Estel Macabre

**Estel Macabre** or **Essa** - noble woman and once powerful witch from the Night Empire.

## Life

### Early life

Essa was born into a wealthy merchant family in the year 404 in the capital of the Night Empire. She was growing up as an intelligent, serious and curious child.

At some point in her teens, she became interested in the Unknown, the god of knowledge. She performed rituals in his honour, but they remained unsuccessful because she herself did not possess magical powers, and the Unknown did not answer any of her prayers. Eventually, she started to question the existence of gods and her interest faded.

Essa received an excellent education in the Day Republic and eventually returned home to master the family business.

Essa was remembered by people as a bit withdrawn; she preferred the company of books to real people and liked solitary walks in the forest.

In year 425, she disappeared after leaving for one of her walks. After a long search, Essa was considered missing, which broke her mother's heart.

#### The disappearance

During her teenage fascination with the Unknown, Essa learned of a nearby forest with a bad reputation for being home to a Temple of the Unknown. Over time, this forest lost its mythical appeal, and Essa repeatedly rode there to clear her mind. She entered the Temple numerous times and was not afraid of its lousy fame.

During another ride to the forest, a downpour began, and Essa's horse, frightened by the lightning, threw her off. Essa decided to wait until the rain stopped in the Temple and then look for the way home.

While wandering around the Temple, Essa accidentally discovered a secret passage that led her to a courtyard with a non-functioning fountain. It is unknown what force made Essa do this, but she looked into the water in the fountain and could no longer look away. Essa leaned closer and closer to the water until, finally, she was fully immersed in it.

> Well, hello, Essa. Your time has come.
>
> The Unknown

Only later did Essa learn that the courtyard she entered was the sanctuary of the Temple from which the priests of the Unknown drew their strength.

#### After the disappearance

Confused, Essa woke up in the water of the fountain. She managed to find the nearest town and return home, but the streets of her hometown seemed different and less familiar to her. At home, Essa was met by people unknown to her who claimed to be Macabre. When they wanted to drive her away, Essa discovered that she could influence their minds and make them do what she wanted. She made them let her into the house and explain what was going on. It turned out that Estel Macabre disappeared about 50 years ago, and her mother died a few years later from an unknown disease (although it was claimed that the disappearance of Essa broke her heart, and she never recovered). Essa was left alone with an unknown force and no close relatives.

#### The Unknown

The Unknown appeared in Essa's dream that same night. He explained that since she had found his shrine and had begged him to appear for so long, he had decided to reward her in his twisted manner. She may have missed 50 years, but now she has magical powers that will allow her to do whatever she wants. Perhaps he will require her to perform certain rituals from time to time, but this is a trifle compared to a long life and *almost* infinite powers. As his gift to her, he revealed that she has an ageless half-brother somewhere in the world. So, what will be her actions now?

### Past

Devoted to her family, Essa did not leave the capital but worked to improve herself and her family's status. Thanks to her magical powers, she made her way from just another offspring of just another merchant family to an important person at the emperor's court. Essa played with her age and used different names to make it seem like she was ageing and replaced by another woman from the Macabre family. She relished her role as an ambassador for the Night Empire, and her family became more influential than ever at court.

At some point, she met Shima Okumura, and they started a romantic relationship. Clue after clue, she discovered that he might be her mysterious ageless brother. She revealed to him the truth, but they decided to leave things as it is.

### Present

In the time of year 735, Essa, under her name, serves as an adviser and ambassador to Emperor Enif. She left the court on a business trip to the Day Republic. Essa spent some time there and began her journey back with representatives of the Day Court, including Ulrike Larey. On the way, she learned that the emperor had mysteriously died, and his son Lucius Enif had taken his place along with the dragon queen, Una.

Essa returned to a completely different court, where there were rumours about the possible murder of the emperor by his son. Essa and Lucius had a complicated relationship, so their cooperation consisted of constantly arguing about the empire's future. Meanwhile, Essa finds her powers dwindling, and it takes more and more effort to convince Lucius that she is right. Moreover, the dragon queen is not happy with her, and in the end, Essa completely loses control over the new emperor.

While Essa is busy performing rituals to an Unknown God to regain her strength, Shima takes an interest in Ulrika, a newcomer to the court.

Eventually, Essa learns that Emperor Lucius and Queen Una wish to send her to the distant Snow Kingdom as an ambassador, tantamount to declaring that her services are no longer needed. Moreover, she learns that Shima is now in a romantic relationship with Ulrike. Essa once again unsuccessfully tries to influence the court with her magic and realizes that her strength is only enough for small tricks and maintaining her youth. In the most precarious position in her life, she has no choice but to agree to a trip to the Snow Kingdom.

### Snow Kingdom

Essa arrives at the Show Kingdom with a broken heart and an uncertain future. She meets the royal family and performs her duties as an ambassador. Essa spends a lot of time in the local library and talking to the royal offspring. She eventually becomes close to Prince Frode and befriends Prince Kai and Princess Ingrid. Meanwhile, her strength is barely enough to support her youth, and the Unknown God refuses to respond to her rituals in these distant lands under the protection of another god. After the escape of Prince Kai, Essa comes under suspicion as the person who could help the prince escape - after all, she knows more about the outer lands than anyone else. Essa decides to flee from the Snowy Kingdom despite her attachment to Frode. She leaves the castle and the Snow capital undetected, but later a snowstorm arises, and Essa's fate remains unknown.

## Powers

Essa's powers were gifted by the Unknown, and there were practically no limits at the beginning. At her peak, Essa could easily manipulate people's minds, nature, and the environment. However, to maintain these powers, she had to perform often gruelling rituals in honour of the Unknown.

It is known that Essa could accidentally cause lightning in broad daylight out of strong emotions. In her presence, the windows repeatedly cracked at the moment of anger. She easily manipulated her age; even at more than 300 years old, she looked no older than 30.

Over time, Essie had to perform more exhausting rituals and make more bloody sacrifices to maintain the same strength. The Unknown eventually lost their interest, and in the end, Essa was left with a fraction of what was in her power. She believed that she would die of old age if she lost her strength entirely.

## Personality

Essa is a loner who prefers the company of books to people. However, she quickly adapts to the situation and can feel at ease in a large company, although she won't participate much. Won't give up a new friendship, but it has to be an extraordinary person so that Essa doesn't get bored too quickly.

Above all, Essa values family and family ties, and she can sacrifice a lot for this. Although all her close relatives are long dead and distant relatives surround Essa, she has spent most of her life raising the reputation of her family name. Meeting Shima was a breath of fresh air for Essa, and she finally felt at home with someone.

During her long life, Essa learned many languages and absorbed a lot of knowledge. Wherever she is, she seeks new knowledge like air and gladly learns the secrets of her god when he is inclined to do so.

## Relationships

### Shima Okumura

Although they didn't get along at first, Shima and Essa found common ground over their love of knowledge and dislike of everyone else. They became lovers, and when they discovered they were brother and sister, they decided to leave everything as it was. They understand each other perfectly, and Shima has become the closest person to Essa. However, when he left her for Ulla, her heart broke, and she could never fully forgive him for this betrayal.

### Lucius Enif

Despite his initial sympathy, Essa despises Lucius and believes he lacks the qualities of a wise emperor. She constantly finds fault with his actions and rarely holds back her words, although she never crosses the line of politeness.

In the past, Essa often influenced Lucius' actions with her magic, but now that she has less of it, he managed to break free of her influence and send her away from the empire.

### Una Moore

Una and Essa immediately disagreed on the basis of their influence on Lucius. Essa believed that Una wanted to usurp the empire and was influencing the emperor's actions too much.

### Ulrike Larey

During their journey to the Night Empire together, Essa and Ulla spent much time together, although they rarely had long dialogues. In the Night Court, Ulla gravitates towards Essa as a familiar person and tries to befriend her. Essa developed mixed feelings for Ulla because she didn't understand her signals and thought she was flirting with her.

Their relationship did not develop further, as Shima began a romantic relationship with Ulla, and Essa never forgave either of them (which left Ulla with a bitter feeling in her heart).

### Frode

AU
--

### Essa survives

* Essa doesn't disappear after the escape from the Snow Kingdom.
* She never returns to the Night Empire.
* She has a daughter from Frode, Margrit.
* She meets Kai in the Sun Principality.

### Modern au

* Essa is a single mother raising a daughter from Frode, Margrit.
* She used to secretly dare her half-brother Shima.
* She lives in her mother's old house.
* She's an archaeologist and leaves the town quite often, so she has to ask Frode to look after Margrit (or Shima's new girlfriend, Ulla).
* She's vegan.

### Mystic au

* She's a witch.
* She works as a history professor in local university.
* Hates Una.

## Other facts

* Her eyes becomes more brighter shade of green when she uses her powers or experiences extreme emotions.
* She has a heart disease in every universe.
* Her colour is dark-green.

MetaHuman