Difference between revisions of "Ophelia"

Latest revision as of 07:23, 17 March 2013

Ophelia Rosai Lovett
Age	Early 20s
Species	Not a Vampire
Sex	Female
Height	5'10"
Weight	130lbs
Background
Series	Final Fantasy Tactics
Combat Styles	Demon Hunter, Blood Knight
Hometown	Ordallia
Group	Church Of Glabados
Occupation/Job	Inquisitor / Demon Hunter
Force:	Forces of Restoration
Theme Song	Blitzkrieg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2_LJpFh3bY
Quote
"One finds life through conquering the fear of death within one's mind. Empty the mind of all forms of attachment, make a go-for-broke charge and conquer the opponent with one decisive slash!"

Profile

A child of mixed heritage, Ophelia took to the study of bushido at a young age, overcoming the prejudice and elitism of the nobility to follow in her father's footsteps as a great warrior. His death when she was still young did nothing to discourage the girl's ambitions, instead driving her to the point of obsession so that she might avenge his loss upon the monsters of the world that had taken him away. As with all tales of revenge, hers ended in tragedy and only the timely intervention of an old demon hunter by the name of Alexander Cromwell spared her the indignity of becoming a monster herself. With his aid she learned to manage the curse that has befallen her and over the last thirty years absorbed his wealth of experience in slaying the demons of the world. The Church took notice of their efforts and through collaboration created the Cromwell Foundation, a school for training future hunters. Now with the rise of the Heartless and the sundering of the worlds, Ophelia finds herself once more alone with her aging master, desperately trying to quell the tide of darkness while maintaining the secret of her own.

History

Because of it's borders with nations on the eastern side of the continent, Ordallia was exposed to more of the culture and fighting styles from these locations which normally only rarely saw use in Ivalice. Samurai and monks were the most common of these warriors to wander from their homelands and spread their teachings, though the deadly arts of the ninja were not unheard of outside of these distant countries. As such the nobility of Ordallia often had personal bodyguards or mercenaries trained in these professions which gave them access to an entirely different form of lore.

Hailing from the distant lands to the east, one such man traveled to Ordallia long before the onset of the war. His own nation was undergoing a crisis. Food and water were scarce due to conflict and drought and dozens of noble families had fallen to infighting and war. Rather than sell his honor to a rival lord after failing to defend his home, Sasaki Miyamoto slowly wandered his way to the west as a mercenary for hire until he found himself in the Ordallia.

Despite the lack of outright war, conflict was a way of life among the squabbling nobility. Assassination attempts were not unheard of nor was skirmishes between rival houses over land disputes or resource management. Sasaki had little trouble finding himself work as the bodyguard of a wealthy merchant. As it turned out the man's success had little to do with his talent for selling wares for he was a member of a local crime syndicate that operated a highly profitable black market.

Though his new lord's business was dishonorable, Sasaki could not simply leave or breach his agreement. Therefore he took on the jobs that were given, many of which involved bullying local competition or hunting down rivals. Several attempts were made on the merchant's life over the course of a few years and Sasaki thwarted all of them, eventually earning the man's respect and trust.

Though he had no intentions of ceasing his operations, he did manage to appease the samurai by offering his daughter's hand in marriage, whom he knew Sasaki had fallen in love with. The two were wed soon after and soon had a young baby daughter. Because he had abandoned his homeland, Sasaki insisted that she be named in the local fashion and given her mother's family name. Thus Ophelia Rosai Lovett came into the world.

A decade passed and Ophelia grew up strong and true under the tender care of her parents. She innately took to the handling of a blade and Sasaki began instructing her in the ways of the samurai from a young age, doing his best to instill in her the importance of honor and sacrifice as well as a respect for the spirits that dwell within all things. Her skill grew swiftly as did her knowledge and it seemed that Ophelia would be a worthy heir to follow in her father's footsteps.

The next decade saw the young child blossom into an amazing woman. Ophelia became just as renowned for her father in the art of swordsmanship and her beauty drew admiring fans and would-be suitors from across the land. However, unlike her father, the youthful samurai was vain and proud. Her grandfather doted on her and spoiled her with constant gifts and attention and she quickly grew snobbish and aloof. Ophelia loved showing off her skills and frequently challenged people to duels for minor trifles just so that she could prove who was top dog.

Ophelia became something of a local icon to many of the people who lived in the moderately sized city. While she could easily have had any job she wanted working as a bodyguard or simply mooched off her grandfather, she chose to open a dojo and allow people to pay to learn from the best. She was a cruel and harsh teacher, however, and only those who were truly devoted to learning the art managed to last long under her tutelage. This method of weeding out the weak certainly produced an elite group of students but her father began to fear that she was only using the classes as an excuse to exercise her love for violence.

Around the time she turned twenty years old, the outlying farming settlements fell under a terrible curse. A ancient vampire, fleeing from the destruction of his last home, settled into the ruins of an abandoned castle deep within the nearby swamps. One by one people began to disappear to satisfy the cravings for blood that he required and the creature began to grow bolder as he regained some of his strength, creeping closer and closer to the city itself as the months passed.

During one of his trips into town under the guise of an old beggar, the vampire caught wind of the local gossip about the beautiful but deadly samurai girl. Curious to see this for himself, he began to observe Ophelia for several days and during that time he took great interest in her clear love for battle. She enjoyed stomping out lesser creatures and this feature of her personality resonated within the vampire's unholy heart. He desired companionship and he knew who was the one he would chose to give his gift to.

Unfortunately for the undead monster, Ophelia's father was very overprotective of his only child. He was almost always present to keep an eye on her and she was well guarded even into the night by personal guards and servants. Several attempts to get close to her while she slept failed despite the array of powers at his command and he was loathe to use brute force in fear of sparking up another hunt, or worse, alerting the demon hunters to his presence.

Eventually a plan formed in his mind. Ophelia's love for her father was clear and with her hot-tempered disposition anyone who brought harm to him would surely draw her ire. Therefore, all he had to do was lure the father into a trap. The vampire discovered that one of the merchant's hidden warehouses was not far off from his resting place in the swamps and he quickly set about dispatching all of the guards and turning them into ghouls. Every attempt to investigate met with the same fate and eventually the merchant sent Sasaki at the head of a large group of mercenaries to find out what was going on.

The next day a lone man returned from the expedition, half dead and with dire news. Everyone had been slain by terrible fiends including Sasaki. When Ophelia heard this news she flew into an emotional rage. Commandeering another large group of soldiers, she set off immediately to avenge her father against whatever had dared to strike him down. And thus the trap was sprung.

By now the vampire's army of undead had grown rather sizable. When they arrived, the group found the place swarming with the undead. Zombies and ghouls littered the entryway and attacked immediately upon their arrival. They cleared them out with great difficulty and moved deeper into the complex but what they found here was far more surprising.

Sasaki and all his men had been raised as ghouls and they set upon the unwary group with an unholy frenzy. The remnants of the entire group was decimated swiftly and Ophelia found herself face to face with the reanimated body of her father. Just as the vampire had suspected she was unable to bring herself to strike him down and he disarmed and bound her swiftly for his new master. The vampire revealed himself then and told her his plans for the young girl as well as his offer of immortality.

Horrified, she tried to refuse him but she was in no position to argue. Without regards for her angry demands or pleas for mercy, the vampire drank of her blood until she passed away, thus securing her unholy existence. However, unknown to the creature, his old nemesis had finally managed to follow the rumors and trails to his new location and he set upon the monster moments after Ophelia's fate was sealed.

When she arose the next day, Ophelia cast her gaze up to find Alexander Cromwell looming overhead with a pitying look in his old eyes. He apologized to the girl for not being fast enough to stop the vampire's plans. Alexander was a demon hunter, he went on to tell her. He specialized in hunting down unholy abominations like vampires and ghouls and he had been unable to end the monster's life when he stormed his previous abode several months before.

As fate would have it, Alexander had also known her father many years in the past. He had spent much of his middle years living in the eastern lands and learning of their combat arts to better train himself for the battles he would face. During that time Sasaki had managed to save his life when a neighboring lord attempted to invade and the old man had promised to return the favor one day but never got the chance. He did see one alternative, however.

Alexander had learned many dark secrets during his time hunting down demons. Instead of killing Ophelia on the spot, the mercenary drew out his knife and cut open his finger. He offered her his blood and by doing so bound her to his service as a servant. In this way he was able to control her dark urges and blood lusts for only with his permission could she take a life unless defending herself. He took her under his wing as an apprentice and she was forced to leave her family behind for no one could ever be allowed to know the truth of her existence.

For the next twenty years Ophelia learned from her master, absorbing the centuries of knowledge that had been passed down from hunter to hunter. She became an expert on everything dark and demonic, every creature that crawled in the night or feasted on human flesh. And all the while her own powers continued to grow stronger. Her already bloody disposition became something of an issue and it became more and more difficult for her to restrain the urges that came with the dark unlife that sustained her. Alexander was only barely able to keep her under control at time and so he focused her training on channeling this darkness into her swordplay. With discipline and willpower, she maintained control.

Before the Fifty Years' War the two neighboring kingdoms of Ivalice and Ordallia dominated the western half of the world. Though time has lost the manner in which these two nations were formed, it is known that the nobility of the two lands are tied together through royal bloodlines and the two nations have enjoyed a mostly peaceful relationship with each other.

However, this did not stop Ordallia from invading and annexing Zelmonia, a small but once independent state bordering between Ivalice and themselves nearly one hundred years prior to the war. The bitter wounds this left politically festered over the next fifty years and eventually Ivalice sought to strike back by secretly providing the means for the small country to weaken its oppressors. But instead, the Zelmonian nobles petitioned the king for direct intervention on their behalf which began a series of border skirmishes.

King Devanne of Ordallia died not long after without naming a successor to the throne. With no children of his own, his cousin Varoi VI was named but the king of Ivalice saw the chance to take an even greater prize than Zelmonia. As Devanne's uncle, Denamda II proclaimed himself the rightful heir to the throne and declared war against the nation of Ordallia.

Leading his armies personally, Denamda invaded Zelmonia with the three orders of his greatest knights. They fought valiantly and won battle after battle, driving the Ordallian's back at every turn. However, just as they drew within reach of the border the king fell ill and died soon after without ever being able to return to his home.

The Ivalice army became lost and confused due to their leader's death and this chaos was used as an opportunity for Ordallia to strengthen its army and defend their borders. To the public eye this consisted of hiring more troops from local lords and mercenary groups, purchasing better gear, strengthening fortress walls and increasing training. However, the nobility of the land were afraid that their forces would not stand up to the military might of Ivalice's famous Knightly orders and they turned to more treacherous tactics such as attempted assassinations of important military figures, raids on supply lines, bribery of key officials, spying and other such things.

During this stalemate, another nearby military nation attempted to invade Ivalice. Romanda was ruled by Varoi's blood relative and thus his intervention was inevitable, however, King Denamda IV and his army managed to hold off the invasion through the aid of Fovoham's ruler, Grand Duke Barrington and his special assassin group called Khamja. After three years of continuous fighting, Romanda was forced to retreat.

In addition to the horrors of war, the conflict gave rise to a great surge of monster activity. Dark forces took advantages of the corpse-ridden battlefields to bolster their forces and Ophelia was forced to wage a shadow war with these insidious threats lest their interference cause the downfall of her nation. However, she could not be everywhere at once. At her urging, Alexander sent out a call to all of the other hunters that he knew of as well as hiring mercenaries who had proven themselves trustworthy. Though no where near an army, they were able to form small task-forces that scoured the countryside regularly and thus managed to keep the problem in check.

Their activities did not go unnoticed, however. With so much political intrigue among the nobility, spies were everywhere and eyes were always upon them. Eventually, word of their quiet heroism reached important members within the Church of Glabados and these people decided to offer their aid to such a noble endeavor - quietly ofcourse. Though wary at first, Alexander and Ophelia found little reason to turn down this offer and eventually a bargain was struck and the Cromwell Foundation was born.

Outwardly an academy for military training, the Cromwell Foundation took on any students who met their criteria and could afford their fees. The money went to supporting the needs of their hunters and the older members who could no longer fight or were too wounded became instructors at the institute. They became renowned for their efficiency and the skill of those who spent time there but little beyond this became public knowledge. Those who showed promise were secretly inducted into the true organization and in this way the ranks of the hunters were maintained and their secrets preserved.

This continued to be true throughout the war. The forces of Ivalice never managed to breach the borders of Ordallia and the academy remained unmolested. Constant vigilance from the hunters kept the monster population in check and the though the Church requested regular reports, they remained a separate entity free to operate on their own.

All of this changed with the arrival of the Heartless and the shattering of the worlds. Upon urgent request, Ophelia and Alexander rushed to Mullonde to help defend the temple. They found the Heartless swarming about in a great battle with the Templar and rushed to their aid, though Ophelia was careful to keep her unholy abilities restrained in the public view of others. However, when the battle was over they found that the world beyond the walls had altered inexplicably.

Thrust into the strange World of Ruin, Ophelia and Alexander, cut off from their comrades have taken shelter with the Church. None within the clergy know the truth of the girl's unholy existence though those who have been taken by the Lucavi suspect that she is different somehow. In order to keep any clashes of authority to a minimum the two hunters have been granted honorary status as inquisitors which allows them to come and go as they please without the fear of questions that might bring forth uncomfortable answers.