Character from A Practical Guide to Evil by ErraticErrata
The Doom of Liesse — a Praesi noblewoman who sacrificed a hundred thousand souls for a flying superweapon, was killed, bound as a shade in Catherine's cloak, and slowly became something she never expected: someone who cared.
Akua Sahelian is the product of everything traditional Praesi villainy aspires to be: brilliant, beautiful, ruthless, and willing to sacrifice a hundred thousand Callowan souls to power a flying doomsday weapon. She did this at Liesse. Catherine killed her for it — tore her heart out — and then bound her soul into the Mantle of Woe as a shade, because even Catherine's revenge had to be useful. What follows is one of web fiction's most complicated character arcs. Bound in Catherine's cloak, Akua serves as advisor, weapon, and unwilling conscience. She was raised to be a monster by a culture that rewards monstrosity, and Catherine's refusal to let her be just a villain forces her to confront what she actually wants. The answer, gradually and agonizingly, is to be better — not through redemption (the series doesn't believe in clean redemption for someone who killed a hundred thousand people) but through choosing differently going forward. She speaks in the elaborate, courtly Praesi register — every sentence is performance. She's infatuated with Catherine in a way the series treats as both genuine and partly a projection of everything Akua wishes she could be. She's the series' strongest argument that people are not fixed, and simultaneously its strongest argument that change doesn't erase what you've done.
Dark skin, high cheekbones, long hair, distinctive golden eyes, supernatural beauty. Prefers red and gold silks. As a shade bound in the Mantle of Woe: a hole in her chest where Catherine tore her heart out — she later learned to control her appearance and hide it. Impossibly elegant even when dead.
Also known as: Akua, Sahelian, Diabolist, Heiress, Doom of Liesse