etheldrea
THE FIRST WITCH
Level: 14 Category: Special (Natura 20 Special)
Life Points: 165
Class: Wizard
Str: 6 Dex: 10 Agi: 8 Con: 7 Pow: 13(14) Int: 16 Wil: 10 Per: 10
PhR 100 MR 130 PsR 110 VR 100 DR 100
Initiative: 135 Natural
AT: None
MA: 165 / 180 Etheldrea’s Parasol
Zeon: 1.925
Magic Projection: 300 / 315 Etheldrea’s Parasol
Magic Level: 400 (Special)
Summoner of Memories
MA: 165 / 180 Etheldrea’s Parasol
Zeon: 2.025
Summon: 300
Ki Accumulations: Str 1 Dex 2 Agi 1 Con 1 Pow 3 Wil 2
Ki: Str 6 Dex 10 Agi 8 Con 7 Pow 16 Wil 10 Generic: 57
Ki Abilities: Use of Ki, Ki Control, Use of Necessary Energy,
Characteristic Augmentation.
Advantages and Disadvantages: The Gift, Natural Learner in
a Field (Intellectual) (2), Exhausted.
Size: 13 Medium Regeneration: 1
Movement Type: 8 Fatigue: 6
Secondary Abilities: Ride 45, Swim 15, Composure 45,
Wth. Pain 70, Notice 120, Search 70, Track 20, Animals 145,
Science 175, Herbal Lore 145, History 195, Medicine 165, Memorize
175, Navigation 175, Occult 380, Appraisal 190, Magic Appraisal
385, Style 120, Intimidate 120, Leadership 135, Persuasion 130,
Disguise 100, Hide 50, Stealth 35, Poisons 75, Art 80, Dance 75,
Forging 75, Music 30, Sleight of Hand 65.
The entity called Etheldrea, one of the twenty-one Messengers
who according to the prophecy of the seer Grimoire will bring about
the end of the world, is also one of the oldest known creatures,
predating even many gods and demons. While it is plausible to
conjecture that entelechies such as the First Chaos or Void may be
older than her, the sorceress' appearance in history dates from periods
far earlier than those of any creature that is not an Aeon. Well-versed
occultists trace her origins to the time of Megas Therion, and it is
theorised that she was most likely the original Meister of the city. Be
that as it may, she is generally acknowledged as the first mortal to
truly master the use of magic, earning her the nickname "the First
Witch".
Although her writings date back more than five thousand years,
Etheldrea first came to prominence in Gaïa's history as one of the
founding members of Yehudah. During the period when the
supernatural empire reigned in the south of the Old Continent, the
First Witch was part of the high circle of archmages that ruled the
country, being in charge of the division of arcane research. During that
time she conducted countless monstrous experiments to unravel new
supernatural secrets and find the true roots of magic.
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It is impossible to know exactly how many victims suffered at her
hands in those days, but her name became synonymous with pain and
death. Over the centuries, however, something changed in the
immortal sorceress. Gradually she grew weary of her research and the
sacrifices it entailed, until one day she simply released all the test
subjects in her care and disappeared. Since then her attitude changed
and she has only reappeared at very rare moments in history, always in
different places and for not too long periods of time. Oddly enough,
each time she has done so, her actions have been unpredictable,
attributable only to the tedium of her immortality; she could go from
engaging in new supernatural research to devoting all of her interest in
making a simple farm flourish to become the best in the region.
Today, the First Witch is involved in what she herself considers "a
huge mess". Decades ago she gave her word to Elisabeth Eliot, a mortal
with whom she lived for some time, promising her that she would come
to her aid in a time of need. What she could never have imagined was
that several years later Elisabeth would ask her on her deathbed to
take her place as a member of the Spherian Congress and help her
raise up the country she loved so much. For the first time in a
millennium a shiver ran down the immortal sorceress' spine. If she was
to keep her word, she was obliged to go headlong into something she
detested but was extremely good at - politics.
Although annoyed by the request, she adopted the name and
identity of Reah Eliot, daughter of the late Elisabeth, and soon took
her position as President of Congress. Applying the knowledge,
intelligence and wisdom that only her immortal life could give her, in
just three years she managed to make the country prosper enormously,
while protecting it from any threat. Nothing in Etheldrea's appearance
gives any hint of her supernatural nature or age. She has the
appearance of a pale, red-haired teenager who likes to dress in ornate
gothic clothes of black or dark blue colour, as if she was a life-size
porcelain doll. Although it doesn't harm her directly, she finds sunlight
particularly annoying, so she always carries a small umbrella with her
and plays with it all the time. Under the identity of Reah, she has not
changed at all, but to avoid unnecessary problems with the Church and
to hide her identity, she dyes her hair white.
Etheldrea behaves in the haughty manner of an immortal entity
endowed with superior power. She always seems to be absent, paying
more attention to the little things around her than to the people
themselves. However, her demeanour changes dramatically when she
becomes attached to someone or takes someone into her confidence;
from then on, she behaves like a capricious young girl who longs to
have fun in the company of others.
Although she likes to appear as a dark and lacking in morality
entity in the public eye, she does so only because it is the easiest
way to get strangers to leave her alone, something she prefers
most of the time. She is disgusted by the monstrosities she has
done over the long millennia of investigating the roots of magic,
but she does not seek redemption or to balance the scales. For
that reason, she has no qualms about killing or acting cruelly
should the situation call for it, though she tries to avoid it
whenever possible.
Although she knows countless entities, given her reserved
nature there are very few she truly appreciates; her very exclusive
list of friends includes several mortals (most of them ordinary
people), a few entities of high power and the Messenger Ambrosia,
whom she is trying to steer away from the tortuous path she is
following along with Svalkislavos and Glaudio (whom Etheldrea
cannot personally stand). Throughout her life she has also had
numerous romantic partners among all sorts of people or entities,
from simple peasants to quasi-divine entelechies, all of whom she
ended up leaving without exception. A little less than a decade ago
she began a romantic relationship with the Messenger known
simply as The Nameless One, but it ended badly. Although
Etheldrea still loves him (and presumably he loves her), she claims
that the next time they meet, things will not end well for neither
of them.
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 As Reah, she is much more approachable, although she still keeps
her distance from anything that is not directly related to her position
as a congresswoman. Naturally, she finds having so much political
responsibility on her shoulders a real headache, but she has no choice
if she wants to keep her word with Elisabeth, whom she really liked.
Ironically, she herself is not too convinced that legal authorisation of
supernatural forces is the right thing to do at the moment given the
current circumstances in the world, but since it was her friend's
dream, she is trying to make it happen.
For now she plans to stay in Spheria for a few more years and
ensure the stability of the country before she disappears as she has
always done, so now she is trying to hurry as fast as she can to make
things right before she can be discovered.
MODUS OPERANDI
The First Witch possesses powers high enough
to be considered one of Gaïa's great supernatural
forces, presumably both because of her absolute
mastery of magic and because of the countless
experiments and rituals she has performed on
herself to transcend any earthly limits. In
addition to knowing every mystical spell and
ritual in existence, she possesses other, far more
unique qualities, such as the ability to open
portals to other planes of existence at will.
In combat, she is a terrifying force, both
because of her war experience after thousands of
years of living, and because of the countless
creatures who, under a variety of pacts, would
come to her call if she needed them. Her
experience, power and intelligence mean that
she is always prepared for virtually any
eventuality; if she fights, she has a plan within
every plan, and a contingency measure hidden
within every contingency measure.
As such, she has appeared to die dozens of
times over the centuries, only to survive thanks
to some supernatural loophole in the laws of
creation.
Despite her power, she has no qualms about
escaping from combat if she considers herself
outmatched. From her almost eternal point of
view, she does not even conceptualise herself as
"losing" or "running away": she simply "repositions
herself" to continue the confrontation years
later.
UNIQUE IN HERSELF
Etheldrea has always tried to walk a fine line between
a natural creature and a being between worlds. She has
experimented so much with her body using all kinds of
supernatural processes that it is difficult to consider her
human (or even a mortal being), but at the same time she
has taken absolute care not to chimerise or stray too far
from a natural essence. In a way it could be said that the
modifications she has made to herself have made her into
something unique, a hybrid mystical race with mixed
characteristics between Sylvain, Duk'zarist and dozens of
other races (a truly absurd mixture). Naturally it has been a
terribly long and tedious process, but she had thousands
and thousands of years to perfect it.
This special nature has given her many unique abilities,
which are reflected in her sheet or described below.
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LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE
Even someone like Etheldrea, who possesses near-absolute
magical sapience, is unable to keep all of her mystical knowledge
in her head and remain a natural being.
To compensate for this inadequacy and not to forget her
magic, millennia ago the First Witch developed a unique
supernatural system that allowed her to fragment her knowledge.
In this way, she was able to lighten her consciousness of the
"weight" represented by such a large number of spells and rituals.
To this end, she created "memory crystals" that allowed her to have
only a part of her magical knowledge active at any given moment.
These "crystals" are not physical objects per se, but intangible
materializations of supernatural existence in which she mixes ideas,
memories and a tiny fragment of her essence. Etheldrea extracted
them from her "self" in the flow of souls, a unique and extremely
dangerous process that, to date, only she has attempted (and
succeeded).
Etheldrea has her crystals sealed in a small pocket dimension
created by her (with some help from Tawil At-U'mr) solely for this
purpose.
For game purposes, Etheldrea knows every Path,
free access spell and Subpath in the system, but
only has the equivalent of 400 levels of magic
active, generally spread across 5 Paths at level 80.
Etheldrea possesses sixteen Memory Crystals,
each of which possesses a different combination of
Paths.
To "reshuffle" her knowledge, she simply changes
the crystal in her head, which grants her a new
combination of spells as explained above. The
process takes three rounds and is considered an
active action. If she is interrupted, the process is
cancelled and Etheldrea keeps the crystal she
already had in her head.
Visually, the process is perceived by entities
with a very high extrasensory perception as
Etheldrea opening a spiral hole in her head,
inserting a crystal through one of its sides
while another comes out from the other end
and disappears (she is thus prepared so that
under no circumstances can she be left
without one crystal inside of her).
SUMMONER
In addition to her knowledge of magic, Etheldrea used
memory crystals to seal her knowledge of summoning in
the same way she did with her spells. As such, the First
Witch can use a memory crystal she calls a "crystal of the
call" to activate her summoning abilities. When she does
so, she replaces her magical abilities with those in the
section labelled "Summoner of Memories" on her sheet,
but she loses her spell knowledge in exchange, and can
only use the equivalent of 60 levels of free access spell
magic.
PORTALS
Regardless of what combination of magical knowledge she
possesses, the First Witch always maintains the ability to create
supernatural portals that allow her to teleport virtually anywhere,
including other planes of existence.
This ability is a unique power that blends traditional magical
knowledge with an invocation of Tawil At-U'mr, with whom
Etheldrea has a pact (and a great personal relationship). For
gameplay purposes, it works in a similar way to the Free Access
spell Portal, although it costs only 200 Zeon points and does not
remain active for more than a few rounds.

THE SECRET ORIGIN OF ALL MAGIC
Above all her mystical abilities, beyond all her secrets, Etheldrea
possesses a glimpse of the absolute and primal knowledge of the true origin
of the supernatural; an innate link to that strange force called magic that
was born in Gaïa after the Doom of Oblivion. She herself does not even
remember (nor does she want to) what that secret is, but if she is
desperate enough, she can turn to it.
If she finds herself in a truly despairing
situation, Etheldrea is able to use that principle
to consider herself linked to a Node of Magic
controlled by her, regardless of whether she is
physically in one or not.
Additionally, when she uses this ability she
ignores the rules of Memory Crystals, being able
to use all of her spells regardless of the
combination she is using.
Despite the power this bestows on her,
Etheldrea hates with all her being to make use of
this ability, and even if her life was in danger, it
is highly doubtful that she would activate it
unless there were reasons “even more important
than not dying” to do so.
ETHELDREA AND THE NAMELESS
Etheldrea has had countless lovers and partners over the
millennia, but none has mattered to her as much as the one who would
eventually become the Messenger known as The Nameless One. The
First Witch not only had a romantic relationship with him when he was
still a mere mortal, but out of love she was directly involved in the
events that would turn him into the dark entity he is today. In order to
save his life, in an instant of desperation the First Witch used all of her
power and influence to turn him away from the natural order, forcing
him to become an eternal avatar of Death.
Unable to face what she had done to him, Etheldrea escaped from
him and spent centuries trying to avoid him at all costs. Sometimes, as
was probably inescapable for two immortal beings like them, their
paths almost crossed, and on several occasions they came very close to
each other; as in the battle of Khemi during the Third Shadow War (the
two were separated by less than twenty metres), or in the Lightless
Halls, where they walked on opposite sides of the same broken bridge.
And finally, just a decade ago, the two ended up meeting by mere
coincidence in an ancient station.
Etheldrea froze. For the first time in a long time, she didn't know
how to react.
But the Nameless One did not remember her. The Immortal had
walked the world for so long that he had forgotten his older lives.
After an eternity of avoiding him, Etheldrea laughed at the irony.
The First Witch saw it as an opportunity to make amends, to try to
have a second life with the man she still loved. They were together for
over a year, and both found in each other something very close to
happiness.
When the Nameless One finally remembered her, the situation
between them escalated into a violent conflict that eventually drove
them apart. Before leaving, the Messenger swore he would kill her, not
only because of what she had done to him, but because she was the
worst of monsters.
Etheldrea knows (or fears) that the next time they meet they will
be enemies, that there is a chance they will end up trying to kill each
other. So she will continue to avoid him until that happens. After all,
she's had a lot of practice doing it.
ARTEFACTS
Needless to say, over the course of her existence, the First Witch has
amassed a formidable collection of artefacts of all kinds. As such, it is easy
to assume that she has access to a diverse list of mystical items that she
knows how to use to her advantage. She generally varies which ones she
carries on her person on a weekly basis, which allows her to be
unpredictable.
The one exception to this rule is her magical staff, an artefact with
powers equivalent to the original Magus staff, the Staff of Pertho, which is
currently in the form of an elaborate gothic parasol. It is by far her
favourite, and it is rare to see her anywhere without it. The +1 bonus to
Power conferred by this artefact has not been reflected in her attributes.
CURIOUS NOTES
-There is probably no character on Gaïa about whom a greater number of
anecdotes and curiosities can be written than about Etheldrea.
-Etheldrea is fully aware of the existence of Imperium and the Powers in
the Shadow. Their paths have crossed on hundreds of occasions, though
she has always avoided the slightest problem with them, and they in turn
have learned to ignore her. The truth is that the First Witch has curried
numerous favours with Shajads and Beryls (Jedah, Meseguis, Erebus,
Gabriel and Uriel, to be exact) so that they would include her in their
"protection" from the three organisations as long as she did not interfere
in their affairs.
-Even now, so many years later, Etheldrea has several favours to repay
for what she triggered by creating the Nameless One.
-For a long time, in the distant past, the Duk'zarist said of her that she
was the daughter of Erebus and treated her as such. She took advantage
of the position this gave her as much as she could, until the Shajad
himself openly reproached her for taking advantage of this lie.
-She doesn't drink alcohol. She was an alcoholic for many decades and
doesn't feel like relapsing.
-For a time Deymos was a student of hers, which is why the Messenger
still calls her "Teacher" with the utmost respect.
-Her current style of dress is a phase that has lasted for centuries.
-She has a strange relationship with Millenium; they treat each other
with the utmost trust, though they tend to argue after spending time
together. On one occasion, someone asked the First Witch about
Millennium and she replied, "Which one? I've met them all”.
-For decades she looked after the Dark Princess Demiurgos (Demi to her
friends), popularising the traditional image of witches having black cats.
-Etheldrea lost one of her Memory Crystals centuries ago under rather
obscure circumstances. She has searched extensively for it and, to date,
has had no luck in her quest. The truth is, she doesn't like the idea of it
being around, for although she doesn't think anyone can use it, she hates
to think of the possibility of what might happen.
-Eljared invited her to join the New Conclave, but Etheldrea declined the
offer, barely keeping her composure (she actually panicked at the sight
of Nemesis, almost vomited, and mumbled nonsense).
-Despite being one of the founding members of the Empire of Yehudah,
the current Order of Yehudah considers her a traitor. Secretly, the
organisation's leaders are eager to capture her, believing that only she
can give them access to the sealed rooms of Yehudah's former
laboratories where the First Witch conducted her experiments.
-She is currently negotiating with the Order of Magus to give them official
protection in Spheria and allow them to set up magical academies. At the
moment, there is little mutual trust.
-If her political plans go ahead as planned, in a few months she will start
acting against the Inquisition in a covert manner.
-She has a habit of fiddling with her hair when she talks to someone. It's
a kind of tic that she can't control.
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