From Introduction: Loss of Face Ershabet was born a seeress, prone to strange and portentous visions. But it was not the future that she saw — or at least, not often enough for her powers to be of help to her family. What they at first had thought was a blessing turned out to be an empty promise. But her dreams were not empty, for in them she saw the Mother of a Hundred faces. She offered herself in devotion at once, and received her just rewards. The faces she borrowed from her fellow cultists — weird creatures scattered across many worlds — brought her the prosperity she desired, even if it was not always an honest living. But as the years passed, she grew disillusioned with this cult she had joined. It was not enough for her to trade faces with someone far away. She did not want to give them back. She wanted to own them. So too, did she grow to hate her co-religionists, especially the monstrous ones. In time, even the mere thought of some inhuman creature using her face was enough to make her sick. And so she bade the Mother goodbye and forged a new path for herself — a path of murder. Some would say that Ershabet became more monstrous than the ones that she despised. But then again, most of those who learn her true intentions do not live to tell the tale. For though she wears a mask of mummified faces, skull bones and all, she is not quick to tell how they are procured. That would scare off those she wishes to procure new faces from: her fellow adventurers.