( application | fade rift )

[magike]

PLAYER

Name: Kerry
Age: 34
Contact: pm / skitties
Other Characters:
Interests: I was drawn here by the high action, rich cr potential! I'm looking forward mostly to building cr through the actions of the world, responses to situations and having the time to develop the moments in between and explore the setting fully/deeply with the more spaced-out-ness of the actual game events. Plus, magic and conflict are absolute bonuses, and getting to challenge Rowena in a new way (magic nerfs, having to work together with strangers, and figuring out some puzzles!).

CHARACTER

Name: Rowena MacLeod
Canon/OC: Supernatural
Canon Point: 1508 Our Father Who Aren't In Heaven
Journal: magike
Age: 300+

Canon World

Supernatural is a very standard present-day Earth, where all of the stories and lore about supernatural creatures are actually true, even if the stories and media stretch that truth a little. Heaven, Hell, angels, demons, God, monsters and witches, everything you could think of or have read a story of actually exists. And likes to bite with vengeance.

Most of the world tends to be blissfully ignorant of these happenings: multiple apocalypses have attempted to happen, and aside from weird news stories, things seem to get quickly forgotten about, and monsters survive by not making their presence publicly known.

The only difference is the two hunter brothers who have made it their mission to keep the world ticking and to save as many lives as possible. If you think they have impossible plot armor, it's true: God made it so. God ended up setting this current universe to revolve around them (the universes where these brothers made different choices or didn't exist quickly turned to one apocalypse or another) and watching their story as the biggest fanboy possible. No, really, there's fanfiction and everything. (God wrote half of it).

Rowena's a witch who kept to herself and has purposely stayed out of supernatural-type events (especially those apocalypses) for centuries. This changes when she kills a demon two hunters want, gets on their radar, and though she escapes, she's caught in the narrative now. Her relationship with the hunters turns from antagonistic and mortal enemies to the family we didn't know we needed. She ends up helping them in one way or another, initially for a price and then because she cares.

Magic in her universe is something that anyone can learn, though how they get their power (bargaining with a demon, being a natural-born witch, or simply studying magic) determines how much they can do with magic. Natural-born witches like Rowena are the strongest magic users. Sadly, much magical knowledge and witch culture was lost during the witch trials, with the great covens being decimated, but magic itself comes from nature: it will always exist. Based in nature, witches use ingredients, incantations, sigils, and spellwork, very natural magic that allows the caster to do great feats (such as telekinesis, astral projection, and conjuration) rather than a witch having specific power. It's very traditional magic. And old.

History

wiki link

historically--
★ Rowena's born in Scotland in the 1600s, the daughter of a tanner, and hooks up with a married man, having a son (Fergus) in 1661. Abandoned by his father, Rowena begins delving properly into witchcraft.
★ She flees Scotland in 1669/1670 (without Fergus) when the witch trials begin and attempts to find refuge across Europe. Later, she is accepted into the Grand Coven before being banished and forbidden to use magic (she does not listen to that)
★ She encounters a Polish family who take her in, and in return, she heals their dying son (hugely important: Rowena loved him like a son).

to the narrative--
★ Rowena discovers that her son is alive (and the King of Hell) and attempts to return to his life. She kills a demon, meets the Winchesters, and gets dragged before her son. They reunite; it's manipulative, she has a great time.
★ Rowena tries to kill the Winchesters to try and remove their influence from her son. But (in his eyes) she goes too far, and he kicks her out.
★ She ends up assisting Sam in researching and removing the Mark of Cain from Dean, succeeds, and accidentally releases God's sister (Amara). With Amara free, the Winchesters want her help in stopping her. This includes meeting Lucifer, where she releases him, and is killed by him. She resurrects, the Winchesters get her on side again to deal with Amara, happily ever after.
★ Rowena tries to have a supernatural-free life and dates (boring) rich men, but with Lucifer a problem, her son finds her and manipulates her into sending Lucifer back to the cage. It fails, but this time, she agrees to be on call to best Lucifer when they need her (growth!). Months later, before they can try to imprison Lucifer again, he kills her (again).
★ This time, after resurrecting, Rowena tries to find the spell to unlock the seal that the Grand Coven placed on her magic. The Winchesters don't want to help her, but she gets the spell from Sam, who understands her trauma. (Her opening up to Sam about her trauma was huge and helped him understand her.)
★ Except that Rowena also learned that her son had died and, grief-stricken, tried to get an audience with Death to get him back. Rowena fails; she is left with the knowledge that she is no longer capable of the terrible things she used to do: the Winchesters made her a better person, and she cares about them.
★ When God has a tantrum and tries to end the world, she's there. When the world is threatened to be consumed by the souls from Hell, Rowena puts her life on the line: magic and her body can take those souls back to Hell.
★ In a beautiful twist of fate, and through sheer intimidation and her intimate knowledge of Hell, Rowena is now its Queen.

Personality

Rowena is brave, bold and gutsy. A lot of her boldness stems from how she speaks, seeming to lack a filter and saying what's on her mind, though it's usually a calculated attempt to throw someone off their footing by revealing their weaknesses or making another snide comment. Rowena's a survivor, which makes her constantly fight for her life even when a situation could make you want to run and hide. It's meant that she's made a lot of bad choices over the years, mostly in sucking up to powerful beings to try and find safety to ensure her survival, but when combining her boldness with her cunning you can see she always has a backup plan up her sleeve. Rowena's survived these centuries where some of those powerful beings (or other over-confident witches) have been bested. Overall, she wants to make you think that she has no weaknesses, doing everything that she can to hide her fears and insecurities, trying to make others fear her. The other half of Rowena's boldness is a mask, it's that cover-up for her fears and her insecurities: if she presents a confident, put-together woman who has no chinks in her armour you wouldn't think to dig any deeper, especially if she's on the verbal attack to knock you down (or flirts. Usually, there's flirting).

Rowena is an incredibly ambitious witch, someone who initially spent much of her life trying to gain as much power as she possibly could. Her real motivations for her ambition stem from her desire to survive and protect herself: she has spent the majority of her life being shunned or rejected and has felt little but hurt. It leads to her being incredibly mistrustful of others, cagey and keeping others at arm's length. Rowena acts as if she's all about herself, and has done many things without seeming to care about how they'd hurt others. Rowena's selfishness comes from what has happened to her in her life, the heavy stream of rejection becoming pivotal moments for her, teaching her to think about herself because no one else was on her side. When she finds herself in a situation where she feels trusted or supported, that falls apart, and you see her willingness to help and even protect the world.

When Rowena does find a friendship or believes in someone, she is incredibly loyal, but it takes a lot to get there. She believes in actions over words. Family is something important to her, even though she hasn't known much of it (or much goodness in it) in her life. When Rowena feels safe, she is kinder, more open, and would do anything to protect those she loves. She may still not willingly (verbally) admit that she cares but her actions speak far greater than words could.

Strengths & Weaknesses

+ Multi-lingual! Rowena grew up bilingual (Scottish Gaelic and English) and has learned numerous other languages in her lifetime (ancient and modern).
+ Incredible memory (not photographic but Rowena has a tendency to memorise her spellwork, including the entirety of the encoded Book of the Damned so she didn't have to keep translating it)
+ Herbalism! Rowena has excellent botanical knowledge of the plants from her world. She could make you a special tea, a poultice, a potion, etc etc. (Or do something less kind with that knowledge)

- Physically weak. She's a squishy mage and has no capabilities in a fight. Can figure out how to fire a gun, though, but is unskilled in it. Worse with a knife
- Suffers PTSD from her deaths and treatment by Lucifer, has nightmares of him, relives those memories, and often sees his face in the corner of her eye/when she closes her eyes.

★ MAGIC. At home, Rowena is a powerful witch with centuries of research, practice and use of magic. It's known that there are three ways in which people in her world access magic: deals with demons for some power, being students of witches (not powerful but able to cast spells and build some power) and natural-born witches (like Rowena) who's magic comes from nature, born with the capability to use magic (and are thus more powerful). Whilst a lot of the ways that Rowena would usually be able to use her magic are not applicable here (either due to the ingredients she'd need not being found in this world or the spells themselves not translating to Thedosian magic), below is a list of her magical capabilities that do have Thedas-magic connections.

★ HEALING. Rowena can use her magic to heal others, and in Thedas this would align more to how a spirit healer would use their magic rather than her typical capabilities, something she'd need to also spend time learning about with the interactions with spirits for healing. She also wouldn't be able to heal anyone in as much capacity as she's used to (limited to game limits).

★ ELEMENTAL MAGIC. Rowena can conjure fire (as small as something like the spell spirit bolt, or toned down to light just a candle, or more create a wall of fire), lightning (in small static jolts, or larger attacks similar to a lightning bolt or chain lightning) and knows ice-based magic (smaller cold-based spells like winter's grasp -- the cold isn't her favourite). Larger uses of her magic (like wall of fire or chain lightning) would weaken her much quicker than if Rowena just used a small spell to light a candle. If she sustained a small spell for a significant period (e.g. a more continual blast of a lightning bolt) that would also drain her much quicker than she's used to.

★ NATURE MAGIC. As a Celtic witch, Rowena is very familiar with druidic magic, how nature works with magic and plant-based magic (and even speaks the language of the trees). As the plant-life in Thedas is different to her knowledge, Rowena would need to spend time researching the nature of this world and would need to make connections. I'd like (as a basis, if possible) that she could perhaps use the magic she already knows when tending a plant as "encouragement to grow". Given the secrecy of Keeper magic in Thedas she may not be able to learn more, but it could be an avenue for development (and knowledge trade?)

★ TELEKINETIC MAGIC. Rowena has used telekinetic magic either as a destructive shockwave or to throw someone clear, which works similarly to mind blast.

★ HEXES. This witch loves a hex. One of her favourite's is an immobilisation spell (paralyze or glyph of paralysis if she's used a spell bag (she'd have to learn how to set a glyph instead in Thedas)), putting someone to sleep, draining someone's energy to kill them (with great pain to them, toned down to be like weakness or curse of mortality). And if she knows a curse (or has a grimoire), she can undo someone else's curse (dispel magic).

★ NECROMANCY. Rowena has created resurrection spells (both for herself and others, using the spirit as well as body), however, I feel her resurrection magic in Thedas would work better, similar to animate dead rather than anything true-resurrection. NOTE: that necromancy is not something that Rowena does often, she's used it for herself (and one or two others at a push) but how death and necromancy works here could be more of a plot point of magical research into this world's necromancy or spirit magic, hence its listing.

★ BLOOD MAGIC. It's something spell-specific, but Rowena isn't against using blood as an ingredient in her spells. It isn't common, but I'm listing it as knowledge as it'll surely be plot-relevant (her spells using blood often involve linking spirits/life forces together). Even if Rowena can't use blood in her spells in Thedas as she normally would it's a thing.

★ SPIRIT MAGIC. Rowena knows how to astral project, either just projecting her consciousness somewhere else to spy on someone, or to have a conversation ("mentally") with someone, or can physically project her image. This obviously wouldn't work in the same way, but I'd like to develop the idea that perhaps she could similarly enter the Fade (remaining conscious and lucid), something that she'd need to learn about, learn how to do and take time to figure it all out.

Suggested Nerfs

★ I've omitted spells which didn't have any magical parallels in Thedas. Whilst Rowena will still know them and may try them, they simply just won't work. How frustrating for her!
★ Whilst she is ridiculously powerful in her universe, her magic will be scaled down to the level of a highly skilled and powerful mage of Thedas proportions.
★ Whilst the Book of the Damned is on her inventory (and her journal, of some of her recent spellwork) those spells would also just fail.
★ Using magic continually/high amounts of magic will exhaust her quicker than she's used to, and she'll have to rest for longer to build her energy back up.
★ Whilst a lot of Rowena's magic does translate to how Thedas magic works, where she uses specific spell-words for some of her spells, she'd need to learn how to cast certain spells in Thedas style instead of her original style (particularly glyphs and hexes). I plan for this to take time for her to learn (lots of study, weeks and months of slowburn learning/research) before she's able to confidently set certain spells (particularly the glyphs and her capabilities in healing. Spirit magic would be her very last thing to learn/open up).
★ I'm happy for this to be the very top end of Rowena's magic and her not to be able to learn anything additional/gain additional magical power -- she already has a lot of power and doesn't need more! In terms of nature magic, this could also be "she can learn by reading about it but may not be able to cast the spells for it" (perhaps it's too different to her druidic knowledge).
★ If need be, I'm happy to nerf Rowena's capability to cast any necromantic magic. She'd probably share in terms of "intellectual study" with other mages her knowledge as discussion points, maybe read up on how it works here (for curiosity) but not be able to cast it. Same for her nature magic!

Arrival Inventory

★ a pink dress, including jewellery of matching silver and blue earrings and necklace, an iron chain, and her hair pins
★ the book of the damned. the book was spelled to be indestructible, but we're nerfing that!!

The Book of the Damned is a centuries old book created to be like an "ultimate guide to curses" (undoing powerful, dark magic) but anything in it came with almost biblical consequences at times. Since the curses in it are very situationally specific (e.g. opening Lucifer's cage, removing the Mark of Cain, dark necromancy) none of the spells would be able to be cast even with the book present because they're specific to Rowena's world in circumstance. It's just there for cool plot and oh shit.

★ a bloodied dagger
★ one of rowena's journals

Humanization

She's delightfully human! (or will be again, having currently existed as a soul in Hell)

Fit

Whilst Rowena's from a more modern time now, having lived as long as she has means that she remembers a time similar to Thedas, before there was technology, electricity, and when life was much harder, particularly if you were a witch.

Given that Rowena can be quite outspoken about her opinions on magic and hunters (and having lived through the witch trials), it'll be interesting to see how she adapts to the world, how readily she opts to be helpful to any particular organisation or effort, and where she'll lay that help. Being a Rowena survivor foremost, she'll be helpful enough to ensure her survival and is as talented at research and teaching as she is at being a witch.

Rowena's also knowledgable about other universes, both due to having met God (really) and having opened a portal to another universe. It's something that will make the concept of the Fade interesting to her and how she tries to work it into her conceptual knowledge of universes and realms.

Rowena will also enjoy a new chance on life, even if it's not a life she would have asked for. Whilst being Queen of Hell is wonderful she does miss being alive (and hadn't been ready to accept her death), so she'll be very motivated to stay alive again. However (and if she hears opinions on this), given the ideas of the Fade and spirits it might give her a slight existential crisis if she thinks on it too hard (but she's equally likely to try and not do that).

SAMPLES

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