Calista Arud

> I must say, your mother was certainly a special individual to have the ability to pass down a power like the rulers of old did.
>
> Calista Arud to Ophelia Demoiselle

## Calista Arud

### Nickname

CalCalli

The Red Witch

## Professional Status

### Occupation

Professor of Aura Studies & Semblance Mastery

## Media

### First Appearance

"Preludes"

Calista Arud is a character in Team OPRA's story. She is the professor of aura studies and semblance mastery at Haven Academy. Her weapon of choice is a multi dust wand called Last Midnight.

She first appears in "Preludes" at the opening ceremony to welcome the newest students to Haven Academy. Afterwards she later listens to Anna Atwood vent about the more volatile and unruly students at the academy. In "The Girl in the Mountain Part 1" she chaperones students into the Forest of Suikazura for the Semblance Mastery camp that helps students train and hone in their semblances. After Team OPRA find Gilford MacAllister and a kidnapped Senator Greene, Calista cuts the camp short and returns the students home.

In Volume 2, She travels to Beacon Academy to spectate the 40th Biannual Vytal Festival. She, Anna and Keiichi meet the faculty in "The Last One You'd Expect". During preparation for the Beacon Dance, Calista watches Harold Mulberry talk and give advice to Ophelia about learning to forgive someone's past mistakes. Later on, she encourages Ophelia to act on that advice to forgive Pierre, despite not knowing he is the person in question.

Calista is later seen assisting in the Vytal Festival. In "Anything but Lonely" she is seen adjudicating the match between Team BERL and Team OPRA in the doubles rounds. When the grimm invade Beacon Academy, she is seen protecting students who are evacuating the academy.

After the Fall of Beacon, she returns to Haven Academy.

## Appearance

### Physical

Calista stands at 6’1 and weighs 130lbs. She has a thin physique with an oval head shape. She has purple eyes with jet black hair that is wavy and measures to her chest. Despite her age, Calista retains an… unusually youthful appearance with smooth healthy but semi-pale skin. Calista is also shown wearing make up including red lipstick.

### Attire

Calista’s attire consists of a black sleeveless jumpsuit with purple buttons down the centre of the bodice as well as a pair of brown and black high boots on her feet. Over that, Calista drapes a long coat without having her arms in the sleeves. The coat itself is carmine red with gold embroidered details and features a split at the tail of it and her emblem on the back.

## Personality

Calista is a wise, quick witted, somewhat stern older woman. Being the current longest-residing teacher of Haven, Calista brings large bouts of wisdom not only in the field of her work, Aura and Semblances, but also for life occurrences themselves. Calista is somewhat mysterious and deliberately cryptic, even misleading with information about herself, especially with the subject of her true age.

## Background

Not much is known about Calista's past. At some point she was hired by Leonardo Lionheart to teach at Haven Academy.

## Abilities and Powers

Calista is an incredibly skilled and experienced huntress like her other associates in the Haven Faculty. Despite her age, she is still incredibly fit to take on combatants. With Last Midnight she utilizes a strong dust-focus style of combat by attacking her enemies with various ‘spell’ like elemental attacks. Calista can attack from varying ranges and can even use the wand itself as a melee tool to deflect and parry attacks.

### Weapon

Calista’s weapon is called *Last Midnight*. It is the *Revolver Chamber Dust Wand* (RCDW). It is a wand-like weapon built with a chamber of a revolver pistol. The chamber fits six small cells of powdered dust. With this dust, Calista casts various elemental spell-like attacks on her opponents. Calista uses Fire, Ice, Rock, Gravity and Electricity.

### Semblance

Calista’s semblance is *Witch’s Eyes.* Through the use of Witch’s Eyes, Calista can observe a person’s aura on a deeper understanding. When using her semblance, Calista can view how a person’s aura behaves, moves and how it changes depending on the person’s actions. From Calista’s view, everything will turn black except the person she’s observing, who will become a shadow-y figure in the colour of their aura. To the person’s perspective, Calista’s eyes will glow a dark red when her semblance is active. Calista can use her semblance in battle to measure aura of her allies or her enemies for a variety of support like uses, whether it be to see if an ally needs to fall back or what the status of an enemy's aura is. It often causes tunnel vision for Calista and can lead to her being susceptible for attacks.

## Relationships

### Leonardo Lionheart

Calista has known Lionheart for a long time and is shown to be confident in him as a work associate as evident when she assures Anna that Lionheart knows what he is doing

### Anna Atwood

Calista and Anna are shown to have a close friendship with one another, so much so that Anna regularly confides in Calista when it comes to issues within the school.

## Trivia

### Allusion

* Calista is inspired by the character of The Witch from the 1986 musical *Into the Woods* by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.
	+ Her weapon, Last Midnight, is named after a song in the show.

### Colour Naming Rule

* Calista is a Greek name meaning "cup; fairest, most beautiful", the former of which can be tied to the colours in metal used to create cup-wears, such as silver and gold.
* Arud is a Nepali last name meaning ‘Champion’, which brings to mind the colour gold.