Weapon of Choice: Flüsterte Asche | A delicate silvery straight sword, not unlike an estoc or slender longsword in design, with weaving, snake-like patterns woven into the grip and base of the sword's blade. The metal hilt further develops on these designs, with elegant bands beginning where the patterns end, curving downwards and weaving together to form a decorative hand guard. Horizontal grooves run up the blade in inch and a half increments, each segment possessing a few tiny sigils etched into the metal that glow brightly when the sword is channelled with magic. At the flick of the user's wrist and pull of a tiny thumb trigger the segments twist to form a serrated edge and then part, revealing a silver chain within, and transforming fully from a sword to a whip.
Element: Fire.
Burn For Me | Without having to manipulate fire directly, Violett is capable of generating intense heat at a distance. At its lowest levels this can burn flammable materials and liquify materials with a low melting point like ice or plastic, although with more intense magic behind it she can melt materials as resilent as some metals. By heating the air itself, Violett can create barriers of searing heat that are exceptionally painful to cross and distort the air around it making it almost impossible to see through them. At its produce a sizeable, if not particularly subtle, explosion.
Light My Fire | Using carefully applied fire magic, Violett can revitalise herself or others by accelerating their metabolism through heat. While it does not heal wounds it does provide the affected individual with a sudden burst of energy and further catalysation of hormones such as adrenaline to kill pain. There is an inevitable crash once the effects wear off, leaving the individual more worn out than they otherwise would have been, but in dire situations it can be a lifesaving trade off. If pushed too far it can leave the affected individual suffering from heat stroke, dehydration, nausea, and exhausion, which Violett sometimes intentionally induces as an offensive measure.
Love Hurts | Violett is especially skilled at channelling magic into objects, typically through her weapon Flüsterte Asche. At its most basic the blade and whip are made exceptionally hot and radiate an orange glow, but by using more powerful magics a strike of the blade or lash of the whip can send out an arc of searing hot air and flames, harming enemies from a distance beyond even the range of her whip.
Slender and svelte, Violett is armed with an hourglass figure and a pretty visage. With flawless, pale skin, full, pink lips forever curled into a slight, kittenish smile, and viridian coloured eyes, all framed by locks of thick, black hair that cascade down to her shoulders, each tress curling into loose spirals as they fall, Violett possesses a comely allure that she is all too aware of. Moderately tall, 5'9 without the aid of heels that she so often wears, Violett acts with a practiced air of confidence and grace, and is fond of wearing blacks and violets in her namesake, favouring form fitting black denim jeans and black leather coats, with dresses and skirts being far rarer and usually reserved for formal events.
Violett is a woman perfectly aware of her proficiencies, and while she is as refined, prim, and proper as she appears, she can be every bit as devious when she wants to be. She acts with precision and coordination, and when combined with her natural, flirtatious charm and confidence, easily tailors her actions and mannerisms to the situation, far more fluid and quick-witted than her element of fire might suggest should it benefit her. Despite that she has a playful streak, using that social finesse to toy with others in an almost cat-like manner, and enjoys using it to learn how others tick. Seeing herself as a queen bee, Violett is not above using that information for her own gain, and she has a knack for knowing more about people than she rightly should, although she would never be as brash or uncouth as to make it so obvious unless it served to entertain her further.
Violett was born in west Germany to two business-savvy entrepreneurs with just a little bit more money than sense. Her parents, one a heavily built German man, and the other a far more delicately built French woman of whom Violett is the spitting image of, they would be the inspiration for Violett's goal oriented but still playful attitude, being proper but spirited individuals themselves, although her cunning is something she developed independently. Violett's most recent memories prior to transferring to Vale are not from her time in Germany but in France, as her and her family moved across the borders to France some time before her thirteenth birthday, and it was here that she discovered that she possessed a particular adeptness for fire magic.
Her mother and father were both mages, a fire and a water mage respectively, who had both fought on the Liminal Isles honing their craft, spending their youths at a European training academy not unlike Vale, and they expected Violett to demonstrate similar capabilities, but until that day she seemed to have no magical power. The reveal was small, merely causing a candle light to quench and then reignite with a thought, but it was the first step in a routine of practice and patience, learning to harness her powers over fire with ruthless efficiency. Her mother managed most of her tutoring, being skilled in both the raw, intense, and passionate magic of fire herself and with ether weaponry, but she was not beyond learning from her father, a water mage of equal skill in both magic and arms, and blended the two styles and practices together to make a more unconventional method of casting fire spells, taking a more fluid and subtle approach than most might consider. All of this done while adapting to a strange new country which she did so impressively, navigating the social mine field that was life as a teenager with remarkable grace, quickly perfecting her French and English and developing the confident, graceful persona she so effortlessly flaunts today.
When Violett's magic proved competent enough her father sought her out a professional tutor for her magic and commissioned her an ether weapon, blending the styles of his swordsmanship and his wife's mastery with a whip to create a weapon that was both. The weapon was fashioned swiftly by a skilled craftsman from America and, already with practice in both sword and whip independently, Violett took exceptionally quickly to the new whip-sword which she named Flüsterte Asche. Her time training with a tutor was only short lived, however, as she soon received a letter of invitation to Vale Academy in the United States where she could train her magic alongside her other studies full time. Although her parents would have preferred her to decline the invitation and continue her practice at home, knowing full well the dangers that the Liminal Isles might pose, Violett jumped on the opportunity, knowing that not only could she only master her abilities with other mages to train with, but that the opportunities that came with education at one of the few magical academies were enormous, and began again to refine her rusty English.
Weapon of Choice: Hearts of Morganite | Ether forged into four slender bands, the Hearts of Morganite are worn around Morgan's wrists and ankles. The silvery metal glows softly and is gilded with a pinkish morganite in weaving patterns along its outer surface. These have no direct use combat, even if they are almost indestructible and can be used to deflect a blow in a pinch, and instead serve to streamline the mechanics behind most of Morgan's spells.
Element: Earth.
Timid Soul, Unbreakable Heart | Eschewing traditional earth magic in favour of harnessing the sturdy, reliable strength of crystals, Morgan is skilled at shaping the material into an arsenal of weaponry and armour. By focusing this magic through his Hearts of Morganite, crystalline structures quickly form across Morgan's body and take the shape of a pink-crystal suit of armour eight feet in height, decorated with feather-like formations and beautiful, swirling patterns. This acts to protect Morgan but also bestows upon him incredible physical strength. By shaping crystals independently from his body Morgan can craft weapons, most typically a long spear, a sword, or a bow, but the only real limit is his imagination.
Aide of a Kindred Spirit | Fascinated by fairy tales, what surprise would it be that one of Morgan's most iconic spells involves manifesting a small, cat-sized dragon formed from pure pink crystal? Although not physically imposing it is nimble and swift, capable of flight and ideal for both scouting and retrieving objects. With focus Morgan can experience the world through its senses, seeing through its tiny, crystalline eyes. It also has a nasty bite and can launch sharp crystal shards from its body, but is harmless to all but the frailest humans and etherspawn.
Aspect of the Angelus | Manifesting huge, feather-like structures in pink from his back, Morgan can take on a form likened to a crystalline angel. Their weight makes flight with them clumsy, albeit not impossible, but the force of the beating wings can be enough to push himself or his opponents back in a pinch to create some distance between them. They typically serve a more proactive role in battle, batting away attacks like a shield and even striking back with the bladed tips of the feathers.
Petite and quite feminine in appearance, Morgan stands at the slight 5'3 and has a slim, almost frail build. His facial features are soft, with pale skin from a lifetime hold up in libraries and rosy red cheeks, a tiny button nose and thin lips that are a soft pink colour. Morgan's eyes are large and green flecked with silver, often hidden by a slim pair of black reading glasses, and his face is framed by locks of hazel brown that curl softly and fall down to his shoulders.
A bookworm at heart, Morgan is a quiet and bashful individual that is as bright as he is clumsy. Large groups of people make Morgan flustered and overwhelmed, and he shies away from them in favour of the peace and quiet. Never having had many friends through his life, Morgan simply doesn't know how to deal well with so many new people, which is further exaggerated by Morgan's lack of faith in his own abilities. Having little training as a mage, born to non-mage parents, Morgan is constantly questioning his capacity as a mage, and wonders how he could ever be capable of standing alongside his peers who are, in his eyes, giants. Still, Morgan is keen eyed and quite sweet once he warms up to people, and a life spent amongst books and his fascination over magic has made him more intelligent and adept than he realises.
Unlike most at Vale, Morgan had very little history with magic prior to his awakening as a mage. His parents were not mages, instead being common folk living common lives in the western United States, blissfully unaware that a world of arcane mysteries were right at their doorstep. He was raised in a quiet, quaint little nowhere town where nothing exciting ever seemed to happen. He was an only child and had very few friends growing up, instead finding solace and companionship in his books, both fictional and nonfiction. Morgan was bullied for it, cruel as kids can be, but as a naturally timid soul he was too nervous to fight against it, and had the comfort of a loving family and a veritable libraries worth of books to while away the days and soften the blow. It was an unsightly, but bearable, part of his life.
Morgan's life was entirely uninteresting perhaps until he discovered he had access to an incredible ability called magic. Bullies, the same hooligans that he dealt with on a daily basis, had decided to enjoy their sadistic hobby outside of school hours one day and followed him home. He ignored the names on the long walk back to his house but the more physical abuse was harder to ignore. One shove dropped him to his knees, sending him falling into the busy road as a speeding car came past. It might have killed him and certainly would have hospitalised him if it were not for the crystalline cocoon which formed around his body in response to the fear and stress of impeding danger, an array of pink, feather-like crystals that formed an impenetrable sphere in the centre of the road. The car of course crashed into it, thankfully the driver no worse for wear, and Morgan was completely untouchable within the crystal structure. Completely untouchable and completely trapped, as no matter how hard he tried, the shield would not budge. It quivered and shook, as if Morgan's own force of will could bend it, but it did not recede.
Local mage organisations were quick to respond and began working to cover up the event. The event was successfully covered up, keeping the secret of mages and magic a secret, and Morgan was rescued from his self-made prison by an earth mage who tore the crystal structure apart as if it were nothing. Morgan was terrified when the mage explained to him what had happened. Morgan himself had created the barrier and he himself was an earth mage. Morgan and his family were filled in on a lifetime of magical knowledge in just one sitting, explaining what he was, what had happened, and what he was to expect for the future. They were shocked at the revelation but accepting, and it was Morgan struggled with this information the most. The panic it had caused, and knowing that he could have very easily killed the driver that had nearly hit him, weighed a little too heavy on Morgan's mind. He very quickly saw magic as something dangerous that was to be feared and that he did not need to harness and practice his powers so much as control them so that nobody else would be hurt. He was assigned a tutor and dropped out of public schooling to focus his efforts on controlling these new abilities. In turn Morgan was offered a place at Vale academy should he prove able to control his powers to the degree they hoped for, as he was fourteen, very nearly old enough to join, and it would provide him with everything he needed to continue his studies, both mundane and arcane, in a safe environment. Morgan accepted.
Morgan's tutor arrived only a few weeks later. She was not much older than him, a fire mage called Diana who could effortlessly weave flames in the styles of three mythical creatures. Morgan was not receptive, immediately seeing fire as the most dangerous and destructive of magics. It took almost a year to finally break through both Morgan's early perceptions of magic and the isolated shell that he had so meticulously crafted over the years, but slowly Morgan and Diana became close friends outside of their relationship as student and master, and Morgan learned that his magic could be a gift and not a curse if it was used responsibly. Dedicated and refined in all he set his mind to, Morgan quickly took to it after that, harnessing earth magic in the form of crystals to generate weapons and armour, creating a style that compensated for his small height and slight build even for his age. Diana became the older sister Morgan never had, and told him stories of her time at Vale, the academy he would soon be studying at. Morgan's devotion to practicing magic only grew more intense as he was eager to make up for the years he had missed out not knowing he had access to such power. The idea of being around so many new people at Vale, especially if they were as skilled as his tutor Diana, terrified him, but he still saw opportunity there and was eager to start his first school year.
Weapon of Choice: Mercurial Wreath | A gift made for her by her cousin, the son of a rather famous ether smith, the Mercurial Wreath is a bladed fan of silver metal in a slender rosewood cover, often worn pushed into Flora's hair to hold it up. Although seemingly innocent while closed, the decorative cover ornate with a pretty, coiling ivy pattern that Flora carved herself that makes it look more like an antique than a weapon, within are rows of long, slender blades of ether, almost leaf-like in shape and design, silver swords and made to look like a stretch of ivy. First and foremost, the wreath is almost indestructible, and Flora is partial to using it to deflect blows from beast and blade alike alongside using it to slice and thrust into the hides of etherspawn. Secondly, like all ether weapons, it is an apt channel for her magic, and though it she can more easily manifest her light spells. The design of the fan is particularly apt at controlling magic that flows easily, like wind, and it makes summoning flurries of petals to barrage her opponents impossibly easy to manifest.
Element: Light.
Ceres' Accord | Flora was born an earth mage and she had a remarkable talent for nature magic. When her powers faded and returned in the form of light magic, she felt a piece of her old magic return to her, and intense practice managed to rekindle some of her lost art. Despite being a light mage, Flora has a limited capacity to control nature as well. Her plants always carry a strange, unnaturally perfect quality to them that would be impossible for any real plant to match, and any ailments afflicting them seem to fade in an instant. Colours are more intense and vibrant, bark is always etched with beautiful patterns and markings, petals are soft and shimmer like glass, and the soft scent of flowers she creates is impossibly sweet.
Aria for Aurora | Sunlight channels well through Flora's plants, imbued with the essence of light magic themselves, and she can use them as origin points for many of her spells. They can fire mighty beams of light, generate storms of glass-like petals, and even lash out physically against nearby foes, either at her personal command or of their own volition. At a distance she can use these to control the battlefield from afar, or she can surround herself with plants and overwhelm nearby foes.
Bolero of Blossom | Light, manifested with such intensity, begins to crystalise and become hardlight. Flora can transform the light around her into tiny, lotus-like shapes, or a flurry of small petals, that hover and dance around her form. Sturdy but swift, these lotus flowers ruthlessly barrage anyone who comes too close by charging towards a foe, but will also sacrifice themselves to deflect or destroy projectiles or attacks that come from any angle, shattering themselves in the process but rendering Flora unharmed. This is reactionary, not manually targeted, although can be if needed, allowing her to unleash a powerful barrage of hard-light missiles upon her foes at the expense of her barrier. Her storm of petals defends against weaker but more numerous attacks, and cut like tiny knives.
Gaia's Gambol | By coalescing light from her surroundings, Flora can transform it into a single, solid form, far more vibrant and intense than any other hardlight structure she can make. Warm to the touch, this light has weight, and within the crystal is wild arcane energy, transformed from pure light into magic. By crushing this crystal the energy is released, and floods into the nearest living thing, the one who crushed it or another close recipient, reinvigorating them and imbuing all of their magic with a fragment of Flora's own power. These crystals are also extremely volatile, and with a small application of magic they can be ignited and will explode in radiant energy only moments later, intense enough to incinerate anything in its radius.
Flora is undeniably of Marrick stock. She is tall, just about 5'10 in height, with an athletic frame that only flatters her distinctive curves, particularly her hips and thighs, and her outdoorsy lifestyle has sunkissed her otherwise fair skin and brought out a faint, almost unnoticeable smudging of freckles along her dimpled cheeks, shoulders, and chest. Florence's features are feminine but have a stronger side to them, a woman as determined and tough as she is pretty, fitting for her athletic physique, with the exception of a tiny, adorable button nose in the middle of her face. Her hair is a natural strawberry blonde, flowing locks that almost reach down to her curvaceous hips, and are either tied back in thick, twin braids on either side of her head, or left loose and wild, often playfully obscuring her large eyes, dark in colour but flecked with glistening silver.
Often seen in daisy dukes and low cut blouses, Flora is a fan of simple but stylish. She favours clothes that show of her figure and leave some skin exposed, particularly her long legs, but her tomboyish attitude and love for physical activity leads her to shy away from skirts and dresses, instead preferring very short shorts in denim, and either tank tops or half-unbuttoned shirts to cover her torso. Those few jackets she does wear are often in brown suede leathers long enough to fall half way down her thighs, matching her fondness for brown leather boots with small heels, and are often decorated with personal touches like pins or small, singular flowers grown on the jacket breast. On the rare occasion Flora keeps her hair up, it is usually held with the closed form of her weapon the Mercurial Wreath, and she is rarely seen without a beautifully made silver pendant around her neck that she treasures a great deal.
Determined, outgoing, and quite charming when she wants to be, Flora is a lively young girl that wants to live life to the full. Flora is open and honest, confident and secure enough to keep few secrets, and is always happy to speak her mind. She is as good a listener as she is a speaker though, and shows a great deal of compassion towards others, both those she knows well and those she does not. It is a parental kind of compassion though, and her loyalty is undeniable, as she shows little patience for those who harm or belittle others, particularly her closest friends and relatives. She adores the outdoors, and is a tomboy in every sense of the word, lusting after adventure and new experiences with almost reckless abandon. Indeed, perhaps she is too hasty and impatient, but it all comes from an intense passion for life and a deep love of those close to her, and a willingness to fight for what she cares for despite all odds.
The Marrick family has a limited history as mages. It possesses only a scarce few spellcasters, and even fewer of them demonstrate any significant or noteworthy aptitude for it. For many years only one of the Marrick family was an active practitioner of the art, a recently manifested smith that turned his talents from mundane steel to harnessing the power of ether. That would all change in such a short time, as not one but two were born into the Marrick family, each possessing an incredible talent for magic that even in their youth far exceeded that of their seniors. The first was Florence Cordelia Marrick, a young, pretty girl of strawberry blonde hair and glistening dark eyes, soft freckled skin, and driven by a lust for excitement and adventure. At a young age she was not only an accomplished earth mage, a prodigy in every sense of the word, but also a capable nature mage, having learned how to freely use the complex and rare style of earth magic without tutoring, learning it through experimentation and practice alone. Only half a year later after her birth would the Marricks be blessed with the second, a spritely and honest young boy called Jack Marrick, whose earth magic rivalled hers, eschewing nature magic in favour of twisting iron and steel with his magic. The Marricks, strangers to such magical prowess, saw the benefits of allowing the two to spend time together despite living on opposite ends of the United States, and their unique circumstances made the two cousins fast friends.
Flora's parents were a simple sort, and she was raised in comfortable, rural environment in the southern US. Her mother was a riding instructor for horses that taught Flora to adore the outdoors, an earth mage of some small potential, and a native to the southern states in which she lived and raised her daughter. Flora's father was a sheriff's deputy in one of Texas' eastern counties but was a stranger in the state, having departed from the rest of his family when he transferred from further north, and also an earth mage as it happens, but his skill was discovered so late in his life that his abilities have barely scratched the surface of what a real earth mage is capable of. There was little they could teach their young daughter in the ways of magic, and so Flora matured quickly, exploring the limits of her powers rigorously, working together with her cousin to push themselves further and harder whenever they had the delight of being able to spend time together.
Flora's magic withered and died before her thirteenth birthday. At first her more complex spells seemed more difficult and exhausting than she remembered, the stone she made brittle and the plants she summoned frail and dying. It took less than a week for the spark of magic within her to fade entirely, and it almost broke the young girl. She retreated away from prying eyes, ashamed of her inability to perform even simple magic and overwhelmed by the feeling that a part of her had been stolen away. Words of pity did little to comfort her, and the one small light that she felt was left in her life then was her cousin, who did all he could to bring a smile back to her face. He wove her beautiful bouquets of sunflowers, her favourite, and made tiny animate toys from stone for her, all in a desperate attempt to bring a smile back to her face, a sight that he missed so dearly.
Half a year after the disappearance of Flora's magic a package arrived at her doorstep. It remained in the corner of her room for almost a week before she even dared open it, until she finally opened the handwritten letter to read. From Jack, it said, and he promised that this last gift would finally make her smile. Inside was a single daffodil and a silver ether pendant, glistening brightly even in the dimmest light, and its beauty made her cry. Something about that sparked something inside of her though, and she clenched her fists, grit her teeth, and told herself that nothing like this was going to hold her back.
Then she passed out.
When she awoke, something felt different. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and light cascaded outwards from her fingertips, dancing across her arms and radiating outwards from her. Her magic had returned to her, but in an entirely different form, and Florence's lust for life reappeared not long after. She was determined to make the most of what she had, having learned the pain of losing it, and Florence poured herself into mastering her new form of magic. It was an unusual new experience unlike it had ever been using earth magic. Light was not stoic and rigid. Light needed not be forced, but instead coaxed softly, but Flo was not willing to let any obstacle stand in her way. She drew comparisons between it and her nature magic, using what she had learned there to aid in her practices now, and within two years her capacity for magic almost matched that of her before she lost her magic.
This skill, combined with her capacity to control a rare element, quickly caught the attention of Vale academy. Seeing it as an opportunity to truly master her abilities among fellow mages for the first time, Flora accepted in a heartbeat, and rushed off towards Vale with reckless abandon and childlike enthusiasm. Her first year was almost overwhelming, but Florence refused to back down from a challenge no matter how large or small, and established herself as one of Vale's most promising new students. What joy she felt then when her mother told her that she could look forward to a reunion with her closest, as her younger cousin, would be joining her as a fellow student of Vale.
