The Sisterhood of Culinary Excellency and Perfection

Formerly known as the Serpent Sisterhood of Purity and   Grace to those who are in the know, the Sisterhood was established originally as a secret society devoted to avenging the loss of the Snake Minister's purity and grace.  The group believed that the Rabbit Minister had overstepped his bounds and taken from her her virtues when he had seen her naked without her wanting him to do so.

But later on, the sisterhood learned of the folly of their group's direction.  And after a failed attempt to assassinate the Rabbit Minister, discovered a much greater calling that needed their attention.  With the Tiger Minister's financial backing, the group vanished for a few months, only to reemerge as the Sisterhood of Culinary Excellency and Perfection.  The group now has spread to have Chapter Houses through out the lands and secretly functions as safe houses and resting points for the Tiger Minister and her allies.

One Chapter House recently was razed to the ground however, and the sister known as Li Tong has vanished.  There are rumors that Li Tong still lives and plans to avenge herself from whoever had attempted to burn her down with the building, an act which consumes her with obsession and individualism.

The Snake Minister

The Snake Minister
Jing Tiāntán 
played by Mahar
As Dean of the City of Sages, Jing Tiāntán is responsible for keeping much of the Empire’s sciences intact. A healer by profession, her main focus is to develop innovative medical techniques for the betterment of the Empire’s health. Her own passionate interest however does not preclude her from supporting other arts and sciences; she respects the martial arts though she shows little aptitude for them. Still, she is happiest in her surgery and laboratories as she develops cures for the use of the Empire.

Increasingly she has been pressed to look for cures to victims of the Shadow. In her opinion the Shadow is a blight upon the earth itself. To this end she has started looking more and more into cases of survivors who have stumbled out of shadowlands. She does not like what little she has seen.

To this end she’s been trying to get support from the Emperor to look into the phenomenon of Shadow. Unfortunately for Tiāntán, she herself does not have much influence in Court. Her studies have kept her away from its daily workings, and her icy demeanor has alienated those few people who had bothered to know her. She doesn’t understand courtiers for their seemingly facile passions, and she dislikes that the Emperor would rather listen to his affirming set of popinjays than to her.

Ironically, she would be a good courtier had she the inclination to be one. She carries herself with grace, and beneath the cold exterior lays the mind of a creative sensualist. These are traits seldom seen---her impatience with fools has shown on more than one occasion, and this has left her an unpopular, albeit respected, figure.