Avatars of the Cosmic Crystal

[CaptainManbeard]

The Cosmic Crystal is a fourth dimensional construct that anchors the Spacetime Continuum and connects the End of Time with the Beginning of Time in the Eternal Loop. That was, of course, until the Timebreaker Wars, wherein gods from many different pantheons battled each other for control of the Crystal. The sheer ferocity of the conflict severely weakened the fabric of the Continuum over repeated cycles, until the entire timeline collapsed in on itself like a massive quantum black hole. The immense pressure of the implosion rendered the Cosmic Crystal unstable, and it exploded with such magnitude that reality itself was distorted and shattered.

The Spacetime Continuum began to heal itself, but since the Cosmic Crystal was now scattered into many different Quantum Shards, the Eternal Loop was forever broken. Instead of one unified timeline, there were now thousands, branching off into endless possibilities. And in some of these new timelines, the Quantum Shards bonded with hosts, marking them as Avatars of the Cosmic Crystal and instilling in them a deep-seeded desire to travel the Multiverse and unite with other Avatars to eventually reform the Crystal.

So, your characters are Avatars, and you can customize the timelines they are from however you want. Alternate pasts, alternate presents, alternate futures, whatever. Create to your heart's content. That goes for abilities, too. Consider this a power fantasy playground where we all play OP characters who are basically gods. Any time we have combat stuff, I'll just throw swarms of enemies at the characters and then we can just have fun. To give you an idea of how tough the various adversaries should be, we'll say pushovers and minions are C-Tier, somewhat capable opponents are B-Tier, mini-boss-type enemies are A-Tier, and formidable threats are S-Tier.

C-Tiers and B-Tiers require minimal effort to defeat, A-Tiers are a bit harder but shouldn't be too much of a struggle, and S-Tiers are quite powerful and dangerous if they're not handled strategically. That will give you an idea how to write out your battle scenes.

As for the initial plot, we'll say that each character has just discovered the Quantum Shard in their timeline and bonded with it, and they are then teleported to what is left of the floating island Celestia. This used to be a beautiful whitestone palace surrounding by a sprawling garden and sitting amidst a sea of multicolored cosmic energy, and the Holding Chamber inside the main tower housed the Cosmic Crystal. But now everything is shattered and rotting and covered in black vines, and as the Avatars gradually collect more Quantum Shards from across the Multiverse, Celestia will begin to heal and rebuild itself. As for how we get the Shards, we'll say that all the S-Tier enemies we face are fellow Avatars who became corrupted by their Shards and turned into Void Demons. So, we seek out Void Demons and their minions, defeat them, retrieve the Quantum Shards, and return them to the Holding Chamber to gradually reform the Cosmic Crystal.

[ANYM]

Tentative interest since I've got more than a few RPs going at the moment. But when you say gods, exactly what level of power are you thinking of? And what kind of god? Cause when I hear both I tend to think of entities that are close to if not omnipotent, or extremely abstract and esoteric/Lovecraftian, and that usually doesn't bode well for the narrative.

[CaptainManbeard]

Tentative interest since I've got more than a few RPs going at the moment. But when you say gods, exactly what level of power are you thinking of? And what kind of god? Cause when I hear both I tend to think of entities that are close to if not omnipotent, or extremely abstract and esoteric, and that usually doesn't bode well for the narrative.

@Havoccultist

I don't mean gods in the sense of "beings who can effortlessly rewrite any and all aspects of reality with a single thought," but more like those you would find in D&D pantheons or say Greek Mythology. Take the Timebreaker Wars, for instance. That was a battle fought between many different pantheons, so you can imagine hundreds of gods all fighting each other.

Here is a good video from Matt Mercer of Critical Role that details the types of gods I'm envisioning having fought in the Timebreaker Wars:



However, for our characters, when I said "basically gods," that was more of a reference to them being OP, not them being literal gods like the ones who fought and died in the Timebreaker Wars. Our characters were just normal mortals at first, and then once they bond with their Quantum Shards, they begin to develop god-like powers, such as perhaps elemental abilities or healing or light/gravity/shadow/whatever, but they are still technically mortals. I will probably play two Avatars, one who has a powerset similar to Blue Marvel from Marvel Comics and one is akin to an OP Sith Lord.

What powers do you think you'd like to use?

[ANYM]

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

I don't mean gods in the sense of "beings who can effortlessly rewrite any and all aspects of reality with a single thought," but more like those you would find in D&D pantheons or say Greek Mythology. Take the Timebreaker Wars, for instance. That was a battle fought between many different pantheons, so you can imagine hundreds of gods all fighting each other.

Here is a good video from Matt Mercer of Critical Role that details the types of gods I'm envisioning having fought in the Timebreaker Wars:



However, for our characters, when I said "basically gods," that was more of a reference to them being OP, not them being literal gods like the ones who fought and died in the Timebreaker Wars. Our characters were just normal mortals at first, and then once they bond with their Quantum Shards, they begin to develop god-like powers, such as perhaps elemental abilities or healing or light/gravity/shadow/whatever, but they are still technically mortals. I will probably play two Avatars, one who has a powerset similar to Blue Marvel from Marvel Comics and one is akin to an OP Sith Lord.

What powers do you think you'd like to use?

@CaptainManbeard

I see. Probably something time related, precognition and general temporal manipulation, since I have a character arc idea where a future version of my character from an alternate timeline intentionally corrupted the Quantum Shard they had to become a Void Demon, as they seek to stop the mending of the crystal to preserve not only their own power and/or existence, but also to keep what they see as the loop within a loop from repeating. I.E. to keep the crystal from being reforged just so another group of gods or beings, be that the Avatars or whoever else, can go to war over and shatter it again. This antagonistic future version of my character would also seek to maintain the status quo as it currently is, believing that all the realities which presently exist thanks to the shattering will be erased or destroyed or irreparably damaged if merged back into a single timeline.

And that's not a risk they're willing to take.

[CaptainManbeard]

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I see. Probably something time related, precognition and general temporal manipulation, since I have a character arc idea where a future version of my character from an alternate timeline intentionally corrupted the Quantum Shard they had to become a Void Demon, as they seek to stop the mending of the crystal to preserve not only their own power and/or existence, but also to keep what they see as the loop within a loop from repeating. I.E. to keep the crystal from being reforged just so another group of gods or beings, be that the Avatars or whoever else, can go to war over and shatter it again. This antagonistic future version of my character would also seek to maintain the status quo as it currently is, believing that all the realities which presently exist thanks to the shattering will be erased or destroyed or irreparably damaged if merged back into a single timeline.

And that's not a risk they're willing to take.

@Havoccultist

I had a similar idea for my Sith character XD. I was thinking of making them eventually become an evil character, and she is an alternate timeline version of my good character's twin sister. They come from very similar timelines that split off at the moment of a plane crash when they were kids. In the brother's timeline, his sister died, and in the sister's timeline, her brother died. He managed to grieve and then recover, but she still harbors a lot of emotional trauma from that day and gradually becomes resentful of her alternate timeline brother for him not having been as miserable as her after losing his twin. Not only that, in his timeline, their parents had another daughter, while in her timeline, their parents divorced and then eventually died in a car crash while they were arguing. She begins to feel betrayed that the other version of her family had such a happy life without her and that sparks the gradual corruption of her Quantum Shard.

As for your idea for time powers, I'd be curious to see just how far you wanted to take them. Since the Cosmic Crystal is a fourth dimensional construct, and by extension the Quantum Shards, I'd imagine any temporal-shifting abilities would not directly effect anyone who also had a Shard. But it could effect the environment around them. As for the future version of your character, I'd imagine their Shard would be a different one than the past version, since it seems unlikely that a fourth dimensional object could go back in time and co-exist with a past version of itself. Instead, it could be that his timeline was ripped in two as well, with a different Shard going to each half and finding him in both timelines.

I have to head to work now, but we can discuss it more later. I'm excited!

[ANYM]

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

I had a similar idea for my Sith character XD. I was thinking of making them eventually become an evil character, and she is an alternate timeline version of my good character's twin sister. They come from very similar timelines that split off at the moment of a plane crash when they were kids. In the brother's timeline, his sister died, and in the sister's timeline, her brother died. He managed to grieve and then recover, but she still harbors a lot of emotional trauma from that day and gradually becomes resentful of her alternate timeline brother for him not having been as miserable as her after losing his twin. Not only that, in his timeline, their parents had another daughter, while in her timeline, their parents divorced and then eventually died in a car crash while they were arguing. She begins to feel betrayed that the other version of her family had such a happy life without her and that sparks the gradual corruption of her Quantum Shard.

As for your idea for time powers, I'd be curious to see just how far you wanted to take them. Since the Cosmic Crystal is a fourth dimensional construct, and by extension the Quantum Shards, I'd imagine any temporal-shifting abilities would not directly effect anyone who also had a Shard. But it could effect the environment around them. As for the future version of your character, I'd imagine their Shard would be a different one than the past version, since it seems unlikely that a fourth dimensional object could go back in time and co-exist with a past version of itself. Instead, it could be that his timeline was ripped in two as well, with a different Shard going to each half and finding him in both timelines.

I have to head to work now, but we can discuss it more later. I'm excited!

@CaptainManbeard

I don't see any causal conflicts since alternate timeline versions are not the same as direct future versions of the prime individual. The way I see it, this future version comes from a parallel reality/alternate timeline, but in its future, and goes back in time/hops from timeline to timeline in order to stop or counteract their 'prime' self and alternate selves. As opposed to coming directly back from the 'prime timeline's' future, which even if we did allow an interaction would ultimately result in either a Grandfather Paradox or a very deterministic fate. Since killing or defeating one's future self doesn't mean that you won't eventually become them, then go back to start the cycle all over again.

To give an example (albeit a poorly thought out one), see InFAMOUS. Specifically Kessler, who is simply an alternate version of Cole from the future. In particular, a future where the Beast went on a rampage and he lost everything, a series of events that sparked his desire to go back and interfere in the first place. Besides the mechanics of causality, I think time powers working as you describe is fine. Even if one time travels and makes changes, assuming no branching realities where that change succeeded are created and the timeline one is currently in is altered instead, those with Quantum Shards will remain aware and unaffected by such changes.

Since our character concepts are so similar, however, I might just go the straight villain angle and nix the prime part beyond said character wanting to gather more power to prevent their alternate selves from reforging the crystal, keep the current realities as they are, prevent the inevitability of the next loop, etc.

[CaptainManbeard]

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I don't see any causal conflicts since alternate timeline versions are not the same as direct future versions of the prime individual. The way I see it, this future version comes from a parallel reality/alternate timeline, but in its future, and goes back in time/hops from timeline to timeline in order to stop or counteract their 'prime' self and alternate selves. As opposed to coming directly back from the 'prime timeline's' future, which even if we did allow an interaction would ultimately result in either a Grandfather Paradox or a very deterministic fate. Since killing or defeating one's future self doesn't mean that you won't eventually become them, then go back to start the cycle all over again.

To give an example (albeit a poorly thought out one), see InFAMOUS. Specifically Kessler, who is simply an alternate version of Cole from the future. In particular, a future where the Beast went on a rampage and he lost everything, a series of events that sparked his desire to go back and interfere in the first place. Besides the mechanics of causality, I think time powers working as you describe is fine. Even if one time travels and makes changes, assuming no branching realities where that change succeeded are created and the timeline one is currently in is altered instead, those with Quantum Shards will remain aware and unaffected by such changes.

Since our character concepts are so similar, however, I might just go the straight villain angle and nix the prime part beyond said character wanting to gather more power to prevent their alternate selves from reforging the crystal, keep the current realities as they are, prevent the inevitability of the next loop, etc.

@Havoccultist

Oh yes, I think we actually were on the same page after all about your future self idea. I went back and re-read your original post and realized I misread a part. I thought you meant that your evil version came from the future our characters were heading towards, kind of like Alternate Barry/Savitar in the Flash show, but I see now what you meant. So yeah, we can say that there are countless alternate pasts, alternate presents, and alternate futures. Some timelines are farther along than others, and there can be many different eras covered in our adventures.

Like, there could be a timeline where it's still the 1950s but aliens invaded, or a timeline where there's a zombie apocalypse going on, or a timeline where Earth has been destroyed and the remaining humans live on other planets.

And please feel free to continue on with your idea, your evil version and my Sith Lady/Lord could probably team up for a while, though I imagine he would eventually distance himself from her when she veers even farther down the path of evil than him XD. It seems your character still has some semblance of honor and a sense of greater good, but my evil character will eventually devolve into a sadistic bitch LOL.

[ANYM]

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

Oh yes, I think we actually were on the same page after all about your future self idea. I went back and re-read your original post and realized I misread a part. I thought you meant that your evil version came from the future our characters were heading towards, kind of like Alternate Barry/Savitar in the Flash show, but I see now what you meant. So yeah, we can say that there are countless alternate pasts, alternate presents, and alternate futures. Some timelines are farther along than others, and there can be many different eras covered in our adventures.

Like, there could be a timeline where it's still the 1950s but aliens invaded, or a timeline where there's a zombie apocalypse going on, or a timeline where Earth has been destroyed and the remaining humans live on other planets.

And please feel free to continue on with your idea, your evil version and my Sith Lady/Lord could probably team up for a while, though I imagine he would eventually distance himself from her when she veers even farther down the path of evil than him XD. It seems your character still has some semblance of honor and a sense of greater good, but my evil character will eventually devolve into a sadistic bitch LOL.

@CaptainManbeard

I think I'll play a pure antagonist in this RP, as I'm not sure I have it in me to play both sides of the conflict at the moment. At least not to the degree of making two completely fleshed out versions of the same character. Maybe my character's alternate self could serve as a MacGuffin for a subplot or two before they get axed or something if we really want to include them. Another question I had though concerned the setting. Does it have to be Earth or a version of it? Or, given that it's a multiverse now, could our characters technically come from anywhere provided it's not a fandom/pre-existing fictional setting?

[CaptainManbeard]

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I think I'll play a pure antagonist in this RP, as I'm not sure I have it in me to play both sides of the conflict at the moment. At least not to the degree of making two completely fleshed out versions of the same character. Maybe my character's alternate self could serve as a MacGuffin for a subplot or two before they get axed or something if we really want to include them. Another question I had though concerned the setting. Does it have to be Earth or a version of it? Or, given that it's a multiverse now, could our characters technically come from anywhere provided it's not a fandom/pre-existing fictional setting?

@Havoccultist

Yeah, or if we ever get to a point in the plot where your antagonist character is defeated or killed, you could then bring in a good version of that character from a different timeline who then inherits their Quantum Shard or something.

As to your other question, it's totally fine to come from places other than Earth or Earths that are radically different. For instance, there could be timelines where humans or humanoid life developed on other planets, and timelines where non-human humanoids developed on Earth. There could be Earths similar to the movie Bright, where elves, orcs, fairies, etc exist in modern society.

What did you have in mind?

[ANYM]

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

Yeah, or if we ever get to a point in the plot where your antagonist character is defeated or killed, you could then bring in a good version of that character from a different timeline who then inherits their Quantum Shard or something.

As to your other question, it's totally fine to come from places other than Earth or Earths that are radically different. For instance, there could be timelines where humans or humanoid life developed on other planets, and timelines where non-human humanoids developed on Earth. There could be Earths similar to the movie Bright, where elves, orcs, fairies, etc exist in modern society.

What did you have in mind?

@CaptainManbeard

Probably something fantasy themed, but nothing concrete as of yet. I was just curious to know what the scope of the timelines was. How crazy you could get with it, etc.

[CaptainManbeard]

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Probably something fantasy themed, but nothing concrete as of yet. I was just curious to know what the scope of the timelines was. How crazy you could get with it, etc.

@Havoccultist

That works. We could say that all the timelines from which the Avatars originate may be at different points along their own flow of time, but the moment they bond with a Quantum Shard, their timeline syncs up with Celestia, which is why they all get teleported there at exactly the same time. So, it would be like one timeline has an Avatar bonding with a Shard in 1951 Earth, while in another timeline, a different Avatar didn't bond with a Shard until 1981. But they both arrive at Celestia at exactly the same time, and from that moment forward, both those timelines are locked with Celestia so that time flows evenly between them, meaning in the two timelines referenced, they will always be 30 years apart even though both are considered "present time" to their respective Avatars. Almost like multiple save files for a game at different points in time but all of them are now running simultaneously.

If you are doing a fantasy-themed world, it could be somewhere in the ancient past, the distant future, or anywhere in between. It only becomes synced with Celestia when your character bonds with the Quantum Shard and is teleported there. Though if you go with temporal powers, perhaps you can rewind time like in Prince of Persia or the Eye of Agamotto, but all Shard-bearers would rewind with you. You mentioned precognition, so that could be the subconscious mind of your future self sending back fragments of memories through the Quantum Shard, and perhaps that's how you begin to realize uniting the Crystal goes against your values. Like, you receive visions of people screaming out as their timelines are erased in the future or something. Now whether those are legitimate visions or doctored manifestations created by some nefarious entity remains to be seen XD.

[CaptainManbeard]

Oh, and as for Void Demons and other Quantum Shards not part of our main group of characters, we could say only Avatars who were deemed worthy at the moment of bonding by their Shards were granted access to Celestia. In the case of our "bad guy" characters, they may have been worthy at the moment of bonding, but corrupted their Shards after the fact. Those who bonded with a Shard and were immediately deemed unworthy are the ones who first turned into Void Demons, and thus they never came to Celestia. And in some timelines, there are Shards which never found a host and are just waiting to be collected by the Avatars.

[deadpixel101]

Showing interest now! I don't have a specific character idea atm but it looks like a fun space to play around with.

I like the ideas of characters forced to see alternate paths they could have taken and seeing how they deal with that.

Similar to Batman in a Batman who laughs series I sort of like the idea of my character being technically more "successful" in doing the right thing (repairing the crystal) but seeing every other version of them self being healthier or happier. Needing to come to terms with the fact that their choice might be wrong for them but right in the grand scheme.

[Martian]

@CaptainManbeard
Definitely interested in this. Since we’re allowed to be from alternate time lines, I think I’ll dust off my United States of Atlantis setting. The basic premise comes from the Atlantis Trilogy by Harry Turtledove, about North America breaking in half sometime before humans evolved. The western portion, known as Terra Nova, would be inhabited by tribes crossing the ice bridge from Asia, while the eastern portion, known as Atlantis after the lost city, would remain human free for thousands of years.

Eventually European sailors would find Atlantis, and with no one living there, claim it. Eventually Atlantis would become a haven for those fleeing persecution in Europe and the other continents of the Old World. Atlantis would then become the first modern democracy with the founding of the United States of Atlantis. Quickly, Atlantis and Asia would become the central powers, as they began to produce steampunk technology.

In this time line, it is now the 1910s, and war is breaking out in Europe. Atlantis is divided on whether to intervene, as some politicians call for world peace, while others see it as an opportunity to extend Atlantis’s reach.

My character would be the son on a pro-war politician, currently attending a prestigious university on Atlantis’s east coast. He is something of a tinkerer, dabbling in steampunk technology. After bonding with his crystal shard, he will develop the ability to copy the skills, abilities, and powers of those around him. Think a suped up combination of Sync and Prodigy of the X-Men, if you know Marvel Comics.

So yeah, I’ve put some thought into my character and home time line. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play him as this does seem really interesting.

[ANYM]

Oh, and as for Void Demons and other Quantum Shards not part of our main group of characters, we could say only Avatars who were deemed worthy at the moment of bonding by their Shards were granted access to Celestia. In the case of our "bad guy" characters, they may have been worthy at the moment of bonding, but corrupted their Shards after the fact. Those who bonded with a Shard and were immediately deemed unworthy are the ones who first turned into Void Demons, and thus they never came to Celestia. And in some timelines, there are Shards which never found a host and are just waiting to be collected by the Avatars.

@CaptainManbeard

Well as I said I did intend for this antagonist of mine to have intentionally corrupted his shard. His reasoning being to stop it from making him want to reunite it with the others, and to gain full control of its powers if that's a thing. I don't want him to have gone to Celestia in either case, although I'm not sure that it would be able to deem him unworthy even with his power seeking nature as his intentions are ultimately noble. Even if his methods are not. I could see it barring access after he corrupted it though.

[ANYM]

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

That works. We could say that all the timelines from which the Avatars originate may be at different points along their own flow of time, but the moment they bond with a Quantum Shard, their timeline syncs up with Celestia, which is why they all get teleported there at exactly the same time. So, it would be like one timeline has an Avatar bonding with a Shard in 1951 Earth, while in another timeline, a different Avatar didn't bond with a Shard until 1981. But they both arrive at Celestia at exactly the same time, and from that moment forward, both those timelines are locked with Celestia so that time flows evenly between them, meaning in the two timelines referenced, they will always be 30 years apart even though both are considered "present time" to their respective Avatars. Almost like multiple save files for a game at different points in time but all of them are now running simultaneously.

If you are doing a fantasy-themed world, it could be somewhere in the ancient past, the distant future, or anywhere in between. It only becomes synced with Celestia when your character bonds with the Quantum Shard and is teleported there. Though if you go with temporal powers, perhaps you can rewind time like in Prince of Persia or the Eye of Agamotto, but all Shard-bearers would rewind with you. You mentioned precognition, so that could be the subconscious mind of your future self sending back fragments of memories through the Quantum Shard, and perhaps that's how you begin to realize uniting the Crystal goes against your values. Like, you receive visions of people screaming out as their timelines are erased in the future or something. Now whether those are legitimate visions or doctored manifestations created by some nefarious entity remains to be seen XD.

@CaptainManbeard

And I think the powers could be simpler than that honestly. The crystal might as well be linear stable time, so precog can just be using the shard to glance at potential futures. Kinda like looking through the facets of a gemstone. As for rewinding, if other shard users aren't affected then only the world around them gets rewound while they stay the same, etc. And keep in mind, the crystal being reforged is a problem for my character primarily because more people inevitably go to war over it. All realities being merged back into a singular screaming mess is just a supporting reason, and I think it would be better if you left the correctness of his assumptions vague. So that there's no way of knowing really until a certain future actually crystalizes, that way there can be some moral grayness on both sides.

Also, if we could play gods or divine beings, I'd be even more inclined to go with that than my present character idea. You know how much I can do with different versions of Lucifer given the premise?

[ANYM]

Bumping this.

[Lewascan2]

I actually have a character idea that definitely hits the "godlike hero" characteristics this RP caters to. I never got to use her, since the RP died before the IC ever happened, but lemme just dig up the original sheet... I think I could totally alter this where necessary to line up with this setting instead.

Jen - Overclock

Name:
Jen Shiragami

Titles:
Overclock, Fastest Woman Alive, Bane of the Heaven Seeker, The Deathlight, Vanquisher of the Unspoken, The Hero Who Never Was

Age:
21 physically... and a fair bit older mentally if one considers her living extended periods with an accelerated mind.

World:
Earth Q is an Earth variant world once reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland by decades-long war with a Wuxia-style Invader, were it not for Jen's final heroic act during her ascension restoring it to a golden age of relative peace. Magic and supernatural abilities are a fairly new phenomenon on this world, barely 30 years old, and are thus poorly understood and with shaky foundations for training.

Race:
A black-souled/Perceiver human(?), Jen developed from her youth a natural and intuitive connection to the forces of Speed. By all accounts she is otherwise a bog-standard human woman of Japanese descent... at least on the surface.

Form:
Jen appears as a young human woman of what could be described as be Japanese heritage. As a result of her ascension, this appearance is more a thin veneer than anything. Having been forced to cast aside her mortal form in truth, the illusion falters when she uses her powers to any real degree, revealing a semi-ethereal blue humanoid being that appears to be more a living, moving galaxy than anything else.

Nexus Form

Legend:
Jen's world was woefully unprepared for an invader with the bullshit of a Wuxia protagonist behind them. A war of decimation with the goal of godhood was waged against her world, and Jen from the age of 11 found herself participating. The war went on for a full decade from her joining, and Jen's power over Speed was cultivated and mastered in that time, her personally confronting the Invader many a time and often being the only thing between her world and annihilation. She in many ways became the face of the resistance, and her very presence tended to at least guarantee that the enemy could not win outright.

Widely hailed as humanity's savior, she was a one-woman army, known to slay and save thousands in the blink of an eye, entire armies liberated or laid to waste at her leisure. Rumor said that should one have a way by which she may hear them and so much as call her name, she could cross the ocean to aid the besieged before the words ceased to flow. Her final battle with the Invader would see her finally initiating a last desperate stage of her personal cultivation, resulting in her victory, along with her ascension and removal from the entirety of her world's memory and history.

Will:
Jen dedicated herself to heroism and war from a young age. Time and again she has fought for the sole purpose of saving lives and opposing an unparalleled tyrant of a madman. Despite having finally defeated said tyrant once and for all, she cannot lay such instincts completely to rest. That said, facing a new world with new people and evils, Jen can only feel a looming sense of... exhaustion. Having sacrificed everything for her world and spent half her life at war, Jen now desires to try living for herself for a change, to seek personal peace instead of peace for the sake of others. To that end, she intends to explore the new limits of her existence/body and shatter them all over again, to cast down any threat to her peace, and to finally have what she always reserved for others... hopefully without compromising her moral compass... much. It's time for the selfless hero to be a bit selfish for once.

Mastery:
Jen has long cultivated a natural intuition for manipulating the primal forces of Speed, to a degree that steps even into the realm of space-time. Her mastery has seen her surpass even the speed of light and the flow of time itself, and her ascension has seen the obtainment of near-immortality through the stark transformation of her body to one more akin to an elemental of Speed than anything else.
Broadly speaking, if one can so much as conceptualize a usage of speed, it's fair to assume she can make it happen -or figure it out if not; she is basically a living embodiment of Speed.
However, her mastery is very much White Arts focused. Red Arts are comparatively unexplored territory for her.

Ascent:
When faced with the genocidal ascension to godhood of the Invader that had long terrorized her world, Jen was forced to finally attempt time travel. In order to prevent a worldwide paradox and ensure success, she exploited her time-space manipulation through her mastery of Speed to sacrifice her own past/history. As a result, her body began to unravel from the self-contained paradox, and she was forced to craft a new shell of a body from the fundament of Speed around her while she reversed time.

In short, she successfully reversed time by more than a decade and assassinated the Invader in the moment they entered her world. However, her not yet completely stable form interacted with the forces laid bare by the Invader's dimensional technique, causing Jen to lose her grip on her world's timeline. Fumbling to stabilize her form, she began to Ascend, as she managed to work a solution together using her accelerated reaction time. Her form solidified, and a force like a sun being birthed within her propelled her uncontrollably forth into the next adventure.

More Detailed Version

During the Wuxia Invader's ascension ritual, a genocidal sacrifice was initiated, wiping out a large portion of the planet's population and ensuring the Invader's ultimate victory. Instead of allowing such an atrocity to pass, Jen was forced to use time travel. She was wary of causing a paradox, but it was the only thing she had left, and she had a theory about how she could make it work.

Speed of light remains constant irrespective of the observer. It is observed that as the speed of an object increases, time slows down. At the speed of light, time stops. And on further increment of speed greater than light, time reverses. Thus, to travel back in time we have to move faster than Light. And Jen's personal step: sacrifice her own timeline to ensure that her appearance in the past would not cause a paradox.

She didn't just erase the battle, the defeat. She reversed time all the way back to the exact moment the Wuxia Invader had arrived in her world years ago. As she did so, the disappearance of her very past caused her body to begin to come apart at the seams. In order to retain cohesion, she infused herself with the very concept of speed that flowed more freely around her now than ever before, crafting a new body from the fundament of the universe, a part of her mortality inextricably cast away to achieve a stable existence outside her own timeline.

She found the moment of the Invader's entry and attacked him with every bit of her fully cultivated power against his less experienced past self, a merciless barrage of high-speed vibrating attacks that reduced him forever to mere atoms. However, the Invader had still been resolving the effects of his dimensional technique when she struck. The combination of such a technique imploding and Jen's own state of still-resolving ascension and weakened grasp on her world's timeline caused her to be nicked by the collapsing technique and thrust from her world entirely, as her ascension solidified and completed in truth.

Arriving in a place unknown, she found that her very being had been fundamentally changed by the experience. In order to maintain her existence, she had not merely joined herself to the concept of Speed. No, for to join herself with her own universe's rules of reality would have resulted in her unraveling the moment she left. Instead, she had managed to transform herself into a sort of moving "universe of Speed" in the shape of a human. Her very being was a self-sustaining battery of an existence that molded and adapted itself to instead be fueled merely by Jen's own belief and perception of Speed.

Ephemera:
The Speed Nexus:
A self-sustaining existence within Jen's body of her own semi-unintentional creation. More accurately, her body is the nexus itself, a relatively tiny but growing and hyper-compressed "Universe of Speed" that acts as a protective shell/shield for her memories and soul to guard against the paradox that destroyed her original body. Through this and her own perception of her power, her body has become essentially a walking physical expression of the fundamental force of Speed. This body is a magical nuclear power plant, constantly utilizing the forces of its own existence to generate and store further power, which is partially put towards generation, escalating the speed at which it generates more ad infinitum.

This body doesn't possess an organic growth cycle and as a result is no longer is capable of aging. Nor does it require food, drink or air. However, the body is barely any more durable than a standard human's. This will likely change in time, as it grows in power and "density".

Loyal Fol-... Frien-... Honestly, it's a cult:
As a result of erasing her own history/past, very few from her home-world recall her existence, and she has been relegated more to myth than anything. That said, she is not the only being that can step beyond the reach of time, and several that remember cultivate her (presently false) image as a Goddess and search for ways to contact her or bring her home.

Theme:

Main Theme

Final Battle With the Wuxia Invader

To Pierce the Barrier of Time (Jen's Ascension)