Althaea Néa

Althaea Néa, also known as Hope, is a member of The Equilibrium, owned and played by Hope.

## Appearence

Althaea is a young woman of average height and has a rather slim and wiry build. She has long, blonde hair and green eyes. Her most distinct feature is her extensive burn scar on the left side of her face, neck and stretching onto the left shoulder and arm. She usually doesn't conceal it, using Nen to protect the sensitive skin there.

### Equipment

Hermes Staff - a hollowed-out quarterstaff with a heavy metal round knob on one end and cap on the other. They are weighted so that the staff is perfectly balanced. Inside the hollowed out space is a reel mechanism, with a length of rope coiled around it, with a hole through which it is threaded located slightly off-balance in the middle of the staff. The staff can be used in combat as a regular staff, using Shu and the weighted ends to enhance the force of the strikes, or similar to the Rope Dart weapon, swinging and spinning the staff on the rope to further increase the strike force, attack from unexpected angles and use the rope to trap opponents.

Ritual Kit - containing a collection of candles, incenses and salves necessary to perform the Pandora's Box ritual.

Medical Kit - a regular, if a bit more advanced, first-aid kit with all the medical equipment and medicines one would expect to find there.

## Personality

If there's anything to define Althaea is, it would be her selfless determination. She will keep moving towards her goal no matter what obstacles and perils lie in her way, not stopping for anything. She is selfless - her goals are mostly oriented for the sake of helping others. Otherwise, she is focused and serious most of the time, only paying attention to what's important and dismissing any distraction - a trait she developed when being haunted by the cursed snake. Now that she's rid of it, she has become more relaxed and humorous, though.

## Biography

Althaea was born in the country of Hellas, whose culture closely resembled that of Ancient Greece of the real world. Despite being a country considered backward by the majority of the world, due to its low technological level, the country was fairly well-off due to it being focused on agriculture and cattle-growing.

Her mother was a Pythia - a high priestess and oracle of the temple dedicated to one of Hellas's gods. She retired, however, from her curacy after she has met a hoplite and fallen in love with him, leaving the temple and returning to the life of a civilian. While her husband served in the military, she earned her bread as a healer and doctor while raising their daughter. Hope was raised in loving care from both her mother, from whom she learned medical knowledge, and her father, who trained her in military combat skills.

Unfortunately, Hellas had a long-running feud with a neighboring country, which eventually sparked a war. Hellas was close to coming out victorious in the war, however the enemy resorted to underhanded methods - they hired mercenaries from overseas to aid them in the war. Not just any mercenaries either - they were Nen users specifically trained to combat armies and topple governments. One of them unleashed a plague upon the civilians of Hellas: a Gorgon's Curse, which quickly infected thousands of people with the disease.

Althaea was one of those people, but she was quick to realize that the condition for the beast that inflicted the disease to appear, one must call attention to it, as before the person cried out about the beast's presence, nobody could even see it. So as she became the next host of the beast, she forced herself to stay quiet, no matter how much the pain of the bite hurt or how much the repulsive beast tried to get her attention.

Despite that, Althaea was already bitten by the beast in the neck, and the disease began spreading, turning her skin hard and brittle, and so was her mother. The hardships the people suffered during the war have weakened them, and the disease was spreading quite quickly, but together with her mother, Althaea figured out a way to stop the spread of the disease - to cauterize the affected skin, burning it off. Seeing no other way, Althaea burnt off the skin on the side of her head and shoulder where the disease has spread by coating it with oil and setting it on fire, while her mother did the same - only the disease has spread much further for her, forcing her to burn off almost all her skin.

Althaea continued treating her mother and other people they managed to save, while being constantly assaulted by the incorporeal snake begging for her attention, knowing full well now that she can under no circumstances let anyone know it exists. Althaea has also come to a realization that the beast has awakened something new in her - unknown to her, the interaction with the Nen Beast awakened the host's Nen as well, though it would normally serve no benefit as the beast would normally quickly leave the host to die of the disease. Despite not knowing what it was, Althaea managed to take it under control once she realized that letting the aura escape made her weaker - and she could not afford to grow weaker when there were still people she could help and save.

With the mercenaries at their side, Hellas's enemy quickly gained the upper hand and invaded the country, forcing the remaining population to flee for their lives. As the incident gained public attention through the world press, United States of Saherta sent in a peace-keeping mission and offered refuge to the Hellians.

Althaea spent several years living in USS, working minimum wage just to support herself and her mother alone, as her father died in the war. Her mother was still recovering from the burns she suffered, and despite the government support the hospital bill kept racking up. All the while, she had to keep the secret of an ever-present, ever-aggravating snake creature she couldn't stop seeing even when she closed her eyes. Althaea also tried to research the Aura she now had, and get the hang of it, gaining a certain degree of mastery of Ten and Zetsu simply by training and meditating with it by herself, but lacked the knowledge to progress any further. Through her search for answers, she learned of the Hunters.

Learning more about the Association and the Hunters themselves awakened hope in Althaea, seemingly being an answer to all her problems at once - seemingly all-knowing and all-powerful, hunters could teach her about aura and rid her of the curse, and as a Hunter, she could earn enough to pay the hospital bills and take care of her mother. With that in mind, Althaea signed up for the Hunter exam. Having her father's training, basic aura knowledge and the sheer determination by her side, she clawed her way to the finals and passed the exam.

After becoming a Hunter, she found a Nen master to train her and took on Hunter odd-jobs that allowed her to get her mother recovered and taken care of, earning enough money for an apartment, live-in nurse and all the necessities, while she herself took to studying with a new goal of enrolling into university to become a doctor. Being a licensed Hunter alone was not enough for that, and Hellas's rather dated educational system fell way behind the more progressive world, so she had to catch up on the most basic high-school knowledge and pass the exams to even be eligible.

Again, Althaea's sheer determination allowed her to fully catch up on the required knowledge, pass both the high-school exams and entrance exams to the university. Using her status as a hunter, she got the university to give her Move-at-your-own-pace courses, and used Hunter resources along with tireless self-study, completed the full Master of Public Health program in five years, majoring in Epidemiology, becoming a Disease Hunter.

During that time, Althaea has also developed her Hatsu, which allowed her to get rid of the cursed Nen beast, transforming it into a Spirit Beast. Despite it having plagued her for many years, she didn't banish the spirit, instead keeping it as a guardian spirit beast, in no small part out of spite and smug triumph of now dominating and commanding that which couldn't escape from for so long.

## Skillset

### Combat

Trained in Hellas military martial arts, Althaea is proficient in CQC, using bare hands, bladed weapons and polearms. She is further trained in martial arts by her Nen teacher, and is self-trained with her Hermes Staff.

### Medicine

Althaea has a Masters of Public Health degree, majoring in Epidemiology, giving her substantial medical knowledge, mainly focusing on diseases and viruses, but not limited to it.

## Nen

### Pandora's Box

* Nen Type: Conjuration, Manipulation, Emission, Exorcism
* The user conjures up an elaborately decorated ceramic Pyxis (a cylindrical vessel with a lid). The painting on the side depicts figures which change appearances between hideous monsters and beautiful angel-like creatures, depending on the contents.
* The Hatsu can be invoked on any person afflicted with a malady or curse. To invoke it, the patient must be laying down motionless, while the pyxis stands at their head. The user then must perform an elaborate ritual that involves a sung prayer, candles lit in a specific fashion and pattern, burning incense and painting specific patterns on the patient's body with salves. The prayer, candle pattern, incense and salve types differ depending on the specific malady or curse.
* The ritual conjures up a Nen Beast incarnation that represents the malady or curse the patient is suffering from. The greater the affliction, the larger, stronger, uglier and more aggressive the Nen Beast is. The beasts usually have sickly dark colored fur or scales, and exude a dark aura.
* The user must then defeat and subdue the Cursed Beast. The beast can be damaged with Nen attacks, however is impervious to regular physical damage, but is fully capable damaging the user, the patient and the surroundings.
* Once the Cursed Beast is defeated, it is sucked into and sealed inside the Pyxis. It cannot get out by any means other than if the lid is opened. The Pyxis cannot be 'de-spawned' if it contains a Nen Beast, however it can be used to cure another curse or ailment.
* The user must then meditate with the Pyxis to 'cure' the affliction sealed inside. The greater the affliction, the longer it takes to cure it. For example, a Nen Curse amplified by Post-Mortem Nen can take literal months if not years of constant meditation. If the box contains multiple Cursed Beasts, they 'split' the meditation time between themselves, meaning it would take as much time to cure them one at a time as it would to cure them simultaneously.
* Once a Cursed Beast is Cured, it can be released from the box in the form of Spirit Beast. The Spirit Beast resembles the Cursed Beast it's cured from in many ways, especially the size and general build, but is of lighter color tones, has a much softer and gentler appearance. They also have a pure, light aura.
* The user can do two things with the Spirit Beast:
	+ The spirit beast is summoned to aid the user in combat. In this case, it is a basic Nen construct with no special traits or abilities, and its strength proportional to the strength of the ailment that it was 'cured' from. After the beast fulfils its purpose in combat, it is dispelled and ceases to exist.
	+ The spirit beast can be attached to a host in a form similar to that of a Guardian Spirit beast. It will be weaker in power than if it were used in combat, however has a hatsu-like ability based on, and usually either opposite to or protecting from, the malady or affliction it was 'cured' from. While the nature and power of the ability depends on the strength of the ailment the Spirit Beast was cured from, using it still depletes the host's aura. The beasts are very loyal and protective of their hosts. A person, including the user, can be a host to only one of such Nen Beasts at a time, but can dismiss it at any time they wish, at which point the Nen Beast ceases to exist.
	+ Releasing a Cured Beast, however, poses a great risk if there are still uncured Beasts remaining in the box, as they can attempt to escape, forcing the user to be very careful in doing so, lest they must face the beasts again, defeating them and sealing them back into the box to prevent them from wreaking havoc and destruction. If a beast escapes and is sealed back into the box, the time it takes to cure it is reset.