[CHAR] Wounds of the Soul

[nasty]

Concept: a court mage secretly in service of evil. She secretly works against the current power hierarchy, balancing subterfuge and courtly appearances. Appearing outwardly as a cocky yet charismatic courtier, while her soul rots from her naive pursuit of power.

Name: Catarina Loveti de Monte Scifo
Race: Human
Age: 33

Appearance

Abilities
• Spells of charm and beguilement
• Spells of binding
• Spells of scrying
• Spells of pain

Drive: Liberation
Belief: “Rules are made by those with unjust power they wish to brandish like a knife against others.”
Instinct: “When others talk, always analyse their ulterior motives"

Characterization notes
- Dripping with sarcasm. Will make fun of you in sideways jabs.
- Speaks in a low, sultry voice which cracks upwards when stressed.
- Comments are often enchanted – her words cut, enchant, sing, and tug at your heartstrings, as she desires.
- Rather than becoming guarded when challenged or questioned, she refocuses conversation. This speaks to her entire methodology regarding conflict when others bring it to her.

Personality
Cata knows what she wants and she plans to get it. She is an avid social butterfly, mingling easily into social dynamics and befriending strangers quickly. She’s known for both her thick, honeyed words, and her sharp wit. She knows what to say and when to say it. When to poke fun, when to nurse vulnerabilities, when to be kind, when to scathe, when to jest, and when to speak earnestly. She is seen to have impeccable timing of wit and a genuine kind heart. She is seen as someone who can be leaned on, but won’t entertain bullshit.

However, none of this is a genuine take on what she’s really doing. Catarina ruthlessly pulls the strings of all those she interacts with so she can advance her demonic agenda and uses people as tools. She plucks heartstrings in dissonant chords while polishing her faithful tools. It’s simply that maintaining a ‘genuine’ front happens to be advantageous to her. She will ruthlessly throw close friends under the bus if she feels it will be advantageous, and she will not hesitate.

Cata flexes between a calm front and an earnestly acted display of being hurt or enraged as suits her best. When she needs to be stoic, she will maintain composure, deflect inconvenient questions, and maintain a high ground. When she deems it advantageous to show emotion in order to get something she wants, she will pivot and lash out or cry, displaying how she’s been hurt to others.

Again, this conceals how she really feels. Her emotional range is just as broad as anyone else’s. Inconvenient questions make her seethe and heartbreak makes her empathise, but she has learned to put these aside and use them as learning opportunities. Her emotions become clues, betraying how others may be feeling, allowing her to act appropriately.

Occupation/Position: Office of Intrigue Mage – the Ducal household exchange a study, access to secret chambers, and a decent pay for her powers of scrying, binding, and pain.

Her Study

History
will fill out laterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. soon now.

[Benzaiten]

Concept: a court mage who is a trusted individual to the ducal couple. Her position in the court comes with the responsibility of moral inquisitions. She is responsible to advise the court and especially the ducal couple on the moral aspects of decisions due to the purity of her magical abilities. She also has a high standing within the executive branch and is asked to sit within some trials, give her opinion or advice, and oversee some of the more complicated cases.

Name: Aïtana Du'Vall
Race: Human
Age: 37
Appearance

Hider

Abilities
• Spells of Insight

Works as a hunch, a vague 'pull' or something that would lead them to have a gut feeling of "I should look there, I should hide, I should xy" and then they trust in that and it usually proves correct.

• Spells of Purity

Allows the user to tug at people's heartstrings and make them feel prone to speak their truth, their heart's desire, their true pain. Essentially, honesty. Requires focus and verbal use. Can be enhanced with specific catalysts.

• Spells of Audible Indunation

The ability to overwhelm someone's mind with voices. Requires focus, close proximity to the other person. Can 'ricochet' when someone uses a field with ricocheting ability. Useless against people with mind shields.

• Spells of Monocular Realization

The ability to make people see your own bodily features as however you want. This does not result in an actual change of bodily features, but instead, it works as a "filter" atop the real version. Can only be held for a short period of time. Limited to user's imagination and skills. Unlikely to be upheld during pain due to requiring some concentration. Needs consistency: If not consistent in color/shape/details/etc, the deceived can easily see through the filter. Weather Conditions: The illusion must be adapted during weather changes, this includes for example when the user gets wet, they need to remember to change the illusion to someone who is also wet. (This can be done subconsciously.)

Drive: Honesty and Justice
Belief: “The laws enabled by the court protect the citizens' human rights and the court's system and branches enforce a just execution of those laws to ensure justice and safety.”

Characterization notes
- Values fairness, the law, and justice.
- Trusts in the ducal couple and the established justice system
- Has become the unofficial official symbol for morality (meaning that the officials - such as the court - use her as a symbol for their morality but it is not officially claimed that she's their symbol)
- Has a slightly deeper voice that has been described as enticing, seductive and soothing.

Personality

As someone holding a lot of responsibility and trust, Aïtana is very much aware of the power she holds and strives to treat it with respect every day. Due to her valuing justice and fairness so highly, she holds herself to a high standard. She can not fail. Failing would mean to not just make a 'mistake' but it would have significant impacts on other people's lives. Being fully aware of this, Aïtana is not always the most relaxed person. She tends to sit through court sittings with a frown on her forehead and tension in her upper back. Due some poor choices in the past, Aïtana certainly doesn't lack a package of guilt she carries around with her. The fact that she has become a public symbol for moral standards weighs heavily on her.

Aïtana believes certain types of magic that want to harm or control people to be a disease that plagues the heart and soul and can corrupt good people. She would compare it to drug use. You try it, you begin to balance a slippery slope and it gets you addicted and pulled in further and further. Until it begins to control you, corrupt your own ideas and morals and your soul. People who go down this road can be seen as the victim. But at some point, when they become a threat to society, they have to be seen as the enemy of the court.

In these instances, Aïtana would suggest moving against those who cause harm to others with force even if it might mean their death. Where trials are seen as a just opportunity to determine someone's guilt or innocence, Aïtana believes that at a certain point of harm or treason the trial comes secondary - the safety of the citizens comes first! And if that means to end someone's life, then so be it. Although it does pierce her heart and she'd rather save a life and save a victim.

Breaking the law for selfish gain is something Aïtana can't see. She believes in the system and in the peace their city enjoys. This peace as well as everyone's human rights can only be protected if those who break the laws see their rightful punishment. In cases of self-defense, desperation or survival, Aïtana sees the breaking of a law - depending on the criminal charge - more as a reaction to a different problem and would speak in support of the person to be granted help of some kind instead of punishment.

Occupation/Position: Advisor on Moral Issues (Member of the Court)

History

[nasty]

The Ducal House

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The Duchess ;)

Duchessa Brunisente Scarcella di Castrolibero

The Duchess is the one who *technically* holds the ruling title to the city. She was born into the position, where the Duke married into it.

This means that the Duchess' blood will take priority when determining lineage.

The Duchess herself is a kind woman, often referred to as benevolent. She cares for her subjects and hears all who wish to bring their issues to court. She was known to hold wilder parties than anyone else in her youth. Now, her age has caught up to her, and her knees aren't what they were.

She has some low-level magical powers relating to judgement and justly ruling.

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The Duke!

Duca Salicaro Scarcella di Castrolibero

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The Heir

NAME Scarcella di Castrolibero

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The Bastard

Feri di Castroliebro

All I wanna write here is that there is a bastard!

This bastard was conceived by the Duchess after her and her husband attended an orgy.

Usually bastards hold a very weak claim to heirdom. But. The Ducal couple has only borne one legitimate heir. The line of succession would go: the heir, the Duchess' sister, the Bastard.

Nobody knows who the other parent is, and this may be a plot hook we can leverage. It's likely they were magical.

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The Handmaid

Nicola Veseli di Castrolibero

Brunisente's personal servant. The two are very close, and grew up together. There's a bit of an unhealthy dynamic here which developed from a crossover of two things: the Countess' rank, and the Handmaid's tendency to come out of situations with a better deal than her friend. This extends from youthful courtships where the suitor would run off with the handmaid, all the way to more practical skills where the Handmaid showed much better general hand-eye co-ordination than Brunisente.

All that being said, the two are as close as if they were sisters. They love one another nonetheless.

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The Sister

Lady Odette Scarcella di Castrolibero

Odette is the sister of Brunisente. She is the head of the military Office in the Ducal court, and has always loved the thrill of the fight. Low-key an adrenaline junkie. She's second in line for the Ducal throne.

She has a strong loyalty to her sister and no interest in ruling. She's a very positive personality, always chipper, and always looking on the bright side of situations. This doesn't mean she's one dimensional - she's known hardship, and she knows when a situation is sombre - she just tends on the positive side of things.

Her leadership as general is well-respected, even among her detractors. The general skill and morale of Castrolibero's soldiers has increased by huge margins since she entered office. This is in large part due to her chipper attitude rubbing off onto her underlings as she trains personally with them.

[Benzaiten]

Head of Office

Executive Branch

Kazuha Osei

Kazuha is a polite and well-spoken individual. He is determined in his goals, pursuing them with thoroughness and cunning, but he also takes his time and is easygoing. He is very reflective and thoughtful about all matters, frequently ponders topics such as if only violence could really assert ideals, and if the laws should restrict the court in their decisions in any way. Kazuha even holds the idea that maybe the ducal couple shouldn't hold so much power over the laws.

He holds his relationships in high regard and considers making friends with people with the right social ideas one of his main responsibility and goal in life. "The way for society is forward, and those who hold power are not always able to see where forward is." Kazuha frequently butts heads with the court and the ducal couple, but most of all with Lady Olia, about social issues, justice, and certain laws.

Legal Branch

Lady Olia Sundqvist

As the head of the legal branch, Lady Olia takes all of her responsibilities and duties associated with the role seriously, regardless of how minor the tasks may seem. Due to this, she often exhausts herself.

Her devotion to her duties stems from two reasons; her upbringing as a child, and Varka's teachings. Varka was a philosopher who is known as one of the main people to advance humanity's understanding of the magic's impact on souls. His teachings preach hard work, looking at every detail, never letting routine and experience cloud one's mind with easy judgment. Varka's theory of 'soul purity' - to gain a pure and just soul by focusing one's attention and magic on justice and fairness - is oftentimes said to be ideological and impossible to achieve. However, people have made remarks that Aïtana might be what Varka meant with his 'soul purity' theory.

She sees Varka as a role model and works tirelessly to maintain her legacy and Castrolibero's safety. Whenever she feels troubled or confused, she often finds consolation in his words of writing.

Olia shows her resentment towards people she dislikes rather openly without wording them. She vowed to ensure that the city will be safer and see more order under her supervision. Her work ethic makes her well-liked by some of Castrolibero's citizens and is noted by other organizations. Although she prefers using peaceful methods to solve problems, she will not hesitate to use force if necessary.