Auspicious Viper
| |
| Demons for the people | |
| Auspicious Viper | |
| Player: @Corlagon | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Threat Level: | 8 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Oyyphu Setar |
| Known Aliases: | Maria Davis (civilian name in Praetoria) |
| Species: | Human/demon |
| Age: | late teens |
| Height: | Confidential |
| Weight: | Confidential |
| Eye Color: | Confidential |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Society of the Hare Praetoria (naturalized) |
| Occupation: | PPD: Powers Division, witch |
| Place of Birth: | near Hare's Hedge |
| Base of Operations: | Nova Praetoria, Praetoria City |
| Marital Status: | Confidential |
| Known Relatives: | Unfettered Serpent (possible mother) |
| Known Powers | |
| Demon summoning, magic flight | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Creation of special potions | |
| Equipment | |
| Magic whip | |
| No additional information available. | |
Auspicious Viper is a Praetorian Mastermind on Reunion, currently a
Loyalist. Her Power Sets are Demon Summoning and Poison.
She originally existed on Union.
She is a young witch and demonologist. Having grown up in the wastelands in the Society of the Hare, her mistress was pulled into Hell, whereupon Viper was banished from her tribe. She subsequently became a loyal defender of Praetoria.
Character History
Origin
The Society of the Hare originated in England as a community of witches, who eventually delved into demonology. Not being accepted by their neighbours, the group migrated to Kansas in the 19th century, founding a town known as Hare's Hedge. The witches also encountered fugitive natives who shared significant cultural traits of theirs. To ensure their survival, the two groups merged.
At some point the Society also formed a permanent alliance with a hellish realm. By the middle of the 20th century, demon servants had become commonplace. This alliance presumably allowed the Hares to protect themselves from the Devouring Earth, even though Hare's Hedge was mostly destroyed. Eventually, half-demons began to be born; these were accepted as humans by the Society, although still remaining a relatively rare occurence.
Auspicious Viper (actually Oyyphu Setar in her tribe's language) was born on 1993-07-24, sporting a tail but otherwise appearing human. She was not told the identity of her parents, being raised and trained by a witch called Unfettered Serpent who may or may not have been her mother but insisted on a strict mistress/apprentice relationship.
While not completely unaware of mainstream American culture, Viper grew up believing that tailed humans were nothing special, and that evil, being the philosophy of the demons she worked with, was a perfectly acceptable lifestyle, even though she did not consider herself to follow it.
Witch Apprentice
One of the things Unfettered Serpent considered most important for Auspicious Viper to learn was loyalty: The Society would not have survived all these centuries without solidarity, a lack of it would lead to solitariness and ultimately doom. As far as practical things were concerned, Viper's training focused on the demons; as for classical witchcraft, her personal specialty turned out to be the creation of potent potions. Serpent intended to be very strict but not harsh, especially as mistreating her apprentice could have interfered with her sense of loyalty.
Serpent and Viper frequently met with another witch, Diamond Dawn, and her apprentice Victorious Cloud, a boy the same age as Viper. During their childhood it was repeatedly said that the two would marry as adults; in hindsight, Viper would be unable to tell whether their mistresses had been joking or serious about it. As teenagers, Viper and Cloud might very well have entered a romantic relationship but did not as everyone agreed that completing their training had the highest priority; they actually grew less close because of this.
Graduation Ritual Gone Wrong
In September 2010, the mistresses had decided that their now 17-year-old apprentices' training was complete. They intended to name their trainees full witches in a ceremony that both duos would hold in private, albeit on the same day. As far as Auspicious Viper understood, Unfettered Serpent would perform a ritual that would unlock her true power, now that she was ready for it. However, what instead happened was that demons dragged Serpent into Hell. Viper realized that her mistress was in danger but found herself unable to help her, in fact, she was barely able to escape herself.
The almost-witch hurried to tell Diamond Dawn and Victorious Cloud, but they were nowhere to be found. Intending to ask the elders for help, she found most of the Society already assembled, accusing her of treason. Instead of being named a proper witch, Viper suddenly found herself being banished from the Society, unable to comprehend why. She tried to defend herself by stating she had just not been powerful enough to save her mistress, but the elders did not listen, pointing out that traitors were normally given to the demons.
Despite having been expelled, Viper continued to be able to summon her demonic servants as if nothing had happened. However, the demons refused or were unable to talk about the incident.
With nobody else to turn to, Auspicious Viper set out for other towns she was aware of, but found little more than ruins, courtesy of the Devouring Earth. Finally, in mid-October she reached Wichita where she encountered a Praetorian scout, who took her to Praetoria City.
Joining the Pack
Hoping to somehow find help to rescue her mistress, Auspicious Viper entered Praetoria City and was impressed – not just by the city itself, but also by its government's commitment to help the people.
She did not need to search the city – girls dressed like a witch did not attract too much attention near Halloween, but her tail and especially her infernal companions did. She was surprised to learn that tailed humans were extremely uncommon and that evilness was considered bad, but she was usually able to keep the demons under control.
Viper was told she was welcome to become a citizen, but the law required her to serve with her powers and join the police. This was completely acceptable to her – it even made her proud, and she realized nobody would help her anyway until she had earned their trust and made a name for herself.
When being registrated as a citizen, she stated her name to be Auspicious Viper, without mentioning it to be a translation from her native language. The clerk, apparently mistaking it for a pseudonym, deemed it unacceptable and eventually gave her the civilian name Maria Davis. She did not think much about it at the time, after all, her people used to give the demons Hare-style names, too.
The Society of the Hare did pique the Praetorians' interest, as they had been unaware of their continued existence, but Viper, never having been more than an apprentice, did not have any practical information they considered useful.
Auspicious Viper then began serving as a loyal member of Powers Division. Despite her goal to somehow acquire enough power to be able to rescue her mistress, she did not abuse her position as much as some of her colleagues did, feeling she had to be loyal to her new people as well. Occasionally, members of The Resistance tried to convince her to join their cause, but Viper would declare that Praetoria had only "minor flaws" that by no means justified treason. Still, she inadvertently found herself working with Wardens, thereby gaining new opportunities to investigate both those flaws and the enemy.
Near Halloween 2011, Auspicious Viper apparently miscast a spell, giving her body additional demonic features. She was able to reverse this, but left somewhat confused.
Personality
Auspicious Viper has a strong sense of loyalty to her people, originally the Society of the Hare but now Praetoria as well. It might be noteworthy that this loyalty lies with the nation, and only by extension with the government. She has come to accept that some members of the Resistance have good intentions, but still accuses them of being mostly harmful to the people. As her graduation ritual had obviously failed, she still considers herself a witch in training.
Her attitude towards strangers and foreigners is pretty much neutral.
Motivation
Viper primarily maintains law and order in Praetoria City in return for her citizenship (in fact, she is required by law to do so), but she also hopes to improve her skills and prove herself trustworthy. Her ultimate goal is to find a way – possibly by becoming powerful enough herself – to finally rescue Unfettered Serpent and officially finish her apprenticeship.