The Mundane
Name: Sadie Mercury

Age: 16

Sanctum City: Siscia


Personality: Sadie is an unrepentant trickster, who enjoys helping others better themselves with a trick or a prank to turn them in the right direction. She is fiercely protective of her friends and her people, and will square up against anyone who messes with them. She doesn’t try to actually hurt or injure others with her pranks, and when that does happen, she fesses up and does what she can to help the unfortunate person. She also acts wise beyond her years; and sometimes, she’s even right.

Background: As the 3rd, and youngest, child of George and Diana Mercury, Sadie grew up wanting for little, and with perhaps too much free time. Since shortly after the young girl figured out walking, aggrieved cries echoed in her wake as she toddled back and forth between interests, tricks, and exploration. As she grew older, her curiosity, and the complexity of her machinations, grew quickly, to the horror of the household at large. The saving grace is that her tricks rarely left any lasting damage, on object or person, though when something did go wrong, she went out of her way to fix things immediately.

The curiosity that led to all of her voracious learning and trickery also led her to follow every rabbit hole, to try and find every secret, every hidden tidbit about anything and everything around her, from her house, to her family and friends, to the world at large. While this curiosity did lead to good things, such as the discovery of her magical potential and subsequent enrollment into Nova Lux, it also got her into trouble more times than she could count.

When she got her acceptance letter to Nova Lux, Sadie was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement! She couldn’t wait to find out everything there was to know at, and about, the Academy.

The Magical
Armgaus Name: Shining Steel Kyanite

Gladius: Magitech gauntlets (pictured in the Parma image)


Elementum: Metal

Elementum Abilities: Sadie has the ability to manipulate and reshape any metal within her area of control to augment the offensive and defensive capabilities of herself and nearby allies, by modifying weapons and armor and creating floating shields, alongside other more creative applications.

Age: 17

Sanctum City: Baeterrae, Vesta

Description: A little above average height with a fit, limber build and long, long hair. The last is the first thing anyone will notice considering her tendency to dye it whatever color strikes her, most recently a deep purple. It hangs down past Rivka’s back and she keeps it neat and styled despite how much maintenance it takes her. Her skin, despite their necessary emigration, reflects her northern ancestry; a pale starting point that is hard to miss regardless of any given month's tanning. Despite her vibrant hair her attire skews towards the darker, more muted end of the color spectrum; blacks, maroons, navies, and such. Rivka has a dark jacket she wears as soon as the air is cold enough and even sometimes in stubborn defiance of the heat.

It’s uncommon to see Rivka in her own time without a firearm case or an instrument, both belonging to pastimes that she greatly enjoys.

Personality: Stoic and resolute, with a contrasting penchant for the arts and a disposition that borders on lazy. A mix that seems at once abrasive and contradictory becomes much more understandable if you persevere past her standoffish exterior. The decline of humanity to a handful of cities is a tragedy, one to be endured, but not to be endured without release; art is a way to process the world, to bolster the spirit, and to defy the monsters that would burden humanity. Music is her own preference, but she enjoys the expression found in all the arts. But the world is a harsh place too, and competitive shooting gives her another outlet. One that makes her much, much harder to take out than the average danger manages.

Endure, she says, but never in silence.. To suffer in silence is to suffer alone, and that path is simply a longer road to madness. To speak of your experience is to be a beacon of strength for others, and what is an Ars Magi but a beacon of strength?

But that doesn’t mean she can’t take a break, either. Nothing recharges the soul like a day off with some close friends. If she can manage to make any.

Background: The Sokolovs, many years back, hailed from the northern reaches of the continent. When the Sanctums were established they traveled south, taking their name, language, and many of their customs with them. It was a hard journey after the First Void, and a harder life adjusting to their new home. But they were Russian, when there still was such a place, and they endured. They left behind anything they could not carry, they sold much of what they could, and in the end they clung only to the clothes on the back and their instruments. To leave them behind would have been to surrender, and that was unthinkable. They arrived in Baeterrae penniless and took generations to claw their way to the meagre finances they now possess. But they had their talent and their experience and in their art they found solace. Music kept them sane, and volunteering their services to defend the fledgling city kept them sheltered and fed.

That has been their lot since, and the life to which Rivka was born. She mastered her art, she worked the jobs that she could find, and on her own volition she took up sport shooting. A skill that at once made her more capable and gave her a chance to pad the family coffers with prize money. And she got very, very good at it. The art of a rifle proved just as natural to her touch as an instrument, and she loved it. It was an empowering thing to excel at and her admittedly pessimistic demeanor tilted, just a little, towards hope.

And when she found out that she had the potential to be an Ars Magi she didn’t hesitate to apply. It was a chance to provide hope that she could never match on her own.



Gladius: A semiautomatic, over-under double barreled magitech rifle with flip up leaf sights and a detachable bayonet. A gleaming, ornate weapon in blued steel with red-hued opalescent inlay.

Parma: A stylized uniform with a royal purple shoulder cape on her right. A pair of shooting glasses with lenses like opals appear over her eyes, and the highlights in her hair take on a similar hue. These points, and the inlay of her Gladius, begin to fluoresce faintly red when using her Elementum.

Elementum: Fire

Elementum Abilities: Fire, combustion, and general heat are aspects of the Elementum at Rivka’s disposal. She can fire or control flame, heat objects, and generate some lift with these flames. In time she might learn some degree of flight with them. More directly she can channel her Elementum through her Gladius, firing rounds equivalent to truly incredible HE or HEAP shots depending on whether precision or sheer force is more important. She can also superheat its bayonet, be it attached or in her hand, to cleave and pierce much more easily. The lenses of her Parma help protect her eyes from the light produced by the extreme ends of her Elementum.

Name: Selma Rosmarie

Age: 17.

Sanctum City: Hasta, Venus

Description: Selma stands out without really trying. As one of the most statuesque young women you could ever meet, her tall and robust frame likens her more to a tree walking around than a teenage girl, but her goofball demeanor quickly undercuts any potential intimidation that stature may induce. Her speech patterns are more "coarse" than "rough", and a genuine frown is hard to find on her gentle features. More often it's simply the terse, grunted scowl of hard work than true displeasure. Her straight shoulder-length hair and eyes are both the color of the pines of her ancestral home, and her casual attire consists of a seemingly endless supply of loose work shirts in dark colors and long jeans. Her most prized accessories are the small, unassuming black ribbon perched in the back of her hair, and the silver pendant upon her neck.



Personality: Selma Rosmarie is first and foremost a throwback. A traditionalist raised by traditionalists, her pointedly rustic upbringing produced a girl all but convinced she'd be most at home in the thick forests and surrounded by nature rather your usual cityscapes. The family business of contributing to Hasta's agriculture is, unfortunately, as close as the towering young woman could hope to get. Her appreciation for a hard day's work, an honest character, and deep respect for innocent life permeate her to the core, plainly expressing themselves in (almost) faultless integrity, unassuming candor, and drive to protect people from any foes, be they from without or from within. While not well-read, and at times admittedly simple, she also carries with her a folksy wisdom that can only be cultivated by long days tilling what little fields mankind has left, alone with one's mind and the greenery. While technological integration is impossible to escape, she's definitely below par when it comes to utilizing it.

Her honesty is the source of her unshakable self-assurance, completely willing to speak her mind and open about all that she is. Hers is the uncomplicated pride of refusing to lie to herself, or anyone else. She likes what she likes, talks as she talks, and thinks what she thinks. You have to be strong and resilient, sure, but you also have to be true to your heart. Simple pleasures like dancing to a pleasant tune, making a friend laugh, and the rush of fighting for the good of the world are food for the soul. They deserve to be shared with any who'll have them.

Background: Selma was born at the outskirts of Hasta, to a humble family of farmers that emigrated during the First Void from the heavily wooded mountains of the Black Forest. Devastated by the loss of their ancestral home, the Rosmarie clan clung covetously, perhaps even desperately to every tradition they had— while they could no longer exactly be people of the countryside, they could remember it as dearly as possible. They dove into the role of agriculture as a means of both living off the land humanity had left, and recapturing what they could of their lives deep within the woodlands of what was once southern Germany. They did everything they feasibly could by hand, passed on old stories left behind in a single book of fairy tales, and spoke reverently of the old country, accounts from the past known by heart to each member. It was not easy to transmute a family from a forest of wood to the outskirts of one built from concrete, but they were mountain folk: hardy, rugged, and resilient enough to weather it.

In this environment, Selma was introduced very early to work on the fields, picking root vegetables come time for harvest, sorting them by hand, and resting beneath the shade of the family oak, planted and nurtured as an acorn by the first generation of Rosmaries to find safety behind the Sanctum. Her respect for these traditions is healthy and unwavering, even in the face of the confusion of her more normal peers and friends. Over the years, the family had become just about comfortably middle-class again by a combination of frugal living and a few exceptionally good harvests after a begrudging "modernization" of their equipment. This coincided with Selma's first purchase of a phone, and perhaps more importantly her discovery of magical aptitude. Within this hardworking young woman was the potential to become one of the Ars Magi.

Her family could afford to let her take this to Nova Lux Academy now. She could go out and fight for what they had lost. Their land. Their home. The ground where they were meant to live and die. They gave her their well-wishes and unconditional support. This was bigger than them all. The big girl barely hesitated.


Armgaus Name: Verdant Moss Emerald

Gladius: A heavy, robust axe, cheekily named 'Kleinbruder'. Its weighty head is bearded, and equally suitable for chopping down trees and Voids alike, whilst its sturdy wooden handle is curved to maximize force delivery in either one or two-handed grips. Etched into the sides of the head are fullers that form a runic pattern.

Parma: Very much the same unmistakable Douglas Fir of a girl. When transformed, Selma's mistletoe eyes gain a faint, arcane luminescence, and her hair grows a truly vibrant green. As for her attire, it hearkens to an idea of almost barbarism, tanned leathers and steel replacing the usual loose work shirts.



Elementum: Earth

Elementum Abilities: Ripper of soil, breaker of stone, maiden of mountains. The first thing about Selma is that she is strong, large frame and a lifetime of labor bolstered by the very earth she strikes. As indomitable and everlasting as the Black Forest range her family hails from, the girl's force of will and connection to the earth manifest as seismic tremors, effectively the ability to create crevasses, violent upheavals, and even the odd localized earthquake on contact. Her bones are hard, her skin tough, and her spirit endless, she's about as easy to knock down as the Alps even when not transformed. A lifetime of feeling soil beneath her feet has given her a good sense for how it vibrates, allowing her to pick up on most land movements larger than those of a vole. Seems to have some form of kinship with all but the most violent beasts of the wild. That, or errant birds genuinely do mistake her for a tree.

Name: Aoife Sturmgaard

Age: 17.

Sanctum City: Danaster, Jupiter

Description:



Personality: An easygoing and extroverted girl, Aoife is most well defined as fairly well adjusted. She's generally content, athletic and fairly charismatic if a bit apathetic to the opinions of others. A flaw for Aoife is that she does not feel much motivation nor drive. She lives each day happy and generally without regret, and yet there is something missing from her life. A destination, perhaps a goal. And yet, above all else, Aoife is content. She does not want for much - nor does she lack pride in the work she does. She does not fear conflict nor battle, for what does it mean to be an Ars Magi if not to stand tall when others cower? To lord over the darkness, and demand once more that it is thrust back into the breach from which is leapt?

Background: The Sturmgaard house is a noble one, or, they were. During the first void they thought themselves unsung heroes, poachers of evil – until that fallacy was made apparent. The patriarch of the Sturmgaard family and Aoife’s grandfather was struck down unceremoniously while defending a small ensemble of aristocratic cowards. Though, Aoife’s mother had told her that they weren’t really cowards at all. In fact, they were quite brave for the time. The first void made cowards of humanity, pushing themselves ever further into their spires of humanity, biting back at the darkness which each opportunity like a caged rat. The Sturmgaard’s, lacking a leader, fell significantly to a place of humility. They did what they could to make ends meet, often making busy work of Aoife and her three siblings as they were raised to make ends meet.

That was, until one day when one of those cowards came to pay the Sturmgaard family a visit. He was a young man, no greyer than Aoife’s eldest brother. He bore a sickening scar leading form somewhere below his collar all the way to his forehead. He did not come to pay homage to a dead man, nor to honour the family in particular, but to good on a promise he once swore. This man carried with him a blade he claimed had belonged to Aoife’s grandfather once, it was a beautiful thing. When Aoife saw it glistening in the candlelight, it was as if seeing one’s self for the first time. Her life, clarified in a single sentiment, this was what she was made for. She reached out to the blade without asking nor thinking, but to her surprise, no one stopped her.

They watched in silence as she took the blade in her hands, its beautiful azure ribbon lazily dangling from the pommel. Her mother said something like ‘you’ll have to work hard at it’, but, in fact, she was wrong. Aoife had extraordinary magical aptitude untapped and ready to be explored. Nothing had ever come to easier to her than her training to become one of the Ars Magi.

It took her family a few years of saving until they could afford to let her walk the path she now saw before her. Her goodbyes were all oddly unspectacular. As if she was simply running out to pick up some food for tonight’s dinner. Aoife didn’t mind. The time for tears had long since passed. In front of her Aoife could see that there was a simple road that she would walk until she could no longer. The path of the Ars Magi.



Armgaus Name: Lazy Spring Lazulite

Gladius: A sword with an extending ribbon with a half-moon blade. named 'Joyeuse' after Charlemagne's weapon of myth. Aoife is able to use the ribbon as a whip of sorts, swinging the half-moon blade with deadly precision, while the Jian straight sword is honed to a razor's edge. Both ends are immediately deadly, and allow for off-kilter attacking patterns, Aoife relies on enemies only needing to make one misstep to end the fight.

Parma: While Aoife's clothes and demeanor shift dramatically she physically stays almost exactly the same. Save for her eyes which look like swirling pools of navy. Aoife's demeanor shifts from that of a lackidasical part-girl to one of utmost confidence and unerring charisma. Even in the most dire of circumstances it is the unholy belief in herself that allows Aoife to push further than most. Her attire changes to something of a mystic's features. She wears black tights with the constellation of aquarius imprinted onto them. Her light blue bodice is wrapped delicately with silk gloves that stretch the entire length of her arms, though it's a much more durable material. A large witch's hat completes the outfit, casually flopping from one side to another, with no bearing on direction.



Elementum: Water

Elementum Abilities: There are many wise men who have commented on the tumultuous, often violent nature of the sea, ocean and water as a whole. Aoife takes those words to heart when she fights. Water is bending, but unbreakable, a steady stream blocked will erode even steel over time. Aoife is able to take powerful blows and shrug them off with minimal effort. She can manipulate any liquid element from water to blood. She can compress it to create a high powered jet, drain plant life of all its moisture, or use it to soften attacks. Aoife cannot control hydrogen or oxygen separately, however. Likewise, she cannot control water in its solid form, ice. Aoife is also capable of swimming at speeds far surpassing boats, as well as breath underwater. One techique she's grown quite fond of are creating bubbles that act as shields or cushions, by manipulating the water she can create extremely durable bubbles capable of catching a person falling from a building or absorbing a dangerous blow. Her highest feat of strength is that with some level of concentration she is capable of making thunderstorms by manipulating the clouds themselves. Though, this is not simply done at a whim and requires a good deal of careful exertion.