Huh, I'd had in mind an entry for the last contest that would be perfectly fitting for this one (as in, the character's nickname was literally "Queen of Curses").
Huh, I'd had in mind an entry for the last contest that would be perfectly fitting for this one (as in, the character's nickname was literally "Queen of Curses").
I like that prompt, I hope I can actually think of something to enter. I've wrung out almost every mage idea I had left over the last couple years for my own personal autism.
Hm. Hopefully this works. I mostly wanted to get this out of my head after running across the term while researching the prompt, eheh.
Name: Madison Montaigne
Alias/Nickname/Title: Mail Order Murder, La Tourneuse de Pages
Gender: Female
Age: 26
Height/Weight: 160 cm / 51 kg (reported only by her familiar)
Birthplace: Toulouse, France
Appearance:
Personality
Forte/Likes: New books, locked rooms
Weaknesses/Dislikes: Guests, dust (allergic)
Natural Talents: Eidetic memory, handwriting
Natural Enemy: Jean Rum
Magical Attributes
Origin: Anticipation
Elemental Alignment: Earth
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: B+
Circuit Quality: B
Circuit Composition: Stack
Character:
Biography:
Among the various libraries of the Clock Tower, the most infamous to its students is the one they've named the Musaeum Clausum. Rather than being located near the classes or the workshops, its entrance is only a few floors removed from the Bottom of the Bridge, and one of the only areas on its floor that can be reached without special clearance.
Of course, for those few students to brave the trip, they soon discover that it may be reached, but not entered, barring all visitors with a heavy, imposing door reinforced with overlapping barriers and curses on the level of a fortress.
To gain access, rumor has it that a book of suitable worth must be presented as tribute - not necessarily a magical tome, but research papers, biographies, and even romances have all been said to be accepted, as long as they meet the taste of its reclusive caretaker. By mailing a book to the address written on on the library's door, in 5-7 business days, an invitation or rejection is typically returned to the sender in beautiful, elegant script handwriting. The book itself is of course never returned.
Those who were admitted access whisper of it as a modern-day Alexandria - a warped space far larger than its trappings whose architecture seems to always fold into another shelf and another stack. It is said that no matter the obscurity of the subject, no matter how taboo the research, no matter how dangerous the consequences, an appropriate tome can be found there, and even long lost works are said to be maintained in pristine condition.
As the only caretaker and denizen of the library, Madison does not seem to ever leave - it is unknown what arrangement she has with the staff of the Clock Tower, or even if she is considered an actual employee or member of any division. No classmates recall working with her outside of the library and no faculty members have come forward with a claim of responsibility over it.
Those whom she has granted an audience recall her being bothered at their presence, quick to answer any question asked of her, but never taking her eyes off them from afar, and always transporting, stocking, or reading a number of books at one time. Not many have managed to convince her to engage in actual conversation rather than question and answer, but those who do achieved limited success by asking her opinion on certain works or authors - only to escape hours or even a day later having learned far more than they desired.
A minor, harmless eccentric member of the Clock Tower ---
Is what she would be were it not for the other rumor about her and her library. While she will let you in in exchange for a good book, there are whispers that she will quite literally kill for a good mystery.
Magecraft Related Abilities:
Aside from her work as a librarian, Madison is an expert in so-called "book curses" - a foundation of curses rooted in the cursing of manuscripts, tablets, and tomes to harm or even kill those who desecrate or steal them. An unintended side business thrust upon her and continued due to the benefits it bestowed, all she needs is a name and sometimes a picture or likeness and mailing address.
The earliest known curse promised divine wrath against those who carried off or inscribed their name in the tablets of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's library, vowing to take their name, life, and posterity. An extreme form of protection, favored by bibliomaniacs and scribes throughout history, used to protect knowledge and precious works more valuable than gold and jewels at the time.
Not only do they provide a source of killing curses, but depending on the taste or sense of humor of the original author, they can result in jinxes, palsy, baldness, humorous transformations of genitalia, or any number of ailments and afflictions.
Similarly, if she accepts a contract, Madison is able to enact curses by using the collection of exotic books in her collection, writing the names of individuals in the margin and/or mailing them to the recipient of her curse. Simply by inscribing their name or getting the book into their hands, the curse is enacted, placing a dangerous hex on the unintentional vandal or thief.
Of course, as the actual vandal, Madison too is no doubt cursed by myriad competing claims on her life - a complication held at bay only by the fact she has never taken a work out of the library herself or even left its confines. It is likely an unspeakable tragedy would occur the moment she stepped outside.
Mystic Codes/Familiars: (If Any)
In a broad sense, the entire library is Madison's mystic code, a collection that was already ancient in the 1500s when it was taken care of by the Lord of Montaigne, author Michel de Montaigne. Transported to the association upon the fire that destroyed his castle and ivory tower, it has been expanded, maintained, and fortified by his successors.
In a more specific sense, she is assisted by one grimoire in particular, which calls itself the Grimoire Scharlach, a floating book with a red and black cover, supported by small, black, bat-like wings. An "assistant librarian" of sorts, it is not able to physically interact with anything outside of what any book is able to do, but serves as a listener to its owner and is capable of communication in a stressed, put-upon female voice.
Far more conversational than Madison, it is believed to be the source of what knowledge of her is available, as well as the one who began the rumors that finally allowed Madison to begin expanding her collection of her favorite genre. The fact it also encouraged Madison to curse herself and trapped her in the library undercuts any impression that it had her best interests at heart.
Last edited by Sunny; September 3rd, 2017 at 06:17 PM.
Name: Pierce G. Lagoner
Alias/Nickname/Title: The Grand Wizard
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Height/Weight: 172 cm / 66 kg
Birthplace: Southampton, England
Personality
Forte/Likes: Champagne, hairless cats
Weaknesses/Dislikes: Lottery tickets, short shorts
Natural Talents: Public speaking, actuarial mathematics
Natural Enemy: Emiya Shirou
Magical Attributes
Origin: Detachment
Elemental Alignment: Earth
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: D-
Circuit Quality: C
Circuit Composition: Orthodox
Character
Background:
As one stumbles through the unspoken areas of America, one may hear rumors of a man who claims to be a wizard and controls a cult-like following. Hidden in the heart of Las Vegas, he is said to possess supernatural abilities beyond the comprehension of man. In particular, he possesses a book and pen, with which he can bestow a fatal curse to anyone whose name is written in it. The masses flock to him in search of guidance, shady individuals come to him with requests, and the public are certain he doesn’t actually exist. He looks young but his true age is unknown; he claims to responsible for the death of three American presidents, the death of several Superman actors, and Cubs’ inability to win the world series. The name he goes by is “The Grand Wizard”.
Of course, it’s all just a rumor.
Biography:
Pierce G. Lagoner was born the third child of a fourth-generation magus family. His elder brother inherited the family crest. His elder sister married a magus sixteen years older than her. Pierce was told to do whatever he wanted.
Moving to America, he, at first, tried his hand at business but quickly found his calling in life. He realized that there were patterns behind the chaotic mess of tragedies that people attributed to misfortune and that, with enough information, it was possible to predict where the hammer of god would strike next. With this ability and the little knowledge of magecraft he acquired through childhood, he was able to convince people that he was a powerful wizard that could curse anyone.
He would pretend to cast a curse on people who he was certain would soon fall anyways, and then reap the results when they really did meet tragedy. Sometimes people or organizations would come to him with a business request to curse someone, and he occasionally agreed, because he knew that if someone garnered enough hatred that influential people would pay money to see him eliminated, then that person did not have long to live. And if anyone ever questioned his supernatural powers, Pierce could easily shut them up by demonstrating his actual magecraft. As for the Mage’s Association, they never paid his cult heed, since they thought of him as just another normal conman considering no curses were ever actually cast.
And just like that, Pierce G. Lagoner, a man who couldn’t ever become a proper magus, became known as the “The Grand Wizard” and amassed infamy, followers, and fortune.
Magecraft Related Abilities
Everything about magecraft Pierce knows, he picked up during his youth in a magus family. He was taught the very basics just to help with the family’s research and rituals. He has an elementary understanding of the theory and some practical spells, which amount to little more than parlor tricks. In terms of overall skill, he’s around the same level as Emiya Shirou.
He claims, however, to have the ability to put a curse on anyone, if given a detailed report of them. His supposed repertoire ranges from financial misfortune, illness, to straight up death. How it works is that once he knows enough about the target, all he has to do is write down their name in his book and they will be cursed for sure. Of course, the curse will be untraceable (since there never was one).
Mystic Codes
Notebook of Azrael:
An ordinary fancy looking notebook. It supposedly has the power to curse anyone whose name is written in it. Not actually a mystic code but Pierce can make it glow.
Just saying, but the title "Grand Wizard" makes me think of a certain white-hooded organization, which doesn't seem to be exactly what you're going for here.
Didn't the Cubs win like last year?
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That being said, a fake Death Note is amusing.
Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
Would a member of the Church qualify for this contest? What I had in mind uses some magecraft but is primarily on the sacrament side of magic.
If they use curses, then yes. Otherwise, no. That said, I could definitely see a member of the Church using curses based on those in the Old Testament for example, which could be an interesting idea if that's what you have in mind. Turning people into pillars of salt and whatnot is always fun.
sure
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
I'm not big in contests (i am not competitive at all) But this is a very friendly contest and royd coment made me think "eh, why not". This is the same sheet from the create-a-mage thread, But with a faceclaim.
Name: eddel Machthalter
Alias: head of the machthalter, She who rules over power
iml:
Age: 18
Element: wind
Origen: rules
Circuit quality: B
Circuit quantity: A
Circuit composition: good
Talents: swordsmanship, strategy, gambling
Weakness: constant feeling of powerlessness, relative apathy, need to uphold an expecific image
Natural enemies: anybody who stuation demands (except her brother, NEVER her brother)
Backstory: the second child of the machthalter and the newly apointed head of the famíly, eddel can be can be considered one of the most influential persons on the magic world.
The machthalter are a very powerful family, enough to almost be an independent organization with minimum ties to the mage organization. With that power she has hundreds of magus under her, so while she rules over, you can also say that she is ruled upon.
While her political power comes from her family, she manage to gain the respect of several influential magus by her own self, one way or another.
Personality: she pass the impression of a elegant but focused young woman, she manage to be gentle while always being somewhat stern
She does not like the nature of her magecraft and cannot help to wonder how a life without obrigations feels like, but she give up of this idea from the begining.
She is secretly in love with someone, and while heiring the house completly kills the chance of ever being together, she dont care, as she never thought of it as possible anyway
Abilities:
Macht halter: she is the one who rules over power
The magecraft of the Machthalter family, a curse of charm that affects their subordinates.
Or that is what they say.
In reality it is a brainwashing curse, when used on someone, the person will feel a strong desire to obey the user, this desire increases for 7 days, until it completly subdue the target. After reaching the peak, it will start to decrease and disaper on the next 7days.
It can not be canceled and it circle can be restarted after is end, But not during.
Puissance titulaire: i am the one, this is my power
Eddel modification of her family magecraft, create with her belive that everything she demands from others, she must also demand from herself.
Similar to self hipnosys to a certain degree, it allows her to force herself beyond her limits in various ways. She can make her magic circuits produce double the mana, make her speed enough to reach vehicles or make her body very resistence to damage.
Ofcorse, there is a price. If her circuits produce double the mana for 10 minutes, they will produce half the normal for 20 minutes after, if she increse her healing speed for a day, her natural healing will be block for the next two and so on.
Familiars:
Automatos: the machthalter family has a army of high quality automatos at their disposition, however repairment of destroyed automatos decreases their utulity so they are used with care. An automato does have a good chance in a fight against a mage, but will be defetd by two or more.
Weiss: a wolf automato made of marble with gold inner works. It is a pressent of her brother and Eddel's most trusted companion.
Weiss has a motherly personality, she cares a lot for Eddel and can even be a little over protective, she is also very distrust with new people.
She is equiped with various magical and non-magical radars and also a pletora of tracking devices. she also has a self-repair sistem that can fix sever damage in 2 or 3 hours.
here is a list of my servant sheets(new and improved format for my servant sheets)
Come explore the White Library, and reach the bottom of this Abyss
Fate / White Memoria
Míhăgňr
What the lion said to the deer? Do not come near a monster
Alias/Nickname/Title: The man who killed the death / He who fell from the sky
Gender: Male
Age: A few hundreds years-old
Height/Weight: 176cm, 50 kg
Birthplace: ???
Appearance:
Image by GraffMatt
Personality
Forte/Likes: Good in anything that uses Phenomenon (his ''magecraft''), only wish to die
Weaknesses/Dislikes: Completely sad and anti-social. Dont have any particular likes or dislikes
Natural Talents: Learn fast.
Natural Enemy: Mathias.
Magical Attributes
Origin: Suffering
Elemental Alignment: N/A
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: N/A
Circuit Quality: N/A
Circuit Composition: N/A
Character: A sad, tormented and penitent man
Biography:
Spoiler:
Magecraft Related Abilities:
Phenomenon:
The crystalization of knowledge. A form of magecraft that dont use magic, only alters the world with pure knowledge. Míhăgňr do not have any talent for natural thaumaturgy, so that was the only way.
It consists in learn all about a thing, and so modify it with concentred knowledge. For example, he can increase the temperature and pressure in a small area, creating a explosion, concentrate the dust in air to create a ''glass'', or modify his own body.
There are ''affinities'', knowledge areas that the person excels. Normaly, every person has one or two, but Míhăgór has three:
Creation: Modify every element in a thing, to change its properties. Can change the property, but not the form
Modification: Change the form of everything, but not the elemental property
Control: The ability to impose your will over everything.
After he absorbed the power of the Grim Reaper, the afiinities became meaningless.
Mystic Codes:
The perfect blade: The only weapon he used in all his life. It is a sword (similar to a gladius) that he reforged using Phenomenon, creating the only completely flawless blade in history. Is impossible recreate it with normal methods.
Familiars:
Supreme Spiritual Enamel of the Combat Resistance: A being of the class "Ęnticos". A big black armor that is the cristalization of the concept of ''resistence'', one of the three "Personification of basic supremacy in combat". Míhăgňr ''tame'' it with his affinity of ''control''.
But, it isnt all-mighty. ''Resistence'' isnt the same of ''invunerability''. In other words, when wearing it Míhăgňr can resist everything, but still will feel the pain (for example, if a sword try to cut his arm off, the arm will resist, but he will still feel the pain of a lost arm)
Non-Magecraft Abilities:
Fast learning:
Míhăgňr born with ease to learn
A oath born from death and blood (curse)
It is a curse that he acquired when did the oath of vengeance, above his dead parents. It increase his chance of survival (luck) astronomicaly, but also the misfortunes in his fate. It is the reason of all his suffering, the curse that defined his life.
Certainly, it has influence from his Origin.
Creator Remarks: So... ok
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SECOND CANDIDATE
Sorry for my bad english
Mathias
Alias/Nickname/Title: The engineer
Gender: Male
Age: Around 30
Height/Weight: 176cm, 70kg
Birthplace: ???
Appearance: Short black hair, thin arms, solid-brown eyes, does not care much about clothes
Personality
Forte/Likes: Silence, tecnology and sometimes blood. Good in anything that have numbers
Weaknesses/Dislikes: Talkative people. Do not have any experience with relationships
Natural Talents: Numbers. His ability to calculate almost exceeds human limits
Natural Enemy: Míhăgňr
Magical Attributes
Origin: Numbers
Elemental Alignment: The imaginary element
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: A
Circuit Quality: A
Circuit Composition: Complex
Character: A quiet, calm person. Sometimes with an uncontrollable blood thrist
Biography:
Spoiler:
Magecraft Related Abilities:
Spoiler:
Mystic Codes:
Aluminium measuring stick: An ordinary ruler. One day, Mathias needed something to break a metal bar, so he picked the nearest thing (an ordinary aluminium ruler) and modified it using his ''eyes''. It was very usefull, so he always have it near.
Wolf armor: A black armor with a wolf elmet that he gained during his journey and later modified it with his ''eyes''. Rarely used.
Black reaper: A black long sword that he gained during his journey, together with the armor. Rarely used.
Non-Magecraft Abilities:
Vast knowledge: Years Observing the Universes
He spent several years aprisioned in the [τίποτα], seeing the beings of the universe. Without anything else to do in the nothingness, he learned. Knowledge from various places, all in his head.
Origin: Numbers
Mathias was born with a nearly superhuman calculation capacity, surpassing even common computers
Last edited by Criarino; October 2nd, 2017 at 12:32 PM.
Criarino: As always your sheets are pretty fascinating concept-wise. The main reason I don't see this scoring higher is because the setting and magic system involved have very little to do with the Nasuverse. At this point, it'd probably work better if you just spun it off as an original setting, but then it obviously wouldn't have any place here.
Your sheets also feel a little lacking in personality to me. Basically all of them so far have been variations of "apathetic angsty loner with a tragic past", so if you're going to write another one I'd suggest trying to vary it up a bit more...
Thaaaaaanks!is always good to hear your opinions, Roydgolden
Well, all the sheets so far was a "cluster of several ideias" I had times Ago and couldont put all in a single original story, so, to not create many characters with few history, I created a few characters with "many history". Because of this, little space was left for "Nasu settings".
And now I am in a difficult moment of my life, só I am feeling more like write about "dark" and Sad characters.
But now most os the "clusters of concentrated ideas" was used and I am having a few ideas about others personalities, so the next sheets Will be more "Nasuverse-inserted" and more "happy"
"This'll only hurt for a second..."
Name: Henry Pentagast
Alias/Nickname/Title: Witch Doctor
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Height/Weight: 171cm, 63kg
Birthplace: Edinburgh
Likes: People’s insides, blood
Dislikes: Illness
Natural Talents: Scrimshaw, fretwork, tennis
Natural Enemy: Celenike Icecolle Yggdemillenia
Elemental Alignment: Water and Earth
Circuit Quantity: C
Circuit Quality: A+
Circuit Composition: Reversed
Biography: A member of a Scottish clan of curse-weavers. His family traditionally used their talents to create plagues of powerful virulence and unpleasant symptoms. However, as is the nature of curses, their power rebounded on them when Henry was a young child, with a vicious flu spread through the Pentagast’s ranks, wiping out the family elders and leaving the survivors crippled and scarred. The experience left Henry with a pathological hated of illness and disease, and thus he uses his family’s magic to apply curses to target with the aim of destroying sickness and forcibly returning their bodies to normal state.
Character: Despite his good intentions, he is an incredibly creepy young man, viewing painful and uncommon symptoms with undisguised fascination. Despite his hatred of disease, he is unable to help being allured by illnesses. Despite his insistence on the importance of good hygiene, he uses blood and entrails liberally in his practices and does not bother cleaning them from his skin, thus he always reeks of blood. It should perhaps be of no surprise that his Origin is ‘contradiction’, and he is able to handle the cognitive dissonance associated with hating illness despite being mired in it as a result, as well as being someone who both hates and revels in the suffering of others. He is aware his demeanour unsettles other people, and is rather shy and lonely as a result in his private life.
Cursing Techniques: The magic of traditional witches, using blood and entrails to curse the target. Unlike most, however, Henry’s curses are designed to cure. His curses purge foreign substances from the bodies of his patients, forcibly reshape broken bones, re-fuse severed nerves, destroy tumours, and regrow lost and damaged organs. The process of forcing a body back into a healthy state is unbelievably painful for the target. The pain is worth it, he says. And perhaps he is right, as he is perfectly happy to use his techniques on himself. He possesses the magical bacteria of the Pentagast family’s magecraft, but only uses them for medical purposes: to cut and suture wounds in cases of surgical intervention, to devour blood spills, to pump medicine into his patients’ bodies, to reinforce failing organs and so on.
Familiars – Consumption Virus: The specialized magic of the Pentagast family is the ability to physically manifest curses in the form of micro-organisms which then infest a body and wreak all sorts of lethal havoc. Henry has retooled this somewhat into a colony of cursed viruses that inhabit his bloodstream and devour and destroy anything foreign to them. They are his magic of last resort: by giving his patients an infusion of his blood, he unleashes the Consumption Virus on their systems. They spread through the patient’s body, devouring anything and everything that causes harm. Even for his brutal medical techniques, this is beyond painful. As the virus rages through their body, the patient suffers from massive haemorrhaging, violent seizures, and psychotic episodes, as well as a dangerously high fever and symptoms of organ damage depending on where the viruses are attacking. Henry then draws them back out of the body before they cause fatal damage, and the patient is left cured, if not exactly healthy.
almost half way boyz
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
Machines do not lose their worth when a newer model appears.
Their worth (life) ends when humans can no longer bear that purity.
Time I finally at least get a draft out, it's way too easy to just be lazy.
"Hidalgo's son... You will do. Take off your shoes, follow me."
Name: Catarina de la Fuente
Alias: The Angel of Death
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Height/Weight: 165cm, 69kg
Birthplace: Nîmes, France
Appearance:
"I'll wash later. Reports to do."
Catarina is a mousey, ill-tempered woman whose appearance never belies cheer. She definitely could be considered pretty or even beautiful if she were not so awful in presenting herself. She is short, and her stance and mannerisms are very reserved. Her face is more youthful than one would expect but lined by fatigue, and dark blueish bags sit uncomfortably beneath her beady dark eyes. A pair of circular glasses rests on her upturned nose, without which she is hopelessly blind. Her hair is of medium length and a tad longer in the front; she parts it neatly down the middle, exposing a lightly creased forehead and small, dark eyebrows. She wears no makeup of any sort to conceal her unpleasant demeanor, and always seems a tad frustrated.
Her clothing is moody and dour, like a depressed beatnik more than a woman of God, preferring a dark turtleneck sweater that conceals her modest chest, and bellbottom jeans that are far out of style. Plain and economical brown loafers and no accessories to speak of save a thin gold band on her third finger round out her clothing of choice. This is the outfit she will wear given any opportunity, well past the point it should have been washed. She is a woman of the church, but will never be caught in the proper attire. She is not particularly dirty but certainly not clean either. Catarina has few markings of a mage and would not be recognized as one at a glance. The only telling sign is a black mark on the palm of her hand, a smudge that seems like tar, yet no matter the angle you look at it no light reflects off of its surface.
Personality:
"Straighten your back. Speak clearly. I can see the knife in your belt. Bartolome, you're the worst priest I've ever trained."
Catarina is a woman who has no tact or decorum. Raised from an early age to fulfill a particular role, her own laziness never allowed her to waste energy on things she found pointless. This even applies to her speech. She is incapable of small talk, of flirting, of anything that does not convey important information. She is a nun working for the Catholic church, at least according to her job description, and she has a deep and learned knowledge of Scripture. There is no passion when she speaks of her religion, though it is hard to tell if this is just a misunderstanding sprouting from her inability to hold proper conversation.
Even though she is blunt she will never mislead, and she is earnest in everything she says. She makes no use of sarcasm or mockery. This honesty runs through the core of her behavior and her beliefs: everything is with purpose.
Likes:
"Not enough sugar, Bartolome. Thirty laps around the city.
"--Backtalk? Forty then."
Speaking of personal likes, it is fair to state Catarina's world is consumed in an avalanche of sugar. Many apprentices of hers have theorized she is some kind of phantasmal beast out of a fairy tale, the kind who will steal into your home and abscond with bags of sugar as revenge for a slight you dealt it unknowingly.
--Others suspect she just has deficient tastebuds. Either way, Catarina loves no taste more than sweetness, and requires an inordinate amount of flavor to acquire her fix. She is rarely seen without a basket of fruit on hand, an assortment she munches on at random and without care for whether eating is appropriate in the situation. She bakes, and does so well, but the confections she shares with others are unlike the ones she reserves for herself; the only man to have eaten the latter spent days in a sugar coma.
She has a fondness for music as well, in particular woodwinds, though she cannot play. The office in her church often has records quietly playing in the background, rather than the hymnals or organs her students expect to hear.
Perhaps her most perverse pleasure is in the suffering of her most recent student, Bartolome de la Fuente. The exasperated assassin-in-training never ceases to amuse in his reactions to her unreasonable demands and harsh instruction. She has not let up the pressure following their marriage either; in fact, she may have gotten worse.
Weaknesses/Dislikes:
"What is he doing here? Bartolome, why did you let him in? Detective Carrol, stop that. The grunting! ... I'm going for a drink."
Catarina despises those with bad habits or nervous tics, and cannot stand to even be in a room with them as they fidget without purpose. Useless things bother her. Perhaps due to her intimacy with it she also finds the human form rather disgusting, which is why she hides her shape in ill-fitting clothes. To see her own reflection nauseates her. However: more than any human, she hates the inhuman. The dead, the alien, the vampire. Such things revolt her to the core, a sensation she describes as an itch in her spine and a grainy sensation in her mouth, and she annihilates these abominations with great prejudice.
Natural Talents:
"I did brainwash you. I never asked why. Your father begged me to make you ready to face The Dog."
Outside her profession her greatest skill is teaching. Or rather, reprogramming might be a better word to use. Catarina does not instruct so much as she instills instinct into her charges, using a combination of invasive magecraft, hypnotism and mysticism to weave behaviors beneath conscious thought, emergency instincts that can arise in moments of great stress, or intentionally brought forth by triggering phrases, typically verses of the Bible since her charges are often of the Church. It is a tactic that bypasses the limits of natural talent or retention of information, instead allowing her as the instructor to determine the extent of her subject's ability. She has taught many students this way since her own adolescence, even Bartolome himself during his childhood, though they would not meet in a capacity the boy would remember until over a decade later. All of them became wonderful assassins. The nature of her instruction typically conceals her own existence and nature, since what she is creating is not a normal priest, but a deadly Executor in the name of God.
She has a secondary talent: killing. This comes not naturally but from her own training, replacing the instincts of a human being with someone who can kill as effortlessly as others draw breath. As the Angel of Death she has a familiarity with humans that no one alive can match. She knows every possible way to take a life, and is practiced in them all. She is less of an assassin like her students and more like a calamity. There is no official record of how many humans she has killed, but it is a safe bet that among creatures that can be called "human", she ranks highest in efficiency, if not sheer bodycount. Her methods are a closely guarded secret, and the extent of her strength unknown. This is deliberate, and allows the fear, the myth of an enemy who has not known defeat to do her work for her. As one must remember, she is quite lazy. The gap in her ability is her lack of expertise in killing non-humans. Though she may have the methods she lacks the experience, and is not used to dealing with monsters that have taken even more lives than her.
Natural Enemy: Inhuman Beasts, Dead Apostles, Bartolome de la Fuente.
Magical Attributes
Origin: Passage
Elemental Alignment: DEFUNCT
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: D
Circuit Quality: B
Circuit Composition: ??
Biography: Catarina was born Catarina Belmont in southern France. Her parents were mages of middling talent, but she was never meant to inherit the crest of her family. She was the first of her generation. Her clan was oathbound to relinquish her to the Church. In the days prior to the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, a beleaguered church encountered a beast unlike any before, and unlike any to come among them again. A Lord of the night whose command of things unholy frightened even God's most faithful. Soldiers were needed for war; sacrifices for slaughter. It was Catarina's ancestors who answered the call. Without want of glory or reward an entire family tree was burned to ashes in violent conflict with the Dead Apostle, until only one man was left to oppose it. The last Belmont demanded of the Church passage to seize its most holy weapons to end his nemesis's cursed existence, but the Church would not give it freely. In exchange for the right to wield the Scripture his family promised evermore the firstborn child of each generation to serve the Church for the duration of its life. In exchange they would become mighty, and be granted strength no mortal could attain on their own. With his new armament the champion destroyed the Dead Apostles, and his family's fate set. And so Catarina came into the possession of the Church as only a little girl, doomed to become a weapon to slay their foes.
She was raised by a man named Lucien Ray, a spiritual surgeon whose skill in giving life translated well to granting death. Lucien taught much to the young girl: her predisposition to killing, her sweet tooth, and her hatred of the human body, all were traits she shared with what might be considered her father in a sense. But he would not hold onto her forever. At the age of 12 she was scouted by a man named Jomyo, who was called in hushed whispers "The Angel of Death." At first she was treated like a lackey, a glorified sidekick who followed the quiet, severe man in his travels around the world. She never questioned where he went each night, leaving her alone in hotel rooms in exotic locales. But she understood he was delivering death to someone, somehow. One night, barely a teenager, she snuck out to follow him and see just how he took life. Unbeknownst to him, Catarina watched with baited breath as he slaughtered a priest who had strayed from the teachings of God. Money, drugs, women, all were offered him and all were denied. The Angel of Death held up his palm, and from a black mark on it he withdrew a long, terrible scythe. Its haft was long, knotted, and of a dark wood no tree left on earth today could produce; its blade was a black metal that let no light shine upon it, an alloy that cannot be replicated by mortal hands. This blade passed through the priest, but drew no blood. What it produced were strands of light, a dappled array of every color that could be imagined. Threads of life itself. Then, the Angel produced a pair of ugly, rusted shears, the sort a shepherd may keep. With those shears he snipped the threads of life and extinguished the existence of the evil priest. His body drained of life and color, and he dropped in an instant. Catarina had viewed the greatest secret of the Angel of Death that night, one no one else may be permitted to know. The title is not honorary. Their weapon of choice is the scythe of Death itself, stolen thousands of years ago by a man whose ambition could not be denied even by an angel.
She speaks little of what happened after, of how Jomyo reacted to her knowledge, and their adventures for years to come. She has only answered one question from her prying student, on the fate of the last Angel:
"I proved that I had surpassed him. I killed him, and took his power and his name. Now I am the Angel of Death. Bartolome. Someday you shall be the Angel of Death as well."
It was the only way. Once granted to an individual, the scythe cannot be reclaimed. It is fused to their body and soul, and to remove the scythe is to remove its wielder's life. There is no retirement for an Angel of Death, only the moment in which their chosen successor ends their life, and takes the burden onto themselves. Angels rarely live long enough to grow grey; rumors persist that their curse is more than metaphorical. A relic such as theirs is steeped in the blood of millions, if not more. Such things tend to take on lives of their own, and draw their wielder deeper into the ceaseless cycle of Death. To hold the scythe is to accept becoming ever-closer to the dead and dying, to be drawn into the realm of spirits, hauntings and curses as you cut down thousands of humans, some innocent and some guilty. Taking life, witnessing lives being taken, and finally witnessing the taking of your own life. It casts a shadow over any pleasure or peace, the knowledge that there must be more bodies they throw into the pile left behind them. It is a joyless life that drains the will of even the hardiest souls, who come to view the final death they will ever see as a peaceful release.
Catarina trained hundreds of apprentices, but only one did she keep. Only one did she trust, and love enough to ask him to kill her. Only one trained in the method may receive the scythe. This was Bartolome's purpose from the moment she selected him as a child. She trained him carefully, guided him through the trials of his days as an Executor. The vampiric illusionist, the mage whom magic could not slay, the golem once called King, the father that became a beast, and the twisted affection of the one called Brunestud. All were tests, all would temper him for the day he would claim the mantle and set her free.
"I refuse. I will save us both."
But she did not expect to be loved in return. She never dared to hope for rescue.
Magecraft Related Abilities: Catarina is well-trained in the sacraments. Blessings, prayers, and ceremonies honoring God are well within her purview, but where she breaks from other Executors is her deep familiarity with magic practiced by the Association. She has a talent for the mystic arts and works Witchcraft into her training methods, but among her most effective spells is her ability to tie Reinforcement to her own faith. With recital of appropriate verses of Scripture her skin hardens, her bones solidify, and her strength increases ten or twenty-fold. Her skill with Black Keys is remarkable, though at best she can still only claim third place in the hierarchy, so long as those two prodigious brothers exist.
Her mystic abilities are not so impressive as the manner in which she uses it to instill her knowledge in apprentices, but it bears mentioning all the same that Catarina possesses them. Her specialities, as it were, include peering into dreams and Bibliomancy. She is hopeless in brewing potions and general alchemy, as she only ever learned how to prepare food and drink by taste - naturally, anything requiring the precise input of ingredients goes horribly wrong.
Mystic Codes:
The Scythe: The scythe belonging to the Angel of Death itself, who descended upon Egypt in the days of Ozymandias. It is a tool with perfect authority over human life. No matter the heights it reaches, so long as the existence can be called "human" it remains vulnerable. The scythe ignores armor and defense, and passes through its victim without effort. It does not inflict injury but instead threshes the threads of life and fate that bind a human to its existence. However, this is a weapon that was never meant to be held by human hands, and due to a lack of compatibility with its wielder cannot break the threads on its own, only reveal them. The scythe is not carried but stored as a mark upon the hand of the Angel, from which it may be drawn at any moment as a free action. It is said that this is one of several tools throughout the human order that possesses the ability to fundamentally change its wielder from a human to a higher existence if held long enough, but no Angel has held onto it long enough to prove such a theory. If true, it may give a different perspective on the reasoning behind the longstanding tradition of Angels tutoring successors to slay them.
But the scythe is not a gift, it is a tremendous responsibility. It is an item that is inexorably tied to the line between life and death, and to incorporate that item into your own body is to weave yourself within that line. There are drawbacks, and there are prices to pay. Catarina's tastebud deficiency is not an inborn one, but the work of her tool. Accepting the scythe alters one's body to become more like the kind of phantom meant to hold it, shedding unnecessary sensations such as taste. Touch, smell, and physical pleasure are all muted to her, and Catarina must indulge in them very deeply to feel them. She imagines her personality would also have soured and become more withdrawn, were she not so unpleasant to begin with.
The Shears: While not as visually impressive as the scythe, these shears are no less vital, or incredible. The progenitor of the Angels of Death did not steal a single divine artifact, but two. These dilapidated, unimpressive things belong to the Fates of Greek legend, who cut and weave the strings of Destiny. These shears are irreplaceable to Catarina, as they are the means by which she snips the threads of life she draws forth with her scythe. Useless apart, but together her two weapons turn Catarina into a true Anti-Human creature.
Non-Magecraft Abilities: While not her defining method, Catarina is very skilled at non-magical forms of killing, being prepared to assassinate a target in whatever way is necessary. A functional knowledge of poison and pressure points; training in guns and usage of knives; hand to hand combat. If it can kill someone, she can give it a shot.
She is also a passable baker.
Creator remarks
This character is a rework of a character I used for a CYOA based off Tsuikihime/KnK from years back. It died before I really got to go in-depth with her but she was always one of my favorite products from it, and I've hoped to find a way to reuse her for something again in the future.
Last edited by Flustered Saber; September 23rd, 2017 at 03:51 PM.
the best so far!
While I am quite enamored with the detail and consistency in Catarina's personality and background, I find myself wanting more information on the "curse of the Angel of Death" considering the themes of the contest. It's barely touched upon and from what I can tell is simply a title and curse in name alone, rather than a specific magical spell or affliction. Basically, it kind of feels like the curse is an after thought to the much more interesting sacraments and mystic codes.
There's definitely still some fleshing out to do, and I need to try and make it flow together, but I wanted to get the bulk written down while I was concentrating.
Name: Corrin Charisk
Alias/Nickname/Title: “The Cleaner”, “Decayed Killer”
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Height/Weight: 177cm/63kg
Birthplace: Europe (Presumably England)
Personality
Forte/Likes: ‘Hack-and-Slash’ Video Games
Weaknesses/Dislikes: Haemorrhages, Shrimp
Natural Talents: Anatomy Comprehension
Natural Enemy: Kairi Sisigou, Florence Nightingale
Magical Attributes
Origin: Sacrifice
Elemental Alignment: Water, Earth
Magic Circuits
Circuit Quantity: C
Circuit Quality: A++
Circuit Composition: Circular
Biography:
A subservient branch of the wealthy Corvella family, the Charisk family acts as their ‘fixers’. They act much closer to Spellcasters than true Magi; while the main branch studies and innovates, the branch arranges bribes, payoffs, threats, and other shady activities, to ensure the outcome desired of the Corvellas as they have done for centuries.
Born at a country in Europe unknown even to Corrin, he was more or less ‘bred’ for the role with both his parents being matched together for their magecraft abilities.
At the age of four he killed his first mark. The man slotted for elimination had been abducted by the Charisk family and left bound to a chair for three days before sending in the crying boy and forcing him to stab the man to death. As the years went by, the pain and trauma had been dulled to the point of non-existence and he completed his first job as a cleaner. As could be expected, he proved to be far more specialised in killing than any other role with some of his targets being ended so gruesomely someone else needs to clean up after him.
Now while the rest of his family acts the rest of the roles of a fixer, he now lives as the Corvella’s personal assassin.
Character:
Entirely serious and austere, even his speaking manner is empty and robotic. Some even consider him to be quite inhuman even by the standards of Magi and it is not too far from the truth. Continually traumatised as a young child, he has repressed the feeling of that night and all others and now no longer feels emotion like humans do, he controls it all and actively represses them.
It is not to say he is an automaton, he does have a sense of pride in performing a job well done in particular but some could liken that to a dog being happy that it caught a Frisbee. However there are rare instances he can be seen genuinely expressing it in vented situations when he has a lot to release out of him; such scenes can be anything from sadistically inflicting pain on a target before killing them, laughing at a joke an hour after he heard it or playing video games. Likewise his distain for shrimp is due to allergies.
These hollow things cannot sustain a man in a healthy way and he acknowledges this in his actions which mistake his as inhuman. When given an order by the Corvellas, he will carry it out even if it were to end his life. This instability in him has reached a point where he doesn’t even think of himself as a person but a weapon to be used by the Corvellas.
“Blame me not for although I took his life, I am not his killer. If a man was gunned down in the street would you blame the weapon or the person who used it.”
Despite all this, he is a man who has never known happiness. He is a man who has never known friendship. A man who has never been loved – even by his own parents.
He can only be called a “decayed killer.”
Magecraft Related Abilities:
Blood Cursing Techniques: The magecraft of this family has always revolved around curses, specifically revolving around blood. While the Charisk families’ forte has always been revolving around blood curses, Corrin’s speciality is cursing himself. By using his blood as an Arcane Focus, he can control and manipulate blood to a prehensile level. He is capable of using it in a multitude of ways such as creating physical constructs in the form of weaponry and pseudo limbs. He also has some limited biomancy as an extension of this combined with more traditional magecraft in the form of enhanced regeneration and physical reinforcement.
The primary limitation of his magecraft is that it does not use his Magic Circuits alone but also drains his blood and physical vitality meaning that to constantly requires infusions of blood. If he goes too long without an infusion then he would deteriorate and may very well end up killing himself through exertion. As a result it is not uncommon for him to suck the remaining blood out of a target of his target.
Non-Magecraft Abilities:
Wealth and Contacts: Due to his role, he has lots of contacts in high and low end society to give him additional information should he require it.
Assassination Tools: Alongside possessing talent in mixed martial-arts, he also has experience in a wide variety of firearms. In particular he favours a modified Derringer pistol attached to a mechanism he uses on his forearm to hold it in a sleeve and use for surprise attack.
Creator Remarks:
A recycled idea from a character sheet i didn’t finish in time for the CROWNLESS RP, (really shoulda used him in the last contest instead of that other sheet)
Also those of you who read Quest of Fate here may recognise one of the names here...
Quest of Fate
Apocrypha Universe Fate Quest Project
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Beast's Lair Discord Server For Fate Quests
Hermes Servant Collection Master Post
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