#how does a fae reconcile with like divinity

[thewolfisawake]

Mag na Scathanna is both a settlement and a congregation of a certain type of fae. These are the ban-sith, or 'banshee,' who are associated with death, water and fate. There are several kinds that reside but they are generally called 'ban-sith.' Fitting with the descriptions of them, most are old women although this is not iron-clad.

While it is considered in the Unseelie, it is also an entrance or beginning to the Otherworld. And this place was a gift to the residents from those of the Otherworld namely the 'gods' or something of a similar vein. Because many beings from there understand or are not bothered by the clairvoyant nature of the ban-sith. However because they are belonging to this realm they cannot really inhabit the Otherworld (at least that is what is told) so they have this place very close to it to stay.

And it was a sole condition that had to be filled and it was for them to use their gifts for others. The visions that they see are usually surrounded by death (and by extension destruction) so they were grim seers of fortune. While it wasn't pleasant, it was necessary. That is what the Unseelie saw them for while the Otherworld maintained the land with the abundance for their service.

However over time...the land seemed to become more desolate despite the faithfulness to their duty. But many were old...they were past being worried even if they did complain about the symptoms rather than cause of their woes.

Faolan, Balmoral's mother, saw the silence of the Otherworld as them needing to save themselves. Letting themselves be overlooked would not help their condition. If the Otherworld was going to abandon them, what other choice was there than getting help from the place that was supposedly their realm?

Of course this led to the destruction of the settlement altogether. Which is still viewed as an omen. One of ill or not is debatable. Of course, Balmoral knows of it a bit more personally than most fae would speak of it. However he does feel a bit divorced from it seeing as so much of it was lost and that his only source...he cannot ask questions about.

Now he may have some bias because of his mother's bitterness and ire of the fate of Mag na Scathanna, Balmoral does hold a bit of anger about it all. After all, those that should be able to are all dead and he's one of the few that still have the blood of those slaughtered. And for what? Deities that long gave up caring about it? For selfish fae that didn't know how to handle being told of death and destruction?

The fae part, he's made peace with since he's ripped the Unseelie apart in some ways and pruned out what he would have deemed the 'taint' of the land. The deities though...Balmoral feels people that do what they want (although like Seelie, Unseelie more believe in land than deities). But for those that were supposed to honor a deal...

'I have no use for gods that are as fickle as my subjects.' He does not really care for the Celtic in particular because of their reneging. But Balmoral does again admit he has a bias as a child from the peoples wiped out and that if he weren't, he probably would not care. However that disdain does not hold over to the rest of divinity nor any other pantheons. To him, they're going to be whatever they want and so long as they're not infringing on his kingdom, they can do what they want. Because, ultimately, it is the land and his subjects that are are Balmoral's care as both a fae and a ruler.

[eudaimonia83]

No one asked, but here’s my HC trying to reconcile this utter lapse in sense (one of many). Lol.

First of all, Feyre is only HL bc Rhysand decreed it so, not bc the magic chose her, and that should become painfully evident if she tries to impose her will on governing the country without asking her husband to glare menacingly at whoever denies her. Which she never does, except by grandstanding at the HL meeting and participating in military victories, and spending the revenue of the NC, so that’s convenient. 🙄 And that technically STILL leaves us with no High Ladies, because she has failed spectacularly to truly upset the established order. And despite the fact that the religion worships the Mother, the entire social and political system in Prythian is based on patriarchy and sexism.

Now, we do see this happen in the real world, so my brain immediately goes, okay, why? And how would that believably manifest among the Fae?

Most of the time when this happens it’s because of a reshuffling of the pillars of patriarchy, where one asserts more power over the others to try to regain hegemony. Religion is a powerful cultural influence, but while that contributes significantly toward the overall experience of reality, it is distinct from secular function. AND it is subject to constant renegotiation and interpretation. So what if this female-centric religion that clearly dominates Prythian is really a former sect that has become widely accepted? Perhaps an earlier orthodox version of this religion placed less importance on the role of the Mother.

And concurrently, what if the aristocracy that governs Prythian and the rules by which it operates are a holdover from an earlier age?

Then my brain goes, “aha. This dynamic would be kind of like how the Catholic Church legitimized and upheld the divine right of kings in exchange for material support?”

Well, yes. So perhaps this newer interpretation of religion was trying to establish itself a-few-thousand-years-gone-by, and in doing so, came to agreements where they manipulated the magic to choose only High Lords, who in the past might’ve been mighty military leaders or families who amassed significant wealth, and were probably headed by ambitious men/males.

We know the magic CAN be manipulated, because Ianthe did it when she and Lucien completed the Great Rite. It would appear to be difficult to do, because most other Fae seem to be subject to the magic and not manipulators of it. So perhaps the powerful priestesses are able to do this, and they put some restrictions in place in exchange for power or riches (maybe they negotiated to keep the feet of the Cauldron, or objects from the Dread Trove, or riches). In my mind that sets up an interesting conflict between existing power and potential challenges thereto.

Because what if these restrictions start to break down in the wake of the reforging of the Cauldron (a source of religious schism if there ever was one)? What if there’s a weakening of those restrictions, and the magic is freer to look elsewhere; and Viviane, or maybe Cresseida, or perhaps even Mor, are truly chosen by the magic instead? Oop. The world would tilt on its axis, at least for the High Lords. Chaos, panic, disorder! 😈 And I would rub my hands with glee but that’s beside the point.

ANYWAY, like I said, no one asked, but this is one of the thought experiments that I often daydream about. 😁 Feel free to rabbit-hole with me about how mating bonds would change (or not) in this scenario.

****ETA: I haven’t read CC and I’m monumentally uninterested in it, so I’m not talking about crossover-dependent details. Just reasons why this might have happened within the Prythian world.****

Why are there no other High Ladies?

This is a serious question and one that has bothering for a long fucking time. I know that it’s only done by SJM to glorify Fryer and Ricin blah, blah, blah, but ignoring them and all of their headassery, there’s no logical reason for women, I mean females to not inherit Special Cauldron Magic.

If the mating bond ensures that the coupling of a man and woman male and female will produce power offspring, doesn’t that imply that both partners are equal in power? For example, Kallias is Viviane’s mate, meaning that they have been fated (shudders) to create uber-powerful babies. Wouldn’t Viviane also possess power that is equal to his, a high lord’s?

It doesn’t make any fucking sense for the Mother or the Cauldron or whatever does the deciding to match him up with someone with less power. Therefore, the mates of High Lords (which I’m assuming are women females ugh because I just don’t believe SJM actually intended to include same sex mates) are just as fucking powerful as them.

And what the fuck happens when a High Lord has a daughter??? You mean to tell me that none of them have never had at least one daughter??? And even if they did, why would it just fucking skip them??? I am confusion.

[thetygre]

Arthurian D&D Books

So before the tumblrpocalypse hits us all, I guess I better belt out that mini-review of D&D books that deal with Arthurian legend for @magitekbeth, @fuckyeaharthuriana, and @lucrezianoin. These are specifically 3rd Edition books since that was the edition I started with, and it also had the greatest body of material to work with. 3rd was famous for its glut of books by third-party publishers, and Arthurian mythology was a recurring subject under the Open Source Rules (OSR).

That being said, Arthurian legend has always had some form of presence in Dungeons and Dragons. It is very openly an inspirational source in the fantasy gumbo that is D&D. The original 1st Edition Deities and Demigods included ‘Arthurian Heroes’ in it, along with gods from just about every pantheon. 2nd Edition had a supplement detailing Arthurian legend, though for the life of me I can’t find it.

But let’s start cracking on the 3rd edition books. Atlas Games’ Love and War isn’t necessarily about Arthurian legend, but it is about knights, particularly the romantic characterization of knights that is attached to a lot of versions of Arthurian legend. The book is built around the four concepts of knightly virtue (love, valor, piety, and loyalty), with special knightly orders and character options for each one. It expands outward into fantasy rpg territory a bit more by also offering race-specific concepts for knights, such as orders specifically for dwarves and elves.

Since it doesn’t have to explore Arthuriana, that also gives Love and War more room to explore knight concepts that other books here typically don’t; female knights, knight duos, fallen knights, etc. And as is standard for most of the books mentioned here, Love and War also introduces a variety of subsystems for a chivalric setting, including tournaments, piety, honor, and renown. Interestingly, one of the subsystems is courtly wit, which is a non-combat system meant to emulate the verbal sparring and social maneuvering present in stories about nobility and knights. Again, not Arthuriana, but recommended.

I’ve already talked about I, Mordred before, and it’s what got me thinking about this list again. Like I said there, I just feel like the premise of fighting an evil King Arthur alongside Mordred as the good guy just didn’t go far enough. If nothing else, Morgan le Fay should have been at least Neutral instead of still being cast as Evil. Really, everybody needs to be some kind of Neutral to really get an ambiguous setting of competing factions with no clear ‘right’ choice. Personally, I still want to see a version that goes super-hard with the alignment flip; paladin Mordred and white witch Morgan versus the half-demon warlock Merlin, his puppet king Arthur, and the death knights of the round. But then again, subtlety was never exactly my forte.

But this is where we get into the real good stuff, the books committed to Arthuriana. Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is the book of choice for if you want to plop a faux-Arthurian Britain into a high fantasy setting. It comes at Arthurian legend from a perspective that inherently has multiple races, high magic, and wandering monsters. You can play as not just a human, but a sidhe elf, halfling, dwarf, or even hobgoblin. Even half-orcs have made it in, though reflavored to be their own race of ‘Wild Man’.

Like most extensive themed campaign books, R&R: Excalibur takes an extensive look at what aspects of the base Dungeons and Dragons systems stays the same and what changes. For instance, some player character classes like fighter, rogue, bard, and paladin fit right in to Arthuriana, while other like the oriental-themed monk and the spell-slinging sorcerer are right out. (Regular classical wizards are still fine, though.) And, as is to be expected, there is a new knight class, though the author does note that it can seem somewhat redundant with the fighter and paladin still around, and its use is optional. There are a few prestige classes, with the one sticking out most in my memory being the classic Green Knight, complete with chlorophyll and resistance to decapitation.

There are a variety of essays encompassing everything from tournaments to the importance of knightly decor to honor and, perhaps most importantly, how to manage D&D’s vastly overpowered magic system and magic items into an Arthurian setting. There are no less than two pantheons, one Faerie lords and the other of this new-fangled ‘God’ fellow. Me being me, I mostly remember the chapter on how to treat different kinds of monsters; I was particularly fond of the idea of making the Fisher King’s cursed kingdom filled with undead trying to enact a danse macabre of everyday life, complete with skeleton farmers driving skeleton horses to plow barren fields. But again, that’s just me.

Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is definitely a worthy book for lovers of Arhturiana. But that’s the thing; it captures the spirit and tone of Arthurian legend, but not Arthurian legend itself. There’s definitely an appeal to it; something novel about the idea of jousting on a chimera, or cockatrice fights at the local fair, but it’s not quite the same. It’s high fantasy D&D stepping into Arthuriana, not the other way around. For that, for the real Arthurian legend lovers, you’ve got to get the real gem.

*Slaps top of book* This bad boy can fit so many knights in it. This is arguably THE book for Arthurian mythology in Dungeons and Dragons. Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures is a love letter to Arthurian legend. It starts with an incredibly brief summary of the history of Arthurian legend, from Wales to La Morte D’Arthur to John Boorman. LoE:AA makes it clear that it’s up to the reader to go research Arthurian legend for themselves; all the book can do is point them in the right direction. After that, it’s right into the content.

There are some pretty drastic changes made to the base 3rd edition D&D core rules before really setting in. The Alignment system is gone entirely, replaced by a character’s honor score. What are the character race options? Get out of here with that; LoE runs old school, so it’s human or nothing. What you do pick, though, is your starting social class, and that can make just as much difference as whether you have pointy ears or not. All the base D&D classes are chucked out except for fighter, rogue, barbarian, bard, and druid.

All that uprooting is fast replaced by a host of new character options. Legends of Excalibur is smaller than Relics and Rituals, but definitely packs more bang for its buck. The new character classes include the fool (with a special nod to Arthur’s fool, Dagonet), the hedge mage (new general mage/spellcaster), the hermit and the priest (for divine spellcasting), the minstrel (meant to represent more traditional Celtic/druid bards instead of the base D&D one), the noble (so that you can finally live out the fantasy of being rich and respectable), the robber baron (which is like the noble, but with more stabbing and shaking people down), the skald (another bard, but for vikings), the yeoman (Robin Hood/archer type), and, of course, the knight.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are a metric ton of prestige classes. Some are fairly bog standard, like the alchemist or berserker, while others are meant very explicitly to play into Arthurian archetypes. Remember how there was actually more than one Lady of the Lake? Now you can be one too. Merlin? Court mage. Morgan le Fay? Fae Enchnatress. And knights? Oh, you bet there are knight prestige classes here. There are no less than SEVEN knight prestige classes, including Quest Knight (specifically for seeking the Holy Grail), White Knight (to replace paladins), Black Knight (to replace blackguards/antipaladins), and practically every color knight in between.

Legends of Excalibur also offers rules for characters that advance beyond the standard level cap in the Dungeons and Dragons system, into the ‘Epic’ character levels. This is actually one of the reasons why I feel like Dungeons and Dragons can be a good fit for Arthurian legend. A character can start out as little more than a wandering soldier and advance to become as powerful as a demigod. While the typical image of Arthurian mythology is of a fairly low-fantasy medieval Europe, the actual source material, throughout its multiple incarnations, isn’t stingy about giving its characters magic powers, legendary equipment, and impossible challenges to face. While it still needs to be toned down to some degree, there is definitely room in Arthurian legend for the kind of superheroic powers that the Epic rules can bring. (Or at least as long as the setting keeps spellcasters to a minimum.)

This book isn’t just a guide to playing Arthurian characters, but the Arthurian world. There is a complete map of Arthurian Europe that has to reconcile Arthur’s given time with accounts of him rebelling against the Pope and fighting in the Crusades before Islam even existed. It’s a wonderful little detail, trying to account for everywhere that Arthur or one of his knights or relatives supposedly lived in or visited. Another detail is accounting for the the timeline; Legends of Excalibur designates five important time periods in the Arthurian cycle, from just after Uther’s death to the Golden Age of Camelot to the civil war with Mordred. Each period has different effects on not just characters, but the geography, people of the land, and magic. Try to go into the forests just after Uther died, for instance, and a character is likely to run into monsters like dire wolves. Go back when Arthur is on the throne, though, and the forest and its animals will be tamer. It’s a world very committed to the idea of Divine Right, and how a king affects the universe.

Of course there are monsters. There’s the standards; white hart, Questing Beast, though some more obscure monsters like a variety of werewolves are here too. There’s individual entries for monsters to describe their individual place in Arthurian Europe; chimeras and manticores are rare, ogres and trolls are common, etc. The real gem of the monster section, though, is giants and dragons; giants and dragons are staples of knightly mythology, after all, so they get special treatment. Just like people, dragons and giants are categorized by class and bloodline; a noble dragon, for instance, will have scales the color of gold and be the size of a castle, where a lowborn dragon looks like the wrong end of a snake and an umbrella. Naturally, there’s more Honor to be gained fighting one instead of the other. It’s a great system that reflects how, along with the King, giants and dragons are tied to the land.

But the cincher, the real hook that I think makes this book worthy of a true Arthurian legend fan, is the sample adventures and appendix. I, Mordred gave you one shot of teaming up with Arthurian big names; Legend of Excalibur gives you three. Fresh adventurers can help Sir Balin kill the invisible knight, possibly even averting the grail cycle by killing the knight before he reaches Pellam’s castle. More powerful adventurers have to choose sides in the civil war, and Mordred is once again an option. But my favorite of the three adventures has the player characters helping a young Arthur claim a castle. It would be satisfying enough to rub elbows with the likes of Merlin or Sir Kay, but then there’s a side-quest where young Arthur sees Guinevere and is instantly smitten, so he conscripts the players into acting as his go-between for her. Players have to deliver Arthur’s notes Guinevere. They can read the love poems he writes for her; they’re awful. It’s just such a wonderful little detail that it’s hard not to love it.

And then, finally, there is the appendix; a whole cast of Arthurian characters statted out. It would be impossible to cover EVERYONE, but Legends of Excalibur makes a fair effort. LoE remembers some characters that typically get left behind; Dagonet, Morgausse, Sir Bors, etc. Some characters, such as Arthur, are presented at different stages in their life. All-in-all it makes a good roundout for what I’d call easily the best book about Arthurian legend in Dungeons and Dragons, if not one of the best tabletop roleplaying.

If you scanned past all that; this is the book to get for Arthurian legend in D&D. Legends of Excalibur is the beginning, middle, and end of the argument for Arthuriana with tabletop roleplaying. Even if you don’t play 3rd edition, or even D&D, it’s still a valuable resource in converting Arthurian Europe into a tabletop fantasy setting. The only way you could get more in-depth is if you made an entire RPG about Arthurian legend.

But maybe let’s talk about that some other time, huh?

[diveronaevents]

Date: October 10th

Time: 3:33 PM

Location: Hotel Emelia -- All of Verona

It was like the splitting of the veil in the temple of the Lord, nature itself had witnessed the splitting of something divine and rent itself apart to decry the injustice. So, too, did Verona see fit to cry out against the travesties that were being enacted on its soil. The storm did not abate, did not allow a single soul a breath of air in the midst of torrents of water and flashes of thunder and lightning. There was only the suffocation of the life of Verona, institutions crumbling to pieces at the hands of a vengeful and righteous God. The witches whispered among themselves within the confines of their sacred space, watching from atop their hotel like three gargoyles judging sinners for daring to step upon hallowed ground. Even against the darkened storm clouds of the dim afternoon sky, they seemed to encapsulate the inky blackness of something otherworldly. The shadows that dart in and out of the corner of your eyes. The mass of fear that watches you as you wake up, sweat drenching your sheets, lips locked together to prevent you from screaming.

They stood with their umbrellas upon, black halos that highlighted the paleness of their respective features, each of their lips curved downward in a distasteful frown. From where they stood, they could see how empty the streets were -- an indisputable display of evidence of the toll that the storm was taking upon the city. CIRCE was the first to break the pseudo-silence that had fallen between the three siblings, punctuated every so often by a thunderclap or a flash of lightning.

“Have our prayers been answered?” They asked, staring at the rising levels of water that barraged the cobblestone streets.

“When has our God ever turned away from us? We are His instruments meant to deliver a message of perdition to those who refuse to confess their wrongdoings and reconcile for…” MEDEA trailed off, searching for the word that escaped them.

“Heinous transgressions?” HECATE supplied helpfully, flicking droplets of water from their black gloves. “Let Verona drown, then, in their silence. Let it suffocate them in the form of a great deluge. God did it once with Noah - and as we are quite aware: history repeats itself.”

And it does. In the form of a bullet and a trigger and a body on the banks of a river that saw the rise and fall of empires.

A thunderclap sounded, far closer than they had anticipated, and the three siblings turned their heads up in unison, umbrellas forsaken for the moment. With their faces upturned, they drank in the power of the dark storm clouds gathering, stretching for miles beyond the borders of Verona. There was to be no relief found in the near future, was there? An answer to their prayers - a means of retribution for spitting upon their sanctified rule of obedience while within their domains of neutrality. A smile painted HECATE’S face as they threw their umbrella from atop the roof of Hotel Emelia, a bout of laughter filling the air as their siblings drank in the satisfaction of knowing that no crime against them would go unpunished by a God that decreed them to be something holy. Or unholy.

They did not wait to hear the splash that HECATE’S umbrella would make and turned away from the scene that was laid out before them. But just as they did so, there was a shift, a change in the rain fall, in the lighting of the clouds, in the very breath that Verona took. They turned back, and what did they see when they looked at the waters flooding the streets. Chrome and gold glinted, some of it looking like water in oil, with the water, but not of it. Three pairs of eyes lifted in that moment, to determine where this leak of ambrosia and fae blood had stemmed from, but when they looked there was only more gold and chrome, winking at them, glimmering against the darkness from which they emerged. Three pairs of lips parted in horror.

God had cast the first sinners out of paradise and sent them to a hell on earth. Perhaps what they were to endure in Verona was far worse. Perhaps their paradise was to become their hell. For the sins they committed were far more condemnable than that of their First Parents.

CIRCE’S eyes searched the horizon, squinting past the gentle drizzle that was somehow far more damning than the torrent that poured down upon them moments before. They took a deep breath in, mouth opening to tell their siblings what they already knew -- they had to warn the people of Verona of what effects there might be, of the horrors that they were likely going to endure for the next few weeks. But there was no sound that was emitted. Save for that of a gasp of horror, followed by the screams of their siblings.

 Damiano awoke with a start, having passed out with a bottle of whiskey in hand. There was a thunderous crack that had sounded moments after he awoke, but it was not what made his heart seize in agony. It was the voice that had whispered in his ear, had dragged him from his troubled reverie of inky blackness. He smacked his lips together, already intent on brushing away the remnants of a guilt-ridden clockwork heart. There was an early darkness that had settled onto Verona, somewhat familiar now after days of rain and storm clouds. The paperwork on his desk was indecipherable now, numbers and words blending together in an unintelligible mix of ink and paper. There was something in there about the monetary hits they had taken thus far, what with the Capulets peddling their own feel-good drugs now. Along with a report about Roman’s failings. Faron’s successes.

A gale of wind shrieked for his attention and Damiano frowned, turning his head while wiping off the flecks of rain that had come in. Had he truly slept through this? There was no other explanation, what with the glass that was on the floor and the carpet that was drenched from the fat raindrops that had invaded the room.

He frowned and picked up a shard of glass, holding it up to stare at the faint light emanating from a street lamp outside.

He took a deep breath and squinted, the taste of whiskey tasting sour in his mouth.

A pair of eyes stared at him through the shard of glass.

Here was his demon, come to haunt him.

“Alvise,” he whispered. “Alvise, please forgive me.”

OVERVIEW: This event, unlike other events, is more open-ended. This event is meant to progress each and every character’s development and give us a chance to expand on the heartbreak each citizen of Verona has to endure. The floods have caused irreparable damage to the factories of the Montagues and the Capulets, where their drugs were being produced. The floodwater has quite literally dredged up the worst of Verona, the drugs culminating into an intoxicating mix that causes hallucinogenic effects. Specifically, effects that bring up visions and apparitions of one’s worst demons, of the ghosts that haunt one into the witching hour of the night. The rain has lessened into a less abusive torrent, becoming instead a light drizzle so Veronans may go about trying to repair the damage that has been done to their city. By October 13th the rain will have stopped completely. By October 15th, the water will have abated -- and will continue to be cleared out from then on.

Threads may be dated from October 10th ( when the hallucinations start to plague the city ) to October 29th. Might want to keep in mind that Verona is known for their Halloween -- ah, excuse me, All Souls’ Day -- celebrations. 

TASK: This is, as always, optional. But feel free to write a drabble, or an assessment, as to which element represents your character best. Is it iron? Gold? Fire? Water? Feel free to make a graphic for this as well! 

[back-alley-magic]

"Myro, a girl, letting fall a child’s tears, 

raised this little tomb for the locust that sang in the seed-land,

And for the oak-dwelling cicada; implacable Hades holds their double song." --Anyte of Tegea

The Diviner

Like traditional water diviners, Anyte uses two forked wands to search for things. She rubs the wands together to create friction (earning her the nickname of Cricket), or taps them for bell-like chimes, much like a tuning fork. Her power truly lies in searching out emotion, and can be so specific as to find one person's grief in a sea of people. But she can also find anything with a deep emotional connection to it. 

Is the closest thing Hedge Witches of this generation have come to Witches Proper. She is a witch in flux, half-caught between humanity and immortality, frozen with indecision between her deeply flawed human emotions and the promise of real power. She is stuck between a shadowy future and the burning present. This is tearing her apart, and she is letting it.

Faction: Hedge Witches

FC: Nathalie Emmanuel

Name: Anyte Vale (Human name: Amandine Porter. Unlike many witches, she is utterly transparent about her past and still fearless. From others, this might be seen as a taunt. But Anyte, like many who know their future, simply doesn't see the point of hiding her past)

Any other titles, nicknames, or epithets: The Diviner, Cricket (because of the rubbing of her wands and the bell-like humming they generate), The Mediator

Age: 26

Personality:

+honest

+open

+knowledgeable, though not very clear about how she got that knowledge and how she plans to use it. Usually her hints are fragmentary and lack any context

+light and airy, she gives off a flighty, inconsistent air in the way she moves and talks that is rather odd when mixed with her very blunt and inflexible nature. She seems deeply divided, but doesn't know how to reconcile these differences

+observant, and tends to focus on small details about a person. This can sometimes be unsettling when she jumps to conclusions based on little body language signals most people don't even realize they give off.

+moral

+poised

+kind but not coddling. She sees things on a larger scale, and knows sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

+determined

+responsible. Duty is everything for her

+/-distant

+/-disconcertingly calm

+/-blunt

+/-not prone to strong emotions, or at least not prone to allowing herself the indulgence of expressing them

+/-wants desperately to be remembered, and often stretches herself too thin in order to make her mark

+/-never allows herself to question her path, even though she knows it's leading towards disaster. In her eyes, it's the only way. If she questions it, she is lost. If she falters, everything falls with her.

+/-guileless, but oftentimes very confusing. She's slowly descending into the rushing currents of time, and feels rushed. She has no time to explain, and her thoughts are often muddled (sometimes they don't even feel like her own. But she pushes /that/ terrifying thought far, far away. If she isn't herself anymore, then she's already lost, and she can't bear that thought)

-melancholic

-unsure, but wont give herself the time or leeway to gain any confidence. It's not a lack of power that worries her. It's a lack of fortitude, and flaws of character. She is immensely self-critical, and judges every action based on its thousand possible consequences

-stifled

-unwilling to take time and energy for herself. This is the inevitable self-destruction that accompanies knowing your fate. She can't see that it's only speeding up the inevitable, and the harder she tries to fight, the worse she's making things for herself (and everyone else)

-has a hero complex the size of Morrow. To some, this may seem vain and pretentious. To others it just seems stubborn and misguided. Most agree that her heart is in the right place though.

-macabre and morbid

-Sometimes all she wants to do is scream and smash things, to destroy something before she herself is shattered, and maybe leave behind a permanent scar. She's beginning to think that's the only way to be remembered. Everyone will forget what you fix, but scars are immortal.

-unwilling to accept the idea that some problems can't be fixed

-inflexible

-conflicted

-secretly terrified of her future and her powers

-never turns to others for help

Powers, weapons, and skills:

Has dual wands which she uses to focus energy into audible vibrations in order to locate things. She can strike or rub them together to create a bell-like humming similar to a tuning fork and they are precise enough for her to feel nuanced emotions and emotional connections. This is pretty useful in her job as a mediator. 

Her major conduit is actually air, though she mostly uses sound waves. She prefers passive magic, such as finding things, because it's humbler magic and doesn't disturb the natural balance of the magical world as much as more active transformation magics for example. This does not mean she isn't capable of this kind of active magic, though. When cornered, she can switch her power from drawing on air to focus emotional energy to drawing on emotional energy to focus air. In this way she can call up storms and even draw the breath from a person's lungs if she is upset enough. This is also why she bears the name The Diviner, because of her ability to call fierce rainstorms when threatened. This is a very rare occurrence though, as she is careful to keep her emotions in check.

As she grows closer to transitioning to a Witch Proper, her connection to air dwindles and her connection to emotion grows. Part of her desperately fights this, and has broken free into unexpected storms, freak lightning, and even miniature tornadoes through the back alleys of Morrow. Anyte tries her best to pretend it isn't happening, or that this strange weather has nothing to do with her. But as she feels her humanity drift away, that last-ditch, desperate emotional part of her is fighting to survive against the inevitable pull of time.

She is gaining ever more insight into time, and gets flashes of deeply emotional moments from Morrow's rich past when she comes in contact with specific objects (this comes with a deafening bell-like sound only she can hear that virtually incapacitates her). She believes this is just a side-effect of her transition to a Witch Proper, but she hasn't quite made the connection that these visions may all be linked and have very, very important messages for her about what has come to pass and what will come to pass.

Beyond her magical affinity for searching out emotion, she has a natural (but not supernatural) knack for finding people who may need a little direction. She is firm but not coddling, and actually rather enjoys the company of wayward, lively, and uncontrolled souls. Though she doesn't feed off of that energy like Fae can, they just make her feel alive and remind her of the normal life that's slipping away from her.

She's also a natural mediator, and generally tries not to take sides. Because of this, people from various factions often come to her when issues need solving without bloodshed.

She has the temperament of a teacher, and acts as a mentor of sorts to a lot of hedge witches. She was the one to introduce the Renegade to magic, and he in turn passed on the favor to the New Initiate.

Actually has a beautiful, lilting singing voice. Some are convinced she can manipulate emotions with it, but she just thinks she sings a lot of sad songs and brings down the mood.

Weaknesses:

Very sensitive to loud sounds

When she uses the more active form of her air magic, she draws on her own emotional energy, which is incredibly draining. It is also quite unstable, as she represses most of her strong emotions. So, whenever she actually lets that energy free it can have very dramatic, unpredictable results.

Extremely fatalistic. Anyte has been "gifted" with a glimpse of her future. Though it is fragmented, she knows it isn't hopeful. It comes in flashes (Lysander's there with a red right hand writhing in coils of black flame, and then a column of purple fire reaching like grasping a hand into the clouds, a flurry of white feathers falling from an indigo sky like a snowstorm, fear choking her like black bile, and then everything, nothing, too much and too little, a deafening silence, and a name she almost forgot was hers), but whatever her future it, she's desperately trying to deny what it really means. Part of her believes she will cause something horrible, and part of her hopes she will avert catastrophe. But either way, she's living on borrowed time.

Her independence and almost boundless drive to fix the problems of Morrow is only speeding up her descent (wherever that descent is heading). She's burning herself dry, and is trying to ensure she doesn't drag anyone else down with her. Sadly though, she's too blinded by her own fear and determination to realize that she's only bringing her friends closer to disaster.

Is too focused on the nebulous and ominous future to pay attention to the details of the present, and she's missing a few very key points that might be able to change her fate.

Likes:

poetry

acoustic covers of famous songs

Morrow. She loves the city more than she can ever love another person. It's vibrant and alive, and she loves being part of something bigger than herself. 

the city when it rains and the neon lights bleed onto the pavement

the smell of freshly-cleaned linen

billowing clothes

solving conflicts

coffee shops. They remind her of the small moments, that sometimes everything isn't life or death. 

lively, impulsive, wild people. Though she'll never give herself that freedom, she can't help but be jealous of those who are free to indulge as they please and destroy as they'd like.

talking about small, insignificant things with people

seeing others' small successes

insects (especially crickets and cicadas). They're so impermanent, yet put every ounce of their being into their songs as if they have no other choice. She hopes she can have that bravery, to make something beautiful even in the face of death.

Lysander Crane (and is probably one of the few people who actually does, in spite of--or maybe because of--his many flaws) She actually has a lot of faith in him, even though she doesn't approve of 99% of his life choices

chai tea and snickerdoodles

street cats

art museums

wilted flowers. she keeps bouquets around her apartment for weeks on end, just watching them droop and turn brown. It's her own memento mori, and renews that sense of urgency

greasy chinese food. It's one of the few purely selfish comforts she gives herself. And she has a soft spot for ridiculous fortune cookie fortunes

beautiful acts of magic that remind her how awe-inspiring and incredible it is. She's lost that initial dumb-founded awe that comes to all new hedge witches, and sometimes she starts to hate magic. But every so often she sees something so incredibly beautiful it reminds her why she's still in Morrow.

Dislikes:

glamours and other illusions

the idea of becoming a Witch Proper. And more than that, she hates how much she fears becoming a Witch Proper. She know she shouldn't care about the world she's giving up, that it's more important what she could do with her newfound powers. She hates her selfishness more than she'll ever give in to fear, and that self-disgust is what drives her

people who tell her she works too hard

pretentiousness

petty squabbles. She simply doesn't have time to deal with everyone's selfish, childish, ultimately unimportant personal vendettas

extremely harsh sounds. She has sensitive hearing

the thought that everything about her that's /her/ is slowly draining away, and that some nebulous /something else/ is taking over.

failure

trying to explain herself

yappy little dogs

The business district, especially all the honking taxis. She much prefers the small walking streets of the bad part of town

watching others destroy themselves (even though she does it herself. She can't handle facing that hypocrisy)

Short bio: Unlike many Hedge Witches, Anyte is incredibly transparent about her past life. As Amandine Porter, she grew up in a comfortable middle-class family in the suburbs of Morrow, dreaming (as most children do) about grand adventures and magical powers. The middle of 5 children, she often felt overlooked, and wanted more than anything to be /special./ She looks back on that childhood with a mix of embarrassment and nostalgia. Everything was simpler then, back when she was one of many. But when she came to Morrow to study Medieval Literature, she finally got her wish (or at least, what she thought she wished for). She fell in love with the city almost instantly. It was alive, humming and singing with a thousand thousand untold stories. In its winding streets, she could be anyone. But bit by bit, the noise became overwhelming. She had always been sensitive to loud sounds, cringing with each car alarm and police siren. But this was different. This was the wailing shriek of fear, the relentless drumbeat of lust, the low droning howl of grief. It was ceaseless cacophony, almost drowning out her own faint voice in the chaotic symphony. But then, in a sleepless fit of desperation, she silenced the noise. A pounding rain beat through the city, and lightning split the sky. And for a few blessed moments, there was awed quiet as the whole city watched a drenching thunderstorm appear out of nowhere. Anyte turned her research from French Lais to more...controversial sources. She fashioned two forked wands from the weeping willow outside of her childhood home, and instead of hiding from the noise of the city, she began to listen.

Life in Morrow: Anyte spent a few years as a TA and research assistant in the Medieval Studies department before her supernatural duties began to overshadow her mundane life. She slowly withdrew from this life and drifted towards the darker, dirtier, and more powerful side of Morrow. She is still welcome at Morrow University, and can often be found hiding in alcoves in the library for a few blessed moments of peace and quiet. But now she spends most of her time wandering the grimy alleys of Morrow's slums and dockside, trying to keep a peace she is too stubborn to see is deteriorating and trying to avert a catastrophe that she doesn't even understand. She is a mediator of sorts to the supernatural community, and at least that part of her quest is marginally successful. She is also a mentor and guiding force for many of the Hedge Witches, trying to steer them towards resources to better understand their powers (heaven knows she had to suffer enough learning how to focus her magic, and she hopes to spare others that pain). This is also largely successful. But it's her nebulous broader quest where she truly seals her fate. In her eyes, she is a savior and a martyr, the sacrificial lamb to ward off the brewing storm. She doesn't quite realize that maybe everything she's doing to desperately avoid her fate is only hastening it, and that maybe she isn't the savior after all.

Why do they want the Stone? She is probably the one person in Morrow who doesn't want the Stone. She is about to find, though, that the Stone wants her.

Greatest wish? To do something that carries on after she is gone.

Greatest fear? Her destiny. She lives with all the abandon and grief of one who knows exactly how they'll end.

What 5 items would you put in a pentagram to summon them? A book of poetry, cicada wings, a stick of cinnamon, a wilted rose, a tuning fork