Caster
Innocent Young Lady in the Woods, Vasilisa
Click here for a sketch!
Alignment: Neutral Good
Region: Russia
Gender: Female
Height: 135cm
Weight: 35kg
Likes: Her mother and father, sweet things, small animals
Dislikes: Her stepmother and stepsisters, the dark, bullies
Parameters:
Strength: E
Endurance: E
Agility: C
Mana: A+
Luck: B+
Noble Phantasm: A
Class Skills:
Territory Creation: BThe creation of a workshop suited to Caster's needs is possible. It is a warm and gentle place, suitable both for rest and for planning her next move. It reminds her of her parents.
Item Construction: CAnd utterly average rank in Item Construction, Caster's capacity for the creation of items is based entirely on what she was able to learn from Baba Yaga. As a result, she is neither particularly skilled in this regard nor completely incompetent.
Personal Skills:
Cannibal Witch's Teachings: CCaster learned magecraft from the legendary child-devouring witch, Baba Yaga. As she was not going to be consumed, the witch concluded it was best not to waste the natural talent that she possessed. While her instruction did not last long, Caster learned all manner of spells from the witch. Due to the nature of her mentor, this granted Caster a special affinity for curses that inflict harmful status and even fatal effects upon her enemies. A skill that would normally be of the highest rank. However, Caster's personality is incompatible with curses and thus it is degraded. Unless...
Small Miracles: AA skill similar in many regards to a skill held by a certain tsarevna, albeit at a lower rank. It is possessed by her doll as opposed to Caster herself. It effects the world in a subtle fashion, shifting events in order to benefit its owner. If an outcome that would be beneficial to Caster is possible, that outcome will become more likely. In spite of this, it is incapable of preventing attempts on her life. This skill is best described as "putting luck on Caster's side".
Stepmother's Ashes: AA crystallization of the concept of reprisal. In a way, it can be considered the one curse compatible with Caster's mentality. To treat Caster with unkindness is to invite an ill fate. Those who cause her to suffer will become all the more vulnerable the more severe her pain is, receiving a degradation in their parameters in proportion to that pain. The more keenly Caster feels this suffering, the more severe the perpetrator's own suffering becomes. The concept of revenge seems utterly foreign to an innocent girl like Caster, and yet...
Noble Phantasms:A Gift from Baba Yaga
Pylayushchiy Cherep
Rank: A
Type: Anti-Unit
Range: 0-10
Maximum Number of Targets: 3 People
The skull-tipped staff granted to Caster by the cannibalistic witch Baba Yaga. It predates the hag herself, though it was given alterations to increase its efficiency and lethality. It is capable of producing fire and lighting candles even in the dark, but these are secondary to its main function as a tool to kill others. On the invocation of its name, twin beams of magical energy erupt from the skull's burning eye sockets that instantly vaporize human targets and bypass most defenses. A "human-killing tool" suitable for an owner such as Baba Yaga who devours humans, but now in the hands of an innocent child. Indeed, it is impossible for a human to survive being struck. When Caster brought it into her home, it incinerated her stepmother and stepsisters and reduced them to nothing but ashes in an instant. It was a swift and brutal killing that ended their lives before they could comprehend their fate. Surely, such an innocent girl could never have intended for an outcome like that.
Spirit Whispers
Blagosloveniye Materi
Rank: C
Type: N/A
Range: N/A
Maximum Number of Targets: N/A
When Caster's mother died, she left behind a small black doll with silver hair. Caster was left with instructions to perform a ritual by providing the doll with a little food and water, and on the ritual's completion the doll awakened and began to move on its own. It comforted Caster, and aided her in completing tasks set by her cruel stepmother and later the wicked cannibal Baba Yaga, ensuring her education in magecraft and her survival. In terms of personal capabilities, the doll is a familiar inhabited by a spirit of the Russian wilderness. It is not powerful on its own, but can complete tasks for Caster and possesses a form of mystic eyes that allow it to see through things to core truth of things. It can move autonomously to defend its Master or be used as a scout, but it is completely incapable of any form of offense in its current state. But it cannot permanently be destroyed. The small, feminine doll will always return to Caster's side no matter how utterly it is annihilated.
Lore: The central character to a number of Russian fairytales, one of which features the famed cannibal witch Baba Yaga. A fair young girl from the Russian countryside who lost her mother to illness. Vasilisa received a small doll from her mother before her death, and it became a familiar which comforted her in her sorrow and was able to see the truth behind all things. This was able to address the girl's pain, to make her feel as if tomorrow could be better again. When her father remarried, even though her heart was still filled with sadness she happily greeted her stepmother and her new stepsisters. They treated her warmly and with kindness.
Until her father first departed on business.
The moment she was out of her father's sight, her new mother and sisters began to harshly abuse her. She was slapped, kicked, and verbally abused, threatened that if she tried to tell her father the consequences would be all the more severe. No matter what she did to make them happy, her stepmother would abuse her.
Eventually, they moved to a new home in a deep forest. But when they arrived, they discovered that no light could shine inside of it. Threatening Vasilia with more abuse if she did not comply, her stepmother forced her out into the wilderness to search for a source of light in another cabin even deeper in the forest. Frightened of what could be lurking in the darkness, but even more frightened of being beaten to death by her wicked stepmother, Vasilisa departed alone with only her doll for comfort. In the dark and cold, the young girl wandered in a desperate search for the cabin that apparently held light that could be used in their new home. She found nothing, until she stumbled across the nightmarish walking house possessed by the witch Baba Yaga. Immobilized with terror, Vasilisa was unable to flee before the witch returned home and discovered her. Rather then eating her immediately, Baba Yaga decided to assign her a series of impossible tasks to be completed within the day. It was a cruel joke for the witch's own amusement, but when she departed again Vasilisa's doll was able to complete every chore assigned to her without fail. When Baba Yaga returned, she was surprised but unable to find fault with Vasilia's performance, and thus held to her word and did not eat the young girl. Instead, she chose to instruct her in magecraft and answer her questions, as it would be a waste of Vasilisa's natural talent to do otherwise.
It was only when she learned of the blessing bestowed upon the young girl by her deceased mother that Baba Yaga rejected her, desiring no-one with any kind of blessing to be in her presence. However, she granted Vasilisa what appeared to be a skull lantern as a parting gift, seemingly expecting nothing in return.
With her doll's assistance and the light of the lantern, Vasilisa was able to return home.
When she arrived, the lantern instantly incinerated her stepmother and stepsisters, leaving behind nothing but ashes.
A kind, gentle, and sweet-natured girl, Vasilisa does not appear to have a mean bone in her body. She tries to assume the best of others, even if it's difficult. Her desires are simply to be a good girl and to do the right thing for her Master, whoever they may be. In many respects she is simply an ordinary young girl, who loves small animals, baking, and being praised by those she cares about. Her wishes are uncomplicated and plain, as Vasilisa would like nothing less than to simply be happy and for those she cares about to be happy as well. The veritable model of an angelic fairytale protagonist. Towards her Master, the young girl is polite and friendly, and will always ask what they want her to do or how she can be of help. While her kindness does not mean she is harmless or unable to fight, she does not appear to take pleasure in such things.
And yet...
Pain begets pain. Suffering begets suffering. Cruelty is treated in kind. Reprisal for the wicked. Mercilessness for those without mercy. Sweet-smiling, gentle Vasilisa has become fundamentally broken deep inside. Those who hurt others deserve to be hurt. To die. To burn to ashes in a blaze of retribution. This is the mindset of the innocent girl who desires only to make others happy. After all, doesn't removing cruelty from the world make it a better place?
Notes: For some reason I was under the impression Vasilisa was a child in the fairytale where she meets Baba Yaga, but that's actually not the case in the original story. Still, I like the design too much to change it. Also, I'm really not sure about the Russian in her NP names but I don't have a good way of translating it. They're supposed to mean something along the lines of "Skull Lantern Staff" and "Mother's Blessing".