Kaithe Dame
Lemons
Cyadical
Damycles
Supermaxx
Izurich
pkken
Noctis
Yankee- Name: Mira Grace
- Age: Physically, about 16. Mentally... she's lost track. 20? 30? 50? Who knows...?
- Gender: Female
- Appearance: Mira is a short, doll-like girl, who has been left lithe and pale by a life spent almost exclusively indoors, locked away from society. Her long, dark hair tends to be just a little bit messy despite its natural straightness, as she doesn't take very good care of herself. Nevertheless, despite her unkempt, gloomy appearance, she tends to strike beholders with a strange sort of fascination - her pale skin, raven hair, and silvery grey eyes just seem so... odd, somehow, as if she doesn't really belong in this day and age, but rather strolled out of some kind of old portrait. Of course, her tendency to dress up in fanciful getup such as lolita fashion or pointy hats doesn't really help much, but even without taking her odd choices of attire into account, there is just something incomprehensibly strange about her. This sense of out-of-placeness and separation is a hint at her true nature as an inheritor of an old mystery, and the last successor to the bloodline of a Witch.
- Personality: Cripplingly shy, chronically depressed, and wracked by more fears and phobias than one might care to count - most prominently agoraphobia, but with many others tacked on - Mira's attitude is exactly what one might expect from an individual whose very Origin is "Isolation." Terrified of the outside world, she has been, up until this point, too scared to even contemplate setting foot outside of her mansion. However, with the coming of the Grail War, and her own selection as a Master, she's had no choice but to either comply with the system, or leave behind her home and belongings and place herself in the care of a Church-sanctioned administrator. As a Witch who would likely be considered an aberration fit to be purged by the Church, she has understandable reason not to trust even a member of the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, and thus has refused to do so.
However, unlike the other Masters, she doesn't really have much of anything she'd call a "wish" that is unattainable by normal means. She's simply afraid of the outside world, of the Humans who reject the possibility of a mystery like herself - One Who Is Separated From the World - and even moreso of the Magi who bend that world to their own ends. Left alone for so long, she has instead taken to a solitary existence living by herself, hidden from the outside. She was satisfied by this, in a sense, as it meant she didn't have anything to be afraid of, and could simply spend her days in peace. But, there is one thing she's always wanted. Having had nobody to talk to ever since her mother's death when she was an child, she's slowly grown desperately lonely through the years, and wants nothing more than to have somebody she can trust who will show her kindness and keep her company.
In this sense, she's remarkably childish, even moreso than she appears. Satisfied by simple games and reading children's stories, she's come to want a friend to enjoy those things with. Even all alone, she likes to dress up in the fanciful, old-fashioned dresses her mother left behind, upon the style of which she's fashioned several new garments of her own. In particular, there's one outfit she made for herself which she cherishes above all the others - a black dress of slinking silk, a heavy, fur-lined cloak, and a tall, wide-brimmed, pointed witch's hat. Whenever she needs a confidence boost, to assure herself that she's safe and separate from the outside world, she'll dress in this attire, and will oftentimes take on a demeanor that more befits a bold and brazen Witch, boasting of her abilities or threatening those who oppose her with curses. She doesn't really mean most of what she says, but to her, it serves a similar purpose to some forms of meditation, helping to clear her mind by distancing herself from her real thoughts and fears. In this sense, it's no different from a child's game of make-believe, but it does help her overcome her cowardice through disassociation when the need arises.
She has no knowledge of modern entertainment or technology, and no real concern with it, as it is anathema to her own Mystery. Her hobbies are reading books, sewing, and practicing her magic, even if she doesn't think she'll ever have any real use for it. She's a kind, gentle girl who, under normal circumstances, would probably never hurt anyone. But, the Holy Grail War can hardly be called "normal," and Mira is now forced into a place where her fear may get the better of her tender heart, and she'll be forced to kill or be killed herself. But, if it will mean returning to her peaceful life, and possibly even having someone to break the monotony of her solitary life, then maybe risking her life is worth it...? - Skills: She can sew her own clothes, grow her own food, and take care of her own mansion - albeit most of these are done with partial assistance from her familiars. She's also got a strange ability to make animals like her - possibly rooted in the fact that they view her less as a Human due to her Mystery and upbringing.
- Abilities: Mira herself, being only half-inheritor to the Witch's bloodline, has very few magical circuits. Those she does possess, however, are of exceptional quality, far beyond that of even prodigious modern mages. Because of this, she's capable of providing her Servant with tremendous amounts of power, perhaps even enough to boost his or her functional stats, provided that they're fighting close to Mira. However, due to her predominantly defensive strategy, this is seldom the case, forcing her Servant in most cases to fight without support save when Mira sorties personally, necessitating a high level of Independent Action or, at the very least, energy efficiency in order to stay safe. However, she lacks any elemental affinities whatsoever, substituting instead her Origin of "Isolation," with an additional focus provided by her Mystery - "One Who Is Separated From The World."
Due to these twin affinities, she naturally excels at magic that focuses on the division or displacement of the world - most particularly, the art of constructing Bounded Fields, as well as the spell "Flash Air." Although most users of this latter spell are limited to low-level substitutions of one item for another, Mira is capable of much more advanced feats, such as substituting one room for another to make doors lead temporarily to different places, or substituting areas of space to displace objects. In order to do this, however, there is the caveat that she must have a complete grasp of the area she's attempting to cast the spell on, forcing her to share her perceptions with either her Familiars or her Servants in order to gather the data she needs to reliably cast the spell.
As for her Bounded Fields, these are where she truly shines. By offering a sacrifice of a body part, or a pre-prepared offering of her own blood or long hair, she's capable of imbuing a Bounded Field with her Origin. As a defense mechanism over her mansion, which resides on a large convergence of leylines ideal for the manifestation of the Greater Grail, she's prepared several nested Bounded Fields over the same spot. The outermost layer imposes "Isolation" upon the territory within, separating it from the outside world and the perceptions of non-magi outside, while also offering sublime protection from attacks launched outside of its radius. It resists the efforts of those who would attempt to enter, but can be broken through either with sufficient ritual preparation, or simply through the priority of a Servant's Magic Resistance or a particularly powerful usage of Prana. However, upon entering, one will encounter a true anomaly.
Although it appears that those who enter are somehow "warped" to another location, leaving them isolated - a feat which would approach true Magic - in reality, this is nothing more than a sleight of hand, achieved by placing multiple "layers" of Bounded Fields over the same space. Each person who enters is placed within a different "layer," creating a division that makes them unable to see or interact with those not in the same "layer" as themselves, thus presenting the image that everyone else has been "warped" away. This is incredibly effective against other Masters, as they are cut off from their Servants and unable to support them with Prana or call upon them while inside the Bounded Field, save through the usage of a Command Seal. This might even extend to Servants with little to no Magic Resistance, preventing them from either aiding their Masters or escaping. However, those with high Magic Resistance, such as the Knight Classes, have a vastly superior Priority, which prevents the Bounded Field from fulfilling its function of imposing them with "Isolation." And, due to the Shared Perception of Servant contracts, if one's Servant is not affected, then neither will the Master be.
It also serves as an incredibly effective defense for the Bounded Field's creator, however, as Mira, too, is placed in the innermost layer of the Bounded Field system, at the very center of the ritual. While inside, those who would intrude can't reach her without first dismantling both the Bounded Field containing them (from the inside) and the one containing her (from the outside) - a difficult task when she who is aware of all the other layers is using Flash Air to transport curses to their location, alter the structure of the area around them through displacement, and assail them with golems and other such Familiars. The Witch's Mansion is thus rendered a truly terrifying magical fortress, made only the more formidable by the Servant who protects it. However, on the downside, it also means that her position is obvious to her enemies, and that they'll likely make their way towards her by the most direct means possible, barring interference on her part. And, even if she has a great deal of magical power, employing curses remotely via Flash Air tends to deplete this rather quickly, making it a matter of endurance rather than a direct confrontation of power. If she can't eliminate her enemies before her Prana runs out, she'll be in a difficult spot.
Similarly, outside of her Bounded Field, and without the support of her Familiars - who are tethered to the area surrounding her mansion for the most part, as they draw on Formalcraft Rituals and the native Mana of the Leylines for their sustenance - Mira is significantly less of a threat. Unable to perform more advanced feats of Flash Air reliably, she's thus left to rely on the curses bequeathed to her through her Magic Crest. While all of these are tremendously old and powerful, being handed down amongst Witches for generations, they can be difficult to land on a mobile enemy not singled out by her Origin. Among them, she has a few she relies on most often. One example involves the creation of tiny wires which inflict a curse of numbness upon those who touch them, slowly withering their nerves through consecutive contact until they are paralyzed and die. Another forms darts shaped like crow quills to rain down upon a target, eroding living flesh through necrosis until it rots away. Yet another is a gas that, when released from a vessel, will slowly strip away the strength of those who it touches. While all of these could be resisted by Servants with strong Magic Resistance, or Masters provided with adequate defensive measures, for any Master found unprepared and isolated within the labyrinth of the Witch's Mansion, they could spell certain death.
Aside from this, she's adept at crafting golems, in most cases fashioned after dolls and mannequins. Most of these, in addition to being reasonably powerful physically, contain curses inside of them, making it just as dangerous to destroy them as it is to fight them while functional. She also has a flock of crow familiars, which, while utterly useless in a fight, nevertheless provide her with valuable sensory data as her scouts. Finally, she has a black cat that has followed her ever since it somehow managed to stray onto her manor's grounds, before the erection of the barrier. He's not magical at all, but he does make her look more like a Witch. She calls him Whiskers. He likes fish. - Brief Backstory:
Heeding the warnings of her mother, Mira never once went outside, ever since the incident when she was a child. Humans and Witches were not meant to coexist, and she herself had no place in the world beyond the walls of her manor. All she knew of what went on outside, she knew from the storybooks her mother had left her, which she read dutifully every day, as if they would provide her whatever element of "life" she was lacking. Playing with her familiars, taking in animals that strayed onto the ground, and taking care of her home - these were the only things she knew in her quiet life.
Yet, in every book she read, it was always the same. There wasn't just one individual alone, but rather at least two, sometimes even more! Through the company of another, all manner of things became possible. Laughing together, crying together, even falling in love... Mira, forbidden as she was from leaving the mansion, and terrified as she was by her experiences as a child, came slowly to realize that it wasn't the world that was strange for not accepting her, but rather her who was strange for existing only apart from the world. These ideas amazed her, yet when she realized that they were all futile for her to contemplate, she fell into despair, growing to loathe herself and the way she was. At that moment, she understood why her mother had broken the ancient rule, had been willing to go so far just to experience the life that was denied her. But what could she do? She who had been born destined for isolation would live in isolation and die in isolation.
But then, as if by some magic that had heard her wish, something changed in the neighboring city, and a new "miracle" took shape within the earth. That night, Mira dreamed of a distant figure who called out to her, offering words into her willing mind, a formula to lay back the fundament of the world and delve deeply into its roots, drawing forth a "vessel" that would give "substance" to that "miracle," and, in so doing, would offer her a chance at the "life" she was lacking inside of herself.
Mira was afraid, but she went through with the ritual, and resolved to face the world that rejected her. In spite of her cowardice, she pressed on, in order to attain that which would spite the very basis of her existence, and set aside the rules that confined her to rot away outside of the world that rejected her.
On that night, she of beguiled blood rejoiced, for her wish might yet be granted.
