Ice-Heart
Ice-Heart is an old witch who exactly fails at looking her age. She was previously a villain but has since turned to more heroic efforts within the past few decades. She is the self-proclaimed "Witch of the North Winds" and "Herald of Boreas".
Out of Game Origins: Ice-heart started as a background NPC in a savage worlds supers pen and paper game I played in that had a lot of collaberative world-building. She kind of took a life of her own in the scant scenes she was present. It was enough for me to take her and make a Champions Online character out of her. She was a late beta creation for me, but I enjoyed the ice/mysticism playstyle enough that she was one of the first things I recreated in Live and one of my first fourties. I rekeyed her background to take advantage of the rich lore in the Champions Universe naturally.
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Contents
Appearance and Traits
Ice-Heart is a tall slender woman. When in her "business attire" she wears high heels and a blue dress festooned with arcane symbols that is cut low enough to show cleavage. Such attire includes white wolf fur shoulder pads and a blue cape with white markings. Until recently she favored high collars to help produce a more imposing image combined with the heels that gave her more height. As of late she has kept the collar down and a pointy hat remeniscient of the classic witch look. Her complexion is strikingly pale
As she channels more power her eyes tend to take on a bluish glow, she maintains that glow when she's "on business" in order to make for a more imposing figure. When she really lets loose with her icey sorcery she tends to get coated with a think flexible crush of rime that fades once she's done fighting.
Those of a talent for seeing auras or assencing power may notice that the power she draws for her magic tends to be skewed to an icy sort of raw power instead of raw arcane power. Unless she works hard to cover it her spells tend to leave people feeling a little cold, even if that wasn't their the spell's intent.
Personality
Lenora if anything is analytical and methodical. She's lived a rather long life and as a result she tends to consider the big picture more often. That said, she has on occasion mis-interpreted omens and such and assumed a worst case scenario on more the one event. Her speech tends to be a tad over-exacting, she uses larger words then most. She also dislikes seeing particularly young naive souls thrusting themselves into harms way and while she does not directly oppose such heroes. This does however lead her to come off as overly harsh to such souls in terms of judging their ability, dorpping hints that they, perhaps, should leave the fighting to seasoned warriors. Those who show true talent in magical ways however can find more instruction then they care to receive from a witch who prefers they learn to do it proper. She can be quite locquacious on matters of knowledge and lore, particularly arcane lore. She has gathered a fair amount of information in her life and loves to share it, whether it was requested or not. Despite the fact they rarely get the grammar right, people attempting to act and speak in "ye olde" Early Modern English style tend to amuse the old witch.
Despite her old age she attempts to at least be passingly proficient with the modern world. Particularly complicated technology might elude her until she's has had time to actually read the manual at which point she will absorb the information readily. She has taken up the use of a personal computer, but her VCR still flashes 12:00. Her dialect usually does not betray her old age, it tends to be precise and peppered with exuberantly syllabled words. On rare occasions she uses the 'tis 'twas contractions. Prolonged exposure to the hero Chivalry may result in her speech slipping more towards early modern english. Really she'd prefer not to speak much about her age outside of the occasional vague clue. Also she would not be caught dead referring to anyone as a "mortal".
History
Early Years
Lenora Carver was born out of wedlock to Martha Carver somewhere in Cornwall over four centuries ago. Martha was secretly a witch, however magic back then was a weak thing, any spells weaved were slow and they were subtle, they were nothing like the super sorcerors of the modern age. Lenora grew up in as well conditions as Martha could manage, the times may have not been the best especially for a single mother who had to conceal her talents but Martha managed. As Lenora aged she learned of her mother's talents and wished to pick up the trade as well, Martha forbade it though, much to Lenora's chagrin. She felt a magical talent was much too much of a complication and her daughter was better off living mundane.
As Lenora went into her teens and became an angsty ball of drama with a weak magical charge to it Martha was removed from this world. Martha had a history of strife with a strange being who simply called himself the Sojourner. Sojourner caught up with Martha in her current home in Cornwall, forced her into a duel one night on some lonely bluff. What transpired there is a mystery, however, only Sojourner walked away from the duel, Martha was never seen again. The Sojourner waited a week, watching from the sidelines as Lenora grew more uneasy without her mother about, and then he stepped in, introduced himself as a friend seeking Martha Carver and insinuated himself into Lenora's life. Over time he enticed her into being his apprentice with promises of power. And then he left with his old Nemesis's daughter in tow in what would perhaps be a rather elaborate scheme for thorough revenge.
Under the care of Sojourner Lenora was taught that the world was an unforgiving place and one must sieze every advantage they can. She was taught magic and the emotionless mysterious mage made Lenora into one of his enforcers for his schemes. Again, magic was anemic, the Sojourner's schemes tended to be business related. He dealt with the trade of items and artifacts of power and cared little if the relic in question was cursed. He also had a variety of other rackets going. When people didn't pay up, then Sojourner deployed a few people like Lenora. It was during these years she earned the name Ice-Heart. Then, one day, Sojourner just stepped out of the picture for a few years. Ice-Heart was left to manage some of his businesses, she was getting into her thirties and the signs of aging were starting to show. Wondering if anything could be done about this she turned to what information her master left available, and learned of the possibility o stealing the power of a supposedly immortal giant of a man who went by the name of Boreas. It took Lenora a while to track Boreas down, she knew not if he was THE Boreas or just using the name as an alias. When she found him within the snowy heights of the Alps the man struck immediately and harshly with nary a word. Ice-Heart blindly thrust forward into the surrounding snowstorm with the spear she had been carrying. It was dumb luck, but the thrust just happened to interrupt the man's charge, piercing him through the eye. When Lenora awoke she found the cold no longer bothered her, Boreas was dead, and she felt a bit more vigorous. She made her way back to England and got back to business.
Sojourner showed back up a year later. By then Lenora ha deduced he was just guiding her into a position where she would sieze that frigid power so he could in turn sieze it from her. He walked into her study expecting to catch Ice-Heart off guard and instead triggered a trap-ward she had concealed under her rug, whisking her rug and Sojourner out of this world. She has not heard from him since. She has lamented the loss of her favorite rug though.
The Witch on her Own
The defeat of the Sojourner did little to lighten her mood. Lenora just viewed it as proof that this world is merely filled with people looking to take advantage of you and that she must do the same or be taken advantage of. She assumed control of most of Sojourner's businesses and guided things along her own style as some sort of magic underworld crime boss who liked to keep her head down. She was never wantonly malicious with her dealings, however she remain cold-hearted and rarely stayed her her hand against those who would hinder her. She sunk into a business as usual way of dealing with things through the centuries. There were no superheroes, no supermagi, things remained relatively calm in her trade.
In the 1700's she had read some of her master's notes on some diviations as well as some of her own peering into the future to show a shifting of leylines and axi of powers from the old world to the new world. She ended up relocating a lot of her business to the Americas. As the 1800's rolled around the Scarlet Circle and Trismegistus Council took shape, which disrupted business slightly. Lenora adapted and ended up supplying wares and assisting the circle, much to the Council's chagrin though she kept a lot of her business to the west of the atlantic though she still had feelers in Europe. She has lived in United States of America since the founding of the nation in fact.
The Upheavel
1934 was the year that the floodgates on magic opened and heroes suddenly walked the earth in large numbers. The ballgame had changed. Ice-Heart had seen the potential in divinations, and when she saw the event occur she knew it was time to strike. She had horded a large amount of artifacts which had suddenly grown much more powerful with the event. She began selling her items to a large variety of customers all seeking power, some of them worked, some of them caused horrible failures. She was rather clear on the risks of every item she sold however. She liked to keep good faith in business by being thoroughly truthful in what she was selling. If her client wished to purchase a relic that granted immense power by eating his soul that was his problem so long as he knew what he was buying. There were a couple attempts to dislodge her business during those initial turbulant decades, but she managed to stay one step ahead.
During 1953 she saw an oppertunity to weave some strange spell that required pieces of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Seeing no other avenue to gain them she hired a team of Villains and struck the Tower of London hard and fast, breaching its defenses, siezing the necessary components and fleeing before opposition could arrive. She was chased through Europe before a team of heroes caught up with her over a river in Germany, there had just been a storm, and the waters were rough, so she hurled the bag containing the artifacts into the water and fled. The heroes were forced to split their attention between recovering the relics before they were lost to the rapids and chasing Ice-Heart. She managed to elude them and lick her wounds.
A Change of Heart
The 70's were a turning point in Ice-Heart's outlook. Someone under her employ had gotten sloppy and killed a bystander woman in a scuffle. The woman had left a teenaged daughter orphaned. Ice-Heart dealt wit the subordinate harsly and then turned her attention to the girl. Something about the girl reminded her of when she was a scared teenager back when things were so much more simple. She found herself worried for the girl and put work towards adopting the persona of a woman who helped that girl through her trails and helped her get back on her feet, filling the role of a missing mother. Just as Lenora was starting to feel like she was accomplishing something good, a rival mage found her little game and decided to take a stab at her through the girl. He kidnapped, twisted the girl into a hideous abomination and threw her at Ice-Heart. The witch was forced to strike down the madmans creation. Vindicated by the event she stormed the mage's sanctum defeated him, and tore apart his assets. Tired, she retired to her cave and contemplated her life. She realized as she was going she would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder for a dagger, expecting betrayal and attacks at every corner, never to trust anyone. She thought of heroes and decided that they may or may not be altruistic, but there was only one way to find out.
To that ends on the butt end of the 1970's Lenora Carver turned herself in to Primus. She surrendered fully information on her operations and on the operations of a lot of magi. She actually had enough dirt to harm a fair amount of people in the lower ranks of the Circle of the Scarlet Moon. She made sure a lot of that information was forwarded to the Trismegistus Council and she was sealed away in Stronghold.
Stronghold Prison was a rough life for her. She had made a lot of enemies in her capitulation and they made their presence clear to her. She managed to gain the favor of the warden however by pointing out and helping address security holes as they were spotted. She managed to serve out her sentence and get released back into the wilds within the new millennium.
Life after jail was strange for Lenora. Her network of information was in tatters from her own doing. No villain in their right mind would have anything to do for with the repentant witch. Heroes equally shunned her. She had money to live off of thanks to wise investments she had made. Her first breaks came from PRIMUS. The organization had heard of the aid she had give nthe security of Stronghold, and she was hired now and again as an arcane consultant for them on various matters.
It wasn't until the Qularr attack on the Millennium city within recent years that she started to get more actively involved in the Metahuman community very distinctly in the Heroic role. She acquired a respond and protect communicator during that assault and spends much time listening to that channel.
Powers
Magic
Lenora has inhereted a talent for magic from her mother Martha Carver. She picked up some of the basics by spying upon her mother and peering at her books. She was further refined by the Sojourner. Her style is a unique blend of witch craft mixed with wizardry with a distinctly cold slant, all and all one would call it a variation of Hermetic sorcery. Her main attack array of spells remain an variety of spells dedicated to manipulating ice. Such magic comes the most natural to her and she can always be assumed to use such in combat. On the side however she can call on a wide vareity of utility spells which she can alter if she has access to spellbooks and some time to study them.
Frigid Mastery
Lenora harnesses a cold power. Her form fears not cold and is resilent to high temperature. Any spells that form or manipulate ice are amplified for Lenora causing her to lean heavily on ice magic. When stressed she tends to drop the temperature around her. She tends to keep this aspect of her in check when in pleasent company, but when surrounded by foes she cuts it loose and it can get cold enough to be hindering when she is rather stressed, like when she is in combat.
Ageless
Ice-Heart has not aged a day for over four hundred years. Unfortunately for her, she spent most of her years in a world where strong magic did not function, and then spent a lot of her later decades behind the scenes with her head down. As a result she is not as combat proficient with magic as one might imagine a 400 year old being to be.
Sharp Mind
Lenora is exceptionally intellegent and has a great mind for analysis. She is rather good at math and has a sharp eye for detail. Point her towards a puzzle and she will eventually crack it. She can be rather tenacious once a problem catches her fancy. Her memory is good though she tends to let the details fade after a while. With four hundred years of furniture cluttering her mind she needs to pick and choose what is worth remembering.
Iron Will
Anyone who attempts to peer into the mind of this witch is in for a fight. She is not psychically active. She has no special psychic defenses. She just has perhaps one of the more obstinately fierce willpowers of most supers about. Years of experience of people attempting to trifle with her mind has given her experience in noticing the tells of a mental assault. Anyone who enters her mind will find a harsh spirit that will fight against them every inch of the way making them work for any degree of control of stolen scrap of information. While is incapable of striking aback mentally without specialty spells, her ironclad willpower ensures she's no pushover for a mental assault.
Complications
Hunted
Ice-Heart has made a variety of enemies when she turned over her parcel of information to the US government. A particularly dangerous one is the Circle of the Scarlet Moon. She has dodged a wide number of assassination attempts and her safe houses tend to nigh on paranoia on the level of security she incorporates into them.
Not Really that Tough
While she works a variety of defenses into her person, Ice-heart is not a particularly tough heroine by any stretch. She often depends on tripping up would be attackers before they get in range to hit her.
Distinct Features
She is a rather chilly woman who under the right detection senses shows a rather unique aura of cold power. She has a very difficult time concealing the later, however, few have that sort of eye.
Checkered Past
Her past as a Villain and subsequent sell-out of a large number of Villains as left her as someone a lot of less-then-heroic magic despise and someone that a lot of other people distrust.
Other People's Thoughts
((you know the drill add comments if you got them))
"She's 'cool', heh...I know, bad pun, but seriously. Kinda bummed that she took that teddybear curse off of Thundrax, I don't think she got my reasoning for that, though...Anyway! I've seen her fight, and she's pretty good with throwin' around some healing magic, I wouldn't want to get on her bad side. She doesn't seem the kind to understand a joke, but hey, some of us supers have to be serious, eh? I just hope nobody gets the wrong idea and drops a house on her, what with her being a witch and all." -Lightwave
"At first, I thought she was going to be another of the stereotypical mage types. The hat, I mean, really? *chuckles a bit* Anyways, I've gotten to know her better since then, even though most of my new knowledge seems to be through anecdotal stories. I've grown to like her. She's cool, literally and figuratively. She helped patch up my hands, and endured my noobish questions about how magic actually functions. She doesn't even go tutt-tutting at the horrible jokes Akiko, John and I tell. Okay, not much anyways. God a good vibe about this one." - Silver Eagle
"Is good lady. Very smart and is definitely knowing much. Many spellweavers are, eh... stuck up? Arrogant. She is not seeming too bad though. Is always pleasure to work with her and watch her work. Is also like me, bad guy turned good, yes? Is always nice to be meeting fellow hero that is starting off on other side." -Surova Grimwish
"If you need someone to do magic, Icy is the one to go to! I feel way more comfortable around her than most magician types and the whole classic witch thing is kinda cool too." -Dobergirl
"Not a bad sort, as far as witches go." -Lorekeeper
