"They turned you into a weapon and told you to find peace."
Determined. Rebellious. Independent. Skeptical.
- Name: Zhalia Ramshorn
- Gender Female
- Age: 27
- Sexual Orientation: Lesbian
- College Degree: None - never attended college
- Languages: German, English
- Notable Skills: Horseback riding, ballroom dancing, can handle a sword and a dagger
Years of Magical Education: 11
Schools of Magic: Necromancy, Illusion and Divination
Necromancy (9)
- Life Force Alteration
Probably the most common form of Necromancy in Zhalia's former coven is the alteration of life force in various forms. Through excessive study, the witches of this coven learn to alter life energy by using necrotic means. Altering the life force of a living creature can affect their health, their strength and even their ability to perform magic. Very advanced casters are able to create poisonous effects by altering life energy.
Actually ending someone's life by pulling the life force out of their body would require either a very long time or a very high amount of energy. The life force is always trying to balance itself out and will continuously attempt to restore itself. (Therefore, this can not "shorten" someone's lifespan.)
- Afterlife Linking
Zhalia can connect the living world to the world of death, linking the land of the dead and the spirits & souls inhabiting it to the realm of life and existence, allowing both worlds to interact with each other in some ways. This is usually referred to as "lifting the veil" and is a very temporary situation. Often only the caster themself may interact with the spirits on the other side. On other occasions (and with the right skill) one may be able to connect the two worlds more permanently, such as bringing spirits/ghosts into the world of the living or pushing a living soul to the other side and into death. (This is exceptionally hard and should not be attempted by a single person, it can cause various disasters.)
As a result of a fudged attempt at this casting, the rules of both worlds might combine/mix together in unpredictable ways, and potentially even lead to cursed resurrections for those that do end up dying. This can also cause any changes to anything from either world to affect both of them instead of only one.
Zhalia is an exceptional caster when it comes to Necromancy but her connection to the world of the dead has been tainted. She is reluctant to try to engage with The Veil again.
- Revivify
If a creature or person has just died, Zhalia might be able to lift the veil enough to pull their soul back into their body and return them to the living. This does not heal them. Any wounds inflicted would still be present. This act requires high concentration and the success depends on the circumstances of the death, Zhalia's own condition, and the willingness of the deceased to return. The caster might be met with a lot of struggle as the veil has a naturally strong "draw" always pulling souls towards and through it.
Despite the coven's belief system that there is no meddling with the dead's soul, they all learn this magic. Though they rarely use it. It is more of a failsafe.
Illusion (6)
- Audible Indunation
When in close enough proximity to a person, Zhalia has the ability to overwhelm someone's mind with voices. For this to work, she needs to be able to see the person she is targeting. Advanced casters might be able to use this illusion on people without directly observing them. This illusion might extend to putting specific words or phrases into a person's mind. Mostly, however, Audible Indunation manifests as a chattering of overlapping, unfocused voices that overwhelm the mind and confuse, irritate or even knock out a person.
This ability can 'ricochet' when (a) someone uses a field with ricocheting ability or (b) it becomes too restraining on Zhalia or (c) someone has the ability to mind shield. It requires concentration to uphold the illusion. Skilled casters (such as Zhalia) can pull up this illusion and leave it up for 30-ish seconds without concentration. Advanced casters might perform a longer unconcentrated illusion.
- Monocular Realization
This describes the ability to perform an illusion on oneself. The illusion gets attached to the caster and reimagines their appearance according to the caster's wishes. Any visual feature may be "changed" in this manner - including facial features, height, skin color, clothes, number of limbs, or (in cases of advanced casters) even the species. However, this does not result in an actual change of bodily features, but instead, works as a "filter" atop the real version. As this is only an illusion, any and all false visual features (e.g. claws, a hook for a hand, clothing items) would not truly exist and therefore never be accassible or "usable" beyond a simple lie.
This illusion requires imagination, some performance skills, and a bit of concentration. If the caster loses consciousness or concentration, the illusion will fade. Holding up the illusion will feel draining after some time and only highly advanced casters could uphold it for multiple hours. Additionally, the caster has to remember the details of their disguise. Inconsistency in the illusion would result in the deceived possibly seeing through the facade. While this is hard to master at first, skilled casters can uphold an illusion easily for a decent amount of time.
- Shadowplay
One of Zhalia's favorite forms of illusions is the more subtle shadowplay. Without having to see her target, Zhalia can create shadows on any surface and have them enact any form of movement she desires. A specialty of hers are shadows that imitate the target's death - causing unease, fear and possibly panic to rise within the deceived.
Divination (4)
- Tracking
The power to track people and objects over any distance, environment or condition is something every witch of the coven learns if they decide to dabble in divination. In its essence, tracking is used to find and follow tracks that are weeks, months or even years old, and to reconstruct what has happened from the smallest clues. Zhalia's skills in divination are solid but unrefined. She may be able to follow someone who was recently in the area but she would be unable to track someone weeks or months after they had left. Highly advanced trackers may be able to even track people who use teleportation or portals but this is mostly rumored and not actually proven.
- Hematomancy
Divination is mostly used in correspondence with Necromancy in Zhalia's coven. Therefore, a lot of divination comes from blood, bones, flesh and ashes. Blood and bones are said to work best. Even though the coven also uses cards (such as Tarot) quite frequently. By using blood (or bones), the caster can enhance their ability to see fractions of the future, past or present. For Zhalia those are only ever snippets, mostly incoherent. Her Divination skills are not refined enough for her to really use them effectively.
- Divine Sense & Aura Detection
Used in correspondence with Necromancy, Zhalia has the ability to register and detect any undead creature and identify their type (e.g. vampire, skeleton, etc).
Additionally, Zhalia is able to detect and identify the school of magic of other witches and warlocks around her. She may only detect the school of magic if it has a strong enough aura around the person (at least 5/10 skill level), otherwise, the magical aura is too weak to discern and Zhalia might not be able to pin which school of magic a person is practicing most.
- Determined
For better or worse, Zhalia is a very determined person. If she sets her mind to something, she will go through with it. This makes her an exceptionally good student and is the main reason her necromancy skills are so advanced. This also makes her a tad bit stubborn, which has led to various difficulties and some rather unfortunate outcomes in her life.
- Rebellious
Pair her determination with her rebellious nature and you have a recipe for potential disaster. Even though Zhalia is more of a quiet soul, she will not back down on her morals or her beliefs and is known to rebel against coven heads and teachers at times. She tends to question authority and rules but isn't one to naively speak out of turn either.
- Independent
Maybe a side effect of enjoying seclusion and determinedly studying Necromancy, Zhalia has become quite independent over the years. Capable of setting out on her own path, Zhalia picks and chooses who she depends on rather carefully. Still, sharing the burdens of life with a group of friends would be a great relief.
- Skeptical
Zhalia tends to be rather skeptical towards people and therefore has her guard up even when she seems not to. She is not easily convinced or persuaded from her own point of view unless sufficient evidence can be provided. Even though she approaches most people openly and tries her best to keep her cynical thoughts down to a minimum, she can't help but have reservations and doubts about people's intentions.
Born in a small village in Germany, Zhalia was an unexpected child that was lovingly welcomed by her parents. Though she didn't lead an unhappy life, two devastating events would shape and re-shape Zhalia's path drastically. The first occurred when she was seven years old. Through unfortunate sickness, her parent's passed away, leaving a scared and confused child behind.
Having had their eye on the girl due to a number of strange occurrences around her, a coven took her in after her parents' passing. Known amongst western societies as a coven of "tradition" (put mildly), this circle of witches is shrouded in rumors. Living far off modern society, the coven clings to more medieval ways of life and magic. Mainly, they don't engage much with technology and use some forms of magic seen as outdated. Known as Silencia Mortem (or "silent death") by outsiders, this coven is said to be a cult. Their members don't have any or only very regulated contact with modern society and are rumored to discreetly hunt non-magical people in an attempt to "clean" the world off of those "unpure" of magic. They refuse to adapt to modern ways of magic and are known to teach an unusual (and for some people concerning) amount of Necromancy to their members. Other untraditional ways include the advanced study of herbology (mostly non-magical), the use of "outdated" divination techniques (cards such as tarot, using bones and ashes, etc.), still using runes and grimoires, and practicing rituals (and ritual castings) that rely on full moons, chants or even sacrifices. Sometimes, these coven witches are rumored to be half-dead themselves, one foot on each side of the veil because they open the barrier between the worlds too many times. Apart from all the rumors, not much is known about those witches.
The second tragic event would see Zhalia's time with the coven come to an end when she was twenty-four years old. Upon visiting a masked ball resembling the 1800s, Zhalia met Charlotte. Despite being a married woman, Charlotte engaged in a loving relationship with the witch, who stole away at night to sneak into the city despite coven rules. As fate would have it, Charlotte's husband got aware of the affair. Enraged he struck down his wife and fled the scene.
In her desperation, Zhalia asked the coven for help in bringing Charlotte back. Although the coven showed her great empathy, her request was denied. Having dealt with death in various forms her entire life, Zhalia refused to accept this outcome and set out to bring Charlotte back herself.
In the dead of night, raising fog with her blood-dripping fingers and murder on her mind, Zhalia went to attempt the impossible. Through sheer willpower and magical might, she pulled Charlotte's soul towards the veil - but her attempt to coerce the soul of her lover back into the world of the living failed drastically. With only a fracture of the soul pulled through, Charlotte's ghostly form was trapped in-between worlds, only able to relive the day of her death repeatedly while waiting and longing for something that could never come.
Unable to comprehend the outcome of the situation and fearing the coven's final trial for breaking their laws, Zhalia fled and left the country entirely. She spent almost three years traveling through various parts of England and the US, unable to settle for long. Recently, she ended up in North Bennington, Shipden Peak, where she hopes to find some direction, a purpose - any purpose - and hopefully some distraction.