( application | abraxas )

OOC INFORMATION

Player Name: Kerry
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: pm
Other Characters in Game:

IC INFORMATION

Character Name: Zelda Schiff
Canon: The Magicians
Canon Point: 513 Fillory and Further
Background: wiki + written history

Suitability:

Whilst Zelda isn't an obvious hero she is a protector, primarily of knowledge but when it comes to doing the right thing Zelda is there for it. Whilst initially Zelda needed a nudge to get involved, after discovering that she'd been lied to and manipulated, that what she'd believed was good and right was hurting people she ended up doing the right thing for herself, offering information to help save the world, forging her own path for the future. It ended up with Zelda making a heroic sacrifice, giving others a chance to flee and live as she enacted a spell and caused a diversion, knowing that she'd die but knowing that she was sacrificing herself to help preserve the world.

Though it may take Zelda time to really get involved in the world (she's an observer and then dips in when she's convinced) she'll interact with the world, searching for knowledge, helping people around her -- pcs or npcs, helpful or mini-questish. With this being a completely new world to her that she has no knowledge of (a new thing!) it might make her begin to explore, to find truths and information that may not be in a library. Knowledge is certainly her bigger focus in life, give her something to research and record and she's a happy librarian.

Powers:

MAGICIAN. Zelda is a natural magic user, someone that is highly skilled both by her many years of study and her formal training by the Order of the Library of the Neitherlands. As such, Zelda is a Master Magician, though she very rarely uses (or shows off) her gifts, with others instead underestimating her skill. Whilst her discipline is never explained, due to being a Master Magician (and well-read from her time within the Library), Zelda possesses a great deal of knowledge, spells and talent. Her magic is strong and she is able to affect much more than the average magician, for example being able to burn every book in a section of the Library with one spell or permanently freezing every fountain (portal) to prevent their use.

Spells in their world are cast by making tuts -- specific hand or finger gestures that can range from the simple to the complex depending on the complexity of the spell. For Master Magician's this requires much less effort than an ordinary Magician, where another Magician may require cooperative magic to have enough power Master Magicians can power the spell alone. Whilst highly powerful, she is not the most powerful being to exist (gods and those gifted with god-power are more powerful) and she is still susceptible to the effects of magic and spells being cast upon her, or things that would dampen or prevent her from being able to cast.

As Zelda isn't very showy about her magic, reserved in character and trust, she wouldn't be using her magic in ordinary situations in-game. Anything potentially game-breaking will fail (such as creating a portal) and ordinary spells could also potentially fail (specific circumstances are required to cast -- the moon, timing, emotions, anything can throw it off), something that whilst it wouldn't happen in canon (due to her mastery in craft) can happen in game because hijinks are fun. There'll also be a permissions post for her magic and nothing will be done to another character without prior discussion.

SPEED READING. Part of being a master magician and librarian is being able to speed read -- magically. Zelda's able to consume the contents of a book by literally flicking through the book, parsing the text incredibly quickly. She also has a fantastic memory for being able to store the information that she's read (and she's read a LOT of books).

LANGUAGES. All magicians learn a myriad of languages for needing to cast and translate spells and texts. With the sheer number of books that Zelda has read and her knowledge from her decades within the library, Zelda knows an ungodly number of languages. It's unstated what they are but you can count on her obscure librarian knowledge. She is also fluent in American Sign Language due to her daughter, Harriet, being deaf.

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.

Becoming a Librarian is the biggest influencer of Zelda's life. Prior to this her life was troubled -- her mother had died when she was a child, she'd lived on the streets, gotten lost in the Etheric Realm and had been someone who hated herself and had no hope. After Zelda was found and taken to the Library it changed so much for her -- she was given order, purpose, education, something to begin to build her life around. And whilst the Library became Zelda's entire life it changed was entirely new. That said, the Library also gave Zelda a whole host of positive and negative experiences for her. Whilst the people she worked with would never be family, they were people that she trusted in their work and truly believed that they were doing the right thing, something that is heavily rocked when Zelda realises that she's been lied to and manipulated in her actions as a Librarian (enough that she questions what she believes, questions the Library and feels incredibly lost). Even when Zelda's faith in the Library is rocked she never fully turns away from it -- being a Librarian is her life, her skillset and passion and knowledge is important to her. She's a book nerd, a knowledge lover and she wants others to embrace that. Which is why she takes the gentle guidance of Kady and Harriet to help reshape the Library after its fall, to finally open it up to people -- to be used as a library really should be used.

Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?

Zelda's code surrounds doing the right thing, something that she always tries to do and believes that she is. Whilst the Library has always safeguarded knowledge it has been protective in a way that also prevents access to much of the knowledge it holds, believing that there is much that is simply too dangerous to be loose in the world. Whilst this seems odd, Zelda has believed that it is right in terms of trying to keep people safe, not wanting someone to get hurt because of knowledge that they discovered in a book. This also motivates Zelda when she does act -- doing the right thing. When she realises that her mentor has been betraying everyone, has been hurting others she knows that it's the right thing to step in and stop him, to uncover his true intentions to help the Brakebills gang. It's also why she (surprisingly) burns the Library. After Visigoths attempt to pillage the Library, Zelda burns the books within it to prevent them from getting their hands on them, to protect the knowledge they would have stolen and the lives that would have been ruined or hurt.

What quality or qualities do they admire most?

Zelda admires intellectual curiosity, a strong sense of self, loyalty, courage, doing what is right. These are traits that were developed within her in the Library, with her early life too chaotic and troubled for her to admire or value much. The Library instilled within her a sense of order a purpose, training her to value knowledge, value what the Library was supposedly able to do for people. From this and Zelda reflecting and growing within her time there, in finding herself found what she appreciated. Zelda is kinder with people that are curious, more encouraging to those that are kind, are loyal, are courageous but is shorter and disapproving of those she believes are selfish, crude or cruel.

Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?

Zelda has a lot of regrets about how she's lived her life, the biggest of that being how devoted to the Library and the Order that she has been. When it's in danger of being lost to Visigoths she breaks down a little, reflecting that if she could do it all again that she'd be a better mother, a truer friend, that the Library is all that she has and all that she is. Whilst Zelda doesn't regret joining the Library or working for them, whilst she believes still in the idea of what it could (should) be, she does regret that it's been her singular focus. She knows from her daughter having left the Library, growing up in normal time and returning as an adult that she's missed so much of her daughter's life, knowing as well that isn't all she's missed from her own life. The part of herself that she dislikes? How singularly she can focus on something, how devoted she's been, essentially an unquestioning servant.

What is their sign, and why?

The Magician -- she is a master magician, it's very on the nose, but it means that she has master specific areas of her craft including the ability to cast regardless of what the external circumstances are (meaning that Zelda is able to use her magic even when others are unable to). She can also be quite hyper-focused and a perfectionist (see: throwing her entire life into the Library and nothing else). And whilst Zelda is a master magician, this mastery comes from her own discipline -- she's able to utilise spells as all magicians can but becoming a master doesn't make her a phosphoromancer or traveller, that magic is for their specific discipline and skills.

SAMPLES & ARRIVAL

Samples: one + two

Arrival Scenario: Welcomed