Elegant, graceful, and typically quite beautiful, those trained by the Assanari School of Dance make some of the best ballet dancers in the known spheres. Their performances are popular at all the major nobility-run halls, and they even own their own building upon Bral itself. Performing some of the most well-known wildspace ballet's ("The fall of Enillen the Mighty", "The Spelljammer and the Dragon", and the greatly known "Stars fall", always performed with a fully live orchestra), they are known as the best dancers (and acrobats) this side of Arvandor.
What isn't known about the Assanari school of dance, however, is how they make the majority of their monies, or how they really train for such grace. The secret of the Assanari, known only to the most graceful, and talented of their school, is that of not only training the best ballet dancers, but the best burglar's and thieves, of any guild.
The school charges 1 gold per week for it's standard ballet training, with classes held thrice a week, lasting two and a half hours, and containing anywhere up to forty students. Private lessons are held, at a cost of 5 gp, lasting one and a half hours. The other training provided by the school, however, does not cost anything, apart from true dedication to the school, and taking part in various dances, both public, private, and definitely non-legal.
The school's main targets are primarily nobles themselves, scouted during performances. Beautiful elven wines are typical at these performances, making it easy to get away with the good ol' pickpocket the ring from the handshake trick, but also making the nobles generally less observant. Burglaries are the typical trick, however, and due to the school's constant prescence on Bral in particular, suspicion has not fallen upon them as yet.
Their primary enemy is the Juggler, one of the only people to know of the school's tricks. It is rumoured, within those in the know in the school, that she was once a member, although no-one knows her identity, and all the "grace's" (as the best talented in the school are referred to) deny everything. The Juggler doesn't appreciate the Assanari's refusal to pay tribute to her, nor the fact that they "horn in" on her territory. The Assanari thieves horn in on everyone's territory, in fact, but they are so good at what they do, that only the Juggler notices which "jobs" are theirs.
Kori is the highest Grace, and founder of the Assanari school. He began the school over 150 years ago, starting on the small asteroid of Assanari, within the tears of Selune'. Migrating to Bral in the last thirty years, he brought a few existing teachers (and students) with him, but has mainly trained more in the time he has been upon Bral. Kori performs burglaries himself, quite often, enjoying the thrill and the rush involved. He has an elven shortsword +3, but otherwise owns no items of note, apart from a ring of protection +2, worn as an ear-ring. He dresses casually, but dons a mask when "on the job", covering the upper part of his face. His other clothing includes a night-blue jacket, leaving his smooth chest bare, a night blue set of pants, and matching gloves and boots.
Kori is also well known as a ladies elf, and spends much of his time courting nobles wives, the higher the house or bloodline, the greater the conquest. There is actually a price on his head in several spheres for this, even though the ladies are (quite) willing. His typical "signature" is a lock of his beautiful silver hair, left upon the ladies pillow, tied with a red ribbon, and with a red rose.
Along with his cousin, Coral, Kori worships Erevan Illesere - but usually only in times of great need.
Black haired Risa is the head teacher at the school, but lies second to Kori in the other side of business. Spending most of his time performing, practicing, thieving, and courting, Kori has little time for teaching, thus earning Risa the main job. She does half of the group teaching, and eighty percent of the private classes. The remaining twenty percent is taken by other assistants, and Kori himself, who trains (typically) the most beautiful, and graceful of young women.
Risa met Kori when she was only eighteen, some ten years ago. She was instantly suckered in by his charms, and loved the feel of performing in shows, but he soon became bored with her, and she eventually found him in bed with not one, but two other young students, at the same time no less. Deciding, however, that she loved the life so much, she stayed on, Kori being incredibly apologetic by not really remorseful.
On burglaries, Risa wears a midnight blue cat-suit, similar to those worn by the other's who run on burglaries (except Kori, described above). She carries no weapons, preferring to flee, and has never killed anyone, or caused anyones death. She is mainly in it for the performing, and actual ballet, but occasionally, out of obligation, and a youthful wish for a quick rush, goes on the burglaries Kori asks her to go on. She is, however, a quite proficient wrestler, and has quite a fair bit of muscle packed into her lithe, beautiful frame.
Risa is known as the unrequited mother within the school, having taken in several orphans at various times. She worships the special god of travel and travellers, celestian.
Lae is a young boy, of no more than 10 or 11 years old. He was picked up by Risa, lying in an alleyway of Bral, with a ghastly wound in his back. He does not speak of how he received it, although he did tell Risa, trusting her completely since she begged the local celestianites to heal him. Since, due to his (assumedly) prior thieving experience, Kori has taken quite a shine to the young lad, and even taught him the basics of courting the ladies. During performances, it is Lae who scouts out possible nobles as targets, as most of the noble women, quite intoxicated by the end of the performance, swarm around him after seeing him close the show (he is typically the narrator, or child star of the shows).
Lae enjoys the company of teenage women, although he is not sufficiently mature to enjoy their finer charms. However, being almost mothered by Risa (actually being an orphan), he respects women greatly, and see's himself as a gallant hero, out to woo the ladies, and champion their cause. Should he find out about Kori's wild flings and disastorous relationships, he would likely become very disillusioned with the elf, and possibly Risa for staying with the school.
Lae usually plays, as stated above, the child star of the show, or a halfling or gnome if one is needed. His favourite part is a grizzly old dwarf in "The fall of Enillen the Mighty", wherein he dons a scratchy (but fun) beard, and gets to run around shouting in a deep voice.
Another of Risa's orphans, Ella, as she is known to her friends, is a fourteen year old blonde girl, with an incredibly thin frame, but brilliant grace. She has been with the school since she was seven years old, and is typically Risa's understudy, incase anything should happen to her adoptive mother (or, more importantly, should Kori send Risa on a job during a show).
Ella is a good friend of Lae's, but dislikes Kori very much. She is old enough to understand his wily ways with women, and has been cautioned by Risa quite frequently to keep away from Kori once she is older. She also has a beautiful singing voice, and sings a wonderful elven tune in the "Star's Fall", and is considering taking up an additional study as a mage, so she may one day become a helmswoman, and explore the galaxy. Lae often talks of being the captain of a ship, and taking her aboard as chief helmsman, and navigator, and Risa as his first mate. In fact, Ella is learning navigation from Jareth, the school's bard, and looks like one day achieving this, through the accolades she receives in solo performances, and being the most requested private instructor (Risa is not requested, it is simply assumed).
Ella is (quite obviously) going to grow up to be an absolute bombshell. Allready she has attracted the eye of several young men, but due to her young age, and Kori's small but rather protective side, they have either backed off, or received a good scarring.
Jareth is actually the fourty year old bastard son of Kori, but only Kori, Jareth, and Risa are privy to this information. As the school's resident bard, he is responsible for all special effects during shows, and much of the choreography. Despite his high charisma, and great talent, however, he can be rather aloof and distant, and falls into fits of depression, broken only by his near perfect performances on stage, either with music, or dance. He has also taken to teaching the younger, permanent students of the school reading and writing, and in fact has taught Ella the basics of cantrips.
Jareth is proficient with nearly every major musical instrument used commonly in wildspace, and is a skilled baritone singer. He has only a few offensive/defensive spells within his repertoire, including sleep, color spray, invisibility, slow, and confusion. His main talent is with illusions, both audible and visual, and frequently suprises audiences by bursting onto the scene invisibly, sometimes within the crowd itself. He often plays the part of a narrator, along with Lae, both dressed identically, and Lae playing a sort of "apprentice narrator" role. It is quite spectacular when the audience is lulled into believing Lae the true narrator, and then Jareth surprises them upon the stairs, or within the crowd itself, throwing off his invisibility, creating lights and sounds with his illusions, and projecting his voice with other spells.
In "Star's Fall", the musical ballet number (which features no speech or narration), Jareth conducts the orchestra, ususally made of children. He is also the chief writer for the school, and is currently working upon a ballet named "Flight of the Felljammer", based upon the story of "Sarah's Star", written by Trampas Whiteman, and posted to the Spelljammer discussion list by Patrick Stutzman.
Jareth is a worshipper of Fenmarel Mestarine, the "lone wolf" of the elven pantheon.
Ail is the oldest member of the ballet, a retired ranger-turned rogue, who, while still generally attempting to uphold his ideals of good, joined the school having caught onto Kori's darker teachings. Now actually teaching some of those darker lessons himself, he makes sure a decent portion (from his own pocket, and unbeknownst to Kori) of the takings from burglaries goes to the needy, the poor, the sick, and to the churches when they are low on support.
Ail is actually sixty eight years old, his hair fully greyed. He typically plays the part of mages within ballet's, or wizened old sages. He is also the one typically dressed up (either with props or illusions) as various monsters, and does most of the set and stage repairs where needed. He teaches no classes, but does train with the school in general. While Ail dislikes stealing, and thievery in general, his spritely years as a ranger have made it easy for him to continue the lifestyle, and he scouts out the houses of possible targets, making sure they are (generally) not good people, or people in need.
Ail's patron goddess was the well-known Mielliki of realmspace. He has not communed for a long time however, both in fear of retribution for his (slight) misdeeds, and due to the relative distance to his goddess.
Cousin to Kori, Coral is also an elf hailing from greyspace. Training at a young age at a secret temple to Erevan, she joined her cousin when he took to the stars, stealing an icon from the temple, so that she could retain contact with her god (this being incredibly within Erevan's ethos). She learned Kori's roguish ways, and soon found herself aiding him in the founding of his schools.
Coral typically changes the colour of her hair, clothing, fingernails, and sometimes even eyes (through the use of magic). When on jobs, however, she wears all black, and keeps her long hair tucked up under a leather cap. She carries an elven longbow, with a quiver of ehlonna full of the various arrows described in the Complete Book of Elves. She also carries an elven longsword +1, of sharpness, that she recently pilfered from a noble house of Bral. It is also her current holy symbol (ref. Demihuman Deities, page 110, under priestly vestments).
Coral is also a (minor) writer, currently working on an anthology of Erevan Illesere's greatest tales, the title being "The Trickster and Quicksilver". It details his frolickings and pranks with compatriot Avachel (the draconic god Hlal), against the realmspace gods Helm, Bane, and Beshaba, and specifically, the time he stole Mishakal's (from krynnspace) sandals. Of course, none but elven children would likely watch such ballet, but, from time to time, she does "test" it out on the local elven population, if any. In fact, many elven families take their children to see the beautiful (and unknowing to them, shady) Coral perform these tales, with herself as Avachel, and Kori playing Erevan Illesere.
The school also contains several score human children of various ages up to nineteen, and several other Grace's, though none as notable as thosze above. At any given time it has 60 of these miscellaneous members, from all walks of life, and all races (although only one dwarf was ever seen in the school, and it was on a lost bet).
All up there are about a dozen thieves trained by Kori, apart from those above. They are each anywhere from second to fourth level, and all receive a +2 bonus to any dexterity based proficiency after a year's tutoring, as does every member, again listed above.
The school itself owns three tradesmen, and one squidship, mainly for transport use, while on tour. They tour at many well known space ports, and even some groundling (they recently performed in Palanthas, and only last year at waterdeep).