OOC: Info Post! Elisabeth Scrivener

[raisedbybooklice]

Elisabeth Scrivener

She/Her | Sorcery of Thorns | Sophomore | 16

Okay, okay, okay. Let's clear one thing up. Elisabeth was not actually raised by booklice. Raised near them? Absolutely. But not by them. She was a foundling child left on the steps of the Great Library Summershall, where she was raised up from an infant to her current age of 16. Where there happened to be a whole lot of magically engorged booklice, but that's a common problem in the Great Libraries.

Just wanted to get that cleared up.

She does have a lot more in common with booklice than she knows, but we'll get to that.

The Girl

The first thing most people notice about Elisabeth is her height. 6'2 might not be that tall for a Zora prince or a Goliath, but for a human teenage girl? It's pretty obvious. If Elisabeth had had more than magical books and militarized librarians as companions growing up, she might be a lot more self-conscious about it. However, mostly, she's just annoyed because it makes finding clothes that fit a real pain, but that's balanced out by how easily she can reach stuff on the higher shelves.

She has chestnut hair and blue eyes and that kind of pale skin that comes from spending most of her time indoors. You can take the girl out of the library, but she's probably going to go right back in once her errands are done because that's where all the books are. She has blue eyes and a rangy, kind of spare build, and, once again, is called out for never having much in the way of curves. I honestly don't know why every girl I app has a small chest that canon goes out of its way to make a point of, but here we are.

Because of Elisabeth's unusual upbringing, she's not very well socialized. She's not a feral child - she never would have survived the Great Library like that, but she's just not used to people. Her only friends growing up were the magic grimoires housed in Summershall, and even the youngest apprentices were usually seven or eight years her senior. She didn't make her first real, person friend until she was thirteen, when she was old enough to become an apprentice in truth - and Katrien, who is baller, is eccentric and too clever by half; a brilliant scientist and archivist to be (with a slight tendency towards blackmail, but we all have our foibles), but not someone who can really role-model 'normal adolescent behavior.'

Mostly that means that she's going to be blunt and honest, though not necessarily mean. But if you ask her if that shirt makes you look fat and it does...well, you asked. She's going to be abysmal at flirting - or noticing she's being flirted with - anything beyond straightforward plain speaking is going to be a second language for her. She is friendly and well-meaning, though, even if the niceties of normal human interaction elude her. She tries not to break rules, but that has a curious way of just not working out for her. Sometimes things just happen, okay? Impulsiveness is one of her besetting sins, which makes her right at home on the island, along with the habit of biting off more than she can chew, whether it's going up against the most politically powerful sorcerer in the world or trying to carry too many jars of jam at one time.

Elisabeth is a bit too naive and trusting, especially with authority figures. For all that she was a foundling and had a lonely childhood, the vast majority of adults in her life are kind and caring and concerned about her overall well-being. Which means she has a rosier outlook on humanity in general that most people at her age. This canonically gets her in trouble; here, it'll probably just get her weird looks from the rest of this anti-authoritarian lot.

I say humanity in general because there is one group in particular that she has some very firm, very preposterous beliefs about: sorcerers. (Or, in terms of the island, magic users in general). And I do mean, preposterous.

The History

In Elisabeth's country, Austermeer, magic comes from demons. It's all very civilized. A sorcerer who knows a demon's true name will summon them in a binding circle. They will make a pact where the demon will swear to serve the mage and offer up a measure of power for the sorcerer to tap into, and the demon will name a price, usually some amount of life force (usually measured in years off the sorcerer's life) that they will get to eat. As anyone with a demon's true name can summon them, they are closely guarded secrets, handed down within a family, creating an aristocratic class based around sorcerers who have demons at their command.

Of course, this is centuries after the Reforms took place. Before the Reforms, sorcerers were much less...courteous. For example, among the Reforms were such laws as No killing with magic, except in self-defense and No harvesting human body parts to make grimoires and No sacrificing children to demons. You know. Basic laws of decency and all that. Another measure of the Reform was collecting all of the grimoires that had been written ("all") and housing them in giant libraries built for the specific purpose of holding and guarding the grimoires. There are six Great Libraries in an even circle all around Austermeer, connected by the Inkroads, and one in the capital, where the Magisterium and Collegium are located.

Why did all these spellbooks and grimoires require such special buildings?

Because they're at least sentient. Grimoires are written in Enochian, the language of the demons, and the magic that is invested in them turns them from a mere book into a semi-living creature - not unlike Fandom Library's own books. They have personalities, likes, dislikes, abilities... Some volumes nurtured such a potent grudge toward each other that they couldn't even be brought miles of the same location without howling or bursting into flame. There was even a house-sized crater in the wilderness of the Wildmarch where two books had clashed over a matter of thaumturgical doctrine. Grimoires are ranked from level One to Ten where one is fairly weak and inoffensive and Ten is incredibly dark and powerful, with spells that can raise an army of the dear or peer in the minds of whole cities.

Even that wouldn't be so bad if all they did was howl and scream and flap around. But when a grimoire becomes damaged, the magic within them warps, turning them into dangerous and deadly monsters called Maleficts, capable of killing whole villages.

Even though it's been centuries since a sorcerer has run amok, grimoires turn to Maleficts at least once a generation or so, keeping the fear of them alive. Even without turning into Maleficts, grimoires can be dangerous, that's why only orphans are allowed to become Library wardens and archivists - because there will be no one to miss them if they die.

Elisabeth has lived in a Great Library all her life, surrounded by the perpetual danger that are grimoires and raised on the stories and rumors of the wardens, whose entire job it is to protect the Libraries from any grimoire, Malefict, or even sorcerer who might threaten it. And so, Elisabeth's take on sorcerers is a little...skewed. She knows, absolutely knows that they're evil and fully believes everything she's ever heard about them.

"Go on," he said impatiently. "I'm not going to turn you into a salamander."

"You can do that?" she whispered. "Truly?"

"Of course." A wicked gleam entered into his eyes. "But I only turn girls into salamanders on Tuesdays. Luckily for you, it's a Wednesday, which is the day i drink a goblet of orphan's blood for supper."

He looked entirely serious. He didn't seem to have noticed her robes, which labeled her an apprentice, and therefore an orphan by default...

She...maybe needs a primer on sarcasm.

So, you know, this will be fun here on Fandom, at least until she learns better. Having the chance to get to know literally anybody with magic will help.

Probably.

The Powers

Because Elisabeth was raised in infancy in a Great Library, she has absorbed a great deal of its power. She talks to grimoires, yes, but many people do. The difference is, when she does it, they listen. And often times, they will do as she asks, at least if they're not Maleficts at the time. She can also get through Libraries' defenses and find her way through to wherever she needs to be, no matter how hidden or how mazelike the Library appears. It's like the library itself is guiding her feet.

Basically, while she doesn't have magic herself, she'll still ping pretty heavily on anyone who can sense magic. It's infused her whole body at this point; if magic were radiation, she'd glow like a Christmas tree.

She is also at least partially immune to magic. It just doesn't seem to stick to her. A spell that is meant to control her just controls her body, not her mind. She can walk through wards without them triggering and a demon's incognito spell has to be reapplied to her frequently or it wears off. She manages to keep her mind and memories intact after a sorcerer tries to shred them with a spell. She is the only one who can get to the hidden spell at the heart of a book because the spells meant to keep people out don't affect her. She can see through illusions when viewing their reflections. This nullifying effect is extended through objects, too, usually weapons and shields (though possibly in part because they are made of iron with also has a negative effect on spells.)

Elisabeth is basically a magical dampener, and the implication is that as she ages, she will become completely immune to it, much like the giant book lice that live in Great Libraries.

(That is also why she is so tall. Great Library book lice grow to huge proportions, too. Basically, the book lice are a really subtle reference to all the ways she's been changed by the magic of the library and it's awesome.

So, if magic is being cast that would affect Elisabeth (either directly on her or as an AOE), it's not going to work right. The spells effectiveness or duration might be limited, sh

Lastly, she can also sense when magic has been used. It has a smell to it, like burning metal, that she notices. Everyone can smell it when the spell itself is strong enough (it even has a fancy name, "aetherial combustion" or "the reaction when the substance of the Otherworld comes into contact with the human world"), but Elisabeth can smell it whenever a trace of magic has been used.


That's it! That's the newbie! Questions, comments, cake?