Banshee

== Summary ==
Asha Noverre, better known as Banshee, is a vigilante-turned-supervillain based out of southern Michigan. She heads a group of dark artifact hunters known as the Seekers.
Her daughter is Cypher. While Asha cares for her daughter, she does so in a paranoid, controlling way. They split on less than amicable terms. It is unknown what she is up to currently, but it is likely she still has the Seekers searching for what she believes is the missing pieces to her primary artifact. Her actions involving Cypher are also unknown, but it is likely she is keeping track of her actions.
== Appearance ==
Asha drapes herself in black garments, usually some sort of leather and latex suit, with straps and belts for equipment. Deep red fabric wraps around her torso and flows from her cape. Silver markings hem the edges of the fabric, and dark red crystal jewelry lay over her neck and are imbued in her artifactal gauntlets. A full cloak rests on her shoulders, the hood almost always up, giving a shadowy appearance to her otherwise sharp features. Her normally blue eyes are ringed with a dull red streak, giving them purplish hue, but menacing all the same.
When her powers are active, streaks of a shadowy fog ring around her, while burning runes lightly pulsate the air surrounding her. A wave of energy shimmers in the air, and with a glance your way, waves of bleak, black mist will fill the air. In the mist, forms of darkness streak out, hands reaching for you, specks of red looking like eyes. If you aren't careful, you could get lost in this haze of paranoia, while Banshee warps through it, waiting for the time to strike.
== Powers and Artifacts ==
=== Arsenal of Weapons and Artifacts ===
Asha holds a number of dark artifacts and weapons, but the most important one is the reason behind the rest. Her current citadel was where she first found it, a large, cracked crystal, pulsating with dark energy, known as Night's Paragon. However, while it contains great power itself, there exists that reason there are other parts of it missing. Four receptacles for smaller crystals, each of which would contain a weapon, are connected to the centerpiece. Supposedly, these would both empower the Paragon as well as grant shadow copies of the weapons they contain. Connected to each of these, along with one connected to the centerpiece, exists spots where pyramidal catalysts could lie. These catalysts would serve to embolden and expand the power granted by the Paragon.
Also, in the citadel are multiple texts, scrolls, and depictions of different artifacts, weapons, and tools. These frequently describe artifacts, either those connected to the Paragon or useful in their own right. However, many of these articles are rambling and hard to parse, unsure if what is said is truth or just conjecture. However, it is likely there is some inkling of truth behind it all, and there are a thousand leads to follow to get to whatever the end goal truly is.
While the generics are known about these artifacts, the specifics are not. It is believed by some that the artifacts, specifically the Paragon itself, has a corrupting influence on those who use it's power, or even those who stay in close proximity for a long duration. The current powers granted to Asha seem to be an increase in power for her own magical abilities, as well as the shadowy fog she can summon and use to warp throughout.
Furthermore, at the time Cypher left, Asha had procured one of the small crystals, which held a greatsword within itself. This granted her the ability to summon a shadowy crystal form of it, as well as manipulate it easily through telekinesis. Additional developments of what she had procured is not known.
=== Dark Sorcery ===
In her previous life as Rune, Asha had the ability to use magical powers through the use of runica, those being gestured sigils, ink marks, and body-painted brands. These allowed her to use force such as pushing or pulling, summon shields to deflect or push away, or to cast fire and lightning. Brands painted on her body could increase her strength and stamina, or quickly cast sigils she might use often. Her use of minor artifacts, especially those in her gauntlets, allowed her to store and cast spells and sigils of even greater power than she would normally be able to use.
The effects of the artifacts has both greatly enhanced these abilities, and changed them. Where previously she would overexert herself, now she can cast sigils in quick succession, or even hold still multiple people at once with a single mark. Her brands now almost always glow hot red, yet stay active, a shimmering shield obscuring her movements and deflecting all but the mightiest or most numerous blows.
But her fires burn not orange, but pale red. Her lightning glows not blue, but crimson. While the brands she now wears are mightier than before, their heat burns even greater. It is the shadows that follow her magic that show the most difference. Each movement streaked with dark shadow. Where once ink coated her fingers, now only a slash of shade.
=== Supernatural Martial Prowess ===
Trained in melee weapons and small arms, Asha is insanely good at fighting, complemented with the deep brands she wears to enhance her strength, speed, and endurance. Though she previously used short swords or daggers, and revolvers, she has increased her arsenal with a multitude of other weapons.
Her artifactal greatsword is her most recent addition, summoning it at will to be used to great effect, either in hand or striking through telekinetic force. However, she still keeps her two prized daggers and 6-chambered handcannon with her, still deadly to this day. Her ability to swap between fighting styles, switching between weapons in quick succession, can prove disorientating and confusing to her opponents, catching them off guard from a heavy sweep or quick lunge when they expected the other.
== Backstory ==
Asha was a Bronze Age hero, a vigilante known as Rune who worked with her husband, another vigilante known as Bypass. After traveling around for awhile, they settled down for a bit after their daughter, Ivy, was born. However, they could never give up the chase for the rumors about a great artifact in the eastern Midwest. Promising to destroy it, they hunted it for years.
However, they eventually got caught in a trap, certain they were close to reaching the artifact's location. Split up and outnumbered, Asha could do nothing as her husband was killed. Distraught, angry, and shaken, she fled back to Ivy and seeked safe shelter. However, after a year, she vowed to return and find this artifact.
She eventually did, taking down the villains that held it. However, instead of destroying it like she once promised, she instead wanted to study it, to figure out why it cost her so much.
While her daughter worried for her safety, Asha deemed it safe to study as long as she did it slow and carefully. However, overtime, whether due to deep grief, or the artifact's presence (or maybe both), her demeanor changed, her actions grew harsher, and her paranoia increased. To further protect everything she had now, she believed she had to be stronger, so that next time, she could stop those who seeked to do her harm.
She gathered together a group of normal people and low-powered supers, forming a team known as the Seekers. They worked under her to seek out these dark artifacts, the pieces of the Paragon. In return, Asha shared her newfound power with them, both granting them further strength and giving her more control over them. She hoped that together, she could find all these artifacts, so that she would have the strength to defend against all 'evil' which targeted her and those she protected.
Whether through unknowing negligence or paranoid enclosure, she distanced herself from her daughter. One day, Ivy had left her, leaving only a note behind. What follows next is a chapter yet unknown in the story.
== Agenda ==
Asha has been searching for the missing pieces of the Paragon. Sending out her Seekers, she hopes to collect these and empower her abilities.
Her actions related to her daughter are unknown, although she is likely keeping track of Ivy's actions in Halcyon City.
== Artist Credit ==
Art by theDURRRRIAN, edited for use.
Category:Characters
Category:NPC
Category:B-Verse