Meet Mixie Shadowmuffin¹

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The derivation of Mixie Shadowmuffin’s rather unusual last name came from her great grandfather, who came from a distant shard and had a rather heavy accent. He could neither read or write, and so when a scribe took down his citizenship information on a form he asserted that everything was correct despite a rather notable misspelling, and was later too proud to correct the record.

Mixie’s great grandfather arrived at Valericon with a large stake of money and a disinclination to explain where it came from. Despite not being literate, he proved to be a shrewed merchant, and soon built a profitable business dealing in the import and export of spices and medicinal herbs. Mixie’s grandfather had his father’s shrewdness which he combined with a more proper education and flexible morality to grow the family business greatly, expanding its scope to include luxurious carpets, tapestries, and later on slaves.

Mixie’s father grew up in the lap of luxury and never developed a cutthroat instinct for business, preferring to the more gentle arts of music and poetry. He hoped for Mixie to become a fine lady, marry well, and sit around gossiping as the maids dusted the knickknacks. For a time it looked like he would get his wish, until one day when Mixie was 12 she snuck a small taste of a poisoned desert that had been prepared for her grandfather.
Mixie lay in a coma for 5 days, and when she emerged her old personality was gone, replaced with a new one that was significantly more feral. For several months she made no sounds besides animal noises, snarling and growling at anyone who came near. Eventually her mind began to heal, and she came more or less back to herself.

The new Mixie differs from the old in several important ways, with her id now much closer to the surface and likely to have its way. She is capable of great subtlety but only if it occurs to her to put her mind to it. Otherwise she is prone to impulsive acts without necessarily concerning herself with social norms. She might decide to wear war paint, or a hat with a feather four feet long, or dance naked in a thunderstorm, and is immune to any embarrassment such acts might cause most people. Other times she seems considerably more sane, but it is an effort for her to remember her old ways.

Mixie is a slender athletic girl a touch taller than average, with straight black hair and large blue eyes. She has had a black sunburst pattern tattooed around her left eye.

1. ©2010 Adam Griffith, Background for Mixie Shadowmuffin, a player character in The Riven World campaign.