicing the forms of her Scorpion Style—an impressive demonstration of the discipline she gained from long years of study—in the Temple of Hibernation under the sands of the Akkedis Desert.

No stranger to secrets, Mani safeguards the location of her daughter, the result of a youthful dalliance with a draconian archer from another tribe. So suddenly was their passion kindled those many years ago that neither had even given the other their name before their union had reached its climax and they were obliged to return to their homelands. Mani laid the egg in her mother's cave, never telling her what had happened, and for a time she happily thought forward to the day she could meet the offspring of her unexpected love. But what was happiness soon turned to despair.


Soon after discovering that the egg of the cross-bred spawn had been laid, Mani's destitute and depraved mother intended to sell the egg to the highest-bidding merchant. After a short time, Mani's mother actually succeeded in lining up an interested buyer—a rich and bored taxidermist who only wanted to raise the creature for its eventual placement in his collection of rare beasts.

In a literal bid of desperation, Mani secretly arranged for the egg to be purchased by none other than her own lover, promising as payment a jewel the likes of which none had ever seen. The deal was struck, and Mani's lover wordlessly collected his daughter's egg. But when Mani's mother demanded payment, Mani only gave her own name—which means "Jewel" in the draconian tongue. And as surely as none had ever seen her name, the price had been paid.

Yet Mani's mother was wroth with her. Fleeing with his daughter's egg for both their sake, Mani's lover told her where he would take their daughter and then escaped, never to return. Shamed, and in penance for her part in arranging the sale of her daughter and duplicitous escape of her lover, Mani entered the monastery, vowing celibacy until she could one day be reunited with her lost family.

To Mani, that was all a lifetime ago, it seems. Yearly, she emerges from the Temple of Hibernation and takes a pilgrimage to the nearby lands to challenge any archer she meets to shoot her through the heart with but a single arrow. The reward she offers is always the same: a jewel the likes of which none have ever seen. While her superior skill at deflecting arrows makes any archer winning this prize unlikely, Mani secretly intends to give any worthy champion no more than her name—a jewel that surely has been seen by no one, nor ever shall.

One day, she is convinced, the archer she longs to see again will pierce her heart with his arrow, and with her dying breath she will, at last, give him her name.