Midnight Clarity

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Revision as of 02:36, 25 March 2008

Basic Character Information

Name: Midnight Clarity
Caste: Secrets
Concept: Softspoken court astrologer, secretly spying for the Thorns Resistance
Motivation: Force the Mask of Winters and his armies from her city
Anima: soft green halo

Attributes and Abilities

Attributes

Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 4, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Abilities

• Caste: Larceny 2, Lore 3, Occult 3 (Underworld Astrology +2), Investigation 2, Stealth 4
• Favored: Dodge 4, Bureaucracy 3, Resistance 2, Integrity 4
• Other: Linguistics 2 (Native: Riverspeak, Other: High Realm, Thorns Fan-language), Performance 3, Socialize 2, Awareness 3, Melee 2, Martial Arts 2 (With Fans +2)

Advantages

Backgrounds

Resources 3
Connections 2 (The Puppet Court)
Acquaintances 2

Willpower, Virtues, and Intimacies

Willpower: 6
Virtues: Compassion 3, Valor 2, Temperance 3, Conviction 2
Intimacies: "Aunt Lilia," Sterre (her mother), the city of Thorns

Health and Essence

Health: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap/Dying/Dying/Dead
Essence: 2
Personal Essence Pool: 10
Peripheral Essence Pool: 28

Merits and Flaws

Nightmares (-3)
Secret: Sidereal Anathema (-3)

Combat Statistics

Defense Statistics

• Dodge: 5 (With DoSJ: 6)
• Parry: 4
• Mental Dodge: 6
• Mental Parry: 4

Soak

• Unarmored
  • Standard: -2B/-2L/-0A
• With OSP
  • Standard: -7B/-7L/-5A

Combat Statistics

• Clinch
  • Standard: Speed 6, Dmg 0, Rate 1
• Kick
  • Standard: Spd 5, Dmg 3B, Def -2, Rate 2
• Punch
  • Standard: Spd 5, Acc 1, Dmg 0, Def +2, Rate 3
• Courtier's Fans
  • Speed 5, Accuracy 3, Dmg 1L, Defense +4, Rate 3, Tag M

Charms

• Optimistic Security Practice
• Thought-Swiping Distraction
• Underling Invisibility Practice
• Prior Warning
• Impeding the Flow
• Slick Essence Replenishment
• Efficient Secretary Technique
• 2nd Stealth Excellency
• Perfection in Life
• Defense of Shining Joy

Thaumaturgical Rituals

• Astrology: Compile Charts

Personal Information

Appearance

A lovely girl with the promise of a great beauty quickly budding, it would be even more apparent if Clarity weren't so pale and thin and solemn, dark circles from her frequent night terrors branded beneath starflecked emerald eyes. Even weighted down by worry for her ill mother, and the constant fear of discovery pulling her slim shoulders down with the weight of what feels like all of Stygia, she still manages a smile and a lighthearted joke every now and then. Her hair is a thick, silken black fall of soft curls, usually tied neatly away from her face but occasionally spilling over her shoulders. Long black lashes, along with careful applications of Essence, shield her eyes from immediate notice. Clarity dresses conservatively, prim and proper in blacks and wine-reds and dark greens, muted colors in her pretty pintucked dresses with gold-buttoned black boots and a shawl over her shoulders.

In short, she looks like a softspoken, demure young apprentice astrologer, a mere servant beneath notice or importance or care, and that is exactly the way she wants to keep it.

History

Fifteen-year old Clare still remembers a time when Thorns was the pride of the Scavenger Lands, when its beauty outstripped everything in the East, when birds flitted amongst the wisteria-laden trellises in the palace gardens and her mother's sad smile could still be won with a simple child's jest. She still recalls the warmth of the afternoon sun on her face and the laughter of children playing in the streets, and the brisk bustle of court and Aunt Lilia's fond smiles.

But with each passing day it becomes more and more difficult. The sunlight and the laughter and the trellises and birds died with the invasion of the dead and now, like her city, her entire life seems like a poor shadow of its former self. Her mother, her sweet gentle wonderful mother who she'd always thought invincible, creeps towards her Ending inch by inch, the wasting illness that claimed her health six years ago coming and going in waves and sapping her strength, her recovery taking longer each time, and Clare knows that eventually, her mother will not recover again.

All this would be bad enough, but not long ago, Clare became Anathema.

She remembers the scuffle between a resistance fighter and one of the Thornguard, in her attempt to help the princess flee the grasp of the Mask of Winters to hide in the sewer lines beneath the streets... and she remembers that night she could only stare in a sort of dull, numbing shock at the strange green mark that burned upon her brow in the darkness.

Now she hides in the shadows, scurrying unobtrusively through the halls like a mouse, a servant to the conquerors, an informant to the resistance, fulfilling her duties as assistant and apprentice to the dead man who took the place of the usurper and she smiles and murmurs and curtsies and learns her manners and fan-language, and every day the fear and despair threaten to overwhelm her. She has no one to whom she can turn, no one who would possibly understand the enormity of her situation.

But Midnight Clarity bears her burdens with a smile, a careful mask to guard her secrets like a lover, jealously close to her heart. Because for now, there is nothing else she can do except what must be done: she has to free her people.

Other Information

Come near me,
enter my private chambers,
I want to feel the warmth on my face,
light-in darkness,
lift me up from here.
Give me your wings,
to flee from my ivory tower.