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Basics

NAME: Kara Line AGE: 23 NATIONALITY: Glasiel RACE: Sprite OCCUPATION: Soldier TITLE/RANK: n/a	HEIGHT: 5'10" BUILD: Lithe/muscular HAIR: Dark brown EYES: Brown SKIN: Brown BEARING: Carefree
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Not much, aside from the militaristic dog tags she wears

Status

DIVISION: Forces
PROJECTS: -

*** WHAT YOUR CHARACTER IS CURRENTLY UP TO, WHERE THEY CAN USUALLY BE FOUND ***

Reputation

*** COMMON KNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER, I.E., THINGS YOU ARE ALL RIGHT WITH OTHER CHARACTERS KNOWING BY WORD OF MOUTH OR OBSERVATION. ***

Hooks

*** ANY PLOT IDEAS YOU HAVE OR THINGS YOU ARE WANTING TO EXPLORE WITH THE CHARACTER SO LIKEMINDED FOLKS CAN HIT YOU UP WITHOUT WAITING FOR A CR MEME. ***

PLAYER

Name: Sam
Age: 26
Contact:

magickal
Other Characters: Chance (

barded )
Interests: Character-driven roleplay, a focus on how characters feel and develop. Anything that pushes characters outside their normal comfort zones is great. Political intrigue plots tend to be a favorite.

CHARACTER

Name: Kara Line
Canon/OC: Original Character
Canon Point: About half a year post-injection
Journal:

pati
Age: 23

Canon World

( Expanded version found here )

The world Kara comes from is set about 30 years into the future of Modern Earth. While the landscape of the planet and technologies have changed/advanced, nothing has gone so far to not recognizably be from earth. Guns still need ammunition, implants are starting to become a thing but have not reached advanced levels of usage yet, etc.

The biggest change to Earth comes from the invasion of beings colloquially called angels and demons, or more broadly as spirits, to Earth. At Kara's current canonpoint, exactly where these creatures came from or how they came to Earth tends to be only discussed in theories with not enough proof to have definitive answers. What is known is that when they invaded earth, the angels and the demons (also called virtues and vices) were able to infect humans to become like them. Those infected by the vices tended to succumb to infection almost immediately, especially if they strongly embodied the same type of vices the demon that touched them was associated with. Virtues made other virtues, but at slower raters. Some speculation around this phenomenon theorizes that the virtues came to Earth first, seeking to enhance their numbers for their own war, but failing to do so. Communication with spirits has been impossible thus far to find this information out directly.

With demons being created quickly and numerously in the early days, Earth become infested with evil creatures. The remaining society was driven back into tightly crammed cities covered in domes for a semblance of protection from the spirits and their infection. As dome cities became overpopulated rapidly, and the Earth outside becoming more unlivable, people began to look to mental escapes from society. It was at this time that technology began to rise to meet these demands, the creation of cranial implants only coming in the last 20 years and becoming predominant in the last 15 years. These implants allowed people to non-stop indulge in media and even virtual realities. Drugs also began to morph and rise in these cities, providing cheaper escapes from those unable to afford the implants called clips.

Experimentation also began to run rampant during these times, people constantly looking for ways to either generate escapes for the masses to profit off of or to defeat the spirits outside the domed walls. One successful experimentation for the US Government came in the form of creatures called Sprites. Injected, rather than infected, by the essence of a spirit, people found compatible with certain essences could be forced into an incomplete transformation so long as they didn't embody the virtue they were injected with. This created people who were turning into spirits, but at a much slower and controlled rate, allowing the government to weaponize these people.

In Kara's time, the world seems to be on a turning point with innovation, experimentation, and magical revolutions from the creatures who invaded the planet and forever changed the way the world worked.

History

( Expanded canon history here )

Kara was born shortly before the erection of the new domed city of Glasiel. Clips were available not too shortly thereafter, and Kara's only caretaker, her mother Casey, managed to get a clip for herself and retreated into virtual reality in Kara's youth.
The more Kara's mother retreated into virtual world, the more Kara had to wonder out onto the streets in search of food and survival.
Kara made a friend in a boy only slightly older than her, Damen, and soon his mother, Arlene, helped take care of Kara as well. Arlene worked as a dancer in a local club, and had some modicum of respect for being good to her customers.
Kara and Damen grew up together, doing odd jobs in Lower Glasiel for gangs but keeping from joining any as a promise to Arlene.
At twenty, Arlene died. Damen swore himself to the Golden Greed gang, and Kara became further disillusioned with the world she lived in.
Needing to take more jobs without Arlene's support, Kara started intentionally ruining her jobs to try to mess with gangs' hold on lower Glasiel. At first, Damen managed to keep her out of trouble. Soon, though, she owed too much for Damen to save her anymore.
Now in danger, Kara called on some favors to get guards to look the other way as she snuck out of the domed city of Glasiel, hoping to take her chances in reaching another city or finding a rumored settlement outside the walls of Glasiel.
Cornered in a nearby dying forest by a Gluttony spirit, Kara spent most of the next week trying to dodge the spirit and too afraid to leave the cover of the forest or else get caught by the spirit.
Glasiel military scouting the area for the Gluttony spirit found Kara and tried to help get her back to safety while fighting the demon. Sprites for Temperance, Patience, and Kindness were on deployment. Temperance ended up being slowly poisoned to gluttony, driving him insane. Patience tried to help fight off the turning Gluttony, but was falling to the newly turning demon. Kara threw herself into the fight to try to help Patience, ended up infected by the changing Temperance.
Having run out of energy, Kindness was ordered to retreat with the infected Kara and leave Patience to die and Temperance to fully turn.
In Glasiel, military experimented with injecting Kara with remaining Patience essence to see if injection could beat out infection. In the end, it did. After a week of blinding pain, Kara became a Patience Sprite.
Given no choice, Kara was kept a part of the military and given formal training over the past year or so. During this year, Kara discovered that Gluttony hadn't totally left her, either. She has some minor powers and feelings of it within her. She's yet to tell anyone about this, as anyone with any remnant of vice in them is usually killed. Or worse, she could end up in more experiments.

Personality

With her mother having checked out on life while Kara was still young, Kara has always had to look out for herself. This became something of a fact of life. Kara tried not to dwell on how her mother abandoned her for another reality where she didn't have to have any responsibility. For the most part, she's managed to keep most of that bitterness out of her life. However, it did push her to be somewhat of the opposite of what she perceives of her mother. Not really knowing who her mother is, Kara views her as weaker and irresponsible. As such, she tries to be responsible in a way her mother never was. This leaves her to care for her mother, even if she is mentally checked out. Kara has always striven to not do as her mother did and abandon her responsibilities, even if it's her mother's own weakness that's led her to be completely helpless.

The family Kara found in Arlene and Damen helped her feel less alone amidst her forced independence. She never wanted to be dependent on anyone after she'd already been let down once, but loneliness was very real. Arlene and Damen brought some joy back into Kara's life, even some semblance of a purpose. That's why her death left Damen and Kara both suddenly lost. Damen sank deeper into crime, while Kara just became angry at the exploitation of people like her mother and Arlene and Damen.

Angry at a world of injustice and feeling powerless to do anything about it, Kara now tends to have a blase disregard for her own life. If society is so lawless and meaningless, she tends to throw herself into situations that pit her morals against others with little care for what might happen to herself. This leads her to getting in trouble with many people around Glasiel, and her own reckless behavior of leaving the city itself.

At her core, Kara cares deeply for the world around her even if she feels powerless to do anything about it. Being a Sprite now gives her some purpose, though she doesn't quite know how to channel that power properly. Being at the hands of the military and always fearing turning completely into a spirit, Kara is still left feeling somewhat powerless. At least knowing that her life will end soon regardless gives Kara a bit more perspective on how to live her own life. She acts more casual, carefree, and loose than she really feels inside. An attempt at faking it till she makes it essentially. If she acts so happy and carefree, maybe one day she will be. It's somewhat of an internal revolt against having constantly needed to be the adult all her life.

Kara deeply wants to find purpose and meaning in both the world and herself. She's constantly feeling like a pawn in a larger game, however, but she never seems to stop striving for meaning in chaos.

Strengths & Weaknesses

HAND-TO-HAND combat - While military trained, Kara's abilities tend to lend better to more hand to hand fighting. As such, Kara's had a stronger focus in hand to hand combat than her peers. There's a foundation of martial arts training, such as jiu jutsu and karate, with some mixed in krav maga mechanics, Kara herself tends to prefer a brawler type fighting style. Raised on the streets, she tends to use her more formal training as a way to get an in before preferring to grapple, disarm, and pummel.

WEAPONS training - Kara's powers only take her so far, so weapons training was used to supplement when Kara runs out of energy. Being from a modern Earth, her weapons training has been a focus on guns, especially semi-automatic weapons.

SPRITE abilities - Having been made into a spirit/human hybrid, Kara has some abilities of the spirit she could one day turn into. Her abilities tend to give her inhuman strength and speed for a specific duration of time, as well as becoming more durable while she's expending her energy. An example of her durability would be that a bullet could still pierce her skin, but wouldn't get buried as deep in her as it might otherwise. Her strength caps out at nearly double peak human strength, while her speed is that of near peak human's. Strength and durability tend to be her greater skills as a patient Sprite. In order to harness this energy, it does take concerted efforts for Kara to sit patiently and gather her own magical essence into a pool. When gathered, she then expends it in bursts. For any given amount of time that Kara actively meditates, she gains half that in stored energy. At most she can only store half an hour of energy to expend, sometimes less if she pushes limits too far.

ENERGY weapon - As a Sprite, Kara has the ability to create a weapon from her own magical essence. Her weapon takes the form of pure light strings that she has learned to use as snares and traps, sometimes setting up areas to lure enemies into to give her fighting advantages. These strings are fairly strong, almost like chains, but not unable to be broken or torn free. Kara can also use her stored energy to rig them to have a small explosion if they are triggered. This does use up a significant amount of energy at a time, about 10-15 minutes of her stored energy to do this. In desperate situations, Kara sometimes winds her strings around her hands like a garrote to use in a fight.

VICE abilities - While it's not clear why Kara retains some abilities of the vice that's still trying to take root in her, Kara has some abilities she's yet to disclose to her superiors or anyone else. Kara is able to touch someone, draining some of their energy to feed her energy. This touch does leave the person feeling tired. It's not an unnoticeable effect, though sometimes hard to place immediately. Kara has not tested the limits of this ability, as it does start to poison her mentally and tempt her further into becoming a vice spirit. Kara does not use this ability because of the dangers of it.

BASELINE human - When not expending her powers, Kara's a baseline human. She heals at the same rate as other humans and has average strength and speed. Hence the need for formal training when she runs out of stored energy to call on.

SPRITE weaknesses - Despite having superhuman abilities, Sprites are taught not to heavily rely on them. Using one's abilities more and more tend to run a risk of becoming a full spirit. As such, the more Kara uses her powers or pushes her limits, the more likely she is to turn. As such, Kara struggles to keep control of herself at times. Meditation, while helpful for storing energy, also tends to take her deeper into a place of patience. Kara personally struggles to meditate as she fears that this takes her closer to becoming her patient spirit self.

Suggested Nerfs

SPRITE abilities - With Rifters having to use more energy to use their native abilities, halfing Kara's stored energy to a maximum of 15 minutes seems to make sense to me. It'd be more an example that it takes twice as much of her own essence to use her abilities to the point of exhaustion. Also, placing more of a drain on her post-energy use that leaves her lagging in the field. This would also limit her ability to use her energy weapon's charge. Either use it and lose her stored energy, or don't use it and keep her energy.

VICE abilities - While not an ability Kara prefers to use, a nerf for it could be that she either loses it all together or she caps out at only taking enough energy for 1 minute restoration of her energy with no potential to push it further.

Arrival Inventory

| Clothes on her back ( jacket, tank top, belt, pants, boots, hair ties for braids )
| Semi-automatic rifle ( resembling a Colt AR-15 but smaller )
| 1 magazine ( 30 rounds )
| Military Dog Tags

'Human'ization

N/A as she is human in appearance, though her eyes do tend to glow brightly when using her Sprite powers. Not sure if that'll need to be normalized.

Fit

A little more easy going than Chance, Kara's more willing to throw herself into the thick of things. She's used to being a soldier and doing her part, and would be more willing to interact with the Inquisition and aid them on proper missions more frequently. She's pretty laid back about things that just kind of happen, as that tends to be the way her life goes, so she's pretty willing to roll with the punches. Thedas, though, would give her more freedom that Glasiel ever did, and potentially help Kara find herself without government and gangs breathing down her neck.

SAMPLES

TDM TOP LEVEL
TDM CRYSTAL THREAD with d'artagnan

Born at the end of an era and the start of another, Kara has grown up in a world divided between what it was and what it could one day be. The effect of such rapid and harsh change has left the planet physically scarred, and it's people left in a world of uncertainty that's dogged at the heels of Kara's generation. Raised during this time of transition, Kara's generation is the first generation born after the First Coming. The world before the First Coming is one of myths for these children, and the world following is one of fearful unknowns.

Only having been born a few years after the First Coming, Kara's life has been a fast moving blur. There are vague memories of a time before the domes that she has trouble fully recollecting just due to her youth. For her formative years, though, the dome had been erected and locked securely in place. The domed city of Glasiel was born. Society within the domes was a fragile thing, and Kara would eventually find herself largely abandoned to trying to survive that society alone.

Whoever Kara's father was, he's never been a part of the equation that she can remember. Even asking her mother about his existence isn't something she recalls having done. The reality was simply that he was never there, and the only birth parent Kara had known had been her mother. Kara's youth is peppered with memories of moving, scrounging, and meetings with shady figures. In between such memories there were glimpses of times she'd laughed with her mother as they fed food to a starving kitten and watched it roll over trying to catch the bite. Or the time her mother had held her through the night he first time the demons had beat against barriers of the demon screaming for entry. All these memories, the good and the bad, of Kara's mother have slowly been tinged with time and tainted by the vision of her mother currently before her.

Once the whole city was clipped, Kara's mother soon began to chase the high of a virtual world over the high of drugs. Kara's entirely certain she'd rather see her mom strung out on drugs and be able to talk to her about it than deal with the shell of a woman that Kara once called mom. Casey became Kara's burden, the woman barely coming out of the virtual to care for herself. A child was far out of mind for Casey. Kara sometimes wondered was a place where she was free of the responsibility of a child. Then reminds herself that that is the reality of the world Casey's created anyway.

The life of a stray became the only real life Kara knew after that. She gave up on expecting her mother to wake up and care for them, and instead became the carer of both their lives.

Kara's early teenage years were marked by numerous petty crimes that earned the girl a reputation in the criminal underworld of Glasiel. Not one of any renown, just one of recognition. While not swearing herself to any gangs, knowing well enough to keep her head out of any such allegiances, Kara made friends among different groups that had sprung up for control. People who could watch her back if she ever needed it. One of these people came in the form of a friend, a couple of years older than Kara herself, called Damen.

Damen ended up being a two-part deal, in that friendship with him also meant friendship with a mother that took more of an interest in her child than Casey did in hers. Once Kara started coming around the house looking underfed and dirty, Arlene took an interest in the child. In Kara's mind, Arlene would always be more of a mother to her than Casey had ever been. Unable to completely protect the children from the reality of the overcrowded society that had become hard to manage, Arlene managed to not completely clip out like most adults had. She stuck around to at least see the kids survive to adulthood, even if the way all three of them had to survive wasn't the most ideal way. Kara and Damen continued to do odd jobs for various gangs around the city, both vowing to each other and Arlene to never properly join with one. Arlene had been a dancer when Kara entered the small family's lives, and remained one throughout the rest of her life. Arlene was a well-respected member of the underbelly of Glasiel, still, and with her blessing both children managed to keep just this side of good of anything that might wish them harm.

Thanks to Arlene and Damen, Kara managed to survive her teenage years without any parents to get her through it. She kept Casey going through it all, some part of her clinging to the hope that one day Casey might still decide to return to the land of the conscious. Arlene managed to get Kara a more stable job singing at local bars and clubs. It paid shit, and Kara still had to work side jobs to keep her head above water, but it gave Kara a purpose. It was all Arlene could really ask for.

Arlene's passing struck Damen and Kara hard. A victim of junkie's sick obsession with the dancer, Arlene died when Kara was just barley twenty. Damen and Kara's relationship couldn't survive the tragedy.

The two attempted to cling to the semblance of life that Arlene had taught them. Do their work well, keep from vowing any loyalties to anyone, and find a purpose outside this hell. Yet as the next year passed, the two grew further apart and further from Arlene's teachings. Damen vowed himself to the Golden Greed, a gang rumored to have a bonafide Greed Sprite in their midst, only a month after Arlene's passing. Damen said the gang could protect him and Kara, but Kara was angry to see Damen forsake Arlene's teachings so quickly.

Chafing under the criminal life Kara had been forced into, the young woman started her own type of minor rebellion. Still singing as a primary career, Kara took up drug selling as one of her more common odd jobs. She'd done it in the past on and off, only when the risks were low and the rewards high enough. Yet she took the jobs far more commonly, and rumors started to circulate around Kara dealing bad supply. The rumors were never quite put to bed, and Kara always managed to dodge any real questions. She had many excuses to give herself the benefit of the doubt, and her history of loyalty and ties to Arlene kept her name clean for a time longer.

Then drugs went missing.

Too tired of the life she was forced into, Kara wasn't as careful at dodging the Golden Greed as she should have been. Her quiet rebellion had started turning louder, and she'd done little to avoid the fallout. Catching her after a night singing, Damen confronted her about the missing drugs. He told her how he'd protected her as far as he could for Arlene, but he couldn't protect her anymore. She had 24 hours to come up with the money or the drugs or there was nothing left to do for her.

Unable to come up with the missing drugs, Kara knew she had to disappear. As overcrowded as a city like Glasiel was, it wasn't easy to hide for too long. So Kara opted for a far riskier option. She needed to get outside the dome.

Travel in and out of the dome was strictly prohibited, but most people knew that if you talked to the right people and greased the right wheels you could get a chance outside. The more daring scavengers would take the risk, pillaging from a dead world and hoping to be able to make it back home alive. Kara had never been so brave. She still wasn't brave, but there were little other options. Calling in all her remaining favors, Kara packed her things and opted to take the last chance out of the dome she could. Snuck onto a military convoy heading out on a scouting expedition, Kara managed to escape Glasiel with her life. She had only two hopes in the wasteland of Earth's remains: find another domed city or pray the rumors of compounds surviving on the outside were real.

She was barely outside a week when her plans went to hell.

Not having made it far from the dome, a military deployment had come to the area Kara had managed to get herself trapped inside. A gluttony spirit had inhabited a forest not too far from Glasiel, wrecking the landscape and threatening to draw more of it's kind to it. Kara had spent the better part of two days playing a game of cat and mouse with the creature, dodging in between trees and hiding in swamps. Too afraid to leave the forest, for fear of being open and exposed, Kara feared she would die in the forest when the military arrived.

Two deployed Sprites attacked the spirit, Temperance and Patience. Temperance paved a bath of clear protection for his unit, moving the shield closer and closer to Gluttony as Patience gathered her strength. When Patience was ready, Temperance let down the barrier in a fierce explosion, giving Patience the cover she needed to charge in. Taking advantage of the fire, the demon of gluttony moved faster than Patience to rush past her at it's new target: Temperance. Temperance tried to get a new shield up, but Gluttony bit down on the shield and shattered it to pieces before Temperance could get any real power into it. Overwhelmed in seconds, Temperance was nearly devoured by Gluttony before Patience pulled the demon off.

Hard and fast, Patience threw herself into Gluttony until the demon finally retreated with a powerful scream. Only for a second Gluttony to throw itself at Patience. Temperance fallen, the older Sprite had given way to dark desires brought forth by Gluttony. Transforming before their eyes, Temperance tore into Patience with reckless abandon, screaming for his squad to finish him. Terrified of the sight of one of their own giving way to vice, it was Kindness, the field medic, who stepped up to intervene. Charging at Gluttony, Kindness ordered a retreat. Already the squad had begun to run, but Patience had been abandoned as she bled out on the ground. Against better judgement, Kara rushed forward to help Patience. Dragging her through the forest, the two were unable to escape before Gluttony was back on Patience again. Seeing Kindness nowhere in sight, Kara did her best to try to protect Patience. She fought the still turning Gluttony, becoming bloodied and beaten herself as the monster started to feed from her. Kindness' resurgence barely kept the demon from finishing her. Taking advantage of it's distraction, Kindness finished the demon with a sword of brilliant light driven deep inside the half-turned Sprite.

The next moments would remain a blur hazy blur in Kara's memories. Instead, her greatest memory was that of pain. She writhed in agony, Gluttony's half-turned infection trying to take hold of the human. Begging for death, what came next would seem somehow worse.

Taken back Glasiel, Kara was immediately inducted into the Sprite program. Injected with the essence of spirit, Kara was left screaming for days to try to endure the infection versus the injection within her. Already a painful process to make a Sprite, Kara would never remember a more numbing experience than the days spent in what felt like fire.

Waking from the impromptu experimentation, Kara was strapped down for both her own safety and that of those around her. It was explained to her that with the loss of two Sprites, there had been a judgement call to use the already dying girl to try to make another Sprite with the remains of the essence that had been used to make the former Patience. There was far more to what had happened than what was said, but the end result was that Kara was now property of the government and had been made a Sprite.

Given no other option, Kara threw herself into becoming a Sprite. Having always judged others for the kind of escapes they indulged in, Kara found an escape in her training as a soldier and a Sprite. Being a sprite felt like a new purpose to Kara. It was hard to tell whether that purpose was for better or worse at times, but it didn't matter. She'd been dead for weeks as it was, she would die withing years as a sprite, Kara didn't count herself as someone who had a lot of life to do much with anyway. Focusing on being a Sprite gave her a new sense of self, and potentially an outlet for things she'd left unspoken for years.

WORLD HISTORY.

The story of Kara's home is a story of two very different worlds brought together for the benefit of none and the destruction of both.

Up until the year 2020, Earth was a normal world. The people of Earth were more concerned with progress, both personally and for mankind, and the society tended to reflect that fast-paced momentum that humans had never given up on. Modern Earth only changed with the introduction of the demons and angels into the world in an event that would later colloquially dubbed the First Coming. Known by many names throughout the world, the creatures that poured out of an unknown and very sudden hellgate were not the same as existed on Earth. Angels and demons became a more common colloquial for the creatures, though virtues and vices was a close second.

With the introduction of the beings known as demons and angels, humanity faced a magical outbreak never before seen technologically adapt species. Vices and virtues had a unique ability to spread their affliction to humans who tended to possess the qualities that mimicked their specific vice and virtue. While it's not quite known why these beings exist in these fourteen types of magical energy, with the transformation of humans into similar creatures it became very clear what they represented.

The process of turning a human into one of these demons or angels was initiated by touch. The afflicted human would either remain humane or become the being that touched them if they embodied the vice or virtue of the being that touched them. During this process, however, humanity was loss and the creatures became driven by two sole desires: to embody their principle and to wage war against their opposites.

Virtues being harder to come by in humanity, people sank far too easily into vices. The Baneful Plague spread across humanity, and while some became virtues many more became vices. Humanity's survival was in danger, the realization striking that more people were being turned than were being killed. Eventually, humanity retreated from their houses and homes to oases referred to as domed cities. Domed cities are few and far between in the desolate wasteland that once housed humanity. Within these cities, technology began to grow at nearly twice the rate it had before, however it became focused on creating ways to escape. Many scientists studied ways to destroy or perhaps leave our reality in the physical, while private pioneers manufactured escapes mentally. Devices known as clips allowed humanity to connect with each other at all times and eventually to check into virtual worlds. Whatever clips couldn't provide, drugs and base pleasures were there to pick up the slack on.

Military experienced it's own revolution after decades of experimentation on the beings dubiously called "spirits." In reality, the beings were pure magical essence with a single driving force. The government found that full spirits were impossible to control, with only two imperatives that guided their existence. Vices were the worst, always seeking to destroy, while virtues could be put to use if they could be taught to obey. The resulting experimentation involved the forceful binding of spirits with humans. Through forced binding, a human would be injected with an virtue that had been reduced down to it's magical essence. The hope was that a transfusion would force at least a partial transformation into a spirit, ensuring that they were part spirit and part human. The risks were numerous, as humans would often die out from lack of compatibility or turn completely. As such, humans that embodied ideals opposite the virtue they were being submerged in had the best hybrid results, though only by slim margins. The resulting soldiers often led short and traumatic lives that ended with either perverting their virtue into a full vice or going insane from constant resistance of their body's attempted changes. The soldiers, called Sprites, would be killed at the first sign of trouble.

Amidst war and technological advancements, religion also distorted to reflect the shape of the world that currently existed. Some religions became stronger, believing the vices and virtues to be the angels and demons of their lore. Some religions rose, devoting themselves fully to virtues and even vices among the perverse. Cults became abundant, fanatics taking devotion of virtues a step further and worshiping the Sprite soldiers themselves.

All in all, the mysterious forces that rose from the depths of hell reshaped Earth in drastic ways. And whatever became of the spirit's world has yet to be discovered.

SPIRIT HISTORY

Many scientists have devoted themselves to the study of vices and virtues. While many believe vices and virtues have only two imperatives, scientists believe there is also a third that explains their presence on Earth: to reproduce.

Speculation and theories have risen from experiences Sprites have had, claiming to have visions of a complete other world.

The leading theories, thus far, stem from the behaviors of the current spirits existing on Earth. Their drive to fight hints at the potential of a war spilled over from their world, and the devastated landscape on Earth suggests that vices were winning in their world. Thus, speculation suggests that virtues led the invasion of Earth in an attempt to try to gather more bodies to throw into their war.

While no communication with the spirits has yet to be achieved, scientists also speculate that vices and virtues communicate telepathically. This comes from documentation of Sprites getting flashes of vices and virtues that have both connected to nothing and have connected to events that take place on Earth. Though their species seems driven by three primitive desires, theories suggest that there are societies and communication among the spirits that they've yet to understand.

A question still yet unanswered, but highly focused on by scientists, is what happens when one side of the war completely obliterates the other?

SPRITES REDUX

Sprites are the soldiers created by the government that are hybrids of humans and spirits.

Spirits being a misnomer for the beings from the other world, vices and virtues are more magical essences given independent thought and movement. Having studied the humans turned sprites, it became evident that the humans were not "possessed" as religions had earlier claimed the humans were. Instead, the humans were fully transformed from physical beings into these magical essences. The drawback was that humanity was lost in the transformation. While some scientists do believe there are thoughts and mentalities going on within spirits that occur on a level that humanity can't yet comprehend, the government decided they had no use for spirits if they could not control them.

The Sprite program was created by the government to answer the question of how can we harness the power of a spirit while still controlling that power. Hybrids of spirit and humans were the hoped for result, and after many failed experiments later the government finally perfected the Sprite system. By reducing a virtue down to it's core magical essence, injecting a human with that essence could force a transformation despite the human not embodying the virtue they were injected with. The success rate of the Sprite hybrids, however, wasn't perfect, and required a type of person that seemed to hang within the balance of a vice and virtue well enough to walk that fine line and not be consumed by the essence in it's entirety.

While many surviving Sprites seem to be able to walk that balance, it has been shown that no Sprite has been able to last more than a few years before being consumed by their virtue and becoming a full spirit.

Vices are not used by the government, as they tended to turn completely within seconds of injection or weeks at most.

Sprites are few and far between in a dome. Many domes aim for at least seven Sprites, one per virtue, but few are lucky enough to have more than three.

Sprite abilities manifest in the following ways:

TE Series : Sprites that create shields of energy that burst into minor explosions when ruptured.
CS Series : One of the more dangerous sprites, a look from these sprites can still a creature, the length of time depending on the strength of the sprite.
ID Series : Slow self-healers, diligent Sprites endure damage in an effort to turn it into a weapon back on the enemy. note: self-healing is at a reduced rate and can be overtaken if damage is greater than healing speed.
PA Series : The longer a patient Sprite stores energy, the stronger their hand to hand combat is and their defenses are increased.
CR Series : Binders, these Sprites tend to link with vices to siphon abilities. Any damage these sprites take is also taken by the one they're bound with.
KI Series : The healers of the group, these Sprites focus primarily on healing up teammates. Tend to not be great at direct combat with just their abilities.
HU Series : Good at disappearing, these Sprites can make themselves and sometimes others blend in with their surroundings.

While these generalization are clues as to what kind of Sprite a person may be working with, many Sprites tend to have personal spins to their own abilities and potentially added personal boosts. More skilled Sprites have also been known to be able to summon a pure energy weapon. Spirits themselves tend to have variances of these abilities in stronger and wilder capacities than humans, including some degree of emotional influence. A Sprite that begins to exhibit signs of emotional influence is thought to be in danger of consumption. While a Sprite's abilities can standalone, they work better when combined with human weapons as follow-up or when working in groups. Sprites work best together, but also when backed by human squads. Sprites are better equipped to enhance each other and human squads, and are rarely built for taking on demons one to one.

Once started, the Sprite process cannot be reversed. The two options that remain from the first injection of a spirit's essence are the Sprite program, full turning, or death. Due to the nature of a binding forcing a change in a human, it is impossible to be injected with the essence of two different virtues. The body can only be altered to fit one type of virtue.