Hedwig Hartmann

## Appearance

**Hair**: Dirty Blonde

**Skin**: Fair

**Eyes**: Blue

**Height**: 6’0”

**Weight**: 135

**Markings**/**Noticeable** **Features**:

## Personality

Hedwig is, on the surface, a very driven and serious woman. She doesn’t talk much, and when she does it is often to express her opinions or tell someone exactly what they’re doing wrong in their lives. Highly opinionated and intense, it’s clear to most that meet her that she isn’t one to trifle with.

However, her outward intensity is generally an act. She cares deeply for her family and her subordinates, and every one of her actions is to further them and the general people… by any means necessary.

## Abilities

Skilled Lawyer: Hedwig has been present for most of the legal proceedings her father undertook while he was sane, and through him learned all the little details in words that the wealthy take advantage of in order to exploit the law. She knows all the loopholes, all the cheats and everything the law covers, and can negotiate or facilitate near anything.

Duelist: Since she was a young woman, Hedwig was trained by her father to be proficient in both her Sabre she carries with her, as well as dueling pistols for long-ranged duels.

Highly Educated: It goes without saying, but to be a successful lawyer such as herself one needs to have a rather extensive education.

Magical Knowledge: Though she has no aptitude for magic herself, she is rather well versed in its effects. She knows how to spot magic being used, even the more subtle mental or biological magic, and also when it is being used on her.

Strength: Due to her father’s magic, her muscles are extraordinarily strong, able to compete even with circus strongmen despite her rather lithe frame.

## History

House Hartmann is a relatively new Lesser House put in charge largely of the correctional facilities of Ashmoor, though that is more by circumstance rather than tradition. She was born to Kaiser Hartmann and his late wife Susanna Hartmann, who died from complications in childbirth, and was rather… frail. She was thin, sickly and could hardly even crawl by herself, but Kaiser was a very busy man and had no time to attend to such a weak daughter, so she was mainly raised by her family’s servant staff for the first years of her life. Then, she learned something about her father that changed everything: He could use magic.

His magic was far from pretty or kind, but he spent his time learning it for his family. He specialized in Biokinetic magic, however he only used it in a medical sense once. After years of using his magic to get a read on witnesses based on their heart rates, manipulate jurors with their brain chemistry, and altering the law with his charisma alone, he decided he could use his magic to change a person for once. He fixed his daughter, adding muscle mass to her frame and boosting her immune system to normal levels. For once, she could go outside and enjoy herself instead of getting sick! The feeling was utter bliss.

She spent the next few years of her life following her father’s footsteps; going to the same school, getting the same grades in the same classes, all to become what to her was the perfect person. She idolized her father for curing her of her illness and wanted to be just like him. Soon enough, however, she’d come to regret her decisions. He was good at his job, so good in fact that the Chancellor had appointed him as the Minister of Justice. A great promotion to be sure, but it took a toll on his body that no one had expected. Upon his appointment, he started using magic nearly constantly to monitor the living things in his environment; make sure no one was lying to him or trying to sneak upon him. He became increasingly paranoid, taking steps to ensure that no one could ever betray him… including his own daughter. She was locked away in the estate, barred from leaving just as though she was a sickly child again.

Her new days were filled with naught but reading and games of imagination, where she would talk to herself in fantasy worlds of her own design. She had no real friends, nothing but time and her thoughts. Her father, who once was never home due to his constant work with the nobility, had eventually shut himself into his study, not even coming outside to eat. After around a year, she grew worried and looked inside, only to find something that wasn’t human. Or, if it was, it wasn’t human anymore.

She spread the word that her father had died, that an illness had left him bedridden for months until he finally died. She was appointed to his old position by the Chancellor mere weeks before he too passed, and Hedwig resolved to find her own way forward through life without the help of her father.

However, her new resolution had one small hiccup. Unbeknownst to the public, her father was alive… after a fashion. His constant use of magic had degraded his body, and his mind, to the point that what used to be Kaiser Hartmann was just an amorphous, grotesque ball of human flesh. He could not speak, could not hear, could not see, and likely only felt pain. However, due to the nature of his magic and his constant use of it to manipulate his body so that he could never give away any information… he had essentially transformed himself into a tumor. Though he doesn’t grow, he is incredibly durable and has proven very difficult to kill.

So, step one to Hedwig’s new life was set up for her rather nicely. All she has to do is find out how to kill her father.