Thank you to anyone who's read this far into my story. As stated at the start, this is my first major work, and while I'm sure the amateur nature of this project shows in a lot of ways, after working on this project consistently for 8 months as of writing, I still take a lot of pride in what I've done. After the last few chapters, with the characters all put to bed, some less literally than others, all the major players have been introduced, and the plot is finally on the road to it's climax. As I see it now, the story is somewhere between 30-50% completed, and, keeping some cards up my sleeve, I think it's appropriate to reflect some, and let you all in on some information that can't be cleanly integrated into the narrative, as well as explanations for powers and abilities you all have seen.
There will be no spoilers here, only bare bones information for us all to reference from time to time, or for curiosity's sake.
Aisha Alghul| Master of Caster
Gender: Female
Height/Weight: 5'11, 110lbs
Age: 34
Home: Central Turkey
Magecraft: Advanced Necromancy/Evocation
Alignment: Neutral Evil, with some Lawful tendencies
Physical Description: A tall and slender Turkish woman with smooth, tan skin and long, straight black hair that reaches the small of her back. She's heterochromial, with a brown left eye and green right. She's seen most often in tight-fit women's suits, usually black or grey. When lounging, she can be seen in silk pajamas, usually rotating between red, pink, and leopard-print.
History: The head of the Alghul mage family, a powerful and historied family known for it's advanced necromantic techniques. So influential is the family that it's able to act independently of the Clocktower with little issue, some suggest it even predated the Mage's Association. When she was young, her father, in derangement, killed her mother, turning her into an undead that was nearly passable as a normal human. This fact was hidden from Aisha, but, as she grew older, she grew suspicious, and eventually confirmed her suspicions by stabbing her zombied mother. She was never able to trust her father after this. After dying in an experiment conducted on himself, Aisha finally put her mother's corpse to rest, and became the leader of her organization. She was 17 at the time. Over 10 years later, she uncovered strange leyline formations in India, and similar ones in Athens. After confirming her suspicions with sources both in and outside of her organization, she set out to establish a Grail War that would use these strange leylines to earn her immortality and Godhood, and with no intention of making it a fair fight.
Personality: Malicious and ambitious. Aisha has full confidence in her abilities as both a person and a mage, and those who question her confidence will earn a lifelong grudge for their troubles. She is a manipulator and a betrayer, only ever thinking about her own personal benefit from any situation. Though her hotheaded and petty nature belies this fact, she will, when in her right mind, try to avoid unnecessary conflict, especially when she may be put at risk. Her internal conflicts nearly always revolve around balancing her pragmatism with her anger and desire for personal, petty vengeance. Though certainly skilled and intelligent, her pride leads her to wildly overestimate herself and underestimate everyone else. She's exceptionally neurotic, and cares deeply about her diet and exercise, as well as maintaining appearances in all senses.
Special Abilities:
Advanced Necromancy- The Alghul's method of undead revival is both efficient and multifaceted. Not only can they inflict undeath at low resource and mana cost, but the undead they create are extremely docile with the use of command words linked to their creator, and possess the ability to communicate information by reversing the link. The Undead essentially possess the capabilities of simple computer programs.
Psychopomp Parcel- Start by invoking a spirit and fusing into an object. Analyze the spirit and translate it into magic glyphs. Translate the info into a specialized magic circle, then send the diagram to the recipient of the package. Draw the circle on your side, placing the package in the center. When the recipient charges his circle with mana, the magic will activate, and the spirit, tethered to the object, will be summoned with the object to the other location. This technique was invented by Aisha's grandfather, and is known only to a select few, and only Aisha knows the technique well enough to send packages.
Secrets of the Sultan's Scribe- Secret techniques from the Alghuls' days as viziers and ministers. These simple enchantments allow for the discrete manipulation and modification of documents for the preservation of secrets, or the forging of documents.
Aaron Sylphus| Master of Rider
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 5'10, 115lbs
Age: 27
Home: Mediterranean Sea, Near Sicily
Magecraft: Electromagnetic Field Manipulation (Weather)/ Lightning (Awakened by Berserker)
Alignment: Neutral Balanced, with Chaotic Good leanings
Physical Description: A pale and somewhat scrawny man, potentially malnourished. His hair is shaved on the sides, leaving something of a mohawk of black and blue hair. He has earrings in both ears and tattoos that start on his traps and go down to his forearms on both sides. Some of these tattoos are for his magecraft, others are mundane. He's most often seen wearing a baggy black tank top and cargo shorts, both too large for his overly-slender frame.
History: The Sylphus Mage Family for generations, longer than anyone can remember, have been responsible for the use and maintenance of an ancient glyph located on an island in the Mediterranean, hidden by magecraft. The glyph, when altered in specific ways, can change the weather across the Mediterranean, though its power has been slowly decreasing over many centuries of use. His father before him maintained it, and sold its power for profit, and, following his father's death, Aaron did the same. The powers were sold to anyone who could pay, but the life was unfulfilling. After failing to fill the void in his life with pleasures of the flesh, an offer from former client, Irish mage Artorias MacMannan, gave him what he was looking for. A Grail War, the opportunity to grant any wish he desired, and obtain a life beyond the "stupid fucking circle". However, due to machinations and coincidence, in part a unknowing consequence of his own scheming, he was instead caught up in another war in Athens.
Personality: Cowardly Rebel. Aaron has always possessed a rebel's instinct, but lacked both the courage and cause. He's always longed for "more", but, having little idea of what "more" really is, he's spent most of his life discontent and unmotivated. Having never had any long-lasting or meaningful relationships, he's incredibly selfish and unempathetic. In his misanthropy he's found an unearned pride, and feels that others ought to respect the potential he believes he has. He in some ways longs for death, and finds himself world-weary despite having never been a part of it, or perhaps precisely because of that.
Special Abilities:
Electromagnetic Field Manipulation- The ability to manipulate magnetic fields through glyphs and runes. At the highest levels, this magic can be used to manipulate the weather, however, Aaron personally lacks this level of magecraft. Instead, the most common application of this ability is creating pathways for electricity/lightning to travel across, increasing the possibility of lightning striking the rune to near-certainty in proper conditions. Naturally, this process can be reversed, creating wards against lightning strikes, wind resistance, and similar phenomena, though these aren't as effective in many cases.
Polarity Burst- Using the Sylphus family crest, Aaron can alter the attribute of the mana flowing through his body, transforming his mana bursts into magnetic waves which can either attract or repel. This ability becomes more effective by using metal as a catalyst.
Lightning Burst- After an encounter with Berserker, the mana in his body seems to have permanently been altered to have the 'lightning' attribute. He can now send bolts of lightning at his command, though the ability is imprecise and expensive in terms of mana.
Yanni Iole| Master of Berserker
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 5'7, 130lbs
Age: 53
Home: Athens
Magecraft: Divination
Alignment: Lawful Evil, with Chaotic Neutral tendencies
Physical Description: A stout, barrel-shaped man in his early 50s. He's bald with a dark-grey, close-shaven beard. He has a square face with a pronounced nose. He normally wears a blue polo shirt with khakis, his museum uniform. Otherwise, he can be seen in a worn, old, once-white but yellowed with time toga with a purple and gold sash.
History: Yanni was not raised a mage. He spent much of his life living normally, being raised in what was, by all means, a mundane situation. He went to college and studied history and archaeology, eventually finding a job with the Museum of Athens in studying relics and artifacts. For much of his life, it was as if the long-dead were his only friends. It was only in his late life that he found his "family" in the cult of Heracles. The cult had been around for centuries, and through the cult he began to cultivate his limited magical abilities. However, the members of the cult became rowdy and overly-ambitious, attempting a revolution against the Grecian government to return to "the old ways". They were all killed, leaving only Yanni and the aging leader. He gave Yanni the crest of the cult and passed away from old age, leaving Yanni to rebuild the cult from scratch. However, Yanni was far too antisocial and uncharismatic for such an ambitious goal, and years past with no progress. It was only when the Divine Origin of Heracles landed in his lap that he made up his mind to truly give his life to his cause, to put everything on the line. He contacted the weather-mage Aaron Sylphus, and ordered the most powerful storm that he could manage, and Aaron asked for a powerful Celtic relic in exchange. It was difficult but ultimately successful, and Yanni began his plot to return Heracles to the mortal plain from the Reverse Side of the World.
Personality: Fervently reverent. He has no perception of his own worth, and so gives everything to his work. He is slightly off, and has difficulty opening his mind beyond his own biases. He is single-minded and pursues his goals with little perception of his own mortality.
Special Abilities:
Psychometry- When holding an object, mana can be flowed through it, revealing it's inner structure, as well as the details of its creation. Higher levels can reveal the history of the object, but Yanni can only obtain vague details at his level.
Crystal Ball- A crystal ball belonging to the Cult of Heracles. By envisioning a place, person, or object that the user is familiar with, the ball will reveal the current location and immediate environment from a top-down perspective, though the point of view can be manipulated slightly.
Xiaji Heping| Master of Lancer
Gender: Female
Height/Weight: 5'3, 95lbs
Age: 19
Home: China, Northwest of Beijing
Magecraft: Hardening (Black Turtle)/ Limited Pyromancy
Alignment: Lawful Good, with Neutral Good leanings
Physical Description: A short, Chinese girl with chin-length, straight black hair. Her body is athletic and muscular, her otherwise tight musculature hidden by her soft, supple skin. She wears comfy athletics clothes preferring a black tank top with yellow exercise shorts in warm weather, or a military-styled jacket and sweatpants in colder weather. She has burn scars across her right arm.
History: Born under China's "One Child Policy", her mother, a government mage, handed her over to the government, where she was raised to become a part of the nation's secret army, The Army of Spring and Autumn. The army took children with strong magical circuits and trained them in combat skills and martial arts, doing everything they could to create the ultimate soldiers. Though she took naturally to martial arts, becoming skilled even when compared to her peers, she often ended up daydreaming, and was extremely averse to combat, especially blood. Between this and other concerns, as well as the switch to a national "Two Child Policy", it was arranged for her to return to her family, the Xiaji mage family. Her father is a Pyromancer trained at the Clocktower, but her mother never left the country, a pure national trained in more traditional Chinese magecraft, and, in their marriage, they hoped to combine their magecraft into something more than the sum. However, their marriage is dysfunctional to the point that dysfunction is assumed and allowed to exist without mention, an inevitable result of the parents' conflicting values, but they remain together for the sake of their 'experiment'. Heping always preferred her father, and did her best to learn Pyromancy, but to almost no success. She often relied on her brother to navigate the new environment, but they were never very close.
Personality: Devoted and self-sacrificing. She possesses a strong moral compass, but is quick to question herself, and often finds herself weak in the knees when faced with authority. She often ends up engaging innocently in what could be considered inappropriate or rebellious behavior (rightly or wrongly) without realizing. She believes in her heart that people are good at heart, but her lived experience tells her otherwise, leaving her perpetually and existentially confused, and occasionally depressive. She wants to believe in herself, but feels that she has no reason to think of herself as being capable. Her low self-esteem impairs her judgement. She is heavily inclined to rely on others, and to venerate others before herself, this also makes her forgiving, sometimes to her own detriment.
Special Abilities:
Arms Mastery- Heping possesses proficiency with firearms, staffs, knives, and various types of improvised weaponry as a part of her combat training.
Martial Mastery- Heping possesses extreme skill in martial arts, being of black-belt-level or better in Tai Quan Dao, Kung Fu, Jiujitsu, and Aikido. She sees Martial Arts as an art-form, and finds joy in practice and training.
Hardening (Black Turtle)- The Mountain Sages practiced four central techniques for the formation of spirit in the body. The Army of Spring and Autumn obtained scripts which described these techniques, but focused on the Black Turtle technique, as it was the most obviously combat-oriented. Similar to the Clocktower self-defense course, students are taught to focus mana in their circuits to harden their bodies to strengthen themselves for and against physical attacks. The Black Turtle technique takes this concept further, purposefully stagnated magical energy flow in order to further increase hardening and increasing physical capabilities up to 10x. Because Heping was taught only this technique and not the three others, this has led to her magical circuits becoming permanently hindered in their ability to flow, inhibiting her ability to learn any proper magecraft.
Amateur Pyromancy- Between the above-stated complications and her own lack of proficiency, her ability to use her father's Pyromancy is extremely limited. She is unable to focus the energy into a single point and release, so instead the fire bursts from her body in all directions, giving her minor burns in the process. She has learned to combine this with her physical abilities, but, between the difficulty of using the technique and its self-destructive nature, she limits her usage. The Command Word is "Yehuo".
Xiaji Shenghuo| Master of Archer
Gender: Male
Height/Weight: 6'0, 130lbs
Age: 31
Home: China, Northwest of Beijing
Magecraft: Pyromancy/ ????
Alignment: Lawful Evil, with Lawful Neutral Leanings
Physical Description: A tall, muscular man with bristly black hair. Though he would normally wear more traditional garb, he wears pragmatic combat gear, with a tight-fit black turtleneck with combat pants and boots.
History: He was raised by his parents as the heir to the Xiaji mage family. His father is a Pyromancer trained at the Clocktower, but his mother never left the country, a pure national trained in more traditional Chinese magecraft, and, in their marriage, they hoped to combine their magecraft into something more than the sum. However, their marriage is dysfunctional to the point that dysfunction is assumed and allowed to exist without mention, an inevitable result of the parents' conflicting values, but they remain together for the sake of their 'experiment'. As their heir, he did his best to learn both crafts equally, and seemed to possess a natural talent for magecraft, as well as a political sense for navigating his parents' unspoken quarrels. He was by all means brilliant, and was groomed from birth (by his father) to be a masterful mage and (by his mother) to be resourceful and political. He never understood why his sister was returned to the family, and he ended up being chiefly responsible for her socialization into mage society. That said, he was never fond of her, and found her sentimentality problematic if not annoying.
Personality: Cold and calculating. Sentimentality does not seem to exist within him. Between his natural tendencies and his parents' grooming, he has become what could be called an ideal mage, focusing only on his craft and personal success. He is hyper-intelligent, and takes only carefully calculated risks. He is particularly talented at reading people, a natural consequence of navigating the unspoken hostility of his home environment, and of his natural genius. To call him a sociopath would only be a slight exaggeration, as his emotions, with the slight exception of anger, are muted to the point of nonexistence. He is pragmatic to an immoral degree, caring only for what's useful to him, and rejecting utterly all that stands in the way of his success.
(Known) Special Abilities:
Pyromancy- He was taught pyromancy by his father since he was a child. However, even with his natural genius, he is, to an extent, less skilled due to having to learn Pyromancy alongside his Mother's magecraft.
Mother's Magecraft- Keep reading to find out
Monica| Master of Saber
Gender: Female
Height/Weight: 5'5, 98lbs
Age: 17
Home: Northern Greece (Born)/Glyfada, Athens (Current)
Magecraft: None
Alignment: Neutral Good, with True Neutral leanings
Physical Description: A young, curvaceous (for her age) girl with long, bleach-blonde hair and light blue highlights. Her hair is wavy and falls past her shoulders. She has blue-green eyes. She is surprisingly pale given her Grecian heritage. She is normally seen in a baggy hoodie with worn jeans, and she sleeps in a large, men's t-shirt.
History: Raised in a wealthy family in Northern Greece, her family neglected her, granting unequal favor to her older sister. She was treated poorly, and her parents were overly strict. At 16, she ran away from home, going to Athens. Without resources and being underage, she retreated to Glyfada, where she was able to secure a job and housing working at a club through less-than-legal means. It was lonely until she found a friend, named Rhiannon, but she became far, far lonelier after Rhiannon's suicide. Though she had never been hopeful, she found herself with less and less hope by the day. As far as she's aware, her family never came looking for her.
Personality: Cautiously pessimistic. Throughout her life, she had been let down time after time. Though she could never be called a 'bad person', she lost any faith in humanity she had a long time ago, and is left with a level of cynicism and depression unfitting for her age. She is unable to believe in the goodness of others and of the world, but can't let go of her inner romanticism, and longs desperately to be proven wrong. She's extremely introverted and antisocial, and will go to great lengths to avoid social interaction. This is, in part, a test, as only those who truly care about her will approach her.
Master of Assassin| Name Unknown
Gender: Female
Height/Weight: 5'6, 90lbs
Age: 27
Home: Japan (Born)/Sicily (As of recently)
Magecraft: None?
Alignment: True Neutral
Physical Description: A slim, nearly skeletal Japanese woman with long, oily black hair that reaches her waist. Her features are gaunt but beautiful. She can be seen wearing floral-print sundresses.
History: She was born in Japan, a coastal town. When she was young, she heard a mysterious "call" that lead her to the ocean. She followed it into the sea, and continued to follow it for many years, forgetting any language she would've learned. Eventually, the call lead her to Sicily, where she housed with the wealthy owner of a vineyard, and spent nearly 8 months developing her land-legs and learning the essentials of human society. Eventually, the call came again, leading her to Athens...
Personality: Quietly driven. She moves towards a goal that she doesn't know. She puts her faith in the movements of her soul, and through this is able to move and act despite her childlike ignorance. She seems cautious around people, and is made anxious by social situations, but treasures what friendships she makes. Unable to question, she moves forward with as much confidence as she can muster, aware that there is no alternative for her.
Special Abilities:
Walk Without Knowledge- She seems to able to blend into the background, becoming unperceivable and undetectable. Whether this is deliberate or accidental is unknown, as are the origins of the ability.