"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." - Kill them all; let God sort them out. Personal Name: Augusta Rhines Age: July 22, X768 Gender: Female Sexuality: Bisexual Class: Battlemage Race: N/A Rank: A-Rank Guild: Guildless Tattoo: Spine, Base of Neck (C7 Vertabrae) | Gold Face: Jeanne d'Arc | Fate/Apocrypha Appearance "Alea iacta est" - The die has been thrown. Height: 170.0 cm | 5'7" Weight: 68.0 kg | 150 lb Hair: White Eyes: Yellow Overall: Seemingly blessed, Augusta Rhines is a young woman with pale skin, whitish hair, and a body type that women - and men alike - would be jealous towards. Standing just slightly taller than that of an average woman, Augusta is blessed with phenominal physical shape, having an extremely-toned body with almost no body fat apparent. Possessing lengthy, flowing white hair that at times has the faintest hint of a silvery blonde, Augusta tends to wear it down, often paying little attention or concerns towards where it may flow, be it in front of her face or otherwise. Although she prefers to have her hair longer, it is not uncommon for her to cut it drastically short, to the point even where several feet of length have vanished. While her appearance harkins more to that of a young woman that may not display a particularly malicious frame, it is her eyes in which have sparked the most concern out of those who have encountered Augusta. Often regarded as being calm, there have been others who've described Augusta's eyes as crazy, and some who view them as looking at death itself. Augusta often tends to wear a single outfit, regardless of the time, place, or type of event it might be. Intricate in detail, it consists of a blackish, steel chestguard conforming to her upper body, ornamented with thick black silken cuts which cover over shoulder pads and small black chains which tie the various pieces together, all connecting a thick chocker which extends for nearly half the length of Augusta's neck. Arm guards which match the same blackish tone of her chest guard extend down from her mid-biceps, all the way down her arms to the of serving as full gauntlets. From the lower base of her chest piece, there extends a lengthy silken draping which covers both her legs and a shorter, more refined skirt that otherwise is concealed, save for perhaps a quick, chance glance. Rather than wear armor to cover her legs, Augusta leaves them exposed, preferring instead to wear long black stockings which extend up to her mid-thigh. However, she will wear the footpads of the previously mentioned armor set, parading around them as though they were luxury boots. It is not uncommon for Augusta to apply variations to this particular regalia. At times, the silken shoulderpads may be substituted for heavier and fuller adornments, more resembling that of someone seeking to survive in the winter. Other times, a thick cloak may be applied. In other cases, the heavy armored chestpiece may be substituted for a far more revealing breastplate of the same material, though exposing far more skin in such instances. Extra: Often times, though not always, Augusta may wear a small face guard shaped in such a manner that it provides more of an outside, almost like that of a claw with pronges extended, one extending down the center of her forehead, ceasing just below the eyeline, and two pronges on either side of her head stopping at similar distance, just enough to be in alignment with the location of the ear canal. Personality "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Personality: Zealot. Sadist. Crusader. Fanatic. Monster. Each word in itself would adequately describe the woman known as Augusta Rhines, and while she herself wouldn't dispute any of the charges levied against her, as she would put it, "the dead don't speak." That sort of cold mentality is a more accurate reflection of Augusta's motivations than what people would perhaps expect of her, both in terms of her gender and her affiliations. A wickedly devout follower to the Church of Illium, Augusta would easily rank among the most devout - and equally, zealous - within the history of the Church, present or in the past. But even if the religious aspect is removed, it would be foolhardy to believe that Augusta is anything short of a sociopath. Augusta's viciousness, as well to an extent her zealotry, can be most tied to two character traits which in themselves hold significant weight and impact, but together in Augusta's case, create a perfect storm scenario. The first key attribute is Augusta's own mental faculties, specifically a serious case of schizophrenia which began to further and further deteriorate as time went on. Combined with growing up in an environment almost entirely dominated by the Church, the progressive worsening of Augusta's affliction eventually manifested itself in the form of a full-blown religious delusion. Hearing voices within her head, she believes with unyielding conviction that these are the literal words of God and as such is determined to carry them out, under any circumstances. Alongside this disease, Augusta also suffers from sexual sadism disorder, causing her to derive extreme sexual pleasure from the physical and psychological pain inflicted upon people. To this, while she does take joy in the suffering of others, it is pain directly caused by her in others that provides her with the most fulfilling joy. In spite of this, Augusta does not actively inflict pain for the sake of personal satisfaction, but instead will feed off of any excitement that will come from a given operation. Whatever pleasure she may derive from her actions or in the wake of battle, serve as more an 'added bonus' than anything else. Despite these two key attributes having as much influence over her psyche and mentality as they do, they are not the sole attributes that define her. Rather, they further compliment and influence her, often working alongside her more zealous components. Having grown up with the Church, it would be foolhardy not to consider her indoctrinated at the least, utterly consumed by its power at the worst. Though the ideals of compassion and peace are essentially lost to her in the sense of how they would affect a normal person, she considers the further growth, expansion, and power of the Church to be far more important and through them - and whatever Crusades must be carried out in their name - as the only means of actually achieving what she regards as "peace". To that, those outside of the Church though supportive of their goals and agenda are viewed with a bleak level of compassion. Their extermination is not viewed as necessary, but neither is their survival. Akin to the idea of one foot out the door within a relationship, those who have not fully committed themselves to the greater purposes of how she interprets the Church's role are expendable, risking themselves for not being more invested like she. For those who do not follow the ways or support the Church, they're regarded as infidels and heretics, and therefore worthy of nothing other than a brutal death. Whether in casual conversation or on the field of battle, Augusta does not hide her contempt towards these infidels, believing steadfast that their demise is needed - and by extension, those who show sympathy towards them are regarded as traitors and infidels and heretics themselves. Augusta is task-oriented, showing little regard for what would be required for a task or what may be lost as a result, but rather being more driven on seeing the end result play out. In battle, this translates to a complete and utter disregard for her comrades, believing that their deaths - so long as it results in the absolute defeat of their enemies - to be worth it. If 100 soldiers are required to kill 20 infidels, Augusta is willing to sacrifice all 100 of them, so long as the 20 foes are dead. This also means that she is willing to forsake alternative solutions that may be yield less of an allied body count so long as there appears to be a degree of success in their current course of action. This isn't to say that Augusta is not a capable tactician, as she has shown throughout her various operations a level of competency reflective of more veteran soldiers as well as an impressive ability to adapt strategies when needed. Though, the frequency and success of combat adjustments are often lost when the taking into consideration the amount of lives lost as a result. To a degree, because of the worry that surrounds the high body counts, Augusta is leery and suspicious of her superiors, believing that they lack the fortitude and willingness to do whatever must be done to help the Church like she has shown. Augusta makes little effort in hiding her emotions, in spite of the negative annotation in which the emotions may reflect given the time and location. It is not uncommon to see Augusta smiling over the bodies of numerous dead soldiers, or to be in apparent bliss at watching someone burned alive. Similarly, she may display looks of complete disgust when conversation introduces concepts like mercy or peace. The tone she speaks with carries equal levels of authority, disregard, and more often than not, cruelty. Per her more sadistic side, when emotion begins to overtake her, be it of sadistic delight or anger, her expressions and body language most dramatically convey this as well. As such, the shifts in her demeanor have further lent to feelings of concern around her, particularly at how drastically and suddenly that the seemingly blank slate a person is conversing with can shift into a remorseless fiend. Likes:
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Magic Magic Name: Wrath Magic Magic Element: Non-Element Magic Description: Wrath Magic is a powerful Magic in which enables the user to manipulate Magical energies within themselves and project it in the form of reddish bolts having a structural similarity to that of lightning. Hyper-aggressive in its application, Wrath Magic stands as one of the premier Magics when taken into consideration how it can be used and the capabilities by which it enables a user to turn the tide of battle. As the name indicates, the destructive power of Wrath Magic is indiscriminate, volatile in nature, and more often utilized within an offensive manner, though its properties enable for an expanded arsenal beyond just that. Wrath Magic spells can be created of these varieties:
History "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." - Revelation 21:8 There has never been a shortage to which people will follow religion. For many, they would be lying as to say that they are not influenced by it in some capacity. Whether they believe that God has actually played a role within their lives, or otherwise feel a reason to seek out his graces, they believe. For a growing number of the people born within the borders of Fiore and beyond, it is becoming more of a passing thought. The idea that life must be lived under the scrutiny, or even the existence of a God becoming more and more of an idea lost upon generations. And yet for a small few, the existence of a God stands at the core of their being, of their own existence. How they pledge themselves to this belief varies from person to person; some who give themselves to His service, and there are others who would welcome the end of days, Armageddon as it is known, for the opportunity to see the world cast without the nonbelievers. The tale of Augusta Rhines is a bloody, violent story which follows the latter. Augusta was born in the distant lands far outside the authority and rule of the provinces of Fiore. Still within the borders, but isolated and far enough such that no singular family or entity assumed jurisdiction, other than the Church. A small town not unlike the many others which inhabited and blanketed the lands of Fiore, with a simple economy combining the trade of the merchants who frequented it with the assistance and charities of the Church. A simple town with their own customs and laws, where the men often tended to their respective trade and the women either fell into three categories: maintaining the home and nurturing the children, aiding their husbands or prospective husbands with their respective crafts, or providing assistance to the Church. For Augusta, her father the local blacksmith and mother among the many women who volunteered with the Church, her life early on was a song of steel and God. Augusta's early life was not particularly one of note. Many a day were spent within the cathedral that lay within the center of town or in close proximity to her father's forge, listening to the stories from merchants and adventurers alike who passed through to barter. For the most part, it was similar to that of most children who grew up in towns like this. Contrary to the rest of the children though, none bore the affliction that Augusta did not even know she possessed; a mental illness, which while barely noticeable at an early age, would eventually manifest itself into something that would wholly consume her and reshape her history moving forward. Days went about not unlike how they would normally, with life proceeding about as normally as one would expect from a place so distant from the rest of Fiore. And so distant from the forces of Fiore, who had little to no means of being able to provide assistance or protection in the event they were needed. Though, the town had stood for generations without their need, until one fateful night. While Augusta played near the forge as her father and mother both began to close up shop, a band of marauders who had been fleeing from one of the provinces rode through the area, demanding armaments and aide. Her father, an good man who prided himself on not only his craft but also his honor, refused and was rewarded for his honor with a sword through the heart. Paralyzed at the sight of what had just happened, Augusta found herself unable to move, only able to find the will to run at the behest of her mother, whose cries for her daughter's safety were quickly and suddenly lost beneath her own screams as she was butchered by the warmongers who were shifting their focus to the little girl stunned at what she just saw. "The people... must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open." - Hosea 13:16 Perhaps it was luck. Maybe it was something more, like divine intervention. However it was, Augusta managed to nonetheless escape from the grasps of one of the men who had lunged forward and taken hold of her foot. In a sequence of events that she could barely process herself, she found herself at the front steps of the town cathedral, the doors spreading open to reveal several Holy Knights who had lodged there for the night. Stunned, Augusta watched as the band of marauders engaged with the Knights, falling one by one to the trained soldiers of the Church. When the last body fell, what little else she was able to remember was the hand of one of the Knights leading her into the safety of the cathedral. From that point, her life as she knew it before was over and thus began a new life in service to the Church. With no home nor family, save for the Church, Augusta spent the remainder of her childhood and teenage years slowly becoming one of its most devout. From their words, she took it as the doctrine for life's purpose. From their strength, she sought the same. From the world, she took only the lessons that the marauders, the heathens, instilled upon her; that the unworthy would not stand against the Church. From the Holy Knights, she adopted their skills, their fury, and their willingness to fight. And unbeknownst to her, she took from something else. The voice within her head that had begun to grow louder and louder. The same voice which she recalled hearing just after witnessing the death of her parents. The voice of God. As time went, Augusta became more and more resolved and committed to the Church, to the point where her name was often frequented as one of the more hopeful prospects amongst the most senior members of the Church. Those who uttered this, and those that shared this sentiment, were more frequently the ones unaware of the more disturbing elements to Augusta's time. For as much time as she spent learning the word of the Church, more her focus were on the more violent of the texts, including those of fabled wars carried out in distant lands, namely violence that had been believed to have been during those generations prior. It was this intrigue that led Augusta down a more sinister path, with the depictions of men and women being burned at the stake and hung until their necks ripped apart that most appealed to the young woman. "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34 By the time she was near the point of being regarded as an adult, Augusta sought to explore the world, to spread the word of God as she described it. However, her true motivations stood at seeing how the rest of the world compared with that of times before. The times before the Crusades. Hoping that circumstances matched, Augusta departed for areas beyond the town in which she had spent her whole life in, hopeful to find others who shared in her ambitions. Arriving first within the city of Magnolia, Augusta - now having abandoned her surname - was left in disbelief at the state of the city. Sinful acts committed openly throughout the streets, the good and sinless path that people were expected to walk being outright abandoned right before her eyes. But worse yet, the Church which had worked to establish itself as a significant power within Magnolia, was doing nothing to change this. Enraged, Augusta showed no restraint, interrupting daily mass and condemning those who worshipped in Kardia Cathedral for having abandoned the will of God. The reactions to her fury was met with almost uniform, angry at Augusta, at the nerve that she demonstrated towards everyone, including those who worshipped there. It was a defining moment which would have lasting implications, with news of Augusta's outburst reaching those of the Church, immediately comdemning her actions and demanding her arrival to the city of Crocus to explain herself and face judgement. That judgement would never come to happen however, as Augusta had fled under the shadow of night and begun her escape towards the smaller province of Marigold. Augusta's presence in Marigold largely contrasted that of when in Magnolia, her zeal being used as a model to represent what the Church had come to decry and warn against. Regarded as a rogue presence within the Church, Augusta sought shelter in the more isolated region, evading the forces of the Church all while building up a small following of those who had begun to affiliate themselves with her extremist views, eventually renouncing official doctrine for Augusta's preferred interpretations of the scriptures. For a short time, this would serve as her new home while she further devoted herself towards their interpretation of how the Church should be conducted, all the while her delusions began to become more vivid, to the point where the conquests in which she fantasized about was one she wanted to carry out herself, in the name of her religion. "When you march up to attack a city... all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse... lay siege to that city. When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men... the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city..." - Deuteronomy 20:10-15 Augusta had hoped that her outburst within Mangolia may have started a sort of revolution within the Church, further bolstering her cell's power. With little more than what might have been stationed at any given garrison, Augusta possessed at the least enough of a force to set in motion what she would hope be the catalyst for her own glorious campaign. Meanwhile, there had begun to be whispers that spread through more of the unsettled regions outside of the provinces' protection and sphere of influence, reports that isolated regions within the lands had begun to reject the teachings of the Church. Hoping to conscript these within her small army of extremists, Augusta set forth the plans to march out of Marigold. Bringing with her a small garrison of about 30 who were similarly devoted to her perspective of the Church, Augusta began her pilgrimage, hoping to find some indication that there was more to this than just rumors and whispers. Although a challenging and lengthy trip, Augusta and her unit eventually made their way to the region where most of the rumors had seemed to originate from, but not before contributing themselves to the effort. Proceeding through several villages, Augusta presented them with an offer to join alongside her group, hoping that their rejections of the Church's practices would have been enough reason to join up with Augusta. In the end, they declined, to which Augusta responded harshly to their rejection. By the time Augusta and her forces had abandoned the first village, they left nothing but smoldering bodies and ash. The region, having largely consisted of wilderness and small, isolated settlements scattered sparsely about did not make things simple for Augusta and the rest of her fatigued group, now having traveled for the greater part of a month. To make matters worse, there began early talks of dissention, with a growing concern over Augusta's hardline approach, her zealotry, and what some worried was an overreliance on supposed voices that she claimed to be the voice of God. It did not take long however for word of this to eventually reach Augusta though, and in the middle of the night, Augusta ordered the "traitors" to be tied to the base of several large trees near their encampment. In a stunning display of apparent mercy, she offered them a chance to confess their crimes or suffer the consequences for their abandonment of God. Those who chose to suffer were burnt alive, tree and all. Those who confessed had blood drawn and were left tied to the trees, at the mercy of nature and the creatures that existed within the woods. "They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the LORD... were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman." - 2 Chronicles 15:12-13 Augusta and those loyal continued on, but declining resources and the imminent season of winter made the pilgrimage into more a trek for survival. Her group which began with 30 had now been reduced to just under twenty or so, some having been killed by Augusta's own actions, while others fell to other factors. In spite of these losses, they had traversed so long and far that the prospect of returning was an all but guaranteed death march. Realizing this, the group pushed forward, morale beginning to sink even further, with some wondering if it would be the elements or Augusta who took their lives. It would be a question that they would never quite find out. After only a few days of further travelling, Augusta's group was ambushed by a large deployment of Rune Knights who appeared to have been waiting for her and her group to arrive. Some of her company appeared grateful for the arrival of the deployment, while Augusta simply looked on with disdain, the reality of what had happened beginning to become clearer as the seconds passed. These Knights had been deployed due to the actions in which she had taken. There may have been villages who were not to the Church, but they were willing to side with the Rune Knights well before they would have entertained Augusta's group of extremists. The Rune Knights had descended upon those who still survived of Augusta's cell, determined to stop any chance of allowing additional villages and people to be lost to Augusta and her zealots. The battle was bloody, violent, and completely one-sided. Augusta's forces, not trained in battle, as well as fatigued and exhausted from the hard travelling were ripped apart by the newly-arrived Rune Knights who also had the benefit of combat training, armor, and greater numbers. However, as the dust settled and the bodies were amassed atop one another, there was no presence of the woman known as Augusta. Having fled through the thick forests in the earliest moments of the battle, she had all but disappeared from sight by the time anyone had realized she was absent. To where she had gone, there was no way to tell, and no feasible way to have searched through the entire forest, even in spite of the superior numbers of the Rune Knights. While the rest of her cell had been killed, Augusta had been regarded as missing, though the thought among many was that she would have succumb to the elements or the wildlife. However, she had survived, having barely made it out of the forests and back into the provinces which had made up Fiore by the time she had gone through what little supplies she was able to muster. Nearly at death's door, Augusta pressed on still, now on the run from not only the Church but also the Magic Council and without any of the resources or backup in which she had had before. However, she did not fear this. Of what she had achieved in the unsettled lands, the death and bloodshed, the fires and screams that she had created, it was but a sampling of what she sought to create again. A war in which her followers, thousands upon thousands of devoted followers, each of them just as much as extremist as she was, would rip through the lands and leave nothing but fire, blood, and death. After all, the voice of God had told her she would achieve it. "Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger... Whoever is captured will... fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished." - Isaiah 13:13-16 Reference: Leyaria's Scoop Character |
Last edited by Augusta Rhines on Sat May 12, 2018 2:38 pm; edited 2 times in total