Aefenglom App

[strongspirited]

Player Information
Name: Ax
Age: 34
Contact: Plurk @ Interession
Other Characters: Chandra Nalaar and Edelgard von Hresvelg.

Character Information
Name: Sypha Belnades
Canon: CastleVania (animated)
Canon Point: Post Season 2, after defeating Dracula and leaving to adventure with Trevor.
Age: Early to Mid 20s,
History: Here.

Personality:

Sypha Belnades is an adamant idealist and altruistic person, almost to a fault. That streak of positive energy is the foundation upon which her entire world is based. She was raised among the Speakers, a nomadic group of scholars that travel from settlement to settlement, aiding them as they can, primarily by sharing their knowledge and understanding of Science, History, and the Natural World. Being a Speaker means leading a hard life with the aim of bettering the world, and that upbringing has molded Sypha into someone willing to risk their life for the lives of others, and given the incredibly harsh nature of her reality this makes her something of a light in the darkness.

Sypha's idealism often leads her to butt heads with more jaded people like her companion Trevor, as to her surviving is less important than doing the Right Thing. This does not mean that Sypha is naive in the slightest. She is no fool, knowing well the dangers of the road and the evils that plague Wallachia, and takes care to avoid them when possible. A prime example of this is dressing androgynously and wearing her hair short, to appear more masculine and avoid attracting much attention, but also she tends to keep her distance from townspeople unless she directly needs to interact with them, and remains hidden from the Church just to be safe. Her idealism also acts as a bit of an anchoring point for her companions too, giving a moody Alucard a bright spot, and helping Trevor pull himself out of apathy.

Another core element of her personality is her belief in the Speakers mission and their prophecies. She wants to help people, and the Speakers do that. Perhaps more importantly, the Speakers maintain an oral tradition of prophecy, and as a Magician, Sypha bears the burden of seeing potential prophecies through to the end. This means putting herself at risk, going in alone to attempt to complete one, by waking a 'Sleeping Soldier' and if not for Trevor's intervention she would have died. She insists on continuing to attempt to wake the Soldier, even against Trevor's warnings, persisting in this as a means to defeating Dracula.

Her loyalty, another important trait, is tested when the Soldier turns out to be Alucard, a vampire that attacks Trevor. She is forced to choose between her belief and her loyalty to the man that saved her life. Notably, she does not like Trevor at this point...because he's kind of an ass, but she chooses to side with him over Alucard and the Speaker Prophecies of the Soldier. Her conviction and Trevor's do line up, and he saved her life, and that is enough for her to go against the prophecy, and ultimately helps win Alucard over to help them.

As a Speaker, Sypha is used to being an outsider, and to even being despised, particularly by the Church. The Speakers are a people that consider themselves to be the "Enemies of God" because they are a humanistic organization and not a faith-based one. That said, they are not atheists, but believe in God and cooperate with other cultures so as not to draw His ire. As a Speaker, Sypha is a pacifist when it comes to hurting other humans, though her non-violence does not extend to creatures of the night such as monsters, demons, and vampires. She will use her magic to frighten and intimidate normal humans, but she will never turn it on them, an important part of being a Speaker.

Another trait that she has inherited from her people is her belief in oral histories. She believes that Speakers should remember stories this way rather than on paper so that God "cannot strike them down in jealousy" though she freely admits that she'd also like to write things down because it makes knowledge harder to lose.

Sypha's bravery cannot be discounted, either. She is someone who confronts horrible monsters, all of the terrors that Dracula can bring to bear, and she does not once flinch away from fighting for Wallachia and it's people. The Church may persecute her, even want to burn her as a witch, but she wades headlong into battle against demons and worse for them, further reinforcing her altruism.

Sypha does also have a bit of a temper, and a crude streak. She hates it when people are rude to her, and that initially causes some strife and tension with Trevor who is brusque at best. She even considers (perhaps jokingly) serving him a bucket of her own urine as a kind of punishment, though it's not entirely certain how serious she was about that. Frequently she also acts as mediator between Trevor and Alucard, who are at each other's throats sometimes. She's sarcastic about it, extremely so, and prone to some pretty rude remarks of her own.

She definitely has a curious streak, as evidenced by her obvious excitement at finding the Belmont Family library and all the books of arcane knowledge held inside. She grows extremely animated, leaping to get to work and peruse the books. She's an avid learner, always wanting to find out more about the world around her, and revels in any opportunity to study the mysteries of Magic and the world. She's well read, well learned, and eager to advance her studies.

Finally, Sypha has a habit of not always thinking things through. A prime example is going down alone to find the Soldier in her prophecy and finding a Cyclops down their instead, but the most amusing example is summoning Dracula's (moving) castle without really thinking of where she's putting it. She and her friends are in an underground library, and she summons the castle right on top of them. This causes the roof to start collapsing thanks to the weight, and that is definitely bad. She reacts somewhat poorly to being teased about this, but ultimately accepts that maybe she should think things through more, sometimes.

Abilities & Skills:

Sypha is a Speaker Magician, a member of a somewhat secretive order of nomadic scholars. Speakers often study magic, and draw it from the natural world rather than relying on pacts with demons. Sypha is no exception to this, and as such is an accomplished mage capable of performing many feats of sorcery.

In battle, she favors elemental magic, primarily fire, ice, and wind. She is skilled enough to retain a fine degree of control over her spells, and is quick to change them on the fly. For example, she creates a ring of fire that she can tighten or expand as needed, or make an ice sheet thin enough to act as a razor blade. Outside of battle she's shown to be capable of casting all manner of spells, from simple light magic to something as complex as summoning an entire castle to a specific point and affixing it to that point so it cannot move. For context the castle, CastleVania, was capable of moving on it's own at the time.

Sypha is also a highly educated woman, well versed in all manner of subjects, including history, alchemy, chemistry, medicine, linguistics, folklore, and the Occult. She speaks several languages, including mystical ones like Enochian and Adamian (the language of Adam and Eve).

Sypha is also physically hardy and fit, perhaps as a result of magic, perhaps just by being a nomadic sorceress. Canon is unclear, but she's able to survive being hit physically by Dracula, so that's something at least.

Inventory/Companions:

1) Speaker's Robe
2) A small satchel with a book of spells and a multi-purpose knife
3) A small charm bracelet meant to ward off evil.

Choice: Witch
Reason: Sypha is a Speaker Magician canonically and that is a major part of her identity. Losing that would be traumatic and make her difficult to play. Also, I would prefer to keep her with access to magic and afford her the opportunity to learn the native variety of magic.

Sample:

TDM Top Level with 20+ replies.