[hider=Dog Mage]
[list][*][u][b]Name[/b][/u]: Gisela 
[*][u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 70's
[*][u][b]Gender[/b][/u]: Female
[*][u][b]Race[/b][/u]: Hundi
[*][u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]: [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/241207880907227137/1077284045131624599/image.png]Just shy of 5' in height.[/url]
[*][u][b]Personality[/b][/u]: Remarkably sombre for a Hundi--partly by inclination, partly by age, and largely by having (although she wouldn't phrase it as such) having spent decades on the run from persecution--but nevertheless maintaining their much-vaunted honesty. Something that no doubt contributes to all the problems she tends to have in her day-to-day life. Gisela would much rather be [i]healing[/i] people than harming them, but the world isn't exactly keen to accommodate this.
She tends to creep people out, but that's just be the faint distorting feeling of constantly released mana. Conversely, demons tend to be more at ease--and she much prefers dealing with them (even if it's to get rid of them on someone else's behalf), as they have no issue with mages of any stripe.
[*][u][b]Brief Backstory[/b][/u]: As a child born to farmers, Gisela's parents had [i]very[/i] little idea of what to do with their prodigious daughter. Well-off yeomen they might have been, especially for Hundi just this side of the Veldt-Ithillin border, but they were completely unequipped for dealing with a child with high magical potential to start with. One that had Gisela's particular malady to boot turned it from interesting to vitally important that she actually get a proper education.
And so, the future mage was sent off to Meridan at a young age to learn the ways of magic, with only the firmest cultural pillars in place. The political situation was scarcely any more stable and the desire for mages that could influence a battlefield remained high... so, given her enormous reserves, it was natural that she was pushed into learning as many destructive spells as possible. Something that turned out to be [i]quite[/i] the bad idea, when she was prompted to go on the traditional Coming of Age journey and go home, meet some less cosmopolitan Hundi.
When she got back still unmarried, with substantially more burn scars and even more esoteric marks, the considerably more subdued girl opted to look into less violent magic. Healing. Keeping people alive long enough [i]to[/i] heal them. And, generally, staying out of the way and uninvolved in minor border skirmishes or the like. 
But the city was growing markedly less friendly. A mage that wouldn't use her powers for the defence of the kingdom? Healers were widely admired, but the common folk were more interested in fast cures for illness or smaller injuries, not nearly so many were after the sort of healing she was best at--or, when they were, could scarcely get in contact with someone so academic. It was this souring mood that lead her to investigate [i]alternate[/i] means of self-protection... and then get on the move.
Having drifted through the country's major cities over the years, as well as ventured briefly through the other countries when circumstances have allowed, Gisela has rather reluctantly come to the conclusion that she [i]needs[/i] to find someone who wants to make use of her abilities. With Erhan Lyn's fall and destruction, the attitude towards potential witches has almost dropped back to its 200-year-old nadir, and she does [i]not[/i] want to deal with people trying to burn her at the stake.
[*][u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]: Gisela's equipment consists mostly of the usual paraphernalia of a mage with a thing for doing rituals: chalk, candles, reams of parchment, and more ink than would be practical to carry around if you couldn't just force clothing to be clean in one go. She [i]also[/i] has her staff, which doesn't perform most of the normal functions of a magical catalyst: it doesn't make spells more efficient to cast, it doesn't condense the casting of any particular brand of magic by dint of its assistance. It helps her aim when that's a concern, but what it [i]actually[/i] does is act as a vast repository for mana--on any day where she doesn't do much casting, she can just divert mana into it, and cast from that when needed. It's also integrated with her one persistent contract... not enough that losing it would break it, but its loss as an anchor would make the summoning much slower.
[*][u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: As her dress sense and staff attest, Gisela is a mage. And, like the majority of Hundi with sufficient mana to focus on their magical abilities, she's an absolute powerhouse in terms of mana capacity and absolute output--complete with a rather pleasing silvery colour to any illumination or magical effects produced. [i]Unlike[/i] the majority of mages, Hundi or otherwise, she's congenitally unable to [i]restrain[/i] all this mana, and even at her most drained there's some leaking out, let alone when fully rested or when she stops holding back to cast. In someone without much magical ability, this tends to just mean odd things happen around them on occasion. In this case... well, the risk that if it built up it could be severely damaging to her own health is high, any external manifestations would be [i]big[/i] and, most unfortunately for any mage, it completely nullifies the ability to do small spells. Those reliant on fine control of small amounts of mana simply fizzle, while any with scaling properties come out as [i]big[/i] spells.
Not that this has stopped her from amassing an impressive breadth of skills down the decades.
Firstly, Gisela knows a vast amount of healing magic, and is able to--one way or another--heal just about any injury or ailment, given time. Healing magic doesn't tend to have any downsides if it's overpowered and this is virtually flaw-free for addressing injuries. With illnesses, however... well, most healers are able to address the illness directly. She's much more liable to either just force the body through it with magical support, or excise the damaged region entirely and regenerate it from scratch.
Relatedly, she's also well versed in the legal sides of necromancy; able to support a body missing vital organs on nothing more than spellcraft alone. This also goes for the preservation of body parts (although, admittedly, it's generally quite hard to find someone alive if their arm has been cut off and you need to go get it back to them) and entire bodies for later burial. Less well looked-on but not [i]quite[/i] illegal is communing with the dead directly. If there's some sort of conduit, or they're actually at rest, and they want to answer, in any case. [i]And[/i] if it's not blocked by divine fiat... really, the list of downsides if you're [i]not[/i] evil enough to bind the soul directly is quite long.
With these two skills combined, it's perhaps not surprising that her youth has been maintained as well as it has, even for a mage, despite no direct investigation of longevity. Is it risky? Perhaps, but Gisela has been able to pull it off.
Of course, as any self-respecting Hundi, Gisela learned how to fight. Unfortunately, none of her magical options for that are on the [i]practical[/i] side. What should be a small barrier to block attacks without inconveniencing her own magical retaliation instead manifests as a blatantly impermeable wall--great if you need to block [i]artillery[/i], potentially just cornering yourself if attacked by bandits. Similarly, her offensive magic is more useful for taking out an organised block of soldiers in one go; if there's anyone friendly in the target area, she has no viable choices.
When it comes to defending herself, Gisela's primary defence is to fall back on a branch of magic that's often even more poorly regarded than the legal side of necromancy: summoning. No summon can be arranged on the spot, there's always some sort of ritual involved and methods to narrow down what answers the call, but the vast overcharge of mana means that calling for more powerful entities won't be ignored... and everyone else gets one hell of a notification. Most summoners only traffic in fey, who are generally quite easy to pay and willing to take a very active role. Gisela? Gisela hates working with them when it's not required; the flightiness and habitual deception without ever lying makes her skin crawl.
But people [i]really[/i] don't like it when you summon demons.
Of the 108 Demonic Houses, there are many where the mere act of addressing them would get you charged with witchcraft. There are a scant handful where the summoning is itself a capital crime. But there are others with more favourable priorities, where it's more the nature of trafficking with entities that aren't properly of the world and just can't [i]stay dead[/i] that's offensive, where you can just about get away with it. If you know what you're doing.
There's one long-standing arrangement that Gisela has, [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/241207880907227137/1077404811462443018/image.png]with a demon by the name of Krysia[/url], which allows for a bypass of the normal negotiation rules. If Gisela needs protection, then she'll fight. If there's a need to [i]attack[/i]... well, that's where she'll size up whether it's a worthy opponent and her chances, first. For all her House values strength of arms and pride in their word, rushing into battle and getting discorporated is [i]quite[/i] painful, and demanding a special payment is always an option.
The demonic knight appears to have an endless selection of weapons, never showing up with the same thing twice.
[/list]
[/hider]