Susanna Grace
"In heaven opposites are reconciled. In Hell they are always rebelling.”B A S I C I N F O
N A M ESusanna Grace
G E N D E RFemale
A G E21
R A C EHuman (Lavas)
A P P E A R A N C EA young woman, with a light face and gentle features. Her skin is somewhat pale, but is accented with a light reddish blush, especially on her cheeks. Her hair is the color of aging wheat, and comes down in long, untidy locks to about shoulder-length, traditionally she keeps it tied out of her eye. Though her build is modest her muscles are toned from many years on the road. What she lacks in physical strength is made up for with quick and dexterous movements. She is 5'8" and only one hundred and twenty pounds.
Susanna traditionally wears comfortable clothing that is good for walking. She favors loose leather pants that allow her to move freely and run quickly along with comfortable military boots implanted with a steel toe, giving her kicks some punch. She wears an emerald green cloak that has faded somewhat over the years. Her shirt is a pale blue with a neckline that can be pulled tighter with a drawstring. Though she usually keeps it loose showing just a little more than is appropriate. She finds this makes it easier to get what she wants from men. She carries a walking stick which she often uses to defend herself.
Despite all that she's been through Susanna's skin is smooth and flawless, without any scars. The only mark on her body is the tattoo of an infernal rune that represents The Flames of Damnation directly under her breasts. When she uses Lilith's demonic abilities her eyes become stained an inky black which proclaims her to be a demon to anyone watching.
R É S U M É
P E R S O N A L I T YSusanna has an almost inexhaustible will to fight for what she believes to be right. She was taught by her father from a young age that nothing in life was free. If there was something you wanted for yourself or your family you had to carve it out for yourself and make sure no one ever took it from you. She has a good nature within her that she has to keep a hold of in order to balance out the evil lurking within. She fights for what she believes in and tries to keep those she cares about safe, even if that means making hard sacrifices such as leaving them. Underneath her undying pluck Susanna harbors a deep seated fear that she will lose control of Lilith or her powers and hurt someone, an innocent or even someone closer to her. Because of this she keeps everyone at arm’s length with a cold disposition, especially those she cares about. The truth behind her great vehemence when she enters combat is that she's looking for something to die for. Susanna knows when she dies her connection to Lilith will drag her to the dark place, in the absence of any hope for a peaceful afterlife Susanna is searching for something meaningful to give her life for before she sees the eternal flames.
H I S T O R YSusanna's parents grew up in the seafaring nation of Lavas. They lived in one of the port side cities for many years before eventually falling in love and getting married. However their union was short lived. Marie (mar-E-A), Susanna's mother died not long after her daughter was born due to complications of the birth. Her father Richard, sick with grief signed on with the crew of a trading vessel that frequented several of the other nations including the Sunset Islanders and the Anfangrim Dwarves.
He left Susanna in the care of his brother Peter who ran a tavern. Money wasn't plentiful for their family but they were well off. Richard in his new career returned infrequently, sometimes only spending a week or two twice a year at the port where Susanna lived. However when he did come to visit his daughter he always brought wonderful tales of lands far away and exotic gifts she treasured greatly. These included such things as a flask that kept the drink inside cold and fresh from the dwarven mountains, an intricate music box that played a sweet lullaby from the Firen nation and a guitar from the Lebethron crafted from the finest wood. The time she spent with him was always pure joy and the day that he left always struck her with sadness.
When Susanna was 16 the port town where she lived was attacked as part of the Mad King's Black Crusade. Susanna was one of only a couple dozen survivors to escape alive and mostly unharmed. She was lost and alone in the world. Her uncle was dead and her father was in the wind. She'd received a letter from him several months prior that said he was leaving the navel trade union and they shouldn't worry, he would come visit with the new year. With her home destroyed Susanna held no hope that her father would return to the ruins. When news of the attack reached him he would think her dead. Her only hope of seeing him again was to follow his footsteps and hope to outpace him.
Susanna found very quickly that charity was a sparse commodity. One that could never be relied on. She was one teenage orphan of many, just another face in a crowd of desperate souls. To set herself apart she used what skills she had. She'd learned some basic skills on the Lebethron guitar her father had bought for her. That instrument had been lost with her home. With what little money she had Susanna bought herself a replacement to the Lebethron guitar. It was not high quality but it played a decent sound. That began Susanna's career as a traveling bard. She practiced when she could and inns were often pleased to offer a little gold or room and board for some nightly entertainment. Sometimes it even got her passage on caravans or trading ships.
Susanna spent the next two years searching for her father. His coworkers at the shipping company pointed her towards the Anfangrim saying that Richard had left to learn of the dwarven people. On arrival Susanna found out that her father had begun to study the art of dwarven metalwork but the master he'd studied under had said he'd disembarked for the Hadhodrim dwarves of the middle ranges some two months previous. Just as when Marie died it seemed that with his only child dead to his knowledge Richard was burying his grief by travelling.
When Susanna followed her father's footsteps to the middle ranges he was long gone but the ironmaster he'd worked under gave her one of the swords her father had crafted and told her never to give up hope of finding her family.
Things took a darker turn when Susanna was attempting to track a wander group of Hobgoblins that she believed her father had taken up residence with in order to increase his skin in metalbending. Though she had no way of knowing, the Hobgoblins that she met with where not the same sort that had taken in her father. They were enslaved to an Andrann necromancer who'd long been banished from his clan for his practice of the darkest arts imaginable. While she was drinking with them and trying to get information on her father one of the Hobgoblins slipped something into her drink. She passed out not long afterwards.
When she awoke she was in what appeared to be a strange cross between a laboratory, an operating theater and a torture chamber. She was strapped down to a metal table but from her vantage point she could see a tall pale man leaning against one of the walls.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" she said her voice breathless, fear etched on her face.
The elf, for his ears did mark him as such, ignored her as he drew a sword from what she realized was a pile of her belongings. "Well forged, good balance, this is fine dwarven craftsmanship, Hadhodrim if I'm not mistaken."
"Put that down, that was my father's sword!" Susanna shouted.
"Indeed," he said looking unimpressed. "It will serve nicely as a conduit, perhaps an arcane repellent. Added protection is never a bad thing."
Replacing the sword where he'd found it the elf, studied her for a moment before he continued to speak. "To answer your earlier questions, my name is Argent and as for you, I don't have any particular use for you but I need a young and strong body for my work. Now that you are awake we may begin."
The elf started chanting in a language Susanna had never heard before but which sounded vile to her ears. Runes painstakingly drawn into intricate designs forming a circle around the table Susanna was confined to started to glow with a white hot light. As they did other runes that had been scrawled on Susanna's bear skin began to glow as well and with the glow came a burning pain like the heat of a white hot sun. A moment later it was as though the very air before her was torn asunder. A crack split the space and opened wide into a dark chasm blacker than any shadow. Smoke poured from the opening enveloping Susanna in blackness. It felt hot and heavy almost like it was solid. Instinctively Susanna held her breath to prevent any of the vile air from filling her lungs, but she could only keep her mouth closed for so long. Her lungs desperate for oxygen finally drew in a breath of the dark smoke.
The moment she did so she knew she'd made a grave mistake. It felt like acid being poured down her throat, but more than that it felt like the smoke was forcing its way in. The more she breathed it the more she had to keep breathing it until all of the smoke was gone and the crack in space sealed itself. Susanna was sweating from head to toe and her breath came in sharp rasps, her throat felt raw, like if she started to speak it would crack and bleed.
Argent meanwhile was still standing against the opposite wall. "That seemed to go well, please, can you tell me your name?'
Before Susanna could curse him or answer or do anything else a voice issued from her mouth. "A name is curious thing, it is never enough to simply know someone, you must have a word to tie everything you know about them to. If that is how it must be you may call me... Lilith."
A panic rooted deep in Susanna's soul started to rage. 'Who are you?' she tried to scream but the words got lost somewhere in her throat. It seemed though that the creature that had taken her body could hear her just fine.
"Do you not listen dearie? I am Lilith, the rest, well you shall known shortly." Lilith proceeded to rip the leather bindings that held Susanna to the table. She hoped nimbly to the floor and faced Argent. "For what reason have you summoned me here elf. I do not take inference by mortals lightly."
Argent studied Lilith for a moment before he started to speak. "I require your assistance in some experiments, but for now you may act as my vassal." Susanna felt the rage of the demon inside her at these words. She charged forwards, her fingers reaching for Argent's throat, only to collide with some form of barrier at the edge of the runes around the table.
Lilith looked down at the runes then back at Argent. "Necromancer." she hissed as though he were some form of abomination.
"Now now," Argent spoke as though to a child. "settle yourself. You are trapped for now however I have some more rituals to perform before you will obey my command. Until then relax."
The necromancer used some form of dark magic to bind Lilith to his will. Whatever he commanded she was forced to obey. For the next two years the demon was at his beck and call for whatever he required with Susanna watching helplessly from the edges of her own mind. Usually Argent gave Lilith a task and a deadline, most often it was some ingredient he needed for his studies, the heart of a virgin, the hand of a killer, the tongue of a cheat, the eyes of a sear. Whatever he needed Lilith was forced to obtain. However Argent always gave her a little more time than she actually needed to complete the task. He seemed to be under the opinion that it was better for Lilith to release her anger on the wider world than to let it build up, even if she had no power to hurt him.
Two years after Lilith's subjugation she was called back to the operating theater where she was first summoned. It seemed that Argent had completed preparations for the spell he'd intended to test when he'd first summoned Lilith. He had laid out new runes on the ground which he ordered Lilith to the center of. Then he began to chant again in the black language of the void. It grated against Susanna's ears but it seemed Lilith recognized the incantations.
"You can't!" she shouted at Argent moments before he completed his spell.
A blinding light filled the room, so bright it blotted out Lilith and Susanna's vision. When it cleared Susanna heard a voice inside her head. It was her own yet not hers.
'NO!' Lilith screamed inside her skull.
Argent appraised the girl in front of him. "Susanna, can you speak?"
"I-I," she said in shock, so surprised after two years to be able to control her own body again. "She's gone?"
Argent laughed. "Now what purpose would that serve? No she is simply buried in your soul while you control all of her marvelous abilities. Tell me, can you summon the great flames of the Vengeance Demon?"
'The runes, they imprison demons, not whatever we are now.'
Susanna heard the voice and in her state could barely even tell that it wasn't her own thoughts. A horrible scream ripped from her throat as she charged forward and this time crossed over the runes without problem. The moment she did the color drained from Argent's face. Her right hand wrapped around his neck and rage filled her eyes. In that moment, the only time the demon and human sides of her soul worked in unity brilliant white flames formed in a ball in her left hand and she slammed it hard into the necromancer's chest.
The flames seemed to plunge into him, filling his being as they turned from brilliant white to the dark black that reflected his soul. Susanna and Lilith spoke in unison. "The Flames have judged you necromancer, receive your retribution."
The fires consumed Argent leaving behind a blackened husk. Susanna collapsed to the floor, so exhausted that she passed out. When she awoke she gathered what was left of her belongings, took her father's sword from Argent's corpse and fled his fortress.
A B I L I T I E SLilith is what's known as a Vengeance Demon, sometimes called a Sin Eater. In the black forges of the underworld she was created to bring retribution to the damned souls that reside there. For that purpose she has two main demonic abilities outside of natural possession. The first is a form of infernal magic called The Flames of Damnation. They are a type of unholy fire that feeds off sin. In it's natural form when first summoned by Lilith it is a blinding shade of white. However when it begins to feed off someone it changes color to reflect which of the nine circles of hell the soul will be damned to. If they're earthly crimes are great enough to grant them a place in all nine the flames turn blacker than the darkest shadow. Only a man that has committed no sin (no matter how small) is truly immune to the flames however the less tarnished someone's soul the less effective the flames. They are extremely effective against the undead and while not negated altogether other demons are largely insulated against them.
The other ability is the one that grants Lilith the name of Sin Eater. Because Vengeance demons are often chosen to hunt down souls escaped from the underworld they have the ability to sense the sins of mortals, living or dead. Unless she has incredibly focus and consent from the other party she does not see specific acts or events but merely a scale of how far gone a soul is, how blackened. Whether they belong above or below. Susanna also has a certain sixth sense when it comes to the arcane, especially infernal or dark magicks.
Outside of pure infernal powers Lilith also has an extensive knowledge of rituals, runes and magic circles that with the right preparation and ingredients can be used to create a variety of effects. This knowledge is however limited tot he demonic portion of Susanna's soul and Lilith only shares it if there is something in it for her.
E X T R A S
E Q U I P M E N T- Arcane Sword:
A sword forged by her father in the heart of the middle ranges. Kept by his master as an example of his pupils finest work after Richard's departure. When Susanna came looking for her father the dwarf gave the sword to her and told her not to give up hope. It was later enchanted by the necromatic elf Argent to repel arcane attacks. - Lebethron Guitar:
During her journey to the Lebethron Elves while searching for a way to purge Lilith from her soul a Lebethron craftsman made a gift of one of his instruments to Susanna after hearing her playing and pronouncing her worthy of his work. - Dwarven Flask:
An enchanted flask given to Susanna by her father. It was designed to its contents in an optimal drinking state, soup stays warm, drink stays cold, blood stays fresh. - Pack:
A light backpack containing the bare essentials for Susanna's survival. These include a bedroll, preserved foods, a change in clothing, a flint and steel, and a music box her father gave her.
As the vessel to a demon Susanna's body is strengthened by the ingestion of human blood. She hates to drink the substance and will admit to no one that to her at least it actually tastes delicious. Despite this Susanna keeps a flash of human blood with her should she ever need to enter a fray. Drinking it makes her feel strong though a bit high, like she's tipsy. She doesn't like to drink it because while it makes her stronger and gives her more accessible control over Lilith's powers it also impairs her judgement and makes it that much easier to lose control. She gets it from certain underground suppliers whose normal clientele is primarily witches looking to obtain ingredients for spells.
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Apollosarcher,
shylarah
