Emma James Character in The Plateau | World Anvil
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Emma James

(a.k.a. Sprite)

Emma James (born 27 Solmower 2481 ME) is a Lightning Marshal former Admiral and Chairman of the Armada Protection Bureau of the Armada of Truth, James served for many years as Antagon's right hand woman. Trained at the Marshal Monastery before joining the Armada of Truth, James is regarded as the most unapologetic of the Armada's high command. Considered one of the most powerful Mages and fighters on the Plateau, she commanded the Armada's secret police and was responsible for ordering thousands of civilians arrested, tortured and/or killed. She is currently imprisoned in the Shang Hi prison on various war crimes.

Biography

Childhood

Discovered abandoned outside the Lightning Marshal monastery in the southern Sunlit Wall on the 27th of Solmower 2481 ME. She was raised by the monks of the temple in the ways of the Lightning Marshals. She was an exceptionally bright student if reclusive, preferring her own company to that of others. It was around the age of ten that she began to be bullied and harassed, this culminated in an attempt by some older students to sexually assault. They failed thanks to James' skill at quan cho, and the chance encounter of meeting a teacher during her escape.
At the age of fifteen, still alone, and still bullied, she happened upon a starving man who introduced himself as Antagon. Taking him back to the monastery where she and others helped feed and dress Antagon. During his stay at the monastery Antagon discussed philosophy with the elders and wrote in his journal. He also began to bond with the younger James who listened to his philosophy of Utopianism with rapture. Antagon also showed her fighting moves that could be useful and even helped her with her homework. After a year at the monastery, Antagon decided it was time to leave and bring his philosophy to the people. James, not wanting to be rid of her only friend begged Antagon to take her with him. He refused, insisting that she stay at the monastery and learn it's powers. But he promised her that if she ever sought him out after then she would be welcome to be by his side.
In the years after Antagon left James threw herself even more into her studies to be a greater asset to her only friend. At the same time the bullying and harassment continued. At the age of eighteen some students, the same students from before, successfully managed to defeat her and sexually assault her. This traumatised James for several years.
At nineteen she went through the Change and began to master her powers over lightning. A quick learner and equally skilled with Magick as she was with her studies, she began to learn about the Old Gods and started to be enraptured by the teaching of the Old Faith which her teachers would often mock during lessons.
In 2496 ME James murdered the students who had assaulted her eight years prior, and an Elder who know what had happened and done nothing. She then stole several books from the library and escaped the Monastery.  

Armada of Truth

Journeying east from the Monastery, and dodging attempts on her life from Lightning Marshals sent to avenge the murders she had caused and take back the books. It took James a year to locate Antagon and his organisation. During that time she worked in various cities to earn a living, coming into contact with criminal elements and learning the ways of criminals. Skills that would aide her in her later career of espionage.
Eventually she managed to locate Antagon and joined his organisation the Armada of truth. Soon after arriving she attempting to seduce him, an attempt that was rebuffed. This allowed her to come to terms with her prior assault as well as what she truly wanted in life not what other people wanted for her. She embrace this and started to grow as a person, opening up more. It was at this time that James began a relationship with propaganda disseminator Makato Xavier.
In 2498 ME James officially converted to the Old Faith and was ordained. Her position also grew in the organisation. She wasn't much for public speaking, however she knew people, she was given jobs in organisations and connection building, expanding the Armada's organisation through recruitment. During the bleak recession, which began in 2503 ME, her role expanded again. As the Armada's ranks swelled with opponents to the Monotherium she helped establish connections with the criminal element in the various cities, and the church of Old Faith. This gained the Armada support from more establishment individuals while at the same time giving them a spy network.
Originally James used this spy network to ensure that the Armadas avoided the Monotherium's auuthorities who were desperate to shut them down. But as other organisations grew in size, particularly the Rainbow Guard, the National Renewal, and the Theological League, her network was used to spy on these organisations and protect the Armada's meetings from being broken up. This was in tandem with Tiarna Liathfeasog's creation of the Protection Group, the forerunner to the Armada's military.
Over the next eight decades the Armada continued to grow, and James was made the second in command of the organisation. She organised several political rallies and marches some of which ended in massacres or riots. In secret meetings discovered after the war, it turned out many of these massacres and riots were orchestrated by James in order to gain the organisation membership and support. She was made a High Priest of the Liberal Old Faith during this time and gained great influence and respect in that church. She helped organise the march in Danst that ended in the three day exermasteen riot and massacre. She took part in the March on the Palace which ended in the murder of Kragen IV and the destruction of the palace which started the Tricorne War.
At the start of the war she activated several of her spy cells in operation Howling Unnamed in various parts of the Continent who overthrew city and local governments, committed terrorist actions, and murdered high-profile members of the opposition. This enabled the Armada to gain a strong foothold and weakened the Monotherium's ability to respond.  

Tricorne War

As the Armada began to setup a state bureaucracy and infrastructure, James was made an Admiral (the highest office possible, below the Fleet Admiral) of the Admiralty Board and made First Director of the Armada Protection Bureau. As such she was responsible for the internal security and espionage acts against the other powers and organisations in the Tricorne War. She also set up a secret police organisation under her direct command.
During her time as an admiral she began to cultivate relationships with the other four members which had existed before the war. She always had a close working relationship with Admiral Tiarna Liathfaesog, She cultivated a similar relationship with Admiral Upton Zidaar, one based on respect and a similar sphere of influence. While her relationships with Admiral's Sylvester Meanish and Jon Maeker were far cooler. She often tried to have the two killed or dirt dug up on them. Meanish would often retaliate to these provocations with assassinations of his own.
During the early phases of the war James made a name for herself with her spy network and organisational abilities. It was thanks to her abilities and assassinations that the Monotherium setup the Oxcisor and Moonlight Reservist Special Squads. She also engaged in a few combat endevours of her own. Unlike Liathfaesog who focused on the war as a whole, and Meanish who focused on economic sieges and battles, James used her battle experience to deal with small missions for spying, sabotage, and assassination.
When the SuSkHe rose as a power in the war, James became familiar with several of its members, and even launched assassination campaigns against the ten of them as they posed such a massive thorn in the Armada's side. She was only ever defeated by members of this squad, which infuriated her and caused James to arrange several assassination attempts on the group.
During the war she cultivated a persona as Antagon's most loyal supporter doing anything and everything to preserve his power. She was remarkable at putting down any counter-revolutionary activity before it even became a threat, while at the same time disseminating revolutionary individuals within the Guard and Monotherium. A master at espionage she knew exactly who to hit and spy on to get even bigger threats. She was known as "Antagon's Bloodhound".
After Succoro's rampage, James was one of the first to call for Meanish to be executed, something Antagon originally agreed with before determining that it was not in the best interest of the Armada. Afterwards she did her best to prevent any further unnecessary reprisals that would pose a danger like the rampage or Operation Pickaxe had.
In 2652 ME James was captured by Rainbow Guard forces alongside SuSkHe member Kirsten Dregg. The two managed to work together and escape their confinement. This had the effect of creating a mutual respect between the two women, much to James' consternation, as she found it affecting her job in order to make sure Dregg would survive. Unlike Meanish who had cultivated a hate filled relation with Succoro, the relationship between Dregg and James was based on respect. They would often battle with each woman trying to get the better of the other but rarely trying to kill each other. After Theise appeared and associated theirself with the Armada, James originally didn't trust them as they had no past that she could look into or investigate. When they replaced Zidaar on the Admirality Board in 2657 ME, James didn't trust their extreme measures and unfeeling attitude. She also attempted to have them killed, which failed spectacularly when the assassins heads were dumped in front of her and forced to speak a warning. This freaked her out so successfully that she tried her best to never be caught alone with Theise again, and made sure to have Antagon with her at all their meetings.  

Relationship Breakdown

In 2675 ME the war took a turn, more and more deaths and imprisonments of civilians began to occur on all sides. James was responsible for this ramp up of war crimes as it became the policy of the Armada to utilise total war and use all assets available to them. This included the destruction of property, environmental damage, and the murder of uncooperative civilians to ensure quotas in farms and factories under their control. Many of these crimes were used as evidence against the leadership of the Armada in the war crimes trial.
In 2676 ME, as a result of these actions, James's relationship with Xavier started to collapse. After a final, public, argument between the two of them, they officially ended their relationship. Xavier attempted to convince James and Antagon to stop the scorched earth and total war policies they had adopted. When they refused, Makato defected to the Monotherium, James and he then fought. It is unknown whether he overpowered the skilled Admiral, or whether she let him with due to their prior affection for one another, but either way James was defeated and managed to escape to the Monotherium's lines and surrendered himself to his sister's custody. Completely broken heated, James threw herself into her work to distract herself from the pain of the breakup some argued she became even colder and indifferent to the cruelty in her orders.  

End of the War

On the 1st of Franth 2698 ME, Antagon was invited to a peace summit. It has been revealed in private meeting notes that James knew the summit was a trap, and Antagon was aware of this fact, however Antagon went to the Palacetown anyway. Many believe this was a ploy by James to cut the head off the Monotheirum's snake. On the 3rd of Franth, the peace summit occurred, which was a trap, and Antagon destroyed the city. Emma was present at Guards hill with Admiral Tiarna Liathfaesog and the entire Second Fleet as Antagon walked out of the burning city and declared the Monotherium at an end.
After the destruction Emma was forced to work double hard to thwart the efforts of the Rainbow Guard to solidify gains made in the Golden Vale, Polarin, and the Shadow Archipelago, while keeping their own lands in the Desert Lands and Sunland secure. She also had to deal with the formation of the Free Plateau Resistance. She failed to assassinate the leadership of both organisations, but did succeed in disrupting their organisations enough to allow the Armada to establish its position as a ruling power. The Rainbow Guard and the Armada then effectively split the continent between themselves. It was around this time that James engaged Marshal Pitact Nirvanus, who nearly killed her in the battle.
During the Cold War, James and Liathfaesog came to loggerheads about war policy. James pushed for greater espionage in order to weaken the Guard enough for the Armada to defeat, while Liathfaesog wanted a swift victory. Thanks to support from Admirals Sylvester Meanish (who was loath to support a woman) and Jon Maeker, who both wanted more time to deal with the economic and technological aspects in order to better defeat the Guard, she was able to sway Antagon who supported the position.
Nine years into the Cold War, the Admiralty Board decided to restart the war to finally destroy the Guard. To aid in this endeavour, James activated many sleeper cells to perform assassination and terrorist activities at the same time as the invasion to cripple the Guard. This, coupled with Jon's EMP bomb, the combined forces of the Armada under Admirals Liathfaesog and Theise, and the economic backing of Meanish, allowed operation Hot Water, also known as Jon's Gambit and the Armada-Guard war, to be a complete success resulting in the destruction of the Rainbow Guard. At the battle of Tungsten Run James personally slew Rainbow Guard leader Clarence Fuled with help from his bodyguards who were sleeper agents of hers. She also led the force that defeated High General Verhen Kings during his fightback.
With the main force and leadership of the Rainbow Guard destroyed. Antagon ordered the fleet split in three. James went with Antagon and the First fleet and travelled west, across northern Sunland and into Píngshuǐ, the plan had been to reach the capital of Yung-Yeng, pacify any Guard resistance, and use it as a launchpad to attack Guard installations in the Shadow Archipelago and the Golden Vale to get their complete surrender. James, and Maeker, were intensely interested in capturing Symon Bellows who they knew was under Guard protection. However their plans were scuppered at Mirth Dance when the forces of the Free Plateau Army ambushed the fleet.
The four day battle resulted in Antagon abandoning his post. While James attempted to rally the remaining forces under her command, any counter attack was stopped by the remaining members of SuSkHE who engaged her directly. Despite putting up a valiant battle with several of her bravest and strongest officers, they were defeated. With Antagon's defeat, James ordered the troops under her command to surrender and was taken into custody.
Despite her intense loyalty towards Antagon, this personality trait did not trickle down into the men and women under her command. Many of the regular soldiers willingly sided with Marshal Nirvanus and the Free Plateau Army in return for immunity and the promise of true democratic and economic reforms, both promises given by three leaders of the resistance.
With the defeat at Mirth Dance, the Tricorne war over.  

After the War

James was imprisoned by the Free Plateau Resistance, which later became the Plateau Government. Alongside Antagon, Admirals Jon Maeker, Sylvester Meanish, and Tiarna Liathfaesog, along with several other officers in the Armada, James was put on trial for conspiracy against peace, seeking a war of aggression, and crimes against civilians and non-combatants. The Danst trial, as it came to be known, took place from the 1st of Gam to the 13th of Onover. During the trial James conducted her own defence, refusing to listen to her appointed trial judge who eventually resigned their position. Unlike the other defendants who attempted to protest their innocence, or Antagon who often gave political speeches, and Tiarna who refused to acknowledge the courts jurisdiction and even attempted to break out twice. James conducted her defence in a strong and determined fashion, using legal justifications for every action during the Tricorne War. She also treated all witnesses as hostile and had to be reined in several times by the judges. She only broke twice, when she refused to cross-examine Makota Xavier, and the third day of her own cross examination when Marion SnowCrab got her to tactically admit that the actions taken by the Armada were similar to those by the Monotherium. She was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for parole. She was then interned in Shang Hi Prison alongside several of her fellow defendants.
Since her imprisonment James has refused many attempts for interviews and has refused every offer to appeal her conviction. She has since started to submit articles and columns for for several far-left and religious publications, which are always published under a pseudonym. She is unable to be paid for any of the articles so instead the publications send her gifts, donate to charitable causes with James' consent, or provide funds to her defence fund which was set up to protest any injustices in her imprisonment.  

Appearance

James is 5'5" and weighs 132 lbs. She has hazel eye and the tanned skin of a rivush. An athletic body, she exercises regularly and likes to keep fit and active. She is often described as being attractive, although one of her incisors is missing, the gap is visible whenever she smiles broadly. Her most distinctive feature is her blonde hair that is almost always dip-dyed bright blue, she has had this hairstyle for most of her life with the exception being her time in prison. She often wears a tank-top, jeans, and a biker jacket, often wearing clothes that are bright blue, but often preferring more inconspicuous colours when she needs to be stealthy.  

Personality

James is often described as a zealot for her uncompromising views towards Antagon, utopianism, and the Old Faith. She also tends to display respect to her enemies and be critical of her allies, particularly if said allies are not as brave or honest as she likes to believe she is. She also has an unfortunet tendency to be a bit blood thirsty as she enjoys stretching her powers and fighting strong opponents, a fault that has caused problems for her in the past. She also has difficulty trusting people due to the trauma of her past, two of the only people she has ever opened up to were Antagon and Makoto Xavier. She also has a fixation on politics and religion to the exclusion of anything else. After the Danst trial she has only the wish to leave the world, originally through suicide, she is now looking for a way to hide out and avoid the world, something that she readily admits may not be possible.  

Abilities

Magick

James is an incredibly skilled Lightning Marshal, being almost on par with Lightning Elementium such as Levitus Succoro. She skill and maturity at her Magick is so great that she can read and detect even the faintest of electrical impulses, and is able to manipulate them inside bodies or inside electric devices. She is so powerful and skilled that even the slightest touch of her skin can shut down an enemies heart, this coupled with her martial arts makes her a walking death machine. She is highly skilled at producing and manipulating electricity to a severally damaging degree. James has the highly developed ability to channel inwardly, using this in tandem with stealth and assassination missions. She is highly regarded for her powers, particularly her ability to switch between high destructive displays and more subtle attacks, it is one of the reasons she is considered one of the most powerful Mages on the Plateau.  

Physical Attributes

James' stealth and martial arts abilities are legendary. Trained in the deadly art of quan cho by monks of the Lightning Marshal monastery, she has been able to utilise her powers over electricity with the momentum driven skills of quan cho, proving deadly with even the slightest of touches. Even without her Magick she is fully capable of defeating even a horde of well armed enemies. Mostly relying on kicks and slaps to disorientate and damage. The delicate balance of quan cho is so fluid for her that even moves were she misses, she can transfer the moment to attack with a move that does. She has defeated several high-profile members of the Monotherium and the Guard using just these techniques alone and is regarded as one of the greatest martial artists on the Plateau after Damion Soost.

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

Cisgender Female

Sexuality

Heterosexual
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Admiral of the Armada of Truth (former), Chairman of the Admiralty Protection Board (former)
Year of Birth
9689 AR 311 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Abandoned as a baby on the Lightning Marshal Monastery steps
Birthplace
Unknown
Children
Current Residence
Shang Hi Prison, Shang Zi, Píngshuǐ, Sunlands
Gender
Female
Eyes
Hazel
Hair
Bright blonde which is dip dyed blue
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
5'5"
Weight
132 lbs
Aligned Organization
Known Languages
Rivush and Sana

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