Kore, a woman of human seeming, holds her audiences at the Arraf Tavern in the Undercity by the sheer beauty of her voice. Known for a welcoming manner, she will often arrange flowers upon the stage before she sings, kindling a warmth that draws in patrons of every kind, tieflings and half-orcs among them. Yet she is more than a performer: she is an advocate for her community, and above all for its vulnerable young. Her practical bent showed plainly when she stepped into a fraught business over a band of children under the sway of a dwarf gang-leader named Usta Kerim, arranging safe lodging for them and asking twenty gold for their protection.
Kore's bond with the local community runs deep; she gives Undercity coin-passes to those she would help, and enters gladly into talk of spiritual matters, of Sufism not least. On a visit from Gizem she owned an interest in religious instruction and offered guidance for the navigating of the Undercity, warning against dropping her name lest it invite extortion. Her influence reaches to the figure known as the Ghost of March, who keeps order below; she spoke of Alemdar Mustafa Pasha as a legitimate leader, respected by the common people, and agreed to speak for the children that they might meet him, a further proof of her office as a bridge between the several communities.
Kore is often attended by her large half-orc associate, Mervhan, who helps her serve food and drink to her guests. Her presence in the Undercity marks a mingling of cultural and spiritual currents, and lends the tavern much of its vibrant air. Of late she has grown more entangled with the several factions below, the Ghost of March among them, favouring guarantees of safety and free movement whilst preserving the integrity of the Undercity's spaces. At a meeting in the hall of the Ghost's compound she warmly greeted a company and made their introduction to Alemdar Mustafa Pasha, taking care to say that her occasional referrals to him imply no tie of patronage. She spoke too of her eagerness for the coming "specters" horse-race, confessing a partiality to a horse named Blue, though her engagements at the stage would keep her from attending.
In another light Kore is revealed a creature not wholly of this world, who performs as part of a band and weaves a Darkness spell into her very lyrics. Her aspect carries a hint of otherness, which Sidra al-Najjar marked, observing that she is not entirely human. In an encounter aboard a cabin she appeared at first a woman in distress, and then turned before their eyes into a wicked Shade, a sign of her commerce with darker magic. When Osman Hamdi Bey and the others entered the cabin, she warned Rufus Dimitrious to "seek out the Ghost of March" and vanished below decks — an exchange that lays bare her enigmatic nature and her deeper part in the unfolding events, for she and her accomplices then worked a ritual of teleportation, a further proof of her command of the art and of the mystery that hangs about her true intentions and her true nature.
More lately Kore, known also as Cori, has shown her loyalty to the Blue Team in the chariot races, a partiality that has coloured her dealings — a conversation with Jean-Zera Mongé among them, who sought her counsel on the racing. For all her professed support of the Blue Team, she gave him nothing to act upon. As Cori she is a spectator at the Spectral Hippodrome, falling into talk with those about her in the stands, holding the Blue Team the underdog and joining in the custom of shouting "Joseph!" at the rider by way of encouragement — a cry, she allows, that carries more of jeering than of cheer. She speaks of attending the Hippodrome with a friend named Yasmine, of their shared preference for the Blue Team, and of the wagers they lay upon it when they may, though she confesses that on this occasion they chose to eat rather than to gamble. And her growing feeling for another has begun to shape her relations within the Undercity, adding one more layer to a persona already complex enough.