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Background
It was late 1942 when she was born. Her mother, Margali Szardos, called her Jimaine. It was a bad time to be Romany in Germany. Worse than ever before. The clan was rounded up, captured by the Germany army and shipped off to the camps. She was too young to retain much of anything then. It was a long, terrible year, but the clan - what remained of it - was freed in 1945.
Margali took her daughter and led her people, following the British and American soldiers that saved them, and join a circus full of 'outcasts' like themselves. Germans, Romany and others. The Circus accepted them all, as long as everyone was able to contribute in some fashion. Margali became the circus fortuneteller, calling on skills her mother had taught her as a child. As Jimaine grew older, she passed these skills onto Jimaine as well, eventually sharing the job of fortuneteller with her.
But that was the mere beginning of her education.
Her father's identity really did not matter, for Jimaine took after Margali (and her ancestors) very strongly. Like every woman in her family line, Jimaine had the gift of magic in, and Margali took it upon herself to teah her child how to master that energy and how to walk the Path of the Winding Way. These lessons were always done late at night, after the circus' audience had left for the evening. Away from the tents and carts and carriages, so nobody could see. The circus was her school, and Margali was but her main teacher. She learned in other places, too. She picked up languages from the other workers - German, English - learned other dialects of Romany from the lion tamer and several clowns. Her mother insisted she learn to defend herself and so she went to the knife-thrower and learned how to use and throw knives. But it was always the lessons from her mother that fascinated her. Lessons that she craved, time and time again.
But over the years with those lessons, something was happening. Her mother was becoming colder, darker. She was more threatening if Jimaine could not master the lesson so quickly. She grew more demanding, and the lessons became harder. She started looking forward to learning elsewhere. Started pouring over the books on her own, letting her mother delve into whatever darkness was consuming her.
And then one day, Margali simply disappeared.
She didn't take everything with her. Several tomes she left behind and from these Amanda was able to learn how to further hone her magical skill - how do to thingslike teleport to the Winding Way Dimension directly. Her nighttime education, now on her own, became an exploratory delving into the Winding Way. Just after her 20th birthday was when she discovered what was, at the time, a crumbling stone fort in the Way. She claimed it for herself - not that anyone was around to stop her - and began to use this spot as a place to practice her magic. She found as she visited that the place changed shape and size, perhaps due to the nature of the dimension itself.
It was after one of these trips that her mother - or something that resembled her mother - reappeared, attacking her in the woods. Demanding her books, demanding things that made no sense. Jimaine did not even recognize her as Margali, she had changed so much… or was it simply the way her face seemed twisted by anger? There was something about this appearance that convinced Jimaine it was not truly her mother, merely something borrowing her appearance for the effect. Whatever it was, mother or not, she managed to fight off the being and fled back to the circus - her mother's apparent remaining loyalty to the clan prevented her from attacking Jimaine within the circus itself. She was simply gone, with no trace of where she went, when Jimaine examined the area the next morning.
Shortly after, the leaders of the circus announced they would be travelling to America. There were reasons, of course: more people, bigger crowds. The travelling bug within her was ignited and Jimaine accompanied the circus overseas, continuing her position as fortuneteller… though she made alterations to the home she and her mother had, changing it so it would not be recognizable by looking at it. She hoped it would keep her safe.
Now in America and 21 years old, Jimaine has found she has started to long to socialize with people outside the circus. To that end she has taken on the name of Amanda Sefton, believing it to sound more.. well, normal. It's easier to pronounce than her birth name as well, and it is a name that Margali will not be on the lookout for. Something about the idea of America has made her want to branch out and experience more than just the circus, and she intends to do just that.
IC Events
Traits
- Sorcery: After years of studying under her mother, a Mistress of the Winding Way, Amanda has developed considerable control over and knowledge of sorcery. She channels mystical energy through the Winding Way dimension in order to power her spells. The power of the spell depends on whether or not Amanda is waxing or waning, or somewhere inbetween on her Path of the Winding Way. It also requires that her hands be free, as her spellcasting depends on the arcane gestures associated with the spells. She is capable of using the Winding Way's energy in the following ways:
- TELEPORTATION: Amanda is capable of teleporting herself (and up to roughly 3000 lbs) to any place she has been/can see/can visualize clearly. This includes people, with whom she must be in physical contact. The more mass she moves (up to her limit), the more energy it requires, and the more she will be exhausted.
- HYPNOSIS: Amanda can hypnotize others for brief periods of time (up to an hour) to do her bidding. She cannot force hypnotized subjects to do things against their very person (kill themselves, kill others, for example) though she can ask them to give her information and such mundane things.
- HEALING: The birthright of the women in her family, Amanda excels at healing spells. She can mend wounds and broken bones, cure diseases or infections. There must be something for her to work with, however - she could not regrow someone's arm after it had been cut clean off, for example.
- SHAPECHANGING: Amanda can change her appearance as need be (hair colour, height, eye colour, facial structure) as need be, within human norms. As well, she can take on the appearance of animals without difficulty, for up to an hour. In doing so she gains whatever natural (ie, non-magical) abilities the animal has. A bird can fly, so can she. However if the bird can speak, that is not normal, and not somethng she coul duplicate. She would have to return to human shape in order to speak, in that example.
- ILLUSIONS: Shadows and fleeting images, things spotted out of the corners of the eyes, brief flashes of light and even mirages - Amanda can do all of these things, creating images that fool all of the senses, but for a limited amount of people (currently, she can handle full sense illusions for up to 5-6 people). Anything more, and she must start removing the senses that these illusions affect, lessening the likelihood that they'll be believed.
- MANIPULATION: Amanda is capable of manipulating matter and energy - her favourte in this case would be the manipulation of the elements, particularly water and earth, for defensive spells (shields, domes, and the like). She can channel fire, lightning, or even raw magical energy itself and project it as bolts from her hands, along her line of sight. As always, using these spells drain her energy and tire her out - and the bigger the effect, the more she will be drained, particularly if the Winding Way is not "Waxing".
Gallery
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