[CHAR] Arknights: 5S

NPCs

Allies:

Rhodes Island:

• Jericho

  Jericho

  
  
  “Dr. Kal’tsit, I have come to answer the call. What? Late? Well, you’re not wrong. I didn’t believe in you back then. What changed my mind? Desperation and a desire for absolution.”
  

  ★★★★★★

  
  

  Operator Profile _______________________________________ Codename: Jericho Epithet: The Lonely Orchestra Real Name: Selim Yunus Age: 68 Class: Defender Branch: Arts Protector Race: Aegir Affiliations: Columbia Height: 220cm Weight: 140kg Place of Birth: Sargon Date of Birth: February 20 Gender: Male Combat Experience: 10 years

  Clinical Analysis ______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Normal Endurance: Excellent Mobility: Flawed Arts Adaptability: Outstanding Combat Skill: Normal Tactical Acumen: Excellent Infection Status: Infected Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected, with the clear exception of Originium nodules localized to the throat. Throat nodules are responsible for the rough, gravelly timbre of the operator's natural voice. The operator can change his voice using arts, but that is not recommended as this may exacerbate the growth of the nodules. At this time, this operator is confirmed to be infected. Cell-Originium Assimilation: 5% Blood Originium-Crystal Density: 0.01u/L

  
  Character Synopsis:

  A retired weapon designer and war profiteer seeking atonement and a chance to reconnect with his spiritual roots.

  
  Personality:

  Jericho is the kind of person who talks to distract himself from things he’d rather not think about. This makes him come off as friendly, knowledgeable, and oftentimes, even a little arrogant. Despite how much of a risk it is to seek employment with Rhodes Island, Jericho is actually rather risk-averse, preferring careful planning to reckless operations. Despite having a difficult childhood, life in Columbia and success in his field have made Jericho accustomed to luxury and comfort, and can become irritable when denied these things.
  
  Above all, Jericho is introspective and spiritual. He recognizes the harm his work has caused and seeks atonement. And having sought science his whole life and divorcing himself from his ‘backwards’ ancestry, he has now turned his thoughts towards seeking a higher power through the hidden traditions of his fathers. However, he keeps his quiet moments to himself so as not to betray his cheerful facade.
  
  Business in Columbia has numbed Jericho’s ability to empathize with the less fortunate or those of lower position. He therefore has the unfortunate tendency to fall back into looking at everything as numbers, as assets (a habit from his research days), and is trying very hard to connect with those who may be risking their lives or caught in the collateral of their work so as not to view anyone as expendable.

  
  

  Talents	Talent Description
  Sound Engineer	Jericho is a professionally trained engineer who had previously worked for a successful Columbian weapons technology company. He has deep insight when it comes to electronics, particularly speakers and microphones, and understands the wave functions necessary to drive them. His understanding of cymatics means that he can tune his equipment to alter the local sonic environment to resonate with his allies’ sound-based abilities, boosting their efficacy. He can also identify a material’s resonant frequency after successive strikes, allowing him to use that frequency to shatter his opponents’ equipment.
  Organized Discipline	Jericho has professional experience leading a team of fellow engineers, and the main thing he learned was to always stay organized and to document everything. Jericho thus lacks the disorganized eccentricity of ‘mad scientists’-types like Closure, focusing on cost-benefit analysis, resource availability, and setting realistic, achievable goals rather than hare-brained schemes and risky hypotheses. This allows Jericho to be a master of infrastructure, setting a foundation from which more audacious moves can be made by his more daring colleagues. Jericho is observant, analytical, and methodical, and applies these skills to the upkeep of Rhodes Island, as well as to his combat strategies.
  Skills	Skill Description
  Sound-Based Originium Arts	Operator Jericho possesses special Originium Arts with the affinity of sound and vibrations. This is likely due to his Aegirian ancestry. His father was apparently an Emergency Aid Building technician in Iberia, and it seems Jericho took an interest in the science of sound at an early age, and pursued it throughout his education. With his arts, Jericho is able to mimic voices and sounds, perform uncanny feats of ventriloquism, and amplify the power and intensity of sounds and vibrations. He can even release echolocation pings to navigate in darkness or locate stealthed objects. This also implies that he has unnaturally good hearing.
  Surveillance and Misdirection	Selim has designed a 'noisy cricket' drone with intricate sound equipment, capable of detecting and emitting all types of sounds. This allows the drone to operate as threat detection, surveillance, and scouting by running sonar sweeps, as well as aid in civilian evacuation or team communication procedures through making announcements. It can also be used to divert or distract threats by causing sounds to get enemies' attention. The drone can also harmonize with Selim's sound based attacks, enhancing the damage Selim does to enemies around the drone's location.
  Cymatic Barrier	Selim activates his shield, which projects a 3-meter wide wall of sound in front of him. Enemies that try to pass through start having their internals vibrated rapidly, receiving arts damage and defense debuffs (similar to corrosion). The pain is such a deterrent that most people's first instinct is to move out of and away from the wall as fast as possible. This is a technology referred to as an Active Denial System.

  Equipment Module

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  Israfil

  

  
  

  • Armor: Sound system built into armor, including sonar readouts.
  • LRAD Shield (Israfil): Sound system built into shield, including Active Denial System. LRAD stands for long-range acoustic device.
  • Vibro-Blade (Tuning Fork): Vibrates at adjustable frequencies, detects the sound produced when it strikes another object. Sound data is fed back into the armor to determine resonant harmonic frequency of the object being struck, allowing the frequency to be used to further weaken the object on further application.
  • Drone (Noisy Cricket): A drone that flies around and makes noise or detects sounds.

  
  

  Operator Archives

  50% trust is required to view this file

  Selim’s family lived a simple life in Sargon, but infighting between the Lord Ameers and the Columbian corporations that sought to profit from the conflict forced them to evacuate to Iberia. Music was prevalent in Selim’s family. Back in Sargon, he remembered that his parents often had these little tunes and melodies in a foreign language for every little thing. It came as no surprise that Selim became musically inclined, especially singing and voice manipulation, and he demonstrated, from a young age, a knack for sound-based originium arts. He would often play pranks on his friends, pretending to be other people, or tricking them into thinking he was elsewhere by throwing his voice. He learned that he could take hold of the family radio and manipulate the sound coming from it by affecting the arts unit within using his own arts. However, in Iberia, one time Selim had been overheard singing the songs of his parents, which prompted a sudden visit to their house from an inquisitor. Fortunately the inquisitor was merciful, but the warning was apparent, and Selim’s parents stopped singing after that, and encouraged him to follow suit.

  
  

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  In Iberia, Selim’s father became an Emergency Aid Building technician. Selim learned that his family was originally from Iberia, but that they had left for Sargon due to not wanting to live somewhere where the Sankta religion was so prevalent, but it was never fully explained why to Selim, and they eventually returned to Iberia anyways when the instability in Sargon became too great. Taking an interest in his father’s work, Selim sought to become an engineer as well, which was highly encouraged as it could lead to financial success and wealth. Selim’s ambitions led him to Columbia, where he received his education, and began working for a company that developed ‘non-lethal’ weapons, a great place to apply his knowledge of sound. Selim swiftly climbed the ranks as someone who was willing to put his morals aside for personal gain, and it didn’t phase him when the weapons he helped develop were tested in his homeland of Sargon, and later deployed by heavily militarized police forces to suppress the poor and infected.

  
  

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  Selim’s company had a flair for the dramatic, and pushed for sensational demonstrations of their technology that bordered on dangerous. When it came to his inventions, Selim only trusted himself to really sell their capabilities to the customer, so he trained with the weapons and armor he developed in order to pull off amazing stunts that would ‘wow’ their clients, such as stopping a charging burdenbeast in its tracks using only the sound emitted from his shield. Due to the nature of his inventions, Selim became a liaison to the police departments of various Columbian cities. To better cater his inventions towards their needs, he needed to understand their combat style as well as the tactics they employed when it came to ‘pacifying dissidents’. Therefore, he received training from the police, not only in combat, but particularly in defensive tactics, since police primarily fought from, and held, advantageous positions. Thanks to his impressive physique, he even sometimes took commissions and served his clients as a mercenary on some of their operations as an extreme version of a tech demo and weapons testing run. This even got to the point where he was recommended to the Columbian military, and Selim did a short tour in his homeland of Sargon. He should have felt something, but the allure of dangerous knowledge and the indulgence in luxuries and creature comforts had blinded him to where his profits were coming from and the people that were harmed in his pursuit of riches.

  
  

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  Early in Selim’s career, Dr. Kal’tsit was making the rounds in Columbia, looking for support and for capable people to recruit. Selim had scoffed at her proposals and dismissed her outright. However, decades later, it came to light that the company that Selim worked for had been carrying out unethical experimentation and acting like a paramilitary organization. While this was not unusual for Columbian companies, the scandal got too big to contain, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Arts Units and Originium had to shut down the company to maintain public order and quell further investigations which could implicate the politicians involved. Selim was blacklisted and unable to find employment at any of the other major notable tech companies. He also realized that he had gotten infected from working closely with originium devices; the company had cut corners when it came to safety equipment. Having dedicated his life to corporate greed, he returned to Iberia a broken man. At the very least, he had sent money home so that his parents could live comfortable lives. In his retirement, Selim’s father had dedicated himself to translating some ancient Aegir scriptures. Seeing his son in this aimless state, he handed the translated book to Selim and urged him to read it. Selim was struck with a sudden sense of purpose, and spent a long time reconnecting with his family, learning about his people’s history, their beliefs, and the effect that imperial forces had on their way of life. He remembered Kal’tsit’s visit and her impossible, unprofitable dream. Seeking atonement and a chance to actually do something good with what remained of his life, he sought out Rhodes Island.

  
  Trivia:

  • Theme:
    Brynhildr in the Darkness
  • Voice Actor:
    Ishizuka Unshou
  • Additional images:
    Without the armor

    
  • Selim is an Aegir based on a whale, hence the sound-based abilities
  • Since Jericho’s infection is almost exclusively localized to his throat, he is trying an experimental treatment in which he inhales warm, aerosolized infection suppression medication on a regular basis through a device that resembles an E-Cig
  • Canonically, the Aegir are oppressed in Iberia, so I based Selim’s ‘lost culture’ on one of the many groups of people who were oppressed by the Spanish Inquisition, Muslims. I imply that Selim believes in a religion other than the Sankta religion, though he is reluctant to share any further details.
  • Selim's last name, “Yunus”, is the Arabic equivalent of Jonah, the prophet who was swallowed by a whale in the Abrahamic faiths.
  • Additional Quote: “Some scientists theorize that all matter is just vibrating ‘strings’. So in a way, God really did ‘sing’ the world into existence.”
• Polka

  Polka

  
  
  “Y-you put down ‘Plague Requiem’ as my codename?! I-I don’t go by that any more… C-can we change it to… ’Polka’ instead?.”
  

  ★★★★★

  
  

  Operator Profile _______________________________________ Codename: Polka Epithet: Plague Requiem Real Name: Elise Chladni Age: 36 Class: Supporter Branch: Bard Race: Caprinae Affiliations: Leithanien Height: 152cm Weight: 54kg Place of Birth: Leithanien Date of Birth: November 1 Gender: Female Combat Experience: 0 years

  Clinical Analysis ______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Normal Endurance: Normal Mobility: Poor Arts Adaptability: Outstanding Combat Skill: Flawed Tactical Acumen: Standard Infection Status: Non-Infected Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this operator is believed to be uninfected. Cell-Originium Assimilation: 0% Blood Originium-Crystal Density: 0.10u/L

  
  Character Synopsis:

  A wandering musician with a dark past, hoping to use the terrible arts she learned to heal instead of harm.

  
  Personality:

  Elise gives off an air of refinement. She is lady-like, noble, and delicate. At least, that's how she'd like the world to see her. Born to a family of lesser Leithanien nobles, Elise has pretended all her life to present as higher than her station in an attempt to socialize her way up the hierarchy. Behind her seemingly gentle demeanor is someone who has done whatever it took to obtain her goals, and behind that is someone who seeks to atone for her past.
  
  As a former member of the Remnants, the cult of the Witch King, Elise is highly skeptical of, and sensitive to, secret societies. Elise sees when kindness and compassion are being used merely as bargaining chips, and often questions overly-charitable acts.
  
  In front of the infected, Elise may come off as fake and insincere; she is still grappling with the things she'd done in the past and is trying very hard, perhaps too hard, to show kindness towards the infected. This is often expressed as unwanted physical contact as she tries to 'prove' that she is no longer ignorant and is aware that one cannot contract oripathy simply by touching an infected. Still, her desire to help the infected is genuine, and her research into repurposing the heinous arts practiced by the Remnants has shown promising results.

  Talents	Talent Description
  Remnant Requiem	By channeling her arts through music, operator Polka can use the originium crystal clusters inside of the bodies of infected and use them as arts units. Doing so can rapidly accelerate the infection, so she no longer uses this skill in this manner. Instead, she is learning to use this skill to decelerate infection and is hoping to use this ability to develop a cure for oripathy. As a side effect, her arts resonate better with infected operators, increasing their beneficial effects.
  Skills	Skill Description
  Oktoberfest	Polka plays a high tempo song that increases allied operators' movement speed, natural regeneration, attack speed, and attack power.
  Walpurgisnacht	In desperation and with consent, Polka can play a song that increases allied operator's arts capabilities. However, for infected operators, the song causes their health to deteriorate, but their arts capabilities increase several fold. Polka will stop before the song kills her allies and attempt to heal them afterwards.

  Equipment Module

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  Gotterfunken

  

  
  

  • Gotterfunken: Polka's trusty accordion; more than a musical instrument, it is an arts unit.

  Operator Archives

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  Elise was born to a lower noble house in Leithanien. Her family focused on how the higher nobles looked down on and ridiculed her family, while ignoring the privileges they enjoyed compared to commoners. Elise was pushed to excel in the arts, taking, as many nobles do, to music. But no matter her skill, her standing and treatment from higher nobility never improved.

  
  

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  Disgruntled, it was easy for Elise to fall in with those who would prey upon her vulnerability, those who criticized the current nobility for their complacency under the Twin Empresses, who called back to Leithanien's greatness under the Witch King. The Remnants promised Elise glory and power, a chance to rise above her station by serving Leithanien's one true king, and to improve her arts and musical ability at the same time. Though Elise did not find the political aspect attractive, she saw it as an impossible dream, and thought she was using the Remnants for her own benefit by having them teach her 'forbidden' arts. But the deeper she delved into such skills, the more she found herself losing her way.

  
  

  150% trust is required to view this file

  Donning her mask and cloak, Elise slowly became one of the Remnants, following their pogroms throughout the countryside, hunting down infected and using them in heinous experiments. She justified her actions by reminding herself that infected did not have long to live, so their short lives were better served advancing their knowledge of arts and originium. The fact was that she was in too deep and enjoyed the personal benefits that this twisted brotherhood brought her. This secret society worked behind the scenes and nobles in high places would recommend or promote her, while quietly letting her know that they too were members, and that they were all looking out for one another. On the flip side, she didn't know how closely she was being watched or who would come after her if she ever decided that enough was enough.

  
  

  200% trust is required to view this file

  One evening, Elise was paying a close friend a visit, but her friend was distraught. Her friend explained that her young cousin from the countryside was also visiting but had gone missing. Being from a branch family, this cousin did not enjoy the privileges of a noble life, though the two families remained affectionate. This cousin had the misfortune of getting infected recently and came to the city specifically to receive treatment that only the noble side of the family could afford. As Elise's friend continued to provide her with details of her cousin, Elise's disgust mounted. The cousin had gone missing the same time the Remnants had picked up an infected child for their experiments, and the physical description matched. Elise had been the one performing the experiments until the child's body could no longer take any more. Promising to find the child, Elise left her friend's home, walking on shaky legs. That night changed Elise forever, burdening her with a sin and guilt that she knew could never be truly absolved. Remembering the medicine that her friend had intended to give to her cousin, Elise sought out Rhodes Island.

  
  Trivia:

  • Theme
    Ringabel's Theme - Bravely Default OST
  • Polka is inspired by ancient Germanic witchcraft. For example she has a skill named Walpurgisnacht. Halloween takes place in October, so I gave her other skill the name Oktoberfest. Her birthday, Nov 1, is also the day after Halloween, which Halloween is the 'eve' of. Being a date with three repeating numbers (111), it has magical significance.
  • Additional Quote: “It might be tone-deaf of me to say this, but I can turn your infection from a curse into a blessing.”
  • Polka's first name, Elise, is taken from Beethoven's Fur Elise. her last name is taken from Ernst Chladni.
• Earthspirit
• Minimalist

Sargon:

• Baltasar El-Kabti

  
  
  Name: Baltasar El-Kabti
  Race: Rebbah (Jackal)
  Gender: Male
  Age: 19
  Place of Birth: Sargon
  Affiliation: Sargon
  Background:

  A young man living in the oasis of Hisn-ul-Zahra, he works part-time at Rhodes Island's infected pediatric care center, taking care of the children. One of the children has gone missing, and he is imploring the operators for help.
• Nur Alexandros

  
  
  Name: Nur Alexandros
  Race: Liberi (Falcon)
  Gender: Male
  Age: 12
  Place of Birth: Sargon
  Affiliation: Sargon
  Background:

  An infected orphan who has recently gone missing.
• Lady Ameera Zainab Nubani

  
  
  Name: Zainab Nubani
  Name: Archosauria
  Gender: Female
  Age: 56
  Place of Birth: Sargon
  Affiliation: Sargon
  Background:

  The Lady Ameera of Hisn-ul-Zahra, Zainab saw how her fellow Lord Ameers were selling long-term success for short-term gains by accepting help from foreign powers and how such meddling was destabilizing the land, making Sargon a site for proxy wars of imperial powers. Though Zainab does not fantasize about 'returning Sargon to its former glory', she does hope that the people of Sargon can stand strong, united, independent, and free from the clutches of those who seek only to exploit them. It is for this reason that she has partnered with Rhodes Island, and this decision has allowed Hisn-ul-Zahra to bloom. The nearby jungle of Acahualla became a booming city of commerce and technology, thanks to Chieftan Inam's commerce-minded policies and the refugee Durin population that migrated there after the Zeruertza incident. Zainab learned of this from Rhodes Island and seized on this opportunity to begin trading with Acahualla, bringing magnificent, automated, engineering marvels to Hisn-ul-Zahra.
• Sentinel Aisha Hafiz

  
  
  Name: Aisha Hafiz
  Name: Feline
  Gender: Female
  Age: 34
  Place of Birth: Sargon
  Affiliation: Sargon
  Background:

  Lady Ameera Zainab's right-hand woman, Aisha keeps the peace in Hisn-ul-Zahra. Aisha is a no-nonsense person; where Zainab offers the carrot, pledging prosperity to those who contribute to the city, Aisha is the stick, promising to punish those who disrupt the harmony. But she is amicable enough to those who obey the rules.

Zeruertza:

• Catch Lightrace

Acahualla:

• Inam

Adversaries:

Columbia:

• Dr. Kathleen Cross

  
  
  Name: Dr. Kathleen Cross
  Race: Feline
  Gender: Female
  Age: 28
  Place of Birth: Columbia
  Affiliation: Columbia (Trimounts)
  Background:

  An up-and-coming researcher from Trimounts Institute of Technology, Kathleen is narrow-minded and caught up in the rat-race of academia. She is somewhat disillusioned that quality of research alone does not earn recognition and has reluctantly turned towards nurturing her connections to get a leg up. After a fateful meeting with a famous scientist from a notable research institute, Kathleen finds herself scouring the deserts of Sargon, being dragged along by a mercenary group hired to protect her, looking for some 'ancient energy source'. The whole thing sounds like a stupid treasure hunt, but if this is what it takes to get ahead in Columbia, then she'd be a fool not to push on.
• Joanna Cooper

  
  
  Name: Joanna Cooper
  Race: Pythian (Rattlesnake)
  Gender: Female
  Age: 38
  Place of Birth: Bolivar
  Affiliation: Columbia (ASPS)
  Background:

  Leader of the mercenary band, ASPS (Acquisition, Security, and Protection Services), Joanna is a ruthless hunter with a reputation for secrecy and getting the job done, no matter the obstacle. Joanna considers Kathleen's presence a liability to the mission, but begrudgingly acquiesces to bringing her along, as the pay for doing so was a handsome amount. Hiring ASPS is considered a last ditch, desperate act, since their rates are exorbitant and their wanton acts of violence in pursuit of their missions have painted an international target on their backs. But since ASPS has never been caught nor have its members ever revealed their clients, their clients can keep their hands clean of the atrocities they paid for. Joanna has the uncanny ability to strike fear into the hearts of her opponents.

Leithanien:

• Count Geert Van De Graaf

  
  
  Name: Count Geert Van De Graaf
  Race: Caprinae
  Gender: Male
  Age: 53
  Place of Birth: Leithanien
  Affiliation: Leithanien (Spire Casters)
  Background:

  A count loyal to the Twin Empresses of Leithanien, Geert yet believes that Leithanien's might lies in her arts superiority, as was true during the time of the Witch King. A researcher and tinkerer in his own right, Geert's affinity for electrical arts has allowed him to develop various useful devices that have yet to see wide usage, but may revolutionize communication if they did. Geert believes he is an altruist, and the question of the infected is a difficult question without a good answer. He feels that a good life is one lived in service of the nation and wishes to provide this 'good life' to others.
• Tyrfing

  
  
  Name: Helmut Skikjoring
  Race: Caprinae
  Gender: Male
  Age: 26
  Place of Birth: Leithanien
  Affiliation: Leithanien
  Background:

  Helmut is Count Van De Graaf's loyal retainer who feels more like a son, having been picked up by the Count as an orphan. Every Leithanien of standing practices some form of art, and Helmut's is fencing. This combined with the Laplace Engine, the electronic data analysis device developed by Geert that Helmut wears as a mask, makes him a formidable opponent.

Victoria:

• Warren Irving

  
  
  Name: Dr. Warren Irving (PhD. in Sargonology)
  Race: Cautus (Vienna Blue)
  Gender: Male
  Age: 17
  Place of Birth: Rim Billiton
  Affiliation: Victoria (Victorian Archeological Guild)
  Background:

  A young polymath tasked with the study and acquisition of ancient Sargonian artifacts. He does not think of what his organization is doing as 'stealing' since the artifacts have been buried for so long that they do not 'belong' to anyone. Besides, he knows that such artifacts also often conceal hidden power, and it is better that they fall into careful, knowledgeable, Victorian hands, instead of the hands of the bickering Lords Ameer who would surely abuse the artifact's power. However, given the recent instability in Victoria, his guild is underfunded and understaffed, so Warren is willing to strike a deal so that he can get to his objective faster than anyone else who may be racing towards the prize he seeks.
  
  Calling a cautus 'cute' is considered a micro-aggression; tread carefully.
  
  Warren hates it when anyone abbreviates the Victorian Archeological Guild as 'VAG'.
• Sergeant Emma Huxley

  
  
  Name: Emma Huxley
  Race: Perro (Husky)
  Gender: Female
  Age: 27
  Place of Birth: Sami
  Affiliation: Victoria
  Background:

  A member of Victoria's Military Police, Emma has been assigned to protect Dr. Irvine in his search for Sargonian relics. Though she does not trust ancient technology, she recognizes their power and hopes that their quest can restore Victoria to her former glory. Emma is professional, regimented, does everything by the book, and cannot stand underhanded tactics.

Locations

• Hisn-ul-Zahra:
  Literally translated as Flower Bastion, Hisn-ul-Zahra is the name of an oasis in the Sargon desert as well as the nomadic city that frequently parks near it. It is located to the west of the Acahuallan Jungle and trades with Acahualla for the technology brought by the Zeruertzan Durin refugees. This is where our story begins.
• Acahualla:
  A jungle to the west of Sargon inhabited by a tribe of Archosauria. Since several of their chief members have joined Rhodes Island, Acahualla has a strong partnership with the pharmaceutical company. There is a nearby cave that leads underground and connects to the Durin city of Zeruertza. Due to the encroachment of originium veins into Zeruertza several years ago, the Durin population evacuated to Acahualla, bringing their technology with them and turning Acahaulla into a tech and trade hub.
• Zeruertza:
  An underground Durin city, abandoned due to the encroachment of originium veins several years ago. Its inhabitants constructed a great elevator to the surface and have made Acahualla their new home. The Durin of Zeruertza are on good terms with Rhodes Island, as one of their greatest architects, Stitch Canvas, has joined Rhodes Island as an operator.

[Lemons]

Aoife

"Rhodes Island, I'd like to extend the deepest of gratitude to you and request the privilege to join you as an Operator. Wha--? Code name? Um...I guess...Ash Girl will do."

★★★★★★

Operator Profile _______________________________________ Codename: Ash Girl Epithet: The Taran Pariah Real Name: Aoife Eóganachta Age: 21 Class: Guard Branch: Arts Fighter Race: Vouivre Affiliations: Dublinn (formerly) Height: 173 cm Weight: 75 kg Place of Birth: Post-annexation Tara Date of Birth: January 1 Gender: Female Combat Experience: 10 years

Clinical Analysis ______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Excellent Endurance: Excellent Mobility: Standard Arts Adaptability: Outstanding Combat Skill: Excellent Tactical Acumen: Normal Infection Status: Infected Imaging tests show blurry outlines of subject's internal organs, with a high amount of abnormal shadows. Her circulatory system shows an alarming degree of originium granules. It goes without saying that by these criteria, we can determine that the subject is infected at this time. Cell-Originium Assimilation: 28%. Multiple crystal lesions visible on the subject's skin. Blood Originium-Crystal Density: 0.32 u/L. Miss Aoife's condition is extremely aggressive and severe, and her prognosis is poor. Unless measures can be found to more effectively delay the progression of her infection, she likely has less than six months to live, if that.

Character Synopsis:

A former noblewoman and former revolutionary, forced from both of her homes and set adrift.

Personality:

Aoife tends to be a bit quiet most of the time, and when she speaks, she often sounds slightly strained and uncomfortable--almost stilted, sometimes--like she dislikes talking, and so people assume that she wishes to be left alone. Not so, actually; she is quiet and strained because her aggressive oripathy causes her a not-inconsiderable amount of pain on a constant basis. Rather, Aoife tends to be quite personable, if not entirely skilled in social situations, as she hasn't had a surfeit of healthy interactions, and enjoys being around and talking to other people as long as she's not the one doing most of the talking.

Though it's been a long time since her privileged and sheltered upbringing and she barely remembers a single piece of it, it still reflects on her character to this day. Chief among those reflections is how narrow her view of the world can be. She can be closed-minded, and has a tendency to discount things she hears that she doesn't want to. She knows this very well and actively works against it, but it's a trap that is all to easy for her to fall in when she's put under stress. The other major effect is, as mentioned, Aoife can have trouble relating to other people. Spending her very early life in the noblewoman bubble and a huge chunk as a (largely expendable) soldier has limited the people she's been able to open up to, and so she can have difficulties forming genuine friendships.

But despite all of that, Aoife is a good person at heart. Despite how she may look on occasion, she's not selfish, standoffish, willfully ignorant, or egocentric, and joined Rhodes Island as much to fulfil the duties of an Operator and help others as to be treated for her own oripathy. The fact that she's willing to endanger herself by pushing her Arts even when she reasonably shouldn't in the service of her work should be proof enough that she really is trying her best. It can just...be hard to see that sometimes.

Talents	Talent Description
Taran Swordsmanship	Brought up from a young age to be a noblewoman of Tara, Aoife Eóganachta of course learned the former kingdom's traditional style of swordplay from a young age. Though of course it wasn't intended to be actually used, not in the way she uses it now--it was entirely ceremonial to begin with--it has certainly come in handy as she became first a member of Dublinn, and then an Operator of Rhodes Island. The principle reason this is so effective is that she efficiently leverages her rather strange, almost dancelike, style quite effectively. Because most people aren't familiar with the Taran style--it's not extinct, but it's nearly so--it makes her rather unpredictable and hard to read, letting her get the drop on opponents before they're able to adapt.
Pariah's Oath	Aoife has gone through a great deal of pain in her life, whether it be physical or emotional in nature. Even now, her remarkably severe infection causes her not-inconsiderable suffering every minute of the day. There are many times that she's wanted to just...give up. To let it end already, to take the coward's way out, whether that be letting the heritage of Tara die, turning herself in to Victoria, or hurling herself from the landship. But because she hasn't, she's developed an astounding level of willpower, able to push through constant physical pain, emotional torment, and any number of roadblocks. She is going to get to where she's going, and good luck to anybody that tries to stand in her way.
Skills	Skill Description
Winter's Breath	Aoife's arts, channeled through her sword, are of a particularly unique variety. While they generally take the form of ice, they actually involve directly arresting molecular motion. Though it may have the same overall effect most of the time, when trying to freeze objects that are typically coldproof it shows its use in being remarkably good at freezing them anyway. Through spectroscopic measurement techniques, the peak of her freezing power has been measured between 170 and 175 degrees Kelvin (-103C and -98C, respectively).
Bitterwinter Bite	Though obviously the sword is a heavy part of her combat kit, the freezing power that Aoife possesses is used through more than just the sword. Given her powerful infection, she is able to channel her Arts naturally, of course, and is able to do so with a startling degree of intensity. Though they don't have much of a range to them--remember, not actually ice but manipulation on the molecular level which I am to understand gets exponentially more difficult past ten or so feet--within that limited range you are at constant risk of being both slowed to a crawl and frozen solid. Despite this obvious strength, however, subject has been heavily advised against using this more than necessary, as it seems to exacerbate her condition.
One Thousand Shining Teeth	Finally, we come to likely the most dangerous application of her Arts that Aoife can muster--both towards her enemies and towards herself through increased progression of her oripathy. When her life is on the line, though, anything is fair game. Through judicious application of her arts, everything around her is so molecularly strained that it becomes incrediby delicate, even metal and stone. With a sufficiently hard strike, they can shatter into storms of razorlike shards, serving almost like a shotgun; spraying out a surprising level of devastation. All that being said, this is not without further drawbacks. Principally, that she isn't necessarily immunte to the shards, nor does she have exclusive rights on shattering them. Still, if it's leveraged right, it is truly, truly a menace.

Equipment Module

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Claíomh-na-Samhain

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• Claíomh-na-Samhain - The Sword of Samhain: Aoife's bastard sword, forever and always by her side. Reclaimed from the ashes of her family home, this previously ceremonial blade has been turned into both a superb arts conductor and a vicious weapon of war.

Operator Archives

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The Eóganachta clan is a very old Taran family, going back far into when it was a kingdom of its own and nearly passing into myth in their own right. Consequently, even in the new, Victorian Tara, they occupied positions of power and privilege that would be the envy of any native Victorian noble, let alone those Tarans unfortunate enough to not have enormous family fortunes and a huge manor to retreat into. It was into this incredibly privileged upbringing that their youngest daughter of three, Aoife, was born. Her two elder sisters Siobhan and Bronagh had enough years separating them from her that they were less siblings, and more auxiliary parents. And so Aoife grew up coddled and spoilt, doted on by four separate different sources. It was an idyllic childhood, and she didn't spare a thought to look outside of the manor grounds.

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But all that changed when Aoife was more or less seven years old, when a rumor spread among the Tarans--whether true or not, nobody knows to this day--that the Eóganachta clan had sold out to Victoria.

And that was the only match that the powder keg needed to ignite.

In a single, brutally violent night, the entire Eóganachta estate was razed to the ground, and Aoife's parents were both killed, along with Bronagh and Siobhan. Aoife--scared, confused, and unable to understand what was happening--was pulled from the ashes of everything that she knew and thrust into the arms of a disorganized group of Taran malcontents. Perhaps if she'd been a little older, she would've been killed. But...

...Perhaps she also would've been able to hold on to herself a little bit better.

Within the disdainful Tarans, Aoife Eóganachta became...nothing. They refused to even use her name, refused to let her be Aoife Eóganachta. Just...You. Or Vouivre. And other things, of course, until eventually she the name stuck: Ash Girl. But never again Aoife, and certainly never Eóganachta. No name.

Until she forgot it on her own.

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For the next few years, she lived as something like a daughter, and something like a servant. She wasn't quite one, yet wasn't fully the other either. And after a year? Two years? Ash Girl had become her name. She barely remembered even the faintest fragments of her former life, and almost nothing at all of her old home. But still, she was...harmless. And, in turn, in no danger of harm.

But that all came to an end when Ash Girl was eleven years old.

The Taran malcontents--as a whole--were trending to more militant, and more violent. And when she was eleven years old...

Dublinn was born.

It took the Tarans by storm, and Ash Girl with them. She was still a child the first time a sword was shoved into her delicate hands. A scant year of training, and before her thirteenth birthday she was being involved in warfare.

She fought for years, until the sudden catastrophic incident in County Hillock. And it was there that she saw firsthand what Dublinn truly stood for. The blinders were pulled away from her eyes, and she finally saw the horrific biolence and pain caused even to Tarans for what it truly was.

She couldn't be here anymore.

And so Ash Girl ran.

She ran from County Hillock. She ran far, deep into the lands that used to be Tara, back towards where she knew. And eventually, her feet found half-forgotten yet familiar pathways that led her up to a ruin of collapsed, crumbled stone, charred wood, twisted metal and sodden ashes. She stared at it through the lashing rains, and memories began to slowly bubble up to the surface of her mind. as through through molasses. And the first to arrive was a name that she recognize, but felt somehow wrong in Ash Girl's mind.

Aoife Eóganachta had come home.

She couldn't go back to Dublinn. She knew that. Her home--her second home--was gone forever. She shook her head, trying to ignore the shivers that ran through her pale body. And as the rain began to peter off, she slowly, meditatively, began to walk through the ruins.

Every time her eyes played over something even the vaguest bit familiar, new memories began to surface. Memories that she knew belonged to her, but felt like someone else's. She came across her own room at one point, or at least she thought she did; as she stared at the third floor bedroom that had fallen into the first floor, she thought she recognized the shattered remnants of a fireplace and chimney that were piled up inside. She was in a daze as she passed through it all.

Finally, she wound her way into what she remembered now was the living room, and there, where her father once read by the fire, she found the collapsed remnant of the mantle. Almost hypnotized, she acted on a vague impulse and scraped aside the ashes, digging through the refuse of the years until her hand closed around the handle of Claíomh-na-Samhain. A sharp feeling of disorientation blurred through her; she was Ash Girl. But she was Aoife too.

So now...this home was gone, and there was no going back to Dublinn. Not after that. Never again. She thought she might puke.

She did.

But still, the question remained. Where? Where, with this sword on her back, should she go?

Not Victoria, obviously. Maybe Columbia? Yeah, that was...probably the best idea.

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Columbia was nice enough. But it didn't hold her for very long, and nor did anywhere else. Unsteady, unmoored, a self-imposed pariah from her homeland, she became a drifter, roaming hither and thither for the next several years. She took odd jobs; she took mercenary work; she took anything she could find. But Siracusa, Leithanien, Iberia; none of them held her for more than six months.

As she bounced around, she inevitably found herself drawn into conflicts, and struck out against what she perceived as injustice. Whether as Aoife or as Ash Girl, she kept roving, kept moving. Until the summer of year 1105.

She was caught up in a conflict again. She was prepared for many things; her skill with her sword and her tough Vouivre physique had carried her through much. But what she was not prepared for was a grenade of active originium detonating nearly underneath her foot.

The explosion itself didn't do a huge amount of damage. That wasn't the point. The problem were the countless shards of originium that blasted into her, afflicting her with a crushing infection immediately.

And...she didn't know what to do after that.

She never thought she'd be infected. And she wasn't exactly in a place with stellar treatment of the Infected; the south of Ursus was not a great place for her to be. So she just kept trying to do what she'd done before.

But it did not go well.

Even as close to the edge of the plate as she was, she couldn't even make it all the way. And it was then--barely functional, deeply disoriented and dizzy, aching all over from her oripathy--Aoife was discovered and saved from death's door by a woman who called herself "Firewatch." Said something about an organization; Ash Girl wasn't quite in the proper mental state to really figure out what was going on. And right before she passed out, she heard Firewatch talking to someone over a radio.

Next time she woke up--just a month ago now--she was in Rhodes Island's medical bay, and felt better than she had in weeks. It took time for her to mend, and to discover what had happened, and where she was. And soon afterwards, she discovered her Arts. Her very, very powerful freezing arts. And as she recovered, she came to a resolution. It had been years ago now since she'd lost her second home.

It was time she find another.

Trivia:

• As mentioned, Aoife's health is not exactly stellar. Specifically, her oripathy has gifted her with several unfortunate symptoms. In addition to the crystalline lesions--she has over a dozen now--she has tremors, fevers, and full body aches, and a few other unpleasant things. These can be largely managed through oripathy medication, but they can only be managed, never completely removed. There's always a chance one of them will strike.
  
  Her theme song is The Parting Glass.

[Nanolyte]

Elise Montpelier

"Oh? You're truly lucky to have me on board. Operator Seven, at your service."

★★★★★★

Operator Profile _______________________________________ Codename: Seven Epithet: One-Winged Hawk Real Name: Elise Montpelier Age: 27 Class: Sniper Branch: Deadeye Race: Liberi Affiliations: Ursus Imperial Army (former) Height: 175cm Weight: 68kg Place of Birth: Ursus, ex-Gaul territory Date of Birth: July 7 Gender: Female Combat Experience: 8 years

Clinical Analysis ______________________________________________________________________ Strength: Flawed Endurance: Normal Mobility: Normal Arts Adaptability: N/A Combat Skill: Excellent Tactical Acumen: Excellent Infection Status: Non-Infected Confirmed uninfected by medical examination. Cell-Originium Assimilation: 0% Blood Originium-Crystal Density: 0.10u/L Operator Seven has shown a clear disregard for Originium safety, yet shows no sign of Originium Infection. Questioning has indicated that Seven believes that her Arts protects her from such, however she has not yet consented to a full-body examination. –Medical Operator

Character Synopsis:

A former Ursus officer, having once campaigned in the Empire’s far north. Inflicted with a curse and blessing, she seeks to free her blood from the contract.

Personality:

Smug and capricious.

A woman who changes her mind at a moment's notice, the inner workings of her mind a mystery to even those closest to her. One unafraid to needle and aggravate for her own enjoyment, eyes shining with bemusement as she does so. By all rights she should be an outcast even in the welcoming halls of Rhodes Island, an unrepentant nuisance to her colleagues.

Yet.

Operator Seven has also shown her willingness to help. It is an almost compulsive need to drop whatever she’s doing to assist with the designated task. For this her reputation amongst Rhodes Island’s operators is mixed, yet positive. Actions speak louder than words after all, and while abrasive, many in the company have found Seven to be exceptionally reliable.

Now if she would stop sending mixed signals about anything and everything, perhaps she would have more friends…

Talents	Talent Description
Cross Sight	A quirk of vision. As part of the Crow’s ‘blessing’, Elise is able to see the twisted karma of those around her. Their value to the world is laid bare to her, each person’s threads uniquely identifiable for the Liberi. Since their contract each Montpelier has gained their own unique ‘blessing’, commonly after a life-changing event. For Elise, it was after an encounter with a face-dancer in the Infy Icefields, the death of her unit allowing her to forever differentiate monster from man. …Elise considers it a curse, really. The sight perpetually clouds her vision, the natural beauty of the world obscured from her view. Hers is one of twisted fortunes and identities, a taint that cannot be excised. It's not like she may alter the course of fate either, seeing fate is one thing; interpreting it however is entirely different. Well, as the smallest of consolations, the Sight also allows her to easily identify targets in combat. No matter how concealed or hidden, her bullets always find her mark. Surely that's something to be thankful for?
Bloodline Contract	A contract made with the Feranmut only known as the Crow. In his anger, Duke Laurent Yves Montpelier made a deal with a sealed beast. After all, there was no price he would not pay for Gaul’s vengeance, for the razing of Lingones and shattering of his beloved realm. For the power to exact his revenge, three prices were paid: First, the shackling of the soul. In exchange for the Crow’s custody of his soul, he gained unparalleled ability in the Arts. Feranmut had no innate ability for the Arts, yet for the Crow who had been sealed in an Originium artefact for centuries, such a bestowment was within its purview. Second, the rotting of the blood. The Crow held sole dominion over the Montpeliers, it would not share with the accursed infection that blighted the land. Laurent’s body turned sickly as it became tainted by the Crow’s presence, yet till his death Infection would never grip him. Last, the tainting of the sight. A supposed gift of the Crow, who granted its adherent its vision. A mere aspect, yet one which perpetually twists its wielder. While Laurent passed, his ambition did not. Elise is but the latest product of his terrible revenge.
Skills	Skill Description
Imperial Marksmanship - Ursus Raiders	The Ursus Raiders prided themselves in being the cream of the crop, the tip of the spear in the Empire's armies. Quick and hard-hitting, they favoured rapid skirmishes, whittling down the enemy's strength. Hail the Raiders and their bravery! Hail the Raiders and their skill! In truth, they are second-rate elites in the Empire's arsenal, far outclassed by Imperial Blades and even the Shieldguards. To make up for their lacking ability compared to Kazimierz's Silverwing Pegasi and Victoria's Knights of the Tower, the Raiders often rely on unconventional tactics. One such tactic was their style of gunmanship, favouring rapid gunshots with minimal Arts usage. While rendering a firearm's main advantage of penetrative capability most useless, it nevertheless saw success when employed against lightly armoured targets. While perhaps not used for its intended purpose, the wildlife of the Infy Icefields served as a target-rich environment. Even with her ancient rifle, Elise is still able to fire her weapon in quick bursts.
False Heaven	The line of Arts practiced by House Montpelier. Astrologers had long known the presence of a false sky. The stars did not align, ever changing and altering. It had been hidden away from them, by some unknown being that denied humanity that luxury. Many instead turned inwards, reading the clouds and winds for Catastrophes. The Montpeliers instead took inspiration from the unknown. Drawing from the sky, Montpelier arts manifests as small orbs of shining blue energy, each symbolising a speck in the sky. Like falling stars they turn into lances of blue light, wreaking havoc on an enemy.
Fatal Bullet	The harnessing of the Crow's power. Little is known about the Crow's abilities. It's memory has long been corroded by its time in captivity, what little it remembers hidden away in its mind. What Elise knows however, is that it is able to somehow manipulate the course of fate. By paying homage and sacrificing yet more of her self to it, Elise might beseech it to bless a single of her bullets. Marked by the Crow, the bullet soars towards its target, swimming not only through the air but through fate itself. Well, as much as can be anyway. Elise's incompatibility with the abilities of the Feranmut and the Crow's weakened strengh has made this manipulation a shadow of its former self, 'only' able to guarantee a hit on the target instead of a certified kill. Left unsaid is that due to Elise's hatred for the Crow and her desire to be freed from the contract, this clause is never used but in the most dire of circumstances.

Equipment Module

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Name of equipment

• Le Tireur d'Élite - The Freeshooter: A simple rifle, more akin to a historical relic than a modern firearm. In ages past a travelling Sankta monk had sealed within it a Feranmut, fresh from its flight from Yan. Weakened by the Wild Hunt and complacent from gorging on the inhabitants of Gaul the Crow was helpless in the face of Sanktic liturgies, banished into his weapon by the grace of the Law. The Freeshooter has since passed across the hands of many in Gaul, tales of its faustian bargains spoken in hushed voices to as stories for the young. It is said that whoever wields it will inevitably suffer misfortune, condemned to lose all they had in the world.
  
  It is currently owned by Elise.

Operator Archives

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Operator Seven’s military record is boring. Too boring, if you will. Having graduated from the Uman Military College in Deity Grypherburg, she immediately enlisted in the Ursus Second Army as an officer, attached to a raider contingent mandated with patrolling the northern tundra. Over the course of her deployment she earned a number of military accolades, before finally being honourably discharged after six years of service. She then chose to sign on with Rhode Island as an operator.

Now, this smells like horsecrock to me. Come on, who earns an award for bravery fighting some bandits? Her records don’t even say who she fought!

Normally, I would just let it slide. But let me tell you, I couldn’t take Seven’s smug attitude when I asked her. So I looked deeper.

Well.

I don’t have all the details, but certain documents acquired show her participation in numerous expeditions into the Infy Icefields. Most of her combat logs are still beyond my access, though there is some indication that she has had frequent conflict with Columbian mercenaries. Most interesting of all however is the way in which she left service. There’s been a coverup, but from what I can tell Seven was charged with the murder of a superior officer. She was given the opportunity to be discharged on her own terms, but either way she was effectively kicked out of the Army. Was it politics, or something more? Either way, it looks like her relationship with Ursus is fraught.

–HR Operator S

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The sky is blue. Grass is green. The Montpelier feather proudly adorns the Gaulish eagle, one that is and will ever be.

While legend states that the Montpeliers were one of the first settlers of Gaul, historical record traces their roots to the Hippogryph migrations at the dawn of the new epoch. Nevertheless, the Montpeliers stand as one of the oldest Houses in the lands of Gaul, having practised their traditions for a thousand years. Many a time they have been uplifted as cultural symbols of the mighty Gaulish Empire, a representation of the Eagle’s eternity. Foreign observers hence often assign the Montpeliers more power than they actually wield, festivals and celebrations resulting in an outsized image of strength that they do not actually possess.

In truth, the Montpeliers survived due to their inoffensive nature. A House of little power politically or economically, for most of their existence they have been mere minnows in a sea of sharks, surviving only through luck and the deft acumen of its members. It was only after the rise of Emperor Corsica I that the Montpeliers achieved any true prominence, the then-head Laurent having made himself indispensable in the imperial struggle for power. In the restructuring that followed the Montpeliers had finally achieved ascendency, uplifted to a ducal house for their service. A thousand years of buildup, culminating in political supremacy.

It would all unravel in two decades.

After the end of the War of the Four Emperors, the Montpeliers had managed to cling onto their ancestral possessions, now under the rule of Ursus. Stripped of all power, set upon a path of vengeance, laid down by their ancestors. Under the guise of subservience they plot, so that one day Gaul might be restored.

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[Classified Log]

I do not think Elise Montpelier truly understands the magnitude of what she desires.

That Elise was able to find me was a feat of its own. I was never closely associated with her family, even in the times of Gaul. She must truly be commended to dig so deep as to search for me. Yet, I do not know how much I can give. I have told her what I can, the rest is up to her.

The Wild Hunt had not been an easy task for the people of Yan. It required the aid of a Feranmut, and the total mobilisation of its people. All to break the back of the Feranmut, to establish human supremacy within the realm.

The breaking of a few hundred took millions, what can a single person do to break one?

I had met her great-grandfather briefly, before the fall of Lingones. He was a calm and collected man, loyal to the Emperor. In hindsight I should have expected one of Corsica's men to vow their revenge, he stirred too much loyalty not to. It was only natural that the Crow chose a target among his retainers, it always had a knack of choosing the most vulnerable after all.

Nevertheless, no matter the conclusion to her search, Operator Seven and the ability to keep the Crow under observation will be useful assets for the future.

–Dr. Kal'tsit

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Under the eyes of the world, I solemnly swear.

To free Gaul, so that it might soar once more.

To strike the serpent, and all its scales.

To pay blood with blood, so that vengeance be sated.

May my soul be bound and shackled. May my blood be rotted. May my sight be tainted. I offer this in sacrifice.

In perpetuity will this oath be honoured.

Laurent Yves Montpelier
Claudia Montpelier
Jean Montpelier
Elise Montpelier

Trivia:

• <Feel free to add whatever to this list, Theme Song, Voice Actor, Additional images, Character inspiration, health and habits, puns and easter eggs, Additional Quote, etc.>