Name: Parthenia Elisavet Aspasia Kalliope Metaxas
Title(s): The Last Vestal Virgin, Keeper of the Eternal Flame
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Alignment: True Neutral
Objective for the Grail: Immaculate conception
Command Seal:
Parthenia is something of a megalomaniac obsessed with power. A manipulative woman who always believes herself to be the smartest in any room, no matter the size. She enjoys toying with her opponents and at times will travel the curved road to victory, instead of the straight, solely for her own amusement. Though these traits make her a terrible person, they’ve made her an outstanding magi.
Biography: The Vestal Virgins were once the most powerful women in Ancient Rome. They were the priestesses of Vesta and had the duty of protecting her eternal flame. Considered pure and beautiful, these women were highly respected in society; in charge of keeping the sacred fire alight that represented the hearth of Vesta. These women led extraordinary lives, freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children, instead taking a 30-year vow of chastity.
After that vow was over and the whole of their term was completed, it was lawful for them to marry, leaving the sacred order in order to choose a life that pleased them. A marriage to a former Vestal was highly honored, and – more importantly in ancient Rome – thought to bring good luck, as well as a comfortable pension… Thus, the Metaxas line was born. A matriarchal family that does not keep a crest, but a flame. The longer it burns… the more powerful they become.
Parthenia is the only daughter succeeding an abundance of brothers her family saw no use for. Men could not keep the flame burning and therefore had no business practicing magecraft. As soon as the young girl could speak her training began, and as did a deep devotion to a Goddess the world had long since forgotten. Taking the vow she promised a period of servitude as a holy maiden, someone truly worthy of caring for Vesta’s flame.
But with as many times as it had been snuffed out in the past, Parthenia had her work cut out for her. Eventually, she joined the Clocktower, a surprisingly well-respected student due to the preserval of her family's mystery and her innate talent for manipulating flame. Even now at thirty-five years old, in the very last year of her vow, she works tirelessly to ensure her family's success and up until recently has paid no mind to her future duties though that is all about to change…
Unless she wins of course.
Magic Circuit Switch: A sacrifice burning (real or imagined)
Number of Magic Circuits: B
Quality of Magic Circuits: C
Elemental Affinity: Fire
Magecraft:
General Magecraft
The commonly understood metrics of what constitutes the bare basics of magecraft. One could hardly be considered a mage without at least an understanding of these basic principles.
Spiritual Evocation
A type of magecraft which allows one to summon beings or perform spiritual possession. It includes "invocation", the technique of attracting higher spirituality into one's own self, and "evocation", the technique of invoking spirituality on the outside of the self.
Evocation is Parenthia's specialty, often calling upon nature spirits to possess fires she may or may not have created herself, strengthening her control over them in the process.
Fire Magecraft
The spark of Vesta’s sacred fire was lit well over a million years ago, when our ancestor hominids first marveled at the mystery of fire and learned to rely upon it for life itself. They built stones around it. Then they built their homes around it. And eventually, they would build their temples and civilizations around it.
Fire worship is the earliest form of “religion” known to humankind, and it gave birth to the beloved goddess the earliest Romans called Vesta. Represented by an Eternal Flame, Vesta burned in the household hearth. Her divine flame was the spiritual focus of the home and made it a sacred space within which to live. When the fire cracked in the hearth, it was believed to be the voice of Vesta herself, speaking or singing.
The ancient Romans believed that as long as Vesta’s protecting fire burned in the temple, Rome would survive whatever famines, plagues, invasions or political crises came her way.
As a worshiper of this flame, a woman who has devoted her life to the Goddess many have since forgotten, Parthenia is allotted control over the primordial flame. Able to create embers and sparks with basic incantations. Her flames can be combined with the basics of magecraft to perform extraordinary feats such as the following:
- Utilizing fire as a catalyst to induce a trance, a type of mental interference which seeks to manipulate a target.
- Pyrotic communication.
- Employing fire to divine the locations of objects or people, often shown through the smoke.
- Transforming a fire into a bounded field, taming a flame into a circle of protection.
- Ritualistic fire combined with spiritual evocation allows communication with various nature spirits alongside the recently deceased.
- When combined with spiritual evocation, she is able to "tame" wildfires by calling nature spirits into the flame. For example, she could save a building from burning by utilizing the spirit to snuff out the fire, or use that spirit as gasoline, speeding up the inevitable.
Weapons:
Sacred Fire of Vesta (False): Eternal Flame
A type of replacement magic crest, sealed within Parthenia’s body the moment she took her vow. Just as flame is compared to knowledge, it holds the learnings of every Metaxas Matriarch for the past four hundred years. It would be much older if it wasn’t for the mistakes of her ancestors, a mistake she does not wish to make.
It acts as an auxiliary-type mystic code, greatly enhancing the abilities of her magecraft and cutting back on pesky preparation time.
Ceremonial Robes and Dagger
A religious garment to be worn when sacrifice is necessary, she also carries a simple dagger in her possession. Both are made from only the most precious materials money can buy.
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