Isolde deliberately ignored the...mess...going on between Dakota and Summer, and Iris wasn’t even paying attention to anyone right now. Did she fall asleep? Isolde liked that someone had listened and was genuinely interested in what she said. ”Well, it’s beautiful up there. The fields in the valleys stretch for miles, the mountain rams are as tap as horses, the sky never sleeps. The wind always keeps you company, and above all else? It’s peaceful. Storms rage constantly, but they’re never out of place with everything else. The weather is like water in the ocean, it moves with the rest. You’d get used to the storms eventually. We sleep through them. The storms almost lull you to sleep, it’s really a beautiful place.” There was a hollow tone in her voice, like Isolde was thinking about home while telling Kate about it. She didn’t regret leaving, though. She might not ever go home.
Honest though...how fast did Iris fall asleep? Didn’t she have nothing but sugar before the ritual?
The party stayed in an inn overnight, on the other side of Helsend in the Dull Axe Inn. Dull Axe was drafty, but cozy. More importantly, however, it was peaceful. The forest loomed over everyone all throughout the night, yet no threat ever came. No monster leapt across the town to strike out at them. It was a miracle that they managed to find a place to stay at such an hour. Just as everyone had shut themselves in that night, so to did the Dull Axe, it almost took a fight to convince the innkeeper to let them in so late. Now, though, the sun was up. It was a new day, perfect for doing the usual things a band of adventurous and flighty adventurers would do. One could only hope Neith’s tailbone wasn’t shattered, or Micah’s mind shaken from Tolan’s visions...A rooster crowed as the sun rose, almost as if telling everyone in Helsend that it was safe to come out...
People were already poking their heads out of their houses by the time the adventurers awoke upstairs, across their rooms which were conveniently nearby.
Weighing 195lb and standing at 5 feet and 10 inches tall, Talia looks somewhat intimidating at first. Her hair is dyed an unnatural white to throw off people that might be tracking her. Talia never wears makeup, and her skin and face show that. She walks with an unannounced atmosphere, like she’s not at all worried about someone noticing her in a crowd, she has a habit of wearing a lot of soft clothes that cover a lot of her body. Pants, no skirts. Sweaters and coats. No tank tops. Her pale blue eyes look tired, with dark circles that almost imply Talia is an insomniac. Talia’s general appearance gives off a peaceful atmosphere. Like a shoreline that’s been ravaged by a storm. Or rocks that stood the test of time. She has an air of peace that invites the people of this world that need a home. Gods know she never had one growing up. Talia never shows her face wherever she goes. She never goes into public anymore. She only occasionally shows her face among Pariah Underground, and when she does, she is in her gear. No one knows her true identity, or any of her physical characteristics. It’s better that way.
Notoriety |
Wanted - N.O.V.A. Only had a vague concept of who she is. They only know her alias, and her actions. They believe she is a Variant, considering the ease of the way she perpetrates murder, but they only know she is a mentalist because of a few loose whispers heard around Pariah Underground.
Danger Level/Variant Type |
Class 4 Mentalist
Abilities |
Dreamcrafter - Talia’s abilities revolve around the five senses of the human body. In simple terms, it allows for very elaborate and believable illusions. In more complicated term, Talia can distort environmental stimuli to trick one’s brain into thinking that things are not as they are, ranging from loss of feeling in the limbs, or temporary blindness, to more intense experience such as feelings similar to drug trips, or Variant-induced anxiety attacks. It is a delicate process to put someone under any kind of delusions, but the upper limits of Talia’s abilities include things like rendering one unconscious by telling the brain to release an abnormal amount of sleep signals, or causing a sensory overload with...varying results.
The benefits to Talia’s powers are that with a little creativity, it would be very hard to break the illusion, or give it away, so as long as she’s got the upper hand at the start of a fight, or isn’t in a head on confrontation, it’d be tough to deal with. She can essentially create any kind of false image or false sensation she could come up with. The problem is she can’t just throw an illusion in front of someone and expect it to work. She could theoretically blanket a city block in a psychedelic drug trip, but the trick is making it work. It takes actual effort to make someone fall for the illusions. Another big thing is environmental factors. If someone swears it was a perfect day outside two seconds ago, a tornado isn’t believable, alternatively, someone who has a very high tolerance for medicine that numbs the body may not be as affected by numbing sensations from Talia’s powers as much as someone who has never taken such medicine. Unknown aspects of a person’s identity are very much the biggest drawback for Talia’s illusions, but she works around it.
[Gear]
Gear Notes Talia’s boots are padded to muffle noise. This is to move across a lot of ground quickly and quietly, since she cannot make others perceive her as invisible.
Her mask is made of one way film. No light enters the mask, but she can see out of it perfectly. It is coated in a transparent solution that diffuses light, causes light to be diffused before it reflects off of her mask to prevent bright flashes coming off the mask.
There is a 1.5 inch layer of aluminum lining her trench coat. This helps with physical blows, but the primary purpose is so that her trench coat absorbs electricity. As long as Talia wears her coat, a police stun gun fired at her body is guaranteed to do nothing, as the layer will absorb the electrify before her skin. That said, it is aluminum. The coat is not a flak jacket. She is shockproof, not bulletproof.
Armament/Equipment |
The only real weapons Talia carries. Talia uses two fighter knives to carry out her “goals” as well as fend off somebody who her illusions ultimately fail to bring down.
[Temperament & Lifestyle]
Affiliation |
Independent Vigilante.
Personality/Habits |
Talia is a survivor more than anything. Despite her bloody calling, she cares deeply for other survivors like her. Above all else, she has a deep seated hatred for corrupt authority and a deep, sympathetic love for people who grew up like her. She’ll give up her mysterious streak of killings to save one last child from a broken home. She’d walk out of that last house with a wounded child in her arms and right up to a Noble if that child got saved. The problem is she doubts that would ever happen. Her heart bleeds for the victims of those who were supposed to protect and nurture the young. She knows that what she does is grisly, and sometimes wonders if what she does even helps. But either way, she feels like the absolutely has to keep going. She owes to New Haven. She had a once in a lifetime opportunity to break free back then which some kids never get. She considers it her responsibility, her obligation to take out abusers, politicians, and corrupt officials of any kind. She would go to any length to save the victims. Even if it means she has to bleed dry every last black hearted person on this earth. She kills out of love. Talia dreams of a world where abusers never get away with hurting their loved ones. She dreams of a world where people like her don’t exist - where victims all over the world can find peace, one way or another. She’ll do what she can until she’s in the ground to make that dream a reality. Talia is kind, and vindictive. She tries her hardest to respect the nobles, and the cops, as individuals, until she knows they’re just as rotten as their friends. Aside from that, Talia looks at the world around her in a way some might consider philosophical. She questions the way things are. She questions why people say “that’s just how it is.” Why don’t they change that? Hasn’t the system failed you? She tries to talk to people who listen, in the underworld, in her “missions,” or anyone who asks what she has against the system.
The system failed her. She won’t fail.
Occupation/Trade |
Anti-government assassin. Talia gets rid of the people in power that are considered a threat to the good of everyone. She doesn’t go after the ones who are just plain lazy and neglect their responsibilities as politicians or mayors, but anyone at all that tries to step on others while using their political power as a way to avoid being held accountable is fair game. Talia also goes after less important people, such as the police system, but the only real trend in her victims is found in their personal backgrounds, indicating she favors killing people guilty of high profile crimes such as domestic abuse, rape, or other unspeakable acts.
Skills/Talents |
Knife Fighting - This is how she kills the rich and powerful. A good, well placed stab to the chest or throat. Talia’s pretty good with a knife, and will leave you with lacerations before you can draw your gun. She can also throw one of her two knives and almost always hit someone that’s at most 10 feet in front of her.
Infiltration and Stealth - Talia uses these two skills in tandem to sneak around and find her targets. She is skilled at slinking through security, be it human or mechanical, but she has a slightly harder time getting around cameras, which often cause her to take another route.
Well-Spoken - Once or twice, Talia has been caught by the police in her early days. She has learned since then to convince people of why she does the things she does. She has convinced police officers to cast their corrupt system aside, and rethink their actions. This very rarely works, but she does this to give the corrupt one more chance before death.
Family |
Talia’s familial connections are unknown, since nobody important knows her real identity. Anyone who has met her is either a dead politician or somebody sent to arrest her but was convinced of the nobility of her cause. In either case, the most information anyone has on her is her alias, and her crimes. That includes N.O.V.A. but while they are certain that elusive anarchist is a Variant, they don’t know her power’s specific details.
Background |
Talia has a rough life growing up. She lived in the middle of Brigette as an only child with her parents, Nathan and Jean Castle. Talia’s relationship with each of them wasn’t what most people would call “normal” compared to most kids. Her relationship with Jean was like they weren’t related. Jean never treated Talia as her daughter, just a kid that lived in her house. That didn’t stop her from trying to raise her, but she sometimes failed to properly love Talia, being emotionally distant throughout her daughter’s life. Nathan was a different story, while Jean never took her responsibilities as a parent any more seriously than an average day, Nathan never regarded Talia as her own person. Nathan saw Talia as nothing more than a child. Her autonomy was irrelevant to her father, Nathan treated Talia like an object, when Talia tried to stand up for herself at home, he shouted over her, demeaning her based on one thing or another. Her age, her grades at school, her intently. It didn’t matter to him, he’d find a way to shoot her down. When Talia lashed out, or “talked back” to Nathan, he’d go as far as to hit her. Violently smacking her across the face just to prove a point. I am the parent. You are the child. You are inferior. Having to deal with this kind of “love” during childhood helped Talia realize rather quickly that it wasn’t love at all.
To make matters worse, Nathan was a cop.
Nathan drove Talia to school ever day, it was on the way to where he worked, and every day of elementary school, all through high school, students and teacher saw Talia step out of a police cruiser. Students said things like “Your dad’s a cop? I bet he’s cool” or “I’d love to meet your dad, being a cop sounds fun!” Fun? Every day, she was reduced to property at home and there was no amount of CPS calls or counselor conversations that could get rid of someone with the support of the precinct. They didn’t know how it felt to be raised by someone with that power. It confused Talia. It made her resent a lot of people at school, and made her distant. Talia felt that she couldn’t do anything to help herself, if she spoke out at home, she would risk being beaten. If she spoke out at school, the school would call her house and she’d be beaten for slandering her father’s name. Jean wouldn’t ever help either. All she ever said was “Don’t make him mad.” She tried avoiding him as much as she could. She did everything in the world to limit her interactions with either of them at home, they didn’t love her. They didn’t care about her. She couldn’t even escape her father at school. Her only escape was N.O.V.A. and the Nobles. She wanted to be like them.
When Talia was 16, she started dreaming of being a hero who helped tear down the corrupt people in New Haven. Her abilities hadn’t manifested yet, and she didn’t even know if she’d ever get them. She didn’t care. She just wanted to help people. She wanted to save people. She wanted to pull people out of broken homes and pull apart broken systems of justice. Of course, she couldn’t tell anybody, because Nathan Castle despised N.O.V.A. and the Nobles. Nathan called them “pretenders” and “job stealing freaks.” Talia made it a point to never reveal her abilities, should they ever come around. That would be a very bad idea with Nathan around. Whenever someone asked her what she wanted to do with her life, she simply said she didn’t know. She couldn’t afford to tell anyone she wanted to be a Noble, that was her reality all throughout childhood. The reality that no one in her life would have cared that her father beat her once or twice within a week out of anger. The reality that anyone could get a hold of her notebook at any second and see the unskilled hero costume drawings she made out of boredom. If the nobles only knew what she dealt with, they’d help her out, right?
Wrong.
One day, Talia was scrolling through her phone while Nathan was out on the job, and found a statement made by one of the top Nobles at the time, a guy calling himself Sunbird. He could light his body on fire and fly, it was really neat. What she watched online that day broke her heart. Sunbird was asked by someone about the little-talked-about police corruption in New Haven, and what he’d do about it if he knew more. She was eager to hear him. She thought that, being a noble, he would never fall to the level of the fucked up cop system. She was terribly, terribly wrong about him. About everything.
“I don’t think the system is corrupt. My dad was a cop! Sure, a few of them need to get a slap on the wrist, but I’m sure they’re all trying their best! The police are some of the best people I’ve ever met! Anyway, next question.”
Talia’s heart hit the floor. Nathan didn’t need a slap on the wrist. Nathan didn’t try to be a good father. Nathan didn’t care about people. Nathan wasn’t good. Nathan was a bad person. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream. She never heard another noble say anything else about it, they just agreed. Why? If the nobles were so good, why would they say that!? Talia was hurt by what Sunbird said. He was wrong. He was so wrong. Talia couldn’t stop herself from tearing up. After that, she spent days contemplating what she heard. “The cops are awesome people!” Where were the cops when she was being beaten for speaking her mind? In her house. Where were the cops when Talia had a bad day? In her family. Where were the nobles when Nathan abused his daughter for defying him?
Nowhere.
It burned her up inside. No one in the world cared for the people like Talia. She had nothing left to lose but her life. Surely Nathan would keep her alive? She didn’t care anymore. Her idols looked hideous to her now. That’s why she stopped caring when Nathan started his shit again. One day, Nathan came home and asked about Talia’s grades at school. She was 18. A senior. Her grades slipped a little bit and Nathan botched about it. “You’re never gonna have a future if you don’t take school seriously. Get your shit together.”
“I wasn’t asking for your opinion, get out of my face.”
Talia didn’t even flinch when Nathan jumped up and got in her face. She also didn’t bother paying attention to hit very loud words of anger when he screamed. She only told him to shut up. Of course, she got knocked to the ground in an instant, and Nathan was whacking her over the face again and again. Jean wasn’t around, and Nathan was just wailing on her. Enough was enough. Enough was enough. Enough. Enough.
ENOUGH!
That was the moment her illusion powers manifested. She grabbed Nathan’s hand before it struck her one more time, and in an instant his mind was flooded with all the pain she felt, physically and mentally. All of it came crashing down on Nathan’s mind and body in a single moment and Nathan couldn’t handle it. He scream in agony, and Talia watched. His brain was overloaded, his senses were under too much stress, his nose started pouring blood. Talia didn’t care, she didn’t know how she was doing it, but she continued to make him struggle until he died on the floor. Perhaps his brain was overwhelmed too much, or perhaps he had an aneurism. It didn’t matter. Talia just murdered her father. She sat on the floor, letting the realization set in that he just died. She no longer had to deal with him. She was an adult now, she could go where she wanted...Talia ran away before anyone could figure out what happened. They couldn’t trace the crime to her.
She spent over a decade in the underground world of New Haven, learning about her abilities, and coming to a revelation: No one cared about the people in this town. Nobody with power did anything good. N.O.V.A. did nothing. The police did nothing. The only ones who could change this world were the powerless. The ones who were stepped on. Talia chose to stand up for people who couldn’t stand up for themselves. If she couldn’t become a noble, she’d become her own kind of hero. She devoted herself to getting rid of the corrupt people in New Haven. She considered it her responsibility to the people like her. She dreamt of a world full of peace. She held a complicated morale. Kill the ones who are supposed to stop suffering, in order to stop suffering yourself. It made sense to Talia.
Talia killed people for years, rapists, abusers, evil politicians. She’d never rest until the world was peaceful. She would never harm an innocent child, but instead the fool who dared harm them. It was her responsibility.
“No one will ever get away with harming another innocent child for as long as I live.”
Good to know, I plan to make a character whose abilities involve manipulating someone’s senses and nervous system. An illusionist with with noble goals of lasting peace through the violent methods of getting rid of people who threaten the idea peace. Essentially an anti-government anarchist who kills the corrupt by screwing with their five senses and their nerves.
Edit : I just remembered no villains allowed...though the idea behind my character someone is does good through violent means, it’s possible my character could ultimately be seen as a villain depending on who’s side someone is on. I’ll let you make the final decision once you’ve read her. She’s a kind of Robin Hood/punisher thing where she breaks the law and attacks the corrupt but does it for the sake of the people
”Got it. Don’t let those Brotherhood twerps make a mess, Marshall.” Added hung up the radio with a click. The Brotherhood probably has a radio in at least one of those fancy trucks, or ears to hear through a walkie...Oops. She didn’t know much about the Brotherhood of Steel, but she heard a lot of chatter from them on the radio, all the shit they say about how the ghouls in whatever place they went. All the technology they “discover” in the wastelands. It didn’t paint a very good picture in her mind, and if that wasn’t enough, now they’re apparently working with those other guys. What were they called? The Enclave? They didn’t sound much better, still, at least the Brotherhood tolerates ghouls. Based on what she heard here and there, the Enclave was more Nazi-like about it than the Brotherhood, or maybe it was the other way around. It didn’t make a difference to Adder, they both didn’t sound nice to her, and rolling up into a town with that amount of firepower sounded nice in theory, especially since they did just save the town’s ass. The problem was that these guys had a reputation for doing what benefits them, rather than what benefits everyone else. They’re probably just here because they think they’ll get something out of it.
Honestly, though? Adder wasn’t that worried, sure, they had guns, fancy cars, and what sounded like god damn mortars from where she was sitting, but at the end of the day, Adder could always just pack her bag and bug out to somewhere else, maybe somewhere that the Brotherhood are too rich for. That said, Adder couldn’t really complain about their mindset, she’d help others, sure, but her best work is reserved for people that can pay. Adder likes to think it’s different, since she’s surviving, and they’re parading their weapons around, but who knows? Maybe Adder’s just a hypocrite. She strolled across the floor in the walled up lobby, peering through the window she had to blow open. There were dead bodies everywhere, and she could see some people in power armor walking around. Fuck, they have power armor too!? That was a little worrying, but it was pretty nostalgic, seeing people march into a place in those suits. It reminded her of the old days as a Marine.
Hearing Kate’s story was quite entertaining, and make Isolde close her book. But now it was time for her to tell one...
”Well, I suppose it is my time to tell a story, but this will not be one of horror. It will be one of creation. The story of my home.” Isolde’s voice dropped by half a step as she glanced around the circle of witches.
”A long time ago, no doubt before the time of our grandparents, there lived a woman high on the mountains to the north of here. She was like us, a witch, hiding from the rest of the world. She was known as Valerica Morden, the first of my people. Valerica was not like most witches, she did not practice charming, she did not practice pyromancy, she did not make potions.” She paused. ”She shaped lightning. Valerica was unlike any witch of her time, she bent the fury of the sky around her fingers, and twisted lightning to do as she pleased. Every time a storm surrounded her, she simply stood in the open fields, and practically dared the clouds to strike her down. She knew the lightning would not harm her, she did not know how, only that it would not.”
”Very few people - even in the world of witches - knew of Valerica’s existence. Valerica did not belong to a family of witches, like the Stones, she was alone, isolated. We do not know why she did not have anyone to call family, but we know that it gave her plenty of time to contemplate her magic. Overtime, some of the covens surrounding her mountainous home noticed something. The weather was unnaturally violent towards the mountains. Valerica’s magic scarred the peaks of the mountains, scorched the fields of grass, and as a result, magic energy deeper into the earth, changing the way the mountains felt about the world. In every fiber of her magic that changed the land, there was the will to bend the lightning. This is why the storms were so common. The mountains took a part of her and buried it inside themselves. It worried the families of covens that surrounded the mountains. Some tried to travel up to the top, but very few could brave the storms, let alone find their way.” Isolde paused, looking into the sky for a while before continuing.
”A long time had passed, and word of Valerica’s storms wouldn’t reach the covens until even later. The few people sent by their respective covens to search for answers never returned. Most were struck down by the storm, but the few who made it found peace. A calm sanctuary, Valerica’s home within the mountains. They, too, never came home. They became her students. Valerica taught them the ways of lightning. She taught them to understand that lightning could never be controlled, only bent. The witches were enraptured by her teachings, never before had anyone imagined harnessing such violent power, but even as Valerica’s students learned to let lightning roll through their fingers, they were afraid. They had spent months in seclusion at Valerica’s side, but in order to find the paradise she grew up in, they first had to brave a storm, the likes of which no living thing should ever see. They watched their friends die to reach this place, and they feared they wouldn’t make it home.”
Clouds drifted along in the night as Isolde continued.
”And so, to avoid risking their lives to go home, they stayed. They chose to stay in the mountains, to continue to learn from Valerica. After all, who could say they knew a way to shape lightning in their hands? They built homes, they had children, even Valerica herself took a lover among her students, whose name has been lost to time. It is believed by some that Valerica became a mother to a child that began the Morden family line, while the rest believe Valerica herself was the founder. In either way, Morden Mountain would have never received its name without her. My people owe our home to her. As I said, Valerica’s magic shaped the landscape of the mountains, as did the magic of her students. It was like she put a piece of her very soul into each of them. Mountain Rams grew to the size of horses, the night sky glowed like a star. It’s truly beautiful up there. But the most crucial part of it all, was the wellspring.”
According to the legends, the Morden family came under threat one day, nobody knows what, but it was something so dreadful that Valerica had to sacrifice herself to save her people. I suppose that is why we never knew what she defeated, no one wanted us to think of such a thing. All off the students, all of the children, and the elderly had fled to safety in the farthest corners of the valleys. Everything was silent, even the constant thunder had silenced as if watching Valerica’s final moments. In an instant, from a place on the mountains few can name, the most beautiful, brilliant, and destructive flash of lightning turned night to day. The witches never heard such a noise, Valerica’s cries of pain and rage, the fury of the sky, all in unison to destroy the unknown threat. It was beyond our wildest dreams. The culmination of all of Valerica’s power in one moment...”
Valerica died that day, her faceless enemy disappeared with the thunder. That day, the mountains were silent like the grave, and the only thing that the first witches to find the remains could see, was a faint, blue glow rising from the ground. A tree with white bark, and purple leaves. The Mountain’s Heart. Our wellspring. The resting place of the founder of the Morden family, and the cornerstone of our being. Valerica’s teaching are alive day in the texts we keep, which I brought with me, to learn about myself...”
Isolde’s story was over. It probably wasn’t what they had expected, but it was something, right?
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