KAGE-NO-KOROS

Kage-no-Koroshi rose from a ruined crescent empire where surgeons fused alien carapace to samurai bone to forge the perfect enforcer. He was crowned warlord after crushing a coup with tentacles of braided steel and a grin that unmade obedience. His kabuto is a coronet of stolen gods, its horns plated with sacrificial gold; beneath it his jaw is a lattice of serrated teeth and whispering servos that speak in the tongues of the vanquished. He rules the Rift marches by ritual terror and austere code, hunting rival houses while cataloguing their names like trophies. Each victory feeds the living architecture grafted to his spine, and every lost oath is woven into a new appendage. In the dark between stars, merchants tell children Kage-no-Koroshi keeps a ledger of debts that never expire and that the last thing you see before the lights go out is the slow, polite bow of a warrior who remembers honor as a blade.