Koschei

# Character Information

### Folder Link

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/172HgI-RN8idsuV6LdskxAAmAkCPgL-mA?usp=sharing

### Summary

Koschei, a banshee mystic adept, specialized in combat (via archery and alchemical preparations) and stealth (via spells and gear) due to her Vory agent background, she is now as capable of those things as before, but due to her newfound spirituality, prefers to take jobs in which she has the chance to not kill, or at the very least only kill those that deserve it.

### Goals

* Make a name for herself in Seattle again after the Haven days.

* Become the baddest bitch on the block.

* Archieving both Golconda, the near Nirvana state where an infected is capable of moving past their hunger, and the Magnum Opus, the metaphysical travel to obtain the Philospher's Stone.

* Be, despite everything, a good person

## Background

Katerina's life started from the love Mikhail, a Vory avtoritet with magical powers, and Summer, an elf joygirl. For the Vory code, one cannot be part of the organization and have a family, so her father was forced to abandon her and her mother, quite literally, on the streets.

The mother's services were very requested, and thus the young daughter never went to bed hungry, but the squallor of that lifestyle marked her. Not being able to access education, she had a lot of free time, that she used to roam the streets.

Yes, a 5 y.o. left to just chill in the alleys of Everett is a disaster waiting to happen, but everyone there knew who her father was, and while he was not there for her, they wouldn't take the risk to anger "Mik the demon". So, she had a chance to feel the flow around her. The energy that spanned across those lowly barrens, from the diseased rats to the plants choking under layers of concrete, everything had a voice, and everything made sense for her. It is not uncommon for awakened to reveal their nature at an early age, but for her it was particularly staggering, given her complete lack of direct knowledge of magical theory.

She was clearly drawn to the chaos tradition, not relying to any set of rules or symbols to manifest her magic, just advancing her understanding through sheer trial and error. Her go to alchemical components are pigeon feathers, shards of glass and StufferShack brand bacon flavored soybars, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

At the age of 14, her mother passed away, leaving her completely alone and orphaned. She will never know if it was through her father's beggings, simple compassion or some sick twist of fate, but the same organization that left her in the streets offered a way out.

The deal was simple: let Svyeta, a boyevik, take her in under her wing and see if she had a useful skillset, and if she thought that Katerina was ready, at her 17th birthday, she would have her officialy become a Vory shestyorka. The young elf took the deal, and quickly realized how much of an harsh teacher Svyeta was. Every waking hour where she was not directly involved in some activity, she would make Katerina study, try out spirit summoning, casting spells, using fists, pistols, rifles and bows at the firing range, attempt to pick pockets or sneak.

In those 3 years, Katerina showed little aptitude towards the more astral bound practices, but proved herself a great fighter, to the point where her teacher asked help from former friends to make her learn some Kyujutsu techniques. At her birthday, she was sent to her first mission, simple stuff, sneak into an apartment, steal a betaware cyberarm stored in its original cache under this dude's bed, and get out. She did exactly that, and that was the first step taken towards becoming a true made woman.

In the following years, her superiors realized how much of a nightmare she could be on the field, and decided to let her loose way more often, resulting in more and more bloodshed on her hands, bloodshed that she for one welcomed, after all it was about protecting the interests of her family.

In one of those more gruesome jobs, she was supposed to be part of the support team that overlooked a particularly hot negotiation between the russians and some members of the Triads. It all happened so quickly, someone taking something out of his pocket, Katerina putting an arrow through his skull, and all hell breaking loose in a second. They were outnumbered in that firefight, but somehow, probably out of sheer survival instinct, the adept managed to kill much of the opposing force, as did one of theirs. Only a single person standing on each side of the room, her, and a man with an AK, paler then the others. He knows his mag is empty, so instead of reloading, starts to run towards her at breakneck speed, she has no time to react, and is quickly overwhelmed by the man, who, much to her surprise, sinks his teeth deep into her neck. She had no way of defending herself against the overwhelming strenght of the assailant, who maybe out of a twisted desire of vengeance for his dead comrades, maybe out of sheer hunger or as a pure act of evil, drained her empty and left her for dead.

Turns out, she survived, but, well, she was not the same.

The following days were the worst of her life, reduced to the state of a feral beast, hunting down anyone who dared to enter her hunting grounds. Innocent bystanders? KE officiers? Vory comrades? She doesn't know or remember (nor she wants to remember) who and how many people she killed in that time frame. When she was back at thinking straight, that experience deeply marked and traumatized her, to the point where she felt compelled to meditate on what her life meant now, and reconsider all her values and alliances.

In the following months, the defining trait was rage. Rage against the cruel World that allowed her to become a monster, rage against the Vory that sent her to her death, rage against the man that turned her, rage against her magic, still too weak to stop this. Yeah, lots of rage.

After that, needing a new source of income, she joined the Haven, where she also came in touch with some of the eldest infected in Seattle, and other mages of superior power, and started living the hobo life, out of desire to commune with the World around her, and hear its whispers.

She made herself famous with various exploits, from being part of the strike team that put down the legendary King Beef, an extremely powerful adept went berserk, but also several sneay jobs, the capture of a moose, the protection of the DA, and other more or lesss serious tales.

The two biggest things that the Haven gave her, however, were a team to help her track down and kill the man that infected her with HMHVV, and her following sence of peace and renewed purpose, and Six of Hearts, real name Anita, woman and fellow runner that she loves dearly and that gave her hope that, despite everything, she could have a positive impact to the world

## Narrative Significant Qualities

* Agile Defender - "Look, when you are this fast, you gotta make it count, and make yourself an hard target."

* Candle In The Darkness - "I don't like the word hero. But I like to think I try to do the right thing."

* Dual Natured Defender - "Severing my connection to the World is painful, but sometimes necessary."

* Infected (Banshee) - "Yeah, I'm a damn bloodsucker. Don't get moral on me, I hate the virus more then you could ever do"

* Infected Optional Power (Regeneration) - "I survived some pretty nuts stuff. Not many people can claim to have just got up after being literally cut in half with a chainsaw"

* Made Man (Vory) - "We are not one of your go-gangs, we are family, and I'd get a bullet for my brothers, as would they"

* Mentor Spirit (Firebringer) - "I accepted the guidance of Sulphur, principle of the Soul, That Who Gives, and I accept the mission of being catalyst of change"

* Code Of Honor (Avenging Angel) - "For as monstrous as I am, I don't feed on those I don't plan to kill, and I kill only those that deserve it. It is not enough, but it is the best I can do for now"

* Dependant (Cigarettes) - "It's not like I even can get sick from them! Ok fine, going through a pack and an half a day is a lot, but who cares!"

## Run History

CDP: 2

Doc Sproket's Return

Trust Issues

New Year's Revolution

A Shadow of a Hound

## Affiliations

### Contacts

* Ace Powers, Fixer, Horizon mid-high level exec, 6/2
* Boozeman, Networking, Club Hopper, 1/1
* Cassanda Withers, Networking, FBI big shot and Mantis spirit host, 8/2
* General Dave, Service, Restaurant owner, 3/4
* Nameless, KAGN, Catholic priest and ghoul community leader, 5/2
* Orianna Cazador, GNKA, Urubia drake and black market queen, 6/2
* Our Lady Of The Perpetual Saturday, Networking, Hippie cult leader, 2/1
* Svyeta, Fixer, Vory awakened trouble solver (and Koschei's mentor), 3/4
* Teldragon, KNAG, Free spirit attempting to become metahuman, 5/2

### Enemies

Fear the Dark

Yellow Lotus and Red Dragon triads

# In Character Information

## Symbols and Signatures

The most important symbolism for Koschei is, of course, the one associated with the Vory. She bears many of their tattoos:

* A St Mary holding Jesus on the back, because she is a criminal since she was a child
* A skull fitted with a cybereye and a small dragon circling around it, because she is an assassin and has killed both augmented and awakened targets
* A pair of small blue eyes on the ribs, in the left side of her chest, signaling her homosexuality. It used to be a mark of shame in soviet times, but she chose to make it herself and bears it with pride
* Two sets of letters on the fingers, "ОМУТ" on the right (acronym of от меня уйти трудно, or it is hard to escape from me) and "МИР" on the left (меня исправит расстрел, "only execution will correct me", it means that she will never stop being a criminal)

But, after the infection, and her consequential newfound spirituality, she also plans on marking her body with the symbols of traditional alchemy, which as been a certainty in the chaos that is now her life:

* 🜍, Sulphur. One of the Three Pillars of Alchemy: Soul. The active principle, the "Sun", red and lowly Hellfire, raised and elevated in the pure white Divine Flame of Creation. (Mentor Spirit: Firebringer)
* ☿, Mercury. One of the Three Pillars of Alchemy: Mind. The passive principle, the "Moon", multitude of toxic compounds, raised and elevated in the singular Quicksilver, sublime Formeless Thought. (Mystic Aptitude)
* 🜔, Salt. One of the Three Pillars of Alchemy: Body. The balanced principle, the "World", created, not found, and Glory of the Universe Made Whole, weight and matter not as shackles, but perfection crystallised. (Alchemical Focus)
* 🜁, Air. One of the Four Basic Elements. The upwards movement, the speed, and freedom. The flow of the winds, and blood in one's body (Combat Sense)
* ⊛, Magnesium. One of the mundane elements, it possessed the capability of self continuation and propragation, once it starts reacting, it's nigh impossible to stop. Finite birth, but infinite life. Mundane life made eternal and Divine. (Regeneration)
* ♑︎, Putrefaction. The "slaying of bodies", elimination of individuality. The act of melting everything into a formless and featureless void, blacker then black. The horror of the unphantomable unity of the Nigredo is more then enough to induce existential panic. (Fear) The "air" symbol, on her left ankle, representing the awareness and swiftness that comes with attuning with the Wind, acting as a Qi Focus (Combat Sense)

## Matrix Search Table

 3
 6+

## Shadow Community Table

 3
 6+

## Assensing Table

 2
 3
 4
 5+

## Assensing Table: Mask (11 dices)

 2
 3
 4
 5+

## SINs

R6 Lena Tolsoj, UCAS, Awakaned Security (Weapon, Adept, Mage licences)

R6 Natalya Zaystev, EVO, Corporate Headhunter (the HR kind)

## Appearance

Koschei is a 2,07m ('6'9) elf woman, with pale skin and two eerily purple eyes. She sports long wavy white hair, and usually uses black nail polish and lipstick, but has been knew to bring radical changes on a whim (thank you Makeover for being a spell that exists).

### Clothing

Mixed bag, when left on her own devices, she will always go for something punk and quite literally out of a dumpster, especially her armored military green parka, that is now more pins and patches that actual fabric. When forced in high society (ugh) she goes for more a butch style, favoring suits over dresses.

### Matrix Persona

A phoenix, with the sulphur symbol carved in black on its chest