Madeleine

> *"Don't question my aesthetics." -* Madeleine
>
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Madeleine, commonly called Mad, is a girl with seemingly unlimited powers and one of the main characters of the series. Somewhere along her early twenties, Mad looks just like a regular human female, with jet-black eyes and hair in the middle of her back and a preference for dark, urban human clothing. She is an honorary citizen of the Qingwa, accepted as an equal by Merfolk and respected by Wolves. She's spirited and warmhearted, albeit sometimes grumpy and sassy, and fond of acting on her impulses which causes most of her troubles.

## Appearance and Personality

Having the physical appearance of a human, Mad seems out of place in the Realm, being the only one of her kind and earning her this alias (Single One) among some. Having struggled all her life to understand why she's how she is, and why there isn't anyone else like her anywhere, she had become assertive and mischievous to setup her place in the world and dispel her own insecurities.

Madeleine is extremely mercurial and open, often showing her feelings and opinions unintentionally through her powers, like changing her head into a pterosaurs's one when annoyed or spontaneously catching fire when excited or angry. Her mood swings affect the environment as much as herself, and climate in the vicinity will often respond to her emotions, and while it makes her extremely easy to read and add to her jocular nature, it can be quite fearsome when she's angered. Most of the time, though, she's a very easy going person and will always try to crack jokes and enjoy herself. Her habits include sitting on a reclining beach chair just outside her house and watching the clouds and stars for long periods, as well as collecting any kind of interesting object she finds along her way and pilling them up messily in her house. She's extremely interested in rare, exotic creatures, seriously considered setting up a zoo of sorts in her backyard but being held back by the ethical implications of it, and enjoys playing with human clothing, copying them straight out of magazines and conjuring them directly onto her body. Mad seriously dislikes being mistreated for any reason, holding deep the feeling of being an outcast, and reacts explosively to it. She's also very suscetible to pressure, hating to make though decisions on the fly or being suddenly exposed to stressful situations.

## Biography and Relationships

Madeleine's an orphan, never knowing parents or any kind of origin to herself. She was found as a newborn lying on the stones she later used as foundation to build her house, in the Qingwa vicinity, and even at this young age showed powers of a very particular and unique nature, which attracted the attention of many of the Realms races that, out of superstition or regard for her safety, cared for her until she was able to take care of herself.

As early as she could walk around on her own, Mad was already haunted by terribly disturbing nightmares and visions. She would spend days away from people to avoid exposing them to the dark spawns of her mind, since her powers reacted much easier to her thoughts before she learned to control them, and often wandered around the Woods, lured by its calling upon her dark thoughts. She spent years learning to keep her darkness in check through various means and was only found by others when lost or exhausted. Wabbits acquired a habit of carrying her out of the Woods when she passed out and delivering her to the frogs that treated her wounds and fed her, just to find her missing again hours later.

Upon reaching adolescence, Mad was much more able to control her terrors and use her powers, growing confident and happy. Hearing the stories about the Realm outside the Valley and all kinds of creatures that lived there, she often ventured alone to see it with her own eyes, making allies and friendships she never expected. These years mark the emergence of a new personality for Madeleine, when she's already confident enough to avoid exposing others to danger but also imaginatively using her powers but still holds deep the insecurity of being the only one of her kind and the host of the horrendous things only she knows she bears, which makes her short-tempered when face with injustice and prejudice.

When finally in early adulthood, Madeleine starts to look further than the Valley, or even the Realm, and finding out there's a whole other world outside it, she departs to explore it and eventually meets Alice, that brings a whole new layer of change to the Realm.

### With the Qingwa

Qingwa are still the race closest to her, feeding and protecting her as an infant and openly accepting her in their homes, they considered her a Frog Girl, nickname later used to other races when referring to Mad.

Due to Qingwa motives to helping her being diverse, some purely out of superstitious fear, her image among them varied a lot with time. Since she her teenage years, some Qingwa stopped seeing her as some symbolic representation of divinity and more like a troublesome neighbour, holding her responsible for her mischiefs, although she's still well accepted and liked among them.

### With Alice

Alice is Madeleine's best friend and most trusted companion. Mad finds in her not only a reference point but also a source of support and moral balance. Alice is the first human to ever enter the Realm, after Mad meets her and the two get on really well, and the second human-like creature to venture it, helping much with Mad's sense of belonging. She's first impressed and mesmerized by all the fantastic places and beings, along with magic and nature in the Realm, being continuously fed up with information as Mad takes her to all sorts of adventures, but soon becomes a magical creature on itself and a reliable partner. Being much more level-headed than Mad, Alice often functions as deterrent and control for her impulses, also being that has to deal with the consequences of it.

### With the Wabbits

Being smoothly inserted in Qingwa culture and villages, Wabbits are well acquainted to Mad. They're believed to be the first ones to find her in the stone, as a baby, and have shown an interest in her since the beginning. They silently cared for her in her childhood years, following her through the woods and even tagged along on some of her adventures as a teenager, but have been shunned by her since she built her house on the stone hill because they steal most of her stuff.

### With Wolf

Wolves in general have respect for Mad, as they were the first creatures outside the Valley to show up after she was found. Some think they knew about her even before the news spread out, having some sort of connection with her. Qingwa say they crowded the place and lied around the baby for weeks, allowing in only the ones intending to care for her. One in particular is very close to Mad to this day. Called simply as "Wolf" by Mad, he often comes to visit as they travel and spend time together, although not interacting much (at least in other peoples' view, since they mostly communicate telephaticaly and no one else can hear). It's believed his missing leg has something to do with Madeleine and she avoids the subject at all costs, but he doesn't seem to hold any grudges and deeply cares for her.

## Powers

Madeleine is unique in the Realm, and the human world, not only due to her physical appearance but for her abilities. She's considered capable of doing anything she wishes or thinks of. She can lift humongous weights, crack open the ground or sea, turn mountains upside down, transform herself, objects and people back and forth, manipulate the weather, summon and control the elements and create things and even living beings out of thin air. Her powers are less used like special abilities but more as very extensions of her being, manifesting naturally whenever she feels like. Shes particularly fond of playing pratical jokes on anyone that annoys her, like reversing gravity just for the target, making them fall to the sky, or manually removing their body parts like they're artificial attachments (somehow not really injuring the body but separating it while it's still functioning).

When in actual combat, she mainly relies on unbelievable physical strenght and manipulation of the environment, raising stone pillars from the ground, blooming entire forests out of nothing and summoning lakes of lava to entrap her opponents. Even though she's virtually able to make use of any element she wishes, she's known to prefer fire if she can choose, specially her signature form: crimson-red flames that don't go off even in the absence of oyxgen. She's well versed in magic, using it whenever the situation calls for a more specific approach.

Her powers have limits, though, being restricted to what she can actually envision and imagine and her own personal weaknsess to psychological stress. She can't create things she doesn't know, can't control things she doesn't understand, at least to some degree, and can't make most things vanish since the very concept of non-existence is epistemological unreachable to most sentient beings (albeit she can easily get rid of things she herself created, having profound understanding of their presence on reality since she's the one that envisioned them). Her vulnerability to emotional and psychological pressure also plays an important role, since it diminishes her confidence and makes her powers work the other way around, directly weakening her as much as she looses faith in herself.

Althoug many individuals and organizations fear and loathe her for her absurd capabilities and somewhat irresponsible behavior, she's generally seen just as a very interesting and strange inhabitant of the Realm by most people, many admiring and respecting her as a figure of popular justice, some even as a deity.

## Trivia

* Mad has a handful of physical and verbal tics. She often places one or both hands on her hips, frowns when trying to hide her emotions and tends to make up words to describe things, sticking to them even after being told there's already a word for that.
* She also has a compulsive collecting habit. She deeply enjoys new or interesting objects, food and animals, and needs to take them home, or at least some form of memory of them.