More than meets the eye
There's just so much to work through. Trust has to be built again on both sides. You have to learn if -- if we're even the same people we were. If you can fit in each others lives. It's a long and important process, and can we just skip it? C-Can you just be kissing me now?
- — Tara Maclay
A member of the Grand Coven and practicing witch, Tara is one of the most sensible witches anyone will ever have the good fortune of meeting. Tara is often found trying to guide Wiccan groups towards real Witchcraft if any of them show talent for it, but finds herself frequently disappointed by 'Blessed Wannabes.' She's out, and has a certain affinity for redheads, should she come across one.
Personality[]
Tara is a shy young woman who's been abused most of her life and somehow came out of it with more common sense than you'd ever expect for such a backstory. She often found herself riding horses to get away from her family, and it was a frequent relaxation technique. Magic was both her bane and her freedom, since it was the primary thing her family abused her over, at least till she came out, and then they abused her for that too. Finding the Grand Coven gave her a place to practice magic and become more accomplished at her craft, but she lives in terror they're going to find out she's really a demon and banish or kill her or who knows what? Magic has few limits like that. She puts friends and loved ones ahead of herself, perhaps because her shyness and stuttering caused her to have so few of them that she fears losing what she does have quite a bit. Especially if they find out her horrible secret...
SKILLS[]
ACADEMICS[]
Novice
As a college student, Tara has all the usual benefits of a high school education and a partial college education.
EMPATHY[]
Competent
Most people can read obvious emotions. Tara can read far deeper than that, understanding the way people think and feel, by innate talent, in a way that takes trained psychologists years of dedicated training to achieve. This combines well with her Aura Reading to get especially accurate pictures of emotional states.
HORSE RIDING[]
Competent
Tara grew up riding horses. She's quite good at it.
LANGUAGES[]
Competent
Tara speaks English and Latin fluently.
LORE[]
Competent
As a member of the Grand Coven, and coming from a unique line of witches from her maternal line, Tara has access to highly unusual spells, like the Taglarin Mythic Rites.
WILLPOWER[]
Competent
Tara has a surprisingly strong will. Not only is it useful for spells, but it's also the self discipline to refrain from casting spells for unnecessary causes. It's also good enough to keep her from revealing important information to an enemy, even should that enemy be causing her pain at the time.
WITCHCRAFT[]
Competent
Tara is skilled in many aspects of Witchcraft, both the form and function of spells...and perhaps more importantly, knowing when to use them and when NOT to use them.
POWERS[]
AURA READING[]
Enhanced
Tara can tell who and what someone is simply by looking at their aura. She's able to sense body snatching, possession, vampires, werewolves, robots, immortals, real witches, fae, and other assorted things simply by reading their particular aura. Beings who can conceal their aura can avoid this, but they must make an active attempt to conceal their aura or Tara will notice. This is one of the signature powers of her family line.
EVOCATION[]
Basic
Tara uses minor combat magic, like glowballs of force or jets of flame. She has never used such a spell to lethal effect, but such self defense spells are sometimes necessary. She can also armor herself with fog if need be.
KINETOMANCY[]
Enhanced
Tara has formidable telekinetic strength, able to move even decent sized objects around with her mind. In addition, she's able to add her strength to another witch's should they need to move truly huge objects.
RITUAL MAGIC[]
Enhanced
Tara is familiar with typical rituals of Witchcraft, and can cast most spells successfully, given the time to learn what she needs to do and how to do it.
ADVANTAGES[]
COMMON SENSE[]
So uncommon it has to be listed, Tara displays some of the greatest prudence and wisdom in knowing when to cast a spell and when not to anyone will ever see. Common sense also applies to non magical areas of her life, and she will make smart sensible decisions based on the information she has at hand.
GRAND COVEN[]
Tara, like most member witches, is under the protection of the Grand Coven. Woe betide those who mess with the Grand Coven.
WEAKNESSES[]
ABUSIVE FAMILY[]
Tara has one of them most abusive families ever, and they make her life hell whenever they get the chance. They even lie to her frequently and viciously, all in an attempt to control her as much as possible.
DEMON[]
The abusive family mentioned elsewhere has repeatedly told Tara she's a demon. She isn't, this is actually complete BS, but she still truly believes she is. As such, she goes to great lengths to conceal her 'demon heritage' and sometimes even betrays her common sense trying to avoid revealing her 'demonic aspect.' She's terrified those she's close to or the very powerful witches of the Grand Coven will find out what she 'truly is' and turn on her.
FEAR OF LOSS[]
Tara often puts her friends and lovers ahead of herself, based on the idea that she's terrified of losing them. Believing herself unworthy to be loved or friended, she desperately does what she can to make people stay, and to hide the fact 'she's a demon.'
NONVIOLENT[]
While not a weakness in most aspects of society, in the magical world she lives in, it's a problem. She has never been moved to take the life of any creature, not even demons or vampires, and will only even attempt it if common sense dictates there's truly no other option.
SHY[]
As a result of being abused and being told she's a demon, Tara hides herself from the world, physically using her clothing, and verbally by not expressing her opinions very often. In addition, she stutters, which only makes her shyness more severe.
Section 1[]
Tara was born to a family of witches along the maternal line...and a family of men who were obscenely insecure about it. As such, they did their best to convince the women they were demons and didn't deserve to be loved or treated well, but they'd 'tolerate them' as long as they did what they were told and got dinner done on time. Tara could only turn to her mother, till she died, and her horses to get away from the abuse and violence. Things deteriorated further when she came out about being lesbian, and she actually has a 'wild period' where she acted out against her family, who naturally abused her the more for it. Her natural common sense won out eventually, and a scholarship to San Francisco got her away from the hell of a family she'd been stuck with. Once there, the Grand Coven brought her in as a member witch (it helped her mother and grandmother were also member witches until their deaths), and she's been reasonably safe ever since. Her family tried to maintain control the only way they could, by threatening to expose her as a demon to the Grand Coven should she not do exactly as they say at all times. But in practice, they're too far away to do much more than yell at her over the phone now and then.