Ruby City Application

[eclipse_of_time]

PLAYER
Name: Faye
Age: 32
Personal Journal: said_scarlett
E-mail: red.headed.rapunzel@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: Plurk is crossthesky

CHARACTER
Name: Ming Numara
Canon: Lost Odyssey
Age: 1,0031, but she looks to be in her late 20s.
Timeline: Just post-canon.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A

Personality: Ming Numara is at her heart a patient, gentle and kind woman who is ruled by her emotions. She spent a thousand years keeping herself closed off from people, not allowing anyone close or beneath her calm public mask. She was known sometimes as the Melancholy Queen, and it was oft remarked there was an air of quiet sadness about her. But in her mind, it was better this way. A dull, constant small sadness was much better than the grief and pain that came from betrayal and loss. This thousand year span of self isolation has had a great effect on her personality. She still struggles with connecting honestly with people, and forming close bonds. She still instinctively keeps herself emotionally closed from other people, despite her depth of feeling for others.

She turned all the love and kindness in her heart to her people as a whole. A thousand years of meditating and studying pacifistic religions has given Ming a sense of calm and peace within her. She's remarkably difficult to anger, and tries to see all sides of any given problem. She believes fully in giving the benefit of the doubt, and tends to think the best of people. Unless, of course, she's been given a reason different. Even then, she hopes and often waits too long before taking action. There was a general she was fond of, and one day she saw in his eyes the capacity to betray her. Rather than dealing with the problem then and there, Ming decided to wait and allow the general to make his own choice when the time came. But, as tended to happen, he attempted to take power from her and she was forced to execute him as a traitor - the only crime in Numara that carries that particular penalty.

Due to Ming's incredibly optimistic and kind nature, and her habit of not getting deeply close with others, she can be a poor judge of character and blindly defend people she really shouldn't. Most of her knowledge comes from books and entertainment and watching her own people - who's lifestyle and culture she herself carefully influenced and shaped to suit what she believes is 'best'. She's easily charmed and can be taken advantage of before she even realizes she should be suspicious.

Due to the fact she kept herself away from people and out of social situations (or anything that wasn't being a priestess mage queen), she tends to have an almost childlike sense of wonder and excitement. New things amaze her, and she has an ability to find goodness and beauty in everything. She's very inquisitive, and loves to listen to the stories of other people. Having so few adventures of her own, the adventures of others are her favorite sort of things to hear. She can listen for hours and hours, content to not say a word, only nod and lose herself in the exciting lives of others. And now that she's moved beyond her crippling fear of emotional involvement of any sort, she takes great pleasure in meeting people and gathering new stories and new experiences from them.

Despite her pacifistic stance, Ming is more than willing to get her own hands dirty if she or her people are threatened. When her temper is finally roused, Ming's anger is swift and cold. It takes an extreme event to rouse that anger, however, or break through her calm kindness. Hurt a child or animal, or threaten her loved ones however, and the wrath of Ming is a terrible thing. She executes justice (she'd never think to call it vengeance. A queen's vengeance is justice, as far as she's concerned) clinically and quickly, with little fanfare. She justifies this hypocrisy with her nature - with her abilities and immortality, she can't be bound by conventional rules of humanity. Ming does sometimes fully believe that she has the 'right' to make life or death decisions of a grand scale, moreso than others.

Ming can get frustrated and exasperated when she isn't getting her ideas across, or when she feels unnecessarily challenged. As the only female monarch in her world, she fears not being taken seriously or dismissed due to her gender. She's easily put out if she isn't afforded what she considers respect or common courtesy.

But as long as she's being given what she considers her polite due, she treats everyone with the same manner of respect and amicability. Unless given a very good reason to dislike someone, Ming typically doesn't.

She has a rather girlish sense of humor, and is quite easily amused - though she's not at all good at making jokes herself, and she often struggles with picking up sarcasm, though she's perfectly familiar with the concept.

Even though Ming enjoys new experiences, she fears losing control of herself or having her wits addled. She doesn't like to drink - she's had two drinks in her entire life, both of which knocked her out immediately - and won't knowingly touch anything that could possibly muddle her senses. At first it was due to not wanting to slip up and accidentally get close to someone, these days it's lingering fear from when her memories were scrambled and she wasn't herself.

Background: Ming Numara is a powerful Sorceress, known in her word for being the Queen and founder of the Free Ocean State of Numara in the world of Plank. She is also an Immortal and has ruled Numara (mostly alone) for the past 1090 years. She existed at first in The Shining World, a being of pure energy, before her world began to die. She and four others were sent through a magical gate to another world, one which existed directly connected to her own. There, she lost all memories of The Shining World and was reformed into a human body. She was separated from her companions and came to live in a small coastal village. She knew only she had been sent here, and she was to live among the native peoples of this world and study their magical energy.

Unfortunately, her powers of healing marked her a witch, and the villagers she had healed and cared for turned against her. When she wouldn't die at their hands, they tossed her into the sea. Eventually she washed up on a barren group of islands. The people there were poor and unable to coax much life from the rocky soil and sweltering climate. But they didn't fear Ming. Rather they welcomed her with open arms and cared for her, and upon discovering her powers worshiped her as a holy woman. In turn, she used her gifts to transform the barren islands into the flourishing paradise now known as Numara.

But due to her first experiences with mortals, and a repeated history of generals and advisors plotting against her, Ming made the decision to never allow herself any manner of close relationship with mortals. If they didn't stab her in the back, they grew old, sick…died. It was far too much pain for her tender heart to bear. She kept herself aloof, distanced, and allowed herself no friendships or intimate relationships whatsoever. And for a thousand years she reigned as such. Numara remained entirely isolated. A neighboring power once thought to invade Numara, but fearing for her subjects, Ming destroyed the Eastern People entirely, wiping them out with magic before they ever reached Numara's borders.

All was peaceful and paradisiacal (as far as Ming was concerned) in the Ocean State...

Until the sorcerer and fellow Immortal Gongora set great monsters to destroy Numara, chaining Ming and offering her an ultimatum: either he destroyed her beloved people, or she sealed away her own memories of who she was and why she was here. Her people being everything to her, Ming did as she was forced to and sealed away her memories of the last thousand years. And for thirty years she was little more than a puppet ruler, a confused and curious woman who didn't even understand why her body didn't age, or why she had supposedly lived and ruled for a thousand years.

And then Numara's pacifist, isolation policy was dropped. Ming was being taken advantage of by her general, Kakanas, and was being coerced into starting a war with the country of Uhra against her will. Uhra was building giant magical engines called Grand Staffs, and Numara was investigating one. There, Ming found her private quarters invaded by a rather charismatic wandering mage named Jansen. She was kidnapped willfully by two fellow Immortals (Kaim and Seth) and Jansen - an alcoholic chivalrous pervert who had once been Gongora's personal valet. She learned why she had no memories - Gongora sealed the minds of all those who had come with him from the Shining World - and agreed to join them in stopping Gongora from attempting to take over Plank. She also learned that they were supposed to return to their homeward, that staying and leaving open the gate between the two worlds was killing both Plank and The Shining World.

Abandoning - for the moment - her throne, Ming became something of a fugitive, traveling with her kin and the mortals that joined them as well - including a pair of children who's mother Ming had been close to. Unbeknownst to her, as her memories were sealed, Lirrum - the closest thing Ming had to a friend - was the daughter of one of Ming's own kin, Kaim. Technically their leader, and the Immortal who had suffered greatest at the hands of Gongora.

Together they journeyed to the country of Gohtza, also at war with Uhra, and the center of industrial magic. Along the way, Jansen repeatedly attempted to woo Ming, who while interested, kept herself at a distance. It was a confusing time for her, as she felt a strong connection to Seth but couldn't remember why. It turned out that two hundred years ago, the two had been quite close. Closer than Ming had ever allowed herself to be with another person. And awkward love triangle was formed - though Jansen didn't quite realize exactly what was going on, only that Seth was fiercely possessive of Ming and tried to chase him away whenever he got close.

Upon reaching Gohtza, tragedy struck. Gongora, seeking to take all three major thrones, unleashed a devastating magical attack on the city. Everyone was frozen, killed by the cold or suffocating as living ice statues. Ming, Jansen and Seth had been meeting with the king of Gohtza and the young king Tolten of Uhra - even more a puppet than Ming - when the attack hit. Seth and Tolten escaped via means of magic. Ming and Jansen were left on the royal train, protected only by Ming's ever-weakening magic shield.

But then, just as her shield began to break and the deadly cold overtook Jansen, something happened. The powerful and painful thought of losing Jansen was the emotional power needed to unlock her memories. And her full potential as a mage. She remembered her life of loneliness and solitude, and confessed everything to Jansen. Something was clearly growing between the two, but then wasn't the time to explore it. They rescued Kaim's grandchildren, who had been caught in the wilds during the attack, and tracked down the rest of their motley little group.

At this point, they understood what needed to be done to save Plank - the Shining World was dying, no matter what was done. It was nothing more than the natural living energies of Plank that was killing it - human emotion. But the longer the gate stayed open and the longer the Immortals stayed, the more damage Plank itself would take. They needed to return through the gate and destroy the Tower of Mirrors, the keystone that linked the two worlds together.

It was at this point disagreements began to break out. Ming - as well as Kaim's wife - had no desire to return to their homeward. Kaim accused Ming of being selfish, and told them all they had no choice. But before they left to assault the Tower, Ming confessed to Jansen she wanted to stay. With him. She'd fallen deeply and madly in love with him, so much so that it frightened her. But she couldn't imagine an existence without him in it.

When it came down to it, the choice was taken away from them all. They fought Gongora in the Tower of Mirrors, in front of the Mirror Gate, and he used its power to gain the upper hand over his fellow Immortals. In the light of the Gate, they were mortal. However, Jansen, understanding magic and being a skilled mage, used his own magical energy to block the light of the gate. The other mortals joined in, forming a shield that allowed Ming, Kaim, Sarah and Seth to defeat their once-friend. But the light from the gate had warped the energy used to block it, forming a cage around the mortals who'd made it. And killing them slowly.

With - so she assumed - next to no time left, Jansen and Ming had a tearful confession of love, both admitting they'd never felt this way about another person before.

While distracted with their dying loved ones, Gongora rallied once more. But Seth grappled him, and both fell through the mirror gate, returning to their world and breaking the gate itself. The light, the magic shield, everything was gone. Those remaining fled the falling Tower, Ming, Kaim and Sarah currently trapped in Plank with no way to return home.

A year following the collapse of the Tower and Ming reclaiming her throne, she and Jansen were married in the final scenes of the game.

Abilities: Ming is an Immortal, which in her canon means she's a creature of pure magical energy stuffed into a human body. As she can't exist in that pure energy form outside of her own homeward, her body was reformed into that of a human's, and her magical energy manifests itself in extremely powerful magical abilities. She possess both healing/protective and destructive magic, but focuses on her healing and defensive talents. Her magic is elemental based - the four classic elements plus light - and while she knows the strongest spells from her canon, she hasn't bothered to go through the process of learning how to actually cast them.

Despite her power, she needs to use existing elements to cast her magic. She can't make water or fire from nothing, or summon rocks from nowhere or use light based spells in total darkness. Her healing works in a similar way, where she manipulates the body directly to control it and force it to heal in moments instead of the natural length of time - which in serious injuries isn't very pleasant for the patient.

She also has the unique gift to see in someone's eyes whether or not that person has the capacity to betray her. Not whether or not they will, just if they have it within them to potentially betray her specifically.

Non-magically she's a gifted harpist, singer, and public speaker, as well as a skilled monarch and diplomat. She has knowledge of herbal medicines - teas and poultices and potions - on top of her healing abilities.

Network/Actionspam Sample:

Goodness!

[Ming's lightly accented voice is colored with surprise. Inspecting the silver pocket watch she's found herself in possession of, it's clear it's not an ordinary pocket watch, the poster was right. She finds herself broadcasting with it, as though it were some hand held teleson! But far more aesthetically appealing than a square screen mounted into furniture. What in the world...]

Hello? I do apologize, I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with this device. I'm also afraid I don't quite understand what's happened! I was on a train...I don't even remember boarding a train.

[Which in itself is frightfully distressing. Not to mention the fact she was entirely alone for her journey. Jansen's going to be so worried! What will he think, her being spirited off like this now?]

I suppose I should do as the helpful banner suggests and seek the local constabulary. I'm supposed to be on my honeymoon, this is a terribly inconvenient time to be whisked away by magic mystery trains!

Prose Log Sample: Log Sample