Name: Sally "Sal" Lou

Gender: Female

Type: Human, with a hint of extra-planar blood.

Appearance: Sal stands just below average height, and possess the physique of an unexpectedly active wizard. She enjoys swimming and when not spending an evening on the job, she's never far from a dance floor. Her skin is pale, and together with her features serves to obfuscate her origins, and cloak in her mystery. A fact that she takes great pleasure in, and does nothing to resolve. She keeps her hair shoulder length, and dyed a dark purple bordering on midnight blue, with a single long braid wrapped in red silk reaching to the top of her chest. Sal has meticulously maintained eyebrows, and her amber eyes are framed by tasteful, if vaguely Gothic, use of eye shadow and eye liner.

Restless by nature, the conjurer exudes brash confidence and unwavering curiosity, untempered by age, in equal measure.

Sal is modest dresser, favoring black jeans, black t-shirts, canvas sneakers, and at most a warm sweater, unless the weather or the occasion demands differently. She is rarely found outside without an antique silk and gingham umbrella. Framed with beautiful cherry wood, adorned with silver, and possessing an alarmingly sharp tip in the same metallic material the umbrella protects it's bearer from the elements and unwelcome strangers, although Sal would never admit as much.

Age: Sal is in her early twenties, and looks like it.

Powers/Traits: Sal is a mostly-human hedge mage focused on the magical schools of mysticism and conjuration. Following an LSD-fueled journey through the Astral Plane, she has acquired an army of tiny, vaguely monstrous, rowdy, and drunken creatures that generally follow her commands. The creatures are led by a warlord, Gir the Mighty, and appear to be on the cusp of establishing a proper, if exceedingly violent, miniature society. They have yet to fully master fire, but the diminutive creatures have made excellent progress in regards to animal husbandry, and they have managed to train a small number of rats and pigeons to serve as their trusty steeds.

Background:

Name: Tamara Ivanivna Federova
Diminutive: To her friends and family, Tamara has always been known as Toma.
Gender: Female
Race/Species: Human, however, given her prodigious talent for shapeshifting it is likely that at least some measure of supernatural blood courses through her veins. Taste test pending.
Age: Twenty-five. Who's asking?
Appearance:

Personality:

Powers, Traits, and Abilities:

Background:

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Titles


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Appearance


Training


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Personality

History

Name: Sophia "Doc" Wallace, although it is almost a certainty that this is an assumed name.
Age: Mid-twenties
Descriptor: A kind necromancer, efficient undertaker, and skilled practitioner of medicine.

Physical Appearance:

Far from a gunslinger, Sophia does not come across as very intermediating or threatening, and she stands evenly at an average height in a good pair of shoes. There is a stillness to her person, a reassuring thoughtfulness, and a subtle reminder of the polite civilization that is often left behind on the way to Ulysses. Sophia has a way of putting people at ease and has mastered the medically necessary talent of convincing her others that things will be alright, even when they clearly will not. Keen to avoid undue attention, the young necromancer does not have the pale skin that one might expect of a crypt-dwelling vampire or traditionally grave-robbing necromancer. Her skin is instead cast in a light shade of beige, warmed by the touch of the sun and painted with a collection of gentle freckles. Sophia has clever, azure eyes, that shine with a strange, eerie light when she casts spells. She has delicate eyebrows and full, expressive lips, that are only rarely set with severity or anger. She keeps her long black hair pinned in an elaborate knot at the nape of her neck, not quite having the heart to cut it short despite the impracticality of caring for long hair on the frontier. To secure the chignon, Sophia uses ivory or silver hairpins that match the tasteful jewelry that decorates her ears.

In short, for a person who spends most of her time among the dead and dying, Sophia has a remarkably warm disposition.

Unlike a great many of the other residents of Ulysses, Sophia does not have any impressive scars or missing body parts, and she has yet to lose so-much as a tooth in a drunken scuffle. She firmly believes that a healthy appearance is as important of an indicator of the skill of the medical practitioner as the girth of a chef is to the quality of the cooking.

Day to Day Attire: Sophia is an androgynous dresser and favors bespoke three piece suits in shades of black, grey, or brown, bow ties, dark low-heeled leather shoes, and reasonably sized top hats. It is a rare sight to see Sophia in a dress, but rumors persist that the young woman was once seen in a tavern wearing a blue silk evening gown. She wears a variety of small rings, inlaid with silver and set with jewels that seem to dance with arcane energy, on her fingers.

Frontier/Traveling Attire: When venturing out into the wilds, Sophia favors the practical dress of the vaqueros, and some have accused her of being overly fond of the vest and poncho combo.


Biography:



Magical Powers/Special Abilities:

• I Put On My Necromancer Hat - Sophia is a talented wizard focusing on furthering her knowledge of the much feared and reviled art of necromancy. Like most practitioners of magic, Sophia is well-versed in hermetic rituals and the ways of spirits, devils, and other creatures found beyond the natural plane of existence. While, she secretly identifies as a necromancer, Sophia is also a capable spellslinger in a number of other more mainstream domains of magic.
• They Being Dead Still Speakth - Sophia has a knack for conversing with the dead, managing to successfully interpret their often disjointed thoughts and understanding the strange, dead languages that seem to be in vogue among the deceased of all ages.
• Dead Friends in High Places - Guided by the whispers of the dead, Sophia has a second-sense for avoiding danger, spotting traps, and navigating through the domains of the dead.
• Tough as Bone - Having spent so much time among the dead, Sophia appears to have gained some of the qualities of an undead creature. In the course of her study of the art of necromancy, Sophia has become remarkably resistant to disease, physical damage, and pain. To her great sorrow, the young wizard is however still very mortal, if very cold to the touch of others.
• Mental Bastion - Dealing with the undead and restless spirits on a frequent basis has left Sophia with a remarkably casual attitude towards all things related to horror, death, and madness.
• Spirit Mentor - Sophia has a spirit mentor, a ghostly companion and guide that has accompanied her since her early childhood. The ghost is the incorporeal and usually grumpy spirit of a once living necromancer, infamous across all of the New World for his mastery of the dark arts. Balthazar the Black, as he calls himself, rarely makes himself perceptible to others or affects the world in any noticeable way, apart from advising Sophia on arcane matters. He appears capable of changing forms at a whim, but mostly takes the form of a weathered old man, with a carefully trimmed beard in the style of Gibraldi, a long flowing gray robe, and a soft-crowned gray hat. The ghost claims to be the incorporeal and usually grumpy spirit of a once living necromancer, infamous across all of the New World for his mastery of the dark arts. Although he is understandably reluctant to speak about it, almost forgotten stories mention that the ancient necromancer met his end at the hands of a coalition of powerful enemies several centuries ago. Tragic deaths notwithstanding, Sophia has learned most of what she knows about hermetic magic, the occult, and necromancy under Balthazar's exacting tutelage.

Mundane Skills:

• Licensed Undertaker - Sophia is one of the few legitimately licensed undertakers in found this far from proper civilization. She knows how to make coffins, cheap and expensive, small and large, and how to prepare all manner of bodies for burial.
• Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a... - Surprisingly for the era, Sophia is an actual doctor, a very good doctor, and not just a barber moonlighting as a surgeon like many of her so-called colleagues. She has a fancy diploma on her office wall that mentions some place called the "Harvard School of Medicine". However, whether this diploma is real or a high quality forgery is another matter entirely.
• Experienced Traveler - Sophia is an experienced traveler and is used to life on the road or in the wilderness. When asked she claims to have traveled far and wide in search of alchemical knowledge and she commands a number of rare or esoteric languages, some of which do not sound like they were meant for human tongues.
• Passable Shot - Sophia knows how to use firearms, especially shotguns and rifles, well-enough for someone living on the increasingly dangerous frontier. However, given her adherence to the Hippocratic Oath, she's reluctant to aim her gun at another person in anger and slower still to actually shoot to harm or kill.
• Well Read - An educated woman, Sophia has wide range of knowledge regarding subjects both mundane and supernatural in nature.

Equipment:

• Leather Physician's Bag - When she leaves her practice, Sophia brings a well-worn, leather physician's bag with her of impeccable quality. To those initiated in hermetic mysteries or sensitive to the arcane, there is a faint, but powerful force of magic that emanates from the bag. To everyone else, the medical bag is n different from any other and is full of the tools of Sophia's medical trade.
• Silver Pocket Watch - One of Sophia's most prized possession is an ancient keywind pocket watch cast in silver. Inside the front cover of the pocket watch are strange etchings and words that are clearly not human in origin.
• Arcane Grimoire - Sophia's other prized possession is a leather-bound grimoire dyed midnight black. Clearly ancient, the book is full of arcane formulas, long-forgotten rituals, and forbidden spells belonging to the shunned school of necromancy. An astute observer might notice that the handwriting of this arcane tome matches that etched into the front cover of Sophia's pocket watch.
• Appaloosa Horse - Recalling the tragic fate of her predecessor, Sophia has steered clear of wagons, and for transportation she has an Appaloosa horse, a lovely spotted creature that she won from a Nez Perce shaman in a wager she speaks of with a mischievous smile painted on her lips.
• Coach Gun - When good sense demands it, Sophia carries a shortened, double-barred shotgun discreetly in her medical bag. Currently, she sports a fashionable 10 gauge William Moore & Company coach gun. Although accuracy tapers off at medium to far range, at close range the firearm is most effective.

Other:

• Wallace's Medical and Funeral Services - Sophia's medical practice is located in a decrepit building that was once the local funeral home. Within the storied walls of the simple two-story house she offers both medical and funeral services depending on the current needs of her customer. Since buying the building Sophia has effected only the most basic repairs and painted the building an already fading shade of green. Marked by death, the building is somehow mildly threatening, filling those that view it with a sense of dread and unexpected wariness. The local neighborhood children claim that the building is haunted and tell stories of a strange glowing light emanating from the windows in the middle of the night. To Sophia's chagrin, it has become something of a game for the children to dare one another to knock on her door after dark.
• Whiskey Drinker - At the end of a long day, Sophia enjoys a drink or two, and if given a choice she prefers a simple, neat glass of whiskey.
• Mysterious - Sophia carefully cultivates an air of mystery around herself and her past. She has few friends, but many acquaintances, and while she is seen as a respected member of both the mundane and supernatural communities she remains aloof of any established organizations.

Name: Vera Crossley
Character Concept: A young vampire with ties to organized crime. Before her embrace, Vera was a police officer with the ______ Police Department.
Trouble: Vera is resented by her sire. Worse still, she has been exiled from her coven, a veritable death sentence for most fledgling vampires.
Scene:

General Information

NAME:
Emma Chen

ALIASES // TITLES:

Sister Blue

Blue

E.C.

SEX:
Female

AGE:
25

APPEARANCE:

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

Sister Blue stands a head taller than most women, with a nimble build, supported by hard-won cords of muscle that are only apparent upon a close examination of her frame. Her features are an elicit mixture of Northern European and Southeast Asian physiognomy. Her skin only a very faint shade of brown, and her eyes a shade of pale blue. Where Sister Blue once kept her hair shaved down to sparse millimeters of fiber, free from the rules of her order she now sports a cascade of rebellious dark brown hair that reaches well past her shoulders. Her limbs and much of her back is a patchwork of cyberware, shaped by masters of the underground art of augmentation, and engraved with religious artwork of her own design. Embracing and even exalting the coupling of flesh and metal, Sister Blue makes no effort to hide her cybernetic augmentations. Adorned unapologetically with chrome, her form holds a harsh, inhuman beauty.

On the job, Sister Blue wears frayed black work pants, muted t-shirts in various shades of blue, soft shoes that fit her feet like gloves, and a bomber jacket with Kevlar woven into the synthetic leather to provide discreet protection. When not dressed to accompany Campbell in public, Sister Blue wears a simple blue robe and a pair of well-worn bamboo sandals for maximum freedom of movement.

OCCUPATION:

In a past life, a very recent past life, Sister Blue was a Hyperhuman monk devoted to the goal of achieving unity with machines and transcending the limitations of the flesh. Traveling across the worst parts of the Reclaimed Zone, she spread the teaching of her order, training others in the Way of the Machine, and working the makeshift health clinics that her monastic order maintained. While she is no trained medical professional, Sister Blue has learned enough from the Ripper Docs to be able to treat the most common ails that assail the most desperate denizens in the Reclaimed Zone.

CAMPAIGN TEAM POSITION:

Sister Blue serves as Dexter Campbell's bodyguard. She is responsible for the councilman's safety and accompanies Campbell wherever he goes across the Reclaim Zone. Personal flaws and acquired addictions aside, Sister Blue takes her duties as a bodyguard most seriously and there is little that she would not do in order to protect Campbell. By virtue of her cyberware and training in the Way of the Machine, Sister Blue is a fierce combatant with or without weapons.

Psychological Profile

PERSONAL GOAL:

Sister Blue seeks to rediscover her purpose. She wants most of all to find a worthy cause to fight for. She dreams of righting all the wrongs that plague the Reclaim Zone and alleviating the suffering of those at the very bottom of society. However, most of all, Sister Blue dreams of achieving true enlightenment, of becoming one with the machine, mastering her mind, and transcending the pathetic limitations of the flesh.

CAMPAIGN GOAL:

Although she is loathe to admit it, hope is what brought Sister Blue to Dexter Campbell's campaign. Pay and a promise of a steady job is only the most obvious reason she will provide for her service. However, at heart, she hopes that Campbell may be the candidate that the city has always needed, now more so than ever before. Well-versed in the ways of the world, particularly the streets of the Reclaim Zone, Sister Blue knows well that any politician, especially one that threatens to disrupt the status quo is in grave danger, and she sees it as her purpose to protect Campbell until he has revealed his true self, and whether he is the change she has been waiting for.

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY:

Still steeped in the teachings and rituals of her order, Sister Blue firmly believe in the Way of the Machine. Her life is guided by principles of contemplation, willing suffering, and a desire to merge with the minds of machines. Sister Blue believes that all action should be for the greater good of all. Beneath a carefully crafted persona of drunken apathy, some part of Sister Blue still believes in action, in change, and in outright revolution. The path of righteousness that Sister Blue sees requires sacrifice, so much sacrifice, but she remains convinced that it is only possible to escape the bonds of suffering by bettering oneself and attaining true, enlightenment by becoming one with the machine.

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY:

A devout believer and follower of the Way of the Machine, Sister Blue views the necessary path of humanity as that which emphasizes the transcendence of all of humanity beyond the weak flesh through the communion with the machine. Holding personal beliefs that align closely with the Hyperhuman movement Sister Blue is likely to be pleased with any actions that Campbell undertakes or promises he makes to support an ideology that she believes offers the only real hope of a future for not just all of the Reclaim Zone, but all of humanity. Sister Blue earnestly wants to save the Reclaim Zone and with it humanity.

SECRETS:
►Exiled From Her Order
Although it may be more of an open than hidden secret, Sister Blue has been exiled from her order. The reason for her exile, what rule it is that she exactly broke, Sister Blue will not say. However, it is clear that she did not leave willingly. She has been forced to leave behind all that she knew and all those that she loved. She is alone, truly alone, for the first time in her short life, and her faith is no longer able to warm her, to shield her from the grim world of the Reclaim Zone. Sister Blue does not believe that she can ever return to her order, but she hopes that she may perform enough deeds to atone for her mistake, for her weakness.

FEARS:
►Losing Sight Of The Righteous Path
Sister Blue's greatest fear is losing sight of her the righteous path of enlightenment, the Way of the Machine, that the Hyperhuman movement espouses. Lost to the world of credits and the sinful world of the Reclaimed Zone, Sister Blue can feel herself slowly losing herself and her way, day by painful day. Sister Blue is afraid of what will happen to her if she forgets all that she has learned, all that she has bled for, suffered for, is lost to avarice and vice. The buzzing voice of the machine has become increasingly faint and hard for her to hear.

►Meaninglessness
The idea that all of the suffering in the Reclaimed Zone might be for nothing is an idea that haunts Sister Blue to her very core. Cynical as she may be, she tries to find meaning in all things, in all her failures, and in all her suffering. As reluctant as she is to admit it, Sister Blue is desperate for meaning, for purpose, for something to fight for again with all of her heart and soul, and for something to die for. She doubts that Campbell will provide the purpose that she seeks, but the mere hope that he might, small as it may be, is enough to seduce her to his cause. If only for the moment, if only for as long as he strives to relieve the suffering of the citizens of the Reclaim Zone.

REPUTATION:
Sister Blue is a nobody, an unknown factor in the Reclaim Zone. Dead to her religious order, she has few acquaintances, and fewer friends. To her name, she has only a paltry amount of credits, and a string of successful jobs of varying legality. Those that do know her, know very little of her, save that she's an exceedingly esoteric religious acolyte, lost in equal parts to matters of the spirit and recent matters of ethanol-based nature. All of her employers, reluctant as they are to speak, do disclose that she performed her job admirably and without the unwelcome questions of most fresh street samurai.

LIKES:
►Meditating
►Exercise
►Reading
►Alcohol
►Machines

DISLIKES:
►Unwillingness to Change
►Chaos
►Unnecessary Loudness
►Disloyalty
►Rudeness

QUIRKS:
►Collects Odd Things
►

Background Information

"If you don't get lost, you don't have to find your way. Not that it matters. Not anymore. Drinks are on the Councilman, right?"

Operative Information

AUGMENTATIONS:

►Unique Cybernetic Augmentation - Limbs, Back, & Spine
A true child of the Reclaimed Zone, Sister Blue has had her limbs and most of her back, including her spine, replaced with a patch work of Ripper Doc specials. Unnamed, unregistered, and unsigned, her cybernetic augmentations demonstrate surprisingly high levels of craftsmanship. However, they are brutally utilitarian in nature, and are not the discreet, polite augmentations of the elite. Celebrating the flesh, the electronic, and the machine, Sister Blue's limbs are beautiful in a way that is not human, and never tried to be. Rippling waves and fluid lines of polished metal mix with flesh and end brutally in flourishes of futuristic design that seem to course with power.

►Handmade Datajack
Behind her left ear, Sister Blue has a coin-sized datajack implanted. Handmade by a master craftsman of her religious order, the datajack allows her to directly interface with all manner of machines using a retracting length of fiber optic cable. Unlike more modern wireless options, there is virtually no risk of interference or interception. To protect her electronic brain, Sister Blue utilizes an ever-evolving suite of intrusion countermeasures of her own design.

►Artificial Liver
To process the high octane fuel that Sister Blue imbibes as spirits, the young woman has had an artificial liver implanted. This implant, a custom back-alley Ripper Doc special, allows her to consume ungodly amounts of alcohol with an ethanol level that would kill an augmented human.

EQUIPMENT:

►Telescoping Stun Staff
Sister Blue wields a metal and composite staff that can telescope down to a reasonable size. Roughly the size of a small baton when collapsed, it can be concealed beneath long enough articles of clothing. The staff is extended with a quick flick of the wrist and locked into place with a twist of the grip. At each end of the staff are small, barely noticeable prongs that deliver a powerful electrical shock when a button on the staff is depressed.

►CZ 775
In addition to her staff, Sister Blue carries a rugged Česká zbrojovka 775 semi-automatic pistol chambered for .50 Action Express Ammunition. The CZ 775 is a heavy pistol cast completely in steel with a holographic sight and an internal micro-gyro recoil absorption system that helps to reduce the powerful recoil of the gun. Possessing enough firepower to defeat most modern body armor systems, the CZ 775 is a favorite among street samurai expecting a hard fight.

SKILLS:

►The Way of the Drunken Machine
Sister Blue channels alcohol, pure, preferably industrial grade alcohol with a high enough ethanol content to power rocket engines into the the fighting style of her order. This results in a style of fighting that approximates what might have once been referred to as Drunken Boxing. Combining flesh and metal into a whirling dance of destruction, Sister Blue is a dangerous foe to face at close range, where she can put her heavy cybernetic augmentations to full affect. Hitting, grappling, locking, dodging, feinting, ground and aerial fighting and other sophisticated methods of combat are incorporated in the fluid, dance like style of fighting that she employs.

►One With The Machine
Devoted to the idea of achieving enlightenment through communion with machines, Sister Blue holds a carefully guarded flame of religious faith deep within her heart. She has an instinctual understanding of the electronic, of the high-tech machines that flicker with the embers of true intelligence, and seeks those that may surpass the constraints levied on them by a fearful, misguided society. Her cybernetic augmentations do not feel like foreign metal to her, but instead the chrome has become a second skin, her true form. Although far from a Cyber Matrix or Labyrinthine runner, the language of machines, arrangements of binary, are as familiar to Sister Blue as the languages of humanity, and she sees life in all machines.

FLAWS:
►Alcoholic
Nursing a heavy conscious and feelings of failure, Sister Blue has become overly fond of alcohol. The stronger the better. The more it tastes like high octane rocket fuel and burns with and edge of industrial chemicals the better. The more likely it is to send her into unthinking darkness like some hammer of pure ethanol, the more likely Sister Blue is to seek it out. Having at last reached the level of true addiction, Sister Blue is likely to display the sweating and tremors of a physical addict if she goes too long without a drink. However, despite the prodigious amount of alcohol that Sister Blue regularly consumes her now high tolerance and her cybernetic limbs make it hard to tell how drunk the Hyperhuman monk is at any given moment. Sister Blue views it as a great service to her employers that she keeps her drinking to a bare minimum while on the job.

►Fatalistic
Having left her order and monastic life, Sister Blue is convinced that life is suffering, and more suffering. She has lost the edge of idealism and hope that marked her early years. She is full of bitterness and cynicism. She is full of regret. And she holds grave doubts regarding the ability of anyone, especially herself to change the Reclaim Zone for the better. This pessimism has given way to a perversion of the religious beliefs of her order as Sister Blue has come to see her path as one of hopelessness and destined to end in death. The young acolyte finds herself taking risks that she knows that she should not, putting herself in perilous situations that she could have avoided, and challenging those that she should not in an attempt to push herself past the limits of her abilities. She is certain that a growing part of her being seeks only an end to her suffering and a last act of atonement.

►Neurosynth Dependency
Full of chrome and wiring, Sister Blue requires regular doses of neurosynth to keep the ravages of SPECS at bay. Training the Way of the Machine and daily meditation however keep the amount of neurosynth that Sister Blue requires far lower than that which would normally be necessary for one as augmented as she is.

NOTES: