Exalted Ashtoreth Heshbeh

Frown lines have permanently attached themselves to the sides of this woman's overly full mouth. Faint furrows mar her otherwise impeccably smooth brown brow and her soot dark eyebrows are pinched together more often than not in considerate thought. Wisps of silvery threads stream through her long black locks, generously donating an extra air of dignity to the already regal way in which she holds herself.

A younger sister of Sufet Kothar Heshbeh, Ashtoreth, having been educated alongside him to some extent, picked up many of the lessons of rulership which their father had sought to impart. The entry of Hadash into the empire came while Ashtoreth was still a young adult, and she made early journeys to Sanctuary to learn about this new place which their then king had determined was going to be so central. She was taken with the strict roles assigned to Adanan nobility, as opposed to the absence of any expectation placed on Hadashi nobility, and she applied to herself the same ideals of sound rule and upholding the law.

She has spent decades now serving her brother and the interests of their house, involved in the administration of the city and, more broadly, of Heka Nome, and in dispensing justice. She oversees a number of more junior magistrates, and only more serious cases tend to make it to her. She still routinely visits Sanctuary to represent the interests of their house.

Ashtoreth is at turns a governor and a judge, depending on what is required of her in the moment, though in fact, if anyone requires anything of Ashtoreth, it is Ashtoreth herself; her brother trusts her implicitly and does not spend too much time scrutinising her work. She is fair but utterly immovably firm. If she has directed that a task be undertaken, she gives all necessary support and time to do it; few dare risk the calculated and inevitable punishments that are forthcoming if they are found to have shirked their duties. The law is the law and she will not brook breaches of it.

Among people who are not subjects of House Heshbeh, she might not inspire quite the same sense of trepidation, although she still has a way of looking at and intense way in which she engages with people, with all the intensity of the Sun, as if she can see their every fault. In Sanctuary, she is regarded as an eminent legal scholar, with broad knowledge of both codified and customary law from across the empire.

Ashtoreth is an excellent administrator and judge.