Curse

tovlakas · Jun 15, 2005, 04:07 AM // 04:07

Tell me what you think: (I will add each character's bio as I make them, as well as pictures)

Suggestions and comments welcomed! Also, if any of my dates or areas seem off please tell me, as I don't have a manual to check it against!

Name: Mistress Gemini
Profession: Necromancer/Mesmer
Mastery: Blood and Death Magic, Illusions
Birth Date: 3rd eclipse in 1048 AE.
Birthplace: Ashford Village

A Dark Beginning
Born Gemma Matisse O’Connor to parents Paulus and Natasha in 1048 AE, Gemma was adventurous, even as a child. The daughter of a midwife and blacksmith, Gemma spent her first innocent years attending day school at Ashford Abbey, and playing with friends when she was not in school. She greatly enjoyed exploring the many interesting, timeless areas of the kingdom, and although the monks at the abbey had warned the children to stay out of the Catacombs, she and her friends found themselves exploring the area time and time again.

On one fateful day in 1059, the children decided to explore deeper than they had ever gone before. While traversing the depths of the tomb, they lost their way. After the children had wandered the pitch black stone tunnels for over 2 hours, frightened and homesick, one of the boys, Vendi Spinoza, saw light shining from a distant room. "Come quickly! I have found the way out!" he shouted to the others, and began sprinting towards the light. Unfortunately, Dwayna's blessing was not on the children that day.

An expedition party from the town was sent down after another child had told his mother that he saw the children go into the Catacombs the previous day. The scene that was before them when they found Gemma was horrific. The rest of the children's bodies were mangled almost beyond recognition, gored and chewed by some horrendous monstrosity. Only Gemma remained alive, but even she had received a large wound to the face, and was unconscious.

After two days of recovery, Gemma finally regained consciousness. For many hours she simply wailed and tore at her hair, in obvious terror and despair. Her parents were convinced that their child was possessed, and fell into mourning. However, the child's cries soon ceased, and she became calm. A dark shadow seemed to cloud the child's face; no longer was she characterized by carefree expression.

She related her account of what proceeded after she and the rest of the children entered the room. The light emanating from the room turned out not to be from the sun, but from candles filling the room as if in preparation for some dark ritual. As Vendi ran towards the light, a dark shadow seemed to jump out of the ground, materializing in thin air. It enveloped him, and to the other's horror he fell to the floor, dead. However, it was too late for the children to flee, for two more of these dark entities appeared behind them, and began devouring them one by one.

Gemma felt very strange during this terrible occurrence. Instead of feeling terror, as the other children did, she was angered, and a feeling of power began mounting in her. Her anger quickly became rage, and her rage became an almost infernal hatred for the nightmares that appeared before her. An unknown, uncontrollable force surged through her, and at this point her memory became hazy. She could only remember the ecstatic feeling of carnal delight as she destroyed her hated enemies, how she accomplished this she did not know. Her last memory was one of the dark entities slashing at her face, knocking her down with such force that everything turned black.

Embracement of Power
Gemma was never the same after that incident in the Catacombs. She began having trouble at the abbey, and expressed her desire to leave it. Her father granted her wish, but told her if she was not going to study she must remain busy, lest become an invalid. She spent the next 4 years working side by side with her father, creating weapons for the soldiers and guildsmen of the kingdom. She learned much about weaponry nomenclature during these years, and even learned how to wield a sword with surprising efficiency.

The large, ragged scar that covered half of her face was a constant reminder of the dark powers she had felt in her body and had seen at work in that cursed chamber. Strangely, a feeling of strength emanated from the scar itself, almost as if the beast had infused the wound it gave her with its own energy. What was for certain was this scar darkened her being. She isolated herself from society, and when not working silently in her fathers shop, she would travel to Ascalon City and immerse herself in the immense volumes on necromancy found in the Great Library.

The more she learned about sorcery, the more she became intrigued by it. One day while surrounded by large stacks of texts, deeply immersed in an account of experiments dealing with the reanimation of corpses, she came into contact with Raven the Hateful, an extraordinary necromancer from the Northern Territory. He was immediately intrigued by her, and felt a strong aura surrounding her being. He asked to see her again, at the same place, the following day.

And so the two met frequently, and Gemma learned much about the dark art of necromancy from Raven. One day Gemma decided she could no longer stand her meaningless life that she had come to know, and asked Raven if he would take her as his apprentice. He agreed, and said that she must begin her studies at the Nolani Academy of the Arcane Arts if she was to ever become a real necromancer. She left her home in the middle of the night, never to see her parents again.

While at the academy, Gemma followed the customary necromancer tradition of picking a new name for herself. She chose the name "Gemini" after the great necromancer Mardus Geminus, who gained fame and honor during the era of the first Guild Wars. Gemma excelled at the academy because of her unique, sincere attraction to the principles of necromancy; most of the other students were punks and rebels drawn to the art only because of its taboo nature.

A Mission for the King
While in her last year at Nolani, Gemini became acquainted with Sir Tydus, one of the King’s royal guards and the head recruiter for the Ascalon Academy. Because of the recent aggression from the Charr, King Adlebern had asked his personal scribe to send a message to Sir Tydus, asking him to recruit the best and strongest men and women from Ascalon to fight against and defeat the Charr.

Sir Tydus was observing the young men and women at the academy, for Nolani was widely known throughout Tyria as the most prestigious sorcerer’s and mage’s academy in the land. He was so impressed with Gemini’s abilities to control the powers of darkness, as well as her vast knowledge of sorcery, that he immediately informed her of the King’s plans, and told her to contact him while she was in Ascalon finishing her training under necromancers Munne and Blackblood.

While in Ascalon, following up on a suggestion from Sir Tydus’ right hand man Armin Saberlin, Gemma sought out the instruction of Lady Althea and Vassar in the ways of illusionary magic. Because of her aptness for the subject, she quickly progressed through it until in less than two weeks she had mastered the skills of a mesmer, an accomplishment which had taken most disciples years to do.

After her training was complete, she joined other new recruits at the Ascalon Academy to combat the Charr. She embarked on a series of missions beginning with the assassination of the Charr spy Bonafaaz Burntfur that had somehow snuck past the Great Wall’s defenses and was causing havoc in the kingdom. While on this mission, the invading Charr army, praying to their gods of war, launched an attack on the kingdom of Ascalon so devastating that every bit of land in the region was destroyed. Giant crystals rained down from the sky, ripping through the Great Wall as if it were made of clay, cleaving deep into the ground, creating enormous craters and turning the beautiful, lush, colorful environment into a dead, barren wasteland full of burned land and bubbling tar lakes.

Upon her return to the kingdom in 1072 AE, Gemini did not mourn for her homeland. Instead her lips curled malevolently into a sneer, and she began to prepare herself for the battle ahead, the idea of which brought back the all-too familiar surging feeling of power deep within her veins…

tovlakas · Jun 17, 2005, 01:59 AM // 01:59

Name: Divina Lacroix
Profession: Elemental/Monk
Mastery: Fire and Air Spells, Healing Prayers
Birth Date: 2nd moon phase in 1052 AE.
Birthplace: Wizard's Folly

A Mage is Born
Divina was surrounded by magic since her birth. Both of her parents, Sir Roger and Lady Selena, were well known earth elementalists in the kingdom. Divina's home was a place of magic: filled with books, staves, and other items of her parents' professions. From the start, Divina showed a strong connection with the powers that surrounded her.

While a child, Divina was not allowed to accompany her parents on their adventures. Instead she remained at home, either travelling to the local fair, or playing with her friend Cynn, whose parents were also elementalists. However, as Divina got older she began to yearn for an adventure more and more. After her mother died in 1067 AE while attempting to clear a colony of Scale out the healing spring in the east, Divina was convinced that she must continue her mother's work.

She began questioning her father daily, asking him about every aspect of his profession that she could think of. His response was usually the same: "Divina, you are too young to learn about elementalism. This is just a silly phase of yours; you will grow out of it soon enough." Divina however, refused to let this stop her and she began bothering the other elementalists in the area about the subject, namely the old mage Beldorr the Wise. Her father finally gave in, and on her 16th birthday Divina was sent to study at the Nolani Academy of the Arcane Arts.

A Royal Purpose
Divina was the top student at the academy in elementalism. She managed to graduate in 2 years time, with an exceptional ability in the art of air spells. She decided to return home and begin adventuring with her father. While on a quest alone in Lakeside county, she met Devona, a young warrior from the town of Ashford. Devona told her that King Adelbern of Ascalon was recruiting the best of the kingdom to fight the Charr army that was advancing on the Great Wall to the north. She also told her the disturbing news that the village of Surmia, an area that Divina and Cynn had adored as children, had been devestated in the primilinary attacks.

As advised by Devona, Divina went immediately to Ascalon City and spoke with Sir Tydus. He said he had been expecting her, as he had heard much about her acheivements at the adademy and in her quests throughout the kingdom. He advised her to seek out Ralena Stormbringer and inquire about training in an additional art before she joined the Ascalon Academy.

Ralena directed Divina to Brother Mhenlo, a monk at the Ashford Abbey. Brother Mhenlo agreed to give Divina a crash-course in the art of healing prayers, as he sensed great aptitude in her. She did not fail him, and within the course of a month she had learned many of the skills of healing.

Before she returned to Ascalon City to join the academy, Divina tavelled deep into the southern Shiverpeaks and sought out the elementalist Aziure. Aziure was a solitary mage, who spent her time engrossed in mysterious experiments in the Mountain Tower. She was a pyromancer, with an almost fanatical attraction to burning enemies flesh. Aziure taught Divina everything she knew about her art, happy to have a disciple after years and years of solitude.

Divina returned to Ascalon City and joined the academy. After 2 years of fighting abroad, she returned to Ascalon. To her horror, she found nothing left but a post-apocalyptical outpost near what used to be Ascalon City, the rest of the kingdom dead and in ruins. The once beautiful lands of Ascalon had been hideously transformed into a life-threatening desert of misery, destruction and dispair. The beasts that now roamed the lands freely infested every area; what once she considered her sanctuary was now some form of living hell.

And yet, through the howling sounds of the chaos that surrounded her, she could distinctly hear her mother's voice. "Divina, this is your calling. You must fight for Ascalon, or all that we have worked for will be forgotten. I have always been proud of you and have known that you would become the greatest hero that Tyria as ever seen." With tears in her eyes, Divina ran towards the tattered tents of New Ascalon, a sense of purpose now gripping her entire being...