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Lady Maria

Witch

Information

Bonds

Magic

Extra

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

Age:	Unknown (Adult)	D.O.B:	Unknown
Gender:	Female	Orientation	Bisexual
Species:	Human/Vileblood	Class:	Witch
Hair:	Platinum blonde	Eyes:	Pale green
Height:	6'06"+	Build:	Athletic
Origin:	Yharnam	Residence:	Haven

History

Maria was born in the snowy, frigid reaches of Cainhurst Castle as nobility - a distant relative to the Vileblood Queen, Annalise. At some point in her youth, Maria must have taken the Vileblood covenant, imbibing Annalise's "tainted" blood, and giving herself abilities and powers she could use with her own blood as catalyst. At some point in her early adult or latter teenage years, she left Cainhurst to travel to a place called Yharnam, and attended Byrgenwerth College, just outside the city. As a student, she studied the Old Blood, the Great Ones, and the catacombs beneath the city, plundering them of knowledge and treasure in a pursuit of ascending humanity to a higher level. During this time as a scholar, Maria was also trained in certain combat arts by a Hunter named Gehrman, and eventually became one of the Hunters, as well.

Eventually, the college came to know of a Great One which had washed up on the shore of a nearby fishing hamlet, and the residents there had begun to exhibit changes in response to the contact with the Great One. Interested in the insight it may provide to their research into human ascension, the Hunters were dispatched to the fishing hamlet on behalf of Byrgenwerth. There, they slaughtered the villagers en masse, prying open their skulls to search for evidence of eyes lining their brains - a sure sign of ascension. The Hunters then found the corpse of the washed-ashore Great One, and discovered she was pregnant, stealing her infant child from her corpse, and likely using it for experiments. At some point, Maria's sense must have cleared from the bloodied haze she was in, as it is said she cast her sword into the depths of the Fishing Hamlet's well when she could stomach its presence no longer. However, the damage had been done, and the laments of the dead, combined with the rage of the infant Great One, cursed all the present Hunters, and all the Hunters which would come after them to a bloody life, and an eternity after death consumed by their bloodlust in the Hunter's Nightmare.

She retired from her Hunter duties following the incident, and joined the fledgling Healing Church, following a fellow of hers from Byrgenwerth. She looked after the patients in the Church's Research Hall, as they were exposed to all manner of terrible experiments in the vein of the ones previously conducted by Byrgenwerth, warping the subjects into creatures with great, writhing masses for heads. Maria's presence, though complicit in these crimes against humanity, was soothing for the experiments, and many would cry out to her for comfort and company, which she gladly gave. Even still, it could not bring Maria peace, and she eventually took her own life.

Afterward, bound to the Hunter's Nightmare and unable to find eternal rest, Maria took it upon herself to guard the secret of the Fishing Hamlet. Perhaps in part to spare the Hunters from knowing their true fate, and perhaps in part her own egotism wishing for no one to ever know the shame of the early Hunters, their sins, and their punishments, she guarded the entrance through the Astral Clocktower to the desecrated Fishing Hamlet. Nothing short of a fight to the death would get her to part with the secret.

Then, the Good Hunter came, and despite her best efforts, she was slain again. Perhaps this time she would know peace in death. Instead, she fell through the reflection of herself in the pools of blood on the ground, only to find herself in Aefenglom.

Personality

Tall, pale, and intimidating. Maria has a very imposing presence, a cold stare, and a permanent case of Resting Bitch Face. Her greatest hostility is toward non-human creatures, for her old habits as a Hunter died fairly hard. She can be better seen conversing with those that look or are more human than beastly with a greater ease. She will talk sometimes about the church, and her college, but about more personal things than that, she becomes far more tight-lipped. Caustic, jaded, distrustful; she isn't the friendliest person in the world to know, and her sense of humor tends to be born of that bitterness at her circumstances. She states often that she is not here to make friends, and her actions help keep a wall between herself and others.

Some part of her yearns for the redemption she could never find in life or death within the Hunter's Nightmare, and her guilt runs thick and deep. She tries to protect that which she knows to be good, and can be harshly judgmental of that which she thinks the opposite.

She avoids the piers, docks, fish markets, and seas - the smell of brine and fish makes her ill, and gives her flashbacks to the massacre at the village. The Merrow in Aefenglom, similarly, make her deeply uncomfortable, and she has a difficult time even looking at them at times. On the other hand, the Wolf turnskins, in particular, are definitely a potential target for her threats and violence. She does not hesitate to pull her swords, nor will she hesitate to kill, if the circumstances call for it. What she considers the "circumstances calling for it" may be very different from the person on the other side of her blades.

Still, for those that can weather the thick crust of ice and not flinch in the face of her intimidation, one can find that Maria is a powerful ally to have, and an interesting conversationalist. Her upbringing, her life in the Blood-drenched town of Yharnam, her college education, everything intersects to give her a very unique look at the world, and she's always pragmatic enough to expect the worst. And, as well, to have a plan to deal with "the worst".

For those who can break the ice entirely... just beware. Her guilt and despair is a fathomless sea, a yawning abyss that has sucked her under and drowned her entirely before, and may very well be at risk of doing it again. No matter how much she doesn't want anyone to see what became of her. Her attachment to her own life is tenuous at best, and threats don't have any effect. She has died twice before, she doesn't fear anything that comes "next". Beyond that, the attachment the patients at the Research Hall, her propensity for gardening, and a few other details might reveal that she's not quite as mean as she seems - there's something more gentle and nurturing beneath all of that, but it's well buried indeed.

General Information

Dress: Victorian masculine casual, with her own flare. Occasionally a more conservative, dark feminine approach, but she prefers clothing she can fight in. She has to be rather relaxed indeed to go the dress route. Furthermore, much of her general personal aesthetic has been influenced by her upbringing around Cainhurst Castle, and they have a interesting aesthetic indeed. A very strong aesthetic, as well.

Aural: Startlingly gentle and soft. Especially for someone her size and general demeanor. She rarely ever raises her voice. The accent is preserved whenever possible.

Olfactory: Leather, floral soaps, a bit of dirt from her work in the gardens, and a permanent permeation of blood under the surface. It is notable that her hunter attire smells most strongly of leather and blood. Outside of it, the blood scent does drop off, and the more floral and earthy scents are allowed to come to the fore.

Original Abilities

Prior to her assignment as a Witch in Aefenglom, Maria was what was known as a "Vileblood". Taking the Vileblood covenant meant drinking the blood of the immortal Vileblood Queen, Annalise. Annalise describes her blood as "rotten" when she offers it to the player character hunter, and would likely have the same thoughts about it back when Maria was taking the covenant. Annalise also makes mention of, once it has been imbibed, "feel the spreading corruption burn". The Healing Church describes the Vilebloods as a band of heretics who utilize a forbidden form of blood from within the Chalice Dungeons/Tomb of the Gods. The Vilebloods bring to mind vampires in contrast to the rest of Bloodborne's werewolf prevalence, though without the generally negative effects implicit in such a title. They hunted both Beasts and other humans (particularly Hunters) for blood, used blood in their weapons, and had a type of style and bombast that hearkened back to an older era. Additionally, one has to drink the blood of the Queen to become one.

What is known of Maria's abilities is this: Maria had an ability to infuse her own weapons with her blood, despite the weapons not being made specifically for that purpose as most Vileblood weapons were. This creates the effect of essentially doubling or more the length of her blades; the blood makes a sort of blood-crystal blade, razor sharp, along the edge of her swords. It also allows the blood to be flung off the blades, creating a ranged attack that cuts as deeply as any blade. Upon gathering the strength of all the blood she has let up to that point, as well, Maria can infuse the blades with fire, and her attacks become all the more deadly for it.

There was also a technique she learned in training to become a Hunter beneath Gehrman, the first Beast Hunter in Yharnam: Quickening. Something of a short-range teleportation, it allowed the old Hunters a much larger dodging window and ability to side-step the deadly attacks of Beasts. It involved turning their bodies into a mist-like substance, and stepping forward several feet. While hunters in modern Yharnam need a medium through which to activate such an ability (said medium you find ingame is likely one of Maria's own bones), Maria and her fellow Old Hunters could do it simply as a byproduct of their training.

Combining these two things, Maria is one of the most powerful and dangerous Hunters to have ever graced Yharnam. Perhaps her forced retirement was for the better.

Bonds

Kaede

Class:	Monster/Chimera
Bond Type:	Temporary/Business

Details

Maria's first non-permanent Bond, it's sort of a "in case of emergency, break glass" Monster bond, mostly used when going into unfamiliar and potentially dangerous circumstances. It would make their shared living space rather lonely if the other weren't there, after all. They tried the "Permanent" thing for a month, but fed too much into each others' destructive, aggressive, murderous tendencies, and so decided that temporary arrangements were for the best. The most frequent and steadfast temporary Bond Maria has for now.

Eren Jaeger

Class:	Monster/Dragon
Bond Type:	Permanent/Business

Details

A Bond formed out of a sort of desire to keep the peace. Eren had been in a fight with another Dragon which ended in some decent property damage. Given Maria's threat against the Monsters, and her nature as a Hunter, she recognized the threat to life as what it was (even if no lives were lost, thankfully), and offered it as a sort of compromise. He needed additional mana to help ensure such a thing did not happen again (and Maria would not have to step in to kill him), Maria wanted a more stable, permanent Monster Bond to cycle her mana through. It's working so far, but it is strictly platonic, and strictly business. She hopes he remembers that when he's up to Shenanigans - she wants no part of that.

Name McName

Class:	Class Here
Bond Type:	Type of relationship (platonic, intimate, familial, etc)

Details

Any information you want to share about the bond goes here!

Magic

Maria's magic is generally based around offense - whether it be augmenting her physical attacks, imbuing them with certain elements, or making herself even faster and more deadly, she works to improve her combat ability, and tends to ignore most other things.

Her affinity with evocation, and the fire element, means that the "magic signature" of her presence tends to run hot. Her body temperature runs feverishly warm, and when she bleeds, the droplets that fall through the air will catch flame and sizzle when they hit the ground - Monsters in contact with her blood will negate this by just absorbing the mana out of it, so there's no real chance of it becoming an issue for, say, vampires, but in a traditional situation where she is bleeding from injury, it will become much more notable.

Abjuration

Skill Level: Low
Summary: Not Maria's bread and butter of spell classes, as Hunters rarely have use for shields, for they're not very effective against the strength of Beasts. She has barely studied more than the basic theory of abjuration, and focuses elsewhere.
Goals: At this time, Maria has no goals for Abjuration, and has very little interest in studying it. The barriers may prove useful in the future, so if she does study more of it, it will be for those purposes, considering she cannot just use Blood to heal her wounds so easily anymore.

Alchemy

Skill Level: Low/Medium
Summary: Starting in the spring of our year 2020 Maria started studying Alchemy more thoroughly. It's not her primary school of learning, but because of her interests in brewing and other pursuits, she thought it wise to start learning it. Because it's not her primary focus, she's not learning it as quickly as she did her other focuses, but she's gaining.
Goals: Now that she's starting to learn alchemy, she's focusing mostly on, as usual, the offensive capabilities of it - potions for things like liquid fire, and other elements in bottles, small healing potions. More recently, she's also using it for her garden to mix magical concoctions of plant food, and to do a little magic-tinged home brewing of alcohol, and wants to continue to advance down those paths as well.

Conjuration

Skill Level: Low
Summary: Another one on the list of things to look into more in the future, at the moment Maria only studies it on the most basic of levels, and can use it to summon small, inanimate objects. She's learning a little more with it, but her skill level is still low.
Goals: Likewise to alchemy, she's starting to increase her knowledge, and just wants to get more foundation work in with it. The ability to summon creatures to help her or otherwise bring things into existence has the fascinating potential for practical application. That said, she's still more focused on her primary schools, and learning more alchemy, so this is especially going slowly, but she does have some interest.

Divination

Skill Level: Low
Summary: Probably Maria's least studied field, and least interested one.
Goals: She likely won't be studying much in this vein, even in the future.

Enchantment

Skill Level: High
Signature Spells:

• Sword Imbuement: Maria imbues her sword with a certain element, depending on the circumstances, to give an elemental advantage to attacks. At this time, her most commonly used, and strongest element is fire, but she also uses lightning and occasionally ice. She will be working more on all three in the future.

Summary: One of Maria's favorite schools of learning, she studies it voraciously for its practical application in her Hunter's toolset. Given she neglects most other schools of magic, she is also gaining a lot of traction in her overall skill with it. She also does not shy away from using any blood that may be on her blades in order to augment the effects of the elements - or adding her own to give it that extra boost.
Goals: Maria will continue to work with her chosen elements in the future to further refine and perfect her technique. At this time, she is very interested in trying to emulate the blood-blade effect of her Vileblood abilities by using giant ice shards on her swords to increase their length, but is still running into the problems of being able to "fling" the ice off like she could her blood, and that the ice does not last long when she combines it with her fire abilities. Furthermore, she will be adding "water" as an element eventually, and possibly others, if she can. She also happened to learn quite a few interesting things from Dorchacht in this vein - and while she won't be using it to enslave minds, she might use it to give a hard wallop to the minds of rampaging Monsters to get them to calm down. Hate her if you must.

Evocation

Skill Level: High
Common Spells:

• Fire: It's fire. She uses it to burn things. In fireball or fire wall, or even just fire-after-image of her sword effects, she enjoys things getting lit - mostly because "fire" was such a staple in Beast hunting before.
• Lightning: Bzzt.
• Ice: You know how Cainhurst Castle is covered in ice? Imagine some of those icicles breaking off as a trap hazard. Now that would've made that place even better.

Summary: Offensive magic is Maria's jam, and was her first real school of study. She wanted access to fire first and foremost because of its use in her former life as a Hunter, but she has since expanded her knowledge.
Goals: Maria has a lot of the basics and many advanced techniques down at this point, because she studies it so hard, and so thoroughly. That said, her goal is to continue to refine her technique, and to ensure better control. She's bonded, so things are a little different and less dangerous, but that only means she's going to use blood magic more recklessly to bolster her spells.

Illusion

Skill Level: Low
Summary: Another school with very little interest to Maria - she has no real time or use for tricks.
Goals: In the future, if she gets bored, she might study this more, but for now, there is nothing to be gained here.

Transmutation

Skill Level: Medium
Summary: Probably the odd sheep in Maria's repertoire, she actually only really uses transmutation to "fix" collateral damage, such as to her clothes when she's been in fights, or to ensure her sword stays sharp and well-tempered. Her skill isn't particularly high with it, but it is useful for small things.
Goals: She is probably at the level she will ever be; she has no use for such a thing in the broader sense of her interests, it's just something she does for convenience's sake.

Universal

Skill Level: Medium-High
Signature/Common Spells:

• Teleportation: A way of emulating her old "quickening" ability from being a Hunter, Maria uses teleportation magic to rapidly jump in any given direction. Usually, she only travels a few feet, but she can travel as far as she can see - and in very rapid succession, making it very difficult to hit her, or aim at her with attacks. She also can use it to help climb buildings and the like, which is convenient, considering she's actually secretly a gargoyle and likes to hang out on the side of the clock tower.
• Minor Healing: Something Maria was initially a bit hesitant to learn, but now studies in a bit more enthusiasm, she is by no means a dedicated, or even particularly skilled healer - the spells are mostly those meant to keep people alive and going during fights, and herself, as well. It also helps to heal the wounds she creates when she spills her own blood across her sword to imbue it with magic, so she doesn't start a fight at a disadvantage.

Summary: Maria uses the "universal" magics to augment her offensive abilities. As it is, she studies basic abilities of just about every school, but doesn't venture much further through many of them.
Goals: At this time, Maria wants to simply continue to refine her technique with the teleportation abilities, and to strengthen her healing magic some. She will never be a true healer, but more life-saving abilities she might need afield are on the list, and she is making strides to increase their potency.

Extra

Additional information:

• Maria is known for keeping a very extravagant garden outside of her home. Despite that it seems strange for someone so outwardly aggressive and unfriendly to have a nurturing side, the garden has a lot of love and care poured into it, and the results show in how beautiful it is, even in colder months. The garden is behind the walls of her home, and thus only people invited to the premises will see the full extent of it, but it is full of many fragrant flowers, including rare varieties of roses (recently including vampiric varieties), colorful poppies, mums of all shapes and sizes, and a particularly large plot of sunflowers. She also grows magic flowers and herbs, useful for alchemy.
• During October, Maria adopted a Petalwolf, which she named Tamash. His flower type is Japanese Chrysanthemum, and in his puppy years, he is mostly pink, though as he ages, the insides of the flowers will turn a more distinct red. She is currently teaching him how to be a hunting hound.
• In February, she purchased a large warhorse; a blood bay mare, long of leg, powerful of build, and quiet and calm of temperament. The horse is stabled in the old carriage horse stables out back of the Haunted Mansion. Maria named her Istasha.
• During the summer of the second year, Maria commissioned Myr to help her install a beehive on her property to help her garden pollinate.
• In September, Maria got a permanent position as a fencing instructor at Fabiano's Finesse, a fencing school/gym for upper class aristocratic ladies. Basically she's there to make lots of money and give bored housewives and young unmarried women gay awakenings.
• In November of year two, Maria finally was recipient of a bundle of Lumenflowers that fell through the mirrors.
• Soon after Maria started her gin production, she bought a cart horse to help transport the casks about town. She named him Abholos.

Additional Inventory:

• A small doll that is enchanted to move in response to certain stimuli. Usually it just stands in the corner of her room on a table. It bows to people who bow to it, waves back when waved to, will applaud people who perform "tricks", and will occasionally just tilt its head if you do anything strange in front of it that it doesn't understand.
• The Small Hair Ornament
• A snowglobe with the Astral Clocktower in it.
• Two tie pins; a Modranicht gift from Alex. She started wearing them quite frequently after December.
• A glass sunflower from Kaede. She keeps it in a vase with other flowers near her bed. A gift from Modranicht.
• A dagger from Fugo. Simple, but well-made and sharp, with a sheath. A gift from Modranicht.
• Some seeds and a book on how to take care of magical plants from Sokie, though she did not sign her name entirely. A gift from Modranicht.
• An astral-themed pocket watch from Ursula. Enchanted to use cosmic magic to keep itself on time and not have to be wound, and decorated in cosmic symbols. A gift from Modranicht.
• A bottle of perfume, scented of cloves and sunflowers from Scathach. A gift from Modranicht.
• An engraved bullet with 'swords and stuff' on it from Lex. A gift from Modranicht. It's on a shelf somewhere with other knickknacks for display.
• A couple other Modranicht gifts from December, 2019: a teacup candle (from Zelda); and a lily and some cookies (From Marie Antoinette). The candle was burned slowly over the coming months - the cookies, obviously, eaten and the lily wilted within a couple weeks.
• An emerald pendant with a restorative property to it - from helping resurrect a Dragon guardian. She later gave the pendant to Alex.
• She pulled a hand trellis out of the basement from the Basement Bonanza. She uses it in her garden.
• A tentacle-y pendant, also from the basement. The tentacles shift and adjust, and the gem looks absolutely deeper than it's ever meant to be. Staring into the abyss of this necklace will transfix you, leaving you catatonic for a few moments.... And when you come to, you know exactly what you want to have for dinner.
• A snowglobe with Cainhurst Castle in it. To match her Astral Clocktower one from the previous year.
• A pair of black leather gloves, enchanted to remain warm in cold weather and cool in warm weather, with silver dragon scales set into the middle knuckles of each hand. A Modranicht gift from Vex'ahlia.
• A small music box that plays a continuous, quiet melody. A Modranicht gift from Kaede.
• Several bottles of the strongest rum, spiced with ghost pepper. A Modranicht gift from Eren.
• Also from Eren, a suit of dragonscale armor, strong against attacks, enchanted to not only be fireproof, but to return the magical energy of fire back to Maria's mana pool.
• Jars full of cured venison and dried fruits, as well as a nice basket to utilize in her garden from Alucard. A Modranicht gift.
• A vial of Eileen the Crow's blood for Modranicht. #JustYharnamThings
• A leather charm in the shape of a sunflower or lumenflower, perfumed in the scent of the sex pollen flowers. From Scathach for Modranicht.
• A sample of teas from Marie for Modranicht.
• A very pocket-heavy coat as a Modranicht gift from Momo.

Code by Yuff