application: empatheias

[slavecrowned]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Christine
Contact: necrofancy | necrofancy#5279 @ discord | PM
Age: 32
Current Characters: Ignis Scientia (newrecipe), Neptune Vasilias (vasilias)


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Terra Branford
Age: 18
Canon: Final Fantasy VI
Canon Point: End of the World of Balance, upon being thrown from the Floating Island.

Background: "I suppose a normal girl would have found him charming..."

Personality:

When we first meet Terra Branford, she has no memory of who she is beyond her name and a few other hazy details, thanks to the fact that she’s been forced to wear a slave crown that has placed her under the direct control of one of the Empire’s commanding officers, a sorcerer named Kefka. This device denied her any control over her own actions and robbed her of the opportunity to make her own choices, and while we don’t know exactly how long she had been wearing this device, we do know that she has been in the Empire’s (and thus Kefka’s) custody since she was a baby, which means that until very recently, her life has never really been her own. This is worth mentioning, as much of her personality and how it develops stems from this experience and shapes the way she sees and interacts with other people, as well as how she views herself and attempts to move beyond the person she was while under the Empire’s control.

Terra carries a great deal of guilt concerning her acts as one of the Empire’s Magitek Elite. Under Kefka’s control, she and her magic were used as weapons of war and she was directly involved in the death of many innocents, in addition to slaughtering an entire battalion of the Empire’s own Magitek soldiers during a training exercise. Though Terra herself was not directly responsible for these actions, she still feels as though she was, especially as her memories slowly begin to return and she remembers these experiences more vividly. That guilt is only reinforced by the fact that the Empire has made her a recognizable face in various places— people react to her presence with fear or anger, referring to her as “the Imperial witch.” She cannot divorce herself from the image that her unwilling service to the Empire has built for her, and in turn, she is afraid of herself and her own abilities. Use of magic comes naturally to her, but as true magic is nearly non-existent in the world, the fact that she has it sets her apart from others and makes her feel isolated. She wonders if being so different makes her something other than human, and when she first has the chance to talk to Celes Chere without the slave crown on, she asks Celes if she has the capacity to love once she realizes that they both have the gift of magic. Though Celes isn’t quite sure how to take such a question, it’s evidence that Terra feels so separate from the people around her that she’s not even sure she knows how to interact with them or to form relationships of any nature. This doesn’t only have to do with her ability to use magic, but is also directly related to the fact that she’s been isolated and used as a puppet her entire life.

As time goes on, she develops a strong desire to learn what the meaning of ‘love’ itself is, even if only to understand whether or not she is capable of it. She becomes even more concerned about her capacity to feel and engage with others when it is discovered that her use of magic isn’t the only thing that makes her different, but that she is half-Esper rather than fully human. Her questions regarding ‘love’ and general emotion are not strictly about romantic relationships, but relationships in general— until the events of the game itself, she has never been free to develop friendships or even experience familial love, which means that the relationships she does develop throughout the course of the game are incredibly precious to her. Even as she questions her own existence and whether or not she is capable of the same thoughts and feelings as someone who is fully human, she answers her own questions without realizing it in the bonds she develops with those around her. After the fall of the World of Balance, she finds her place among a cobbled-together family of orphans whose parents were killed by Kefka’s Light of Judgment, and it’s then that she not only begins to truly understand the meaning of family, but is able to look back at the relationships she had developed with the friends she’d made the previous year and realize exactly how much they mean to her. This is also when she finally manages to conquer her fear of her own power— given that she lost control of herself the first time she took Esper form, she has an understandable fear of losing herself to it once more and hurting someone in the process, and so she retires from combat for a time after the fall of the World of Balance. It takes time, but she is eventually able to push past those fears in order to use her abilities to fight in the name of protecting those she loves— her friends, as well as the family she’s found herself a part of in an unkind, post-apocalyptic world.

For as much as Terra can be said to be afraid of her own abilities, there isn’t much else that scares her. Years of serving in the Imperial forces have made her bold, even if it was against her will, and while she is initially reluctant to join the rebel Returners in their fight against the Empire, it’s not because she’s afraid of combat. Instead, she’s weary of battle, hesitant and concerned that the rebels want to use her as a weapon, just as the Empire had, but once she is convinced that aiding the rebels is the right thing to do, she doesn’t hesitate when it comes to facing danger head-on. Monster encounters are an everyday occurrence, and skirmishes with Imperial troops are nearly as common. As time goes on, Terra grows passionate about serving the Returners’ cause alongside her friends, determined to make sure that the Empire can no longer cause innocents to suffer. Rather than allow her past and her unwilling service to the Empire define her, she decides to look forward instead, and help her friends do whatever they can to earn a brighter future for their world.

Despite the fact that the world has been unkind to Terra, she herself is exactly the opposite. Even early on, with her memories as muddled as they are, she’s shown to be kind and compassionate towards others. While she is initially hesitant to offer others her trust, she appreciates kindness when it is offered to her, and isn’t shy about expressing gratitude. Eventually, trust follows as she spends enough time with Locke and the other friends he introduces her to for her to develop genuine bonds with them. She is very fond of animals and naturally good with children, and it’s entirely possible that this is because in some ways, she’s quite childlike herself. While she is intelligent and otherwise behaves appropriately for her age, there is a certain emotional immaturity to her thanks to the fact that she grew up with only her captor for company. She is curious about the world around her as well as the people in it, and often says what’s on her mind without thinking, such as her idle remark when she was surprised to learn that Sabin was actually a prince of Figaro when she thought he looked like “a bodybuilder who had strayed too far from his gym.” She can be blunt, but she comes by it honestly and always means well. Large groups of people make her nervous, and she appreciates that her friends have quickly come to understand that sometimes she needs space in order to collect herself. She is quiet and sometimes too serious for her own good, and being out in the world still feels very new to her in a number of ways, but if nothing else, Terra is determined that whatever path she follows going forward, it will be one she chooses for herself.

Abilities:

❧ Magic: Terra's most notable strength is that in a world where magic is considered to be dead and gone, she has the rare ability to not only wield magic, but to learn it naturally. The only other instances of magic use have been through the Empire's use of technology to imbue certain individuals with some limited magic ability, which makes Terra's natural gift that much more valuable- though also frightening to many, seeing as magic is almost unheard of in this day and age. Naturally skilled with fire and healing magic, she has recently been able to use magicite to expand her repertoire by learning spells from fallen Espers.

❧ Trance: Because of her dual nature, Terra is able to transform into Esper form for short periods of time, during which her magic ability is greatly amplified. This tends to use up a lot of energy and leave her exhausted, and that the moment, she's hesitant to allow herself to use this ability at all. The first time she transformed, she was so terrified that she temporarily lost control of herself and fled her friends, fortunate enough to end up in Ramuh's care as she lost herself and became catatonic for a time. Though she has some degree of control over it now, she is afraid of losing herself and hurting someone else in the process, and so she is hesitant to embrace this side of herself.

❧ Other: Growing up under the control of one of the Empire's generals means that Terra has seen more than her fair share of combat. As a Magitek Elite, she's good with a sword, and has extensive experience piloting and operating Magitek Armor.

Alignment: Elios. Love and hate are both major forces in Terra's life, in no small part because she is constantly questioning what it means to love. She has spent most of her life isolated and used as an instrument of someone else's hatred through mind control, and since being freed, she has spent a great deal of time grappling with the idea of love between friends and found family, and what it means to put someone else's needs before your own.

Other: Terra will be arriving with a few shards of magicite on her person, but will be unable to summon the Espers that they once belonged to, as they are not native to this world. She will be carrying the magicite for Maduin, Ramuh and Kirin.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: Terra @ the TDM & with Kuja

Emotion Sample: Here!


Questions: None!