Ann Poplaw

Art by MidnightCacophony

Ann is a Blue-Green mind mage fanwalker from Ravnica. She considers her abilities to be aligned most with the concept of 'Empathy.'

She was created by MidnightCacophony.

She has her own tumblr character blog, AnnofRavnica.

## Physical Description

Ann is a petite human woman. She has fair skin, and long, thick, black hair. Due to genetic tampering done by her Simic parents when she was very young, her pale blue eyes have a bioluminescent glow. She has a very youthful look, between her stature and her face, which often causes others to mistake her for a child.

When it comes to clothing, Ann is often at the whims of whatever her friend Arachne seeks to clothe her in, given that the tailor mage is the source of all of her clothing. As for when she is given the opportunity to choose, she prefers to wear more feminine clothing with muted palettes. This is part of her attempt to be seen as a mature, adult woman, despite her otherwise youthful looks. She also tries to keep the majority of her skin covered, both to hide scars on her neck and back, and also to prevent scraps and cuts from her very active lifestyle.

## Personality

Ann is sensitive, and sentimental. As her magic deals with emotions, she can be very emotional, and rarely stops herself from expressing how she feels. This makes her an easy read, and a poor liar. She dislikes conflict, especially open combat, and often prefers to turn tail as opposed to engage an aggressor.

Due to many of the details of her upbringing, Ann has a rather poor opinion of herself, and will go out of her way to make herself 'useful' to others, in fear that otherwise they will become disinterested, and leave her. This is a great fear of hers, and she can often be described as a lonely person.

However, when using darker magics- which she is capable of doing- Ann succumbs to a shift in personality. Her eyes become physically darker in color, and she becomes more cold and uncaring as to what happens to those around her. Ann generally fears succumbing to this state of mind, and being aware of it, avoids using 'black' spells as much as possible.

## Abilities

Ann is a mind mage, but as she doesn't want to intrude overmuch on the private thoughts of others, she tries to stick to reading/influencing emotions only. As such, she does not refer to herself as a 'mind mage,' instead using the term 'empath' to describe herself. Most of her targeted mental abilities do require her to make skin-to-skin contact with the affected individual, which can be difficult in combat situations. It is far more common for her to use her empathic abilities to soothe a stationary, friendly target, making her more a utility caster than a combatant. She can also influence the emotions of those around her in an Area of Effect fashion, with the effect being centered around herself. This does happen unintentionally when she is feeling particularly strong emotions, like joy, or grief.

Physically, she is a strong runner and swimmer, with good stamina from having worked as a courier on Ravnica for many years. Her body strength is primarily in her legs, though she rarely if ever kicks while in a fight. Instead, she does wield a knife, more to discourage others from coming too close than anything else.

## History

Born as the youngest child of four to parents in the Simic Combine, Ann was the only one of her siblings to inherit both 'colors' from her parents. When her oldest brother, Christian, was finally at an age that he could care for all of his younger siblings by himself, Ann's parents devoted themselves wholly to their work with the guild. Because of this, Ann does not have strong memories of them, and considers herself to have been raised by Christian instead.

When her talents in mind magic surfaced, her parents were consulted. It was decided that instead of getting a teacher of her own, Ann would be placed in the tutelage of her sister Sarah. Sarah- also a mind mage- had already been receiving the teachings of a Dimir mind mage for years. Ann's general disinterest in the subject, especially the insistence that mind magic was a tool used to control others- sparked a lifelong divide between the two sisters. This conflict of ideals, which Sarah saw as a gross contempt from Ann towards Ravnican society as a whole, eventually brought Sarah to lash out at Ann. After the first few times this occurred, Sarah found Ann to be more useful as a practice dummy than a pupil. To this day Ann doesn't have very clear memories of this period of her life- aside from traumatic flashbacks in which she relives the fear and pain her sister put her through.

When she was about 10, Ann's parents were both killed in an accident involving one of their own krases, and the family split. Christian joined the Azorius full time, and took Ann to live with him. This time produced many of Ann's happiest memories, as her oldest brother was very affectionate towards her- to the point of coddling her and keeping her isolated from the city at large. This was mostly due to him seeing the effects of Sarah's abuse, but not knowing the cause. He thought of Ann as suffering from some kind of phantom illness, and sought to shield her from the world to help her better cope with it. This, however, left her painfully unprepared for life without him when he unexpectedly passed away, during a patrol. Ann was 15 at the time. His old squadmates did help set her up with the means to provide for herself, getting her the permits needed to do contracted courier work for the Azorius. As an unguilded adjunct, she was not paid very well for her work, and making ends meet was a struggle for many years.

Through her work delivering parcels and court summons, Ann eventually met the bookshop owner, Lady Rhyt, and her great-great-grand-niece, Arachne. Arachne and Ann were close in age, and became fast friends. These two were, for quite some time, Ann's only friends on the vast city-plane.

When Ann turned 21, her sister did make contact, demanding that the two meet, alone, to settle old ties. The now vampiric Sarah had wanted to either remove her sister as a liability- a lingering connection to her past- or enthrall her as a blood slave. Ann resisted, and Sarah took the former option, using her fangs to tear out Ann's throat. A quickly cast healing spell saved Ann from immediate death, and she awoke in the arms of an angel on Innistrad, her spark having ignited during the event.

Eventually, she was able to return to her home plane, and after speaking of her experience to the few friends she had there, Lady Rhyt taught her much about Planeswalkers, the Planes, and the old elf's interest in them. The planebound Elf then agreed to fund Ann's forays into the Multiverse, in exchange for stories, spells, and whatever else Ann could bring back on her travels.

Sarah would not leave well enough alone, however, and upon learning that Ann had survived the attempt on her life, Sarah once again planned to clash with her younger sister. Teaming up with an undead shapeshifter in the undercity, Sarah sent her co-conspirator to Ann in the guise of their beloved older brother, Christian. Believing that he had returned, escaping death to become a Planeswalker just as she had, Ann was too overjoyed to see Sarah's trap. During this final confrontation, Ann used a piece of sangrite she had been gifted with to overpower Sarah, and put an end to their conflict once and for all.

Nowadays, Ann contents herself with wandering the Multiverse, simply taking in her surroundings as she looks for a place she can feel like she belongs.

## Trivia

* Ann likes to take naps, and can fall asleep practically anywhere
* Due to more of her parents' genetic tampering, Ann is technically biologically immortal and does not age, though she herself is unaware of this fact
* She has a particular fondness for wurms and snakes, and describes them as 'squiggly'
* Her character is based around a modified deck I drafted circa Innistrad block, which can be found here.