Illyana Rasputina

Illyana Rasputin, Ilyana Nicholas, Darkchylde (Aliases)

Ilya (Nickname)

Mikhail Rasputin, Piotr Rasputin (Brothers)

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin (Ancestor, deceased)

Salem Center, NY

## Background

### 1986 - 2002: Illyana Rasputina

Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina, or Ильяна Николаевна Распутина, was born on her family farm in the rural part of Russia. She had two older brothers, Mikhail & Piotr, who were also mutants like Illyana. As a child, she was saved by Piotr from a runaway tractor, just before her brother was recruited into the X-Men by Professor X.

On the outward appearance, it seemed purely coincidental that Mikhail, Piotr & Illyana all had have massively powerful mutant powers & were born to one family. However, these three siblings were born to a family that had been manipulated to ensure these outcomes. Their bloodline had been refined to create power, meaning not just them three would have these substantial gifts but all children born within the Rasputin bloodline would. Each would have the same genetics, share the same bloodline & lineage, each with the possibility to wield powerful mutant gifts. This is all due to the manipulation by their ancestor Grigori Efimovich Rasputin.

At the age of fifteen, Miss Locke captured Illyana & several of the X-Men's other loved ones to get them to rescue Arcade. After they were freed, Colossus returned home. But the next year, Illyana was kidnapped by Belasco & taken to Limbo. He told her he loved her and turned part of her soul into a Bloodstone, giving her great potential for power & allowing him to control her. She was also constantly beaten by Belasco's servant, S'ym.

Illyana was instructed in both combat & magic. Belasco has Illyana had to constantly battle demons to survive. After attempting to return home, she eventually became Belasco's apprentice. Her own mutant powers of teleportation discs soon activated discovered. Illyana was forced to kill one of the servants to save the life of another, whom she later killed to save from being used in Belasco's sacrifice. Instead, she magically caused her own life force energy to manifest the Soulsword & defeated Belasco. A simple looking blade upon its origin, the Soulsword began to develop intricate designs & forms upon itself the more Illyana used it, becoming more powerful with each use.

The X-Men then came to rescue Illyana the same day though it had been weeks for her. As the crossed back tot heir dimension, Kitty Pryde used her powers to make Illyana's hand phase as Belasco reach out to her. Free from Belasco, Piotr had his sister stay with him in the United States, believing she would be safe. Professor Charles Xavier used his powers to give her the ability to speak English while also teaching everyone else Russian. Grateful on Kitty being the one to save her, the two grew quite close & became roommates.

### 2002 - 2004: Magik

At the Xavier Institute, Illyana was tutored by Professor Xavier. She also joined Kitty in taking dance classes to help distract her from the ordeal she went through. Taking the codename Magik, she joined the New Mutants & trained in the use of her powers in the Danger Room. Illyana quickly learned that she was not nearly as powerful a sorceress on Earth as she was in Limbo but retained an immunity to the most powerful telepathic probes. She continued to struggle with the use of her mutant powers, often sending people to the wrong place.

Months after her rescue, Belasco made an attempt to recapture Illyana by sending S'ym after her. After the New Mutants were overwhelmed, Illyana secretly used her magic to defeat S'ym & had him swear allegiance to her.

Illyana eventually learned that when she summoned her Soulsword while on Earth, an eldritch armor would cover her body, starting with her left arm. As time went  on, the armor would cover more & more of her. In order for Illyana to be an effective sorceress she was forced to teleport most of her enemies to Limbo, where she was actually the ruler. Many times she would teleport demons from her realm to Earth to aid her. As time had passed on, Illyana revealed to her teammates & her brother that she was a sorceress.

### 2004 - 2006: Darkchylde

During a battle with the virtually omnipotent Beyonder, Illyana's dark half, the Darkchylde, emerged. She teleported her friends to Limbo & attacked them. Thanks to Kitty's fast thinking, she used Illyana's Soulsword on her & returned her to her natural form. The Beyonder later approached Illyana & offered to purge her of her sorcery. She was to agree until he said that her position as ruler of Limbo would be transferred to Kitty. Knowing Kitty could not handle the responsibility, she declined the Beyonder's gift & defeated him.

The New Mutants were later attacked by Magus so Illyana quickly teleported them all to Limbo. Shortly after, Magus also appeared in Limbo & allied himself with S’ym. Illyana tried to destroy Limbo by stabbing her Soulsword into the terrain but to no avail. She then defeated S'ym using tainted magic, leading to Illyana taking on aspects of the Darkchylde. Illyana was disgusted with this darker side of herself & refused to return to Limbo. However, Professor Xavier used Karma to force Illyana to teleport the New Mutants back to Earth despite her protests. Enraged, Illyana left the team.

Upon returning home, Illyana tried to live a normal life until she learned that Piotr & Kitty had been critically injured in their fight with the Marauders. With her brother & best friend on their deathbeds, Illyana began to believe that there was no reason to fight her descent into her dark persona until she convinced herself to fight against her inner demons. She continued to travel back & forth to Limbo, battling S'ym for dominance of the realm.

Following the death of her teammate Doug Ramsey, Illyana retreated to Limbo & returned in her Darkchylde form with her Soulsword. When she returned to the Institute, she told them how she was going to slaughter all the Ani-Mates involves in Doug's death. Mirage then manifested Illyana's greatest fear, a world overrun by demons to make Magik understand how evil she was becoming. She decided to return to the Institute full-time, to continue working on herself.

S'ym soon formed a partnership with Belasco's former apprentice N'astirh to sequester his control of Limbo. After arriving in Limbo with the New Mutants, N'astirh prevented Illyana from teleporting the New Mutants back to Earth. As S'ym attempted to decapitate Illyana, her eldritch armor grew to protect her & she teleported the New Mutants to Belasco's throne-room, where her tragic past was finally revealed to them. N’astirh then tricked Illyana into giving in to all her dark urges & she transformed into Darkchylde.

Magik forced her way back to Earth, unaware that N'astirh would piggy-back her portal. N'astirh kept the portal open by using ten mutant infants he had kidnapped as points of an inverted pentagram. Illyana battled N'astirh, who wanted her as his dark bride, until her brother Colossus arrived & rescued her. Embarrassed that her brother saw her in such a state, she teleported back, resulting in N'astirh going back to Limbo. Back in Limbo, Illyanna decided to stop running from her responsibilities as ruler.

Unwilling to lose her friend & teammate, Colossus had followed Illyana back to Limbo. As he pleaded to his sister, Darkchylde emerged from her armor & began to glow of pure light. The light grew so bright with energy until nothing was left but the charred remains of her eldritch armor. As Colossus cradled the badly damaged armor, he heard someone call his name from inside. Opening the armor, Colossus found his sister returned to her normal state.

### 2006 - 2008: Magik

After returning back to the Institute, Xavier did some telepathic therapy with Illyana to help her get over her past trauma. Allowing him to do a deep mind into her mind, he confirmed that her Darkchylde persona no longer existed with her. Illyana decided to return home, believing she was no longer a threat to anyone else. She soon settled into a normal life alongside her parents.

While out at the market, her father & mother were murdered by agents looking for Ilyana on the orders of the Soul Skinner. His power of mind control was ineffective on children & he sought to use Illyana's powers to age others. In her agony, she called her brother with the news. The X-Men arrived the next day as Soul Skinner came back for Illyana. With their help, she was able to stop Soul Skinner. No longer wanting to stay in her deceased parents' home, she returned to the Institute.

The world eventually plunged into chaos when they were hit with a Legacy Virus, a disease specifically lethal to mutants. Illyana soon contracted the virus & was placed in the medical bay. Despite all the best geneticists (Xavier, Moira MacTaggert, Beast) working to cure her, Illyana eventually died & became the first known victim of the virus. Her death greatly troubled Colossus, who had been on a mission looking for information on the virus when she passed away. During Illyana's funeral, Colossus abandoned the X-Men & ended his relationship with Kitty.

### 2009 - 2010: Darkchylde

Not long after her death, Belasco decided that he wanted Illyana's soul once more. Using a Bloodstone containing a portion of Illyana's soul, he was able to resurrect Illyana in her Darkchylde form. His creation had all of Illyana's memories but lacked her soul,. Disappointed, Belasco banished her. He then opened a rift between Earth and Limbo, pulling several of the students at the Institute into the realm where Belasco tortured some of them. He became inspired to use innocent Pixie's soul in place of Illyana's & stole a portion of Pixie's soul for the Bloodstone amulet. Pixie's soul was again fractured when the soulless Darkchylde also stole a portion in the hopes of creating both a bloodstone & a new Soulsword for herself. Pixie stabbed Belasco with the dagger, allowing Illyana to use the bloodstone's power to presumably destroy Belasco. With Belasco defeated, she once again became queen of Limbo while the students returned home.

In Limbo, Darkchylde searched for the missing bloodstone amulet & her Soulsword, eventually sensing the sword in Pixie's possession at the Institute. Attacking the X-Men at home, she retrieved the sword & returned to Limbo to find that her demon hordes had been defeated in her absence by Belasco's daughter Witchfire. Witchfire then attacked & imprisoned Darkchylde until members of the X-Men investigated Illyana's attack & rescued her. Liberated, Illyana had Nightcrawler stab her with Pixie's soul dagger, getting rid of her Darkchylde persona again. Her former New Mutants team insisted that she return home & offered her a place among her former teammates & family at the Institute.

Back to using her Magik moniker, Illyana rejoined the X-Men. The demons pleaded with her to return to Limbo, but she refused. Eventually, she came to realize that her power was broken as well. Realizing she needed help with her powers, she asked for help from Stephen Strange.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Mutant Physiology**
	+ ***Psionic Shields*:** She has impenetrable psionic shields. As such even powerful telepaths such as Charles Xavier or Emma Frost could not mentally read her thoughts or sense her psionically.
	+ ***Stepping Discs*:** She has the mutant ability to mentally control "stepping discs", which allowed herself and others to teleport across interstellar distances or through time. The discs are part of a dimension known as Limbo. However, when Illyana calls for a Stepping Disc she must use Limbo as a midway point before she can teleport to an alternate location. She has succeeded in teleporting herself across continents, from one continent to another, & even interplanetary & intergalactic distances on occasion. Apparently, she can mentally scan Limbo while on Earth in order to locate whoever she wishes to teleport from Limbo down to her, on Earth.
* **Magic:** Magik was the Sorceress Supreme of her Limbo dimension. The extent of her powers there are all-powerful & the demons of Limbo do not dare challenge her. Her sorcery was a unique mix of black magic & white magic. Magik had access to Belasco's store of mystical knowledge. On Earth, she was formerly limited in her powers but has since gained better control & has demonstrated more powerful spells on Earth.
	+ ***Astral Projection***
	+ ***Limbo Control*:** Magik’s Limbo, also known as Otherplace, was not a void as such, but rather a small pocket dimension that is tenuously connected to True Limbo, where time does not pass in a physical sense & as a result, no one can age or die. The matter within Magik’s Limbo could be shaped & transformed by the thoughts & emotions of the sorcerer who is its master.
	+ ***Mystical Armor*:** The more that Magik uses her magical power on any occasion, the more mystical armor appears on her body. The nature & origin of this armor is as yet unknown. Along with the armor, Magik’s appearance would become more demonic including horns, hooves, or a tail. The mystical armor is a natural power of whoever rules in Limbo.
	+ ***Mystical Sense*:** She has the ability to detect mystical presences.
	+ ***Spell Casting***
* **Multilingualism:** She speaks fluent English & Russian. As a native Russian, she was telepathically taught English by Xavier over the course of a single night by programming it into her brain as she slept.
* **Weaponry:** She is highly skilled in ancient weaponry, typically axes & swords.
* **Soulsword:** The Soulsword is a sword that could disrupt most spells or slay magical beings, but which passed through normal people without harming them. When using it, her body became covered in a mysterious mystic armor. The sword is a physical manifestation of her magical powers as well as the limbo dimension she rules. As the Soulsword is the living embodiment of Illyana, whomever owns the sword is considered to be the ruler of Limbo. Only the ruler of Limbo can wield the sword and only the wielder of the sword can rule limbo.

### Weaknesses

* **Mystical Limitations:** Magik's magical abilities are far more limited in Earth's dimension.
* **Dark Half:** Use of dark magic or intense emotions can cause a demonic form within her.
* **Stepping Disk Burden:** The farther she travels the less control she has. If she doesn't concentrate while teleporting she can inadvertently teleport through time as well as space. After such jaunts, she is psychically drained & must regain her strength before attempting another great teleport. It was created by Illyana herself when she was trapped in a Limbo dimension.

### Ratings

* **Acumen:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Might:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Quickness:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Mysticism:** 7 - Master / Elite
* **Gadgets:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Projection:** 7 - Master / Elite
* **Tactics:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Battle:** 5 - High / Exceptional

## Trivia

* Illyana was killed on June 20, 2008 but was resurrected in Limbo by Belasco on January 8, 2009.
* Magik has a power ranking of 160, classifying her as Power Level 4 / Moderate Threat. However, she is still regarded a possible planetary level threat due her affinity of occultism.

## Notes

* The original character of Magik belongs to the Marvel Universe.

[[Category:High / Exceptional