Rosalind Nomikata

**Rosalind Nomikata** is the main protagonist of **Hologram Summer Case Files**. A young woman who somehow ended up the assistant to a would-be amateur detective and ended up embroiled in the Hologram Summer Incident, a partial manifestation of TATARI in London during the summer of 2012.

She is the adopted daughter of **Seigi Nomikata**, **Risa Mol-Undi**, **and York Lancaster**, and the adopted sister of **Elizabeth "Bess" Nomikata.**

Following the Hologram Summer Incident, she is the sole proprietor of the **Sharrow Detective Agency**, a business in Wandsworth, London that provides investigative services to magi and spellcasters in the United Kingdom.

## Profile

### Background

Rosalind was born to the **Gilbert** family in a small town in Suffolk, England, the only child of a stay at home mother and a traveling father whose family immigrated to England from Italy in the 1800s. For most of her life, Rosalind wasn’t sure what her father actually did for a living, or why he was away so often, but she loved him dearly and thought of him often. Unbeknownst to her, her father was a **Benandanti**, a member of a tribe of werewolves who devoutly followed the teachings of the Holy Church and dedicated their phantasmal blood to protecting humanity and the church’s followers.

Rather than a traveling salesman, he was most likely a “mercenary” of sorts, traveling to protect small and vulnerable communities from magical dangers. Rosalind’s father disappeared one day, presumably killed in action, and he left a pup with no idea that she was not actually human, until Rosalind turned 17, and her blood matured to the point that it successfully reacted to a curse in the local vicinity, sparking her transformation into a complete werewolf with teeth, claws, ears, and tail. Scared and confused by her own violent impulses as well as the sensory shock of new body parts and enhanced senses, she fled home and became a runaway, trying to avoid clusters of human life and slowly starving as she scrounged for a living on the streets and in nature.

Starving, cold, and feral, she would not have lived past Christmas were it not for the kindness of an individual passerby who chanced upon Rosalind on the streets while on their way to an assignment in the northeast. Surprisingly, that person - Seigi Nomikata - was not only kind to the lost and confused homeless girl, but he was also able to grasp what she was. Analyzing and seeing inside of her, identifying her as something other than human, he introduced her to the Moonlit World and gave her a foothold that had previously been absent.
The young man named Seigi Nomikata is a fourth generation magus of mixed English and Japanese heritage dating back some 200 years.

Seigi gave her food, water, and over the course of a week, taught her more about magecraft, the Mage's Association, and how to compartmentalize and control her bestial instincts and senses. By limiting the scope of awareness, she was able to return to a semblance of normality, and now she had a goal and place to go rather than meaninglessly hiding around the countryside. He saved her in more ways than one, and she came to treasure the red winter coat he gave her to keep warm, and the sanctuary he provided. He taught her the things that her own father had not been able to, protected her when she needed it the most, and welcomed her into his home when she had given up on ever having one again.

He also sent her to London to learn more about herself, where she would become involved in a magical incident during the summer of 2012. Becoming the assistant of would-be “magical detective” **Sally Sharrow**, operating in the district of Wandsworth, Rosalind helped her new best friend investigate a series of cases in London’s magical community, slowly leading to a discovery of her own abilities as a Benandanti and the presence of a carefully cultivated **TATARI** curse taking root in London despite its many magical safeguards.

That summer, within small and concentrated areas, malignant information was able to come close - but not quite - to the complete manifestation of TATARI, allowing for rumors to exist and become true without the full appearance of the Night of Wallachia. These miniature curse fields were being exploited, leading to a variety of abnormal cases… the last of which confirmed that Sally herself was a child born of the rumours that summer, a fictional construct born of several disparate stories and rumours, and that resolving the incident also meant giving up on her own independent existence.

Rosalind lost her first and best friend, but she inherited the detective agency they had formed together. Following that incident, Rosalind has continued to run the Sharrow Detective Agency as a sole proprietor. She takes cases throughout England, and occasionally the greater United Kingdom if the client is willing to pay for her travel, but business is relatively slow without Sally’s energy and enthusiasm.

For a time, after losing Sally, Rosalind buried herself in clearing the remaining queue of cases, continuing to squat and camp in the now-abandoned Sharrow family home, trying to keep the business running but taking no time for herself or for family.

But while it was easy for her to forget it, she always had a place to return to, and eventually, she finally left that empty house behind and came back to the family that had been waiting for her, changing her name in the process as she recognized she did have a family - and a home.

As for the Sharrow Detective Agency, it persists due to word-of-mouth and Rosalind’s own keen senses and performance, but she has no idea if it will ever become a successful venture. She doesn’t care though - she carries it on not for money or glory, but for the sake of the girl it was named after and in order to help others and resolve their own stories in the best way possible.

### Appearance

In the events of **Hologram Summer Case Files**, Rosalind is an eighteen-year old vagrant whose only treasured belonging is the red coat she received from her mentor. She has fluffy, thick grey hair and unusual pale eyes, with a werewolf's tail and ears that she attempts to hide underneath her coat. Initially very thin and frail due to her year of vagrancy, her health gradually improves, leading to a lean but still physically capable build.

When her Benandanti blood is active, Rosalind's appearance becomes considerably more feral, with sharp claws, fangs, and a fearsome glint to her eyes as her body is reinforced by magical energy and curses.

### Personality

Rosalind tries very hard to project the image of a cool, world-weary woman who can survive anywhere. She also believes herself to be stoic and able to hold her emotions in without giving away too much.

She is almost never successful in this endeavor, and her emotions are either clearly written on her face or given away by her expressive ears and tail.

In reality, Rosalind is adaptable but not especially worldly, and most of her knowledge comes from books and stories she spent all of her time reading as a young girl. Left to her own devices, her idea of heaven is a quiet life where she can read and relax, some place warm around people she cares about. She’s a country girl at heart and will probably always be at least slightly uncomfortable or ill at ease in a bustling city like London.

She grew up as an ordinary, introverted young woman in a small town, and while she has come into her own with the help of friends and family, she will probably always be the quiet type at heart. She enjoys being in the presence of others, but isn’t always sure what to say and is the most comfortable when she trusts others enough not to worry about saying the right thing.

However, she has developed by leaps and bounds as a detective, thanks in no small part to her extrasensory gifts and quick wit. She rarely misses details if she is able to concentrate, and while she is not capable of Sally’s intuitive leaps, she is good at connecting pieces of evidence and building theories or sussing out the truth.

## Abilities

### Benandanti

While Rosalind was not originally aware what kind of werewolf she was, she learned during the Hologram Summer incident that she was a descendant of a particular tribe called the **Benandanti**. A traditional role occupied by select individuals in 16th and 17th century Italy, the Benandanti (“Good Walkers”) were individuals who claimed to struggle against malevolent forces such as witches and demons to ensure the good fortune of the community. It is said such individuals were born with a caul, or veil upon their head, marking their birth as abnormal and their vision different from those of their peers.

Benandanti were said to “leave their body” in the shape of animals and travel into the skies or earth to fight for their cause, and by communing with the spirits and battling those who wish ill, they were able to ensure better fortune for their community. However, they were driven underground, if not entirely wiped out, by church inquisition. By the 18th century, the Benandanti were scattered into isolated cells, unable to locate their brethren and forced to limit their activities to protect others.

Around the same time, in 1692, a Livonian man named **Thiess of Kaltenbrun** was tried for openly proclaiming he was a werewolf. Thiess claimed he was one of many werewolves who descended to hell as “Hounds of God”, performing a vigil identical to that of the Benandanti. Thiess was condemned by the judges as a heretic and pagan, but he maintained to the end that he and his kind were holy believers in nature

In essence, the Benandanti were a clan of werewolves acting for the benefit of the church and humanity rather than sequestering themselves like many of their kin, combining their instincts as werewolves with the holy sacraments and blessings of the church and their faith. While not endorsed by the greater church, and greatly in decline since their height, some few Benandanti still survive in its service, generally as executors, though they are just as likely to continue operating on their own.

Compared to the other breeds of werewolves throughout the world, the Benandanti can be said to have been bred and specialized for the singular purpose of eradicating curses, and fighting techniques are carved into their genetic memory as instinct when exposed to witches and curses.

Through generations of effort and faith, their instincts have been repurposed towards resisting and combating other magical forces.

In Rosalind’s case, even without formal training, she has an instinctive awareness of--and ferocity towards--curses and witchcraft and the presence of either causes her body to react aggressively towards the source.

Furthermore, her body has a natural resistance against curses and the ability to consume them for additional magical power and reinforcement of her physical attributes. While it is not possible to break or destroy a curse, Rosalind is able to draw in and transfer curses into her body, where they are rejected and recycled by the holy sacrament of her body. By eating curses, her physical strength increases significantly, and in an area thickly steeped in curses, she could potentially even battle defensively against an “average” Servant.

In theory, at its height, she would be able to transform into a full holy wolf of the church, much like her father and the generations of Italian werewolves prior to her. However, Rosalind has never received sufficient training to unlock such a projected form, and has no one who would be able to teach her. Instead, she is limited to amplifying the physical parameters of her human body.

Nevertheless, her abilities scale according to the mystery of her opponent and the number of curses she has consumed, with her base level with absolutely no modifiers being no different than a normal human. The plus modifier on her circuits reflect their performance upon exposure to curses and mystery, as they conduct considerably more magical energy in “optimal” conditions.

### Supernatural Senses

The ability that initially drove Rosalind to the streets as a stray, hiding from people until Seigi rescued her. While she often hides them under a hood, she has the ears of a wolf - as well as the nose and eyes of one. Her sense of smell is approximately 100 times superior to that of a human and she can clearly hear things as far as 4.8 kilometres away. Her vision, by comparison, is somewhat poor, with a wolf’s nearsightedness.

The ease at which she can hear and smell initially drove her human mind mad, as she was drowned in noise and sensory stimulation. Training in meditation and mindfulness with Seigi has helped reduce this by allowing her to separate her additional senses into compartments that can be filtered or excluded from her awareness. While she cannot turn off her senses, she can filter which she is focusing on, which allows her some semblance of human life - but surprises before she can filter or categorize them are quite overwhelming.

Especially heavy scents are likely to overwhelm her in short order, even if she’s prepared.

As a result, her first impression of people tends to be the scent portfolio she associates with them, and she thinks comparatively little about what they actually look like. She’s much more interested in a pleasant scent than a handsome face.

### Biological Providence

A genetic abnormality of the Benandanti, developed over generations of breeding and consecration and carved into their genetic memory. The Benandanti have internalized one of the sacraments of the church, allowing them to forgo the use of a Bible’s psalms and pages when they need to manifest spiritual weapons. Similar to the principle behind a Black Key or ash lock, the body of a Benandanti is a natural conceptual weapon for purification.

This is the origin of their ability to eat curses as well as their primary source of weapons. In essence, the body of a Benandanti is incompatible with curses, and through the sacrament of the Church, their bodies may be transmuted into weapons with similar properties. In Rosalind’s case, by plucking hairs from her head, she can automatically convert one into rudimentary weapons in the form of **Silver Keys**, similar in form and function to the Black Keys used by the Church.

The weapons are by no means unusually remarkable in sharpness or durability, and they have a relatively simple design. The advantage of the silver daggers is that she is able to produce as many of them as she has hairs on her head, and each has the ability to enact exorcism and purification with a slice - although this effect scales in proportion with the faith of both the user and the target. A slight effect is applied if the enemy is not a believer of Christianity, but should both Rosalind and the target have an active belief, the effect of these knives are greatly amplified.

### Fighting Style

Originally, Rosalind was not well-trained in combat, carrying a knife only for basic self-defense. However, when exposed to curses, the genetic memory of the Benandanti blood inside her activates automatically. Fighting against curse-wielding magi and spirits is carved into her genetic memory, granting Rosalind access to feats and physical ability outside what would be expected of her upbringing. Rather than an experienced fighter, however, Rosalind is an instintual fighter, relying on subconscious knowledge of human anatomy and anti-magus killing techniques combined with a feral, murderous impulse against witches and curses.

Rosalind cannot control this state, and when sufficiently triggered, she will ignore any sense of pain or danger in order to eliminate her target, regardless of her will. As such, she hates tapping into these instincts, and actively tried to repress them.

Subsequent to Hologram Summer Case Files**,** Rosalind has received combat training by her honorary uncles, **Jonathan Price** and **George Borthwic**k. In particular, Jonathan has taught her to improve her knife play and George has trained and tutored her in the basics of boxing. Thanks to them, her fighting aptitude is no longer limited to instinct and uncontrollable reactions.

## Trivia

* Rosalind's original name, appearance, and base ability set was voted for by the reader participants.
* Rosalind is severely allergic to chocolate due to her wolf blood, and even a small amount can be poisonous.
* Rosalind is confirmed to be asexual, though she is not sure if she is also aromantic.
* Growing up, Rosalind's favorite books were **Generic YA Wizard School Book Series** by a certain JK Milkshake Duck. She has subsequently disowned them by the time of **Fimbulwinter.**