HopeSpringsEtenral

Background

Once upon a time, there was once a young lady, whose name, well, to her, it is not very important anymore. Her father was an elderly merchant, her mother as quiet and demure as she was, given to the silences that defined the young lady, and surrounded by several siblings, including an older sister. It most things, she was overlooked, content to be with her music and books. One day, a young man, a visitor who she didn’t question, found her in her room, and engaged the maiden in pleasant conversation. He returned every so often, and the quiet girl came to adore him for giving her attention.
Unfortunately, he was meant for another, her very own sister. He would visit his sister, and then had noticed the quiet sibling, speaking with her to learn more about the woman he was wooing, and to find out more about the family. The young lady could not try to wedge them apart, for her sister was just as good and warm as the day, the bargain was a boon to her family and, worst of all to the quiet young lady, her beloved seemed to love her sister in return. Perhaps if the girl had spoken before, she may have won him, but it was not meant for this life. She began to sink into sorrow as her sibling and her beloved’s wedding day approached.
In that despair, days after the wedding had been done and over with, the nameless girl ended her life by slitting her wrists, begging the heavens to end her pain. However, instead, a ghost came to her as she laid there, the Mask of Winters, and made her an offering. Such a fair maiden should not die so empty and alone. Come to me, and sooth your grief in the Void. The broken-hearted woman took up the Deathlord's offer, and silently obeyed him through her trials, ending lives at the end of a soulsteel fan as the Last Resort of a Grievous Heart, a silent Abyssal of the Midnight Caste. Her service was just as silent as her life was, her passing marked more by the trails of blood weeping from her wrists, for the Mask of Winters never allowed her wounds to mend, and decreed that she would bleed forever, to remind others of a way to end their pain. However, as time passed, her grief changed, from the loss of love that she realized had only been infatuation to the selfish loss of her own life, her wounds reminding her of her rashness as she watched others fight and die for things much greater things than love that was not true.
The first day that she looked upward at the sky and regretted her own weakness was the breaking point. Then, a whisper would murmur in her ear when she was forced into envoys and excursions into Creation, whispers of something brighter, truer, that she was not forever tied to this half-life, that she could live again, that the eye plucked in spite by a sibling deathknight could be restored as her wrists could be. She never told any of the golden murmurs as she traveled among the living without the protection of the trappings of the Underworld, the lonely mediations under the burning noonday sun. Silent for her entire service, it took a handful of days for the Mask of Winters to notice her disappearance, the woman diving into the Labyrinth for the last time to travel as much ground as possible.
The harrowing journey was fast and painful, using her own blood as bribery to hide her passage as she took haphazard ways, mapped a time before and then getting a guide as she fled, regretfully sending the creature to Oblivion as she made her exit back into the Underworld.
She found herself in a distant shadowland, far, far away, in the deep southeast, and began to continue running into Creation, not knowing where she was going, until she found a village weeks away... with a manse. The exhausted woman slipped into the manse, and to her surprise and relief, it was unattuned. Quietly, she reawakened and claimed the manse, and fell asleep in the confusing passages. The next she knew, there was a kindly old man asking her why they had the honor of such a strange guest, a maiden with a black moon on her brow. Deciding, for once, to not question her luck, she explained that she was a traveler, weary and tired, and a humble priestess of the dead. To her amazement, the priest welcomed her, explaining that she had found the village's resting place for the dead. Since then, she has recovered her strength within the temple as she has helped the priest with the rituals of the temple. The villagers have heard of the strange maiden, though they have not given her a name other than the Black Moon Maiden. She almost never goes into town, helping to tend to the dead as she gathers herself and plans her goals to a clue to start her journey.
For she intends to be able to return to the manse whole, to be able to face the sun with healed hands and two eyes.

Description

The Maiden Seeking To Return the Sun to a Darkened Sky looks like a ghost of her former life, skin whiter than bone, hair a pale, pale lavender, though the very roots are a dark purple. The only true natural color on her body are her dark blue eyes and the perfect black circle on her brow. The only colors she allows herself beyond black and white are shades of purple and blue, as if the night before dawn. Her robes have dried blood on them, as if she had once embraced something bleeding.

The Basics

Title: Hope Springs Etenral, The Maiden Seeking To Return the Sun to a Darkened Sky
original title: The Last Resort of A Grieving Heart
Concept: Redeeming Suicide
Caste: Midnight
Motivation: Redeem Myself Into Solar
Intimacies: The Sun, Her Lunar Mate, the Town

Attributes and Abilities

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

ABILITIES
Caste
Integrity 4
Performance 4
Presence 4
Resistance 3

Favored
Socialize 2
Martial Arts 4
Stealth 1
Lore 2
Dodge 4

Other
Occult 2
Investigation 2
Linguistics 2
Ride 1

Languages: Riverspeak, Old Realm, Firetongue

Backgrounds and Tempers

Manse 3 (Precision of Form Gemstone)
Murmurs 4
Whispers 4 (No game effect)
Artifact 2 (Moonsilver Seven-Jeweled Peacock Fans)
Ally 3 (Lunar mate)
Artifact 2 (Silken Armor)

3 Compassion
4 Conviction
2 Temperance
2 Valor

7 Willpower

03 Essence
16 Personal
29 Peripheral
10/10 Committed

Health
-0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, X

Resonance 0
Permament Resonance 2
Limit 5

Artifacts

The Mirrored Shards, Artifact 2 (Moonsilver Seven-Jeweled Peacock Fans)
A pair of Moonsilver war fans with reflective black and white fabric, the fans look like polished mirror shards. A discovery in the Ziggurat the first time she got hopelessly lost in it, and came out with the priest chuckling at her.
Silken Armor, Artifact 2 (Silken Armor)
Silk white robes, with black sleeves and hems.

Manses

Name: The Trackless Sands Ziggurat
Aspect: Sidereal
Level: 3
Location: Somewhere in the deep Southeast
Produces: Precision of Form Gemstone
Drawbacks: Maintenance (2, a mixture of blossoms and glass dust must be spread up and down the stairs every season, takes two days) Powers: Comfort Zone, Puzzle Manse, Divine Observatory
The Ziggurat is an long forgotten Sidereal manse rediscovered by Hope Springs Eternal as she traveled. It serves as a cemetery for the local town, where they bring their dead and leave them for the priest to watch over them as the vultures pick their bones clean. Then the priest takes them into the manse to dispose of them. The maintenance is in fact a celebration for the village, and the town vaguely remembers the Sidereals, if only as the servants of the Celestial Maidens. Due to this, Hope Springs Eternal is called a Chosen of the Moonless Sky. (Her mate finds this very amusing)

Charms and Sorcery

CHARMS
Investigation: Second Investigation Excellency
Lore: First Lore Excellency
Dodge: Flitting Shadow Form
Martial Arts: Demure Carp Feint, Lethal Paper Fan Attack, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, First MA Excellency
Presence: First Presence Excellency
Performance: Morbid Fascination Style, Second Performance Excellency

SORCERY
None

COMBO
Razor Nail Stance - Lethal Paper Fan, First MA

Combat

COMBAT
Seven-Jeweled Peacock Fans
Speed 5, Accuracy +5, Damage +5B/+1L, Defense +5, Rate 3, D, M

Attack Pool 13 3 Join Battle (wits + awareness)
Defense
6 Dodge DV [(dex + dodge + Essence)/2 - mobility penalty], round up
7 Parry DV [(dex + ability + defense)/2], round up
Armor Penalties
-0 Mobility Penalty
0 Fatigue Value
Soak
6 Bashing (stamina + armor)
6 Lethal (1/2 stamina (round down) + armor)
5 Aggravated (armor)
Hardness
0 Bashing
0 Lethal
Move
4 (dex - mobility penalty yards/tick)
10 (dex + 6 - mobility penalty)
3 (strength + athletics - mobility penalty)
Social Defense Values
7 Dodge MDV [(Willpower + Integrity + specialty + Essence)/2], round down
3 Parry MDV [(Charisma or Manipulation) + Ability + speciality]/2, round up

Merits and Flaws

MERITS: None

FLAWS: Unusual Appearance (2, Porcelain White skin)
Known Anathema (2)
Wanted (2, Abyssal on the run from former master)
Permanent Caste Mark (2)

Bonus and Experience Points

15
25
19 (Murmurs)
15 (Wits)
12 (Favored Abilities)
10 (Artifact)
7 (Ally)
6 (Artifact)
0 (Virtues)
3 (Character Art)
6 (Extended Background)
9 (Fiction)
2 (Essence) 0

XP 0
4 (Session 1)
6 (Song Hunt)
8 (Song Hunt 2)
15 (Session 2)
12 (Resistance 1)
11 (Resistance 2)
8 (Resistance 3)
0 (MA Charm)
8 (Session 3)
5 (Ride 1)
12 (Session 4)
16 (session 5)
12 (Combo)
22 (Session 6)
32 (Session 7)
12 (Dodge, Presence, Performance, Integrity 4)
0 (Dexterity 4)

Character Notes and Extras

Themes
Penultimate Theme - White Destiny from Pretear

• Normal - Welcome to the Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance; Breaking the Habit, by Linkin Park; All That I'm Living For by Evanescence; Deception by The Crüxshadows; Awake by Assemblage 23
  • Redemption - The Fire Burns Forever, by Hammerfall; Dragonfly - The Crüxshadows; By The Sword by Emilie Autumn; Second Hand by Emilie Autumn; Light by Assemblage 23; Sister of Charity by the 69 Eyes
    • Once Loyal - The Art of Suicide by Emilie Autumn, Across the Sky by Emilie Autumn; Regret by Assemblage 23
  • Romance - Call Me When You Are Sober by Evanescence, LoveHopeSpringsEtenral/Tragedy by The Crüxshadows; Opheliac by Emilie Autumn
    • Lunar - At the Beginning by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis
  • Battle - Blaze Of Life, by 403; Hemoglobin by Beborn Beton; Gothic Lolita by Emilie Autumn; I Want My Innocence Back by Emilie Autumn
  • Wandering - Endless Skies by VNV Nation; Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day; River of Dreams by Billy Joel

Don't mind so many Emilie Autumn songs. It is my ST's fault.