Mercedes Misericorde

Mercedes Misericorde is a character first appearing in the Sky's Shadow arc. She was the leader of the Aasimar faction of Tannhauser during the claamity surrounding The Clock Tower, known as the Reforged Legion. She was also a general of the Tannhauser Military, which she left after a disagreement. She is currently in the process of moving to The Shrouded Isles, along with her husband Faria and her twin daughters Melody and Mallory.
== History ==
Years ago, when it came time for her to take her oath, Mercedes decided she would devote herself to protecting her family. She came from a fairly wealthy family, with her parents being higher ups in the military and nobility, with both her and her parents expecting her to eventually marry another Aasimar of similar status. Mercedes believed she would meet someone strong, heroic and powerful, much like herself, believing that she deserved nothing less. She imagined that the two of them would go out on the battlefield, saving people and being badass and looking hot together. She has said that she was very narcissistic during this time. Gaining attention due to her prowess in armor and weapon smithing as a forge Aasimar, she was promoted and ended up working with a group of enchanters and alchemists to design equipment for the military. One of those she was partnered with was a man named Faria Misericorde.
Unlike how she would expect others to react to her, with respect and reverence thanks to her high rank in spite of her young age, Faria didn't seem to care, hardly paying attention and seeming more unimpressed or bothered. This slightly angered Mercy, and she continued to deliberately boast whenever she could, however despite this, Faria maintained his professionalism and actively continued to teach Mercedes out of his genuine love of knowledge and desire to help people. Overhearing other alchemists speaking about him, Mercedes learned of Faria's works to protect her soldiers in the field, effectively saving more lives than she ever did, yet he never even brought it up once, leading Mercedes to become slightly jealous, staying up at night wondering how he could act in such a way. She came to realize that he acted simply to help others, and in Mercedes' words, "knew where his heart should be", unlike herself at the time and began to reflect on herself and how she had acted. She began to spend more time together with Faria out of a desire to understand and figure him out, and after spending more time together, she began to enjoy his company and ended up developing a large crush on him. He was a hero, like the one she had always wanted, but the real part of heroism. After some time trying to get his attention to no results, she ended up confessing how she felt to him, to which he responded, "I had a theory you might." After some time dating, she presented Faria to her parents, who tried to talk Mercy out of it, claiming it was embarrasing to the family name. She claimed that she didn't need to worry about their name, as she would be taking his, eventually leading to an argument and Faria pulling Mercedes out. Likely some time after this, Mercedes had a dramatic moment where she threw a locket with her mom in it into the ocean. Mercedes doesn't speak to her parents much anymore, however, after some more time and work from Faria, the two have been married and now have two energetic young twins.
At one point, Mellody and Mallory had been playing roughly and Mellody had accidentally harmed her leg. Due to not being able to uphold her oath, despite it being an accident, Mercedes felt weak afterwards.
Recently, after falling asleep at the forge preparing weapons for the oncoming seige of The Clock Tower, Mercedes found herself transported to another realm; The Heavens. Whilst there she spoke to an Angel known as The Third, and discovered much both about the history of the Aasimar and Tannhauser, and of the nature of the current conflict she has found herself in. After their brief discussion, Mercedes found herself in a different realm, face to face with the old Prince of Tannhauser. Holding the string stied to both Mercedes' and all other Aasimar in Tannhauser's souls, he delivered a command to protect the tower at all costs. Mercedes woke up, still with her original oath seemingly somewhat intact, however with a new burning one placed over it; one to protect the forces she had sought to destroy. Realizing her predicament, Markus, Gregor and Mercedes began to try and work out her predicament. especially regarding her relationship with Faria, who actively served as one of the greatest threats to The Tower. To resolve this, Markus constructed a shadow barrier seperating the two, and after a heartfelt conversation between them, had Gregor cut the thread connecting her to The Heavens, ending her commitment to the tower in the process. 
During the team's final seige of the tower, Mercedes alongside the Nine Shrines Adventure team and a new friend, an angel named Granola Guillotine, found themselves at the top of the tower face to face with The First King. After a climactic battle, he was finally defeated, and the tower came crumbling down. In the coming weeks, the now reborn nation of Tannhauser would begin to gradually reshape, and Mercedes, along with her husband, would discuss the path of their future. and after some discussion decided to move out of Tannhauser and see the rest of the world. Both for themselves as to not be caught in perpetual boredom, to provide new opportuities for their children, and to not have to be involved in the new government, they decided to move to The Shrouded Isles. 
== Appearance ==
Mercedes has shoulder-length, choppy flame-orange hair, as well as darker, tanned skin and dark orange eyes. She is described as tall and large in size, with strong, prominent muscles. Golden streaks stretch across her body. She is between 5'10" and 6 feet tall.
Mercedes, as the leader of the Reforged Legion, wears the golden emblem on her dark red top, connected to. dark blue part across her shoulders by buckles. She also wears black pants, with skin showing on the outer sides with buckles. She wears golden gauntlets on both her hands, with runes on each one, and a golden shoulder-pad. These gauntlets hold her melted hands, which Mercedes can reform as she pleases, such as into a blade, though that is a form she dislikes using. 
Her appearance is stated to differ from the typical appearance of an Aasimar, however she still shares some distinct traits by her lineage.
== Personality ==
Mercedes is a forthcoming, but kind character. She does what she believes is right to help her people. While being a leader and strong in character, she adores conversation and social gatherings. However, she can be aggressive and more authoritative when the situation demands, such as if in combat or if she needs to give orders to her soldiers. She likes simply meeting people, and enjoys learning about them. She believes it important to understand as many people as possible, from as many different walks of life as possible, to be a good leader.https://imgur.com/a/L0y1QmI However, despite her high position in the military, she is strongly against the monarchy, believing that change is needed. She is very brave, confident and relatively fearless, only having been scared two times of note: when she asked out Faria, and when her new oath put her against him.
Following the events of the Tannhauser conflict however, and Mercedes coming to the face of death multiple times, Mercedes came to a resolve. If faced with the choice of her or another's life, Mercedes cares too much for her family to let herself die, and although she would die for them, she would choose herself otherwise. Due to this and a variety of other factors, once the Tannhauser conflict is properly resolved, Mercedes intends to resign from her position as general. She is honest about herself and her feelings, readily admitting this resolve to Ven when questioned if she would sacrifice her life for the order of the planes, and even still of sound and strong morality, feeling uncomfortable ordering others to possibly march to their deaths if she herself is unwilling to. Although this may waver in the heat of the moment, and although she believes this to be selfish of her to believe, she is firm on her resolve. She is still trying to find a balance of protecting herself and helping out others.
In the past, before she met Faria, Mercedes was said to be very narcissistic and egotistical, due to both her family prominence and high standing in the military despite her young age.
Mercedes has some dysmorphia over her body, with a constant concern over her body changing and melting more, as has happened with her hands. This is a natural result of her powers as a forge Aasimar.
She has reportedly had a much harder time focusing since she started hanging out with the team of Nine Shrines Adventure Agency, though it has admittedly been very fun. 
== Abilities ==
Mercedes uses largely heat based abilities, gained due to her Aasimar heritage, specifically that of a Forge Aasimar, as well as having the unique virtue of Empathy. 
* Increasing or decreasing her body temperature at will. 
* Summoning and dissipating objects from her forge from home out of embers, including hammers, a grindstone, tongs, a chisel, an anvil, a fire poker, a smelting ladel, a crucible, and a dictionary. https://imgur.com/a/YMcLqmX
**She must know where an object is in the forge in order to summon it, as she summons it by gesturing her hand in the direction it would be in the forge, and as such, if the forge is rearranged, then she may summon the incorrect item.
**She is able to call items from the forge due to it being near her family, her oath being tied to them. However, imbuing her blood in items makes it easier for her to summon.
***Since her bond with the heavens was severed, it has become more difficult for her to do this, not being able to summon larger items such as the crucible.
**She can also attune other items to her and then be able to send them back to the forge.
* Heal wounds when in contact with fire, as well as being resistant or immune to heat based damage. 
**This also works with metals, such as the Celestial Silver that makes up the Angels
* Incredible physical strength.
* Can transfer the wounds of others onto her. This also allows her to feel what a burn feels like.
* When in combat, using her powers more extensively, she forms some sort of halo and a set of wings. This flickers if she takes extensive damage. It also triggers if she experiences intense emotion.
Mercedes oath, specifically to protect her family, also gives her some special abilities, one in particular being able to largely resist fear due to the oath. However, with the recent development of her oath being replaced with a new one to protect the Tower, it is uncertain hos this has changed.
When Mercedes' core goes into overdrive as a result of overextending her emotions or body, heating up her body.
Following her interaction with the Prince of Tannhauser, her gaining a new oath, and subsequently losing that oath, she gained the ability to understand the orders of The Clock Tower, although only basic words and the intentions of those commands.
As previously noted, due to her powers as a forge Aasimar, her body is in a constant state of slowly melting. At the moment, this has only consumed her hands, which flow like molten metal, and if Mercy is not careful, can melt into other shapes such as an axe, possibly permanently. This is primarily held at bay by her metal gauntlets she wears.
== Relationships ==
=== The Silverfish ===
The Silverfish and Mercedes, as effective leaders of both of their factions, seem to converse and butt heads on issues frequently. However, they are on friendly enough terms for Silverfish to call Mercedes Mercy.
=== Carlson ===
Nobody likes Carlson. Mercedes is not an exception.
=== Mallory and Melody ===
Mercedes loves her two marshmallows very much, missing them dearly during her time at the front. They also love her dearly, missing her whilst she is away from home.
=== Faria ===
Faria and Mercedes care for each other deeply, with Mercedes being very playful and happy while around her husband while Faria seems to soften up around her in turn. 
=== General Gold ===
A fellow general in the Tannhauser Military, Mercedes seems to have a dislike of General Gold, a feeling which is possibly shared by him as well. It was in an argument with him that Mercedes left the military to form the Reforged Legion in the first place, not liking the self-serving plans of the military to hole up in the mountains and leave the people to fend for themselves.
== Trivia ==
* She likes coffee with cream and sugar.https://imgur.com/sjeTotr
** However, she still prefers tea.
*** Her preference of teas are sweeter, or fruity ones
* If exposed to rainfall, she will turn into solid steel.
* Her oath as an Aasimar is to keep her family safe.
*Her wedding dress has an ab window.
**She has really good abs.
*Due to being partially made of metal and very muscular, she weighs at least 400 pounds.
**This caused Faria to throw out his back when trying to pick her up on their wedding night
* Due to the heat of her body, whenever she ingests alcohol it burns off almost instantaneously. She is still capable of getting drunk however with high concentrations of alcohol, as Harlock proved in one of her experiments. 
*Faria created a medicine for her that allows them to cuddle without Mercy burning him. It makes Mercy become realxed and sleepy, though it was originally created to help her sleep after the birth of the twins. 
*Mercedes also loses a lot of heat when she's sick or exhausted
**When she's sick, Faria makes her soup and tea, and sometimes lights the bed on fire
***Other ways Mercedes heats herself up include exercising and laying in the forge, simply bundling up with her family, Faria making romantic comments, or eating
*She can cook things on her abs. In fact, they are reportedly perfect for steak
**She also can cook waffles, with her abs having the perfect form for them, even with pockets for pools of syrup. However this practice is less frequent now that the kids are around.
*Her metal gauntlets were a wedding gift from her husband.
*She cleans her hair with steel wire, and the rest of her body by lying in her forge. 
*Her fire apparently has a unique aroma, being like sandalwood on fire
*
== Gallery ==
File:MercedesMad.png
File:Mercedes Helmet.png
File:Mercedes Blankie 1.png
File:Mercedes Blankie 2.png
File:Mercedes Blankie Head.png
File:Mercedes Cannon.png
File:Mercy SMASH.png|Mercy bashing in The Prince of Tannhauser
File:Mercy angy.png
File:Mercy ANGY.png
File:Mercynogloves.info.png|Mercedes, holding an egg and with an exposed hand.
File:Mercedes Goop.png|Mercy covered in goop
File:Cartoon Mercy.png|Mercy as a cartoon character
File:Mercedisguise.png
File:Abples.png|Mercedes, having used her abs to catch some apples
== References ==
Category:Main characters