Name: Self explanatory. Age: Self explanatory. Nationality: Marrywell Academy is a global school and front for the Grand Ministry, welcoming Magical Girls from all corners of the world. Where do you hail from? Appearance: Self explanatory, both for transformed states and regular clothes. Description: A brief description of your character. This can include bits of personality, backstory, likes and dislikes, etc. Above all else, describe how they became a Magical Girl and their thoughts on the Grand Ministry. Grimoire: Every Magical Girl begins her story with one unique Grimoire, a mystical story book that somehow found its way into her possession. • Title: One defining trait of all Grimoires is that they are copies of fairytales and other stories of our world. They are similar enough that you can use them as the basis for the naming and powers granted by the books. • Classification: Under the Grand Ministry's ranks for all Magical Girls, what classification does your Grimoire fall under. This determines the level of your power, rank, and experience among other Magical Girls. • Description: A brief description of the contents of your Grimoire regarding the tale it embodies. • Abilities: What kind of powers, weapons, gear, etc does the Grimoire grant to your character? Misc: Trivia, theme songs, or anything else not covered above should go here.
Description: A shameless tease keeping countless secrets. Liliana is the one and only Head of the Grand Ministry and founder of Marywell Academy, the "Magical Girl Prime" as she likes to call herself. Her backstory is shrouded in myth and mystery, at least if you don't believe in the version she tells everyone. If you do, might as well be the original archmage of the British Islands, the tutor of King Arthur, who inspared countless stories around the world and—much like the core of the Arthurian Mythos—remains one of the most popular "fictional" figures to this day all over the globe.
The "always beloved" Merlin.
Of course that would imply Liliana isn't even human to begin with, so that couldn't be true right? Nevertheless, what to think when her Enchantment and Illusion magic seem to be almost limitless in its scope and power?
GRIMOIRE: • Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. • Classification: Fable. • Abilities: CLASSIFIED. • Description: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has become a staple of classic literature ever since its inception in the 1900s. Despite its rather recent time among history, its Grimoire has become quite potent within Ozma's hands. The tale is one most people are aware of, if not by its original context then by its more immediate adaptions and installations. The story of a young girl from Kansas dropped into a magical world wholly not her own, who must travel among wizards and lions and tin men to see the magical and powerful Oz still rings true to this day via Ozma. So long as the Crimson Comet continues to burn just as bright as the Emerald City, the story of wonder and humility will never die.
BIOGRAPHY: • History: When despair reaches the hearts of those girls who fight for justice and darkness creeps in their minds, there is always a shining hope to be found. It burns bright and hot like a crimson star bursting through to the surface and revigorating the just with hope while smiting the wicked. While such tales may be just a bit hyperbole, there is no doubt that Charlotte's obtained such a reputation among Magical Girls, if not the Grand Ministry as a whole. Bursting with power, hope, and potential, she has become the pinnacle mark of what a Magical Girl should be, by choice or chance. Still though, Charlotte's always shrugged away from the limelight. All that she does is simply to help others.
None of the youngsters can recall or remember Charlotte's past, let alone the exact point in time when she became Ozma. Indeed, when asked on the matter the redhead tends to slide past the topic with a joke or change the subject in place of getting communal ice cream. Still, her origins don't really matter as far as the Grand Ministry is concerned. Despite being only of Fable rank, Charlotte has become one of the most prominent and recognized Magical Girls in the Grand Ministry, not by her profound skill and magical adeptness, but by her constant desire to help others and flourish the prospect of teamwork. Easy to get along with and always willing to help another Magical Girl, she has become the so called "Crimson Comet" that streaks through the darkest nights to give all Magical Girls clarity of mind.
It's because of these deep rooted values that has made her a close associate with the Grand Ministry. She is fiercely loyal to them, trying as much as she can to be aboard in recruiting new Magical Girls. She can often be seen hanging around Marrywell Academy exuding warmth and comradery to any Magical Girl that needs it. Despite being a heavy influencer on other girls forming teams and sticking together howvever, she tends to work alone herself. Despite this, if there's danger within her beloved city of London, Magical Girl Ozma will give life and limb to defend it and its patrons of justice.
Lucette as a person is a French girl who has the physical appearance of a girl in her mid-teens despite being born a decade before the second World War. Like most - if not all - Magical Girls, her Grimoire keeps her body as youthful as the moment she was infused by its power. The magical girl has short shoulder-length white hair, light blue eyes, slim build, and pale complexion.
As Lumiere, Lucette is clad in a pure white dress resembling a bridal's gown with gold accents. A veiled golden crown encircles her head without actually touching it, it floats through arcane power instead. Similarly, a pair of golden wings float behind her back. Lumiere's wings are peculiar in that they don't take the form of traditional feathery avian wings, but instead eight separate pieces of floating golden obelisks. These 'wings' can be commanded at will by Lucette as if they're parts of her body. When not used for a particular task, they float behind her in twin formations of four pieces each, resembling a more traditional depiction of angelic wings.
As herself, Lucette prefers a comfortable outfit that doesn't stand out, thus they change along with the decades. Currently, she can most often be seen wearing a British schoolgirl's uniform to match her cover as a 'student' of Marrywell Academy.
GRIMOIRE:
Title: Sefirot/Sephirot, Kabbalistic Malakhim
Classification: Myth
The Kabbalah, an ancient set of traditions, beliefs, and philosophies said to both predate and inspire the Torah, the Holy Book of Judaism, which in turn eventually gives birth to Christianity and Islam, all together forming the main three branches of the Abrahamic religions.
This ancient concept's particular incarnation as the Grimoire "Sefirot" focuses on the Malakhim; Yahweh's guardians, warriors, and messengers, who are colloquially known collectively as 'angels'. Its bearer gains the ability to assume the form of a Seraph, multi-winged holy beings tasked to glorify His name. In Lucette's hands, it allows her to transform into Lumiere, the seraphic magical girl sworn to protect His creations from the Pageless, demons of shadows intent of devouring all and covering the world in darkness. For as long there's something worth protecting in this world, then so will her light shine forevermore.
Sefirot's power can be classified as no less than Myth rank, befitting a Grimoire embodying the concept of angels, a myth that's known throughout most of the civilized world, spread through each corners of the Earth, even to countries that never had a particularly strong Abrahamic influence. As it stands today, everyone and their mother knows what an 'angel' is and their depiction in literature, art, and media ranging from ancient texts to modern-day novels, movies, and games can't be disputed.
Sefirot is a powerful Grimoire, one of the world's strongest in fact due to the myth it embodies. Its bearer can assume the form of an angelic guardian, a shining beacon of God's light to bring hope to the helpless and banish the forces of evil.
Its current bearer, Lumiere, is granted various abilities all adhering to this theme. Aside from the usual superhuman strength, agility, and endurance that most magical girls possess when transformed, Lumiere is capable of free flight by herself, but she can boost her speed by dedicating her wing-obelisks to the task, more pieces equal more speed. Speaking of wings, Lumiere possesses eight separate obelisks which she can wield for various purposes: offense, defense, and utility.
For offense, each piece can fire golden beams to sear her enemies into ash, brandishes scythe-shaped beam-blades to slice and dice targets, and emits arcane explosions to decimate groups of Pageless.
For defense, they can project semi-transparent barriers to shield someone or something from harm or heal wounds.
For utility, they boost Lumiere's flight speed or shape two portals that she can use to transport herself (and only herself) from one to the other. Regarding the latter, each portal requires exactly 4 wings to form, thus portalling means her wings are all busy and therefore can't be used for anything else.
One thing to mention for all of these uses is that Lumiere is able to dedicate any number of wings from one all the way to eight with each added piece boosting the potency of their task. For example, a single wing can fire a golden beam at the width of a human fist, but all eight combined can form a wave motion gun akin to a certain animated series of a white-clad brunette magical girl that befriends people via pink beams.
While Sefirot isn't sentient in the way humans are, it's clear that the Grimoire seems to have a mind of its own. It can't move or speak, but it seems to respond to Lucette's thoughts, words, and actions. In particular, Sefirot is adamant in its chosen bearer's adherence to its purpose, protecting humanity from existential threats, the Pageless being a prominent example. It can outright refuse to allow its power to be used 'irresponsibly', for better or worse. As such, Sefirot's bearer may be granted by power that eclipses most magical girls, but it also entails all the responsibilities that it demands from her.
BIOGRAPHY:
As it's common with veteran magical girls possessing decades of experience, Lucette's behavior utterly betrays her apparent age. She's an old soul in the body of a teenager and it's something that quickly becomes obvious when she's speaking to a fellow magical girl, to others not in the know, she tries her best to act her 'age' for subtlety's sake, but an observant person - magical girl or no - can eventually sense that something isn't quite right.
Ever since she stumbled upon Sefirot, an event that saved her life, she believes that she was chosen by Jehovah, God, to protect humanity as one of His angels. She believes that she's only doing what's best for the people, but possessing such inhuman power can get into her head even if she doesn't realize it. Although Sefirot's semi-sentient nature keeps her in check, Lucette occasionally displays signs of a person with god complex, a well-meaning one, but complex nonetheless.
Nevertheless, in the end, she's definitely someone you can rely upon whether as a comrade, mentor, or just a shoulder to cry on, and an irreplaceable asset to the Marrywell Academy.
One of the veteran Magical Girls in active service, Lucette's history traces back to France in the middle of the 20th century, a most tumultuous era for mankind, the era that saw numerous armed conflicts on a global scale, including two world wars.
Lucette was just a young French girl born in the 1920s and she grew up in a world still reeling from the aftermath of the first world war. Born to a baker father and housewife mother, both devout Catholics, she was raised in a religious environment. Perhaps if destiny had decided otherwise, she'd have grown up to be a baker herself, married a handsome childhood friend of hers, bore healthy children, and passed away peacefully with her extended family beside her deathbed, perhaps that would've been the kinder fate, but alas...
Fascists from the neighboring Germany and Italy and all the way across the world in Japan decided that the world should bend their knees to them, thus sparking the second world war, a mere short two decades after the first one. France thought that the Maginot Line would be able to keep the Germans at bay, but little did they know that the Germans had learned from their last defeat, their forces stormed through the Ardennes Forest and caught the French off guard, thus setting into motion of the country's eventual downfall.
Lucette's home village was among those ravaged by the horrors of war, she was still in the tender age of 15 when German forces arrived to clash with the ill-prepared French army. To say the ensuing battle was one-sided would be an understatement. Lucette, her family, and other villagers took shelter within the town's church, hoping, praying to God that they would deliver them from this calamity, and then... something answered, but whatever it was, it certainly was not God's work.
Perhaps attracted by all the death and destruction in the area, dark creatures emerged from the shadows, abominations of the natural order, ones only known as 'Pageless'. The demons ravaged through the battlefield, holding no allegiance but to themselves as they ripped and tore through both German and French soldiers, sowing complete chaos to both sides as the creatures devoured the humans for their life force. Obviously, any villagers they found weren't treated any different, meat is meat after all.
Lucette watched with her own eyes how a pack of black wolf-like creatures with exposed ribs and jagged fangs broke into the church and pounced on the townsfolk, one by one in quick succession. In panic, her mother tried to hide her only daughter in the Church's confessional even as her husband was torn to pieces behind her. However, something snapped in Lucette as she refused to hide just to watch her mother die, the young girl grabbed a bible in her desperate search for a weapon, bolted out of the confessional, and dauntlessly leapt between her mother and a skeletal wolf to smack its ugly mug!
That was when it happened... the 'bible' wasn't just a Holy Book, but a Grimoire instead. It shone in a bright golden light, a blinding light that dazed the monsters and enveloped Lucette, its Bearer. In an instant, Lucette Delacroix the village girl was no more and in her place, Lumiere, Guardian of the Lord, descended from the heavens to protect His faithful. Not knowing what exactly happened, Lumiere merely followed her instincts as she burned each and every monster around her, avenging her father and saving her mother.
Now, decades later, even long after her mother had passed away from old age, Lucette remained, though a woman in her 90s, the same burning desire to protect her loved ones back in that church endured.
Once upon a time, the name Roma Bhakti was held within the registers of the Grand Ministry. A quiet, soft spoken Magical Girl who, while never one to rouse trouble, failed to stand out as an exceptional paragon of virtue. A magical girl who fit in the background but didn't stand out, not until the day she made a true friend.. A girl with a pure heart and mismatched eyes, who reached out to the quiet girl and pulled Roma into her life.
"She became my everything...Her eyes. Her hair. Her every breath....I had to have them to myself."
Kindness like poison, twisting a quiet girl around and around till she found her thoughts dominated by increasingly dark fixations. In a twist of fate they remained solely within the confines of her mind, her fixation vanishing from the mortal coil, her story supposedly devoured by the tides of Pageless with not a scrap. Or so she was told by the Grand Ministry who sent her to her demise.
"I found myself struck in that moment, staring at the bearer of bad news. I could not deceive myself into disbelief, my powers to keen for illusion, but I was left adrift. No easier could I return to quietly fighting the good fight as a nameless, faceless warrior than I could cast aside the desires running wild in my chest!"
"The mesenger became my first love."
The Ministry struck her name from records, her lack of presence easier to erase from her allies then the horror she had instilled in those came upon the scene of her betrayal. A messenger of the minitry lay broken, alive in only the strictest sense of the word yet lifeless in spirit. The culprit had made no effort to hide her involvement, calmly collecting her belongings and leaving Marrywell as quietly as she first entered. She would return, time and time again with a passion in her breast and a spark of inhumanity in her eye, visiting her love upon the Magical Girls who struck her as true paragons of virtue.
"With my eyes I see their nature's laid bare, and I see the lies they bind themselves in. Lies I once ignored, a nicety of the world I have since left behind. Now....now I will liberate them, and carry them off to my celestial plane."
Whispered of in quiet tones of an alien presence, as ravenous as a Pageless yet once among them, who carries off Magical Girls never to be seen again. Yet still, fewer dare speak of those who seek this figure out, only to return, touched in ways they will never speak of. Truth and lies mix together, made all the more potent a mixture by the Ministry's denial any such being exists at all.
"I walked among those mortals unseen. Now I see all, illuminated by the moon from which I rule upon."
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Classification: Legendary Grimoire. Description: The story held within Roma's grimoire is over a millenia old, spread across the world from modern re-imaginings to faithful retellings. It stands as the basis of one of the most prolific forms of Magical Girl media, of which Roma took great delight in.
The oldest known form of Monogatari story telling from Japan, it tells of a woodcutter who finds a child the size of his thumb held within a glowing bamboo shoot. Taking her home, she grows into a fully matured woman in a few scant years, possessing unparalled beauty that draws the eyes of suitors most powerful and influential. To the five most prominent suitors she posed impossible tasks, and when each cheated to try and earn her hand, her eyes discerned the truth of the matter and dismissed them.
When the very Emperor of Japan came to have her hand in marriage, she rejected him, claiming she was no citizen of their country and therefore, could not rule at his side. Such was her bearing that he entreated with her for years afterwards, maintain cordial correspondence till such a time came that the woman born from a bamboo shoot admitted the truth of her ancestry. She was born among the Celestial Plane, a child of the moon sent to the Earth, and it was to the moon she would then return. Casting aside her robes to the family that raised, and offering one final letter with an elixir of immortality to the Emperor she had held dear to her heart, she was draped in the mantle of Heaven and cast aside all mortal attachment before rising from the Earth on a silver saucer.
It was said that the Emperor grieved her loss so keenly he destroyed the elixir, unwilling to live an eternity unloved, and sent a vast host of soldiers to deliver his final letter to the peak of the point closest to heaven where it could be burned in hopes of reaching his love. The then active volcano from which the letter was burned would be known as Mt. Fuji.
Abilites:
Eyes of Heaven- To be one detached from the world and it's values is to see them unfettered and unhindered. It is an effect always active to a degree, as even when not transformed Roma carries an uncanny insight into the motives and desires of those she observes, but when transformed she can see it clear as day even if the one observed does not realize their own nature. In an immediate sense, it lets her understand the very body of those she faces, reading their muscles even under the poofiest of garments to follow their movements and judge where to apply pressure of her own, even on a Pageless.
Gifts of Upkeep- The bamboo cutter, upon finding his apopted daughter, found that every stalk of bamboo he cut from then on contained a nugget of gold. This was considered payment for the care of a celestial, and so Roma can offer small tokens of gold to others. She may create them as nuggets, or shape them into trinkets, often personalizing them to suite the heart of whom she observes.
Celestial Host- Being born to the moon by Celestials means she is attended by such celestials, followers who can usher her forth on a flying saucer and aid her as required. When transforming they appear as though from a mirage, garbing her in heavenly vestaments and disappearing as the process ends. Each member of the host is brightly colored and eccentricly styler, aping the very Magical Girls Roma desires most from behind masks of expressive, painted faces.
Vestments of the Moon Princess- Her transformed state comes with its long flowing robes, which contain a gold inlayed fan of great durability, and a pipe that produces a smoke which produces feeling of intense longing, carrying with it the desires of the Emperor as his letter burned atop Mt. Fuji to reach the Heavens. Unconventional though they are, both are considered her weapons and can survive the abuses of any other Magical Girl's tool.
Bonnie is a French Canadian oft bearing a smile on her lips and a spring in her step, as long as there hasn't been a long night slaying pageless on a school night. She's a tiny bit short, but otherwise limber and athletic, and insists her next growth spurt is right around the corner, regardless of what any senior magical girls tell her. Her pride and joy is taking great care of her extravagant hair and hairstyle, which nicely frames her pale skin and sparkling lilac-pink eyes.
Lilac Shimmer strides on the battlefield garbed in radiant attire. The striking white core of her outfit serves to accept the colors of Joyeuse and live up to her name, shimmering finer than silk in the aurora of Joyeuse's power. And, one cannot forget Joyeuse himself, a kingly companion, a fine stout medieval longsword, no flippant rapier, crowned with a hilt of royal gold. In her hands the blade seems large enough to be wielded two handed, and at times she will, but as a Magical Girl she can nonetheless wield it with deadly ease in a single hand.
Inside school, Bonnie's outfit is not exactly kept to an exactingly formal standard. Comfort is more important for those mid-class naps. Outside of school or work, Bonnie tends towards tomboyish outfits, though one might occasionally find her aiming for a cute or elegant appeal instead of a handsome one. Relatively common is a mix and match, with a rather boyish top combined with a skirt. The exception to the rule is her extravagant work uniform.
GRIMOIRE:
Title: La Chanson de Roland
Classification: Fable
The Song of Roland is an epic poem of medieval France, celebrating deeds of honor, kingship, battle and crusade. Dating back to the 11th century, it is a tale of some longevity, being quite popular in medieval France. It is a tale of court and crusade, justice and treachery.
In Bonnie's hands, the Grimoire grants her the sword of Charlemange. As for the reason the Song of Roland grants her Charlemange's blade, she's not sure, though Charles is prominently featured. Perhaps it has something to do with a right to rule? But if so, what does a mere magical girl rule? Bonnie does not yet understand the significance, still puzzling as to the deeper meanings.
While the Song of Roland is a historically important tale, oft credited with aiding the rise of French national sentiment, it certainly doesn't have worldwide reach. Durandal the blade of Roland is probably more famous than Roland or his song, simply for appearing as a legendary weapon in games. But it is little more than a name to most. How many do you know that actually read the Song of Roland? And perhaps more importantly, the modern world has little positive regard for crusades and wars of religion these days. As such, the Song of Roland is currently classified as Fable rank.
The Song of Roland's primary ability is to summon for Lilac Shimmer the legendary sword of Charlemange, Joyeuse, a powerful longsword of shifting colors. While later legends might ascribe to it the power of Longinus, Joyeuse is not as mythical as that weapon. It is nonetheless peerless to any mortal blade and possesses a curious power.
While drawn, Joyeuse may be used to create colorful displays of vibrant, joyful even, lights. This power seems to act naturally when Lilac is enjoying the thrill of battle resulting in the battlefield being lit up like a festival.
Finally, as a melee type magical girl, Lilac Shimmer indeed possesses the typical physical suite of enhancements assumed of that type.
BIOGRAPHY:
Bonnie can be described as typically enthusiastic and bombastic, but still trying to find her place in the world. She will oft make bold declarative statements of truth, but internally doubt as to whether they really are so. If she's willing to share her doubts with you, it's a strong sign of her trust that she doesn't make for many.
Bonnie has a rather direct and immediate approach to most problem solving. Pageless? Transform, pronounce judgment, and strike! Need money? Go around and see who's hiring. Schoolwork? Ah, who cares, just write something down, a guess is better than a blank sheet. She tends towards decisively doing the most obvious solution, even if perhaps a bit more care should be taken to determine the proper solution.
The exception to this habit is relational issues, that instead have her shaking in her boots and taking no action at all or reacting defensively. The loss of her Magical Girl Team, not to Pageless, but simply drifting apart, has shattered her confidence in that regard.
Overall, she's still young, even if not quite as young as she looks, and puts up a brave front to try and hide a teeming mass of insecurities.
Bonnie's own story is not all that unbelievable or out of the ordinary. A bright young girl of 19 years, traveling to a university abroad to study. The subject of her study, being a magical girl, may certainly be out of the norm, but as a whole her past is not what troubles her, but the future.
Bonnie Chance was born an only child to French Canadians, not in Quebec, but in London. London Ontario that is. Bonnie still keeps in contact with her parents regularly, for as much they know, she is enjoying a full ride scholarship in a prestigious far off academy. Bonnie keeps back ups of every single message they share with each other across the pond, dreading the day when she has to break ties with them. A magical girls lot is not a mortals lot, and eventually the two worlds must shift apart.
Bonnie became a magical girl three years ago, while attending a camp in the woods. Tales and chocolates exchanged by firelight, interrupted by an eerie howl came from the darkness. The chaperone told them to stay as he would check it out, and they huddled close whispering whether it was beast or prank. A scream issued from where their chaperone investigated. The others fled in panic to their cabins, but something different steeled Bonnie. Grabbing a stout stick and the flashlight app on her phone, she set forth into the darkness.
What she found was one of the Pageless, this one a twisted beast both moose and man the size of a van and crowned in gore soaked horns. An impossible beast a thousand times her match. Yet she could not help but charge. From her lips spilled forth not a battle cry, but a song, a poem, in flowing words she knew not. Something French. The stick in her hands was not a stick anymore, but a glorious blade, and Lilac Shimmer cleaved the beast in twain.
But Bonnie was not alone that night, multiple Pageless had attacked different campers, and more than one Magical Girl was born that night, defending the woods. In the months after, they formed a small Magical Girl team, defending London and the surrounding area against the Pageless. Eventually, however, this team came to an end. Not because of the Pageless, but ironically, joining a 'greater' team. Eventually they were recruited into the Grand Ministry, and, amid that larger team, lost their smaller identity.
Having lost that solidarity of the smaller team in which she was a prominent member, Bonnie now finds herself questioning her place in the vast Grand Ministry.
ODDS AND ENDS:
She doesn't know much of French culture, beyond some fragmented snippets of language and here and there. She knows enough to get the joke in her name, for example. She's been struggling to try and read her Grimoire in its original text, but so far has resorted to reading English translations. Given the French origins of her tale, she's a little disappointed Marrywell is in Britain as opposed to France.
Here are some places I'd love to see her story go. If you've got an idea for any of them, hit me up.
The Grand Ministry: Bonnie has mixed feelings. She's happy with the opportunity to study in Marrywell and the support they can offer her, but struggles with how she's effectively lost her smaller team as the former members seek position within the Grand Ministry.
The Song of Roland: Bonnie struggles to understand the moral she should take from the tale. It's not exactly time to reconquer Spain from the muslims, so the meaning must be something else.
The Nature of a King: Bonnie feels a desire to live up to the legend of Charlemange.. But it's not right for a magical girl to go around conquering countries right?
Two Worlds: Bonnie is putting off facing the fact that being a magical girl will eventually result in her walking very different paths to her parents.
The King's Court: Bereft of her former teammates, Bonnie feels alone in a crowd. She's worried it's her own fault for the group splitting up, and that if she was of greater charisma she could have kept them together.
In a Name: Bonnie came up with her magical girl name herself on a whim 3 years ago, and worries it's a bit childish for her knightly/kingly image she's aiming for nowadays. Is foolhardy pride to want a cooler name, or simply a matter of growth?
Personality: A kind, warm girl raised by a loving family, Wilhelmina is easy to get along with. Despite her youth, she tends to take life in stride and with a certain sort of warmth. Make no mistake though: While she is an optimist who always gives people a chance, she is by no means naive. Should someone try to exploit her repeatedly, they will soon find themselves lacking her assistance along with her presence. She is also a voracious reader, a lover of stories who always has a book at hand.
On the flipside, Wilhelmina is very inexperienced. With only a year under her belt as a Grimoire Wielder, not to mention her peaceful upbringing, she finds the more frightening aspects of the Magical Girl World - such as the Pageless - difficult to stomach. She wears her heart on her sleeve, making her easy to read and manipulate to an extent. She also tells the truth most of the time, even when keeping her mouth shut or lying would serve her far better.
Opinion on the Ministry: Despite her bearing an Altered Legend, Wilhelmina finds the Ministry useful and she willingly cooperates with it. In fact, she is enrolled as a full student, one of the few of her kind to do so. She views it as an essential instution of support and is quite starry-eyed about it given her positive experinces so far. If only she did not have to fight the Pageless! But everything comes at a price, right?
The Netherlands is a nation with a proud naval history, which Wilhelmina's father seemed keen on maintaining. Having served as a sailor for nearly a decade before he found his wife, one of Wilhelmina's fondest memories is her sitting on her father's lap and listening to the stories of the sea. From the brave Odysseus who took twenty years to journey home through the legendary journey of Columbus and even the tale of the Flying Dutchman when she grew older, Wilhelmina loved them all. She also loved her fairy tales of course and her parents shared the duty of storyteller, alternating every other day.
Needless to say, she grew up in a loving household. Surrounded by older and younger siblings alike, she found herself supported where it counted and gently guided where she had to be. While her upbringing was by no means flawless, her parents gave it their all when it came to their children and it showed brilliantly with all of them. In the case of Wilhelmina, their care mainifested as excellence in all things literature, whether it be prose or poetry. Her successes came one after another; she even got accepted to a prestigious high school in a relatively remote location.
Saying her tearful goodbyes to her parents, Wilhelmina set out to live in the dormitories and immerse herself in the school's grand library. She set her sight on becoming a librarian, a professor of literature or perhaps even a great author herself, but fate would have other plans for her. For shortly after she set foot in the library she so wished to see, the Pageless struck.
Uncaring, unfeeling, horrible monstrosities, they started to devouring the library like a swarm of locusts. Ripping out page after page, destroying tome after tome, they cackled and danced as they destroyed humanity's greatest works while Wilhelmina stood, frozen in terror at their sight. This could not be happening, she thought. Why were they so cruel, she asked. Why did they not leave her beloved stories alone? It was unacceptable. She could not bear it. She wanted to defend these stories, to make sure they get passed on, just as her father passed his stories onto her and she would be willing to pay any price for that.
But nothing happened. All hope seemed to be lost as the Pageless flooded the premises until...
A brilliant pillar of light. Eight wings of gold. The choir of angels.
Magical Girl Lumiére had arrived. And as that dazzling figure fought against the relentless tide, something clicked within Wilhelmina's mind: she realised that no matter how deep the storm, no matter how dark the clouds... hope waited for her at the end. As though hearing this thought, her Grimoire Manifested in her hands, transforming her in a blinding show of light and colours. Her heart throbbing in her chest, the newly-born Magical Girl overcame her fear to stand beside Lumiére. With the older girl's experience and the younger girl's support, they managed to defeat the Pageless menace.
After that, Lumiére invited Wilhelmina into the Ministry, promising an explanation for everything that happened so far. Confused, lost and honestly curious, Wilhelmina accepted and she got moved to Britain under the guise of a scholarship; not a surprise given her general performance in the literary arts. This was one year ago and since then, she served as one of the Ministry's many Magical Girls.
Title: The Flying Dutchman's Kindness
Classification: Altered Legend
Description: The Flying Dutchman was a common tale amongst the sailors of the seventeenth century, with as many versions as the number of mouths that retold it. However, two elements remain consistent between all versions: the existence of a ghost ship cursed to forever wander the sea and the Cape of Good Hope being the place responsible for its tragedy.
In the most popular version, the Flying Dutchman is a vessel which got embroiled in a storm near the Cape of Good Hope. The captain swore that he would make it home "even if he had to sail until Judgement Day" and the Devil took him at his word. He cursed the captain to forever wander the seas along with his crew. However, an angel appeared before him, revealing how he might save his crew along with himself: Every seven years, the waves would bring him to shore. There, he would have to find a wife who remains true to him no matter the cost.
When he finally finds a hope for his salvation, the captain learns that the woman whose hand he sought in marriage, had been promised to another man. Succumbing to despair, he interprets this as a sign his curse would never end, so he and his crew return to his ship to sail the seas forevermore. But as Flying Dutchman leaves the harbour, his chosen wife swears eternal loyalty to him as she casts herself into the sea. Thus, the captain's redemption is earned: the Flying Dutchman, her crew and his wife ascend to heaven as one.
The Grimoire tells a much different story.
As written in The Flying Dutchman's Kindness, the captain is approached by one of his sailors, who has learned that his mother had been stricken with illness. Touched by the sailor's tale, the captain vows to make it home as soon as possible. He is even willing to brave the dangers posed by the Cape of Good Hope, which is also known as the Cape of Storms.
The other sailors are all too happy to get home again and merry tales fill the ship's hull as they leave port. They sail the seas with high hopes, however, they are struck by a terrible storm at the Cape of Good Hope - the very thing they wished to avoid. As the ship rolls, creaks and starts to shatter, the captain prays to God and His angels for salvation.
In his sincere prayer, he professes his foolishness and begs for the life of his sailors as he names all the prices he is willing to pay for their safety. An angel soaring in the heavens hears his prayer and just as the storm is about to rip the vessel into tiny pieces, just as a hope seems lost, the angel rescues them by lifting the ship out of water before delivering it to safe shores.
The angel delivers the price of his intervention: For seven hundred and seventy-seven years, the captain will have to wander the sea, saving seven sailors every day without fail. Humbled by the angel's appearance, the captain accepts the deal and swears an oath to live by it no matter the cost. The angel then ascends back to heaven as the storm dies down and the captain makes his way home - but he makes sure to fulfill his promise to the angel.
Since that day, he and his crew have saved countless sailors. Appearing as the faint light in the distance, they have guided many a ship to safety. They took mercy on the shipwrecked, rescued those trapped on uninhabited islands... even today, they continue to help the unfortunates of the world. For the captain shall never forget the kindness of God, nor will he ever forget his oath. He will faithfully accomplish his duty until his debt is repaid, whereupon he will take his rightful place by God's eternal throne.
Captain's Prayer: Locking her hands together and uttering a prayer to the Lord Himself, Wilhelmina calls upon His aid just as the captain did in her Grimoire's Legend. Unlike the Grimoire, however, the aid comes not in the form of an angel, but in the form of a blessing that she may convey to any ally or herself. Capable of healing all wounds and ailments, whether they be physical, mental or spiritual, its potency is only limited by how much magic she pours into it.
Captain's Oath: Whenever one of Wilhelmina's allies swears to accomplish a goal, she can choose to bestow a blessing on them by calling upon the captain's goodwill and determination. In turn, the captain smiles upon them, granting a pinch of good luck, an increase of skill and a general increase in power to the person in question. The blessing lasts for as long as Wilhelmina maintains it and she may bestow it to a maximum of three people at this time, with each blessing taking a toll on her magic reserves.
The Flying Dutchman's Crew: Much like the blessed captain of her Grimoire, Wilhelmina does not act alone. She is capable of summoning a maximum of five spectral sailors, all dressed in fine livery and appearing almost completely human. Veterans of countless years, they follow her commands to the best of their abilities, which are beyond that of any mortal man. Should the need arise, they can also summon magical muskets into their hand to deal with Wilhelmina's enemies.
Name: Silvia O'Sullivan • Age: 17 • Nationality: USA
Appearance: Silvia appears listless most of the time. Despite this, she keeps up good hygiene and makes sure she looked her best wherever she goes. Did the wind just blow? She'll brush her red hair. Did she just eat? She'll look in her pocket mirror to clean her teeth, which are by far the best among all magical girls.
Barring her outfit, the only notable difference between her magical girl and true forms is that her eyes are green instead of orange, and her hair is a bit less dynamic out of costume. Silvia likes to keep up with trends, and sometimes even sets them. She never wears anything too outlandish, but she's something of a fashionista. Normal clothes paired with the right accessories make her look pop.
Description: "Apathetic" is probably the first word that comes to mind when people see Silvia O'Sullivan. She's not an excitable person, and doesn't go out of her way to get to know people or engage in small talk. There are no people, magical girls or otherwise, that she reveres. What few times she does choose to talk to people is out of pure necessity. Furthering her studies is more important than any human interaction. But even then, she does not seem to get excited when she gets a good grade, nor does she seem disappointed when she scores low on a test. She only displays emotions in extreme cases, like that time a student punched her in the face, or when she caught a whiff of someone's hallucination spell.
Ever since she was very young, her parents had always told her what she should be doing. At least, in terms of her school learning. She was an average kid with average grades, but her parents were determined to make sure she studied hard and got perfect grades on everything. They were going to make sure their little girl went to the best school, entered the best collage, and became more successful than all her peers. They would comb out all of her weaknesses to prepare her for the "real world."
That didn't leave much room for her own interests, but she was respected by many and had a lot of people who considered her their friends. She honestly didn't care for most of them. But she did have a friend in Japan that she would write to from time to time. The internet was an amazing place, and it was nice to talk about her problems with someone who was removed from her immediate circle of acquaintances. She enjoyed her friends company so much that she would go visit her one day. Her parents offered to take Silvia to Japan if she did well on her end of year tests, which of course, she did.
But when Silvia met with her friend, she could see that she hadn't been entirely honest during their talks. Silvia had been told that they had a perfect life with a nice home and lots of friends, but when she met face to face with her friend she was working impossible hours in some dead end job. Her colleagues didn't respect her, she had no friends, and she had been trying to pretend she was something she wasn't online in an attempt to reach out to someone. The deception didn't bother Silvia, as she had undersold many of the positive parts of her own life. Her friend gave her a book with tears in her eyes, calling it a memento for her visit. Once she got back to the states, her friend clarified that she handed the book to her because it was cursed, and she needed to get it out of her life. This was kind of strange to Silvia. She she also felt a bit betrayed, because her friend had essentially tried to pass all of her misfortunes onto her with this book. She would never write to her friend again.
Though a foreign school in London seemed to be interested in taking in a transfer student like Silvia. Her parents had been trying to get her into Marrywell Academy for a while, and were quite pleased that they were finally able to get through. Had her former friend's book passed what was left of her good luck to Silvia? Even after a few years she can't say.
It's hard to gauge what Silvia's likes and dislikes are. She does seem to have an interest in culinary arts, as eating is one of the few things she expresses joy in. She's almost always studying, and will join just about any sport she can. The more competitive a sport is, the better. Physical activity isn't something she's shy about engaging in. Her dislikes are also hard to pin down, but she doesn't like talkative people. Especially talkative people that can't tell she's trying to concentrate on something else.
She hasn't really been impressed with the Grand Ministry. Silvia has observed a reverence towards members with stronger grimoires, some of which look down on those with weaker stories. She feels that people should be respected based on the power of their character rather than some book they got by chance. Where she to hold the Book of Omen in her own hands, would people treat her any differently?
Grimoire's Title: Hyakumankai Ikita Neko • Classification: Fable
Description: "The Cat Who Lived a Million Times" is a folk/children's story written in 1977 by Sano Yoko. The book is mostly watercolor pictures, but does of course feature a story. It tells the tale of a tiger striped tabby who lived a million times, always getting reborn to an owner they don't care for. Every time they die, their owner cries, but the tabby never does. But on their millionth life, they have no owner. They are wild, and thus free to go wherever they please. He eventually meets a white cat who he falls in love with, and for once. Though over time, the white cat grows old and dies. Then the tabby cries a million tears before dyeing themselves. This time, the tabby does not return to life.
The story is believed to be Buddhist allegory for enlightenment, as they believe that we are reincarnated several times in earthly bodies before we reach enlightenment. Because the tabby was never able to love anyone other than themselves, they were unable to achieve enlightenment and were forced to live as an effectively immortal cat for 999,999 of its lives. Though the story does not outright spell this out for the reader. Some could easily come away with a different moral. Maybe what the story was actually illustrating was that the tabby was invincible until it decided to start caring for someone other than itself. You can read the story here.
The story is not especially well known, and is also relatively new as far as fables go. However the story has been referenced in other media. In cowboy Bebop, one of the main characters recalls the story of the "tiger striped tabby," which is a summery of "The Cat Who Lived a Million Times." Regardless, it is pretty weak, even by a fable's standards. Though it does possess the power to make Silvia very strong in the right situation.
Abilities: This grimoire enables its holder to take on the features of the tiger striped tabby in the story.
• While this tome doesn't offer immortality, Silvia becomes stronger in proportion to how outnumbered she is, relative to the power of said opponents. This effects all of her spells and arcane abilities, but has no effect on mundane skills granted by the grimoire.
• However, her power is divided among any allies who are in the vicinity. That is to say that they get stronger while her own power wanes. This effects all of her spells and arcane abilities, but has no effect on mundane skills granted by the grimoire.
• The tabby in the story had several lifetimes to acquire skills, but Silvia is still on her first. Regardless, she can learn abilities from opponents that she fights. This can be anything from a martial arts styles, a spell, to some monstrous ability, but she needs to witness them using it while she's trying to fight them. Anything she learns is relative in power to her grimoire rather than her opponent. Her learned powers so far are:
• Greater Than the Greatest of Tigers: This ability came with her grimoire. When she's alone, she can turn into a giant tiger that can rip most pageless apart in just a few swipes. Though as more allies join her in combat, the transformation becomes weaker. She can maybe muster a tail and some ears, and her finger nails become as tough as tiger claws. Not quite as menacing, nor as effective in combat.
• Magic Missile: Something she picked up sparring with a magical girl who fought with a D&D scenario as their grimoire. Silvia can conjure eight magic missiles that home in on her target. Every ally who fights along side her cuts the number of projectiles she fires in half until she can only fire a single missile at a time.
• Performer's Balance: Another find during a sparing match, this time against a trained circus performer on a precarious arena. Silvia has incredible balance and can maintain her footing almost anywhere. She can even do some stylish flips, but typically won't because that's a good way to get hurt. Skills of this nature typically will not weaken when Silvia is among allies.
Misc:
• As tidy as Silvia tries to dress, her witch hat in magical form has a patchwork point on it. She believes that is because she was not the first person to use this grimoire, and is actually the tip of her former friends hat sewn onto her own. She hasn't done anything to try and fix it.
Name: Tesni Edris Title: Dynasty Queen Age: 17 Nationality: Wales
Personality: A somewhat selfish and flighty girl with a unique outlook on right and wrong. Tesni hates people who commit wrongdoings but rely on the rule of law to protect themselves, in short hypocrites. This has led her to be labelled a delinquent and a no-good troublemaker by anyone with a semblance of actionable authority. Unsurprisingly the bad name given to her by people she has no respect for have done absolutely nothing to dissuade her from running into buildings with a lead pipe and ruining ‘bad guys’ days if the situation calls for it… or sometimes if the situation didn’t call for it because of personal philosophy.
Tesni vehemently disagrees with the idea of being a hero and instead believes in ‘being kind’ or 'doing kind acts'. There is being kind by helping someone with their grocery bags and there is being kind by punching an asshole in the nose and Tesni’s brand of being kind leans greatly towards the latter. Plus being kind gets compensation of some kind, being a ‘hero’ gets you nothing. If someone was being cynical, you could say that her ‘being kind’ is an excuse to be violent, but if you were being generous, it could be read as she simply lacks the temper and patience required to not get involved in others business.
She has no issue teaming up with other magical girls, but they might have an issue with Tesni's methods. As subtle as a hammer and twice as dense when it comes to combat, Tesni has a simple belief that if you can use pure blunt force to solve a problem then it's not really a problem, is it? Perhaps if Tesni was more flexible in her thinking, the more esoteric and mystical powers of her grimoire would be available to her.
Becoming a Magical Girl wasn't exactly something Tesni stived for. In all honesty she felt that if the world were truly peaceful then there would be no need for something like The Grand Ministry to exist, but regardless of her personal beliefs the fact is she became a Magical Girl.
In an ideal story, one worthy of becoming its own Grimoire, it would have been a dark and stormy night with dramatic lightning and a horde of Pageless threatening to devour her when she defiantly stood in their way to save a stray cat or some orphan preschoolers...
Instead it was a bland overcast afternoon, the kind of day where you knew it wasn't going to rain so it left the day with this muddy, lackluster, feeling about it. The kind of day that felt like it sucked up all the colour in it. It was on this disgusting looking day Tesni was in the middle of getting her ass kicked and thrown into a back alley by three older students. Each one had individually had their own asses kicked by Tesni and in their shared humiliation had decided that she deserved to be taught a lesson. Maybe Tesni did deserve it, after all is there anything more fragile than a high schoolers ego? And she had thoroughly shattered it for each one of them. Exposing the shameful, despicable, things they had done that they wouldn't even dare tell anyone. But her greatest sin of all, was not being strong enough to handle the fallout of what they did when they felt they had nothing left to lose.
So Tesni was being beaten up in an alley, like an NPC who gets saved as part of a tutorial battle in an RPG. While the students were getting their kicks Tesni couldn't help but cackle and laugh as she looked behind them. It was the Pageless slowly crawling down the walls of the building, and out from under dumpsters. Tesni didn't know the name of them then, but latter on she supposed that they must have thought the story of "Girl who exposed villains then was found beaten in an alley" was a good one. One of the students looked back before screaming and running off, another quickly following. The last student was a rich kid at the school and was the one that frankly hated Tesni the most out of all of them, so before running off she grabbed a pipe from a nearby dumpster and swung it down on Tesni's leg.
Tesni couldn't stop laughing even as the pain brought tears to her eyes. There was no chance of running anymore so she reached up towards the lead pipe and held it tight. Jamming into the ground she pulled herself up and braced against it.
"Talk about no good deed going unpunished... well, I think I can manage at least one more good deed today~" Tesni wasn't sure if it was the pain in her leg, but her mind was shockingly clear and so... she swung the pipe.
Over and over again, the hollow pipe whistled through the air, the clanging percussion echoing through the air as the pipe struck the ground, or the wall. Each swing was getting heavier in her hands, but... she was swinging it faster as if the weight was meaningless. Pageless that were previously being harmlessly knocked away her suddenly evaporating at the touch. Tesni started moving, not even feeling the injury in her leg, almost dancing down the alley the pipe glowing with a golden light before ringing out as she slammed it to the ground, no longer echoing out that hollow clanking sound. Stabbing the staff into the ground, Tesni instinctively pulled on the staff and is stretched, lengthening and pulling her skyward as the last Pageless was escaping. Kicking the staff beneath her and using her grip on the tip as a pivot point, Tesni swung the staff around it an overhead arc, slamming the staff down upon the Pageless... and 'accidentally' pancaking the front of a nice sports car owned by a certain rich kid she happened to know.
"Well, I guess I'm the punishment for their good deed~"
Title: Journey to the West Classification: Legend Rank Description: Journey to the West has been adapted and retold so many times that most everyone has heard some variation of the story. In its most simple summary: Sun Wukong the Monkey King is tasked with escorting Tang Sanzang on his journey westward to retrieve original Buddhist scriptures. Along way many trials are overcome, often involving demons and Sun Wukong defeating them.
Ruyi Jingu Bang: A iron pillar that was gifted to the Monkey King and was originally used to measure the depths of the oceans in time immemorial. Weighing 17,550 lbs (7,960 kg) and able to change its size at the wielder’s whim, often the size of a toothpick for convenience.
"Fiery-eyes Golden-gaze": Allows Tesni to identify evil no matter what form it takes; however, it also causes smoke to sting her eyes if used for longer that five minutes at a time.
Cloud Trapeze: Able to ‘ride’ or ‘swing’ on clouds. In theory this should let Tesni fly. In practice all she can manage at the moment is a double jump.
Enhanced Strength: it’s a necessity… 17,550 lbs is very, very, heavy
Hand-to-hand combat: Despite being called a 'magical' girl, Tesni is very specifically built for close combat.
Title: Burning Heart Age: 16 Nationality: Japanese Bio: Suzuya was a girl who just wanted to start a school book club in her hometown of Miso when everything changed for. Staring down at a sheet of signatures, it's lack of any such names due entirely to her failure to ask anyone, she missed the bus that would not have just taken her home, but altered the entire course of her life.
She was pulled from her fugue of self recrimination by a plea for help. An eerie, enchanting nose that evoked concern in her, pulling her from the bus stop as though she could make up for her social failings with a single act of compassion for her fellow man. Following the persistent cries lead her to an alley, where rather then a woman in distress she found a hyena like Pageless, braying with laughter amidst the cries of young girls, their voices mimiced by a beastial maw that reared back in an unkind smile. Terror crushed her in a vicegrip as the Pageless proved but one of many, claws raking across brickwork as they crawled down walls from rooftops and rose as though pulled from the shadows for the prospect of prey.
Her story would have ended like countless others had there not been a savior pursuing the monsters, one that Suzuya never learned the name of. A hand clenched around her shoulder and hurled her away against the flank of a horse black as the night with a mane made of roaring flame. A Magical Girl clad in the heavy armor of a Samurai barred the way between her and the horde of Pageless, Suzuya glimpsing a face that was serene even as she struck her steed's flank and sent it galloping away with Suzuya curling herself upon it, abject horror and shock leaving her clinging like a lamprey even as it's fierce gallop shook her with every bound.
The waning light of day had given way to night when the horse stopped, a mournful noise issuing forth before it flickered away like paper caught alight, dropping it's burden and a Grimoire to the careworn streets of Miso's outskirts. Suzuya took up this book, feeling the Grimoire connect to her, an understanding passing between them that this was the Samurai's, and now it was hers.
A fire had been reported in Miso City that night, devouring abandoned tenements with not a soul in sight, but Suzuya knew better. She was still clutching the Grimoire to her chest when the first Magical Girls came to her home days later, telling her of the Grand Ministry and passing along to her parents the news she'd been selected for a foreign exchange student program that would offer her prestigious accolades on her student records.
Suzuya packed her bags quietly, her life in freefall and changing faster then she had ever feared or dared to hope, and into the center of her Grimoire she left the folded form of a book club that hadn't been, a book mark in a literal sense. The tome was a weight on her chest, the burden of expectation she had shied away from once already. Her hands cradled the spine even as she ached to set it down, but she wouldn't let herself turn from this responsibility.
She would carry this weight, and each day, little by little, the fire it stoked would remain outside her transformation. Or so she hoped.
Heiki monogatari - Tale of Tomoe Gozen
Classification: Fable Description: The Onna Musha, Warrior Woman, Tomoe Gozen was a devoted wife to her husband Yoshinori. So much so, rather then stay behind to defend their home, she fought beside him on the battlefield. A real life figure mixed with legend, rumors who have made her origin and ending fluid to the reader's preferences.
What is held in certainty was that she was an exceptional warrior, master of the bow and the traditional woman's weapon of the Naginata, yet was said to favor the katana traditionally only allowed to samurai. She had the strength and skill matching a thousand men, and led an army just as large into battle alongside her husband. Her stories end comes with that of her husband's, as his successes mixed with incompetent leadership, resulting in his own family turning upon him out of jealousy.
Their armies slaughtered till Tomoe Gozen stood amidst a party of six, they were faced with a vast host and her husband ordered she retreat. Whether it was an act of love or a desire not to be shamed dying besides a woman is up to interpretation, but she refuses and charges the armies.
A heart that burns with life, that primal spirit that buoys all to greatness. With blade in hand she sang her story into the page's of fable and history, she cleaved the heads of her foes even as her husband lost his own. Monkhood. Revenge. A tapestry of conclusions woven by countless lines of ink on paper. And a head unbowed, always.
Abilites:
Onna Musha- Though not Samurai themselves, a woman of Japan was expected to defend themselves and their homes. Tomoe Gozen went a step beyond by taking to the field, and bore the burden of carrying added arms upon her person. This takes the form of Suzuya drawing weapons from her tails, the traditional tools of the era settling easy in her hands with skill of the original Tomoe Gozen flowing through her.
Strength of Heart- Suzuya is a shy, uncertain girl, but upon transforming she is suffused with a confidence entirely unknown to her. It makes her brave beyond measure, pushing forward to cut down her enemies and stand against the injustices of the world.
Honor Through Head Taking- The old belief that the head must be washed and honored for a soul to pass peacefully into the afterlife. By cleaving the heads of Pageless, Suzuya's heart beats faster, till her body is wreathed in the fires of her passion. A temporary but stacking increase in power embodying Tomoe Gozen's fearlessness in open warfare against overwhelming odds.
Peerless Horsemaster- UNAVAILABLE. Tomoe Gozen's greatest feats were accomplished on horse back, capable of guiding a steed over the harshest terrain and slay enemies at full gallop without sacrificing any of her dexterity. The grimoire summons a steed worthy of her legend, but Suzuya is unable to mount the horse till it accepts her holding the grimoire.
Description: A fairly rambunctious and stubborn girl, Nessie isn't dissimilar to your average Scotsman. She can display quite a tough and, at times, even rude and imposing exterior when in the company of strangers. Around friends she is brash, cheeky and can be quite loud, frequently poking fun at those she surrounds herself with. Equally, though, she also enjoys her own company, her favourite passtime being sitting by or swimming in a lake, especially one surrounded by beautiful scenery. Definitely the outdoors type. She loves a good drink though, and will never say no to having a pint in a nice pub.
Biography: Born in the Scottish Highlands, Nessie comes from a fairly wealthy background, her childhood home a rural manor house within an idyllic setting. Mountains, hills, woodland and lakes as far as the eye can see. The perfect place for an adventurous young girl like her, and still it remains her favourite place. Her parents work in... well, that she's not really sure of. Never has been, even to this day and age. And it's not like she's had many opportunities to ask them either.
At a young age she was sent to a prestigious boarding school for girls in Edinburgh, to both heighten her education and to keep her somewhere while her parents were away from home working. And it is there that she has remained most of her life since then. Even when school is out, she usually goes to stay with her uncle, who lives in an apartment not too far from her school, and with whom she's built quite a strong connection with over the years.
After finishing school at the age of 18 however, she didn't really know what to do with herself. She would go between the Highlands and Edinburgh, aimlessly inhabiting each of her homes while thinking of what she wanted to do with her life. Though she had done well at school, it felt like something was missing. It went on like this for a year until her uncle, noticing her rut and seeing the effect it was having on her, recommended a change of scenery for the girl. A breath of fresh air (metaphorically speaking) and an opportunity to see her future more clearly, whether that was university or immediately starting a career.
And so now Nessie finds herself in London, the heart and the capital of England. And yet still, even with such a dramatic change in surroundings from where she was previously based, and with so many opportunities and paths right at her fingertips, the girl still feels as though she hasn't found what's right for her yet. Not only that, but since arriving in London she can't help but feel unusual. Strange flickers at the corner of her eye occasionally catch her attention, unexplainable shapes looming around her only to disappear as soon as she puts her full attention on them. Perhaps something there is something coming her way, a path she never could've expected...
Grimoire • Title: The Loch Ness Monster • Classification: Legend • Description: One of the ultimate creatures of folk lore, the phenomenon of the Loch Ness Monster has its roots way back in the sixth century, though most of its notoriety bubbled up in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The illusive long-necked creature, described by some to be a sea serpent or dragon living deep within the waters of Loch Ness, has created ripples throughout history with its disputed existence, gradually being pulled more and more into the limelight of contention until becoming the staple of the paranormal that it is today. And so its legend is reflected in its equally illusive Grimoire. A story that, to this day and perhaps even far into the future, has not seen its end. • Abilities: The Undine - At will, Nessie is able to manipulate any water around her and bend it completely to her will. She can also summon water out of thin air if required, but that takes more energy and control to do, so don't expect her to be summoning reservoirs of water with no difficulty right off the bat. It'll take training to get anywhere close to that.
Misty Waters - Like the monster itself, Nessie can disappear herself out of thin air. The only catch is that she may only remain invisible as long as she can hold her breath. There is a loophole to this ability however, as shown with the next one.
The Loch's Blessing - These are more passive abilities than anything, but they can definitely come in handy, especially in a city that contains a massive river (*looks at London*). The Grimoire grants Nessie with incredibly swift swimming speed, making her look like a blur to anyone above the surface. On top of this she can also breathe, hear and see completely clearly when underwater, almost as if she were on normal ground. The final blessing is the loophole to her Misty Waters ability, which is that she can turn invisible for as long as she wishes when underwater, essentially ignoring its limitation. Of course, most battles would probably take place above water so this ability may not always be as useful as it sounds, but in the right situation, as well as clever usage, it can provide Nessie with an invaluable edge.
Olivia is a friendly, if socially awkward girl, who is always happy to chat about her many interests. The problem is, those interests tend to be rather bizarre, and the talkative, overzealous and highly energetic Olivia is almost always completely oblivious to that fact. Because of the near consent rejection and ridicule she’s experienced, she has started to become a bit more hesitant to open up to people. That said, showing even the slightest interest in one of her obsessions will open the proverbial floodgates once more, with Olivia happily babbling away for hours on end.
Due to her exceptionally poor social skills, she often inadvertently invades others’ personal space and, especially when excited about the topic of discussion, speaks in an incredibly rapid and louder-than-necessary voice, which most find both difficult to understand and highly annoying. Still, if one can look past all her quirks and eccentricities, they will find a loyal and caring friend. Indeed, Olivia doesn’t seem to have a single mean bone in her body, and all of her various bothersome mannerisms are completely unintentional on her part, leading the poor girl to frequently apologize for her offensive behavior.
As for her thoughts on the Grand Ministry, she really doesn’t have much of an opinion yet. They seem nice enough, and have certainly taken more of an interest in her than anyone else ever has (save Xolys, of course).
The youngest of five children, Olivia was always a bit…different. Unlike her attractive sisters and athletic brothers, she was scrawny, plain, and weak. She wore glasses, talked in an annoying, nasally voice, and was exceedingly inept when it came to any kind of social interaction. For as long as she could remember, she had been bullied and despised by nearly everyone, family and classmates alike. People shunned her. Of course, Olivia did her best to make friends, but her bizarre mannerisms always pushed people away, and her even more bizarre interests certainly didn’t help matters.
Always something of a bookworm, from an early age Olivia would often spend hours reading in a secluded spot in her town’s labyrinthian library. It was a way of escaping a world that didn’t seem to want her, and she would happily lose herself in one tale after another. However, Olivia’s tastes in stories tended to lean heavily towards the macabre, with Edgar Alan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft rapidly becoming her favorite authors. Her other interests were similarly odd, from a fascination with insects and cephalopods, to a love of the paranormal and the concept of visitors from other worlds, and even other universes.
One dark and stormy day, while she was searching the library’s seemingly endless maze of shelves for new reading material, Olivia came upon a previously unnoticed backroom. Stepping inside, she was presented with a small collection of old manuscripts, each with an ornate, gilded cover. All were beautiful works of art, but Olivia still found herself drawn to one tome above all the others. Its cover depicted the image of an ethereal rose, composed from dozens of tiny, glittering blue jewels. After staring spellbound for several minutes, Olivia finally opened the book, whereupon she was delighted to find that it contained an iteration of the legendary tale Beauty and the Beast. Olivia had never really been one for most fairy tales, but this particular story had always touched her heart in a particularly meaningful way.
Being a social outcast herself, she had long empathized with the lonely, reclusive Beast. And being fond of things others considered creepy or unnerving, she liked to think that, if she were placed in a similar situation as Beauty, she would happily accept the Beast for who he was. In fact, from her point of view, the Beast’s monstrous appearance only added to his attractiveness.
So it was that Olivia eagerly read through this newest incarnation of the old story, and as she turned each page, she found herself becoming increasingly enamored. Much like Olivia herself, this version’s Beauty was utterly despised by her family, more so than any other iteration of the character. In addition, the story soon took a dark and macabre twist, which seemed almost Lovecraftian in nature. This was particularly evident in the depiction of the Beast, who was now less of an animalistic being and more of an otherworldly eldritch horror. However, despite his terrifying appearance, the Beast was revealed to be quite polite and well-spoken. Indeed, so charming was he, and so endearingly nightmarish was his form, that Olivia found herself wishing that such a being would enter her friendless existence.
Upon reaching the tale’s conclusion, Olivia closed the book with a wistful sigh. There was no chance whatsoever that she would receive a happy ending to her own sad story like Beauty had, Olivia reflected, but at least she would now have the story itself to keep her company (and serve as inspiration for what promised to be countless fan fiction continuations). Resolving to return and reread the story every day, Olivia was about to leave, when she was startled by the sound of an inhuman screech. Still clutching the ornate tome in her slightly trembling hands, she cautiously made her way out of the small backroom, whereupon she was greeted by a truly horrifying sight.
There before her stood an enormous, demonic fusion of a centipede and a moth, which was in the process of kicking over bookshelves and devouring their contents. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the creature’s actions that bothered Olivia more than its appearance, as she actually found it quite fascinating to look at. However, as far as she was concerned, destroying precious, and perhaps even irreplaceable, books was the worst thing one could do, and she was not about to stand idly by while this monster continued to destroy her favorite place in town. Marching up to the creature with an uncanny lack of fear, Olivia demanded that it cease its consumption at once. At first, the scrawny girl’s indigent demands went completely ignored, but she soon gained the monster’s full attention, when it noticed the tome she was carrying.
Looming over the increasingly frightened girl, the creature was about to strike, when all at once, Olivia was enveloped by a whirlwind of mystic energy. Glittering rose petals swirled around her, while a kind and strong voice assured her that she had nothing to fear. The next instant, the whirlwind faded, and Olivia stood before the creature, completely transformed. The monstrosity itself seemed to be stunned by the shocking transformation, before its massive form drooped down in seeming deference to the etherial beauty Olivia had become. Pleasantly surprised by the creature’s changed demeanor, Olivia was about to examine it more closely, when a second creature, far more monstrous than the first, appeared and swiftly sliced it apart.
Understandably shocked by this turn of events, Olivia’s fears were calmed a moment later, when she again heard the voice that had spoken to her just before her transformation. It was coming from the sole remaining creature. The eldritch being introduced itself as Thyerg’Xolys, the very same Thyerg’Xolys that appeared in the tome she was holding when her transformation began. The tome was a Grimoire, Xolys explained, and a rare one at that. It had chosen her to become a Magical Girl and use the power bound within it to fight the Pageless, like the one she had just encountered.
Olivia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was like a dream come true. Not only would she be able to take on the role of a storybook heroine, she would finally have her first real friend (And such a handsome one, too!). Over the following weeks, she and Xolys would talk frequently, with Olivia often transforming simply to chat (and occasionally snuggle) with him. Indeed, the incongruous pair have grown rather fond of each other, something made quite obvious by their frequent displays of affection (which for some reason, others seem to find extremely disconcerting).
It was a little over a month after her first transformation that Olivia was approached by a representative of the Grand Ministry. They informed her that they were very interested in her… unique abilities, and offered her a scholarship to the prestigious Marrywell Academy. Honored by the representative’s clear admiration (or so she thought), Olivia eagerly accepted their offer and, soon enough, found herself at the gates of the renowned school. Overjoyed by the prospect of finding a place where she can at long last fit in, and perhaps even make some friends, Olivia can’t wait to begin her new adventure!
The poor girl has no idea what she’s in for…
Grimoire:
Title- Beauty and the Beast
Classification- Altered Legend
A tale as old as time, or so the saying goes, the story of Beauty and the Beast is well known throughout the world. Over the years, it has been adapted numerous times, from an award-winning Disney musical, to a cult classic tv show starring Ron Perlman. It has even been turned into an anime film, set in a virtual world. Still, despite its popularity, very few people are familiar with the original story that inspired all the rest, a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740.
This is not that story, although it begins similarly enough.
Once upon a time, a wealthy merchant lived in a mansion with his twelve children (six sons and six daughters). All of his daughters were very beautiful, but the youngest, the aptly named Beauty, was the loveliest by far. She was also well-read and incredibly kind-hearted. Unfortunately, these very traits caused her vain and cruel siblings to despise her. It also didn’t help that their father made no secret about the fact that he loved her the most. However, one dark and stormy night, the merchant was attacked by pirates, who pillaged his cargo and sent him and his entire trade fleet to the bottom of the sea.
It is here that this tale takes a darker turn from its original iteration, as, now bereft of their source of wealth, Beauty’s wicked siblings resolved to sell the girl into slavery. Her incredible attractiveness, coupled with her charming and tranquil demeanor, would no doubt earn them a small fortune, enough, they hoped, to allow them to continue to live in the opulence with which they were accustomed for at least a little while longer. Still mourning the loss of her father, Beauty resigned herself to her fate, and it wasn’t long before the servants of a lecherous prince came to collect her. Payment was presented, and Beauty was shoved into the back of a carriage, which promptly sped off on its way to her new home.
It would never arrive.
Only a short time into the journey, a fierce and unnatural storm came upon the small carriage. It jostled and shook as the wind and rain pounded against it, while dazzling forks of lightning and deafening peals of thunder drove the horses into a terrified frenzy. Even the forest around them seemed to have taken on a twisted and unnerving guise, as if they had ridden straight into a nightmare. All at once, the sinister spires of a dark citadel loomed before them. Desperate to take shelter from the hellish tempest, the servants dragged their lovely captive inside the forbidding structure, which freely allowed them entry. Once inside, they found the building’s architecture to be exceedingly bizarre, with curves and contortions of space and perspective that seemed to warp whatever they viewed into forms that defied comprehension. The two servants were understandably terrified by this, but their beautiful captive found their surroundings utterly enchanting.
Her sense of wonder dissolved a moment later, though, when her captors attempted to force themselves on her, causing the maiden to flee in panic. Breathlessly running down the twisting corridors, it wasn’t long before she had completely lost her pursuers. Of course, she was hopelessly lost herself, but that knowledge really didn’t bother her. Eventually, she came upon a large chamber, filled with ethereally beautiful flowers. Utterly captivated by the sight, she entered the chamber and knelt down in front of a large, blue rose, whose petals seemed to sparkle with the light of a thousand stars.
It was at this point that the master of the citadel chose to make his appearance. Feeling a presence looming over her, Beauty turned around to find a nightmarish horror, a mountainous monstrosity of spiky chiton, slimy tentacles, and glowing, unblinking eyes. However, if the eldritch beast thought its monstrous visage would frighten the girl, it was in for quite the surprise. Instead of screaming in horror, Beauty politely introduced herself, and told the creature how much she liked its garden. Taken aback by her lack of fear, the beast introduced itself as Thyerg’Xolys, master, and sole inhabitant, of the citadel in which she now found herself. Beauty proceeded to tell how she came to be there, at which Xolys expressed his condolences and assured her that the wicked servants who had tried to violate her would trouble her no longer. Indeed, the eldritch beast told her, if she wished, she was free to remain in the citadel with him, although he would understand if she wished otherwise, especially since she had left her old world behind and was now in the realm of Xhar’doth, having apparently been transported there by the strange storm. But again Xolys was surprised when Beauty told him that she would be only too happy to stay. She had nowhere else to go, and Xolys was the only person besides her father to treat her with any degree of kindness.
And so the incredibly incongruous pair began a friendship, which soon turned into a deep and abiding love. Beauty and Beast would live happily ever after in their own, secluded nightmare world, although, to them, it was a paradise.
The Beauty- When transformed by the power of her Grimoire, Olivia becomes stunningly attractive and elegant. Her disposition becomes far more serene and refined, and her normal, somewhat nasally, voice becomes melodious and sweet as honey. In this form, she is very distracting, easily capable of turning the heads of all who encounter her, even if only for a short while. Of far greater interest to the Grand Ministry, however, is the peculiar way this enchanting allure affects nearby Pageless. If anything, the effects of her charms are even more pronounced when used upon the twisted monsters, with most Pageless that enter her immediate vicinity being rendered incredibly docile, refusing to harm her in any way. Olivia is unable to control or command the Pageless who fall under her spell, and the ability’s area of effect is rather small, but it still provides a suitable means of protection for an otherwise defenseless maiden like herself. Indeed, aside from this ability, Olivia lacks a weapon or offensive magic of any kind. If she wishes to actually inflict harm upon the Pageless, she must seek the assistance of a very special friend…
The Beast- A truly nightmarish creature, which could easily be mistaken for a Pageless itself, this massive monstrosity claims to be none other than Thyerg’Xolys, the very same eldritch beast that features so prominently in the story contained in Olivia’s Grimoire. As befitting a creature of his size, Xolys’s physical prowess is immense, his wicked, scythe-like talons capable of cutting through the strongest armor and the thickest Pageless hide as if they were little more than tissue paper. He also possesses a myriad of spiked tendrils and multiple toothy maws, while his thick, chitinous hide can shrug off all but the strongest blows. His mystical abilities are perhaps even more astonishing, as he seemingly possesses the ability to twist and warp the very structure of reality itself, tearing objects and enemies apart, or rearranging them into impossible geometric forms. Indeed, and in utter contrast to Olivia’s transformed self, just looking at Xolys’s ever-shifting form will cause the viewer pain after only a short time, although Olivia herself seems to be completely immune to this effect. That said, Xolys’s mystical abilities are exclusively utilized for combat. He can’t create portals, reshape large swaths of his surroundings, or anything of the kind. It’s just an attack he can use on a single enemy, or a single object at a time. In addition, Xolys must always remain within roughly 50 feet (15 meters) of Olivia at all times. Forcibly keeping them farther apart then this will cause both Beauty and Beast to experience steadily worsening pain and fatigue, until Olivia’s transformation ultimately reverses.
Possible Story Beats (inspired by The 42nd Gecko)-
Realizing the true reason for the Grand Ministry’s interest in her- Initially, Olivia believes that the Ministry is so eager for her to attend Marrywell Academy because of her exceptional potential as a Magical Girl. How will she take it when she discovers she’s actually there to serve as little more than a glorified test subject?
Discovering and dealing with the stigma associated with holding an Altered Grimoire- At first, Olivia will be blissfully unaware of the negative feelings most magical girls have concerning holders of Altered Grimoires, but it won’t take long before the harsh reality of her situation hits her with all the subtlety of a freight train. She’s dealt with being ostracized before, of course, but after arriving at Marrywell with such high hopes, will this serve to be the proverbial “final straw”, which breaks her spirit completely?
Trying to make some friends despite the many obstacles in her path- Even after she experiences how poorly Alters are treated, Olivia will still do her best to make some new friends. She certainly has her work cut out for her…
Trying to be a hero despite how others view her- Regardless of how sinister her interests and powerset may be, Olivia is by no means an evil person. She cares deeply for others, especially those who are lonely and in pain, and she very much wants to be a hero. Is this goal capable of being attained, or is it simply nothing more than wishful thinking?
Description: Karen grew up in the middle of the United States, where there was farmland within a short drive's distance in any direction, though she herself was always in larger towns or cities of her state. She's a fanatic when it comes to weapons, and has been since she was twelve. Being in a relatively well-off family her main responsibilities were her grades, which she managed to get nearly straight A's in. Ironically, it was history that she had the worst time at, considering that she can talk for hours about the history of various famous weapons. She has a love for fiction of all kinds, though comics and japanese manga are her favorites, more the latter than the former. Because of this, she was known around her school as "the weapon weeb" though luckily her teachers refrained from calling her this.
She is the type to spend money frivolously on her interests and as such is usually broke. Though she could theoretically turn her "collection" into money, she'd rather die than lose a single piece of her precious assortment of weaponry. Granted, she doesn't have anything too absurdly dangerous; she has no modern firearms, nor bombs, nor rockets or anything of that sort. Her interest in guns extends only to the earliest kinds, while her obsession with bladed weapons of all kinds is concerning to most people, especially if they're able to see the meticulously maintained collection in the basement of her parent's home.
It was desire for growing this collection that led to her acquisition of her Grimoire. A replica of a katana by Muramasa, specifically a replica of the Myōhō Muramasa, was delivered to her home alongside a copy of the famous Lotus Sutra written in Japanese. It was delivered in the afternoon of a sunny day, and at nightfall she was still too excited about her new sword to have any hope of getting any sleep. This was a fortunate thing. At midnight, she was in her upstairs room polishing the blade when there was a loud crash outside. Spooked that something might have broken the fence outside, or worse, that there was a purposeful intruder intent on harming her or her family, she momentarily lost her composure and in her rush to go check she stood up and slipped on the book of the Sutra that came with the replica. When she got up on her hands and knees she saw not the book but rather a second sword, an exact copy of the one she had received that day and was caring for, still in its scabbard. Shocked, she picked it up and noticed that her outfit had changed as well. She had unwittingly become a Magical Girl at that moment.
She found a sense of peace along with the transformation, and walked outside with the sheathed sword in her left hand and its original twin in her right. Luckily for everyone, she was unnoticed by her parents, and found herself facing a Pageless. After trying to speak to it and being attacked in response she instinctually set down her replica and drew the sword that was still sheathed, using it to quickly dispatch the Pageless beast. Upon returning it to its scabbard she noticed that she had transformed back to her normal form, a trait of her Grimoire that once sheathed her transformation would end.
In the past year, after that event, she was approached on behalf of and joined Marrywell Academy. She believes that the Grand Ministry is, like all else, a means to an end. She hopes that the end it leads to is a good one, but she has not had enough experience with it to know for certain if she trusts it as a whole.
Grimoire: • Title: Lotus Sutra - Myōhō Muramasa • Classification: Altered Legend • Description: The greatest work of Sengo Muramasa, and the only of his blades to be considered an "Important Artwork," the Myōhō Muramasa (or "Muramasa of the Sublime Dharma") is a byproduct of the Lotus Sutra, the saddharma (or "true doctrine") of the teachings of the Buddha. It is a blade that depicts Kurikara beautifully on both sides and the mantra sign "myōhō renge kyō" on the front side. The sword is but a vehicle for the story of the Lotus Sutra, which itself is but a teaching that the three vehicles of Buddhism are of the one true vehicle, the supreme and all encompassing path that leads to Buddhahood. The teachings of the Lotus Sutra include the idea that all beings can become Buddhas, and that one should see this potential even in enemies. Despite this, the blade is still of Muramasa make, and the stories of its siblings' darkness do not pass parallel to it. As such, the stories of the blade's maker's evil nature and its own nature as an offering to Buddhism create an alteration in its story. • Abilities: Devadatta Blade - The Myōhō Muramasa requires bloodshed to be sated, without which it will not return to its scabbard and as an extension of this fact it will not allow Karen to transform back to her mundane form. However, this does not mean she necessarily has to kill something. While killing something, Pageless included, will satisfy this requirement so too will simply harming another human to the point that blood is shed in a literal sense. A single cut is enough, but due to the blade's extremely fine edge this single cut could easily cut too deep and become fatal, or maim the victim. The Way of the Lotus - Karen finds herself altered in her thinking when transformed. She becomes implicitly kind, understanding, and solemn in her thoughts. This makes using her sword a last resort, which makes her hesitant to enter her magical form, as she knows it'll be difficult to return to normal unless there are Pageless nearby. When in this state, she views even the Pageless as naught but victims of their own nature, and finds difficulty in dispatching them without an attempt at peace. Obviously, this doesn't turn out the way she would like, but perhaps someday she'll find a way to communicate with the monsters.
Misc: Karen despises insects and insect-looking things like spiders. She also has a bit of a complex about her name due to the meme of people named Karen being horrible people that has leaked from the internet into her real life at school the past few years.
Name: Chinami Nadakai (Camelot) Age: 19 Nationality: United States of America Appearance: Chinami is a young Goth woman of Japanese ethnicity. Though, perhaps most notable is how almost lackluster her version of Goth is, forgoing piercings, dyes or makeup. The only thing she seems to bother with is her nails and lips, to go with her jet-black hair. Standing at 5'10", she is fairly tall and obviously athletically inclined when she isn't wearing her jacket. Her hands are rough to the touch and clearly used to hard work.
She seems to despise conformity and will forgo a student uniform at any opportunity (where it wouldn't endanger her enrollment enduly), preferring simple cotton tee-shirts with a black leather jacket and what are likely men's pants. If asked, she will only ever claim she refuses to give up having "real" pockets. Even when she does bother with the uniform, the best she will do is the girls' top and pants that match with the uniform color-code. Others may think her prudish, but she's honestly just really unused to the comparatively cold weather across the pond... and unwilling to give up pockets.
Her magical girl form is bafflingly blatantly divorced from her normal state, both turning her hair blonde and ethnicity Caucasian. Her magical girl form's state of dress is another oddity, armored and exceptionally conservative compared to many of her peers. It is fairly easy to guess that this may be due to some form of strict influence from the legend of her Grimoire, enforcing a "proper" and "chivalric" state, while almost begrudgingly allowing for the armor to display the obviously feminine form within.
Description:
Somewhat rough around the edges, Chinami is blunt and sardonic, often effecting an outward air of disinterest towards the troubles of others. She can be foul-mouthed and inclined to take the most practical approach over the moral, but despite this, she still seems to act in the best interests of others, even if her methods seem harsh. While she can be initially difficult to form connections with, she is a steadfast ally once a measure of her loyalty is earned. On the flipside, of course, she tends to take any form of betrayal incredibly personally.
She seems to have a particular soft spot for the people she protects, especially children. It can be somewhat off-putting to see just how almost uncharacteristically kind she can be when in the service of saving others, but it is more than clear to the unbiased that she genuinely cares for those she holds to be under her aegis. In fact, she is known to often use her Round Table to feed the homeless in the mornings and at sunset, rather than dining alone; whenever she isn't needed at Merrywell Academy or as a magical girl, she may also do so at noon. Indeed, it is clear that when she bothers to put in the effort and allows herself to openly care, Chinami possesses a natural -if sometimes stern- heroic charisma.
She is the sort inclined to solitary pursuits of video games and reading when she isn't training, but she is more than willing to tolerate large groups of people around her so long as they don't force her to participate in conversation. She is a relatively private person and is rather anxious when it comes to sharing her hobbies with others, but she will typically open up on her own as long as she is not pressed overmuch for personal details.
She despises liars, and it is a large part of why she can be almost too honest at times. Though she will make allowances for herself to merely omit information or refuse to speak at all, Chinami is not the sort to lie intentionally. She attempts to present her truest self to others and expects the same from them, even without vocalizing it.
Chinami strongly dislikes anything that might interfere with her mental processes. Alcohol and other addictive substances have been firmly avoided by her in the past, and she is zealous enough in this respect that, if they have even the slightest chance to compromise her, she'll take being in pain, rather than touching pain-killers with a ten foot pole. To say the least, she is not a fan of anyone who uses magic that could be even vaguely described as mind-control. She values Free Will above and beyond all other things.
She hates the cold, misty weather of England. As her previous home was The Lone Star "summer is half the year, peasant" State of Texas, by her definition, London is practically frozen in perpetual winter. It even has the same lack of snow going for it! And don't even get her started on the actual winter months. Not. Even. Once.
She struggles in academic pursuits but has long since found herself to have real talent in martial arts; though she dislikes sports, seeing them as a needless responsibility. Despite this, she is frustrated by her struggles in areas that promise to be more conventionally profitable. This is because she ultimately desires to live as normal a civilian life as can be had in this strange world. If she had her way, she'd only use her powers occasionally as little more than a hobby.
She is very easily stressed, seeing the responsibility of being a magical girl as a burden that she never asked for. She considers it a dangerous, unprofitable and literally dead-end profession. While she objectively respects those that protect humanity, she has never had any ambitions of joining them or putting her life on the line. Nonetheless, despite how much she would love to abandon everything and return to a normal life, she's never managed to force herself to get rid of her Grimoire and has instead guilt-tripped herself into continuing to go out to save those she can. At the core of her will to act is an all too infamous phrase: "With great power, comes great responsibility." Unable to trust that her power would go to someone better -or even someone able to use it at all, Chinami continues to march forward, accepting and owning her burden... no matter how much she might gripe about it.
She is resentful of her magical girl transformation and the implications that it wants to "idealize" her into someone and something she isn't. She is also somewhat paranoid that her Grimoire -and those of other magical girls- may be sentient and actively changing them regardless. The only thing she likes about the changes is that they somewhat allow her to distance herself mentally from the embarrassment of being a "magical girl".
Given how dangerous she considers being a magical girl to be, she is typically all-business in combat, forgoing quips and flips while doing her best to get both herself and her comrades through every fight alive and intact. She considers it her duty to protect her comrades just as much as anyone else, perhaps even more-so. She reluctantly understands that her powers are fueled by such banal things as "friendship" and "loyalty" and as such dedicates herself to being a light in the dark, the bastion who stands between evil and all that is worth protecting. As much as she despises it, she understands that these aspects of loyalty and comradery are what she must lean into in order to utilize her powers to the greatest effect.
If there was ever anything she truly took to heart growing up as an American, it was a love for a single concept:
Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit of Happiness.
Even as she despairs at what she sees as the quelling of her own liberties, she knows that making that sacrifice allows her to preserve the lives, liberties, and happiness of far many more.
She is not exactly what one would call a fan of the Grand Ministry. In the first place, the speed at which they found and recruited her unnerved her. She only took their offer because she felt like she had no other good options with her slipping grades... and because it was an easy way to escape the mounting pressuring of her parents. The fact that the Grand Ministry seems all too eager to concentrate the power of Magical Girls in one place further boggles her mind. Regardless of any potential training they could offer, Magical Girls effectively have a thinner presence worldwide as a result, and she can only assume people are surely being harmed as a result of lacking protectors.
After spending two years in London at Merrywell, however, she has come to find an especially personal reason to be wary: The Grimoire of Merlin, which lies within the hands of the Grand Minister, herself. Chinami is most decidedly unnerved by the idea of a potential precognitive at the head of this institution, to say nothing of the implications of her own Grimoire and what might happen were she to allow herself to be guided by such a person. On the other hand, it does potentially explain how the Grand Ministry always seems to know where the Pageless will appear.
Despite her overall misgivings, she takes care not to overtly display her mistrust except with those she implicitly trusts in turn. She is suspicious of the Grand Ministry's intentions, absolutely convinced that no-one with such a monopoly on power as they have could possibly be as good as they present themselves, but she has yet to see any actionable proof of wrongdoing. Until such a day as this changes, she chooses to remain outwardly cordial -if somewhat distant- towards the representatives of the Grand Ministry, taking advantage of their resources to continue saving people.
In several ways, she is grateful for the opportunity they provided her to start fresh, but she innately distrusts figures of authority that seemingly answer to no-one. It is possible that this opinion may change given time, but it is unlikely barring an event of some significance.
Born to a family of Japanese immigrants to America, Chinami lived a relatively normal life growing up in the more Austin-adjacent portion of Texas. As she matured, she came to know two very conflicting ideologies: the expectations of Japanese parents and the freedom to truly choose your own destiny that the USA promoted. She was constantly pulled at from two directions, faced with the academic expectations of her parents, while realizing that what she loved to do was more martial in nature.
Because of this constant push and pull, Chinami eventually grew incredibly mentally drained and came to the conclusion that she might be on the verge of developing depression under the weight of both inward and outward expectations that she just never seemed to be able to meet. She could never understand or emulate her parents' workaholic nature and began to fall back on reading fiction and playing video games to give herself some kind of sense of completion in something.
Still, such things were merely a stopgap for the inevitable, but Chinami ignored such thoughts of a gloomy future and turned her attention fully towards what she enjoyed doing in the short term, even if her parents disapproved.
It was on one such day, a weekend dedicated to her hobby of reading at the library, that destiny struck without mercy.
She had been in the middle of making book returns, when a Pageless incursion flared up. Being inside the quiet library, it was luckily quite easy to hear the brewing chaos. Even as she took cover, Pageless began to rampage through the building, and she was only able to watch helplessly as other people were cut down.
The pit in her stomach of compounding awareness of both the uselessness of her academic ability... and now even martial ability when it really mattered eventually reached a breaking point when she heard an infant start screaming. Without giving herself any more time to think about it, she sprinted into the open and towards the sound, drawing many of the Pageless's attention, as she all but flew up the stairs towards the adults section.
Her thoughts were a blur of don'tstop/don'tthink/whattheactualfuckamIdoing(?!), as she pelted towards the sound, her vision practically tunneling and blurring from adrenaline, as the sound of clawed limbs tearing up the stairs behind her sounded out. By the time she reached the noise, the only thing she could comprehend was hurt person lying dangerously still, tiny person, and big black thing standing over them reaching for the small one.
Putting every last bit of strength her trained human body could muster into the blow, she scaled a desk with a single step and launched herself into the back of the Pageless with a dropkick with her full body weight behind it. Amazingly, it actually seemed to stagger the thing away, as Chinami scrambled off the floor to scoop the infant up into her arms, under absolutely zero illusions that this was a fight she could win. Her victory condition was to save the child. Even one person was better than nothing.
Cradling the babe carefully, mindful of their neck, Chinami stumbled up just in time far a clawed paw the size of her torso to rake across her back and hurl her into a bookshelf. Stars in her eyes and feeling pain like nothing she'd ever imagined before, Chinami somehow managed the presence of mind to curl her arms around the child as much possible and brace, yelping in pain, as she absorbed the full remainder of the impact on her elbows.
Crumpled to ground, Chinami heard an ominous creak and only had time to glance up in horror and brace herself for more, as the large bookshelf tilted and collapsed atop her, showering her with books, as she stubbornly continued to brace like hell on violently shuddering elbows to stop herself from being crushed down atop the child. There was pressure and the sound of chittering and screeches, as Pageless began to climb atop the collapsed shelf. Suddenly, an audible crack and sharp pain ripped through the the small of her back before going horrifically calm and unfeeling. She realized with a horror that was muted in the face of the pain in everything else and her own struggle to keep planking that her back had been broken.
The pressure was growing, as more Pageless arrived in unison with Chinami's simultaneously rising despair and defiant rage. Despair at the futility of it all, at the fact that now she'd never be able to even do martial arts anymore. Rage at the unfairness of it all, at herself for being stupid enough to think she could do anything.
But she kept fighting, because that was all she had left, because it was all she was good at. And as the infant's screams reached a crescendo and Chinami's shoulders began to give out, her elbows and forearms involuntarily sliding away from where they were desperately braced, her eyes alighted upon a book, royal purple and gilded in hues of gold. Vision blurring from pain, the name didn't matter, only Chinami's desperate mad plan to take that book and -in the mere moments she had left- wedge it up so that it would perhaps miraculously hold the shelf up in her place. She would only have a split moment to act before the arm she left on lift duty would give out, but now was better than never!
One arm snapped out clumsily for the book, numbed by a deficiency of blood circulation that Chinami hadn't even noticed herself losing. She fumbled but managed contact... and then had a moment of horror to realize the book wasn't hardcover -but instead leather-bound- before the world suddenly got very very bright.
All of a sudden, the book was gone... as was the crushing pressure. Abruptly, the absolute mind-numbing agony seemed distant and retreating, but the infant was still wailing, which was understa-
Chinami froze, when she looked down and saw a pair of armored limbs on either side of the infant. With something approaching disbelief, she followed silver-clad fingers and arms upwards towards her shoulders- Hers!
Her limbs.
Numbly, she blinked her rapidly clearing vision at the sight of hair drifting down on both sides of her head, hair like spun gold, like the furthest thing from her natural head of veritable ink. She could feel (feel!) pinpricks rippling through her lower back and legs, as though her legs were merely waking up from being sat on too long instead of what might as well have been death.
She shifted, and suddenly, the noises around her seemed to regain clarity, as she slowly turned her head to see the sight of the bookshelf above her still shaking, claws gradually ripping through the divider.
Dreaming.
Was... was she dreaming? She had to be.
She felt... so... light. So... strong.
She lifted one arm. This time, it was... effortless to keep herself braced on a single limb, as she reached up and just... shoved.
The bookshelf hurtled into the air, clipping the ceiling before flopping down, as the Pageless went tumbling headover-heels. In a daze, Chinami stood, scooping up the infant again with half a mind, her eyes glazing over the glimmering silver that clinked surprisingly quietly over her body, as she hushed and rocked the babe.
The Pageless around her were scrambling to their feet. One lunged.
Her arms were full...
But she practiced Tae-Kwon-Do.
Arms still carefully cradling the infant's head, one leg shot up, the form-fitting armor cladding it seemingly allowing for utterly baffling flexibility, as her heel hooked into the head of the offender and all but disintegrated it from the force of the blow, returning to the ruined flooring with a rumble of perhaps a bit too much force.
A dream.
Her steel-clad toes crushed the face of another monster with a sharp front kick that flowed into a slashing round kick, her hips shifting sharply to facilitate the movement. Two more beasts seemed to be in states of not very alive, as her round kick made way to transition into another hooking kick, her heel caving in the next target's stomach, before chambering into yet another high forward swing that liberated it of its head.
All a dream.
The infant wailed, clearly upset from all the sharp movement, even despite properly supporting its vulnerable, underdeveloped body. There were still monsters coming. She could hear them, and she knew they had heard her. Unacceptable.
Pageless flowed up the stairs in even greater numbers: half a dozen, a dozen, more. They were charging her, but it almost seemed like they were moving through molasses, as her right hand reached down and took hold of a hilt she hadn't even noticed before with the infant blocking her vision. Her left arm cradled the babe carefully, even as her right slowly drew upwards, bathing the world in light like the sun being born anew on earth. Pageless reeled back and screeched, even as the few remaining conscious citizens around her seemed able to easily look on in awe and hope.
Symbols -words- climbed up either side of the blade, written in ancient Brittonic.
Since when could she read Brittonic?
"Take me up," she couldn't help murmuring, as she turned the blade over. "Cast me away."
You know its name.
Did she?
The Pageless were stumbling forward, seemingly regaining their bearings from the initial intensity of the light.
Chinami's feet shifted under her, taking a stance, an abominable mix between a traditional back stance and something she'd never learned, as her arm rose in time with the enemy's approach. Her lips moved unbidden.
Huh. Looks like she did.
"Excalibur."
The air thickened with power and glory.
Things started dying very quickly after that.
The aftermath was... rough. Cleaning up the remaining monsters, realizing that her Scabbard could heal others (that it was the reason she wasn't a cripple) at the suggestion of one mythology geek among the civilians that had witnessed her fight, and spending over an hour trying to save as many as she could... It wasn't exactly the most glorious way to end her first day, but... The looks on their faces... The looks of gratitude on the peoples' (her peoples') faces was somehow the most... something she'd ever felt. She struggled for words to describe exactly what flavor of satisfaction she was feeling and why, even as she managed to revert the transformation (and catch the book that appeared), but that happiness lasted about until she got home and had to deal with her parents again.
She was long past curfew, having been quite held up saving lives, but it wasn't like she was about to explain that to them. This was hers. Still, she wouldn't lie. She told them what happened. She just omitted certain details. Yes, she was at the attack. Yes, she was hurt. Also, a new magical girl's powers healed her, so everything was fine. Why was she hurt? Oh, she'd just been trying to save an infant. Exactly why was that bad? Did they realize how heartless they sounded?
To say the least, she was grounded, and the resentment at home began to rise to rather... unfortunate levels.
Honestly, the abrupt and frankly suspicious offer of overseas enrollment couldn't have come at a better time, which was even more suspicious as far as Chinami was concerned. She let her parents make all the assumptions they wanted, about how she'd actually secretly been productive by hunting down a scholarship that fit with her skillset. She didn't bother correcting them. It was better for everyone involved.
A month later, at age 17, she was on a flight across the Atlantic with everything she could pack, feeling equal amounts of relief at escaping the majority of her troubles... and wariness at the new ones surely to come.
By the present day, she has had her Grimoire for 2 years and has dedicated her everything to mastering her powers, seeing it as a matter of life and death, both for herself and those she must protect and fight alongside.
Grimoire: Title: Le Morte d'Arthur (The Noble & Joyous Boke Entytled Le Morte Darthur Notwythstondyng It Treateth of the Byrth Lyf and Actes of the Sayd Kynge Arthur; Of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table, Theyr Merveyllous Enquestes and Adventures Thachyevyng of the Sanc-Greall and in the Ende the Dolourous Deth; And Departynge out of This Worlde of Them Al) (Yes, that is the actual, full name, holy shit.) Classification: Legendary Grimoire
If you were to ask anyone if they knew who King Arthur was, you would likely be hard-pressed to find someone that would answer in the negative. The legend of the Once and Future King, who shall one day return to save Britain, is a tale that has roots as far back as 830 AD. In particular, it is the 15th century work of Thomas Malory that is perhaps the most well known retelling, a fantastical tale that did its best to string all the scattered pieces of King Arthur's legend together into a cohesive epic whole.
The tale of King Arthur in many ways defined the very concepts of "honor" and "chivalry", and its influence shaped the image of knights irrevocably in the eyes of the civilized world at large. Despite being so objectively recent in human history on the whole, it all but defined the very concept of "knight", and given time and influence, it may yet possess the potential to become a Mythic Grimoire itself.
Excalibur: The glimmering blade of legend and symbol of King Arthur's reign, even more-so than the Caliburn he drew from the stone, the sword features a golden hilt emblazoned by two chimeras, and engraved upon either side of the blade are the words "Take me up" and "Cast me away" in old Brittonic. When drawn, the chimera heads briefly spit fire and the blade shines with golden light bright enough to blind enemies, which it will continue to emit until sheathed. It is a peerless and unbreakable weapon that is capable of severing all but the most hardy substances, and though it possesses no ranged abilities beyond the light, should the wielder call out its name and pay a heavy toll of mana, it can strike a blow that will be guaranteed to pierce should the wielder's aim be true.
The Scabbard: Merlin once chastised Arthur for valuing Excalibur over its sheathe, and, indeed, it was only by the treacherous Morgan Le Fay stealing away the Scabbard that eventually led to Arthur's end. So long as the Scabbard is on Chinami's person, she shall not shed blood from any wound, preventing her from bleeding to death (though she may still recieve grievous, disabling injuries). The Scabbard further induces the regeneration of wounds, even beyond the normal magical girl recovery, at a rate of approximately 1 inch per minute. If desired, Chinami may give the Scabbard to another person, bestowing the protective properties upon them instead. Though, while they will not bleed to death while protected, the regeneration takes 4 times as long as the proper owner's.
Armor: A silver set of glimmering and form-fitting full-body plate armor, aside from lacking a helmet. Filigreed with gold, a white and gold tabard is worn atop it, along with a royal blue cape. The armor possesses no special properties beyond the enhancements provided by the transformation, but it is still armor and thus provides some level of greater than average protection.
Peerless Knight: The supernatural strength, speed and endurance that all magical girls receive is especially strong in her, and she possesses a certain instinct for combat, wielding her sword not as a novice but like someone who had been trained from childhood. This instinct extends also to managing her armor and even how to interact with and ride horses... the latter of which she appears to be distinctly lacking in... for now.
Knights of the Round: During the hours of sunrise, noon, and sunset, Chinami may utter a prayer to the Christian God to summon forth the Round Table for an hour, and it cannot be summoned again until the next qualifying time bracket arrives. The table is a strange existence with a hollowed out center, more like a ring of fused tables covered by a simple white cloth and manned by 10 chairs. The simultaneously strange and lackluster appearance is deceiving, for the table is one meant to comfortably host all who would dine with the King. As such, it shall grow larger for every new person who approaches with intent to sit, summoning forth new chairs for every single person... and always with but a single extra chair remaining empty and welcoming. Those that sit at the Round Table shall be presented with an extravagant never-ending feast, filled with hearty and nutritious meats (venison, beef, pork, goat, lamb, mutton, heron and poultry) and vegetables, along with all manner of other foods, both modern and ancient. Despite employing seemingly modern cooking methods, no deserts are present, as the table seems to only serve food of sustenance. The only exception seems to be drinks, among which are various wines, juices and water. Regardless, guests will find what food is present is always made to their liking. The promise of this ability is that "none shall go hungry", as all are meant to be equally satisfied by it. The food is filling. Even if someone only has time to take a single bite before the duration ends, they will gain enough sustenance from it to last until another meal.
The Once and Future King: As the embodiment of the King returned to save Britain, she too defies death. Should she perish, she will return with the rising sun of the next day upon Britain with the Grimoire in her possession. Though, it has the caveat that the sun must rise on the nation of Britain specifically for her to be resurrected. If Britain is destroyed, it would mean her eventual end as well unless she established a new "Britain". Should she live long enough to see it, Chinami will further find that this aspect halts her aging process once she reaches her physical prime. Naturally, Chinami is entirely unaware of this ability.
Heart of the Dragon: Within the legend of King Arthur, dragons are a constant presence, whether as a dragon-shaped comet, a house standard, or even quite literal foe of scale and claw to be slain by a courageous knight. There are moments of dragon slaying, and it is said by some that the name of Pendragon was far more literal than perhaps assumed, that Uther Pendragon's beastly actions in the course of wedding Igraine and fathering Arthur were born of a nature more... primal. This power is a manifestation of the strength and fury attributed to European dragons, taking form as reconstruction of the host's body to contain a thrumming forge of flame and magic. The changes wrought internally and externally by this forge of flame constantly temper and reforge the body against heat and fire, developing a high resistance -if not immunity- to both. The magical energy created by this forge is primarily suited for workings of flame, but with effort it can be molded for other pursuits and powers at Camelot's disposal.
The flaming "Heart" grants the ability to explosively propel her body and movements through shoving its flames through her internals like steam through an engine, enhancing her strength and speed. She can redirect the inner pressure to expel the flames from her mouth like the breath of a dragon, and when she is injured, her wounds become somewhat involuntary exits for that pressure, spitting fire upon her near surroundings if care is not taken. These flames can be channeled through Excalibur to a degree, allowing her to ignite the blade with flames or use the expulsion thereof to rocket the blade about, along with herself by extension with proper orientation. The thrust is enough to maintain sustained -if rather rough- flight. Regardless of how she channels the flames with her sword, they don't remain magic-fueled much beyond the blade's length, akin to rocket emissions. Though, the embers are still capable of fire-setting collateral.
The "Heart" is driven by the selfish, greedy instincts of a dragon, hungering for wealth and the pursuit of its own concerns, modeled after its host's deepest desires, which tends to create an aura of hostility to the senses of other magical beings, irregardless of whatever Camelot is truly feeling. In times where Camelot expresses particularly strong emotions, her body may undergo partial draconic metamorphosis, like her eyes taking on a golden reptilian visage or her teeth sharpening to carnivorous points. Her senses are dialed up, detecting scents, sights and sounds with far greater acuity. The more emotionally driven she allows herself to be, the more these changes progress, including crimson scales and even functional wings past a certain point. If she were to have a sizable emotional overload, she might even transform into a full-grown dragon outright. Outside of emotional lapses, she can choose to deliberately push the transformation along by stoking the flames of the "Heart" with her normal mana supply, temporarily agitating it enough to make the shift. Though, it is more draining to maintain without emotional fuel.
Of particular, note, this ability does not go away entirely when her transformation ends. Her Grimoire has effectively turned her into a dragon compressed into human form. And while it certainly takes more effort to achieve and maintain the transformation outside her Magical Girl form, the changes she has undergone are extensive and lasting.
Misc:
Growing up in an immigrant family left Chinami with the ability to fluently speak both English and Japanese, though she prefers the former. She's somewhat annoyed at the fact that she's practically a living Asian meme, given that she seriously practices Tae-Kwon-Do, but she's long since learned to put up with the teasing to continue doing one of the few things that's really "clicked" for her in life. She can't cook to save her life, unless it's something with instructions. In that case, she does just fine, but it makes good homemade cooking one of her favorite things when she can have it.
Saw this on a couple character sheets and thought it would be a neat thing to slap on my own to help me keep sight of possible character goals/development. No need to build anything around it. This is just for me to use if the story naturally presents an opportunity.
The Grand Ministry: She doesn't trust them. No-one with the kind of power they have can possibly be as good as they present themselves surely? The only positive she can see in attending Merrywell is that it puts her in their center of power. Perhaps it's paranoia, but if sufficient proof of unscrupulous acts and an opportunity arises, she's willing to put herself at odds with them. After all, magical girls would be better off independent, right?
To Be or Not to Be: Most children dream of being a superhero at one time or another, and Chinami is no different. She constantly struggles with her inward glee at suddenly having great power and the ability to use both it and finally make use of her talents in martial arts in a productive way, even as her common sense screams at her to find some way, any way to leave it all behind.
With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility: She didn't ask for it, but now that she has this power, can she ever live with herself if she refuses to use it? One day, she may have to find out.
The Once and Future King: Having this particular Grimoire... and being in the seat of its power makes Chinami uneasy. Worse, she feels as though she is forced to live up to the ideals of chivalry within it in order to use her powers best, and she worries... Because King Arthur was not the saint so many think he is, the beacon so many idolize him as. Certainly, he had his good points. However, in the modern era, he would be a menace, and Chinami is all too aware that she could become just like him if she allows herself to be careless. She has come to the realization that she might just be power-hungry, and being in this location? It's far too much temptation. But one day, perhaps if she can muster the will and the conviction, she can leave that ghost behind and be even better than Arthur ever was.
Lofty Expectations: She wields the Legend of Arthur in the heart of Britain. With such a Grimoire comes certain expectations, expectations she is not certain she can -or even should- meet.
Purpose: Chinami has come to the realization that she has no purpose in life, no true goals within reach. Unable to meet her parents' expectations. Unable to even break through her own limitations and caught in a rut of highly-specialized talent, Chinami wants a successful and comfortable life but has no idea how to obtain it. She has fixated on this one goal for so long, admittedly influenced by her parents, that now she has no real idea what she wants from life other than to be happy. Question is: what will truly make her happy?
Description: A feisty and wild girl from Bavaria who has been an occasional ally of the Grand Ministry in recent years. She is fiercely independent and prefers to keep her own path, driving the world in her mystical van to collect trinkets, talismans, and most importantly to her, metal junk to smith guns and prosthetics. She proudly immerses herself in punk culture from her homeland and never plays well with authorities. Her and Ozma go way back, and she was one of the first magical girls to work with her. She offers her services to the Grand Ministry these days as a vendor and sometimes helping hand.
History: She was born with hypochrondroplasia or small limbed dwarfism in the 1940s during the Hitler years. At this time it was German Nazi party policy to euthanize the genetically inferior. Her family attempted to plead with the government for her life while she lay in the hospital. During her stay, she’d discover the fable story that’d become her grimoire and restore her limbs with silver metal. Fleeing Germany afterward filled her with a sense of independence, and a demand to travel the world around her instead of the culture that rejected her. With her new magical girl powers, she constantly edits and adds onto her limbs for herself and has found her trade in her producing, buying, finding, and selling just about any needed item in the magical world.
Grimoire: Das Mädchen ohne Hände (The Girl Without Hands)
Classification: Fable
Description: An old german story over a miller’s daughter who must give up her hands due to her father making a deal with the devil. She finds and falls in love with a King and is given new hands made of silver.
Grimoire’s Power: Incredible powers of creation with her prosthetic hands, able to mend and mold metal in seconds to create devices ranging from guns and artillery to cars and buildings. She is able to heat them up to smelt iron and adjust them into various tools to make herself into a living and breathing foundry. In a pinch, she can turn them into hand cannons and explode her enemies with shrapnel and cannon. She can also create shields, swords and just about anything she can physically imagine and bring to life with her silver hands.
She is a huge fan of Einstürzende Neubauten, Kraftwerk, and Can.
Description: Maria has been a magical girl for close to a century now. Although a very distant relative, she was technically born in the house de Borbón, the ruling Royal Family of modern Spain. Her family, while not in direct contact with the monarchs, were still very wealthy of their own means and Maria grew up in need of nothing. She attended the most prestigious schools and had the best education available, indulging in many kind of excess until her 20th birthday.
In 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil war, her family's estate was ransacked by a mob of angry civilians. Which side they represented mattered little and Maria never knew. In the village that they lived, their family represented excess and induced jealousy, so when everyone was starving, angry and ready to fight the inevitable happened and the family met it's fate and the hands of angry Revolutionaries. However, not Maria. She lived on through means she could never have anticipated. Before she, too, was killed by angry men something magical happened - a great book appeared before her. It was a dark book covered in ominous symbols and a dark aura, yet Maria felt the need to grab it...and the rest is history. Before the astonished eyes of the people present, María de Borbón disappeared never to be seen again.
A life of undeserving excess led her here, led her to possess this dark Grimoire - The Mythos of the Angel of Darkness, the Devil himself.
She was going to have to atone. Sole inheritor of her family's fortune, Maria traveled to France where she hid for a time, understanding her newly acquired power and coming to terms with it. For the longest time after that she operated alone. She had heard of the academy, but was wary of others. Her Grimoire gave her great powers, but she felt a constant pull towards something she was not, towards what the Mythos represented; Evil, Deceit and many kind of Excess. She could tap in this power, but had to remain strong not to give in, and felt like close relationship to others, magical girls or otherwise, was a risk.
Eventually, however, The Ministry summoned her to come and join their rank. It was not a proposition this time, and she knew it. Maria also knew that her time being able to be on her own was drawing to a close. if she was to somehow fall - whatever that implied - she wanted others to be close by to deal with what she'd become then.
Grimoire: • Title: The Devil's Mythos. • Classification: Myth. • Description: The Devil's Mythos encompass the beliefs surrounding the fallen angel, under his many, many guises through just as many folk tales and ethnic groups. It whispers of promises of power, tell tales of deceits and of great many unspeakable betrayals. It contains the human belief of evil incarnate, no matter the origin or religion. It encompass every fears and has the will to dominate others. Needless to say, such a cursed Grimoire grants much powers - but at the risky cost of becoming what it represents.
Abilities
Morning Star is Maria's chosen title for her Magical Girl persona. The less ominous name given to Lucifer, from the origin before it was the incarnation of all evil.
Her powers, however, are less buried in forgotten meanings and more...to the point. As the bearer of the Devil's Mythos, her powers manifest as one would expect; with Hellfire.
Demonic Strength: When calling on her powers, Morning Star has access to incredible super human strength and her physical attacks are devastating and deadly to all but the strongest foes - or the quickest.
Hellfire: Maria can call upon hellfire to surround her in a great tempest of fire, and can direct the flames to immolate enemies around.
Hellfire: Enhance: As if her great physical strength was not already enough, Maria can call upon the hell flames to enhance almost all of her attacks. her physical attacks would then be delivered with explosive, fiery effect and leave enemies charred and burning.
Wings of Evil: While she cannot remain in flight, Maria can summon forth two great bat-like wings wreathed in flames to send her a great distance away - like an enhanced jump.
Beelzebub: Probably her greatest weapon comes in the form of floating sword that looks like a cross that constantly remains floating behind her. The sword is made of an unknown dark metal and seemingly does very little until Maria calls upon it. When she does, she gets engulfed in flames for a time until the fire takes the form of a goat demon, first it's skeleton and progressively the full creature. Only it's upper body shows, Maria standing in the chest area and protected by the flames. When in this form, the Demon wield the great Dark-steel sword, now also wreathed in Hellfire.
Name: Celina Kennedy, Lupin Age: 17 Nationality: Irish Description: Well, when you come from a country well known for it's mythos, the concept of grimores and the Pageless doesn't seem so far fetched. A level-headed young woman, Celina is a relatively new magical girl with almost a year under her belt. Caring, but can also be a bit territorial, protective to the ones she grows attached to. Though she does have moments where she loses her temper, she dares not to harm anyone innocent in the process and heavily restrains herself to prevent such an outcome.
Hailing from Dublin, Celina's life growing up was...pretty much normal. She was the middle child, wedged between an older brother and a sickly twin sister, and her parents though busy did their best for their children. They did well in school, they had good friends (except that one time), Celina's brother even got a job at one point. So what could've happened to turn Celina into the red-cloaked Lupin?
For some reason, her twin's condition began to get worse, eventually leaving her hospitalized. The other two siblings did their best to stay by her side while their parents handled most of the medical stuff, borrowing books from the library and helping her around her room. Her sister's condition didn't get worse in their efforts, but it didn't get better either. No one knew what the cause was, and the stress of it began to ignite conflict between Celina's family. She didn't care.
In the dead of night during one visit, Celina woke up to the sound of animalistic growling. At first she assumed it was her mind playing tricks after a dream, but that came into question once she saw the source of the noise. A spine chilling sight, the Pageless bore a similar appearance to a wolf, only...wrong. Terrifying. Yet she didn't scream. For some reason she didn't, even though she was internally panicking at the mere sight of the monster. Becauss it looked like it didn't notice her, or was saving her for later, for it only held grim intentions for the still-sleeping twin. Celina didn't even have to think of why or what it's reason was. It had to go.
She quietly made her way over to a stack of books on the bedside table, and throwing caution to the wind, threw one at the Pageless before it could strike. And once she got it's attention, she kept attacking it, driving it away. Until the last book answered to her desperation, and a small blade took it's place, piercing through the false wolf's flesh. Standing in Celina Kennedy's place was another threat entirely. One who would be known by the moniker Lupin.
The beast was swiftly dealt with, and Lupin dissapeared into the night. She had to learn more about these creatures, this power. And perhaps kill the rest of that one Pageless' pack while she was at it. But Celina did return in the morning before anyone could be concerned. That Pageless. Was it just feasting on her sister's life force, or was it trying to prevent the wrong twin from finding their grimore? Either way, she hoped her sister could recover from that.
After some time had passed, Celina was taken in by the Grand Ministry, and moved to London so she could attend Marrywell Academy. The Ministry themselves, she's mostly indifferent to. Though that's probably because she doesn't have a set opinion on them yet.
Grimoire: • Title: Little Red Riding Hood • Classification: Fable • Description: Little Red Riding Hood is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, which this Grimore derives from. • Abilities: The Wolf - After Little Red had entered the woods, a seemingly innocuous wolf approached her. Lupin adopts the traits of one such wolf to help her in her own hunt. Acute hearing, improved eyesight during night time; essentially giving her night vision, and sharp canines that can tear through flesh of both humans and pageless. Well, under the assumption that the pageless do have flesh.
Lupin's "claws" come in the form of her weapon, a seemingly endless amount of throwing knifes usually stored inside her jacket.
The Hunter - After the Wolf had finished his feast, he fell asleep. He snored so loudly a huntsman followed the sound and cut Little Red and her Grandma free. A passive ability, Lupin's physical prowess is increased whilst she's transformed, letting her take a few more heavy blows than one normally could.
The Hood - The Big Bad Wolf had decieved both Grandma and Little Red, eating them whole after they've let their guard down. Lupin's own hood isn't just for show. It allows her to take the appearance of anyone she gets a good look at. However, the illusion isn't entirely perfect. Perhaps their voice is too high or low, or the color of their eyes are the wrong shade. There will always be something that sets Lupin's disguise apart from the real deal.
Name: Mika Fang • Age: She’s been 16 for a very long time • Nationality: USA(?)
Appearance: Mika wears her very best every day. That is to say that everything in her wardrobe is the exact same dress and even the same color. A white and blue dress with pouches for carrying things through the academy. She’s a native American indian (she claims) and has a darker shade of skin than many other magical girls. Her hair, much like her wardrobe, is not something she fusses over much.
No one knows what her true magical girl form looks like. Her powers enable her to change her appearance at will, and the only thing that makes it evident Mika is "Oros the Wise" is her sword and powers. She's even made her magical girl form mirror her untransformed appearance as a joke.
Description: For the most part Mika is kind, helpful, and energetic. It’s hard not to be captivated by the way she bounds down hallways, waving at everyone she meets. She also knows most of the students by heart and has given each of them cute pet names. This usually involves shortening their name, sometimes to a single letter. As a student counselor, she’s always willing to listen and give advice to students and even her fellow faculty members. Everything feels like it’s going to be okay when talking to Mika regardless of how hard things feel. That is, provided you don’t catch her on one of her off days. While she’s always jovial, she can also come across as condescending and even arrogant at times. It doesn’t happen often but when she gets mad she gets really mad! But that is a rare occurrence, and she would never, ever get upset with a student. There is a certain level of professionalism that she always maintains.
Like so many other faculty members, Mika’s past is shrouded in mystery. Talking about her past usually prompts a joke about jumping to this reality from another one. She never reveals her actual age, but alludes to being centuries old. Though if one chose to parse her stories for what sounds believable, it makes her sound younger than that.
Mika grew up on a farm out in “cow country” and spent most of her time with the animals. It might be fair to say that she loved animals more than other people. She was an odd girl and was picked on by a lot of the other children. When you’re different, it’s harder to get accepted by your classmates. When Mika was given a homework assignment that involved writing a bout a story she read, she took to the library where she found her grimoire, first faced the pageless, and got an “A” on her report card.
Less mysterious have been her years at Marrywell Academy. While she can be eccentric, it hasn’t gotten in the way of her being a student counselor. She’s been there for many young magical girls and has a good reputation with most of the faculty members. Despite this, she has run some student drills in the past when she was still a normal teacher. Her drills were infamous for their punishing difficulty and some were cited as “despair inducing.” That said nothing of her classes, which were also difficult affairs to pass. Perhaps she got her reputation for encouraging others after so many failed to pass her classes. She is seldom brought in to teach anymore.
Mika is very much into whatever the students are into and doesn’t care if her tastes seem childish. She like animals, comics, manga, cartoons, anime, pizza, and anything else you would expect a teenager to be into. Her dislikes are also on the childish side, which is primarily green vegetables.
As part of the Grand Ministry, she thinks they are an alright bunch that do their best. That doesn’t mean that she or one of her clones doesn’t sneak off to do their own thing from time to time. She doesn’t fully trust Liliana’s leadership and thinks it might be time for some reforming so that new blood and new ideas can work their way into the upper echelon of the academy. She’s told Merlin as much, who found the thought funny.
Grimoire's Title: Fenian Cycle (Alter)• Classification: Alter Myth
Description: The Fenian Cycle is a body of Irish literature that was largely composed between the 9th and 14th century with the earliest one going as far back as the 7th century. The poems and tales primarily deals with Fionn Mac Cumhail (Finn McCool) and the Fianna clan’s merry group of warrior-hunters.
Fionn’s father was slain by a member of the Fianna. As his father was a great warrior, there was some concern that someone would go after Fionn just for bragging rights, so he was hidden in the forest and raised by two druids. He became a great warrior, and by the ripe old age of ten he had gained enough renown that the king decided to let Fionn lead the Fianna. They went on many adventures. While most of the adventures focus on Fionn as the main character, there are stories about the other hunter-wariors and even one where Fionn is captured and needs to be rescued by his clan.
While the Fianna’s adventures are best known to those native to Ireland, they have achieved some renown around the world and still make appearances in popular media. There are clear nods to their stories as recently as Adventure Time (Finn is discovered by two dogs in a forest, much like how two druids raised Fionn) And as far back as the tale of King Author, though that particular comparison is disputable as just that, some similarities. Regardless, the Fianna’s exploits have sent ripples through history, and is likely the great grandfather of any story that embodies the spirit of adventure. It’s a myth for sure.
But what of its altered state?
For maximum protection, Fionn is moved to the other side of the world through drudic magic. He is then raised by two shinto shrine maidens (basically Japan’s equivalent of druids) and at the ripe age of ten, decides to sail back to Ireland so that he can avenge his father as a warlord. The poems central themes of love, comradery, and adventure are tainted by hate, revenge, and conquest. More specific changes about the tale can be found listed under each power.
Abilities: This grimoire enables its holder to take on the features of Fionn the Warlord, herein simply referred to as “warlord” as to not be confused with the original Fionn.
• Trout of Wisdom: One of Fionn’s first major stories involves him being tasked with cooking the Salmon of Wisdom for the man who fished it up, while being instructed not to consume it. He accidentally burns himself on its oils and sticks his thumb in his mouth to cool it off. This counts as consuming the fish, and he can now access the knowledge of the world by sticking his thumb in his mouth. In a similar story, warlord vanquishes the hermit fisherman, and then thrusts his katana inside the Rainbow Trout of Wisdom. The fish’s oils are then used to hone the blade, which makes it possible for warlord to view anything he wishes.
For Mika, this makes it possible for her to divine nearly anything she wishes. All she has to do is look into her polished blade to see what’s happening past, present… but not the future, as it only shows her the “world’s knowledge” and does not apply to what has yet to happen. She claims she can look into other realities with it, but she has yet to find the book of Omen with it, so maybe take her claims with a grain of salt.
• Wild Shape: Both Fionn and Warlord were raised by two magical mother figures who taught them magic. There is little difference here, save for the fact that Fionn used his magic to help people while warlord used it to become a more fearsome opponent.
Mika is able to change the shape of her body. This includes subtle changes like increasing her height to more fantastical ones like giving herself the arm of a bear or the head of an owl. She can (and does) frequently mix and match her transformations and can quickly turn into an abomination. She could technically use this to become other people, but Mika isn’t good at impersonations and doesn’t do them unless she’s screwing around.
• Carnage: The most noteworthy part of Fionn’s arsonal is his wits. He did chase a smith for ten days and forced them to make him “Mac An Lúin,” a sword that can kill anything in a single stroke, but he only uses it when in great danger. Some myths have him lifting mountains with his hands and depict the usually human fionn as a giant himself. In fact, some of Ireland’s mountain ranges were rumored to be created by him. Warlord on the other hand is no giant. He slew an oni and stole his strength before trying to get a legendary bladesmith to forge him a sword. When they refused, warlord took the smith’s body and threw it into the furnace, deciding to forge a sword fitting for his conquest. It is also said to kill in one stroke, but this is more attributed to warlord’s strength than his craftsmanship abilities.
Mika’s strength is unmatched, as one would expect from a grimoire of her caliber that offers little in the way of magical attacks. While her attacks do not kill everything in one hit, that largely depends on how sturdy her target is. She also has a katana, but it’s fairly standard as far as magical girl weaponry goes. She’s also far more durable than her nimble frame leads one to believe.
• Onslaught: Fionn eventually led the Fianna after completing a quest and even forgave the man that slew his father. The entire clan went on several adventures together and their respect grew with their conquests. Warlord never forgave the man that killed his father however. Not only did he kill him, he slew the rest of the Fianna as well. The only person warlord needed was himself.
Mika can create her own clan of warrior-hunters…sort of. She can create four clones of herself which are just as strong as she is and share her personality. The only difference is that they know enough to take orders from the original and will sacrifice themselves to keep Mika alive.
• Immortality: Most great heroes end their stories in death, but Fionn and the Fianna slumber under a giant mountain, waiting to awaken in Ireland’s time of need. Warlord on the other hand has left this reality for greater conquests, vowing to come back and sink Ireland once he’s strong enough to do so. Perhaps the two are fated to fight?
Mika is no more immortal than any other magical girl, but she is much more resistant to poisons, hexes, domination spells, or other “crowd control effects" that would make her less effective in combat.
