Allaine Le'Comte

Allaine is a female human of Velouvaise descent, coming from the noble house Le'Comte, She is denoted by her long hair, which she typically wears in a long fishtail braid that she accessorizes with a simple red bead at the tail, which has a single shock of red hair that she rather specifically dyes. While still in Velouve, she often wore a red tunic, but has since taken to wearing a blue tee. She wears a black jacket that is internally lined with fire-forged steel links which she very painstakingly sets both as a form of protection and as a stabilizing method for various inventions she uses- notably both to deflect the intense heats that are a part of her fighting style away from the fragile inner components of technology she uses, which include low-yield hydraulics to ease pressure and weight on her body.

Allain travels alone for the most part, although shows a willingness to function as part of a group where necessary. She is sometimes somewhat awkward when conversing with others, however does appear to maintain a level of intuitive knowledge on a large variety of topics. Notably, she appears to avoid magic where possible, and when queried on the topic will usually simply state that she has nothing against magic itself- she simply has something to prove.

She sometimes speaks of her past, and her banishment from home, however doesn't get into a large amount of detail, mostly explaining it as a result of her lack of magic and use of technology- something that is rather understandable from Velouve- but when asked about how she started learning technology in the first place, usually responds that she was self-taught, ferreting away books where she could get them.

## Velouve

Allaine was born to the Le'Comte family, a name that is very on-the-nose to their role in Velouve. A noble family that claims some stretch of land, they are well known and powerful mages from a matrilineal heritage in Velouve, and particularly are known and favored among the nobility for magical experiments they do. The family maintains the bulk of it's power by maintaining various forms of experiments in caballism, hemomancy, magical genetic engineering, and a very wide variety of powerful mystic rituals both for summoning and empowerment. While they are not the most powerful noble family in Velouve, they certainly stand as one of the more influential in the magical circles, and very firmly stand in support of the current regime.

As a result of this, the family tended to measure an individual's worth in their power and authority, and no power in their eyes were as great as a connection to the mystical arts, which had the capacity to lift an individual's ability and authority to the highest places. So when their innately non-magical daughter continued to grow and show no signs of any magical talents to speak of, it lead to large amounts of irritation. She grasped magical theory rather strongly, and could understand and latch onto the basis of magic on a broader spectrum just fine- so at first, they had high hopes in her capacity as a wizard. As time went, however, and she progressively showed that her capacity to understand the fundamental aspects of magic did not connect with her ability to actually use or interact with magic in almost any conceivable way, it lead to issues. They pushed heavily for her to receive an education, and as more teachers came back with high regards for her intellectual capacity and ability to hold knowledge, but lack of practical ability to speak of, the annoyance turned to dismay. The Le'Comte family had a magically inept daughter.

This in and of itself wouldn't have been that big of a deal- the family would have been successful in the long run had they been able to have more children, and Allaine's failure to the family would have more or less lead to the girl being pushed to the side and fundamentally ignored for the rest of her life: Supported only in the most meager ways as a result of her connection to the family, most likely to eventually be used as a sacrifice for some ritual or another since her blood as a member of the family would allow certain contracts to be fruitfully made, or certain rituals to work quite well without sacrificing a 'more important' magically inclined family member. The issue, however, is that around this time it was found that Allaine's mother had become infertile as a result of complications involving Allaine's birth, likely connected to some of the magical experiments and procedures carried out to try to maximize Allaine's usefulness when she was born, with the result being that there appeared to be no functional way of healing her mother to allow her to conceive again. Functionally, this meant an end to the matrilineal line, since even if Allaine could conceive a child for them, the child of a non-magic user would be a shame to the family regardless of their own power, and would have a steep hill to climb to prove themselves. Instead of the blame falling on the family's practices that caused the issue, however, the blame was solely and squarely placed on Allaine's shoulders as the failure and cursed child.

## The Family Engineer

Allaine, desperate to gain her family's confidence and trust in her, began seeking ways to ensure her usefulness to the family. While technology was strictly illegal, her family had permissions- much like much of the rest of the nobility- so long as they payed tithes, and they had many magical experiments that used technology as tempering emplacements to enable them to more finitely control certain elements of it. While she hadn't been classically schooled in engineering, she began quickly finding and gathering what books she could on the topic, seeking out methods of using technology in place of magic to further her family's goals. To her, trying to secure her family's love and respect was everything, and fortunately for her she very quickly took to engineering like a fish to water. She began running through book after book, securing information, and drawing out various theories and blueprints on ways of integrating these devices into various experiments she knew of to improve the results.

Fortunately, while her mother refused to consider her in any way shape or form, her father was... slightly more open. The result of delving into technology was still very much disdainful to him, however he had to admit that the theories Allaine brought forward were noteworthy, and in fact could improve efficiency in multiple areas of research by many degrees. Reluctantly, he started assisting Allaine behind his wife's back in furthering her research, and eventually started delegating projects that were considered "failures" to her. If she could make these things work with her knowledge of technology, he reasoned, there was at least something that could be gained from her.

At first, it was easy. The experiments were ethical enough, the designs simple to make... She ran through them. Then, it got harder. The experiments started delving further and further into more amoral territory, more difficult fields... However the more she did this, the more her father seemed to pay attention to her work and care for her, spurring her on, until eventually she was practically outfitted with her own laboratory to experiment in, and placed directly involved in multiple highly difficult and important projects, including one specifically designed to attempt the hybridization of mortals and outsiders to create more powerful, deadly supersoldiers to be used against Gwynwall, combining the might of a demon or devil with the anchored situation and capacity for development and growth of a mortal. This process was no longer just a matter of magical circles or some technology to center an effect... It included very deliberate, often torturous, and very inhumane practices. And Allaine was to oversee them directly, espescially in any ways that required the use of technology to stabilize, observe, maintain, and test the subjects.

And she did.

## The Hellgeist Project

Allaine had her reservations, for sure. Espescially with the young age of some of the individuals, and lack of consent. Some of the participants were younger than her, others her own age. At this time, she was incredibly young, a veritable child prodigy at 15- and in some ways she saw herself in the individuals she was working with. It was hard not to. And worse, one of the processes of this was a 'breaking process' that required the individual to be molded and shaped to be willing to accept any order from their chain of command- even if it meant killing their own. This lead to rather horrific loyalty control and combat training missions that pitted Hellgeist participants against each other in battles to the death. Granted, 'death' was an... operative term, as magic and technology were used to ensure the participants were kept on the brink of death instead, since every dead participant was a setback in research. Further, failure created it's own opportunities, as the 'loser' of these rounds were often kept stabilized on the brink of death and tortured to ensure they saw the price of failure in Velouve, motivating them to work harder to succeed in the future. Allaine, in many ways, felt like she had no choice at first but to stay involved. After all, it was her parents she was talking about... She had been a failure to them for so long, she had to do something...

While Allaine didn't normally partake in the torture itself, she also was directly involved in inventing some of the implements to do so- especially for assets that were highly magically resilient, so technological torture implements proved to be drastically more affective at providing the more painful of experiences. This did mean that there was the occasion where she had to take such matters into her own hands to ensure the implements worked, a duty she did not relish, but one she didn't begin doing for a few years into the project.

It was rare that she would take a direct hand in any particular assets, but would sometimes involve herself directly with individuals who showed an aptitude with technology. This was partly to train them in it's use, however also partly to have a closer watch on them for insubordination, since they would be the ones most likely to be able to free themselves and others if they figured out how to disengage the technology being used to keep them where they were.

Gradually, as the years went by, they expanded out from devils into other forms of fiends, fallen angels, and eventually out of outsiders entirely and into magical beats, aberrations, and even to a lesser extent attempting some modifications to living entities to give them undead traits, trying to grant the best of both worlds. Every day, she would wake up, look in the mirror, and try to remind herself that this was for her family- she needed to stay useful to her family... She needed to not be abandoned. Her family was all she had. Every day, she would go back out, and continue the experiments... Until, eventually, she started to grow numb. It blurred together, and she began to simply accept her role, even if she never came to enjoy or relish it quite like many of her coworkers.

## Rebellion

One day, she went to purchase a book from a smuggler who was supplying Cassian merchandise from over the border. It was like many days for her at first: Purchase materials, research, apply, continue... But while she was there, she ended up somehow speaking with a young man who introduced himself as Danielle. He seemed to know a bit too much about the project she was working on, dropping enough hints to catch her attention... And she began pursuing the topic, trying to see just how much he knew, and entering rounds with him verbally, trying to give away little while trying to trick him into telling her where he got the information so she could identify if there was a mole. Somehow, in some way, however, he was aware of her feelings on the research. She didn't realize what his angle was, but he started appealing to her views on what was going on, echoing some of the inner reservations she had about it... Just before she had enough, he just seemed to slip away before she could retaliate, leaving her with these thoughts, and ripping bare the numbness she had developed.

The next week was fitful for Allaine, unable to rest now that she was forced to confront what she had been doing anew, and gradually finding herself quickly and painfully coming to conclusions... She didn't think she could continue doing this. She was already killing herself internally before this was brought up, but had pushed it back more and more until she could just deal with it... but with it all pushed back to the forefront, it was going to drive her insane... And just when she was about to crack and do something reckless, she encountered Danielle again. This time, at a coffeehouse she sometimes went to. He lured her off, and they spoke again. He introduced himself as a part of a rebellion, and asked her if she was really okay with what was happening... And then began to plan. Release the prisoners, and give them a chance to go in and save them, and they would cover her escape.

A few days later, at the appointed time, she did just that. She didn't expect the action would, alone, redeem her... But to her, it would be a start. She loosened some restraints here and there, left some of the codes open at some terminals... A few things that would easily be delegated to her exhaustion if it was caught, but would still get her in a lot of trouble... And then it happened. The rebels struck, the experiments began to break free... And instead of the quieter infiltration from the open doors and eased restraints, the rebels immediately began attacking and killing. It became a bloodbath. Allaine tried to escape- she had no way of being sure she could be safe- but very quickly came under attack herself. It wasn't the rebels that attacked her, however... It was her mother.

A small skirmish of avoidance happened, where Allaine tried to keep things between her and her warpath mother, who revealed that she had been outed as working with the resistance. In fact, the resistance had intentionally sent word just before the attack, intending on it getting to her father so Allaine would get her 'just deserts' and distract him from the attack, knowing how the man tended to act... But it got to her mother instead. And as a result, it was quickly going from the rebels killing some scientists and leaving Allaine to her punishment, and into a bloodbath. Her mother, enraged at what had happened, at her daughter having been working with technology, at her father working behind her back, took action herself. Her father was already dead for his duplicity, and Allaine would be next. Guards had already been called on the rebels, and things were getting worse. Fortunately for Allaine, in the chaos, an explosion destroyed part of a wall, and she used the rubble and dust to make her escape. She never turned back.

## Aftermath

Allaine fled, and after a while of running, was forced to stop and come to multiple conclusions... She didn't know where to go... She didn't know what to do... The rebels, who she had intended on joining after this, had sold her out as a token to distract her parents and left her for dead. Her father, who had given her this opportunity? Also dead. Who knew how many of the people she was experimenting on would survive this mess... And even if the rebels survived, she knew she couldn't go back to them after this betrayal. She no longer had a home, the only remaining family she had has gone from simply disliking her and barely tolerating her to outright murderous, and she was pretty sure that she only had a matter of time before she was added to the wanted list. She also had no idea where she was at this point, although that likely would be easily handled by looking around... But as she did, she noticed a seagull flying in the air. She was incredibly far inland, so the idea of a seagull being here was... strange... And perhaps ludicriously, she decided to investigate.

The seagull lead her along a path until she came to the border of the hellfront, being able to slip through the gates due to her family name with the statement that she was going to 'investigate magical anomalies her family sent her to observe.' They hadn't gotten news of what had happened, so they let her through. the seagull lead her on, and eventually stopped at a pond that had a river leading to it, and she quickly found bits of equipment that appeared washed up here. Usable equipment. And so, for now, she fashioned herself a toolkit and other basic essentials out of it. By the time she was done, the seagull was gone, a single ribbon left in it's place. It was at this point that she realized it was likely a form of divine message, although why to her of all people, she couldn't understand... but it was a step. She took the ribbon, affixing it to the pommel of her sword, and decided it might be a good idea to stick to this for a time. She didn't know what the future was, and was lost... And Anemos was a god of travelers who helped people who were lost, right? It was as good a start as any... And so Allaine set out to the one place she thought she would never go, but the direction the seagull had flown in... Gwynwall.

## Equipment

Allaine's notable equipment is a high-intensity long-nozzled flamethrower attached to a massive blade made of fireforged steel. Affectionately calling this her "heatblade" it was the one piece of equipment she had made for her personal use while in Velouve. She didn't carry it with her while out of the workshop due to the laws about technology, however in the workshop it was very much a useful tool for defending herself on the offchance that she needed to deal with issues with the experiments. After her escape from the family compound, she attached a ribbon signifying Anemos to it in order to act as a sort of display of her change of allegiance in a way- no longer part of Velouve, she now traveled as her own person.

Notably, the heatsword is actually equipped with a chemical thrower capable of dispensing more than just fire, however at this stage she seems to mostly favor fire. She has a small blue bag at her hip that maintains multiple fuel capsules meant to be ignited by an internal mechanism in the massive compartment attached to the handle that has a small input port against the guard opposing the trigger. By inserting one of these capsules- which are roughly the size of her thumb from knuckle to tip- and closing it off, she seals it within a pressure chamber that then jettisons the material out through the nozzle. Three small exhaust holes in the nozzle are used both to prevent blockages from causing a backdraft, but also to allow the material to better spread across the blade when used correctly, enabling manueverable attacks that can change the way the chemical is spread. These chambers can be sealed with a switch if a more traditional firing is desired.