[Characters] Maria Devolos

[HereticForLife]

App Name: Maria Devolos Race: Human Class: Summoner (Synthesist) Traits: Not sure about this one, since she believes her brother to be dead but he isn't. Unfortunately the Love Lost trait doesn't have a sibling option.Missing Child - Sibling, ???, ??? Step 1 - Background and Concept Elements 1) Maria is a 22-year-old woman of light complexion, with mahogany hair that falls in curls down her chest and back. She is typically seen garbed in commoners’ wear, though she occasionally dresses herself in drab lightweight robes from her days in the Acadamae. 2) Unlike most wielders of magic, Maria primarily fights by summoning an eidolon into battle. Her eidolon is not summoned from the Outer Planes, but rather, is a psychic guardian from deep within her subconscious, and one that remains in her immediate proximity at all times. This silent guardian’s appearance is an odd amalgamation of her brother, an armored Hellknight, and the manifestation of her own repressed emotions. 3) Maria and her twin brother Flint were born in Old Korvosa to the illegitimate mistress of a powerful wizard in the Acadamae, and forced to live on the street following their mother’s death upon childbirth 4) As a child, Maria was unwilling to hurt or steal from others to survive as other children on the street did. Though she was smart, her kind heart and physical weakness meant she often had to rely on her tougher twin brother for survival. Flint turned to crime at the age of 6, joining Gaedren’s gang in exchange for meager accommodations for him and Maria. 5) Following the apparent rape and murder of her brother at Gaedren Lamm’s hands at the age of 10, her innate psionic powers first manifested and she butchered the thug sent to kill her. Her brother’s dying wishes, which her intended assassin mockingly shared to her, were to see the city ‘cured’ of the conditions that spawned street urchins like Maria and Flint. 6) Eventually, Maria joined the Acadamae, only to be expelled a few years later after a minor altercation with another student in which her psychic ability manifested itself and the student was nearly killed. 7) Maria makes a living helping her mentor Keelo in his magical shop, while at the same time accepting jobs as a bounty hunter for the Korvosan Guard. She works alone to keep the strange nature of her magical abilities a secret, and has learned to pursue her targets with stealth in order to kill them where there are no witnesses. 8) She is ruthless toward anyone she believes to be involved with criminal activity in Korvosa, killing them without mercy or hesitation and occasionally engaging in torture to acquire the information she wants. However, she is incredibly compassionate with the impoverished people of Old Korvosa, especially its children, and will put her life on the line without a second thought to defend them. Step 2 - Goals 1) To find Gaedren Lamm and interrogate him about the organized crime factions within the city, and then slaughter him and his subordinates. 2) Maria hopes to one day bring an end to the criminal underworld that plagues Korvosa by whatever means necessary. Only then, once the evil and poverty that brought her and Flint so much misery have been eradicated, will she feel that she has truly avenged her brother. 3) I hope that according to Maria’s experiences in the plot and alongside the other characters, she will refine her moral views and come to understand how far she must – or should – go in order to achieve her dream of a better Korvosa and what sacrifices she might have to make in the process. Step 3 - Secrets 1) (Known secret) By avoiding public confrontations, and only adventuring alone, she has been able to keep the true nature of her power a secret. Those who know of her life as a bounty hunter and adventurer believe her to be a mere sorceress, if one that specializes in summoning. 2) (Known secret) On more than one occasion, her disgust of criminals in Korvosa has led her to punish them with abnormal brutality. One such example of this was her dismemberment of a pickpocket that stole food from a starving child in Old Korvosa. 3) (Unknown secret) Flint is not dead, but merely under the effects of a circlet which has made him Gaedren’s permanent slave, as well as one of his greatest warriors. 4) (Unknown secret) Maria was discharged from The Acadamae primarily by the machinations of her father, Severin Cross, a high-ranking professor who realized the connection between them and sought to eliminate her from his life. She has no idea of the connection between her and her father, nor of her connection with her uncle Khaal. Step 4 - Connections 1) (Friendly) Keelo Gale, a kind-hearted, elderly kobold wizard who came across the unconscious Maria after her fight with Lamm’s assassin and first saw her potential for the Acadamae. Later became her mentor and teacher following her expulsion. 2) (Friendly) Captain Khaal Cross, a stern yet fair Korvosan Guard captain who has often aided Maria by providing her with bounties to track as well as information on them relayed by the Guard’s spies in the underworld. He is Severin Cross’ brother. 3) (Friendly?) Flint Devolos, once a tough little boy who sought to escape poverty with his sister and change the world by whatever means necessary, but now Gaedren Lamm’s strongest and deadliest warrior-slave. 4) (Enemy) Severin Cross, Maria’s father and an instructor at the Acadamae. A greedy and ambitious warlock, who will stop at nothing to rise through the ranks of the city’s power players by whatever means necessary. He sees the amoral nature of the city as a consequence of weak and misguided rulers, and seeks to change that by gaining enough influence in the royal court to take control of Korvosa and reshape it as he pleases. Step 5 - Memories, Mannerisms, Quirks 1) In times of concern or impatience, Maria tends to experience cold shivers throughout her body as well as intense obsessive-compulsions, particularly in regards to her personal cleanliness and clothing. 2) During moments of extreme emotional distress, she often sees flashing images of her twin brother’s dead body – or rather, what she imagines his body looks like, as she never witnessed it herself – as her brother’s death was the first truly traumatic experience of her life. 3) Maria has a tremendous appetite, which she has cultivated ever since her rise from poverty, and she finds it almost impossible to pass up an opportunity to feast or drink (often suffering from her abysmal alcohol tolerance in the process).

 

[Quarterpound]

Why is her eidolon part Hellknight?

[Quarterpound]

Where does Maria live? What is her living situation?

[HereticForLife]

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

Why is her eidolon part Hellknight?

While Maria disapproves of the blind lawfulness shown by the Hellknights, she feels a strong connection to them on some level. From a very young age, she has been exposed to the Hellknights and seem them in action, punishing lawbreakers around the city. Even though they make no distinction between good and evil in their carrying out of the law, and Maria sees them as part of the city’s problems, Maria has always been inspired by the sheer ruthlessness they show toward criminals. That ruthlessness is, in part, what has inspired her to try to change the city through violent means, and led to her willingness to torture and maim those she considers evil. Since the eidolon is a psychic extension of her own desire to see Korvosa purified of evil, it reflects the appearance of the Hellknights who – in their own way – work toward that and have inspired her.

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

Where does Maria live? What is her living situation?

Maria lives in a room on the second floor of the building where her master Keelo Gale has his magical shop, located in Korvosa's middle-class Midland district near the city guard's headquarters. Keelo himself lives in a small tower nearby, and Maria is in charge of it during the night when he is away. She lives in the building alone, with the rest of it limited to the shop, storage rooms, and a small washroom. While he takes pity on her, and agrees to let her stay without rent, she helps him with his business in any way she can, as time permits. Maria has vowed to move out on a moment’s notice if Keelo requests it – she knows the magical shop is lined with wards to prevent break-ins, so her presence is not truly necessary – but her master wishes to grant her housing as long as he is able nevertheless.


Expect the questionnaire to be up soon!

[HereticForLife]

Here ya go!

Questionnaire 2 1. How does your character interact with the others within a group? Over time, she would likely gravitate toward those with ‘protector’ roles within the group, as well as any who would share her desire to rid Korvosa of its evil elements, trusting them more than she would the others. Conversely, anyone who she would see as being sympathetic to the criminal elements within Korvosa or defending them in any way, she would treat with disdain and a great deal of distrust. If any single member of the group were to assume a leadership role, she would be naturally inclined to resist any of their attempts to keep her behavior in line. 2. What is your character's role in a group? Though Maria has never worked in a group before, she would likely provide a support role to the other members of the group using her spells, at least until the group learns of her eidolon and she no longer feels a need to hide her power. At that point, her role would expand to include front-line combat alongside other melee warriors. Her contempt for crime within the city, and her desire to improve it in any way possible, would make her a strong moral voice within her group, as well as a voice for calm and planning whenever a threat was imminent (though she would never encourage others to avoid a confrontation outright; quite the opposite in fact). 3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others. In contrast to most other mages, Maria possesses an above-average degree of stealth, and is quite skillful in stalking her targets quietly and discreetly. She is also quite acrobatic, having spent a great deal of time bounding across Old Korvosa’s rooftops and pursuing bounties with the aid of her eidolon’s high speed and powerful muscles. Given how serious and reserved Maria tends to be in her daily life, others are quite surprised by her near-gluttonous desire for food and drink, and the boisterous behavior that she inevitably exhibits whenever too much wine has passed her lips. 4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious? Her conscious goals are to eliminate the corruption and crime that brings pain and misery to the lives of so many innocent people within the city, which includes finding and punishing Gaedren Lamm for his crimes. Subconsciously, she wishes to tell Gaedren Lamm just how much suffering he has caused her and remind him of the pain her brother felt. To some extent, she also wishes to know what sort of a man her father was like, and why was it that he left his mistress and children to suffer as he did. 5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love? Maria finds it difficult to love others for the most part, having experienced much deception and pain from others in the past. Only those who gain her trust – such as her brother and her master Keelo – ever experience any affection from her. She has experienced brief, fleeting crushes during her teenage girls at the Acadamae, but until she meets a man who not only protects her as her brother did but also desires her and proves himself fully worthy of her trust, she is unlikely to experience true romantic love. 6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past? No. Maria’s youth in Old Korvosa has exposed her to acts of both good and evil from virtually every race present in the city. However, her past has made her suspicious of strangers, and if she were to meet anyone of a race that she would not have come into contact with before, she would find them difficult to trust and likely judge their actions quite harshly. 7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them? She believes that she is one of the only people in the city striving for justice and good, and considers most others who display similar motivations to be guided purely by a desire for law. She believes her father was a poor man and a criminal, rather than an esteemed professor at the Acadamae, and also believes that her brother was killed by Gaedren Lamm rather than placed under his control. Furthermore, she believes that most lower-class residents of Korvosa are waiting for a ‘savior’ like she hopes to become, and refuses to believe that the vast majority of them have accepted their lot in life and are simply trying to make a living and have some peace. 8. How is your character about material possessions? Maria has little care for material possessions, given her success in surviving without them in the past. She has no desire for ostentatious clothing, accessories, or equipment, preferring to remain out of the spotlight to as great an extent possible. On the other hand, she never passes up a desire for food and drink, valuing those above anything else of material value since those sustain her life and she has had to survive with little for so much of her life. Although she is not greedy, she rarely passes up opportunities for gold either, as she often finds herself needing it to purchase the scrolls and tomes that are integral to her study of magic. 9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be? As a young woman, whose magical abilities are still limited and who has not yet mastered the use of her eidolon or fully explored its potential, she feels powerless to change the city and make it a better place. The magnitude of the corruption and crime she sees within the city is so great that she feels she might never be able to truly ‘cleanse’ Korvosa. At times, she fears that her goal of a fair, peaceful Korvosa is truly unattainable. 10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be? She perceives that continuing to do what she does now – hunting down criminals and gaining more experience and skill with her eidolon – might one day bring her into contact with the higher-ranking crime lords in the city and enable her to truly finish them and their operations. Also, she hopes that as she continues to experience success against them, she will eventually gain enough recognition and respect within the political and military forces of Korvosa to be able to stop the rampant corruption within it. 11. What are your character's religious beliefs? She acknowledges the existence of most major gods and others with a significant number of followers, having learned a great deal about Golarion’s various pantheons during her studies at the Acadamae. However, she only trusts in and worships two deities: the goddess of trickery and revenge, Calistria, and the goddess of righteous valor and justice, Iomedae. Maria believes that by trusting in these goddesses, she will be granted the strength and guidance she needs to eliminate evil from the city, and avenge her brother. 12. What does your character fear? In a general sense, she fears that she will fail in her crusade against evil in the city, and more innocents will suffer and die as a result. Specifically, she has a phobia of being restrained and unable to move, as with chains or traps (though she is not necessarily claustrophobic). While she could call forth her eidolon to help her escape most sorts of bonds, she dreads ever being placed in such a situation, and it is possible that she would be too hysterical in that circumstance to react rationally. 13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off? In most cases, Maria is quite calm. She has learned to carefully analyze and consider threats before acting against them, and rarely acts impulsively even against enemies. However, she bears long and hateful grudges, even against those who have committed only passing or minor offenses toward her. Given the opportunity, she would act on anyone subject to such a grudge with little hesitation. Whenever she witnesses a child being harmed, particularly a very young or crippled child, she loses her temper almost immediately. If she manages to control herself enough not to strike out at the offender immediately, she will certainly watch and stalk them until she finds an opportunity to punish them severely.