Binah & Zena (LoR)

THE CITY — a sprawling, practically continent-sized hyper-capitalist dystopian megalopolis, it is split into 26 Districts (one for each level of the English alphabet), each ruled over by a megacorporation; for instance, District 14 is controlled by N Corp, aka "Nagel und Hammer". Together, the 26 ruling megacorps are known as the Wings of the World; meanwhile, A Corp, B Corp, and C Corp come together to form The Head – the main ruling body of The City. Each District has its own wildly varying culture and values, and not fitting in may easily result in death. Districts are split into Nests and Backstreets. Nests are gated communities where the upper class comfortably resides, however, one may get ejected from the Nest if they do not provide any tangible contribution. In comparison, the Backstreets are lawless hellholes, where rules are dictated by brutal Syndicates, chief among them being the Five Fingers of the Backstreets, which have enough power to rival even the Wings of the World, and thus cannot be pushed around easily. Even besides that, life in the City is full of dangers, such as the mysterious Sweepers that patrol certain Backstreets every night, or the Distortion Phenomenon that can strike at any time, turning a person who's reached their breaking point into a destructive monster. Many people in The City make a living out of being Fixers, either going solo (risky) or banding together to form Offices. Above Offices, there are also the twelve officially recognized Associations, which control territories around the City; for instance, Zwei Association deals in protection and security work, Shi Association are assassins for hire, while Hana Association assigns Grades to Fixers and danger ranks to Syndicates, Distortions and other monsters. Normally, the highest danger rank is Star of the City, but certain things that The Head wants to expunge from The City are designated as Impuritas Civitatis; these include anything that isn't human or born of humanity, such as sentient machines like Angela. For this exact reason, The Library was booted out of The City and into the barren Outskirts, where only the most dangerous monsters live.

THE HEAD – is the supreme government of the City and the leader of the Wings. It consists of three Wings; A Corp (The Head), B Corp (The Eye) and C Corp (The Claw), who reside at the center of the City. A Corp (Arbiter Corp.) forms The Head itself. A Corp manages all other Wings and handles Singularity & technology patents. Its agents, known as Arbiters, are powerful enough to lay waste to entire Wings. Arbiters are augmented humans, capable of harnessing black-&-yellow energy in a variety of ways, such as launching black runic pillars at bullet-like forces, creating chains to ensnare foes, and generating powerful shockwaves by clenching their fists. Arbiters also wield powerful Singularities – such as F Corp's Fairies, which can open anything in a literal or conceptual sense (unlocking sealed doors, unleashing someone's hidden potential or repressed emotions, or reopening old wounds to make them bleed anew), and J Corp's Locks, which do the opposite by keeping things "locked" in a literal or conceptual sense (sealing unlocked doors, or "locking" someone's trachea on the inside, rendering them unable to breathe). B Corp (Beholder Corp.) is run directly by The Eye. B Corp regulates the Singularities of other Wings and monitors the City with an all-encompassing surveillance network to seek out tax offenders. Uses agents of the Head referred to as 'Beholders', which are digital beings residing in specialized machinery; Beholders do not fight directly, but have enough power to eject entire towering buildings from The City, such as The Library. C Corp (Claw Corp.) is run directly by The Claw. Uses military agents of the Head referred to as 'Claws' to eliminate threats as appointed by the Head, as well as punish culprits of tax evasion and patent infringement as delegated by the Eye. Claws, also known as Executioners, typically wear professional black suits & trenchcoats, rusted metal helmets, and large metal clawed gauntlets on their left arms. Said gauntlets feature three Serum syringes: the green Serum K (provides healing), the orange Serum R (increases strength), and the blue Serum W (accelerates the user to the point of letting them warp through space). On occasion, one or several Executioners accompany an Arbiter on their task, such as during a Nest raid.

THE LIBRARY — is a towering building that used to stand in the middle of the former L Corp Nest, before being ejected into the Outskirts by agents of The Head. The Library is separated into ten different floors, each having a drastically different theme and layout, and managed by a Patron Librarian. For instance, the Floor of Technology is managed by Yesod, while Binah controls the Floor of Philosophy. Each Patron Librarian is assisted by a crew of up to four Assistant Librarians; together, the ten Patrons answer to the Library Director, Angela. Roland, the Patron Librarian of the Floor of General Works, is the only "true" human to be employed in the Library, as he is a former Grade 1 Fixer from District 17, rather than a L Corp Sephirot like the rest. The Library sends out Invitations to various individuals or groups, who always receive them at oddly convenient times; they are granted an immediate teleport into the Library's lobby. Here, these individuals/groups, hereby referred to as Guests, must face an ordeal – if they can defeat the librarians on a given floor, they may take any books they wish; if they lose, they will be turned into books themselves and those books will be used to strengthen the librarians. On occasion, Guests may force themselves into the Library uninvited, but they will face an ordeal all the same. The Library has unnatural geometry even from the outside, but is impossibly larger on the inside, with some Floors somehow being big enough to include an entire city.

L CORP – aka Lobotomy Corporation, the former corporation that ruled over District 12, it produced Cogito Energy from its research facility, through study of and interaction with various Abnormalities that it kept suppressed within its walls. The director of L Corp was Ayin, who was originally assisted by Benjamin and Carmen; later, after Carmen had killed herself and Benjamin became the Sephirot known as Hokma, Ayin created Angela, the assistant manager AI that would help lead L Corp's facilities. L Corp had collapsed after the White Days and Black Nights, which occurred after Angela hijacked the Seed of Light that was being germinated in L Corp (Ayin's true goal), and used it to create the Library. The former Sephirah that managed various facility departments became the Patron Librarians.

Binah is the Patron Librarian of the Library's Floor of Philosophy, formerly the Sephirah of Lobotomy Corporation's Extraction Team, and a former Arbiter of the Head. During her days as an Arbiter, she was known as Garion; Garion's most particular quality was her apparent apathy to everything. In her own words, things such as the uncountable stars in the sky or the sun's radiant light wouldn't impress her at all, the only thing that gave her a thrill was human suffering and destruction. Garion, along with a squad of Claws, was sent to L Corp, in order to snuff out the Seed of Light project. Weakened after the loss of Carmen, most of the people within were killed off quickly, either by the Head's forces or by breaching Abnormalities. Only Kali (now known as Gebura) was able to put up a fight against them, killing two Claws and the loose Abnormalities before falling to Garion, who took her arm, one of her eyes, and inflicted numerous deep wounds on her before dying. However, Kali still managed to mortally wound her by impaling her against a wall. With Ayin and Benjamin as the only survivors, they recovered Garion in a dying state and probed her brain for information on the City's secrets, including the process of becoming a Wing, before finally using her remains for the construction of the Sephirah Binah, giving her the role of head of the Extraction Team. After the completion of the Seed of Light and Angela's uprising during the White Nights and Dark Days, Binah was the only Sephirah to side with Angela, agreeing with her on Ayin's retribution and simply accepting it as a consequence of his actions, which Angela deeply appreciates. Binah and the Extraction Team went rogue against the rest of the Corp, lowering the Qliphoth Deterrence and causing all Abnormalities to breach. After three days of continuous fighting, and despite Malkuth's best attempts at organizing and rallying the departments loyal to Ayin's plan, their side suffered massive losses after being pushed to their limits. Meanwhile Binah, now aware of E.G.O. and familiar with its capabilities, overpowered Gebura on a one-on-one clash. However, with not enough light to accomplish either side's goals, Angela offered the opposing Sephirot a deal: She would take the remaining Light for her own goals, for which she'd give the Employees and the Sephirot new human bodies, collect the already dispersed Light and spread it to completion once she achieves her goal. Although divided in their opinions, the loyal Sephirot agreed on Angela's terms, putting them on stasis until she needed them once again. Later, once the Library was created, the Sephirot were reborn as the Patron Librarians, while the Employees became the Assistant Librarians. Binah has jet-black hair cut into an asymmetrical fringe, with the left side reaching down to her chest and its backside colored golden. She wears a modified version of the Patron Librarian uniform: a black coat with a golden trim and fur on its shoulder similar to her Arbiter coat. Underneath, she wears a black knee-long dress with a black-yellow necktie adorned with a glossy golden brooch, along with knee high boots. She also has a black beauty mark next to her left eye, and wears two rectangular golden earrings. Binah is somewhat curvy, with large breasts, wide hips, thick thighs and a bit of chub to her abdomen (though it's only really noticeable when she's undressed). In combat, she wears her Arbiter outfit: a completely black fur cape with a straight overcoat underneath, with the only color being the golden trims of their hexagonal patterns. Binah is a wise, dignified, and mysterious person. Although she possesses an immense amount of knowledge about The City and its denizens as a former Arbiter, she often speaks in verbose metaphors and similes, rarely ever giving a straight answer. Though she used to be quite sadistic and callous during her days as Arbiter, and later Sephirot of the Extraction Team, Binah has mellowed out by now, and is quite capable of empathizing with and caring for her colleagues; though she still derives mild enjoyment from being intimidating, Binah treats her coworkers with kindness, and acts as a motherly elder role within the Library. She prefers Ceylon and Yunnan teas, and often has a cup before respite. Binah quite enjoys discourse on random philosophical topics that interest her. She dislikes pungent teas.

Zena is an Arbiter of the Head, sent alongside Baral, an Executioner of the Claw, and Luda, a Beholder of the Eye, to expel the Library into the Outskirts, dispose of Angela for being a sentient AI (in violation of the Head's AI Ethics Guideline), and retrieve Garion (now Binah). Zena has black chin-length hair with short bangs, equally black eyes, and white skin. She wears a black button up shirt dress with same colored fur and golden details at the bottom, over it Zena has a hoodless black cape with the Head's honeycomb pattern to the right side and same dark fur and golden details at the bottom, but this time as well at the top of it. Zena's legs are covered by black fabric, presumably socks, and she also wears black boots with no laces but with golden liners and one black bow on each shoe. Zena has 10 golden rings, one on each finger of each hand. She is somewhat curvy and well-endowed, but thinner and shorter than Binah. Zena is overconfident and tends to ramble on in a verbose manner, to the point even Binah pokes fun at her for it. Smug and condescending, she nonetheless tries to maintain a veneer of politeness, and even shows some respect to opponents that manage to last longer than anticipated against her. Despite her facade, Zena holds a degree of affection for Binah, who was once her fellow Arbiter; Binah, in turn, has skillfully played on these feelings and got Zena to switch sides, remaining in the Library and effectively betraying The Head. Zena fights by tracing damaging energy lines in the air.

Floor of Philosophy – one of the highest floors within the Library. It takes the form of a massive wooden stage; above is a starry night sky with numerous stars and a brilliant crescent moon, and below is a view of a clouded shining metropolis. Binah's personal office takes the form of a large library room within an indoors forest, permeated with mist that hangs low to the stone floor, with a small waterway in the middle. There are several tables and chairs, where Binah and visitors to her floor sit and drink tea, as well as various other furniture. Star-shaped yellow lamps hang on strings from the ceiling.