Magdalena

Gale's Thoughts: Magdalena

I've seen Magdalena give orders to kings and have them obey her.

Those who are weak-willed stand no chance at all against her Power of Persuasion, and even those with stubborn enough minds can be worn down if she's incredibly persistent. Luckily for everyone, however, Magdalena knows enough other methods of getting her way that she rarely feels the need to use her terrifying gift.

It should be noted that most dragons are not completely immune to all of Magdalena's more unsavory practices. The only area she is sorely lacking in is physical strength (and I do mean SORELY lacking), but her Persuasion is usually enough in a physical confrontation for her to get her feet under her and flee.

She's fast, street-smart, speaks with all the pretentious elegance of the most dignified light scholars, can create just about any poison known to dragon-kind, and she's magically gifted enough that if she got into a straight-up casting battle, she could hold her own just fine.

But Magdalena's biggest asset is that she's beautiful. Not necessarily conventionally beautiful, but she moves with enough purpose and elegance and confidence that she's hard to look away from. She's very interesting, and most dragons are helplessly charmed by it.

My best example of her flexing her charms for her benefit comes straight from Solana, who still refuses to be alone with Magdalena to this day. Magdalena stayed in Hotel Contraste under Solana's watchful eye when she first arrived, right around the same time a group of dragons with apparent weight to their names showed up for a little convention of suspicious intent. Solana watched as she seduced all of them, one by one, worming her way into their good graces, pleasing them any way they so desired, leaving them all hungry for more.

And then, on a day when they were all in one place for their last fancy meal in our territory, Magdalena (who had ever so graciously been invited to dine with them) proposed a toast, offering them the finest wine in the territory as a thanks for all their hospitality. After the toast, there was only Magdalena left, smiling, standing in a room full of bodies felled by small doses of a poison from her personal arsenal.

The only reason I let her stay in the clan at all is because of what she told me after that day.

"I am not a law-abiding citizen, and I am not someone whose soul can be saved. But I have no qualms with the everyday citizen. My sole purpose in this world is to rid it of those worse than myself. And believe me, these slave-trading warmongers certainly qualified."

Nowadays, Magdalena mostly keeps to herself out in Purlieus Hagalaz, but makes a point to show her face to me at least once a week ("Gracing the Leader of the Broken Things with my presence," she claims). She holds a strange fondness for me that I never plan on questioning, lest her attentions become more... Persuasive in nature. Her presence in the clan has definitely reduced the number of enemies willing to cross us, and I can deal with a few strange looks from her every now and then if I can keep that level of security.

I suppose having a murderer with a skewed moral compass on my side isn't something I'm unused to at this point.

_______

Baseline Stats





I think I've made her aptitude in this area pretty explicit already, so I'll leave it at that.



She's not a fighter when things go sideways, and even with her magic, she's only likely to use it to fight in the most extreme scenarios.



Again, I feel like I've made her intelligence clear, but if not: Magdalena is the scary kind of smart. You do not want to mess with her ever for any reason.



Some of the stunts she's pulled are legendary and there's no way it's all always been because of her skill. Even masterminds have to start at the bottom, and something tells me she had a tall staircase to climb.



Magically proficient enough for excellent potion and poison-making and acceptable spellcasting, but nowhere near the level of a master mage. The skydancer aptitude for emotions is certainly strong with her, but her experiences contribute more to her ability to read other dragons like a book than her magic does.



While I'm certain her lifestyle has led to more than a handful of lasting hurts that I'm not privy to, she's at least very good at pretending she's in fantastic physical health. Beyond that, her lack of remorse for the insane crimes she's committed leaves her mental and emotional health remarkably scot-free of scars.




Art by: Azcazach



Art by: Nahviintaas