Charlotte Lansing
Charlotte Lansing
Character Name: Princess Charlotte Lansing
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Class: necromantrix
Weapon: Charlotte prefers to use magic above weapons; if forced into a situation requiring them, however, she prefers to fight barehanded, using the sharp points of the rings on her fingers as weaponry. She knows how to use a crossbow- which she stole long ago from her father- but considers it a boorish weapon.
Armor/Clothing: Charlotte wears dramatic dress, entirely black; floor-length black silk, with long, billowing bell sleeves, cut eyebrow-raisingly low around the neck; this is overset with many layers of ripped and tattered black gauze and lace, filling and widening the skirt and adding depth to the look of the outfit. On her head she wears a heavy silver crown, meticulously detailed with miniscule, abstruse symbols and lines, and she wears light silver-thread slippers on her feet. She now wears her old amulet over her clothing rather than under her dress, and has burnished the symbol- an ancient one, ironically enough for ‘rebirth’- until it shines like silver.
Strong With: shadow
Strong Against: elemental attacks
Weak With: elemental attacks
Weak Against: holy
ATTACK
SUMMON- Diablos, FF8
NECROMANCY
TRANCE: Charlotte’s trance is her old one, but polarized, inverted into something evil; rather than healing, she deals a grievous blow to all opposing her, but loses almost as much of her own HP.
Eyes: blue
Hair: Flaming red, hanging to about six inches below her shoulders. Charlotte now straightens her naturally wavy hair, giving it a bit of an ironed quality (though it’s still in fine condition) but, on the other hand, doesn’t put as much work into keeping in under control; it hangs wild, loose and unkempt down her back now, violently orange again her pale-white skin.
Otherwise Appearance: Charlotte now spends much less time in the sun, and most of her freckles have disappeared. Since her resurrection, her appearance has changed dramatically; she’s older now, giving her curves and a maturity not present before, but she’s also sheet-pale, with a very gaunt face.
NECROMANTRIX MAGIC
(K’Tal and Nathan’s influence has extended to Charlotte’s magical abilities- dark magic like or the same as their own. Her old abilities, those of a healer, have been polarized.)
Black Thunder- An ominous rumbling precedes two spells cast at once- A darkening of the sky to an almost midnight shade for about two minutes, simultaneous with the Fear spell being cast on all opponents.
Coquetry: The user clasps her hands in front of her faces, creating an translucent, vivid-blue shell around her. The shell can stand up to five physical blows or spells before dissipating.
Aether Threads- Charlotte can manipulate the raw energy of black magic in one of two forms- as threads flicking back and forth between her hands, which she can aim precisely and which cause minute damage on contact with living or inanimate object- or as larger balls, which she cannot control or aim as well but which cause more damage and may inflict the Poison spell.
Blacklight- A simple, shining black light for dark places.
Fortune’s Wheel- With a whispered wish, Charlotte can tip the odds of a given situation mysteriously, subtly, and irrefutably to her favor.
Dark Charlotte Theme Music:
www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/...f7seph.mid (Those Chosen By The Planet, FF7)
The Princess Charlotte Theme Music:
www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/...ordeal.mid (Mount of Ordeals, FF6)
Description/History:
Princess Charlotte Lansing has endured long trials and come a long way to be where she is now.
She was born Charlotte Belle Lansing in the town of Rei Ie, the eldest child of a kind-hearted healer. Soon she had nine brothers and sisters, and she lived a relatively peaceful and content life until the age of twelve, when the Lansing’s happy lives were abruptly interrupted. Charlotte was betrothed to a nobleman, Genji Tanaka, and Tanaka himself had abruptly shown up, demanding Charlotte’s hand as soon as possible.
Ataru Lansing (Charlotte’s father) and Charlotte herself were naturally suspicious- why this sudden ardent heart when he had been cold for twelve years? And, after a little bit of searching, Ataru found the truth: Genji Tanaka, a fearsome sorcerer and not exactly renowned for his virtues, was going to work on a summoning spell for an esper- but one of the elements he required for this magical attempt was the blood of a child. Ataru, horrified and outraged, confronted Genji- but Genji Tanaka was surprisingly cool. So, Ataru had discovered his motive. So what?
“So what?” Ataru replied, furious. “So get out of my house, wastrel, for I’ll never give up my daughter to you!”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to,” replied Genji with a grin. “If you won’t give me Charlotte, I’ll leave, yes- but I’ll have no scruples about killing both you and your family. She’ll die, regardless, Ataru, and so will the rest of your children, as gruesome and as bloody as I can manage, for my soldiers and bounty hunters may be dimwitted but they've got a satisfying enough bloodlust, Ataru. And then where will you be? It’s your choice, Ataru, but really no choice if you’re going to try to uphold that righteous reputation.”
Those were the conditions- Charlotte’s father could either give her up and live in peace for the rest of his days, or protect her and run the risk of his entire family dying, as well as his eldest daughter. Though he was heartbroken to have suffered a defeat so dear to his heart, he realized he had a responsibility to his other children and that he couldn’t justify saving her at their expense. And so, cursing his luck, Genji and random objects around his house, he agreed that Genji would take Charlotte with him the next morning.
Charlotte Belle saw things differently. “Why should my family live in happiness, when it means that I have to sacrifice my own life?” she demanded. “That isn't fair. I'm not bowing to THAT.” So late that night, she stole her father’s crossbow and the family’s red chocobo Perri and ran away from her family, Genji and her childhood.
But, alone and defenseless against the world, she realized she had a problem. Few normal twelve-year-old girls could make it for long on their own without turning to either brothels or convents, and Charlotte had no great desire to experience either. However, she carefully crafted a plan: simply enough, refuse to be a normal girl.
So she made up a past; romanticized and overdramatic, but a past still. Her real name was Charlotte Belle Chan’te, and she was the princess of the faraway (and actually nonexistent) country of Naceili, a glorious and wealthy kingdom far to the east. She had been kidnapped long ago and spirited away to this land by rebels, but she has defeated them and for years had been seeking a safe passage home. Indeed, she looked royal when she rode into town on her red chocobo, tin though her tiara may be, and shabby though the story- but she found that the tragic tale was enough to convince most. The world loves a tragic heroine and was all too willing to embrace the girl “princess”, and what she couldn’t entrance from her audience, she stole in a more pickpocketly style. As time wore on she became more convincing- she developed an “accent”, royal manners, a complete knowledge of her imaginary country. And so, over the course of three years, she perfected the little charade, traveling up and down the mainland and charming, spiriting, stealing, shaming, tricking, threatening, grabbing, sneaking, and entrancing money out of people any way she could. Her real emotions are cleverly hidden, her real motives obscure- no one knows for certain where they stand with her, and even less so where she should stand with them. At fifteen, she still shows no signs of guilt for her abandonment of her family and birthright, and, of course, no signs of stopping her grand trickery.
Charlotte’s journeys carried her from land to land, never getting caught, and eventually brought her into the company of a trio of wanderers called Danji, Kuji and Ren. She and Danji fell in love, and Charlotte agreed to accompany them on a boat trip to another continent. It was not to be, however; the boat sank, and Charlotte- saved by Perri- the only survivor. She did, however, find the group that she and her companions had been voyaging to meet; the main party- the knight Duncan Fox, pilot Connor, sky-fairy Altaira, and many more along the way. She went along with them, mainly because she had nowhere else to go, and she liked the companionship.
Eventually, however, hard times befell even their group. Under most mysterious circumstances, Duncan Fox was thrown into a coma- a small band from the troupe was sent out to search for a cure, among them the wizard Devin Wallace, a wolf-boy named Januu Kitsynual, a dark mage named Shadow, a mercenary named Kalin Ramirez. As events progressed, however, things became more and more confused. Kalin disappeared on the journey; the purpose of the journey itself became obscured by any number of subquests and diversions. One of these ‘diversions’ involved a comedy of errors, of sorts; Charlotte was mistaken for another ‘Princess’- the leader of a band of rebels against Prince Mikatsu, a girl named Irene- and made the foolish choice to let the case of mistaken identity continue, against the wishes of her companions. When the subterfuge was discovered, the furious rebels more or less offered the party an ultimatum; start doing them some services for their troubles, or meet a far nastier fate. Hastily accepting the former, Charlotte and her band were sent out to find the real Irene- held captive in a faraway land by a Nerve Reaper called Rei Tokukami. All the help they were offered were the services of an aged knight called Vincent Baldwin; curiously enough, the father of a boy named Nathan, one of the many whom Charlotte had once traveled with.
Irene was rescued, an event not provoking any measure of celebration from the other princess, and they returned to the rebels- only to find their land in flame. Vincent demanded a quick landing, but almost before anyone could get their grips on the situation, Devin Wallace revealed his true colors. (Those of a spy for anyone stupid. ^^) Irene’s throat was slit and her body tumbling over the side of the airship in a matter of seconds, and Devin, taking control of the helm (and everyone’s bodies, using a paralyze spell) revealed his true nature; that of a spy for Mikatsu. It was clear that he meant to see them all dead and Charlotte, desperately, drew the ace of hearts from her sleeve- swearing that she was in love with Devin. To back up the lie with a truth, she revealed the fact that she wasn’t royalty at all to her stunned companions, and begged Devin to take her with him and leave the rest to die. Wallace refused, but no longer had the heart to kill his previous companions- he vanished, and they escaped the airship as quickly as they were able.
Charlotte’s secret was out, however, and the combined knowledge of her and Devin’s deceit was enough to prompt the wolfboy Januu into his Trance- a lethal, werewolf-like stage, wherein he had neither consciousness nor control. Hoping desperately that they wouldn’t find out his secret he stripped off his clothes before his transformation- all this accomplished, however, was convincing Charlotte that the werewolf had eaten Januu.
The resulting and rather tumultuous chaos attracted the attention of some vicious birds of prey from the Dragon Isle, who swept up the helpless trio and carried them away before dropping them in front of the floating island’s great temple. Charlotte, now convinced that the again-sane Januu was a ghost, chased him into and through the temple until they stumbled upon the body of Connor. Januu and Charlotte only just had time to be shocked by this discovery, and Vincent only had time to arrive and reprimand them, before another great foe made his entrance- Mikatsu.
A great battle resulted, a battle which neither side won, and which was only further complicated by Devin’s arrival (Wallace left quickly enough, however, only firing a mysterious magical shaft of light at Charlotte before his exit.) The group set off again, this time with Connor- but now Charlotte felt weak and sick, and by the time they arrived at a little parochial town she had to face the facts- she was pregnant.
She begged Januu and Vincent to help her force a miscarriage, but they refused, treating her instead with great kindness and care- little consolation. She did not see Devin again until they departed from the town and met him in nearby foothills. He had returned to get what was his. But Charlotte was sick of his scheming and lies- she had spent her whole life being used and tormented by men and now, not going to let another being she hated twist her to his will, she knew she had only one choice. After Vincent died in battle, she calmly took his sword, spoke words of hatred that would haunt Devin to his dying day, and killed herself by thrusting the blade through her stomach.
But Fortune’s wheel was not done turning for the ‘princess’. Charlotte’s body was discovered, completely coincidentally, by her old companion Nathan. Pitying the young woman’s whose unhappy life had ended so violently- even Perri had abandoned her body and was now flying with Januu- the demon-warrior and his companion Bane arranged for Charlotte’s resurrection in unison with their dead King’s (Xiris Xanu). Everything pulled through perfectly- including Bane’s surreptious plot to bring Charlotte back as a companion… more to his liking.
The resurrected Charlotte was Charlotte- with a few small differences. She was coquettish, icy, aloof, and completely evil- to the extent that even her magical abilities were changed. And, despite the fact that she was aware that this was Bane’s doing, and completely aware of what had happened- Charlotte didn’t care. She was enjoying every moment of it. Charlotte is no longer a thief princess- she is now a necromantrix, a Queen of the Night.
