Duchess Maria Evelyn Vilsang
Maria's Saint day is held on August 19th. It involves large scale acts of charity especially in regards to medical treatment. The Grey Tower Knights have taken quite nicely to this holiday and are often host to any events that nobles will pay for to show their admiration.
Physical Description
Maria is quite quick on her feet, though she has experienced some atrophy of her muscles since her abandonment of her father's designs. Her frame is fairly athletic though tending to the lean end of the scale.
Maria's body is a host to scores of scars with different sources, though one couldn't tell while she was dressed. Several dozen layers of whip scars crisscross her back, precise thin scars cover her abdomen, and the growing number of bite wounds on her legs and sword marks along her arms gathered from her travels with the party only adds to the tapestry. She has managed to keep the majority of the fresh ones from taking in deeply through use of her healing magic but her frequent poor fortune against powerful foes makes this quite the ordeal.
Through the use of Mika's healing magic to restore her eye lost to a Nightwalker Maria's scars have dissapeared completely. Her new divine powers tend to knit her wounds so swiftly that scars do not develop anymore.
Maria's features are especially fair, even for Davidians. Thus she stands out as a sublime sight, beautiful in a slightly unnerving way.
Maria's old travelling clothes were quite simple, with a blue road jacket, a white blouse, black pants, and well made marching boots. She now wears a more striking white outfit with a yellow cloak, serving to double the dazzling effect of her shining sword swings.
Maria's standard gear includes her Fey-Thorn Whip for foes that may yet change their ways, the blade Ultimatum for those foes that won't, a specially designed handgun named Impasse, her medical supplies, an assortment of tools mentioned in monster hunting books, and a handful of precious diamonds in case her mundane medical abilities fail her.
Mental characteristics
Maria was the firstborn child of Duke Gorrig Vilsang. He brought her up under strict tutelage and a watchful eye, wanting her to perform her duties as all firstborns of the house had for generations. When she turned 17 this included forcing her to train in combat.
She found the flowing and quick style of a traveling swordsman to her taste and trained with him until she was attached to a mercenary band Gorrig had hired to patrol for beast incursions from the Fallen Leaf Isles. It is here that she met people such as Ludwig, Volm, and Symon, living and fighting alongside all of them for a few years. After an incident where Ludwig attacked Volm and ran off the company returned to Castle Stalwart to recuperate. It was from this point that Maria aided her father in his projects, her acumen and skill gained from years exploring the furtive ruins of this remote part of the world propelling these strange designs at lightning pace.
Maria's memory falters here but she knows she joined the Order of Eva shortly after a dreadful incident at the Castle wherin she had several organs removed against her will and was abandoned in the forest to die. She studied and practiced her surgical arts ethically for 2 years before the monastery was attacked by bandits and she had to make use of her swordplay once more. For protecting her new home she was banished and during this banishment met her lifelong friends Sora and Mika.
The party went on to end many an evil plot including cultic terrorist attacks, the machinations of the Ice Devil Ognic, and ultimately those of Maria's father saving the world from the vile schemes that she had a hand in perpetuating.
In this newfound age of peace she now seeks to further undo all her father had wrought by turning Castle Stalwart into a new bastion of the Order of Eva and acts to help those in her domain instead of exploit them.
Maria has shown interest in men in the past, even having a friend, Symon, who almost became more before a dreadful fire at a tavern swallowed that potential up. Her interest in men never returned after this event. In rare instance after she had to put her knowledge of the desires of the rough men that take up the life of the blade to use. Since embarking on her journey of atonement she has mannaged to escape the presures of society and find love in her wife, Sahrana.
Maria was educated by the most well studied, if socially outcast, tutors her father could find. She was well trained in anatomy, metaphysics, alchemy, and obscure histories. She also participated in blasphemous arts learned from Innogarh theĀ Balhannoth and Kurorel the Aboleth.
While always a member of House Vilsang working to their personal ends Maria dabbled in the life of a soldier beforehand. It was here she was attached to The Bloodmoon Mercenaries under Captain Volm. After her leaving Castle Stalwart she joined the Sisters of Eva and became a doctor for a spell before events led to her having to leave the convent. Maria travelled as an adventurer for a few years with the aid of Sora, Mika, and Gulsis before inheriting the Dutchy of Fangs after the death of her father. She now is the leader of this particular division of the Order of Eva as well as the Duchess.
- Banishing a demon, saving the life of Mage Priest Julwen
- Aiding in the new starts of Ermeg, Wirlut, Remmy, and Dreux
- Having met Avatars of Marius, The Nameless King, and Chirae
- Helping Yoruko come to terms with his trauma
- Having defeated her father and ended his schemes.
- Participating in the profane work of Gorrig
- Failure to prevent the gassing of Cascade
- Abandoning Atlas to Golbun's dark powers
- The inability to escape the intricate invitations of her father
- Losing control of her body to the Warpick of High King Tormir and destroying a large portion of the Yuan-Ti Temple city
Maria often has foul dreams of the events of her past though she is unable to recall specifics upon waking. If a situation devolves and she thinks herself at fault she is driven by habit to atone for her failures in lashes.
Maria once had the chance to taste a magically developed ice cream that became the flavor that made the consumer most happy, hers turning out to taste of blood was quite a blow to her perception of how well she had left her life of despicable deeds behind.
Maria believes that all beings start off innocent and are only pushed to vile acts by upbringing. While she isn't blind to the unfortunately common state of some being far to corrupted to be saved she hopes that she herself can act as a guide to those among the tarnished to find a better path.
Maria finds causing needless suffering a vile act of the highest caliber.
Personality Characteristics
Maria is motivated to do good and bring peace into the world by her reformation with the Order of Eva. She is attempting to atone for her past attrocities she commited at the behest of her father.
Likes
- Being in the wild
- The smell of alcohol
- Paragons
- Favorite foods include pickled eel, blood sausage, and fish liqour
Dislikes
- Aberrations
- The smell of burnt meat
- Resorting to violence
Maria holds the virtues of Peace, Redemption, and Patience in high regards and seeks to embody them in her daily life.
Maria's dark past still stains her to this day. The sight and smell of blood evoke a reaction that brings her shame. She also is quite susceptible to magical influences that lead to destructive impulses, as seen with her actions with the War Pick of King Tormir. Sometimes her investigation into processes she doesn't understand can become quite invasive, as in the past the subjects didn't often talk back...
Social
Her friends Sora and Mika. She cares deeply about them and is largely proud of how they handle themselves.
In her past she often associated with infamous groups, notable among them The Bloodmoon Mercenary Company.
Maria was raised to know the worship of the Davidian gods and bloodlines, though her work in her past seems to have been largely focused on beings from far outside the accepted scope of worship, and perhaps from the far realm itself. Since her reformation she has been a devotee of Eva, even though her view of peacekeeping diverges from the main order.
Maria has always carried the confidence of her family name into conversation. This habit hasn't left her even with her lack of association with the rest of House Vilsang. Around her friends she is often pensive and attempts to encourage them to lead the conversation so as to foster their expression of their goals.
She can come off intense in conversation as due to her surgical training in the order of Eva she has learned to separate movements from speaking. This expresses itself in an intensity of focus being felt by her conversational partners that seems to make them less guarded from either unease or enjoyment of being genuinely listened to.
Maria often spends her free time managing the reconstruction of Castle Stalwart and tending to the duties of her Order of Eva.
Her loyal and regal steed Paracelsus is not a pet. He is a battle hardened expression of her salamander family crest and in no way resembles a pancake.
Maria is the inheritor of the vast House Vilsang fortune and now collects taxes from the vast domain the Dutchy encompasses.
