The world of Maldene has many secrets and mysterious peoples, but perhaps the most mysterious– and feared–  is the Noyon.

So what happens when you have something like a ninja, except perhaps even more secretive, more deadly, but put it in a world as magic-infused as Maldene?  You get a ‘Noyon’.  A ninja with powers of illusions, magics that allow it to shift shape, turn into mist so as to seep under a door into an impregnable fortress, or make themselves invisible so you can’t see that knife coming though they stand right in front of you. Normal enough magic spells for any good wizard, but a Noyon is trained, not simply in how to cast such spells, but how to do so to best effect. A Noyon can take what would normally be a simple enough magic spell, and use it in such a way so as to appear even more mysterious, or even supernatural.

And they know no fear, for they are fear incarnate.

For example, suppose a noyon is sneaking around attempting to break in somewhere; a place surrounded by guards. He would first use his training to move more silent than a cat, clinging to the shadows as if one of them.  All natural enough for a ninja, but then on top of that he casts a spell to make him invisible, unseeable by human eyes, then even if you’re looking straight at him there are two different reasons why you will not see him. Then maybe a spell of silence on top of the naturally silent movement.  Or maybe even a spell designed as one of forgetfulness, but instead used in a more subtle way, to only trigger off when one is looking directly at the Noyon and thus act as more of a subliminal avoidance aura. Magics used in such subtle ways are harder to protect against even if one has magical protections.

Or maybe to get his target the Noyon shoots out a dart, one with both poison on its tip as well as a magic spell to deliver it unerringly to its target, as well as perhaps another spell to paralyze the victim’s vocal chords so he can’t cry out for help.

The result is a combination of abilities that make the Noyon seem as something beyond human, beyond mysterious, and even otherworldly. If you have a Noyon on your tail, you might already be dead.

And yet, even among their number, there is one of increasing notoriety (as of the events of “Maldene II: Mysteries of Olde”), one whom even other Noyons will in the future show respect, and maybe even the closest any Noyon will ever come to showing a trace of fear. A figure known only as The Black Dagger.

As mysterious and secretive as Noyons are, their secrecy pales in comparison, for no one, no Noyon, no wizard, has thus far been able to discover the identity of the Black Dagger. Nor has any of its victims ever been able to escape. But what makes the Black Dagger’s reputation even more formidable is that the victim is actually given warning, in the form of receiving a black obsidian dagger ahead of time– the very weapon with which he will be killed. And when that act is accomplished,  and that same dagger found on the body,  the weapon will remain long enough to be discovered then vanish within a day afterwards.

Even amongst Noyons, that’s kind of scary.