Mary Springfield

Appearance
Mary is slightly above average height for a woman, but a bit thin. Her body isn’t particularly athletic or gorgeous, but rather pale and almost skeletal, due to lack of a proper diet and adequate exercise. Not enough sleep also adds to the appearance of somebody who’s pushed herself to her limit. Despite this, she doesn’t seem frail, since her confidence and determination is made apparent by her body language, and can be quite intimidating for some people. Her face isn’t unpleasant to look at, but is still frightening for some. However, those who gaze into her energetic emerald eyes can often detect the kindness, wisdom, and passion lurking inside. Beautiful black hair hangs down to her shoulders.

While out in public, Mary tends to wear elegant and expensive black dresses of various styles—that typically expose little flesh—along with gloves and well-made cowboy boots of the same color. She’ll adorn herself with jewelry to suit her mood and current location, although she tends towards subtly with her choices. For special occasions she equips a cloak made of raven feathers, and an ornate silver skull mask. When conducting simple rituals or experiments away from unwanted observation, she tends to dress in rather plain and practical robes—which are black, of course. There are times when she breaks from these patterns, though they are few.

Personality
There’s nothing that drives Mary more than her curiosity—which is fueled by a stunning intellect. While she does value most knowledge, the secrets of life and death are what she treasures the most. It’s an obsession, which often drives her to extremes. She’s not afraid to put her life at risk or do something others would consider appalling, if she ends up learning something interesting about death.

The dead do not frighten her, but instead fascinate her. Dealing with them does not disgust her one bit. However, while she is willing to dig up graves, and perform gruesome experiments on corpses, Mary has never actually killed anyone, and would go to a lot of trouble to continue that. In fact, she’s a fairly kind person, and will almost always try to do the least harm possible, even to people she doesn’t like much, or to mindless monsters. If asked for help, she’ll probably provide it, but otherwise she tends to mind her own business, and avoids inserting herself into other people’s problems and conflicts.

Due to having lived a very sheltered life, Mary can be a bit too trusting of strangers and acquaintances. Often she neglects to consider the motivations of those she interacts with, which can put her in danger. She’s a very friendly sort, and tends to not notice when others are bothered by this. Some consider her a bit too chatty. Many also believe that she shares too much about herself. Lying is not a natural habit of hers. It’s something she was taught at the Mancer College, so that she could avoid drawing attention to herself, while traveling places that aren’t too fond of people who practice her craft.

When it comes to Necromancy, Mary understands that even people who wouldn’t try to arrest, kill, or otherwise harm her for talking about it probably don’t want to hear about it. Her teachers had made that clear to her and her fellow students, while her interactions with fellow Mancers (of the non Necro variety) also emphasized that lesson. So, Mary will be willing to have a conversation about almost anything with random strangers, except for Necromancy.

Mary has read many books during her life, and plans to continue to do so. She’s also had one of the best educations money can buy. Her relentless experimenting has given her a level of understanding that few of her peers can rival, and it’s quite possible that she could help to broaden the very field of Necromancy itself very soon. It’s something she deeply desires, and she’s determined to do. However, her life up until this point has been quite safe and luxurious. Very little of her life has been spent outside the Mancer College, so she can be surprisingly ignorant regarding certain subjects. Still, she’s open-minded, and will always try to learn and understand when given the chance.

Graduate:
Mary is no longer merely a student of Necromancy. She graduated from the Mancer College months ago, and is ready to leave her mark on her chosen field of Mancy. There’s no doubt that she fully understands the theories behind modern Necromancy, and her technique is virtually flawless, but more importantly she is willing to push the boundaries, and try things that few others ever have. It may be many years before she’s able to fill the pages of a book with anything worth writing down, or willing to consider allowing herself to accept disciples, but she appears to have a very promising future ahead of her. However, while Mary is indeed exceptionally talented, she does lack the wisdom and maturity of more experienced Necromancers.

Knowledgeable:
While much of Mary’s life has been spent learning Necromancy, that was not the entire focus of her education, and she has consumed most of her free time vigorously studying many different subjects. In particular, she understands mathematics and biology quite well, and is fluent in several different elven dialects. Her understanding of human and elven anatomy is virtually flawless, and she possesses a great deal of surgical skill. She’s familiar with basic herbal remedies for certain illnesses, antidotes for some toxins, and other similar substances. Sewing is something she has a ton of experience with, and she’s always been very talented. Although Mary is merely competent at cooking, her ability to butcher animals is extraordinary. Perhaps related to some of these other things is her interest in taxidermy.

Mary is familiar with the geography of Aneos, but her understanding of its history is rather limited. She has little interest in what people did before she was born, unless it’s an essential part of comprehending a culture or religion that she’d decided to study. When studying a society, Mary has always been compelled to learn of their burial habits, and their beliefs about the afterlife. Other aspects of the supernatural have been researching by her as well. The theories governing the other types of Mortal Magic are something she has a firm grasp of, but while she understands Juice mutation better than the average person, she’s not an expert. Angels, demons, and most other sorts of Immortals are things she has little knowledge of, and no experience with. The only exceptions are Phantoms, Wraiths and other sorts of spirits that are linked to death. They were covered during her Necromancy classes, and she’s had additional exposure to them.

Prepared:
A Necromancer can’t perform their art without the proper tools, so Mary makes sure to carry around suitable equipment. Most important among her gear is her wands, which she uses to precisely shape and direct Juice for her spells. Each kind of wand is more suited to a particular task, but they are all capable of performing the most basic functions.

Her primary one is a simply shaped silver wand with elaborate engravings. It’s basically the jack of all trades, and she can do most of her Necromancy fairly decently with it. For less complex jobs that require more Juice, Mary uses a longer, broader, unadorned Mithril Wand with a sharpened tip. It can also be used defensively as well—to either block or strike. For more delicate jobs that require less Juice, the wand Mary uses is shorter, thinner, and elegantly carved from Heartwood. When Mary believes she can get away with it, and feels there’s a need, she’ll use one of the many wands that she has personally carved from the bones of the deceased. The bones of different species possess different properties. Additionally, those from magicians tend to be the most effective. Although Mary has started working on a collection, she is nowhere close to completing it.

Although not essential, a proper staff opens up a ton of options for any Mancer. They can be used to channel Juice directly from a Ley Line, which can then be directed towards spells and rituals through the use of chanting and the occasional gesture. This is most useful for Mancers who prefer brute force over precision, but also helpful for those who prefer to not wave their arms around much. Quite often they’re the safest, easiest and cheapest way to fuel rituals, and are one of the only ways Mancers can sustain spells for long periods of time. Mary does in fact possess a staff, but it’s nothing fancy. It’s fairly long, relatively thin, and crafted from sturdy oak. There’s a small obsidian sphere attached to the tip, which is where the Juice is actually stored. It does the job, but is nothing special.

Tomes are most useful for inexperienced or lazy Mancers, but aren’t completely worthless for others. On each page are the words to a spell or ritual, and the Mancer merely needs to chant them to perform it. However, the tome must be open to the appropriate page, and a wand may be required to direct the effects of the magic. If the tome is closed, or the page is turned, then the spell ends. Also, the words on the page glow blue as a spell is being cast. Mary has a fondness for tomes, and has brought her entire collection with her. Among it is How to Kill, The Dead Must Serve, Corpses and Curses, Death and Decay, Eternal Abominations, Rituals of the Undying, Secrets of Spirits, The Hidden Truths, The Principles of Mancy, and various other titles. Of course, Mary never leaves home without some regular old books to read as well.

Now, besides the materials Mary might need for the occasional ritual—such as chalk, blood, powdered bone, body parts, entire corpses, herbs, minerals, and other things—her ability to adequately perform Necromancy depends on possession of a good shovel, a sharp knife, and surgical equipment and supplies. Of course, she has all of these things, and more. Where does she keep it all you ask? In various bags, pouches, and chests. How does she move that all from place to place? Well, she tends to travel by wagon, train, ship, and airship, so she just pays somebody to carry her luggage to her next means of transportation, or to wherever she’s going to be staying next.

Background
Death has fascinated Mary most of her life. She was born to a fairly successful and respected family. Her father owned a factory that mass-produced Alchemical Catalysts, and her mother was an Illusionist that performed on stage. Besides a few black sheep, the rest of her family—on both sides—shared a similar financial and social status. The first few years of Mary’s life in Victorix were pleasant, peaceful, and uneventful. She had everything she needed, most things she wanted, and the love of her parents. Even at an early age, her intelligence was obvious, and she wasn’t the sort to cause trouble. However, she did have an unusual habit of clinging to dead things.

As a toddler, Mary snatched a dead rat from the family cat, and refused to let it go. She carried it around with her for hours, everywhere she went, speaking to it in language that only she seemed to know. Eventually her parents negotiated the corpse’s release, and deposed of it. After that, the cat began bringing critter carcasses to her, which she treated as her new best friend, until her parents inevitably took them away. This behavior didn’t really startle her parents, since they considered it fairly harmless. It was disgusting, but in an adorable sort of way. She was an otherwise normal girl, so they just figured she would grow out of it. Instead, her obsession only grew, and became more obvious once she began learning to express herself through speech.

For example, she frequently requested to be taken to the graveyard—which her parents always denied. She named all of the corpse friends she collected, and began hiding them so her parents couldn’t confiscate them. However, the smell of decay always gave them an idea of where to find her next stash. When eating meals, she would try to sneak away with any bones she could get her hands on, so that she could play with them later. Again, these are only examples. There was much more of this sort of thing, and so her parents became concerned. They had her tested to make sure she wasn’t a Lich, and were relieved when they learned the truth. So, they figured all they needed to do was to keep her occupied, and try to get her attention focus on something more wholesome.

They hired a tutor to teach her to read and write, among other things. This seemed to work at first, but she learned quickly, and soon found ways to use this knowledge to satisfy her obsession. She would sneak into the family library, so that she could pilfer anything that appealed to her, and then attempt to decipher its contents for herself. Even if she was able to understand very little of it, Mary still tried her hardest.

When she had difficulty with a word, Mary would sometimes write it down so that she could ask her tutor about it later. Often times she was merely satisfied with staring at the illustrations though. All sorts of books caught her interest, but they all had an association with one thing…death. Maybe they had the image of a skull on the cover, simple words like dead or ghost in the title, gruesome illustrations inside, or anything that appeared sinister. Eventually, Mary began to ask her tutor to help her read some of those books, and her tutor wasn’t the sort to refuse that kind of request.

By the time Mary was eight, her tutor had taught her much, but realized that she needed a more specialized education. Due to no longer dragging around critter corpses, and instead constantly burying her head into books, Mary’s obsession with death and dead things was no longer as disturbing or obvious. It wasn’t something she tried to hide, but she’d realized that her parents didn’t like her talking about that sort of thing at the dinner table, so she stopped, and her parents just assumed that she must’ve lost interest.

They ignored all of the other obvious signs, so they were startled when Mary’s tutor approached them one day to discuss different arrangements for her future education. The tutor’s name was Dr. Fredrick Wurstan. He was a medical doctor, a surgeon, a Hemomancer, and a retired Professor from the Universal Institute of Arcane Expertise—most often referred to as the Mancer College. There was a spark of potential inside of Mary, and he’d recognized it. Now, he felt, it was time to awaken it. That was not something he could help her do, but he knew people who could, so he convinced Mary’s parents to send her to the Mancer College.

While the Universal Institute of Arcane Expertise is most well-known for teaching people to become Mancers, they do also offer classes that have nothing to do with magic. These are still taught by Mancers familiar with the subject; such as a Biomancer teaching biology, or a Chronomancer teaching history. For children, or those with a very limited education, taking a wide range of these classes is required before committing too far to a particular branch of Mancy.

The amount of mandatory classes not related to a student’s desired branch of Mancy will gradually fade away, leading to ones that do in fact involve it. However, even students who pass this introductory period, or avoid it entirely must learn more than how to chant or wave around a wand. They must immerse themselves in the subject, until they are intimately familiar with it. Sometimes this is very simple. Sometimes it is not.

Necromancy is one of the most difficult forms of Mancy, since death is hard for the living to truly comprehend. Mary had the Spark. This is a term the Mancer College, and others, use that means the potential to learn magic. Any student at the Mancer College requires the Spark. Not everyone allowed into the Mancer College possesses an Affinity. Mary did. Affinity refers to when a person’s Spark clearly has a mind of its own. This is due to Juice mutation causing an individual to be born with an instinct or obsession involving possibly anything. In Mary’s case, it was death. This was both a blessing and curse.

Mary listened carefully to her teachers, worked hard, and always put in extra effort. She passed classes more quickly than most of her peers. While some of her classmates were students of different branches of Mancy, none of them really wanted to associate with her. Part of it was because Necromancy students were typically considered to be weirdos by the others, but mostly Mary’s hyper focus frightened them.

Other Necromancy students respected her, and she made friends with a couple of them, but most found her kind of intimidating. This was fine by Mary, because by the age of eleven, she was taking more courses than required, and didn’t want any distractions. The next couple years were very intense for her, mostly by choice. However, she survived, and made it past the point of no return. This was proven when she passed a test requiring her to perform a ritual to animate a human corpse, at the age of thirteen.

This opened a lot of doors for Mary magically. The most significant one was her being allowed to practice magic without any supervision. Of course, without the resources required to perform anything but the simplest spells of Necromancy, but this was still something that excited Mary very much. She allowed herself to switch to a less demanding schedule, since she wanted more free time to experiment with. Without all of the pressure, she became more relaxed and willing to socialize with other students. It didn’t take her long to make some friends outside of the field of Necromancy, and even more inside of it. Still, she did spend more time reading books than talking to people. That’s just the sort of person she was.

By adulthood, Mary was fairly competent at Necromancy, but that was not enough for her to graduate. Each branch of Mancy had their own requirements, and Necromancy had some of the strictest. A student of Necromancy had to be at least eighteen before were they were eligible to take the final steps, even if they met the other standards before then—which Mary had. Mary was then required to take several written tests, an oral exam, and write a dozen essays regarding the subject of death. She did so. Next she had to perform every known spell of Mancy that was possible with the tools and resources she was provided. This she also accomplished. After this she had to overcome a series of puzzles, duels and other challenges using those spells. They were very tough, so it took her three tries. This wasn’t the end.

Her task after that was to perform several hour long rituals every day for a month and then one where she was required to stay awake for five days straight. Finally, she needed to serve as a graduated Necromancer’s apprentice until she was considered ready. It was a long process to merely find a Necromancer willing to accept her as an apprentice, but she eventually did. She eventually proved her worth to her master as well. It wasn't easy though. Magic was something Mary understood, but survival outside of the Mancer College was not. It took her master quite some time to teach her how to be properly sneaky and cautious.

It’s been several months since then. Mary left the Mancer College to perform her duty to not only expand her understanding of Necromancy, but everyone else’s as well. She hasn’t gotten much sleep since then, and she eats very little, because she’s far too focused on her research to take proper care of herself. Nothing exceptional has been found so far, but she’s always certain that something important is just around the corner. At the moment, Mary is traveling with Edward Alexander—somebody she met during her journey. They share similar interests, and seem to get along well.

Familiar
While Mary has no permanent animal companion, she does have the tendency to be followed around by crows and vultures. Cats and dogs love her too. While most horses don’t have a strong first impression of her, Mary is a competent rider, and her experience with horses usually allows her to eventually gain their trust.

Misc.
This is the first character I’ve ever created for any version of Gizmo that wasn’t a complete asshole. I just thought I should point that out.