Name: Huang Lanfen

Gender: Female

Age: 38

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Rank:

Objective for the Grail: To increase the wealth and power of her family

Personality: Lanfen is a patient and methodical person, someone who understands the value of taking their time to ensure things are done properly, but this is due to a surplus of restraint rather than being her natural state; it is against her base nature to hold herself back and to take things slow but these are the values that she was taught and she has enough self-control to abide by them.

She is greedy, naturally avaricious and covetous, but not so much as to let it affect her actions. She is one to set her sights high and always aim for the biggest reward possible, but is able to let an opportunity pass if pursuing it would put herself at risk.

There is a cruel streak running through her that shows itself on occasion. Lanfen does not actively seek to do harm to others, but if she must harm others to reach her goal then she will not hesitate to do so and will even do so with a hint of eagerness at times. There is a mocking note to her personality that she is not always able to hide.

Biography: The Huang family has existed in some form or another for over 1000 years, although anti-sorcery purges and changes to the political climate in China mean that they have undergone several transitions during that time. Hailing from Southern China they are a group of Gu practitioners who used their abilities to quickly acquire a vast amount of wealth and power, using curses and poisons to eliminate rivals or prominent individuals and claim their fortunes as their own. However, such growth attracted attention and during one of China’s many purges of Gu practitioners and witches they were discovered and nearly eradicated; their work was destroyed, their members nearly wiped out and their fortune lost. Some of the family managed to survive, by luck or by design, and were able to rebuild from the ground up.

This story repeated itself several times; a swift rise and an even more abrupt fall as Gu practitioners were hunted and eradicated by whoever was in power at the time and all eyes turned towards those families who had no good explanation for where or how they had obtained what they had. All progress lost and all fortune scattered as the Huang’s were left to pick up the pieces and start again. Hard lessons were learnt along the way and a subtler, more careful approach was adopted; a slower accumulation of wealth, less obvious grabs for power and a lot of care given to staying in the shadows and giving people no reason to notice them.

They learned the hard way that growing too fast tends to attract attention and all the power in the world meant nothing when the might of the Emperor was directed against them. Patience and a slow and steady solidifying of their foothold would mean that they would outlast any Emperor that sought to eradicate them, or any other threat for that matter. The last purge they fell victim to was 400 years ago and because of their new approach they were one of the last groups of Gu practitioners to be discovered, giving them the time they needed to hide and secure most of their assets and even avoid the destruction of the most powerful of the Gu creatures that they had been cultivating over the last 200 years, preventing the loss of their magecraft.

This is the Huang family as Lanfen was born into it; careful, methodical and subdued. They yearned for the wealth and power they once achieved at their height, though they were not lacking in either, but restrained themselves and focused on slowly and steadily cultivating both in a manner that would benefit future generations more than themselves. Always with an eye to the future, the Huang family grows and grows and grows without exposing themselves to the world at large. Even so, they could not resist the allure of the Holy Grail War; they know they are taking a risk in sending a representative and exposing themselves, but what they stand to gain if they claim the Grail is potentially greater than what they might lose. After all, it’s not like they haven’t rebuilt themselves several times before and the loss of a single Magus is hardly comparable to the purges of the past.

---

Magic Circuit Switch: The image of a snake coiling around a rat

Number of Magic Circuits: A

Quality of Magic Circuits: C

---

Elemental Affinity: Fire and Earth

Magecraft: Although she has never attended the Clocktower, Lanfen is as versed in the basics of General Magecraft as any graduate of the Clocktower would be, having received a comprehensive education from her family. Aside from this she has a strong foundation in formal craft and cursing technique, both of which are geared towards working with her family’s specialty of Gu magecraft.

Gu magecraft utilises the practice of sealing several venomous creatures, such as spiders, scorpions, snakes and so on, in a container and waiting for them to devour each other; the poisons and grudges of those creatures are concentrated into the surviving creature and this creature is then used as a source of power or as a charm to perform various acts. The creature can either be used in its entirety or its poison can be extracted and used instead, depending on how much power is required.

As a type of magecraft that is very well suited to cultivating magical energy into containers, which can then be used by any Magus and not just the one who cultivated it, Gu magecraft has a good synergy with Formal Craft. The magical energy produced through Gu is also inherently negative, meaning it is well suited for use in cursing techniques; Gu practitioners often use their art either to accumulate wealth, usually at the expense of others, or as a means of enacting revenge and are well acquainted with curses as a result.

Magic Crest: The Huang family does not possess a Magic Crest in the traditional sense; they instead pass their knowledge down through more traditional means and instead cultivate power in a different way from Western Mage families.

For the past 600 years the Huang family have invested significant time and resources into cultivating a single Gu creature, one whose poisons have fuelled their magecraft for generations. The efficacy of Gu magecraft greatly depends upon how much magical energy has been cultivated and as the focus of the Huang families efforts this particular creature has consumed tens of thousands of poisons and grudges. This creature, rather than a crest, is the backbone of their magecraft.

Equipment:
Concealing Umbrella – A mystic code capable of concealing the magical energies of a person by creating a weak effect not dissimilar to a bounded field. The effect does not reach very far, covering the person holding it and perhaps a couple of others standing in close proximity. The effect is more easily bypassed than that of a bounded field, but it works well at preventing detection from those who are not actively looking to find someone.

Magic Opium Pipe – A pipe used in order to spread poisonous vapours over a wide area. When packed with a form of solidified Gu poison and lit the smoke produced by this pipe can be controlled and directed by the Magus holding the pipe.

A dozen minor Gu creatures – While the Huang family may possess an extraordinarily powerful Gu creature, every Gu practitioner should regularly cultivate a number of their own creatures for their own use so as not to be tied to one location and so as not to be dependent on others. Lanfen has in her possession twelve minor Gu creatures that she keeps with her at all times to act as fuel for her magecraft when her family’s creature is not readily available. They are strong enough as to be able to shapeshift into different animals and Lanfen likes to have them take the form of blood-red butterflies, but they are able to take on more subtle forms if need be.

Exceptional Benefit: Superior Mystic Code

Objective for the Grail:

To cleanse the world of it's current pollution by personal methods.

Character Objectives:

~PMing to the GM.~

Personality:

Cormac is an exhaustive youth, used to the long-night studies that pass through the daily grind being a student brings. His attendance at the Clock Tower is kept by record marks, always passing his classes but sleeping any time he can get the moment to rest. He's seen as bright but unmotivated and this is supported by his outlook on expending energy. Why should he have to do something that he's uninterested in if it won't benefit him down the line?

Cormac retains a cynical outlook on the world currently, men and women, old and young will do what they need to in order to survive above everything else. Though, to Cormac those actions are usually seen as far too small-scale. Time has progressed and new sciences are killing off the mystery of magic, it's distorting the fine line of what it meant to be a Mage in these modern times and he hates it.

While on the outside, Cormac comes off as a quiet, well-mannered boy - at the same time he is critical of others and quick to judge them. He dislikes those that push their ideals onto others without giving a reason why it's necessary and has had altercations in the past on his records of getting into verbal and sometimes physical fights with said individuals. He's since adapted the mind-set that it's better to hide one's true thoughts and intentions until they can be put into action, rather than voice them just out of concern or hope.

Hope doesn't get results.

Biography:

Cormac belongs to the Almister family, a family of mages whom pride themselves on the pedigree of their house's generations through selective marriage between their heirs and other esteemed mage families to help bring about a high likelihood of aptitude to both bloodlines. They have survived through this method for many years and retained their high standing among other english magi as a result.

Rather than stay with his family and be used as another potential match for another family's heir like his relatives before him, Cormac left to pursue a career at the age of 18 as an established Magus of his own volition in the Clock Tower after passing their requested entrance exams and giving an extensive interview to ascertain his reasons for joining the Mage's Association. He glazed his words to only speak on what would be considered the truth while holding back any prejudices or irritations with those that conducted the interview. He was given a probationary contract under the agreement that he keep his grades above a certain standard for three years.

He was given his full license as a member of the Clock Tower when he was 21 after keeping to his end of the agreement of the contract. While he still attends the Clock Tower, it's been more recent that Cormac has been going to and from his workshop, more than he used to. It was in preparation for the fight to come that he planned on attending, a once in a lifetime opportunity - The Holy Grail War.

---

Magic Circuit Switch:

The mental image of being pierced through the head by a beam of light.

Number of Magic Circuits:

B

Quality of Magic Circuits:

A

---

Elemental Affinity:

Water & Wind (Origin: Reflection)

Magecraft:

General Magecraft:
Cormac is above average in his studies of general magecraft, while it can be said he understands the acts that go into the fundamentals it's more of a personal choice if he decides to use them, lacking motivation in some cases to practice anything outside of his immediate interests. He's capable of performing the acts to a moderate degree but not spectacular in any regard.

Elemental Magecraft (Water & Wind):
Cormac's specialty, his personal favorite form of magecraft in which he has learned to manipulate and control liquids through the application of both water and wind elements. He could be considered a potential master of this magecraft if he had more practice with it's usage. It's not due to any lack of power, but rather skill through years of application. He is skilled enough with the elements individually and together to hold up a decent fight against those that have practiced only one element, but would fall short unless he could tip the balance into his favor with quick thinking.
His uses of water magecraft vary from simple acts of changing the flow of water, redirecting moving liquids toward alternate paths or created temporary constructs out of the liquid. While with air he can create condensed pockets and fire them off as bullets, create gusts to lift himself up or to blow obstacles down. Together though he can finely manipulate forms of liquids into complex maneuvers and shapes. These are just some of the many applications.

Familiar Creation (Birds):
Cormac spent some time while at the Clock Tower learning the act of creating and manipulating creatures into servants to suit his needs, but he found no better connection with creatures like rats, spiders or dogs like most. He fell in love with the art of flying and how birds could do so freely, thus he limited himself to the sole usage of birds as his familiars, giving them purposes such as information gatherers or the transport of notes of importance. Cormac takes time to not only groom his birds to specific functions but also to create a mental link with them to allow him to see through their eyes and observe the world from the skies, a dream of many but a reality for Cormac. He's left stationary while performing this though, so he often holes himself up somewhere safe while his consciousness is linked.

Puppetry:
The Magecraft of designing, creating and manipulating self-crafted dolls and other creations to serve various purposes. This form of magecraft came from his family's magic crest and was trained to a refined degree so that Cormac would be able to craft his own puppets and use them as minor familiars or helpers around his workshop. As it was engraved inside of his magic crest it's not hard for him to access and learn techniques from the previous generations to enhance the final products or utilize puppets in a manner that would have normally taken someone else more time, to do such actions though it requires flowing mana into the magic crest. Cormac can be considered adept in understanding the magecraft itself but advanced when it comes to practical usage.

Mental Compartmentalization:
Rather than a form of magecraft, this is a form of mental skill towards the subconscious psychological defense mechanism of avoiding cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values, cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves. It allows for conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalized self-states.
Cormac has through years of practice, programmed his brain to compartmentalize feelings, thoughts and ideas into different recesses of his mind. This acts as both a method to remember crucial details and obtain them when necessary through associated smells, sights, touches and feelings so as to not forget them but also so that they cannot be readily accessed by others. To Cormac it is a form of mental protection against the invasion of thoughts in his mind and allows him to say and feel one way while also feeling another towards the same thing without betraying either as being considered false. It can be said that Cormac is a magus with many intentions and opinions.

Magic Crest:

The Almister family has existed for 1200 years but their crest has only existed for 500 with a specialty in puppetry and elemental magecraft.

Equipment:

"Seal of Arawn" - A long black roll of tattered cloth strip which holds the capability of concealing an object or person wrapped up in them from normal senses of sight by turning the object or person in question invisible it does not seal the object or person's magical presence though.

"Scales of Abandinus" - A pair of boots that manipulate liquids they come into contact with to allow the act of walking or running across liquid surfaces. When submerged they gain scales and fins at their sides which increases the speed or swimming.

"Lock" - A nine by nine square cube which when activated by saying it's name creates a sixty feet radius bounded field around itself which serves to keep those inside of it from leaving and those outside of it from entering by non-magical methods though capable magi will find it relatively easy to escape through magical means as it's a non-combat oriented mystic code. The cube acts as the core of the magecraft and changes colors based on the "truth" and "false" statements stated by those inside of the bounded field. The method of it's lie detection is by previewing associated memories connected to the statements said within it's presence and giving the truth via it's assessed insight. Once activated by it's user, it floats on it's own and works autonomously until deactivated by the word 'Confirm'. Due to it's functions being simplistic in nature it's mana cost is relatively low but requires a constant flow from it's user to keep active and will shut off prematurely if that flow stops.

Cage of Birds - A bird cage full of specially trained pigeons, doves and crows all under the care of Cormac. They must be fed at least once every day.

Bird seed - Self explanatory, birds have to eat too!

Wallet, ID, Credit Card - The essentials to a good living!

Reinforced Backpack with clip strap - A backpack with belt like straps to allow for easy donning and removal, capable of carrying mixed items of a generous size and weight without difficulty.

Exceptional Benefit:

Superior Mystic Code - ??? (GM Only)