Appearance Race: Ghost
Gender: Female
Age: 13 (on death)
Birthday: 1st of Winter, 13 B.V.
Birthplace: Suva
Alignment: Chaotic Evil Appearance: Marina appears as a dainty little girl wearing a luxurious dress and a stony expression. She has long, neatly combed dark blue hair that surrounds her pale face, which is adorned with a pair of faintly glowing purple eyes, tinted by madness. Even when she is fully materialised, anyone who makes eye contact with her will instantly recognise that she is somehow inhuman.
Character ConceptMarina is the remnant of a young and incredibly ambitious Suvan aristocrat who died a rather miserable death during the Valterrian.
Upon witnessing the Valterrian, something inside Marina's mind was permanently broken. She decided to use her hard-studied magecrafting skills to invent an artifact with the ability to turn back time, so that the calamity can be reversed. The ghost now single-mindedly pursues this goal with such maniacal determination that even other ghosts raise their eyebrows at her.
She has persevered for so long, despite having no practical common sense or survival intuition, for two main reasons. The first reason must be that Marina does not register the passage of time. Her desire to resume her old life is so strong that she believes time actually stands on pause, waiting for her. This delusion gives her a strong sense of comfort and contributes some stability to her shaky psyche.
Unfortunately for her, time doesn't stand still in reality. Her beloved family has been extinct and forgotten for centuries, a fact that her mind is unable to register. The life she so desperately wants to go back to no longer exists and can never be rebuilt. Perhaps it would be more benevolent to let her spend an eternity chasing the wind, than to let her learn the truth this instant.
The second factor for her long existence is her improbable luck. This is not something immediately noticeable, but someone who observed her for a longer period of time would be amazed at how danger steps out of her way seemingly on purpose. Although, even the most blessed luck is bound to run out at some point.
Character PersonalityMarina appears as a calm and well-mannered ghost, with a certain dignity to her. Her language is somewhat stilted, laced with honorifics and has a noticeable Suvan accent. She comes across as aloof and indifferent to most of the world around her, but that is merely the initial impression. The emotions are roiling just below the surface, waiting to burst forth at the worst possible moment. At that point, it becomes obvious what a vicious creature this little girl is.
Like many Valterric ghosts, Marina is profoundly insane, having been crushed by the loss of her life and world. She finds post-Valterrian cultures repugnant and sees most people as dirty savages, especially those from former Alahean provinces. Moreover, she sees everything around her as a conspiracy against her efforts to restore the true order, and any perceived attempt to obstruct or manipulate her will be met with violent rage. Even so, because her ghostly powers are weak, she is usually not very dangerous. At her best, the girl is driven by a reckless sense of curiosity, and makes for an eager adventurer.
While her company can be an interesting distraction, a wise person would not rely on her for anything. She is a capricious ally and sticks with people out of curiosity rather than loyalty, and will betray her promises as soon as they become inconvenient. She is also quite cowardly in the face of danger, and will usually flee the scene as soon as the odds turn against her. She is particularly afraid of spiritists after several nasty encounters with them.
Marina's leisure interests mostly reflect her elevated upbringing. Besides magecraft, Marina has a general liking of art, mainly theatre, but also painting, music and other forms of cultured entertainment. She is also intensely drawn towards pre-Valterrian relics, or anything else that can even slightly remind her of home. A less noble tendency of hers, better described as childish nonchalance, is to pull sadistic pranks on anyone who seems vulnerable. Sometimes this reaches the point of ruining people's lives or outright killing them for the sake of amusement. This attitude doesn't earn her many friends, but she can never resist the temptation.
Character History Marina, named so after the color of her hair, was born into a family of Suvan Magesmiths on the first day of winter. Her time of birth was considered a good omen, and her parents paid a lot of attention to her upbringing. As soon as she was old enough to hold a tiny hammer, it was decided that she would continue the legacy of the family alongside her two older brothers, who were originally intended to be the only heirs to the family's assets.
Making full use of the family's resources and connections, Marina was arranged for an apprenticeship at the Martial Wizard Society. Combined with her striking talent for the art and studious patience, she was well on the way to becoming a formidable world mage. Despite the relatively harsh studying conditions at the Society, Marina enjoyed her time immensely, and overflowed with optimism for the future.
The optimism was misplaced. She was present at the execution of Queen Kova, and when the Valterrian struck, was among the first to die. Like most other people around her at that time, she didn't immediately accept her death simply because she didn't even understand what was going on, and thus remained a ghost largely by accident. Being at the epicenter of the cataclysm, she watched the fabric of reality be torn apart around her, paralyzed as her now ethereal body was brutally destroyed countless times over. By the time the Valterrian was over, the inhuman experience has ruined her sanity beyond repair. She spent many years aimlessly zig-zagging the surface of what later became known as the Suvan Sea. There were thousands of other ghosts around her, but they were just as confused and despondent as herself, and couldn't offer much consolation.
Once she had found enough of her bearings to think straight, she made her way onto land, greeted by a completely unfamiliar world. At first, she was completely certain that she had been thrown into a different dimension, but eventually gathered enough clues to realise that she was still on Mizahar, and that there's been an apocalypse. Despair and confusion were gradually being replaced by an all-consuming thirst for revenge against whoever was responsible. It is a thirst she still harbors, but rarely displays. As the years continued to go by, Marina's longing for home increased to painful intensity, leading to delirious fantasies about reversing time and putting everything back in place.
Drifting between anger and melancholy, the little ghost ran an endless trek around the ruins of Mizahar in search for any opportunity to pick up the magesmith's tools again. Her nasty disposition and woefully short attention span have prevented her from accomplishing anything of note, but she's not about to give up. As far as she is concerned, there is nothing left to give up.
Language Fluent Language: Common
Basic Language: Nader-Canoch