Post by Michela Vicario on Oct 31, 2017 7:01:23 GMT
NAME:
Michela Vicario
GENDER:
Female
AGE:
28
AFFILIATION:
Order of Hermes
RACE / SPECIES:
Awakened Human Hybrid (Unknown Ancestry)
Statistics: (Without Magick)
Intelligence: 4
Strength: 4
Speed: 4
Stamina: 4
Durability: 4
Supernatural Energy: 4
Combat Proficiency: 5
Power Proficiency: 4
ABILITIES:
Dynamic Magic: A power that goes by almost as many names as it has variations, though Michela refers to it simply as Magick. By force of Will, knowledge, and the might of the Awakened Soul, a Mage rewrites reality to conform to her will through her Focus. This is not always without consequences, as described in her weaknesses section under Paradox. She believes that she is using the Keys to the Universe given to her and other Mages by a divine creator, and implements them through the use of Ritual Magic, consisting of tools of Latin, Invocations, Swords and Daggers, Numerology, and Writings and Inscriptions. She can add to her power with Symbols and Sacrifices, which she has already transcended the need for. Below are the Spheres of Knowledge that she can manipulate by the force of her Will, which may be combined to create more complex and powerful effects.
{Spoiler}Forces: The study and command of energy and other things commonly referred to as forces, such as fire, light, sound, gravity, and the like. Obviously, as a result of her Paradigm, more modern things such as the complex electrical flows in computers cannot be manipulated with any sort of precision, and creating radiation is far beyond what she conceives as a part of her current practices at least for now. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over the forces either over large spaces or high intensities. Such things as transforming herself into electricity or other forces as well as transmuting objects into forces or summoning them from thin air become possible with the use of other spheres. Much more is possible due to the nature of her magic, however, as with all of her spheres.
Prime: Prime is the manipulation of the raw essence of reality, the raw power that makes up everything and anything, allowing her to create from nothing or enhance her spells with the raw force of Creation. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over this substance, allowing her to craft permanent wonders, as well as creating blades of it and many other potential applications when combined with her other spheres, after all, her magic is called Dynamic for a reason.
Matter: Although sciences do not acknowledge the difference in material between living things and dead things, such a thing is intuitive because from an Awakened perspective, they are two different spheres of knowledge. This sphere governs the inert, non living matter of the cosmos, allowing the practitioner control over it’s form and composition. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over these substances, allowing her to freely change their shape, state, and what they are made up of, along with conjuring them from nothing, fusing inorganic and organic matter, and energizing them with the help of other spheres.
Life: Life, what we are, what animals are, what plants are. It is different from the non-living matter that is in the world around us, and even the non-living matter left behind when we die. This sphere governs the manipulation of living beings and their processes, allowing for the improvement and shaping of creatures, healing of them, and many other feats connected to them. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over life, allowing her to shapeshift herself or to make alterations to other people, among a variety of other effects that arise when connected to other spheres or just on it’s own.
Correspondence: The knowledge of space, and how things are connected, both in the spatial manner and the metaphysical manner. She has reached the Fourth level of mastery of this sphere, which allows her to teleport from place to place, as well as allowing her to manipulate items at a distance when combined with other spheres, and even target her spells over greater distances when she has links to the people she wishes to target, as well as many other effects. At this level, she may even ward locations and objects against other things that fall within the spheres she commands and open up permanent portals with enough time and effort.
Prime: Prime is the manipulation of the raw essence of reality, the raw power that makes up everything and anything, allowing her to create from nothing or enhance her spells with the raw force of Creation. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over this substance, allowing her to craft permanent wonders, as well as creating blades of it and many other potential applications when combined with her other spheres, after all, her magic is called Dynamic for a reason.
Matter: Although sciences do not acknowledge the difference in material between living things and dead things, such a thing is intuitive because from an Awakened perspective, they are two different spheres of knowledge. This sphere governs the inert, non living matter of the cosmos, allowing the practitioner control over it’s form and composition. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over these substances, allowing her to freely change their shape, state, and what they are made up of, along with conjuring them from nothing, fusing inorganic and organic matter, and energizing them with the help of other spheres.
Life: Life, what we are, what animals are, what plants are. It is different from the non-living matter that is in the world around us, and even the non-living matter left behind when we die. This sphere governs the manipulation of living beings and their processes, allowing for the improvement and shaping of creatures, healing of them, and many other feats connected to them. She has reached the fourth sphere of Command, granting her large control over life, allowing her to shapeshift herself or to make alterations to other people, among a variety of other effects that arise when connected to other spheres or just on it’s own.
Correspondence: The knowledge of space, and how things are connected, both in the spatial manner and the metaphysical manner. She has reached the Fourth level of mastery of this sphere, which allows her to teleport from place to place, as well as allowing her to manipulate items at a distance when combined with other spheres, and even target her spells over greater distances when she has links to the people she wishes to target, as well as many other effects. At this level, she may even ward locations and objects against other things that fall within the spheres she commands and open up permanent portals with enough time and effort.
Supernatural Heritage: Something has always been…off about Michela, though her mother has been very silent on that matter. The official line is that she was attacked in the streets of Rome when she was still an initiate and left with child. That does not explain the strange headaches and intolerance to even the smallest amounts of wine…or the extreme magical potential that she has and the immortality of her body that ended her associated with the Hermetics in the first place.
Immortality: She does not age, she does not get sick from disease, poison has no affect on her. Bullets hurt and incapacitate her, blades can open her gut and chop off her arms, and fire can burn her. However, none of this will end her life, not even getting almost all of the bones in her body broken and her skull crushed like what happened in the tragic car accident that attracted the attention of the Hermetics. Officially, it was regarded as a miracle of some saint or another that she survived, her medical records doctored to show that, but the truth is that she healed because of…something in her heritage.
True Faith: Raised in a nunnery in one of the few remaining bastions of faith in the world, Michela is one of the rare few who is a true and unwavering believer in the God of Catholicism. Her magic is viewed in this light, even if she would be viewed as a heretic for it, she views it simply as a gift from Him that her body is immortal and she has been given the Keys to the Universe in order to better protect her kin from the predations of those who wish to snuff belief out in general. She gets strange looks from some of the other Hermetics, but she knows deep down that she is correct…and it shows in the miracles she can sometimes call outside of her skill as a mage.
Resonance: The Awakened Soul overflows around a person, even when they do not Will it to, affecting the way they are perceived as well as leaving a mark on their spells. Due to her strange nature and her faith, people naturally get an impression of faithfulness and honorability from her, and these flavor her magic, making those who can detect such things able to trace it back to her with some work. However, the benefit that she gains from this is that when she is using magic that resonates with her nature, it becomes far easier for her to do so. So rites with a Catholic or Christian bent to them, or that invoke the image of an honorable knight or similar things become easier for her to use, while those that oppose them become harder.
Weaknesses:
True Doom: Despite her almost complete immortality, there is one thing that will ensure that she stays down short of total annihilation, and that is being killed while Venus is in the sky in the wee early hours of the morning. This is not something known to her, but something deep down makes her wary of the time, a gut instinct to be more on guard and to not be nearly as reckless as she tends to be.
Alcohol Intolerance: What it says on the tin, she can’t handle alcohol at all. Just a sip of church wine is enough to get her nice and tipsy despite the fact that shes got a pretty strong constitution in general. Something about it just does not agree with her on a fundamental level at all.
Chronic Headaches: Relatively minor comparatively, as she is able to treat them fairly easily with a bit of life magic, but should she find herself in a situation where she has no access to simple prescription painkillers and magic is not a good idea, she will be suffering a persistent headache as a result of her strange heritage.
Paradox: The bane of Mages who practice magick that goes against what the local reality dictates is possible. Even if they are working within what is considered possible in the realms that they are working in, failure at the spell will inflict Paradox on them as well. It manifests as burns, strange effects around them, and even visitations from strange beings that seal them in realms related to the Paradox they committed at more powerful manifestations. Due to the more fluid nature of this reality and the acceptance of magic, only Sanctuary provides noticeable resistance to their Willworking Arts in regards to places of note, however others may exist depending on how little faith in magic there is in a place.
Equipment:
Sword of the True Defender: An Artifact of some power that Michela crafted and enchanted herself with one major effect. It allows her to change the sword’s form as she wishes, though she usually does not do it in a way that is radical, keeping it coincidental. She does this by only changing the latin inscriptions on her blade, using it as a dual purpose tool, both a sword and an inscription.
APPEARANCE:
Michela appears to be a relatively well sculpted and in shape woman of her early twenties or late teens, her body in its peak physical condition thanks to the immortality that keeps any and all degeneration from affecting her. She does not even scar, leaving her form more pristine than it should be for someone who has seen as much combat and injury as she has. One would not even be able to tell she had been in a car accident that should have killed her due to this. She is about 5’8” and 160 pounds, above weight due to being rather well muscled for a woman.
As for how she dresses, she always dresses rather modestly, sometimes even taking up a nun outfit when she is in a situation where she does not need to be mobile. In combat, she prefers things that are easy to move in, but even then prefers skirts she has modified for combat to pants, and usually wearing something with long sleeves that things could be hid in, with other pockets and the like. Sometimes she even adds a trenchcoat or other large jacket for more room if necessary.
No matter what she’s wearing, she will always be carrying a crucifix and a rosary, both personally blessed by the current Pope. She has a few of them now that there has been a few Popes in her lifetime. She also carries her sword, a few hidden knives of high quality that are inscribed with phrases that let them be used as tools, and her clothing is always stitched with symbols, invocations, and numerology in hidden ways that allows her to practice her magic whenever she needs to. After all, she always has to be ready to defend the weak when she is out and about, and despite the fact she is practically immortal, bodily damage can and will reduce her ability to do her job and help people.
PERSONALITY:
To most people, Michela appears to be a rather devout Catholic and a person of great virtue, helping the weak, keeping her temper in check, attending to the sick, and a great number of things that one would expect from a devout Catholic, especially one quite literally raised by nuns. However, as one gets to know her and talks to her, the aspect of a knight and a warrior seems to stick out quite heavily, especially to those who interact with her in a supernatural manner. To them, this comes out rather quickly as it is her job. And through this supernatural world, one can observe the one true vice that she seems to have, the arch sin of Pride. She is extremely proud of her accomplishments, the power of her magic, the skill she has at the sword, and the office that she holds as a protector of other mages from what seeks to threaten them. Not only that, but her paradigm reflects this quite heavily, she quite literally believes that she is one of a chosen few who has been given the keys to the Universe in order to safeguard it while God is busy enacting His will in Heaven, perhaps in places nowhere near the world she is from.
She is quite well versed in Catholic Theology, but also Islamic and Judaic Theology and the more esoteric aspects related to each of these religions, be it Numerology, Theosophy, or Goetia. She often makes use of this knowledge in her rituals, bending these things to her will as a focus for the keys to the universe that she has been given and is learning to master, realizing that these tools and practices that she is working with are a crutch for her imperfect mind that she must perfect in order to truly be what she is meant to be.
As a result of her upbringing and associations in the Traditions, she is rather old fashioned to say the very least. She is not a fan of overt sexuality in pretty much any fashion, either by men or especially women, as she holds her gender to a higher standard than she holds the men, who she views as incapable of totally suppressing it, and as such forgives them somewhat more easily for it. After all, it is their nature to be like that, so naturally she is going to forgive them more easily. That is not to say she won’t easily forgive women should they show contrition, nor will she publicly chastise them beyond commenting about it being inappropriate and the like, to do such would be unkind of her.
She also is utterly inept with technology, and would not know how to use a computer should you hand her one, although she is familiar enough with them to know that electrocuting them is the easiest way to be rid of them when they need to be gotten rid of, and takes this to her advantage whenever someone is trying to make her use one, making it seem like there was a surge in the power when she is seeming to curse in Latin out of frustration. Naturally, this is her using a bit of coincidental magic to make the thing stop working so she can be done with it.
She has a strong sense of justice and is loyal to her friends and colleagues to a fault, willing to stand by their side until the bitter end, using her immortality, strong magic, and strong body to keep them safe no matter what might happen to her. It does not matter to her what happens to her and her body, so long as her comrades are safe.
However, once she has engaged in battle with someone that she views as an enemy of the Lord, something changes within her. Due to her own zealous belief and the conditioning she was given by House Flambeau, she has thoroughly come to enjoy purging the world of those who have been deemed enemies of the Faith. After all, it is her duty to do so as she holds powers that the Sleepers could never dream of, given to her by the Lord. She has a responsibility to protect them and make sure they live happily. But who said that one should not enjoy the holy duties that they do? Nobody, and as such she has come to very much enjoy fighting, so long as she is fighting someone that is a threat to the Sleepers in her opinion. This includes the traditional enemies of Christendom, such as vampires, demons and the like, as well as the Technocracy, as they seek to stamp out wonder and faith and abuse the keys given by them by the Lord to do so, making them just as bad as the Nephandi in her eyes. Those who aid and abed such powers are no better in her opinion, and become targets as well.
HISTORY:
Michela’s story starts with the rather strange circumstances surrounding her birth that would set in motion the events that would change her life so much later in time. Her mother was a nun in Vatican city, and one day when she was out a bit late trying to get some emergency medicine for one of her sick sisters, she was attacked in the streets of the city, and the people who attacked her left her with child. Or at least, that is the story that she gives everyone. She was certainly attacked in the city, but that was not all that happened that night. She was visited by a mysterious figure, who in exchange for healing her sick sister had to bear him a child. She took the deal, hoping to live the rest of her days in virtue to repent for the sin that she had committed to keep her Sister, who was a very young woman, from dying from the sickness that had been consuming her.
Nine months later she gave birth to Michela, and named her how the man who had met her in the alley had told her two, both first and last name. She seemed at least relatively normal for the first years of her life, though she was rather fussy as a baby due to what would later be identified as chronic headaches that would plague her throughout her life. However, even from a young age she had a very strong sense of justice and faith, believing deeply in the teachings of the convent that she had been raised in. However, as she aged a tint of pride could be seen in what she did. She took pride in her justice, her accomplishments, her schooling, the swordplay that seemed to come naturally to her enough that she participated in it at tournaments.
Her life continued like that, living at least relatively normally if disconnected from technology for her first seventeen years of life until the fateful day that she discovered that God had greater plans for her than anyone had ever dreamed of. She was walking through town, close to the very spot where her mother had met the being that was her father at around the same time of night when a drunk driver plowed into her, crushing her skull and a great number of bones on impact. Naturally, one would imagine that she would be dead after such an incident…however that was not the case. She recovered from the fatal injury by what was considered a miracle of God, even if it was considered blatantly unnatural by the doctors, however they kept their mouth shut.
However, it was at this time in the hospital that she was approached by House Flambeau of the Order of Hermes. They told her that she had potential, that she was carrying the keys to the universe, a chosen of her God ordained to be above others and protect him like a Noble ought to. This appealed to her on a great number of levels, and after much thought she decided to join their order, leaving her convent for training under the Hermetic tradition.
She excelled at it, her strange heritage making her a natural mage and she rather quickly advanced through the ranks of the House, and even took on the duty of a Guardian Knight of the house, dedicated to helping others of the Council and protecting them on their missions. Over a decade later, she was on a mission in this job of hers when everything went horribly wrong, and she and another mage ended up getting blown out of her dimension and ending up in a strange place beyond where any mage had travelled before.