Claudia, Sin-tax-taker of Jaris

((Image inspiration - linked to avoid breaking tables or slowing page loading: http://imgur.com/a/T08cH ))

With platinum blonde hair complimenting her angelic blue eyes, a woman gracefully strode between two ranks of armored knights, flanked by robed priests of Jaris carrying censers of incense. Her shapely body was scarcely concealed, and although there was an undeniably holy and chivalrous motif to her outfit, it was the precise opposite of chaste. Her white lace doublet was so wide open, that if not for the cleavage-bearing metal 'armor' she wore about her chest her breasts would be entirely exposed. As it was, most of them was already visible. Though she was bedecked in elaborately-etched plate armor greaves and gauntlets, her trailing half-skirt showed off her lower body, covered in white silk leggings that were as tight as a fitted glove and concealed precisely nothing of her curves... a pair of sexy leggings blended into them. As she moved with poise and grace, the high-heeled, faux-armor stiletto shoes she wore clicked against the marble floor with every step...

Outside the walls of the great castles and cathedrals of the Griffinwald Theocracy, the priorities of the lower class of citizen were not always so holy as the Theogonists might like to pretend they were. Aside from the raucous commoners, seeking to leaven their hard lives with earthly pleasures of song, drink and flesh, the nobles and even priests and priestesses found it sinfully easy to slip in and out of notorious streets and dens of iniquity - and usually coming away, having satisfied their baser desires, with no thought of judgement or punishment. So it was for most of the previous cycle - but towards the end, the Grand Inquisitors had tightened their grip over the lands and sought to cleanse such embarrassing scourges as bawdy houses and theaters. First they used manacles... then the scourge. And, in the end, the inquisitors brought fire and sword to those who had trespassed against the Theocracy's holy dictates, in the name of Jaris.

So it had been for young Claudia a few years ago, during that fateful time when the old chosen pantheon was displaced by the new. She had been born and brought up in a seedy inn and alehall called simply "Prudence's" after the elderly, outspoken proprietress. Claudia's mother, Alexis, had been a barmaid, her father just some patron who'd given Alexis an extra gold coin for 'room service', which all of the serving girls there were expected to provide upon request. Even so, Claudia had considered it a happy life - she always had plenty to eat, lively music and dancing every night, and a stable future. When she'd turned 18 there had been a place awaiting her as a serving girl in turn, which she'd happily accepted, knowing nothing else.

Then one night a lone priestess in white robes had come like a ghost at midnight, only being noticed when she hammered an ornately illuminated decree on parchment to the door of Prudence's, demanding all the workers, owners and guests come to the nearest temple altar and seek repentance immediately, for they had violated the laws of the land. To wit - the women there did not properly trim their hair short and dress only in scarlet to ensure that they were never mistaken for honest women and given the chivalry they did not deserve, thus endangering every proper lady in the city for being mistaken with a wench by revelers and drunkards. Furthermore, they had knowingly served ale to a priest who had sworn a vow of temperance, and turned a blind eye to a priestess sworn to chastity when she came seeking company. Every gambling den, tavern and brothel of the street where Prudence's operated received a similar accounting of their supposed crimes and demands for repentance.

The patrons, minstrels, gamblers and serving girls had jeered and told the silent woman to begone. 'Smirking Street', as it was called, had operated with benign neglect from the inquisitors for many years now, and they did not intend to change their ways due to one scrap of paper. The priestess left, alright. Less than an hour later, an unearthly glow suffused Smirking Street, and many intoxicated visitors were heard to inquire, with a laugh, how dawn had snuck up on them so quickly once again.

But this was neither the sun nor torchlight. The unnatural purple twilight was cast by the fine crystalline armor and weapons of scores of fair-yet-terrible women, all looking almost alike save for their hair and gradations in their strange, rose-hued skin. These were Daevite Vindicators - beings of holy magic... beautiful to look upon, incorruptible in their loyalty to their gods, and utterly without mercy. The scofflaws of Prudences' and the other taverns might have gotten away with being lashed, branded, and otherwise tormented... but someone panicked and fired a crossbow bolt into the lead Vindicator's throat, slaying her outright in what turned out to be an incredible stroke of ill-fortune. As far as the daevites were concerned, all the faithless humans within shared responsibility for this heinous act; systematically, they beheaded and impaled everyone they came across.

Those who tried to flee were given no quarter, cut down from afar. Those who fell to their knees and begged forgiveness quickly enough (which had to be quickly indeed) were not given a quick , but 'shown the error of their ways' by having their eyes put out, then being stripped and having sword edges slowly traced over their naked bodies, leaving them covered in shallow, painful cuts.

Claudia herself was not so fortunate. She had shrieked that she was still innocent, a virgin even, and that even if all else were punished, she should be spared. It might even have worked - but hoping to spare his own miserable life, one of the gamblers visiting the tavern, the last to be executed, had shouted Claudia was lying, and that she was no virgin for he had lain with her himself.

The daeva Vindicators had thanked the man for his candor, and then struck his head off and hoisted his body on a spear like all the others who had tried to fight back. While Claudia sobbed helplessly, held down on her knees, the Executioner in charge of the daveas methodically listed off the days worth of torments that Claudia would endure before her as punishment for nearly deceiving the holy agents of Jaris. But when the scourges were brought and Claudia was being stripped nude in preparation for the divinely-mandated retribution, the unearthly crystal-bedecked women fell to their knees, covering their eyes and begging for forgiveness... but it was too late, for a searing-hot flare of silver light engulfed them, Claudia, and the entire tavern...

When Claudia dared to open her eyes at last, realizing that the deathblow was not coming, she saw that all of the daeva had been reduced to statues of lifeless glass, frozen eternally in their gestures of vain supplication. All of the surviving serving girls and taverngoers had their wounds miraculously healed, their sight restored, and their pain salved. Tattooed upon Claudia's lower abdomen, on the pale skin between her hips and five or six inches above her womanhood, was the gleaming symbol of Jaris - this young barmaid had been chosen. The wheel of divine authority had turned, and now Jaris served a different set of morality. Ignorance was no excuse; the Executioner and her cadre had failed a secret test by trying to punish Claudia and paid for their mistake with their lives.

It had taken some time before the terrified young human woman could begin to process the fact that she was no longer reviled as a harlot and sinner, but suddenly worshiped as a living icon of Jaris. She was brought to the altar of a Grand Cardinal who explained that, by divine will, Claudia had been chosen to spread the glories of the Holy Human Empire, its pantheon as a whole, and Jaris himself in particular.

When humble Claudia, overawed by the grandeur of the cathedral, protested that she knew nothing of preaching or crusading, the white-bearded cardinal had given her a warm smile and said that, in his wisdom, Jaris had already ensured that she was brought up in surroundings that would teach Claudia what she needed to know...

For Cardinal Velius had just performed a holy divination, and the truth had been revealed to him that this girl's chosen calling was to be a divine messenger to all the harlots, wenches, barkeeps, pimps, madams and catamites of the Holy Empire - to inspire them through words and example (and, if necessary, through ) to obey the new laws of Jaris that were being handed down for them specifically. Claudia's quest was to bring the word of Jaris to all the sinners whose livelihoods had previously been utterly forbidden, but who could now be good and faithful members of the Empire and the Theocracy, so long as they followed Jaris's holy commandments. For the way of Jaris was to follow commands from on high, and if the new pantheon was to place sensuality as a proper aspiration for mortals now, then the followers of Jaris would cleave to the new chosen deities' commands to glorify sex, promiscuity and hedonistic lust for dominance as best they could.

And thus, to seal Claudia's appointment as the first and foremost of the new order of Sin-Tax Takers - or, as the common folk quickly came to calling them, "Prostitute-Paladins", the aged Cardinal anoited Claudia's face with his holy seed.