Juniper

Juniper, the Oblivious, struggles to use her nurse training to cure her mother's mysterious sickness. Strikes a selfish pact with a creature known as the Beyonder to heal her mother, disregarding the consequences and actions. Is told to use these powers to kill evil, completely unaware she’s feeding a horror beyond her comprehension as it sends her victims to be devoured by the Beyonder, fueling it.

## Lore

### Backstory

For as long as Juniper knew, her mother Elora was afflicted with disease. Despite her constant unwell state, she made sure to raise Juniper as well as she could. Despite training as a nurse and healer, every remedy and spell Juniper tried, it all seemed to be for nothing as her mother's affliction continued to spread. Nothing seemed to work.

When the Arklight struck, her mother's condition worsened. As if the All-Mother was rubbing salt into her wounds, Elora's condition was further exacerbated by the Arklight’s destruction. Bed ridden and clinging to life by a thread, Juniper turned to prayer. Tearful, she begged and prayed for any god to hear her cries for help, to save her mother.

By some miracle, her prayers were heard. As she prayed with her eyes closed, a strange voice whispered in her head. The voice promised her that they could save her mother from her terrible affliction. Juniper opened her eyes, and demanded the voice show itself, to which it did: in the form of a glowing butterfly. Its body gave off an iridescent glow that lit up the area around it, almost as if it were a small star. The butterfly introduced itself as the voice of the Beyonder, an ancient god in a far-off realm, and asked to see the source of all the young girl's worries.

Juniper brought the showed the Beyonder to Elora, as she laid in bed. As proof of its power, the Beyonder healed Juniper's mom wounds right in front of her. Ecstatic, Juniper cried tears of joys as she gazed up her mother's rejuvinated state. But these tears were soon gone, as the wounds and corruption slowly began to grow back to their original state. Juniper looked towards the Beyonder for an explanation for this ruse. The Beyonder explained how they were currently too weak to permanently cure her mother and required time to regain their strength.

The Beyonder then offered Juniper a way to cure her mother: a contract. The Beyonder's powers were currently too drained, and they required sustenance to be able to properly cure Elora. Unable to interact with the physical realm properly, they could regain their strength if Juniper to set off and complete the tasks to help provide the Beyonder with energy. The Beyonder's contract would require Juniper to set off and slay horrible beings, and monsters in the Beyonder's name. "Kill these threats to your world and give me their power instead so we can use it to cure your mother".

Juniper hesitated. Trained as a nurse, she had sworn herself to their oath to never harm and only use magics to heal and help. This went directly against her moral code, directly against everything she had put herself through in life. But when she took one pained look towards her withering mother, a selfish yet pure desire to help her mother at all costs overwhelmed her. So, with her heart in her throat, she agreed.

In a flash of light and sparkles, Juniper accepted the contract and became the Beyonder’s champion. Adorned with a new zweihander and powers to complete tasks for the Beyonder, she set off to begin her journey, determined to aid her mother’s cause.

### Recent Events

The rumors of the Infinity Tower spread far and wide. The promise of true ascension in divinity was always a tantalizing prospect, and in as such astonishing times as now: many thought that this was the real deal. The damaged structure of the Grand Design had it such that the thinned barriers between dimensions, caused this tower to be interdimensionally fluxxed between. The Beyonder noticed this in its realm of solitude and was immediately drawn to the prospect of more and more potentia rich prey.

As Juniper finished up more and more of her duties, she was informed by the Beyonder of the tower's many visitors. Beyonder described the visitors as liars, and that their mission of ascension was merely a front, and they simply were coming for their head. Spurred on by her god's words, Juniper set off to defend them from any intruders. She couldn't let them kill the Beyonder, not while her mother still had a chance to be cured.

## Personality

Entirely motivated to help her mother from her sickness, she put away her own morals in order to achieve her goal. Unfortunately, due to Juniper's headstrong personality: she rarely thinks twice before acting and that causes her problems. While she often has good intentions, Juniper doesn't often think too far ahead, potentially coming off as ignorant and careless, despite her good-hearted nature. Her stubborn attitude to tasks gives her conviction, as it allowed her to bend her morals in order to pursue the goal of helping her mother: but does make her hard to convince if her mind is already set on things.

She holds a very cheery and enthusiastic outwards personality, bubbly as ever with a smile on her face. But after becoming the Beyonder's herald: she finds herself often having periods where she isn't smiling and simply pushing forward, ignoring the bloodshed she's caused, simply holding her end goal in mind to push her forward. While this may make some other people reconsider what they're doing, to Juniper: this is all part of her duty, not delving more into that to not burden herself any further.

## Development Notes

* Juniper was designed as the Untitled Fantasy's version of the typical magical girl, or mahou shoujo, anime trope.
	+ A typical trope is the split between the magical girl persona and their day-to-day identity. The healer side of Juniper is meant to represent this, as well as further emphasize the hypocricy and selfish decision that she made.