Elise Descoteaux

**Elise Descoteaux** is a member of the Grand Order of Magi's Covenant of La Couronne Astrale. Her lineages includes magi who sought mastery over the concept of Gravity. Her prestigious pedigree naturally meant that she'd be following the traditional laws and customs of the Grand Order. She befriended Amélia d'Aubigny, another mage of noble line, and her relationship with her made her realize that magi can have connections through genuine friendship as opposed to that of convenience and political gain. It was natural for her to join Amélia's Chevaliers, where her control over gravity makes her a deadly magus in open combat.

## Background

The Descoteaux are one of the prestigious mage families of the Grand Order, having about six centuries of history with them. Elise is the most recent daughter and only child of the family. As such it was always a matter of fact that she would be trained to be an exceptional magus. As with all members of the elite, she was raised from birth to be the ideal heir. She was taught the family magic and how to think as a magus.

Once her skills had progressed far enough in her family lessons, she was sent to the Covenant of La Couronne Astrale to continue her education in the classes offered by the Grand Order. The timing of her shift in education was also partially political with her parents sending her the very same month that Amélia d'Aubigny began taking courses from the covenant. The d'Aubigny family was a highly prestigious one that had been involved in the formation of the Grand Order of Magi. Naturally the Descoteaux wished to maintain connections with them and what better way than to have their heirs meet like this.

So Elise's goal was not only to become an educated magus but also to form a political connection with the next head of the d'Aubigny. She was able to pursue both goals easily enough and strengthened the alliance between families. Something unexpected happened while she was doing so though. Elise expected a mere partnership, to use each other. Yet what Amélia offered was genuine friendship. This caught the young Elise off guard as she had grown up believing the ruthless practicality of a magus was normal, friendship was never on her mind until she met Amélia, that was something for sleepers. Yet here was this girl with an even more prestigious lineage and the identity of a magus who was offering her just that.

Elise was hesitant at first and a part of her wondered if this was just to manipulate her, but she soon came to realize that Amélia really meant it. Of course Amélia still kept politics in mind but she really did want to become friends with the people she got along with. After a while Elise began to reciprocate the friendship and they became trusted friends, a rare luxury for magi such as they.

Elise found herself opening up to Amélia even more than she did around her family, treating each other as both people and mages. By the time they were in their final courses they were rarely seen apart from one another. As such it was only natural that when the Chevaliers de La Couronne Astrale were officially established, she was amongst the first wave of members to join. She has served as a sort of second-in-command, being highly competent and entirely loyal.

## Personality

Elise is an extremely punctual and routine woman. She wakes up at the same time every morning, gets in her morning exercise, has breakfast from one of a small list of cafes and restaurants, etc. When she has an appointment she always makes sure to arrive sufficiently but not excessively early to ensure she is not late. When planning to meet people she discusses every detail ahead of time. She even has favorite utensils for certain types of food. Following her plans is important to her and she tends to become irate when someone disrupts her routine or tries to add to her schedule on short notice.

Unlike her leader, Elise is largely unconcerned with the idea of rivalry. She does not see much point in spending much of her time thinking about how to compete with a single person, instead preferring to just focus on furthering her own abilities for its own sake. This does not mean she is completely devoid of competition or pride though. Elise still has pride as an elite magus and she's just as ready as everyone else in Amélia's chosen six to prove their superiority over the mages of Stonehenge.

Like many upper class mages, Elise considers herself to be above the masses of associates and low class magi. Unlike some this doesn't exactly manifest as outright hostility, snobbishness, or disdain. Rather she considers most such individuals to be entirely irrelevant and when she considers something irrelevant she treats it with mere apathy. She is above them so she does not care about their success, failure, etc. This attitude can change if one proves themself useful. On the other hand she may indeed engage in some disdain for those who seek to challenge the natural way of things.

Elise's belief in the laws and customs of the Grand Order of Magi is absolute. She sees it as the greatest and most principled alliance of magi, seeking to halt the decay of the world in both the moral and magical sense. They may be ruthless at times but such is necessary in a world quickly turning against the very concept of magic, and what child would not do anything in their power to achieve the dreams of their ancestors. She greatly looks down on any mage organization of a significantly different nature than the Order because of this.

That being said, it would not be far-fetched to claim that her personal loyalty and devotion to Amélia d'Aubigny goes even further than that. They are each other’s oldest friends, knowing each other since they were young kids taking their first lessons together. Since becoming a Chevalier the idea of challenging or using Amélia's authority has not even once entered the wildest dreams of Elise. Amélia's goals are her own and so it is the other way around as well. Even Amélia's sense of honor has somewhat rubbed off on Elise, though she isn't quite as strict about it. The only reason she would honor a deal with a sleeper or criminal, for example, is the practical reasoning that going back on one's word tends to reflect poorly on future deals.

Most of the time, Elise conducts herself in a very calm and composed manner. Her expression rarely changes from neutral even when speaking with friends, though most of them have figured out how to pick up on her more subtle tells over time. This is the image she likes to project as a logical and practical magus. Wearing one's heart on their sleeve is either a luxury only afforded to the very top or a foolish mistake committed by those at the bottom.

## Abilities

### Magic

The Descoteaux are amongst the families who sought control over a concept of nature such as the Saunders with their manipulation of weather and the Grecos with their domain over time. In their case they pursued the concept of gravity. Over the course of six centuries they have become true masters of gravity magic. Within 3 meters of herself, Elise is capable of affecting the power and direction of gravity at single line or single action speed. This allows her to walk along walls as though they were ground, crush things around her with immense gravity, put herself in zero gravity, or even engage in directed flight. She has an automatic defense type spell that detects threats to her and reacts accordingly by using gravity itself to push away anything with mass or energy. She can also easily exempt herself from her spells if she so wishes, allowing her to do things like flinging a target into the air while remaining perfectly grounded herself. These powers alone make her formidable but it's said that to fight her on a battlefield that she has prepared is essentially suicide to normal opponents. Using large-scale bounded fields she can even manipulate gravity to her whim on the scale of a building. Under such conditions even her leader Amélia would have to give it her all to defeat Elise.

### Orbite

A set of eight metal orbs roughly the size of a tennis ball. They are lined with dust purchased from the Schnees, particularly gravity compatible dust. Elise has full control on where gravity pulls these orbs, essentially being able to telekinetically control them. This gives them great usage as weapons as they can move with the speed of a bullet, though admittedly such speed does require sacrificing fine control over their path. Aside from that they are also capable of producing 15 newtons of gravitational force for the purpose of simple pulling or repulsion. That being around 1½ times the gravitational force on earth's surface, it can be difficult for those without flight related spells to counter it.