Tianxia:Ramiel Esdra

Background
The story begins long before the main focus, Ramiel Esdra is even born, in a time when even the commonly accepted form of supernatural power known as “magic” was still fairly young. Though, this is not to say that it happened in a primordial era, as deeper powers than the common magic system existed far beyond then. However, an old one by the name of Gra’avalskr, who was an early experimenter of the system created by others made far strides in what would later become magic. However, Gra’avalskr was a greedy and short sighted being that only really cared about one thing: power. He wished for the ability to manipulate and control others to his whims, and as such, he went about sowing destruction upon the land wherever he went. It was not long before others of similar power gathered together to force him into peace. But, stubborn as Gra’avalskr was, he refused to bow to anyone’s will. A great battle between himself and the small group of others soon broke out, causing great scars to be wrought upon the land as their power clashed against one another. Eventually, despite the power Gra’avalskr obtained, he was slain by those that banded against him, though they could not undo all the damage he had caused completely. Needless to say, Gra’avalskr went straight to hell for a long duration, though he was released several thousand years later to re-enter the reincarnation cycle.

His soul found new life in the form of a newborn youkai magician, who bore the old one’s sigil as a form of birthmark. Certainly, the other magicians realized this to be a magician of great power, though they feared for the girl’s stability with such an old soul, wiped of its former self as it was, within her. However, it turned out that their fears were unwarranted, as Gra’avalskr’s mark did not seem to govern her as much as they might have thought, though she was incredibly ambitious, which worried them slightly. For the most part, she seemed fairly normal for a magician; studious, collected, somewhat reclusive. The signs of Gra’avalskr’s power began to show once she had reached the level that she stopped visually aging, around 26 years after her birth. While she had always been ‘good’ at her arts, her growth suddenly increased explosively, and she soon outclassed even some of the older magicians power-wise, though not quite experience-wise-- at least not yet. She absorbed knowledge like a sponge, becoming quite well rounded, though there were some subjects she liked more than others. Such subjects being time, and creation. Old concepts, to be sure, but magicians had ways of bending them to suit their needs before. After much searching, she came upon a school named as “Chronomancy”. Such a school practiced the art of divination and time manipulation, and, after much experimenting, she found that solid manipulation was far too inefficient in terms of the spell strength to energy cost ratio. However, she found a slight workaround in that while getting time to obey your every command was difficult, slight modifications were much simpler. She played around with the concept a bit before finally figuring out how to rearrange what she called “timeframes”.

Now, her next project included creating life. However, this was much simpler, as one only needed to facilitate and shape natural growth, as creating life from nothing was beyond all but the elder gods, it seemed. Homunculi seemed her best option for aiding her chronomancy, as the art was more of a supporting tactic and did not function as a do-all end-all ability. Distractions were needed, something that could pull attention away from herself so that she could cast her spells. Looking to many alchemist masters of the age, she quietly studied their methods, and eventually tried them out herself. It was slow going, and many of her creations either died prematurely or were not fit for their designed role. Her first success was in creating a rather… zombie-like being. It was not undead, but was barely capable of complex thought and only really served as attack bait. Although, it was easy to produce, and so she did make a few of them just in case. Ramiel wanted more, however, and after more experimentation, she managed to make a more sentient being, an alra homunculus. It was a bit easier using things that were already alive as a base, and the being that was created would serve in certain situations. Ramiel continued her experiments, also creating a sentient slime-beast and a chimerid.

With at least a few options done, she could focus on one last project: a primary damage-dealing school. She considered a few different things before finally deciding on two elements of an Eastern school, water and metal. However, she found that using so many different spells in a set was somewhat taxing, especially the elemental magic with which she was unfamiliar. She needed a way to streamline the process for low-level elemental spells, but did not know what to try. Her current community was useless in coming up with ideas, and she eventually travelled to the East, where the school was most prominent to begin with. It took her a while to get adjusted to the various languages there, but she eventually heard about a method of casting that involved channeling power through elemental spirits and fairies, borrowing from them the power needed with minimal input cost. But how did one accomplish such things? It would take about 200 years in order to find a lead on how this was accomplished. She encountered a magician who focused heavily on fire and wood based spells. The odd thing was his staff, however, though the energy he channeled into it was not that large, the power that it unleashed nearly overwhelmed Ramiel several times. Fear gripped her, and she thought for sure that she was going to die. Although, after a long and brutal fight, she managed to kill the mage with the assistance of her chimerid creation, who seemed to be fairly resistant to fire, if only to a degree.

Picking up the strange staff the magician had wielded against her, she found that at the staff’s tip, there was contained a small person whom Ramiel identified as a Pixie, giving her pause. Pixies were tricky beings, and it would be unwise to trust her. The small little thing introduced herself as Arshayen and said that she had been trapped in the staff by the magician that Ramiel had just slain. She explained that he used her as a medium to enhance his control over elements, since Pixies themselves are heavily associated with nature and magic. This only proved to give Ramiel even less reason to release Arshayen, who seemed like the perfect candidate to help her with her problem. Besides, she didn’t feel like trying to figure out how to dispel any hexes that the old Pixie might cast on her once freed. Although Arshayen was initially distraught at being further denied her freedom, Ramiel was much kinder to the Pixie than the staff’s previous owner, if only for fear that Arshayen might one day escape on her own.

However, Ramiel’s encounter with the other magician, more specifically the way that fear interfered with her casting ability, made Ramiel realize that no matter how well she could remain calm in normal circumstances, she was not able to control herself well when she feared for her life and only really won through sheer luck, which might be an issue if anyone who knew of the “Grand, Ancient Magician”, as people called her, likely a reference to the mark of Gra’avalskr that she bore. Idly, she mused that she should have slaughtered everyone who knew about that while she had the chance, but it was a bit late for that now. She set about creating spells specifically to control her own emotions, thoughts, and feelings so that they would be moderated by a magic program. Externally, it made her appear to be a very icy and emotionless person, though this was not really the case.

As time passed and human technology began to override their belief in the arcane, Ramiel grew more secretive, wanting to protect her store of information. However, even still, she roams about, hoping to discover something new that she can add to her repertoire.

Personality
She seems to be very cold and calculating the majority of the time, though this is only because her emotions are moderated by the spells she cast on herself which maximize her effectiveness in certain situations. The spells restricting fear are especially strong, though she realized there was a place for fear and anticipated for scenarios that it would be useful. However, it is impossible to calculate everything, and in such cases that do not meet certain specifications, the spells temporarily cycle off to allow Ramiel full access to all emotions and thoughts.

It is not uncommon to hear her speaking almost like a machine at times, though this is the spell interface she has programmed into herself, and what she says is somewhat related to the processes taking place. There is even a system in place that activates when she falls unconscious during combat scenarios in which her body will almost run itself, though in a much less effective manner than if she were conscious. Still, the system allows for her not to be totally defenseless in such cases, though her combat potential is severely restricted.

Overall, her actual personality hasn’t changed that much at all, though one would have to get her to turn off her spells in order to truly see it. In fact, she sometimes turns it off herself when talking to Arshayen or her creations, as she feels that the spells get in the way during those times and prevent true communication.

Power/Combat
Ramiel is a semi-balanced magician in terms of the arts she practices, focusing mostly on her chronomancy, summoning (of her homunculi), and elemental magics. She uses her creations and chronomancy as a sort of support system to distract and weaken opponents in order to finish them off with a powerful elemental attack. As such, she is almost defenseless in terms of physical combat, preferring to reply to it via proxy with a summon.

For the most part, Ramiel’s elemental expertise only applies to water and metal, which compliment each other and form the base of her offensive capability. Her ability to cast is amplified by her staff, which channels energy through an especially powerful pixie in order to double her power output with spells aligned with either of those two elements.

Most of Ramiel’s low-level chronomancy spells deal with rearranging time frames and divination in order to see what will happen in the near future. Although, past a certain point, events become indeterminable to her, and thus she cannot alter the timeframes. Slightly higher level spells allow her to cut out frames entirely, allowing for confusing gimmicks that puzzle foes, opening them up to attacks. While she is capable of high level chronomancy, she has determined that attempting them in a real-time scenario will only get her killed, and thus she saves such things for when she can take the time to set them up with rituals and ceremonies. What these can accomplish are known only to her, as she has not even told her creations, whom she is somewhat close with, any of the details.

Spellcards
N/A

Major
- Arshayen: A pixie that is contained in Ramiel’s staff. She appears to be childish in nature, though has proven to be very wise-- more so than Ramiel herself. The pixie, while Ramiel refuses to release her on the grounds of pixies being somewhat untrustworthy, has become her main companion when speaking of magic or tactics. They have a somewhat friendly relationship, all conditions considered.

- Evaril: Her chimerid creation and the major reason that Ramiel survived her encounter with the elementalist she had encountered that possessed the staff that contained Arshayen. She is a somewhat demure girl, but becomes fiercely protective of those she has come to consider family, displaying a sort of undying determination at times. She is almost like a daughter, and Ramiel spoils her a little.

- Veskehn: Her alraune homunculus. She comes off as somewhat cheery and happy, usually smiling, even in combat. She is crafty, often fooling others into doing what she wants, though Ramiel scolds her for this behavior, she has a bit of a rebellious streak.

-Ly: Her slime-based homunculus, Ly is cold and calculating, much like its master, though it has displayed behaviors that suggest it is amused by playing with victims, as this is one of the only times that it has been seen smiling. It usually takes the shape of a human woman, and Ramiel designates it as being of the female gender, despite slimes being genderless entirely. In addition, it is the most obedient of her creations, though Ramiel is uncertain as to why this is.

Trivia
-Ramiel’s irises are almost pure white, with only a band of gold around the outside to distinguish them from the scelera. Most consider her gaze to be somewhat piercing and unpleasant, only Ramiel’s creations and Arshayen disagree, perhaps being used to it.