Joan of Arc

## Jeanne d'Arc

* Lesser Angel

**Jeanne d'Arc**, also known as **Joan of Arc** or the **Maid of Orléans**, is a heroine of France who fought in the Hundred Years' War and one of France's patron saints. She is one of the surviving souls who joined Project Elohim and is now a Lesser Angel serving in Heaven.

She participated in the Azazel Cup as a [Knight] of Team Reminders of Heaven's Wrath.

## Overview

**Joan of Arc** (French: *Jeanne d'Arc*), who is now nicknamed "**The Maid of Orléans**" (French: *La Pucelle d'Orléans*), is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War. She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Joan was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, a peasant family, at Domrémy in the Vosges of northeast France. In 1428, Joan, who was about 17 years old, traveled to Vaucouleurs and requested an armed escort to bring her to King Charles VII. Joan later testified that she had received visions from the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination.

Her request to see the king was rejected twice, but eventually the garrison commander Robert de Baudricourt relented and gave her an escort to meet Charles at Chinon. After their interview, Charles sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief army. She arrived at the city on 29 April 1429, and quickly gained prominence for her role in lifting the siege nine days after she arrived in Orléans.

During the following June, Joan played a key role in the Loire Campaign, which culminated in the decisive defeat of the English at the Battle of Patay. After the battle, the French army advanced on Reims and entered the city on 16 July. The next day, Charles was consecrated as the King of France in Reims' cathedral with Joan at his side. These victories boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory in the Hundred Years' War at Castillon in 1453.

After Charles' consecration, Joan and John II, Duke of Alençon's army besieged Paris. An assault on the city was launched on 8 September. It failed, and Joan was wounded by an arrow. The French forces withdrew and Charles disbanded the army.

By October, Joan had recovered and participated in an attack on the territory of Perrinet Gressart, a mercenary who had been in the service of the English and Burgundian faction, a group of French nobles allied with the English. After some initial successes, the campaign ended in an failed attempt to take Gressart's stronghold at La-Charité-sur-Loire. By December, Joan was back at the French court, where she learned that she and her family had been ennobled by Charles VII.

In May 1430, Joan organized a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which had been besieged by the Burgundians. She was captured by Burgundians troops on 23 May and afterwards exchanged to the English. She was put on trial by the pro-English bishop, Pierre Cauchon, on a charge of heresy. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about 19 years of age.

In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III investigated the original trial, which was found to have been by deceit, fraud and incorrect procedure. The verdict of Joan's original trial was nullified and the stain on Joan's name declared to be erased.

Joan has been venerated as a martyr since her death, and after the French Revolution she became a national symbol of France. She was beatified in 1909, canonized in 1920, and declared a secondary patron saint of France in 1922. Joan of Arc has remained a popular figure in literature, painting, sculpture, and other cultural works since the time of her death, and many famous writers, playwrights, filmmakers, artists, and composers have created, and continue to create cultural depictions of her.

## Appearance

Contrary to popular depictions of her, Jeanne wasn't exactly the most feminine of soldiers, being fairly tall, physically fit, and well-toned with muscles lined throughout her arms, legs, and abdomen. She had dark-gray eyes, short and shaggy black hair, and a small scar below her right eye.

Following her Angelization, her appearance was immensely enhanced to the point of divinely beautiful, albeit still looking more androgynous than feminine. According to Odin, she could only be described as a "one-of-a-kind, true Amazonian beauty", one that his old followers would gladly kill each other just for a chance to court her, if she hadn't killed them first that is.

Like other angels, she possesses four pairs of large and feathered wings, each with a wingspan of 3-meters in length. The wings themselves are pure-white for the most parts, though they faded into a crimson color at the feathers' tips, thus making them look like they have just been dipped in blood. She also has a golden aureola behind her, intricately engraved with images from her human life.

She wears a relatively simple attire, consisting of a short light-brown jacket, a white shirt underneath, a brown sash around the waist covering her hips, brown knee-high leather boots, and a dark-red scarf wrapped around her neck. When entering combat, she wears a gleaming suit of armor with the sigil of the Heavenly Host imprinted upon her breastplate and her helmet is decorated with the image of the Christian cross entwined with the *fleur-de-lis* symbol.

### True Appearance

Like other reincarnated angels, Jeanne possesses a true appearance unlike the uniformed form most pure angels possess. In her true form, she becomes a giant humanoid entity made of white holy fire wearing a gleaming suit of armor, with two pairs of floating gauntlets by her side acting as her arms, two of which hold giant swords while the remaining two placed before her chest in a praying position. Growing from her back are giant church bells in the shape of white lilies, whose ringing can create shockwaves capable of obliterating entire skyscrapers.

## Personality

Although Jeanne is described as a taciturn and cool girl when acting as a military commander, her natural self is a plain and quiet girl who was forced to grow up fastly for the sake of others. She puts order first, and will wield a sword for the sake of the rules, but she fundamentally believes that lawfully right does not always mean morally right.

Because of her early involvement in the war and the burden put on her by her status as a prophet, she developed a generally cynical outlook on life and accepted the world as a cruel place where only those who are strong truly have the chances to survive. As the war continued, she became noticeably more emotionally withdrawn and serious, but she was still devoted to the cause and cared deeply for her comrades, especially for Bertrand de Poulengy and Gilles de Rais who she viewed as older brother figures.

Despite this, however, she doesn't have a single regret regarding her life on Earth. She does not wish revenge or wish to be saved and it was enough for her to know the life that she lived alone. She does not believe that God had forsaken her in her last moment, but rather, He has never forsaken a single person but there was just nothing He could have done. For her, praying and giving offerings are acts not for oneself but for the Lord, and she believes prayers will heal His lament and sorrow. She seeks peace and refuge in God. The moment her prayer begins, she becomes separated from the world - Removed from the past, the future, and reality itself. She is there not for any particular purpose but simply to offer a prayer to God. To her, every second of prayer is as important as every breath she takes, and there won't be a day passed where she does not pray.

At her core, she is a kind and caring person who greatly cares about the happiness, satisfaction, and safety of others. Befitting a legendary saint and a former prophet, she is fiercely protective of humanity and is willing to risk it all for their protection and growth. According to Michael, her true loyalty lay in God and His greatest creations - Mankind - and the faith between her and him is solely based on his position as the [Guardian of Mankind].

On the battlefield, she is an inspiring leader, capable of using her natural charisma to lead her allies and soldiers into battle by using their faith, their family, and their patriotism as motivation for their fight. According to Odin, although she's a Catholic French, he couldn't help but notice how she perfectly embodies the virtue of a valkyrie. Despite her position as a commander and wielding Épée de Clovis, the Holy Sword of St. Catherine of Alexandria, she had never used it in the war, vowing to never shed blood of another human being, enemy or otherwise.

For supernatural creatures, however, she had fed the sword with their blood for the entire duration of the war, from monsters preying upon the innocents to daemon tormenting the soldiers in their sleep. To them, she was a cold, merciless, and ruthless warrior of the Christian Faction. She herself admitted that, while she would never spill *human* blood nor would she condone it, killing non-humans is fair game.

## Equipment

**Épée de Clovis** (エペ・ド・クロヴィス, *Epe do Kurovu~isu*): Jeanne's holy sword and weapon of choice. It was once wielded by Charles Martel to fend off the invading forces of Umayyad Caliphate in the Battle of Tours, and before that, used to decapitate St. Catherine of Alexandria under Emperor Maximian's commands. It has the power to draw out sin and make those who bear witness to them face their own evil, wreathing them in purifying flame until they are nothing but ashes.

**Banner of d'Arc** (ダルクの旗, *Daruku no Hata*): In her past life, Jeanne was known for waving her flag on the battlefield, inspiring and uplifting her soldiers who had believed a holy maiden walked among them, and thus, motivating them into continually protecting her as she ran ahead in battle as the vanguard. However, when she was captured, the banner was hidden away and later destroyed so the English couldn't get a hold of them.

## Trivia

* Her birthday is January 6, though due to a lack of recording, she's not sure if that's accurate.
* Her guardian angel is Michael, though according to Gabriel, he did a "shitty job" protecting her.
* She likes to have a plate of quiche and a nice glass of Beaujolais after a long day at work.
* While she understands why people would depict her as more feminine or emotional than she really is, she doesn't understand why people often associate her with blonde hair.
* She was often compared to biblical heroines such as Esther, Judith, and Deborah.
* She is the patron saint of martyrs, captives, prisoners, soldiers, military personnel, and people ridiculed for their piety.
	+ She is also the patron saint of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and Women's Army Corps.
	+ She is most well-known for being one of the patron saints of France, alongside St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, St. Radegund, St. Remigius, St. Petronilla, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Theresa of Lisieux, and the Virgin Mary (as "Our Lady of the Assumption").
* According to legends, during her audience with Charles VII, she was able to instantly recognize the man they introduced was not the king, but rather a servant while the real one was standing beside him disguised as his aide. According to her, it wasn't a revelation from God, but simply because: "*When someone is that self-satisfied, you’re going to notice whether you want to or not.*"
* Among the revisionist theories made about her by modern authors, the witch-cult theory made by Margaret Murray was the one she despised the most, as it portrayed her and her comrade Gilles de Rais as pagans who were fighting to oppose Christianity's influence in France - Something she considers to be a grave insult toward her devotion toward God.
	+ According to Catherine, had she not been restrained by other saints, Murray would be smote the moment her theory was published.