Caster of the White Sage's Teachings
Class: Caster
Other Classes: potentially Foreigner
True Name: Melissa
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Place of Origin: France
Source: Orlando Furioso (Italian epic poem)
Parameters:
STR: D
END: D
AGI: D
MGI: B
LCK: C
Height: 162 cm
Weight: 59 kg
Likes: Wine and Cheese, trashy romantic gossip, reality tv, being in charge of particularly powerful entities, beautiful servants
Dislikes: Being reduced to Merlin's student in records, anti-demonic/anti-spirit weaponry
Talent: Binding spells, interior decorating
Natural Enemy: David
Attribute: Earth
Armament: Summons, Wand (pistol)
Catalyst: A summoning circle drawn or etched into some sort of looking glass or lens
Class Skills:
Item Creation C: A Caster-class Skill. It is the Skill to manufacture magical items, from implements of war to items for daily use. Also, this Skill requires time to gather components and manufacture items. Melissa's rank is rather mediocre, as she only really uses it to help create materials and implements for summonings.
Territory Creation C: A Caster-class Skill. It is the Skill to build a special terrain that is advantageous to oneself as a magus, such as for the purpose of collecting mana. It's not her specialty, as her preferred methodology in casting and for combat requires her to be on the go, but she creates pleasant little
save sitting room type workshops.
"I Put allll that time into making his tomb look nice- furniture, carpet, good lighting- and they still called it a tomb, damn it! That was my residence for a couple decades!"
Riding (Beast) A: A variant of the riding skill- all creatures up to the level of Phantasmal Beast and Divine Beast can be controlled once she subdues them, and can cast a binding chain, even dragon kind- however, she has no skill in actually riding them, or vehicles, merely controlling and directing them. Though, that
is it's own sort of riding in a sense, right?
"My Sorcery's top-rate. I may be the student of a sage, but my Sorcery's what I'm most proud of. It's great, right? Huh, what do you mean it worries you!?"
Personal Skills:
Clairvoyance A: A skill that connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this Skill have acquired abilities such as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight.
Melissa specifically is skilled enough to look into the future with enough resources and time, but mostly uses it to see things from afar. She most often uses it to hunt down summoning targets and catalysts, as her gameplay upon being summoned is to capture nearby supernatural entities.
"-Have I ever used it to spy on- No! I would never! I'm not Merlin!.... alright, maybe one or two hundred times... Y-You didn't hear that!"
Tactics (Party) B: A skill denoting the ability to command or lead a small group of up to four entities, including herself. She uses this to command herself and summoned entities during combat effectively, acting as a party leader. However, any more than that, and she gets overwhelmed.... it does allow her to effectively summon and dispel her captured summons for her current manifestation (at the expense of some mana) to best take advantage of her situation.
"Sorcery 101: If you summon too many things at once, it gets out of hand WAY too fast. I REFUSE to go over three at a time- it's why I only bring a Farfadet with me."
Agrippa C: A malicious magical creature taking the form of a grimoire- when untamed, they display only blank pages, but if conquered, they hold many spells and curses to be cast. It is listed as a skill, as it contains the written record of Melissa's magical knowledge, and allows her to quickly cast a multitude of spells by reading off incantations. Additionally, it hosts the information on her summons, and prevents her from expending extra mana to sustain those she makes a pact with. However, it is this same capability that makes her unable to have any more than 3 summons out at a time.
"When untamed, they may bind themselves to your soul and prevent you from entering heaven- it's quite like how I control and work with my summons. Of course, I'd love to say they stay with me because of my lovely personality, but I'm not quite that delusional."
Noble Phantasm(s):
The Sorceress's Compendium
Rank B
Summon-type Noble Phantasm
Range: Self
By acquiring a catalyst in the form of a fallen servant or their noble phantasm, she can expend a large amount of mana (scaling with the rank of NP, or general servant stat average) to create a summoning circle, and summon a creature, beast, or entity from that Servant's legend, automatically granting her a pact with it for the remainder of her manifestation. If the servant themselves are demonic or monstrous in nature, or have a form that is, there is a slim chance that she can actually force THEM into a pact, making it a NP particularly dangerous for certain Berserkers and Avengers. Likewise though, if there isn't a beast/demon/monster/etc tied to their legend, she will likely not be able to summon anything, unless they are strongly tied to an area with famous ones.
Lore: Melissa was a fictional good sorceress in the Matter of France/Carolingian Cycle. She is said to have been an apprentice of Merlin and guards his tomb, though she did not appear in older stories about him.
In Orlando Furioso, she is instrumental in the love affair of Ruggiero and Bradamante, whom she is determined will one day marry. Whenever their relationship is threatened, she brings them back together. Melissa conjures Ruggiero and Bradamante's descendants and foretells their futures. When Ruggiero has fallen victim to the enchantments of Alcina, she comes to his rescue by restoring his memory of his love for Bradamante, and releasing him from the spell which held him captive on Alcina's Isle. Later, Ruggiero loses a combat to determine who shall win the hand of Bradamante; despondent, he goes into the woods to starve himself to death. Melissa hears of his plight and reveals the truth to him: that he had lost in combat not to his rival, but to Bradamante herself; therefore, there is no reason their wedding cannot proceed.
Merlin's remains in his tomb were of course, fake, as he was sealed away in his tower. They were actually bones in the shape of a telephone, which she used to contact him extensively for academic purposes before her clairvoyance was adequate enough to make contact with.
While she had enough of an impact to manifest as a servant from her role in Orlando Furioso, she used her designation as a Sorceress to "poach" the legends of two legendary French creatures, the Farfadet (french Imp), and the Agrippa, adding them to her standard summoning repertoire every time she manifests.
Personality: A loud, catty, talkative woman with a great mind for magecraft. A bit too nosy for her own good at times, she's largely helpful as long as she's getting attention. Gets lonely very easily, and is unabashedly lustful in a similar vein to her old teacher, though she mostly keeps it under wraps.
Relationships:
Bradamante:
"Gods, what a delight of a young lady- when I looked into her future when she first came to me for help, I was so happy to learn she'd get a happy ending. It's a shame she can't find her husband as a servant though, he was a nice little piece of as... excuse me."
Merlin:
"Ah, my old master, that pervy bastard- granted, I'm probably nearly as bad as he is, I just know how to shut my mouth... but as much as a ghoul as he can be, he's a fine gentleman, and an even better Caster. If I wasn't just reduced to being mentioned as his student so often, I'm sure I'd gush about the guy nearly as much as a certain paladin... I mean, just look at him.."
Gilles (Caster):
"Ooh, how I wish I could poach that great Horror of his.. unfortunately, it's bound to his book. If I could intercept the gateway though... Oh, it gives me the shivers! The Things I could do!~"
Bradamante-Myrddin:
"YOU WHAT!?!?!?"
Creator Notes
- Character Theme
- SMT, baybee!
- No, but seriously, aside from the fashion/attitude coming from a lovechild of Austin Powers and Bayonetta, what I made is almost wholeheartedly an homage to SMT. Fights by summoning demons and such, has the Demifiend/Nemissa tats, a soulhackers magic handgun, all that shit. As soon as I found out that Sorcerer/Sorceress classically denoted one as using spirits/demons to cast spells/draw power from, I decided I was fucking with it. It was indulgent for me, and I excuse the flamboyance by offering up all the other fruity french fucks in fate. I mean, look at those guys, I love em. Still, I promise I won't put any of the Knights of The Round I'm working on in suits or overtly modern clothing, I swear, except for maybe two of them. That shit fucks dude.
- The pistol form her wand is in is of her own choosing- she felt a need to modernize it- and to further separate herself from the image of her staff- wielding teacher. A wand is just a short staff after all, and she can't be showing up like that. Presentation's key!
- Despite being half the reason Bradamante got shit done, there's very little actually on her. I pulled a lot from Canto 3 in the prose translation of OF, as found here.
- Of course, she's built for the Reverse Side of the World story I'm working on, the one with the shitty Bradamante Pretender. Still figuring details and title and such.