[Hider=Alyssana Grey]
[b]Name:[/b] Alyssana Grey
[b]Age:[/b] 28
[b]Gender:[/b] female
[b]Nationality:[/b] born in Africa, now a British citizen

[b]Appearance:[/b] Alys is not unpleasant to look at, but she is no beauty.  Her skin is naturally pale, but her version of tan is still on the light side and her thin lips are likewise lacking any significant color.  Her features are refined but too sharp to be properly pretty, and she does not care to use makeup beyond a very little bit of lipstick and eyeshadow.  She is lean but solid, a very active woman with the musculature to match.  Her waist is narrow but so too are her hips, and she has little in the way of a bosom.  Her eyes are her best feature, a stormy grey with more or less blue depending upon the day and the lighting.  They are also the most reliable indication of her mood.  Her hair has a bit of a wave and is cut just past her shoulders, a light brown closer to sandy or ash than it is to dirty blonde.  She generally wears it pulled back from her face in a half-up style, pinned securely into place. She will put it in a full ponytail or a bun when she needs it more contained, and might do something a bit fancier with it for formal occasions, but she will never wear it down.

Alyssana favors functionality over form, including in her clothing.  Her everyday attire is generally slacks and a blouse or a pants suit, though sometime she will wear a skirt instead of pants.  She dresses modestly, and prefers understated patterns and delicate embroidery instead of anything flashy.  A little bit of ruffle or lace goes a long way, but it is better not to overdo it.  Her taste in jewelry is similarly simplistic, avoiding the ornate in favor of understated elegance.  Color-wise she prefers darker tones and cool colors, particularly greys and navies.  On site, she will wear denim, leather, and other hard-wearing materials suited for the rough work.  She also trades low heels for steel-toe boots, and adds a satchel of useful items on a belt around her waist.

[b]Outward Personality:[/b] Alyssana is an intelligent young lady who refuses to conform for conformity's sake.  She demands the very best from herself and her colleagues, and anything less is unacceptable.  She is a proud woman, and expects respect where she has earned it.  Dismissing her because of her age, gender, or any other unfounded assumption is a good way to antagonize her.  She likewise does not automatically associate a position of authority with worth.  She prefers to judge people on individual merit and this can result in tension between her and people who feel they deserve more respect than she gives.  She is not tactless, but generally sees little reason to sugar-coat the truth, and she will speak bluntly.  She is sometimes seen as a killjoy, but this is not entirely accurate.  Instead it is a product of a serious nature, a reserved demeanor, and a certain lack of patience for frivolity.  Those who do not know her generally see her as impassive and aloof; those who do learn to discern the subtle differences in her expressions.  She does not often lose her cool, and may be relied upon for sound decisions even under pressure.  Alys has a strong sense of ethics, but in the end she is a pragmatist.  Often one must either compromise or accept the consequences, and Alys does not shy from the latter.  She is very intense and often judgmental, but well-reasoned arguments are given due consideration.

[b]Inner Personality:[/b] Where Alys appears to lack a normal range of emotions, it is merely her natural composure; where she seems to push people away it is more that she is slow to trust, and has difficulty opening up to others.  Raised in near isolation for a number of years and needing to grow up rather quickly, Alyssana has a certain disregard for social norms and is used to looking after herself.  She is fiercely independent, and while she usually asks for help when she needs it she is never pleased to do so, which often comes across as arrogance.  She has no particular loyalty to the Allies, and sees giving them an occult edge if war breaks out again as the lesser of two evils.  That is not to say she thinks fighting is wrong, but trusting this sort of knowledge to those who do not truly understand it and its effects is asking for trouble.  She would prefer to keep discoveries to herself and other academics.

[b]Backstory:[/b] Alyssana and her twin brother Christopher were the product of a highly amoral occultist's experiment.  A captured spirit was used to modify the twins in the womb, and as a result both have a high affinity for magic, though they are also vulnerable to certain spells that deal with spirits and supernatural entities.  Her mother was a young woman abducted from a European settlement in Africa and kept as a servant after, her father the occultist himself.  She was raised believing her parents were dead, and only found out the truth as a young teen.

Gerald Tarrant, well-versed in the occult, shared a great deal of his knowledge with the twins.  They grew up fairly isolated, their home by a small lake near the edge of the Sahara.  The son was to be his heir, carrying on his work in the field, and Alyssana was to be Chris's protector.  While she did not receive as much direct training in the supernatural as her brother, she often read his books and helped him with lessons.  Her own training focused on combat, both ranged and melee, and more practical matters.

At age eleven, Alyssana discovered that the master who'd raised her like his own child intended to use a ritual to bind her to Christopher, so she would be compelled to stay with him and protect him.  Frightened and disgusted, the girl took her brother and fled, eventually reaching the dig of a group excavating a site of occult significance.  Alys managed to persuade some of the researchers to allow the twins to stay, especially when they demonstrated knowledge in the field.  A confrontation with Gerald could not be avoided, but in the end when the team returned to England, the children went with.  Officially the pair were adopted by one of the archaeologists, but in reality the relationship was not particularly familial, despite the efforts of the Greys.

The girl's education continued, both in the standard subjects and in the occult, for which she had a particular aptitude.  She graduated Oxford with top honors to pursue a career in both teaching and fieldwork.  Her adopted parents had ties to the world in the shadows, including sponsoring various endeavors, and Alys's mentor in that area was a good friend of the founders of the Rutherford Organization.  However, he was quite adverse to declaring allegiance to any particular government, and Lord Lowell Agimund maintained close ties to the occult scholars of various countries despite the tensions between them.  This gave Alys the singular opportunity of exposure to a wide variety of methods and the schools of thought associated with each.  Eastern philosophy in particular holds an appeal for her, as well as the Jewish value of questioning and even arguing established rules.

While she holds no particular allegiance to the Allied countries, beyond her opposition to a single world government, the opportunities presented by the Rutherford organization were simply too good to pass up.

[b]Other:[/b]
Alyssana is, at heart, an academic.  Learning is her passion, with her chosen fields merely applications of this underlying love.

Alyssana is a devoted student of the sword, both in terms of fencing and for self-defense.  She is the owner of a beautiful ancient longsword that carries a minor enchantment, a gift to her from Lord Agimund upon completion of her schooling.  She is a competent fighter in general, with experience in knives, rifles, pistols, and fisticuffs, and she will not hesitate to fight dirty.  Her strength is merely average when unenhanced, and she relies on wit and magic to gain her a decisive advantage.

English is her native tongue, and though she has replaced most of her African English accent with a properly educated one, traces of it remain.  She speaks the French used by African colonies with the fluency of a native, knows enough of a couple different African tribal dialects to carry a conversation, and has a solid knowledge of Afrikaans.  She had sufficient exposure to Arabic as a child while abroad with the Greys to pick it up, though her speech here is considerably less polished.  Academically, she studied various older tongues, including Classical Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Old High German, Old English, and Sumerian.

Lord Agimund was a practical man, and did not believe in limiting oneself to a single magic system.  As his student, Alys learned about a variety of systems, and employs a combination of channeled, rune-activated, and component casting.  Aside from the trivial spell for light -- the first she ever learned -- her proficiencies are combat magic (particularly force and dark), and dispelling.  While she has functional knowledge of things like rituals, she is not particularly skilled at using them, nor at crafting spells.  Her theoretical knowledge of magic systems is far broader.  She has detailed knowledge of curses, mostly for dispelling purposes, but should the need arise, Alys would be able to craft and cast a curse without much difficulty.

Alyssana is more susceptible to magic targeting supernatural creatures, particularly spells dealing with spirits.  While channeling a specific type of magic (usually dark), she is adversely affected by magic opposing that type.  She registers as a magical creature, something that frustrates her no end.[/hider]