Celtic Oracle
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| "My time is past, but my will is resolute" | |
| The Celtic Oracle | |
| Player: @Celtic Oracle | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Winnifred |
| Known Aliases: | The Oracle, Seafoam, The Traitor |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 4007 |
| Height: | 5' 4" |
| Weight: | 120 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | White |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Saxon |
| Occupation: | Druidess |
| Place of Birth: | Holme-next-the-Sea, England |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None |
| Known Powers | |
| Dark Miasma, Dark Blast, Teleportation, Druidic and Arcane magic | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Winged forehead guard, iron blade | |
| Seahenge really does exist. She might not, but I believe in rooting fiction in reality. | |
The Celtic Oracle is a remake of my very first character playing City of Heroes back in I2, I3. (Unfortunately, she never got any play, which led me to make the Celtic Angel, Emp/Dark.) Since I've come back, thankfully, the other powersets are better understood and as a result, I was able to make the character as I originally intended her to be.
Contents |
Personality
Winnifred is quiet and watchful, with a strong sense of duty. Her time spent sealed away, waiting for the Rikti Invasion seems to have left her a bit mad, but whether her madness is portents of what is to come, or whether she is genuinely unhinged remains to be seen. Fortunately, all signs point to the former. She lacks wonderment over mundane technology, but still cannot wrap her head around bigger technology being anything *but* magic.
Powers
Dark Miasma/Dark Blast
“Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” -Macbeth, Act I, scene IV
Darkness hides that which should not be seen from the prying eyes (and minds) of others, and is one of Winnifred's most potent weapons against her mortal enemies, the Rikti, guarding herself and others against even the most potent of the Rikti's psychic attacks. In tapping into the Netherworld, she plays on the fears of the Rikti, incapacitating them for her brothers- and sisters-in-arms to vanquish.
Teleportation
The Netherworld has many mutable properties, including, but not limited to teleportation. In reality, it is much more akin to a Warshade's Shadow Step ability, opening a portal, and taking a shortcut through the Netherworld.
Druidic and Arcane Magic
Winnifred spent the first thirteen years of her life training as a druid, and the next seven in arcane magics. During her time sealed away, she has refined the use of these magics to take no more than a mere thought.
"Wyatt"
"Earpwald", or "Wyatt", as Winnifred has come to call him, is her servant of the Netherworld. As his servitude is not explicitly written into the contract that grants Winnifred her powers, Winnifred obviously commands his respect somehow. Thus, he serves her grudgingly, exhibiting many of the same powers that she does. He cannot exist upon the material plane, and can only extend a small amount of his power into the material world through a thinning of the barrier between the material world and the Netherworld held open purely by the Oracle's will, manifesting in the apparition that is so familiar to others.
Equipment
Iron Blade
A cold-iron sword that was buried alongside of her, forged and scribed with runes of power. While it is drained of whatever magics it once held, it still serves as a focus for complicated rituals.
Forehead Guard
Her signature winged headband is forged from metal taken from a meteorite, and is engraved with runes upon the inside. It is the only thing that keeps her here in the physical realm, and if it should ever leave her presence, the Darkness would cease to obey her, and convey her down to the Netherworld.
Weaknesses and Limitations
The Darkness
The Oracle's most potent weapon is also her greatest liability. The contract sealed with the Netherworld grants her her powers, but should her strength ever lapse, or ever be separated from her headband, she will immediately be carried away to serve the ruler of the Netherworld for all eternity.
She has made some strides in this area, enchanting large talismans that deteriorate over time, but allow her to leave her headband at home for up to eight hours at once.
Furthermore, the Oracle may never share her bed with any man. To do so would result in the loss of her power, and the conception of a child of darkness.
Character History
The ancient druids of Europe knew more than they were letting on. A LOT more. Even as early as 2000 BC, the druids were already hard at work, collaborating with the sorcerers and wielders of arcane magics, preparing for an invader they knew only as "The Other".
One such druidess was chosen from the order that would become known as The Legacy Chain, and charged with the duty of upholding the mission of repelling the invaders, when they would come. Having been raised in the precepts of druidic magic for the first thirteen years of her life, she was trained in arcane magicks the next seven, and consecrated to darkness in order to create a weapon that would be effective against the Rikti, leveraging darkness against psionics.
Artifacts and spells were developed, and warriors sealed away within the great Henges, strategically placed at nexuses of ancient ley lines on the English island, until they were needed to fend off the invasion to come. Seahenge, in particular. The Oracle's body was sealed away there, standing vertically under the great inverted stump in the center, her suspended animation fueled by the fifty-five rune-sealed oak trunks that ringed her grave. It was planned that the spell would expire upon the consumption of all the magical energy sealed in the trunks, targeted for the year 2000.
For over four millenia, the Oracle's body slept, her mind free to wander the area. Legends and folk tales of Holme-next-the-Sea tell of a ghostly maiden, whose eyes were green like the sea, her hair, white like the caps.
In 1998, however, Seahenge was discovered by researchers, the land having been eroded away by tidal action. In 1999, English Heritage uprooted the structure, arranging for the wood to be soaked in wax-impregnated water to slowly replace the remaining cellulose in with wax to preserve it, whereupon it would be recreated at the rebuilt Lynn Museum in King's Lynn. The museum's opening was delayed by the Rikti invasions, but is expected to open late this year.
OOC note: Seahenge really does exist. She might not, but I believe in rooting fiction in reality.
As for the Oracle, however, with the sealing spell's power source removed, it instead began to drain her. Fighting for her life, she was able to break the spell, but at the cost of four additional years sealed away, and most of her power accumulated during her repose.
While too late to repel the Rikti invasion, she still holds herself to her original task, eradicating the Rikti, and finds herself fortunate to have a second chance to prove herself with the renewed Rikti attacks.
While the Legacy Chain grudgingly tolerates her, as she was a part of their order, they have informed her in no uncertain terms, that should she ever turn her powers away from her given task, they will stop at nothing in order to eradicate her. As such, she continues to seek out and eradicate those who would abuse magic on their behalf.
Rogue's Gallery
While the Circle of Thorns does not yet consider her a direct threat, they do consider her an interesting specimen that merits further research. In keeping with her original mandate as a druid of the Legacy Chain, however, she has made bringing an end to their magic-abusing ways a high priority, despite the risk inherent to her, should she be captured, and not be rescued. Also, in keeping with her mandate, she pursues the Tsoo, albeit to a lesser extent.
Miscellany
Seafoam's hair was not always white. When she was but in her teens, she was named "The Black Pearl", after her hair, black like the raven's wing, yet with a lustre like the black pearl pendant she often wore. Her hair has turned white from her interrment, The pendant itself is lost, now, the cord having deteriorated away some millenia ago.
