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ETHYRAIA — app.
Player;
Character;
CHARACTER NAME: Sister Maria Juliana Anthony, goes by Jules
AGE: 28
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: About a year after leaving Guatemala and returning to St Anthony's
BACKGROUND/HISTORY: CW: religion, child abuse, allegories for religious child abuse, supernatural horror
In Jules’ world, angels and demons are real. Some celestials will inadvertently ‘rub off’ their powers onto humans, either after a particularly strong interaction with one directly, or when a person or family has had a particularly longstanding relationship with a celestial.
Jules was possessed at the age of seven by Aamon, a powerful demon and a Grand Marquis of Hell. The possession was engineered by Exercitus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, in an attempt to cause powers to manifest and create ‘an army of God on Earth’. After her exorcism, Jules was dangerously telepathic and telekinetic, as well as possessing clairvoyant and precognitive abilities. She was sent to live at St Anthony’s in New Mexico, a convent run by nuns who had not been briefed extensively on the specifics of ED’s mission. These nuns were much too afraid of Jules to follow official guidance from ED, and they punished her when she used her psychic abilities. These punishments resulted in a significant amount of trauma, and as a result Jules lost access to her telepathy/telekinesis. Despite ED’s best efforts, she was unable to regain these powers, though she retained her clairvoyance, precognitive abilities and mediumship.
Throughout her childhood at the convent, Jules was visited infrequently by a travelling preacher named Father Aaron. Jules was enamoured by him – he was charming and amusing, and he seemed to understand her where none of the nuns ever did. He often tried to persuade her to come travelling with him, but she was wary enough to say no, though she desperately wanted to. As she got older, however, her distrust of him grew: he’d never really aged in all the time she knew him, and he’d made her swear not to tell anyone else she was talking to him. After she completed her novitiate period and became a nun at the age of 18, she didn’t see him again for almost a decade, and largely forgot about him.
Jules exorcised her first restrained demon at the age of ten and was leading exorcisms by twelve. Aged 20, Jules described Father Aaron to the Mother Superior, who inferred that he had been a messenger of God, trying to tell her that she must travel too. Jules set out on her own, travelling primarily in South America, following stories of possessed individuals and performing exorcisms.
One year ago, Jules’ entire world was rocked during the exorcism of a young man in Guatemala, when she realised that the demon possessing him was Aamon. His reappearance unearthed several repressed memories of Jules’ possession and exorcism as a child, and also revealed the truth about Father Aaron: he had not been a travelling preacher at all, but instead Aamon in disguise. Shaken by these revelations, Jules botched the exorcism and the young man died. Traumatised, wracked with guilt and thoroughly unsettled by the fact that the life to which she’d dedicated herself for the last seven years was a lie, Jules fled to St Anthony’s again, where she’s been for the last year. She hasn’t left the safety of the convent grounds once in all that time.
PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: n/a
PERSONALITY:
Don’t be fooled by the neatly pressed habit and veil: Jules is not your average nun. In fact, she’d be the first to say so, over and over again until you get the message. She’s sarcastic, brash, opinionated, impatient, and often straight up rude, and delights in breaking rules she’s been instructed to follow. Though she’s good at giving off an air of carelessness, her attitude is carefully constructed, both as a rebellion against the strict upbringing she endured, and because she knows the value of being underestimated.
Jules has a very strong sense of humour. Most people would describe her first as funny, aside from the nuns of St Anthony’s, who regard her as an annoyance at best or a devil-child at worst. However, although Jules will happily lean on the misconceptions people generate about her just by looking at her, she knows that there’s a difference between being viewed as a non-threat and being viewed as a traumatised woman. Humour is her way of plastering over a deeply unpleasant childhood. She’s anxious and unsettled under the surface, and there’s an angry streak running through her; she doesn’t know if it’s her own, or something else she inherited from Aamon.
Jules is intensely self-confident. She knows she’s strong, and this knowledge manifests as brazen cockiness, especially during exorcisms. She carries herself as if she’s untouchable. Until the young man in Guatemala, Jules had never lost someone during an exorcism, and that uninterrupted streak made her feel invincible. Understandably, she’s shaken after her reunion with Aamon, plagued by feelings of guilt that she didn’t do enough to save the man, but there’s no self-doubt in her. Rather, Jules’ entire worldview has been shifted: she saw Father Aaron as a messenger of God who understood her better than anyone and gave her life purpose, but now she knows she was just playing a demon’s game.
Jules’ relationship with faith is complicated. Though she objectively believes in God, she has very little love for religion. Her upbringing alone has taught her that being religious does not make someone a good person. She’s felt like this all her life, only committing to being a nun because she knew it would give her additional protections in exorcisms, and also because she didn’t know any other way. After Guatemala, Jules has the feeling that she’s been abandoned by God to be treated as a demon’s plaything – not only that, but her confrontation with Aamon led her to the awareness that her possession was something that had been organised by agents of the Church, who summoned Aamon to possess her knowing she could die in the process. She feels used, a pawn in someone else’s game, and the only person she can truly trust is herself. As this feeling has settled in her over her year back in the convent, anger has taken a firmer hold on her, and outside the confines of the convent it’ll be easier for her to loser her grip on it.
SUITABILITY: Jules isn’t exactly used to survival situations, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a survivor. Though she had a sheltered upbringing, she managed to make her own way in the world once she left the convent, and she’s quick to learn and adapt as the situation demands it. She’s intelligent, forward-thinking and determined, and though she’ll be thrown by the game setting at first, she won’t let it get to her head. She’s no good at physical fights, but mentally she’s very strong, her abilities might be useful in a whole range of scenarios, and if nothing else she’s become quite good at patching people up when they need first aid. She also has no qualms about collaborating with others, which I think will be super useful in terms of working together and mediating between problematic individuals.
ABILITIES/SKILLS:
- Exorcism: With the power granted to her through her ordainment as a nun in the Catholic Church, Jules is able to perform exorcisms, and therefore at least attempt to banish a demon from the body of a possessed person. She's well-versed on exorcism protocols and has learned good improvisational skills and determination from long-term exorcisms, which can last months in some cases.
- Mediumship: Perceiving and communicating with spirits and those who are in the afterlife, should they wish to make contact. Happy to nerf this one – this ability depends on the "rules" of the world she exists in, so if there's no afterlife, or it doesn't operate in the same way to hers on Earth, then she can't cross the bridge, as it were.
- Psychometry: Perceiving the residual information of an object (e.g. history, maker, previous owners) or a person (e.g. discerning species, sensing other entities attached). Information about objects is easy, delivered to her in a series of images that she sees briefly. As for people, she's able to identify disguised demons from her own world by touch – upon touching a disguised demon she receives a sudden, objective knowledge of their true self. Powerful demons also change the 'atmosphere' of a room or area in subtle ways, so she is able to sense those simply by proximity. She usually sees possessed individuals as having extra shadows or indistinct blurs following them around or attached to them. Heavenly celestials have a soft white glow. Similarly to being able to sense demons by touch, she would be able to identify other non-humans (e.g. those not from her universe) by touch, but would be unable to discern their exact species. This would be an opt-in feature when it comes to other player characters.
- Neuro-residual recollection: Perceiving the last moments of a dead person through touch. Through skin-to-skin contact with a dead body, Jules gets short flashes of approximately the last minute of life through their eyes, sometimes allowing her to see the precise circumstances of how they died. She's absolutely no use if the cause of death was a medical problem, and can't sense or feel anything internal in the body, it really is just seeing the last things they saw.
- Precognition: Under certain circumstances, she can perceive future events before they happen. For the most part, these perceptions come across as vague images or symbolic references that warn of a future problem, rather than straightforward "flash-forwards". Jules rarely understands visions like these, and must bring them to someone who is able to interpret them. I'm happy to nerf this since it's quite overpowered! Alternately, in line with the AC bonus rewards it might come in handy as a way of receiving plot tidbits should I end up benefitting from the system, but that's of course down to the mods' discretion and how you guys want to reveal information.
- Languages: Jules is fluent in Spanish, Portugese and Italian. She can also read and speak Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic; these are mostly used during exorcisms and for reading scripture.
INVENTORY:
- Her copy of the Bible
- Her rosary beads: she uses these specifically as a way of controlling her mind to focus her powers; they have no power in and of themselves, but they're more important to her than just a piece of jewellery
Character;
CHARACTER NAME: Sister Maria Juliana Anthony, goes by Jules
AGE: 28
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: About a year after leaving Guatemala and returning to St Anthony's
BACKGROUND/HISTORY: CW: religion, child abuse, allegories for religious child abuse, supernatural horror
In Jules’ world, angels and demons are real. Some celestials will inadvertently ‘rub off’ their powers onto humans, either after a particularly strong interaction with one directly, or when a person or family has had a particularly longstanding relationship with a celestial.
Jules was possessed at the age of seven by Aamon, a powerful demon and a Grand Marquis of Hell. The possession was engineered by Exercitus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, in an attempt to cause powers to manifest and create ‘an army of God on Earth’. After her exorcism, Jules was dangerously telepathic and telekinetic, as well as possessing clairvoyant and precognitive abilities. She was sent to live at St Anthony’s in New Mexico, a convent run by nuns who had not been briefed extensively on the specifics of ED’s mission. These nuns were much too afraid of Jules to follow official guidance from ED, and they punished her when she used her psychic abilities. These punishments resulted in a significant amount of trauma, and as a result Jules lost access to her telepathy/telekinesis. Despite ED’s best efforts, she was unable to regain these powers, though she retained her clairvoyance, precognitive abilities and mediumship.
Throughout her childhood at the convent, Jules was visited infrequently by a travelling preacher named Father Aaron. Jules was enamoured by him – he was charming and amusing, and he seemed to understand her where none of the nuns ever did. He often tried to persuade her to come travelling with him, but she was wary enough to say no, though she desperately wanted to. As she got older, however, her distrust of him grew: he’d never really aged in all the time she knew him, and he’d made her swear not to tell anyone else she was talking to him. After she completed her novitiate period and became a nun at the age of 18, she didn’t see him again for almost a decade, and largely forgot about him.
Jules exorcised her first restrained demon at the age of ten and was leading exorcisms by twelve. Aged 20, Jules described Father Aaron to the Mother Superior, who inferred that he had been a messenger of God, trying to tell her that she must travel too. Jules set out on her own, travelling primarily in South America, following stories of possessed individuals and performing exorcisms.
One year ago, Jules’ entire world was rocked during the exorcism of a young man in Guatemala, when she realised that the demon possessing him was Aamon. His reappearance unearthed several repressed memories of Jules’ possession and exorcism as a child, and also revealed the truth about Father Aaron: he had not been a travelling preacher at all, but instead Aamon in disguise. Shaken by these revelations, Jules botched the exorcism and the young man died. Traumatised, wracked with guilt and thoroughly unsettled by the fact that the life to which she’d dedicated herself for the last seven years was a lie, Jules fled to St Anthony’s again, where she’s been for the last year. She hasn’t left the safety of the convent grounds once in all that time.
PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: n/a
PERSONALITY:
Don’t be fooled by the neatly pressed habit and veil: Jules is not your average nun. In fact, she’d be the first to say so, over and over again until you get the message. She’s sarcastic, brash, opinionated, impatient, and often straight up rude, and delights in breaking rules she’s been instructed to follow. Though she’s good at giving off an air of carelessness, her attitude is carefully constructed, both as a rebellion against the strict upbringing she endured, and because she knows the value of being underestimated.
Jules has a very strong sense of humour. Most people would describe her first as funny, aside from the nuns of St Anthony’s, who regard her as an annoyance at best or a devil-child at worst. However, although Jules will happily lean on the misconceptions people generate about her just by looking at her, she knows that there’s a difference between being viewed as a non-threat and being viewed as a traumatised woman. Humour is her way of plastering over a deeply unpleasant childhood. She’s anxious and unsettled under the surface, and there’s an angry streak running through her; she doesn’t know if it’s her own, or something else she inherited from Aamon.
Jules is intensely self-confident. She knows she’s strong, and this knowledge manifests as brazen cockiness, especially during exorcisms. She carries herself as if she’s untouchable. Until the young man in Guatemala, Jules had never lost someone during an exorcism, and that uninterrupted streak made her feel invincible. Understandably, she’s shaken after her reunion with Aamon, plagued by feelings of guilt that she didn’t do enough to save the man, but there’s no self-doubt in her. Rather, Jules’ entire worldview has been shifted: she saw Father Aaron as a messenger of God who understood her better than anyone and gave her life purpose, but now she knows she was just playing a demon’s game.
Jules’ relationship with faith is complicated. Though she objectively believes in God, she has very little love for religion. Her upbringing alone has taught her that being religious does not make someone a good person. She’s felt like this all her life, only committing to being a nun because she knew it would give her additional protections in exorcisms, and also because she didn’t know any other way. After Guatemala, Jules has the feeling that she’s been abandoned by God to be treated as a demon’s plaything – not only that, but her confrontation with Aamon led her to the awareness that her possession was something that had been organised by agents of the Church, who summoned Aamon to possess her knowing she could die in the process. She feels used, a pawn in someone else’s game, and the only person she can truly trust is herself. As this feeling has settled in her over her year back in the convent, anger has taken a firmer hold on her, and outside the confines of the convent it’ll be easier for her to loser her grip on it.
SUITABILITY: Jules isn’t exactly used to survival situations, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a survivor. Though she had a sheltered upbringing, she managed to make her own way in the world once she left the convent, and she’s quick to learn and adapt as the situation demands it. She’s intelligent, forward-thinking and determined, and though she’ll be thrown by the game setting at first, she won’t let it get to her head. She’s no good at physical fights, but mentally she’s very strong, her abilities might be useful in a whole range of scenarios, and if nothing else she’s become quite good at patching people up when they need first aid. She also has no qualms about collaborating with others, which I think will be super useful in terms of working together and mediating between problematic individuals.
ABILITIES/SKILLS:
- Exorcism: With the power granted to her through her ordainment as a nun in the Catholic Church, Jules is able to perform exorcisms, and therefore at least attempt to banish a demon from the body of a possessed person. She's well-versed on exorcism protocols and has learned good improvisational skills and determination from long-term exorcisms, which can last months in some cases.
- Mediumship: Perceiving and communicating with spirits and those who are in the afterlife, should they wish to make contact. Happy to nerf this one – this ability depends on the "rules" of the world she exists in, so if there's no afterlife, or it doesn't operate in the same way to hers on Earth, then she can't cross the bridge, as it were.
- Psychometry: Perceiving the residual information of an object (e.g. history, maker, previous owners) or a person (e.g. discerning species, sensing other entities attached). Information about objects is easy, delivered to her in a series of images that she sees briefly. As for people, she's able to identify disguised demons from her own world by touch – upon touching a disguised demon she receives a sudden, objective knowledge of their true self. Powerful demons also change the 'atmosphere' of a room or area in subtle ways, so she is able to sense those simply by proximity. She usually sees possessed individuals as having extra shadows or indistinct blurs following them around or attached to them. Heavenly celestials have a soft white glow. Similarly to being able to sense demons by touch, she would be able to identify other non-humans (e.g. those not from her universe) by touch, but would be unable to discern their exact species. This would be an opt-in feature when it comes to other player characters.
- Neuro-residual recollection: Perceiving the last moments of a dead person through touch. Through skin-to-skin contact with a dead body, Jules gets short flashes of approximately the last minute of life through their eyes, sometimes allowing her to see the precise circumstances of how they died. She's absolutely no use if the cause of death was a medical problem, and can't sense or feel anything internal in the body, it really is just seeing the last things they saw.
- Precognition: Under certain circumstances, she can perceive future events before they happen. For the most part, these perceptions come across as vague images or symbolic references that warn of a future problem, rather than straightforward "flash-forwards". Jules rarely understands visions like these, and must bring them to someone who is able to interpret them. I'm happy to nerf this since it's quite overpowered! Alternately, in line with the AC bonus rewards it might come in handy as a way of receiving plot tidbits should I end up benefitting from the system, but that's of course down to the mods' discretion and how you guys want to reveal information.
- Languages: Jules is fluent in Spanish, Portugese and Italian. She can also read and speak Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic; these are mostly used during exorcisms and for reading scripture.
INVENTORY:
- Her copy of the Bible
- Her rosary beads: she uses these specifically as a way of controlling her mind to focus her powers; they have no power in and of themselves, but they're more important to her than just a piece of jewellery