Alice
History:
Alice has been around for as long as anyone would like to remember. She’s been known by many names, and countless civilizations have mistaken her for their goddess of storms and fury. The norse called her Thor, the greeks thought she was Zues, and so on.
Her parents abandoned her in the woods when she came into her powers, and the furious witch never forgot that. Condemning mankind for the unreliability of their hearts and crafts the young Alice turned to the Wilds for company. She spent her early years courting nymphs, wrestling with bears, and learning wisdom from dryads. Every so often a hunter would stumble into her grove, and discover just how little mercy the Wilds had to offer.
The one hunter that escaped her wrath was Alric Uther. As soon as she laid eyes on him she could sense the man’s deep reverence for nature, and kind spirit. She offered him wisdom, and he accepted it humbly. They spoke at length for many years, and traveled far and wide in defense of the Good in the world. Alice’s rage slowly diminished over these years, as Alric showed her that man could be good, and brave.
The spirits called to her one day, a dreadful witch by the name of Baba-Yaga had gone to the Primal Wilds within the Tellurian seeking ascension. With a heartfelt farewell she left the world to hunt the witch, to put her down before she attained enough power to be a threat.
Personality:
Alice comes off as whimsical and jaded, and in large part she is, but she’s a steadfast and loyal friend to those who impress her. Disdain for civilization and its taboos and tendencies run deep through the ancient, and she openly scorns the concepts, refusing to wear clothes, hold her tongue, or compromise any part of her behaviour due to social mores.
If being old makes you tired, Alice doesn’t show it. She maintains an enthusiasm for life that few young ones can match, as well as an open eyed wonder for the ‘rarer miracles’ like mercy and love. She’s slow to anger, and when you’ve finally roused her ire it’s often fatal, for you and everyone around you.
She’s always looking for new additions to her ‘pack’ though, and loves meeting new people. When you’ve seen as much as she has one of the only frontiers left is the human heart, and she’s alway eager to hear a life story.
What she looks for in a Partner:
Alice’s whimsy come through the most in how she treats relationships. While it’s rather easy to secure a torrid dalliance with the ancient, it is extremely difficult to maintain her interest. She doesn’t like boring, or negative people, opting instead for marvels of human perseverance. A life mate must be able to maintain a smile in the darkest hours, whether they feel it or not, and save crying for when the shadow has passed. As passionate as the storms she embodies, Alice is a demanding and troublesome lover, but that’s the price you pay for the life of endless wonder and affection she has to offer.
Name: Medusa Bloodrose
Age: 38
Short History: Medusa wasn't always how she was; Before her encounter with the elders she used to be pure hearted and kind to everyone she met. She was a healer, a good 'witch' who everyone in town went to get better. She was a friend to all and was trusted by her village to always help those in need. Once she found out about her cheating fiancé she was heart broken and darkness seeped into her heart.
The elders were able to communicate with her after that and told her it was her destiny to continue on their legacy of darkness and destruction. So she followed their instructions and she was fully consumed by darkness, her heart becoming as black as coal.
She changed her name to Medusa so that no one would ever be able to destroy her power and the mask aided in the destruction of her former identity. She maintains the Bloodrose Garden for which she, and the coven is named. Legends states that each rose is a tortured soul, and that releasing them would greatly diminish her power.
Type of Man: "Men are useful for breeding, and little beyond that. My romantic years are long behind me."
Special Power (only one): Communion with the Elders. Medusa recieves messages, and power, from enigmatic entities she calls 'The Elders' she believes they are the malevolent impressions of witches long past. Her power manifests in strange ways, and rarely in quite the same way twice.
Family Members Names: James Bloodrose ~ Father ~ Deceased
Matilda Bloodrose ~ Mother ~ Deceased
Pets/Familiars: A miniature dragon named Geraldt that she's bent to her will and in the case of an attack she can enlarge his size to that of a full size dragon.
Lorelai Von'Strauss - "The inferno holds nothing I fear, do you think you do?"
Age:??? Time flows strangly in the abyssal planes of the inferno that Lorelai has often trod. She sometimes fears that her lifespan might not be limited, the idea of an infinite life doesn't appeal to her. She has an almost ageless appearance, but the best estimate would be 20-30 for her apparent age.
Short History: Lorelai is from a long line of witches, cultists, and demon worshippers. When her power awoke it was already expected and her mother quickly saw that she had the best tutors and patrons lined up to help her develop her fell powers. Many years later hunters had finally caught wind of the Von'Strauss clan, leading to the destruction of most of her family. Her mother and father burned at the stake, her for being a witch and he for protecting her.
Lorelai bears a hatred for hunters that few witches can match. She dreams of the day the last of their kind dies under her boot.
Recently she's caught wind of a name, Digard. It seems Hector Digard was the man that burned her parents, he's a skilled hunter to be sure, and by all reports so was his son Fenros, but he has three other children and a wife. How skilled are they? The Digard family, like so many hunter clans before them, would soon learn why mankind cling to temples and shrines, it wasn't out of faith.
It was out of fear.
Lorelai woke in a strange bed, in a strange castle. It appeared she didn't die, that was almost unfortunate. Standing she quickly found her clothes, they had been cleaned. Dressing herself she stepped out of the room and into a lavishly decorated hallway. The decor was undercut by signs of disuse, cobwebs and dust had settled here and there where souls hadn't trod it what appeared to be ages.
She felt the draw of a great source of infernal power. It led her through the labrynthine corridors of the castle. Eventually she came to a spiraling staircase and there atop the tower she saw a rose garden. A woman was tending the garden, not just any woman, the mask marked her as Medusa Bloodrose a formidable witch. Lorelai would need her aid against the legions of enemies she'd likely made.
"I'm Lorelai from clan Von'Stauss, I've come to speak with the mistress of the castle" She called out.
Nowadays Lorelai is the unspoken 'second in command' of Medusa Bloodrose. It's said that more of her blood is in the caste's walls than mortar, and in the dead of night, if you listen hard enough, the demons bound there will tell you that too.
Type of Man: Lorelai prefers the company of women, after suffering so much at the hand of hunters even the faces of mundane men conjure an irrational anger in her. Her ideal partner is one who is loyal and strong, so she never has to fear losing another loved one, and woe to he who harms her love, she's lost enough, and soon you will too. Lorelai lives with one foot in the past, visiting old justice on hunters and mortals alike for the sins of their fathers, it will take a truly exceptional woman to remind her that the past is the past, and her life is worth more than pretty vengence.
Family- Disceased with no exception.
Special Power: The Infernal Bargain. Lorelai is the last in a long line of witches. As such her blood carries a nobility that demons, spirits, and other eldritch horrors recognize. Over her life Lorelai has made pacts with many of these entities, from the lowly temptation demons to some entities that 'Man Should Not Know'. They're always but a call away, ready to lend their fell power to her own, for a price. Lorelai makes regular sacrifices and observes a long list of bans and ritual behaviors to keep these entities appeased. Her body is frail from the twisted power of the abyss that flows through her, but the real trick to destroying Lorelai isn't simply killing her, it's getting past the infernal lords that first taught man fear.
Familiar: Sousiel. Sousiel's an lesser infernal lord that accompanies Lorelai at the behest of her demonic patrons. She serves to ensure Lorelai can maintain her pacts by acting as a secretary of sorts, making sure she makes enough time in each day for the blasphemies required, and serves to facilitate communications her mistress might need with her dark servitors.
Sousiel - "I belong to Lorelai, isn't that cool!?"
Age: As Lorelai
Short History: Sousiel was forged in the abyss at the same time as Lorelai was born, using a sliver of the witch’s soul as a kernel. When she first saw her mistress three years later, she knew that the baby Von’Strauss was destined for dark and terrible things. When she was returned to the inferno after her visit she immediately began amassing power in anyway she could, desperate to be able to stand proudly at her mistress’ side as her partner.
The Von’Strauss dynasty fell when Sousiel was eleven, and she was heartbroken. She’d worked so hard, piled up a mountain of corpses from her peers and superiors alike so that she could proudly present herself to Lorelai, only to have the girl die. A month later, whispers of her mistress’ survival reached Sousiel’s ears. Elated she rushed to escape the inferno on her own, no small feat to be by the girl’s side.
The second time she met her mistress, the first time Lorelai would remember, it was in the ruins of her family home. The girl was crouched, sobbing, over the desiccated remains of her grandmother. As Sousiel entered the room Lorelai turned to her, and what she offered was no pact, no ordinary binding either. Instead Lorelai proclaimed Sousiel to be hers, as simply as one would state that the sky was blue. Sousiel trembled at her first taste of her mistress’ power, it washed over her like an irresistible tide. It made her feel powerless, completely at the whimsy of the pretty young Lorelai, iron coils wound through her, and before it was over the very thought of disobeying made her sick inside. In a word, it was perfect.
Though the years Sousiel and Lorelai have surmounted things her mistress’ ancestors would have thought impossible. They bound Demon Lords alone, they lived in the inferno to study scrolls demons treasure, even built a citadel there. They’d settled in happily when Lorelai caught wind on the location of Hector Digard, the hunter that had spearheaded her family's destruction. So they left, and the destruction of the Digard patriarch brought them to Coven Bloodrose, and the sisterhood Lorelai had always wanted.
Type of Lorelai: Lorelai. Of the Von’Strauss variety to be precise.
Family - Largely enslaved by Lorelai
Special power: Perfect Vessel: Sousiel’s demonic nature makes her the perfect vessel for entities too alien or powerful to exist here on their own. Lorelai makes use of that fact infrequently as the experience is harrowing for Sousiel to say the least.
Pet/Familiar: Lorelai, an old witch detailed above.
Alyssa Von’Strauss: ”I’ve come all this way for my sister, to kill or to worship I’m not sure.”
Age: 25
Personality: She’s a Von’Strauss, and a young one at that. Alyssa keeps a straight face through almost anything, and has a deep hatred of weakness in anything. The Von’Strauss clan was a brutal one, their scions devoid of beautiful lies like love or happiness. While Alyssa has proven to herself over the years that the world isn’t as harsh as her teachers claimed she still keeps an iron like mask over her emotions. Iron can break though, and when it does it reveals a woman that is unsure about her place in the grand scheme and wants nothing more than a worthy cause to dedicate herself to.
Short History: Alyssa, like Lorelai, was long away from Castle Von’Strauss when Hector and his paladins finished their cull of the Dragons. She wandered aimlessly for a long time after that. Foolish men will pay greatly for a chance to seal their fates with a demon for some short lived happiness, and her talents in facilitating such bargains put food on her plate and a tavern’s roof over her head most nights. Then she passed through the wreckage of Roth-burg, gazing on the remains of the once bustling town brimstone found its way to her nose. Alyssa spent the next several years on Lorelai’s trail, if she could kill the woman her power would be Alyssa’s. Then and only then could she open the way to the pit and complete her descent, and walk amongst her ancestors.
Somewhere along the way Alyssa realized a hard truth. She wasn’t the real heir to the Von’Strauss Dragon, and to challenge the dark witch whose war path she walked would end in ruin. Alyssa still hunted though for reasons she couldn’t divine, perhaps blood called to blood? Maybe after years of searching Alyssa wanted to stand in the shadow of her last kin, and feel it’s taint in her heart? Either way the sky darkens with every step, and soon she’ll arrive before her kin. For better or worse.
What she looks for in a partner: Alyssa hasn’t given much thought to this question over the years, and is woefully uneducated in matters of the heart. Succubi make for a quick and sensual partner for a night, but when it comes to truly opening up to someone Alyssa has next to no experience. Her life has been hard and cold, it will take someone exceptional to slip behind her armor.
Special power: Dragon’s Tongue: The differences between Lorelai’s and Alyssa’s magic is experience and magnitude. Alyssa - so far - hasn’t found the cold blooded determination to rip would be gods from the inferno as servants. However she’s far healthier than her older sibling, and commonly uses short term pacts to accentuate her physical prowess.
Familiar: Uriel is a small dog that can take on the appearance of a dog eared girl as needed to serve her mistress’ commands. Unlike her cousin Sousiel, Uriel has little to no combat experience, but has a more pleasant demeanor.
Name: Clarissa Clearwater
Age: 18
Short History: Clarissa destroyed her town as a baby. Her mother and father were attacked and her inner instincts kicked in. She used her shadow manipulation and sent deadly shadow creatures which she calls Hob-rabbits, a mixed race of hob goblins and were-rabbits. Her town was demolished save for her house and that's when her parents knew she was special.
From a young age she was taught to control her powers and so now as an adult she has expert control over her shadows. That doesn't mean she acts like a mature adult. She's beautiful, absolutely stunning and her giggle is said to be enchanting. She's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Type of Man: "Hmmmmmmmm.... That's a tough one.... Honestly I want a man to treat me right and to love only me. If he loves anyone else I'll rip out his still beating heart and eat it!"
Special Power (only one): The Power of Shadow Puppeting ~ She can create any object she wishes from shadows and only pure sunbeams can dispell them. She can also make strings out of shadows and use them to string up humans like puppets and make them do whatever she wishes them to do.
Family Members Names: Kaleb Clearwater ~ Father
Madison Clearwater ~ Mother
Pets/Familiars: A Orange, brown, and black spotted Tabby Cat named Precious. Precious can transform into a tiger or any other large jungle cat alive.
Hunters:
Name: Vivian Craven
Age: 22
Personality: Vivian is a bubbly young woman. She loves a stiff drink and a stalwart drinking companion. She's occassionally given to melancholious moods, she's suffered at the hands of monster and witches too after all. Vivian's rather outspoken about her hatred for witches in particualar. In her opinion vampire, werewolves and the like are pitiable, they had no choice after all. Witches however could turn away from their black magics if they chose.
History: Vivian grew up with a large family that lived near swamp land. Her father and brothers were hunters, while her mother and sisters attended to the house. The youngest of the brood she wasn't expected to work much, so she spend her early years chasing whatever caught her fancy. She learned to shoot her signature hand crossbows from her father, and learned about herbs and their uses from her mother. Like all hunters though her happily life was eventualy darkened.
In the night they came. A veritable legion of the undead. Her brothers and father fell against them, one by one. Finally her mother and sisters were at the witch's mercy. Hiding in the rafters of their barn she let loose her bolt. and perhaps it was luck or providence, but either way the witch met her end with a bolt in the eye. Vivian's been traveling ever since.
Signature Weapon: Hand crossbow. She carries two of them and they've been modified for faster reloading allowing for similar firing speeds to the more popular shortbow. Her real weapon though is the often overlooked mundane poisons. Lavender isn't the only toxin witches are vulnerable to after all.
Things she looks for in a partner: Vivian hates people who are glum and broody. The way she sees it, if you can't hunt with a smile get a different profession. That doesn't mean her smile is always genuine, but she believes losing hope is the first step to a bad end. Her partner would need to be cheerful, and patient enough to endure her relatively manic demeanor.
Pet: She's got a hunting dog named Lucky that she's stitched a vest for. The vest has pockets she uses to store poisons and herbal remedies, and a strap for spare ammo.
Source: Tsimmers @ DeviantArt
