Tildemancer

A girl of copious faith, Mina Salus found herself embroiled in the Church of the Canon's more remote chapters. Her heavily religious parents (Eirene and Arjn, though their names have unfortunately gone on to be lost to time, as is so oft the way of the uneducated peasantry) brought her to her local convent to be healed of an illness no alchemist nor chirurgeon could make progress with. After a recovery that could only be deemed as miraculous, the child devoted herself to the service of the Lord she viewed as having saved her, pledging herself to the Creator and His mighty mercy, leaving behind her family entire in devotion. Though she saw her parents around often, by the time she was in double digits she had ceased to think of them as her parents and more as simply relatives. This theological divide between her and her parents drove them quite effectively apart, with the girl never quite realizing how dangerously she had fallen into her fanaticism and only being appreciative that she had more time for her 'holy work'. By all accounts an upstanding nun, Mina dressed herself no different than any other in the convent and upheld their ideals with fanatic zealotry. Hers was a life of praise and selfless sacrifice; the human quickly grew to be one of the most trusted figures at the convent, the one incorruptible nun. Often it was she was left to punish the lapses of others, which she carried out without hesitation on the orders of her 'superiors'. She was quick to please, learning early on that being the one on the receiving ends of such punishments was... generally unfavorable. The effects on her formative mind led her to rarely making mistakes more than once (the only guilty constant leading to a constantly burned hand, as she often sampled more than her share of food) and most never at all. Unfortunately, fate is tempted ever so often by those who dare to present themselves as incorruptible to the world. Like all 'good' things, the devotion of Mina Salus came to an end, as many others did, by the harsh hands of men and the sharp edges of blades. Who could say what the details of the conflict were truly for? At the edge of Oren, it could have been anything from resources to conflict of faith, and it's likely no one will ever know the true reason lest they can glimpse into the very hearts of the dark villains behind it all. But the end is never the end, is it? Death was assumed, but not assured; though Mina herself does not remember it, she managed to escape the hellscape left in the wake of the villains which cut down many of her sisters, crawling into the woods. She was found and nursed back to health by a kindly woodsman, the process of which she was largely comatose for, or drifting in and out of consciousness. She hallucinated that the lumberjack was an Aengul often (and alternatively that he was the Creator himself when his face was shrouded in shadow as he hovered above her bed) and often addressed him as 'my Aengul' and otherwise 'Milord'. Surely the man did not understand the context, for he never made comment on it and even seemed to find it endearing. This blurry half-life was her reality for some time until the woodsman directed her back to her convent, and escorted her much of the way (though not to the convent proper, of course, as is the way of such spaces.) She returned as if nothing had happened, greeting the astounded groundskeeper with her traditional chipper tone and exchange. Once within, instead of the gracious return she expected, her fellows pointed, screamed, and cursed her out. At length, they knew her to be dead; not long after she had been taken from the scene, the nuns had come to check on the group and found the cairn of corpses, and presumed her dead. They had even had a funeral in the interim weeks. The once-revered authorities she had dedicated her life saw her as undead; an aberration and monstrous beyond description. Without a lifetime of critical analysis to challenge said claim - and her own perception of the events having been that 'an Aengul nursed her back to health' - Mina accepted this as a terrible, monstrous truth. Sickened to her stomach about 'what' she had become, she fled the convent of her own volition (though the pitchforks and torches were inevitably soon to come). Unsure how to survive without the support structure she had come to rely on, Mina returned to her parents, begging their aid with her 'condition.' Shocked at what their daughter had been turned into (and desperately trying to convince her that she wasn't, in fact, undead, a fact which they did not seem to believe themselves and indeed she did not believe), they eventually revealed that she had had a brother in her absence (presumably as a way to 'replace' her after she left) and that they could not take her in - if not for the bad influence of the religious zealot, then for the mob that would surely upturn their home and their lives, especially if they were found aiding and abetting an 'undead'. Begging her to take her leave, they supplied her with basic coins (which are largely useless outside of her small border Oren village) and booked her anonymous passage on the first ship to Providence. Before she leaves, she pays one last visit; to her own grave, a surreal experience that she takes to heart. Upon its threshold, she bleaches her hair (not with actual bleach, but it describes the process fairly well) to disguise herself, symbolically yielding the old her to the Creator. She reviews the canticles which she knows by heart... And then, without further adieu, she departed for more populated shores, determined to put this 'stolen life' to use for good. (( A clarification; Mina Solus is NOT actually undead. She BELIEVES she is undead, because her convent told her so and her convent is 'never wrong'. This leads to an incredible amount of internal conflict with her constantly seeking 'redemption' but 'knowing' she can't be redeemed, viewing her life as inherently less valuable than everyone else around her (and ironically breaking the Canticle of Humility while she's at it) and thus leading to an almost inherent tendency to overwork herself and an incredibly self-sacrificing nature. This isn't meant to be a good trait masquerading as a bad one; it is by its very nature self destructive and will lead to major problems, potentially her death. She may also have any number of 'perceived' weaknesses she 'believes' Undead have, as a sort of reverse placebo effect, though the nature of these actual perceptions may vary wildly from actual Undead weaknesses because she doesn't know actual necromancy and therefore doesn't know actual weaknesses. That said... she might end up seeking out information on necromancy later as a way to further this plot line. However, later is not now, so. )) (( Alternatively, if you'll let me play an actual 'undead'... hey, listen, I like inherent character conflicts and I /love/ IC exploration of ontological conflicts. Secret undead trying to hide from her Church while clinging tight to her values, despite the fact neither her fellows nor her God want her? Mmm. I just don't posit it as the primary intent of the text for the simple fact of 'this is my first character and I don't want to get too outrageous'. )) (( A lot of the information on her actual origins [I.E. the name of the town she comes from] is meant to be deliberately obscure to allow for dietretic lore absorption, as well as providing a reason for her to basically never go back, thus rendering it actually irrelevant to plots she might engage in, at least for the immediate future. If I drastically misunderstood something, please let me know! I have yet to receive an answer as to if mentioning aenguls is technically heresy by Canon standards. Hopefully she avoids the common pitfalls of tropes, though I'd argue tropes are good as narrative shorthand. At the least, I hope it's interesting enough to be considered 'done well' and not 'often misused'. ))