![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Background/History: Magic had always been the foundation of Pardosa's society. Though initially used to fulfill life's simple needs, development and evolution of that strength and increased feuds between different territories led to mounting tensions. War with such dangerous weapons was a risk all dreaded but none dared to voice, and such a horror was realized when all boundaries were pushed in what was called "The Ruin". On the wake of the great destruction that occurred once the war had ceased, the victors put forth several precautions to both ensure their citizens's safety and their victory through the absence of any other war. Thus, their proposal was this: the institution of a centralized "Magic Server" where all spells were locked away and could only be accessed through the forced suppression of any thoughts that could offend the careful structure they had put in place. The more you gave up, the more access to the server you were given. Thus, it was certain that the most powerful in society would only serve to preserve and protect it, as they had no other thoughts to think.
( Also, let me just say absolutely everything in this universe utilizes magic, and spells can be "patented" to restrict access of created spells to select individuals. So, Magicbucks™ the coffee chain has a special Frappucino spell that only their baristas can use. Yeah.
To put it simply, to access magic the most basic of what you'd have to give up would be something like your ambition. To access stronger magic, you'd have to give up more of the more positive emotions--things like happiness, etc. There are restrictions, but most every spell available is useable depending on individual skill and sacrifice. )
Pardosa was, at first, not part of that group. A descendant of one of the surviving lineages of the old, destroyed countries of The Ruin, Pardosa may have enjoyed a modest life of comfort were it not for being on the wrong side of the war. Abandoned by her mother and father on the streets of Reinh when the struggles of three became too much to bear, she held little skills and had no ability to sustain herself for any extended period of time. It was only through sheer luck that a noblewoman, Gwendolyn Eth, recognized her talent and her loyalty enough to adopt her into one of the founding families of the "Magic Server", bestowing Pardosa with the security and wealth needed to pursue her then discovered talents. Where Pardosa enjoyed an innate ability for magic, pulling spells out of the server with ease--Gwendolyn did not. As she grew, Pardosa's fear and lack of trust in herself plus endless gratitude towards Gwendolyn made it so that she sealed the majority of what may have worked against Gwendolyn's favor (due to her lack of power) away, much to the Lady's disapproval. She trained among the best and achieved higher levels of magic from her offering everything to the server, but her loyalty forcefully and ultimately begin and ends with Lady Eth and the House of Eth. What Pardosa had done would ensure she would never betray the family, but it also dampened her relationship with her most beloved adoptive "parent".
The breaking point for all of this would be an incident where Gwendolyn's life would be put on the line due to the actions of Peter, an unknown who had such high levels of synchronization with the server that he could access magic without any necessary sacrifice. To remove the server, he targeted the heads of the Founding Families--starting of course with the easiest target, the magic-less Gwen. Gwen was cursed with a spell that would rot her body from the inside out, but Pardosa was able to seal this magic by "pausing" the rot, though this consequently stopped Gwen's time. (This is also why Gwen has a missing eye and a skeleton arm. She hides this as best she can, but after time grows enough to simply proudly display the symbols of her immortality).
While most spells in the server were free to be accessed by those that gave up what they needed to, the spell that Pardosa used (that she had crafted, originally, and subsequently added to the server) was one that broke some of the rules underlying the use of magic. That is, one shall not: access magic outside of the server, access magic that one is not authorized to access, and crafted magic must be (1) added to the server, and (2) not have effects outside of the Founding Family's intents for society. Immortality, of course, was a Pretty Big Thing that the Council of the server did not want on anyone, least of all the Head of Eth who was already disliked for her inability to use magic.
(This is mostly due to the fact that Gwendolyn was wholly attached to every part of herself, and would not give up even her ambition to utilize the server.)
This act also served as the basis for what would later be Pardosa and Gwendolyn's inner feud. As the Council wholeheartedly disapproved of the use of a spell resulting in immortality, the Eth family were put on watch and Gwendolyn was removed from her spot on the council. Pardosa felt VERY VERY bad for this and worked incredibly hard to place the Eths back on some sort of prestigious pedestal, despite Gwendolyn stating that they were just looking for an excuse to kick her out anyway so who gives a fuck.
Still, Pardosa's "hard work" and incredible magical prowess resulted in her giving up basically everything to utilize her magic to its full potential, leaving her with her loyalty to Gwendolyn and Eth, and moulding her into a tool for the Council to use against Gwendolyn, should they need to. While Pardosa felt satisfied that she was doing enough to maintain Gwendolyn and Eth in a comfortable position in society, Gwendolyn felt increasingly disturbed and disappointed with both her misplaced position in time (Pardosa, who she adopted as a child, had now grown to be older than her), and the fact she could do nothing for the family, and was instead allowing one of her precious family members to rot away for her sake.
In the background of the Eth's family drama, society stirred with rumors of the "Arcane", a group who could access magic without the limitations imposed on the rest of the world, and who aimed to carefully pull apart the chains that bound society. At the lead of this group? ... Peter, of course. While Pardosa fully aimed to destroy this group from the inside out to avenge Gwendolyn and her family, Gwendolyn expressed an interest in the dealings of the Arcane, despite the curse Peter had placed on her. Pardosa, though she suspected Gwendolyn began dealing with the Arcane, was torn between her loyalty to Gwen and her duty towards her family and the Council.
Fortunately, she wouldn't have to make that choice! Gwendolyn, believing the server was a prison for both society and Pardosa (and in a way, jealous of her limitations imposed by that machine), deserted the Eth family to join the Arcane fully and completely! Pardosa, who feared the loss of security that the server's disappearance would cause, resolved to fight against Gwendolyn. It's funny, as Pardosa's limited experience with negative emotions causes her to fear confronting herself and her own ambitions, given her magical skill when compared to Gwendolyn. She feels, at her core, that people are wicked and she is no exception; her gratitude, no matter how large, will undoubtedly be overshadowed by her desire to take the family from Gwen, who does not have the same abilities she has.
(On the other hand, Gwendolyn doesn't Give a Fuck, and adopted Pardosa with the intention of making her the head anyway.)
So the rest of the story goes with Gwendolyn wielding a spell condensed into a sword, crafted by one of the Arcane wizard, Winona, who's very very good at hacking and extracting + crafting spells that can integrate themselves into the server despite security measures. Basically she makes a virus, morphs it into a sword form, and the Arcane are like "ok stab this into the servers and we'll fuck this place up".
(Winona doesn't consider this her crowning achievement. Her crowning achievement is hacking into the server, stealing the Magicbucks Frappucino spell, and making herself free Frappucinos without having to pay a bunch of crests for each.)
Pardosa fucks herself up to the extreme trying to stop Gwendolyn, completely pleading with the council that she'll handle the Arcane, just spare Lady Eth. Gwendolyn, who can no longer turn back because she's basically already fucked up Pardosa and the Eth so much that she has to topple the server to give them any chance at a good life... continues on with her shady adventure with a cool cape!! With the unstable Arcane people.
This entire story ends with Gwendolyn and Peter making it to the central server, and then Gwen impales herself and Peter with the sword while destroying the server!! good end, she doesn't want to live when she's immortal anyway and did some fucked up shit like killing the entire council and Others.
Gwen is also by no means a Good Person. She's basically forcing her ideal on the world.
Notes on the Arcane:
The leader is Peter. To get an idea of how odd he is, he likes to spend time crafting spells to make him forget things that he learned, just so he can have the joy of being a genius and inventing/learning them again. He also has not aged at all from the time Gwendolyn got cursed by him, because he used Pardosa's spell to make himself immortal too. He has an odd fascination with Peter Pan, and acts more like a child than the grown man he is, probably due to all those forget spells he likes to use on himself. Had a very good memory, but now tends to forget things pretty easily (he doesn't remember cursing Gwendolyn at all). Nicknames Gwendolyn as "Gwendy". All his skills are due to pure instinct rather than intelligence or experience, since he just FORGETS IT ALL, which frankly scares Gwendolyn.
There's Winona Lee, who as above is very good at pulling data from the server. She's incredibly adept at spells with a specially directed purpose, like extraction and destruction of a specific thing... but isn't very good at general offensive spells like fire, etc. This is a complete 180 from her personality. She's lazy, undirected, and prefers doing things without a clear plan in mind. #yolo is her catchphrase, frappucinos are her blood. As a result of her odd personality, she gets along very well with Peter, though deep inside she fears him as much as everyone else.
Kail Ameastar actually has these super grand ideals and is basically one of the few in the Arcane who is actually doing this to have a better world. Like, Peter's the kind of person who would have the organization sit in a circle when new people come in as an icebreaker (even though they're basically terrorists in the eyes of the government) and he'd ask "And why are you here?" just to make Kail answer with "TO FIX THE WORLD", and then Winona and him just start laughing uncontrollably.
This happens every time new people join. Gwendolyn finds his idealism charming.
Katerina Eltisna is an idealistic sort like Kail, but joins the Arcane with the intent of killing Peter in revenge for the killing of her husband, Uestro, who was the former Head of Listal. The family turned her away upon his death, as her position as one who could use magic without negative consequences from the server was a very suspicious thing. Basically, they blamed Katerina for Uestro's death, and thought she married into their family only to succeed as the head after his murder. Her plan was Murder Peter -> take over Arcane -> PROFIT!
Though she's good at magic, the distrust she's always faced as a result of being very open with her gift means she's very hesitant to use it, even with company who's similar to her. She's more like Gwendolyn in that her physical combat skills are really good, but her spells are rusty from lack of use. She is super good with guns, super bad with people, unlike Uestro who was pretty good with people.
Peter later makes Gwendolyn kill her to protect him, and also prove Gwen's resolve. Gwen does so, only because she's completely unable to achieve her own dream of a free world for Pardosa and her family without doing so.
Kail never forgives her. Katerina haunts her dreams.
Gwendolyn Eth, of course, who is the motherly type of woman with a lot more years of experiences than her young appearance would suggest. Although she's a very capable individual in her own way, there's a hidden inferiority complex due to her inability to give up small things like her ambition to achieve perceived greatness with magic. You can contrast this with her attitude at the end of the series, who gives up people's lives to better the world (in her opinion). Basically she starts off scared and then steels herself into an individual who can absolutely do what's necessary, and the her at this point would've, funnily enough, given herself up to the server if she'd integrated herself as the Head of Eth, without the goal of destroying the status quo. At the end of the verse she grows to be like the old Pardosa (and also dies, "killing" the old Pardosa), and Pardosa grows to be like the old Gwen, free.
All in all, however, she's a pleasant individual with a certain grace to her, though she has her own undertones of instability. She tends to dehumanize both herself and Peter, for their taboo immortality. She enjoys dancing, though later puts that away as her goals become more Serious.
blah blah blah
THE ETH FAMILY!! since they're important:
There's Trinket Eth, who is a girl who wants to be more open with her emotions, but is too shy to do so. Sooo she makes a ~magical hat~ that's kind of wispy at the end, and reflects the mood she has at the moment (if she's surprised, the smoke will shape into an exclamation mark, etc...). Of course, this also means she's absolutely incapable of hiding her feelings, but she doesn't seem to mind. Her not minding this, however, is because of the forced honesty imposed on her as a requirement for accessing her magic.
Elzarei, or Elza. One of the older members of Eth, she's Gwendolyn's younger cousin who, although she does not voice this, is pretty disturbed by the fact their Lady Eth does not change. She's one of the more free members of the House, as she gave up very little to the server to access her magic (she doesn't seem to mind the inferior skills she has a result). The majority of her magic is mostly used in materializing a wispy, fiery ferret, who she keeps at her neck at all times as company. She's a practical, down-to-earth individual, who completely lacks ambition to topple those above her, and hesitation to fulfill the needs of the whole. On an individual basis, outside of the influence of the server, she's a tad bit selfish.
( Also, let me just say absolutely everything in this universe utilizes magic, and spells can be "patented" to restrict access of created spells to select individuals. So, Magicbucks™ the coffee chain has a special Frappucino spell that only their baristas can use. Yeah.
To put it simply, to access magic the most basic of what you'd have to give up would be something like your ambition. To access stronger magic, you'd have to give up more of the more positive emotions--things like happiness, etc. There are restrictions, but most every spell available is useable depending on individual skill and sacrifice. )
Pardosa was, at first, not part of that group. A descendant of one of the surviving lineages of the old, destroyed countries of The Ruin, Pardosa may have enjoyed a modest life of comfort were it not for being on the wrong side of the war. Abandoned by her mother and father on the streets of Reinh when the struggles of three became too much to bear, she held little skills and had no ability to sustain herself for any extended period of time. It was only through sheer luck that a noblewoman, Gwendolyn Eth, recognized her talent and her loyalty enough to adopt her into one of the founding families of the "Magic Server", bestowing Pardosa with the security and wealth needed to pursue her then discovered talents. Where Pardosa enjoyed an innate ability for magic, pulling spells out of the server with ease--Gwendolyn did not. As she grew, Pardosa's fear and lack of trust in herself plus endless gratitude towards Gwendolyn made it so that she sealed the majority of what may have worked against Gwendolyn's favor (due to her lack of power) away, much to the Lady's disapproval. She trained among the best and achieved higher levels of magic from her offering everything to the server, but her loyalty forcefully and ultimately begin and ends with Lady Eth and the House of Eth. What Pardosa had done would ensure she would never betray the family, but it also dampened her relationship with her most beloved adoptive "parent".
The breaking point for all of this would be an incident where Gwendolyn's life would be put on the line due to the actions of Peter, an unknown who had such high levels of synchronization with the server that he could access magic without any necessary sacrifice. To remove the server, he targeted the heads of the Founding Families--starting of course with the easiest target, the magic-less Gwen. Gwen was cursed with a spell that would rot her body from the inside out, but Pardosa was able to seal this magic by "pausing" the rot, though this consequently stopped Gwen's time. (This is also why Gwen has a missing eye and a skeleton arm. She hides this as best she can, but after time grows enough to simply proudly display the symbols of her immortality).
While most spells in the server were free to be accessed by those that gave up what they needed to, the spell that Pardosa used (that she had crafted, originally, and subsequently added to the server) was one that broke some of the rules underlying the use of magic. That is, one shall not: access magic outside of the server, access magic that one is not authorized to access, and crafted magic must be (1) added to the server, and (2) not have effects outside of the Founding Family's intents for society. Immortality, of course, was a Pretty Big Thing that the Council of the server did not want on anyone, least of all the Head of Eth who was already disliked for her inability to use magic.
(This is mostly due to the fact that Gwendolyn was wholly attached to every part of herself, and would not give up even her ambition to utilize the server.)
This act also served as the basis for what would later be Pardosa and Gwendolyn's inner feud. As the Council wholeheartedly disapproved of the use of a spell resulting in immortality, the Eth family were put on watch and Gwendolyn was removed from her spot on the council. Pardosa felt VERY VERY bad for this and worked incredibly hard to place the Eths back on some sort of prestigious pedestal, despite Gwendolyn stating that they were just looking for an excuse to kick her out anyway so who gives a fuck.
Still, Pardosa's "hard work" and incredible magical prowess resulted in her giving up basically everything to utilize her magic to its full potential, leaving her with her loyalty to Gwendolyn and Eth, and moulding her into a tool for the Council to use against Gwendolyn, should they need to. While Pardosa felt satisfied that she was doing enough to maintain Gwendolyn and Eth in a comfortable position in society, Gwendolyn felt increasingly disturbed and disappointed with both her misplaced position in time (Pardosa, who she adopted as a child, had now grown to be older than her), and the fact she could do nothing for the family, and was instead allowing one of her precious family members to rot away for her sake.
In the background of the Eth's family drama, society stirred with rumors of the "Arcane", a group who could access magic without the limitations imposed on the rest of the world, and who aimed to carefully pull apart the chains that bound society. At the lead of this group? ... Peter, of course. While Pardosa fully aimed to destroy this group from the inside out to avenge Gwendolyn and her family, Gwendolyn expressed an interest in the dealings of the Arcane, despite the curse Peter had placed on her. Pardosa, though she suspected Gwendolyn began dealing with the Arcane, was torn between her loyalty to Gwen and her duty towards her family and the Council.
Fortunately, she wouldn't have to make that choice! Gwendolyn, believing the server was a prison for both society and Pardosa (and in a way, jealous of her limitations imposed by that machine), deserted the Eth family to join the Arcane fully and completely! Pardosa, who feared the loss of security that the server's disappearance would cause, resolved to fight against Gwendolyn. It's funny, as Pardosa's limited experience with negative emotions causes her to fear confronting herself and her own ambitions, given her magical skill when compared to Gwendolyn. She feels, at her core, that people are wicked and she is no exception; her gratitude, no matter how large, will undoubtedly be overshadowed by her desire to take the family from Gwen, who does not have the same abilities she has.
(On the other hand, Gwendolyn doesn't Give a Fuck, and adopted Pardosa with the intention of making her the head anyway.)
So the rest of the story goes with Gwendolyn wielding a spell condensed into a sword, crafted by one of the Arcane wizard, Winona, who's very very good at hacking and extracting + crafting spells that can integrate themselves into the server despite security measures. Basically she makes a virus, morphs it into a sword form, and the Arcane are like "ok stab this into the servers and we'll fuck this place up".
(Winona doesn't consider this her crowning achievement. Her crowning achievement is hacking into the server, stealing the Magicbucks Frappucino spell, and making herself free Frappucinos without having to pay a bunch of crests for each.)
Pardosa fucks herself up to the extreme trying to stop Gwendolyn, completely pleading with the council that she'll handle the Arcane, just spare Lady Eth. Gwendolyn, who can no longer turn back because she's basically already fucked up Pardosa and the Eth so much that she has to topple the server to give them any chance at a good life... continues on with her shady adventure with a cool cape!! With the unstable Arcane people.
This entire story ends with Gwendolyn and Peter making it to the central server, and then Gwen impales herself and Peter with the sword while destroying the server!! good end, she doesn't want to live when she's immortal anyway and did some fucked up shit like killing the entire council and Others.
Gwen is also by no means a Good Person. She's basically forcing her ideal on the world.
Notes on the Arcane:
The leader is Peter. To get an idea of how odd he is, he likes to spend time crafting spells to make him forget things that he learned, just so he can have the joy of being a genius and inventing/learning them again. He also has not aged at all from the time Gwendolyn got cursed by him, because he used Pardosa's spell to make himself immortal too. He has an odd fascination with Peter Pan, and acts more like a child than the grown man he is, probably due to all those forget spells he likes to use on himself. Had a very good memory, but now tends to forget things pretty easily (he doesn't remember cursing Gwendolyn at all). Nicknames Gwendolyn as "Gwendy". All his skills are due to pure instinct rather than intelligence or experience, since he just FORGETS IT ALL, which frankly scares Gwendolyn.
There's Winona Lee, who as above is very good at pulling data from the server. She's incredibly adept at spells with a specially directed purpose, like extraction and destruction of a specific thing... but isn't very good at general offensive spells like fire, etc. This is a complete 180 from her personality. She's lazy, undirected, and prefers doing things without a clear plan in mind. #yolo is her catchphrase, frappucinos are her blood. As a result of her odd personality, she gets along very well with Peter, though deep inside she fears him as much as everyone else.
Kail Ameastar actually has these super grand ideals and is basically one of the few in the Arcane who is actually doing this to have a better world. Like, Peter's the kind of person who would have the organization sit in a circle when new people come in as an icebreaker (even though they're basically terrorists in the eyes of the government) and he'd ask "And why are you here?" just to make Kail answer with "TO FIX THE WORLD", and then Winona and him just start laughing uncontrollably.
This happens every time new people join. Gwendolyn finds his idealism charming.
Katerina Eltisna is an idealistic sort like Kail, but joins the Arcane with the intent of killing Peter in revenge for the killing of her husband, Uestro, who was the former Head of Listal. The family turned her away upon his death, as her position as one who could use magic without negative consequences from the server was a very suspicious thing. Basically, they blamed Katerina for Uestro's death, and thought she married into their family only to succeed as the head after his murder. Her plan was Murder Peter -> take over Arcane -> PROFIT!
Though she's good at magic, the distrust she's always faced as a result of being very open with her gift means she's very hesitant to use it, even with company who's similar to her. She's more like Gwendolyn in that her physical combat skills are really good, but her spells are rusty from lack of use. She is super good with guns, super bad with people, unlike Uestro who was pretty good with people.
Peter later makes Gwendolyn kill her to protect him, and also prove Gwen's resolve. Gwen does so, only because she's completely unable to achieve her own dream of a free world for Pardosa and her family without doing so.
Kail never forgives her. Katerina haunts her dreams.
Gwendolyn Eth, of course, who is the motherly type of woman with a lot more years of experiences than her young appearance would suggest. Although she's a very capable individual in her own way, there's a hidden inferiority complex due to her inability to give up small things like her ambition to achieve perceived greatness with magic. You can contrast this with her attitude at the end of the series, who gives up people's lives to better the world (in her opinion). Basically she starts off scared and then steels herself into an individual who can absolutely do what's necessary, and the her at this point would've, funnily enough, given herself up to the server if she'd integrated herself as the Head of Eth, without the goal of destroying the status quo. At the end of the verse she grows to be like the old Pardosa (and also dies, "killing" the old Pardosa), and Pardosa grows to be like the old Gwen, free.
All in all, however, she's a pleasant individual with a certain grace to her, though she has her own undertones of instability. She tends to dehumanize both herself and Peter, for their taboo immortality. She enjoys dancing, though later puts that away as her goals become more Serious.
blah blah blah
THE ETH FAMILY!! since they're important:
There's Trinket Eth, who is a girl who wants to be more open with her emotions, but is too shy to do so. Sooo she makes a ~magical hat~ that's kind of wispy at the end, and reflects the mood she has at the moment (if she's surprised, the smoke will shape into an exclamation mark, etc...). Of course, this also means she's absolutely incapable of hiding her feelings, but she doesn't seem to mind. Her not minding this, however, is because of the forced honesty imposed on her as a requirement for accessing her magic.
Elzarei, or Elza. One of the older members of Eth, she's Gwendolyn's younger cousin who, although she does not voice this, is pretty disturbed by the fact their Lady Eth does not change. She's one of the more free members of the House, as she gave up very little to the server to access her magic (she doesn't seem to mind the inferior skills she has a result). The majority of her magic is mostly used in materializing a wispy, fiery ferret, who she keeps at her neck at all times as company. She's a practical, down-to-earth individual, who completely lacks ambition to topple those above her, and hesitation to fulfill the needs of the whole. On an individual basis, outside of the influence of the server, she's a tad bit selfish.
