Our Lady of the Charred Visage

"I can feel Our Lady between these walls. I can feel her warmth, for her face still burns, a reminder of her sacrifice and ours. The pain, the cold and the burn are our Rules."

Our Lady of the Charred Visage is a boss within Blasphemous,found within the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage. Part of a trifecta of bosses that can be visited in any order along Ten Piedad and Tres Angustias, she's typically the second one of the three to be faced by players and the third overall as she's a more complex adversary than Ten Piedad, but considered less difficult than Tres Angustias.

## Profile

She was once a beautiful girl named Áurea. Her beauty was adored to the point of worship. When the fanaticism surrounding her became unbearable she immersed her beautiful visage in boiling oil. The Miracle took notice of this act of contrition and blessed / cursed her with a face that smoldered eternally. Joining a convent, dedicating herself to God, and donning a mask of gold, she was eventually canonized as a saint and the **Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage** was founded. Subsequently Our Lady of the Charred Visage, became a monstrous guardian protecting one of the three humiliations.

## Behaviour and Tactics

* **Laser Beam**: (magic element damage) Shoots a purple laser, telegraphing the line of damage. Moves towards whichever side of the beam the Penitent One is standing when first telegraphed.
* **Burst**: (fire element damage) Fires a starburst of small balls of light, snaking up and down while rotating around the center of the hand. These projectiles can be blocked with Mea Culpa if the Heart of the Single Tone is equipped.
* **Rapid Burst:** (fire element damage) Fires densely packed waves of fireballs in all directions. These projectiles can be blocked with Mea Culpa if the Heart of the Single Tone is equipped.
* **Multiball:**  Fires a line of larger, multi-colored balls towards the Penitent One in a line. Can be deflected by Mea Culpa, dealing damage to Our Lady if they hit her, or deflecting other Multiballs they make contact with.
* **Laser Pinwheel:** (magic element damage) Four sustained **Laser Beams** that rotate like a pinwheel. This is also telegraphed.
* **Second Hand:** When Our Lady loses approximately 50% of her HP she will begin attacking with her right hand as well as her left; allowing her to use two techniques simultaneously.

Phase 1 (100-50% HP) is relatively simple and only involves Our Lady of the Charred Visage's first hand. Jump and strike the brain while dodging the **Laser Beam** and **Burst** attacks. Our Lady of the Charred Visage will always open the battle with 3 Laser Beams later followed by a **Rapid Burst**.

When **Multiball** occurs there are a couple of ways to handle it. The Penitent One can move slowly to make sure the shots end up hitting a missing target until they drain up. Most conveniently, however, the Multiballs can be deflected into the Lady herself. There are two ways to do it, the first involves moving the Penitent One to one of the corners and striking from there which will deflect them. Alternatively he can position himself somehwat closer to the Lady and perform an upwards strike which will launch the projectile more directly into her exposed brain. This tactic is one of the central ways to deal massive damage to the Lady and is often the preferred way as her battle can get protracted and difficult otherwise.

Phase 2 (50-0% HP) will involve the spawning of another hand, which means the Lady will harass the Penitent One with more attacks, leaving him smaller room to evade here. Rapid Burst and Multiball is generally a dastardly combo as there is very little room for evasion on top of choosing whether to avoid the Multiballs or deflect them into the Lady which will almost assuredly mean taking damage in the process.

The Penitent One can minimize damage suffered by equipping Fire element resistance namely the Piece of a Golden Mask which can be found in the Convent itself, or later on during an Ascended gameplay, the Quirce's Scorched Bead or Seashell of the Inverted Spiral. Magic Element Resistance via the Muted Bell which can be found in the Graveyard of the Peaks or the Consecrated Amethyst in Ascended game. Additionally, the Heart of the Single Tone can help by empowering Mea Culpa to destroy the fire balls Our Lady saturates the battlefield with; however, this will slightly lower elemental resistances.

## Relevant Item Descriptions

No. 1 A young villager named Áurea had such a beautiful and pious face that even as a child, statue sculptors took her as a model for their creations. Her face became so recognisable that, little by little, people took her as the living, breathing image of divinity, until it reached a point where they ended up taking her out on procession, and even replacing their own images. Such was the fervour around her that she could not bear to be mistaken with the divinity, and burned her face with boiling oil to gift her pious beauty to God, and took up the habits of a convent.

No. 2 The years passed and she started showing natural signs of ageing, just like her companions, except for the burn, which remained as fresh as the moment the boiling oil had spilled. The wound was still smoking, scorching and reeking. This was understood to be a miracle, and she was canonised in life by the Church; she became known as Our Lady of the Charred Visage. An order was founded in her name, where all the existing nuns as well as those who wanted to take up the habit had to burn their faces in the same way as Áurea had. She wears a golden mask under which she hides the gauze that alleviates the eternal pain that the burns still inflict on her.

## Trivia

* In pre-release updates, she was referred to as "Mistress with the Burnt Face".
* The Story of the Lady of the Charred Visage is inspired by the story of Maria Fernandez Coronel, a Sevillian aristocrat-turned-Franciscan who burned her own face with boiling oil to stop Pedro I de Castilla from harassing her. Maria Fernandez Coronel of Seville is not to be confused with Maria Fernandez Coronel of Agreda, another Franciscan abbess.
* Compunction, the virtue associated with this boss, is the sensation of painful guilt associated with a past action. In Catholicism, it likewise is used to refer to an active awareness of ones own imperfections and capacity to sin.
* Additional analysis of this boss is available in this article by Dr Jack Orchard.