Dahlia

Dahlia is a character played by Daverboy in the Metaverse RP setting.
== The Basics ==
Dahlia is a sapient naturally-occurring curse of vengeance, applied to a life-sized porcelain mannequin. It is unknown exactly how long she has been in the timeline colloquially referred to as "The Metaverse", but upon arriving on Earth in February of 2422, she claimed to have been off-planet for as long as a century.
She is a researcher and expert of curse magic, who offers her services in the removal, sealing, and management of curses and their symptoms.
She is currently a member of the Modern Mythic Relations guild (or MMR), having joined with the intent of using her expertise to assist any cursed individuals who might seek the guild's aid.
== History ==
=== Pre-RP ===
Little detail is currently known of Dahlia's past before her return to earth in 2022. She has stated that she is not originally from this timeline, but that she was already familiar with the multiverse before arriving here. She has also made reference to a "first job" and a variety of co-workers of varying species, as well as reference to having previously been acquainted with a tsukumogami, who she has not been in touch with in over a hundred years.
=== Since Return to Earth ===
Dahlia has been somewhat of a recluse, with public appearances fairly sporadic over the first two years of her stay on Earth. She had previously been known to occasionally attend the Purple Lotus casino and the Misty Shores guildhall. Since the formation of MMR, she has been more often seen there.
==== Misty Shore ====
While the guild was active, Dahlia was a member of the Misty Shore, occasionally attending on days the guild was open to the public, and participating in one mission. While somewhat more active in the guild's comms, her somewhat reclusive nature was maintained, not forming any particular connections.
==== Modern Mythic Relations ====
Dahlia first attended a meeting of MMR shortly after the guild's founding. Initially planning to provide services as a benefactor, she decided to join the guild as a full member after hearing a more detailed description of their goals from the guildmistress Madame Mona.
Similarly to her time spent with the Misty Shore, and in keeping with her somewhat asocial nature, Dahlia has initially been more active as a member in comms than in person, though she does feel a sense of kinship with Kise as a fellow animated object.
====Interactions With the Astra Siblings====
== Powers and Abilities ==
=== Powers ===
Natural abilities, primarily magical, that Dahlia possesses.
* The Curse - Dahlia is a cursed object, and that curse has certain effects, which can be beneficial for her to escape certain situations. Currently these effects have not yet been revealed.
* Mana Manipulation (self) - Dahlia possesses the ability to manipulate her own mana, shaping it into weapons and tools. Due to the imperfect nature of her vessel, she does not have full free control over the shape of her mana, but instead has selection of memorized shapes that she can choose from, most prominently using a sidesword and a parrying dagger.
* Curse Sight - As a curse, Dahlia possesses the ability to see her own kind, interpreting curses visually. She is able to use this ability to diagram curses visually in order to better analyze how they work and how to remove or seal them. She can also recognize certain common varieties of curse (ex. vampirism, lycanthropy) by the similarities shared between different strains. Additionally, as a vengeful curse, she can sense whether another curse shares themes of vengeance and/or punishment.
* Curse Manipulation - Since her own magical power is entirely cursed energy, Dahlia is able to directly interact with other curses. She can use this ability to unravel curses like untying a knot, rather than breaking them through spells or brute force or meeting specific conditions. She can also use this ability to buff or debuff beings and weapons whose powers derive from curses by 'bending' the parameters of the curse (for example, raising or lowering the photosensitivity, hunger level, or strength of a vampire). As the term 'bending' implies, there are limits to how much these parameters can change, and releasing her hold too suddenly can make them 'snap' back into place, usually with effects detrimental to her intent. 
** Note: the fact that she can unravel most curses does not mean she can always remove them safely. The only thing worse than a curse that rearranges your body and turns you into a monster, is one that fails to safely rearrange your body halfway through.
* Object Possession - While it is technically accurate that Dahlia is a cursed object, her mind and memories and abilities are tied to the curse, not the object. As such, in the event that her vessel is destroyed, Dahlia can apply herself to another object, provided it meets certain conditions. Additionally, while on the material plane, if her body is destroyed beyond a certain threshold or she makes the choice to abandon it, spells have been placed in advance that will pull her curse at high speed to a designated backup body. It takes some time before this new body is able to fully move (so if she's defeated on a mission, she's still defeated, just not dead). The attributes that determine the suitability of a vessel are:
** Age - Curses grow with age, and so does the capacity to contain them. Relics and antiques are more suitable for containing and channeling cursed energy than brand new ones.
** Emotional value - Curses are a magic built heavily around emotion, so the amount of emotion that has been invested into an object affects it's capacity to store the emotional magic of a curse. A 10-year-old stuffed animal that has been well-loved may have more capacity than a 100-year-old family heirloom that's only kept out of a sense of duty.
** Similarity to the original vessel - The easiest attribute to manufacture, and the reason why she still possesses porcelain dolls rather than something more sturdy. A toy is better than something that isn't a toy. A doll is better than other toys. Everything from hair type (black or blonde, with ringlets) to material (ceramics are better than other materials, porcelain is ideal) can affect the suitability, with the vessel working better the closer it is. Eyes are not required, and height is only a factor in that any doll she possess will slowly, over the course of decades, either grow or shrink to a height of about 5' 3"
* Curses - Dahlia is able to cast curses, but rarely does so. As a curse herself, the powerful negative emotions that she is built from are the same that are used to fuel other curses, and due to her own age and power, casting any small-scale curse is extremely difficult without a great deal of time, focus, and reagents to help narrow the scope. Because of this, any curse cast without those elements would likely more collateral damage than she would want to deal with.
* Spirit Sight - As a being born from the death of others, Dahlia is able to focus her vision to see spirits. This ability is not always active, and is of moderate strength. She cannot see weaker spirits, and has to actively focus in order to see spirits who wish to remain hidden.
=== Skills ===
Learned abilities that Dahlia has picked up over several centuries
* Swordsmanship - Dahlia is highly skilled and heavily practiced in swordsmanship, with a preference for a duelist style with either single or dual one-handed weapons.
* Curse Expertise - Dahlia's chosen profession is as a researcher of curses. She is 'fluent' in most styles of curse magic originating from the material plane, as well high proficiency in analyzing infernal curses. She has a passing understanding of fey-style hexes and jinxes. She has theoretical knowledge on divine curses, but has encountered few enough of them to be lacking in practical/applied knowledge.
* Runecrafting/Abjuration - In her work, Dahlia occasionally seals curses rather than removing or destroying them. While she has no natural ability in abjuration, she has made up for this lack of talent with centuries of highly developed skill. This means that although she cannot quickly erect barriers or banish things, the protective and sealing runes that she craft are extremely dense, powerful, and efficient.
=== Resistances and Immunities ===
Due to her nature as a non-living and non-mechanical entity, as well as the attributes of her usual porcelain bodies enhanced by the sympathetic magic of her cursed power, Dahlia is resistant to several types of damage and hazardous substances.
* Life Drain - Dahlia, as a sapient magical effect, is not strictly alive, and does not possess life-energy. As such, life-draining abilities and effects do not work on her.
* Cutting/Slashing/Piercing - With significant enough or repeated impact, these sorts of weapons can still break parts of her body (a bullet is a bullet after all), but on an average basis, swords spears and the like do very little damage short-term. She has no skin to cut, and no blood to bleed.
* Heat/Fire - The high-quality porcelain of Dahlia's body is, on its own, heat resistant up to at least 1600° C. With the additional strengthening of her own magic, and the perception of porcelain as a highly heat-resistant material, that resistance increases to nearly 2000° C before beginning to melt.
* Cold/Ice - As a non-biological entity, Dahlia is unbothered by cold, and as long as her joints are dry, she is unlikely to lock up
* Corrosive - Similarly to her reaction to heat, a combination of the material's own natural resistance, and the magical benefits of the material's perception, Dahlia is highly resistant to corrossives.
* Electricity - Dahlia's porcelain boy is non-conductive.
* Poison/Infection - With no blood, breath, or other biological systems, Dahlia is immune to poisons and diseases, though exposure to such elements may still harm others who make contact without her being decontaminated first.
* Drowning/Suffocation - With no need to breathe, Dahlia is capable of surviving indefinitely underwater, in the vacuum of space, or any other environment that would typically cause asphyxiation.
* Fear - Dahlia does not experience fear in the same way as most biological lifeforms. She does experience awareness of danger, and has the critical thinking skills to decide that a situation is too dangerous, but she does not experience the typically associated sensations of panic and dread.
* Mental Resistance (Minor, Conditional) - As a being made of negative emotions, and one who has consumed many other curses, Dahlia's mindscape is an extremely inhospitable environment. A powerful enough psionic or mental mage might be able to withstand it for some amount of time, but attempts to enter her mind are extremely difficult and unpleasant. Mental effects (other than fear) that do not attempt to grant the user access to her mind (illusions, mental projections, etc) still work.
* Pain Resistance (Conditional) - Since her body is simply an object that she is animating through force of will, it does not possess nerve endings. Physical damage to her vessel does not cause any pain.
=== Weaknesses ===
Just as Dahlia's nature and body provide her with certain resistances, they also come with weaknesses.
* Bludgeoning - In the same way that sympathetic magic provides boosts to her heat and corrosion resistance, perception of the weaknesses of porcelain make her more susceptible to bludgeoning weapons; a 1-2 pound carpentry hammer can deal more damage to her than a 3-4 pound sword. Such weapons do not completely negate her magical defenses, but they bypass a significant amount of them, and can do even more damage if she is caught off-guard.
* Repeated/Powerful Impact - Although she cannot be cut, repeated impacts build up damage over time, eventually resulting in cracks and breaks. Attacks from individuals with superhuman strength or made with heavy weapons can reach this point even faster.
* Deep Well, Small Bucket - Dahlia, as a 500+ year old curse with several other powerful curses consumed and added to her, is an extremely magically powerful being. However, having lost her original vessel 2-3 hundred years ago, her current vessels are unable to contain or channel her full power effectively (outside of the use of curses). While she is able to replenish the amount of mana that is available for use, it takes time, and if her vessel runs out, she is rendered unconscious. In the event that her entire mana pool is somehow depleted, she will die.
* Anti-Magic Effects - Whether viewed as an animated object, or a sapient magical effect, Dahlia is a being of magic, and as such suffers adverse effects from things that harm, drain, or suppress magic.
** Fields that suppress active magical effects will render her unconscious.
** Effects that drain magic will affect her similarly to the way life drain affects living beings, and also causes her to experience pain. Although her extremely large mana pool makes it unlikely for her to be killed this way, draining effects that exceed the rate at which she can replenish the available mana of her current vessel can render her unconscious.
* Divine Power/Blessings - Weapons or objects that have been blessed by gods can cause Dahlia pain, and damage her mana. Divine energy has the same effect, with normally-beneficial abilities causing her harm, and offensive abilities causing even greater harm than usual. This has two exceptions:
** If the divine energy comes from a god whose domain includes vengeance, curses, or punishment without a requirement that it be lawful, then she will be affected as normal (beneficial effects will help, damaging effects will damage the normal amount).
** If the god themselves is the one personally interacting with her, and they are not intending to harm her, then there will be no effect, positive or negative.
Category:MMR Characters
Category:Daverboy Characters
Category:Animated Objects