ovi Lazarrin

Odain Alias: Novi

Played By: Alicia Ashby

Homeworld:

Generally, the Megaverse (an original continuity created by Alicia Ashby and Matt Linkous); Specifically, the island-continent of Sonne Gesang, part of the Sol Refrain setting as created by Alicia Ashby.

Physical Description:

Novi is a young girl, of about 16 years old.  She's not exceptionally short or tall, standing at roughly 5'6".  Her hair is a dark blue and usually pulled back into a ponytail of some kind, and her eyes were a piercing red-violet before they were destroyed.

Her usual outfit consists of a long and enshrouding but rather lightweight white cloak trimmed with black, a red and black tunic made out of similarly light material, a pair of loose black pants, a leather belt on which various pockets and a special pocket for carrying her Cards are hung, and last of all a pair of sandals.  This outfit is heavily ornamented with silver embroidery and various touches of rich, jeweled ornamentation where appropriate.  However, the only jewelry Novi ever wears is a heavy-looking golden collar that's set about her neck, though she will never be seen without this.  It's finely segmented to prevent any sort of chafing, and is set with many beautiful silvery-white stones.  She also wears a blindfold made of a thick, dark red material at all times, which is as heavily embroidered and ornamented as the rest of her outfit.   

Underneath her clothes, Novi is a rather normal girl of slender build, save for three sets of markings on her body that most people would interpret as tattoos.  Along her breastbone and arcing above her breasts are a delicate, symmetrical tracing of yellow lines; a pair of long, arcing silver lines are etched along her shoulder blades and down to her sides; and a delicate tracing of violet lines that vaguely represents a butterfly nestled in the middle of an art-nouveau take on a Celtic Knot is etched on the back of her hand, some lines extending around to the bottom of her palm.  She usually wears a glove over this hand, and will otherwise endeavor to keep her "tattoos" covered at all times.  They are actually Beastmarks, signs of her bond to her Spirits (Stasis, Tornado, and Soulseeker, respectively).  

Powers:

Novi is what in Sol Refrain is called a Mage-- a person able to perceive Spirits, magical beings that exist in her homeworld in a special pocket dimension called the Astral Plane. Like all Mages, she can bond with Spirits and share their powers in various ways.  Novi is self-taught, however, so she is very weak as Mages go, despite having great potential.  There are many typical Mage abilities that she does not have, simply because she lacked a proper teacher for training.  She can Manifest her Spirits (summon them to the Material Plane-- make them visible and tangible), or Synchronize with them (cast certain spells by drawing power from them while they remain on the Astral Plane) very easily, but she cannot break long-term magical spells or create Artifacts yet.  

Novi is bound to three Spirits.  She can only Manifest or Synchronize with one of them at any given time.  When Synchronized, she can only use the Spells listed.  The process of Synchronization requires approximately ten to fifteen seconds of concentration to effect.  Once Synchronized, the condition will manifest visibly as an alteration of Novi's hair color to gold (Statsis), silver (Tornado), or violet (Soulseeker). Ordinarily, the Spirits are intangible and invisible, as they exist purely on the Astral Plane.  Even when she is not Synchronized with her Spirits, she can still ‘feel' their presence about her, and can communicate with them if she needs to via a sort of primal telepathy. When Synchronized, persons with appropriate psionic or magical powers, particularly detection or telepathy, may be able to perceive them; when Manifested, all persons may see the Spirit.  The Spirit will also be able to interact with the physical world around it, and will be injured by any appropriate attack forms.   If one of Novi's Spirits are wounded while Manifested, she will be wounded in a similar way due to the sympathetic nature of the bond.  A Manifested Spirit can quite easily be killed or die from mortal wounds.  As such, Novi will rarely manifest them in situations that she knows will be dangerous, unless it's a dire matter of self-defense. 

The actual process of Manifestation is more complex and requires more time than Synchronization; approximately a minute of focused concentration on the Mage's part is required to summon the Spirit.   During that time, rune-like sigils will etch themselves on surfaces around the Mage as the gate to the Astral Plane opens, so Manifesting cannot be done in secret.

Novi's Spirits are:

Soulseeker: When manifested, she appears as an adult, nude humanoid female about six feet tall, with exceptionally long and flowing violet hair, and a rather horselike, bushy tail of the same shade. She also has a pair of scintillating, butterflylike wings that extend from her back and have a wingspan of roughly ten feet.  An unnatural wind will seem to blow about her and only her when she is Manifested, causing her hair and tail to seem to obscure most of her body.  The effect can be rather entrancing, if viewed by someone of the proper sexual orientation to find a humanoid female attractive.  Soulseeker is an old, old Spirit, far older than Novi herself, and knows an exceptional amount about human society from all her years of befriending Visionseekers while bound to the Cards of Destiny. She cares very deeply about Novi, and wishes to do everything in her power to make her comfortable and happy.  Soulseeker can speak human languages very well, and can communicate with other humans freely while Manifested.  

Despite her great age, she is not combat oriented, and grants Novi but a single spell: "Dust of the Silver Veil", a spell that causes a burst of silvery dust to blast forward on a gust of wind from Novi's hand towards a single opponent who can be no more than 3 feet away.  The dust, if absorbed through the skin or inhaled, acts as a very powerful sleeping powder, and can put any being somehow capable of sleep into a slumbering state if it is absorbed into their system. 

Soulseeker herself, when Manifested, may only make use of two attacks: "Dust of the Silver Curtain" and "Crystal Threads of Desire".  "Dust of the Silver Curtain" is a more powerful version of the spell she grants Novi; Soulseeker can magically summon great quantities of the dust and blow it about with her wings, causing it to hit anything within a ten foot radius of herself.  A being hit by the dust will be affected as if hit by the Dust of the Silver Veil, save Novi herself (she is immune).  It is worth noting that the Dust created by other Novi's spell and Soulseeker's is temporary in nature; it will fade rapidly away from the Prime Material plane if not absorbed into the body of a living creature.  The sleep the dust induces will last until the sleeper is roused by something, like physical force or loud noise.

"Crystal Threads of Desire" is an attack in his Soulseeker throws a single crystalline filament, easily severed or destroyed by energy attacks, at an opponent.  If the opponent is sentient, then the filament will give Soulseeker a line into the being's heart, letting her know whatever it is that the being desires most in the world.  A vision of that thing will then begin playing in the victim's mind; the more the victim believes the vision is real, the more powerful the strand will become.  It will wind itself around the victim, usually seeking to bind their hands and arms first, and ceasing only if the victim begins to disbelieve the fantasy (in which case the threads distintegrate), or if they are completely cocooned inside the crystalline threads.  If cocooned, the threads will harden into an unbreakable, porous crystal shell that leaves the victim immobile save for the ability to breathe.   The crystal shell may then only be dissolved by Soulseeker herself, or by tapping one of the Cards of Destiny against the shell.

Novi considers Soulseeker to be her best friend and most trusted confidant, and will hesitate to Manifest her in a combat situation unless truly terrified or desperate.

Stasis: Stasis is a Spirit of Time, but a very young one.  If Manifested, he appears as a confused and tangled ball of seething yellow energy.  He cannot communicate with anyone save Novi or telepaths in a direct way.  The spell he grants Novi is a weak one: "Frozen Moment", a spell that can cause any amount of moving matter with less total mass than an apple to freeze and hover in place.  It can affect, say, several bullets, or a single arrow, but could not affect the movements of any living being larger than an apple.  The motion of an object affected is considered to be "paused" moreso than stopped; until the spell's duration runs out, the object absolutely cannot be moved.

When Manifested, Stasis' only attack is the "Cage of Time", a spell in which Stasis hurls himself at a single opponent, forming himself into a whirling energy shield upon impact.  If he successfully hits, then his opponent will be trapped, totally unable to move, within the whirling energy column.  However, in this state, the energy column is vulnerable to being disrupted by any significant amount of physical force or energy.   Normally, all matter phases through Stasis, so unless he's formed himself into the Cage of Time, he can only be affected by energy-based attacks.  

Tornado: Short for "Tornado Wolf", an air spirit that manifests as a wolflike creature formed of indistinct glowing blue energy that seems to dissolve away into thin air.  Tornado is actually composed of living air, even in his Manifested, solid form.  He can be injured by all manner of physical attacks, but energy attacks will have little effect on him.  The only spell he currently grants Novi is one called "Wings of the Wind", that gives her the ability to share Tornado's ability to 'feel' the movements of all air currents within a twenty foot radius (she often uses this to maneuver through unfamiliar areas).  If Manifested, Tornado may attack with his claws and fangs, which will do damage as if a sudden, unimaginably intense gust of wind hit the area.  Such attacks will be very painful and messy if used on organic flesh, but ineffective on anything solid like wood or metal, and will not cause nearly as much damage as, say, a real wolf's bite or a dagger's blade. 

Tornado can also use the "Howling Wind" in combat, an ability that lets him breathe forth a miniature cyclone of wind roughly a square foot in diamater and effective up to fifteen feet in a given direction; it basically acts as concussive force, throwing the victim back to the limit of its effective range (or into anything in its path).

Weaknesses:

Novi is in all respects, aside from her Mage capacities, a totally normal human being, and a rather weak one at that.  Casting 2-3 spells in succession will drain her stamina quickly and leave her tired; Manifesting a Spirit can be similarly draining if the Spirit is forced into combat or other physically taxing tasks.  Novi is, on top of all this, blind.  She was not born blind, but blinded through a deliberately inflicted injury that was then cursed so that it could not be healed by scientific or magical means.  Novi's eyes will remain covered by an unsightly mass of scar tissue unless her bond with Stasis, the spirit bound to her to hold the curse steady, is somehow broken.  Should Stasis (or any of her other spirits) be killed, Novi would most likely die as well.  

Skills:

Aside from a fair deal of knowledge about how what Sol Refrain calls "Magic" works (and even that knowledge is substandard), Novi has been trained very thoroughly in the manners and duties required of a slave to a royal household in the Koui province of Sonne Gesang.  She can take care of herself surprisingly well considering her handicap, though she cannot cook or mend her clothes.

Her most valuable skill, however, is the ability to meaningfully read the Cards of Destiny.  Despite her blindness, her bond with Soulseeker allows her to "see" the pictures upon the cards, know their meaning, and interpret them.  The Cards of Destiny behave in a manner identical to the Tarot (right down to suits and major arcana), and she is proficient in several different ways of using them to take readings (though she prefers arrangements similar to the Celtic Cross, past-present-future, or the single card arrangements familiar to modern Tarot readings). She can attempt to help advise someone regarding their possible future by first having them shuffle or handle the cards, and then placing howevermany top cards into one of her formations.  The meaning will be interpreted according to the name and state (inversion) of the card.  It is worth noting that actual Tarot card formations will be used by the player IRL in playing out Card readings, as the two deck types are precisely the same.

Equipment:

Novi has only two pieces of equipment of note, besides the clothes on her back.  Her collar, mentioned previously, has actually been enchanted to be receptive to Spirit activity.  Whenever using one of her Spells or taking a reading with the Cards of Destiny, the gems in the collar with glow and twinkle brightly.

The other are the Cards of Destiny.  This is a deck of 78 cards, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana.  They function in a manner precisely identical to that of Tarot cards.  However, the Cards of Destiny have been enchanted by binding a powerful Faerie Spirit into them, making them an Artifact.  When Soulseeker is not manifested, her consciousness rests in the Cards, rather than in the Astral Plane.  As such, she can assert herself by moving the cards about, even using them to spell words.  When Novi is taking a reading, though, Soulseeker will assert her powers through the cards by casting a glamour on them that makes the images on the Cards become those of persons and objects important to whoever the reading is done for.  (For instance, in a reading for Professor Oak, Articuno would likely appear as the image for the Death card).  The interplay of significant images is intended to mystify and impress the viewer, as well as helping them to see the ultimate meaning of the reading.  The images are based on both the general knowledge, outlook, hopes, fears, and personal life of whoever the reading is done for.  Obviously, nonsentient creatures will not activate this magic.  In such cases, the cards will remain inert, and remain as plain white placards with golden art nouveau etchings on the backs.  The Cards are not indestructible, though to "kill" them you effectively must hurt them as much as you would have to hurt Soulseeker to kill her; Cards would need to be torn by an application of superhuman strength, or burned.  Damage to the Cards will damage Soulseeker, and in turn, Novi herself.

Personality:

Novi is a quiet, seemingly demure young lady.  She will do everything in her power not to offend those she perceives as "in charge".  However, this is due largely to her passive-aggressive nature; despite having to live as a slave and being accepting of that fate, she still ultimately views herself as completely in control of her own life.  She will be extremely hesitant to let anyone know of her Spirits or ability to cast Spells, since Mages are persecuted violently outside of Koui's borders.  She will attempt to use her Visionseeker abilities at Card reading to make herself indispensible to powerful persons, or whoever she thinks is in charge.  Novi is not exceptionally either cruel or kind to anyone save her Spirits, and acts with self-preservation and neutrality as her usual motivations.

Theme: Akemi Satou, "Star"