Hysteria

Hysteria

Mind-Shattering Sorceress
"The self, the inner enigma that every living being spends the entirety of their existence attempting to unravel. Some find the illusion of satisfaction with age, others shelter their feeble minds with dogma and religion, most die never finding a satisfying answer. The brave few shatter the thin glass of identity and exist as fragments, pieces of a greater, unknowable whole that can never be truly understood. For that is the true depth of the soul..."
Discord	lheisse
Reddit	Competitive_Snow1989
Wiki User	Juice
Metatype	Human
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	0
Public Awareness	0
CDP	2
D.O.B.	2058-08-16
Age	27
Folder	https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16Yy4lGqqvV4RNLzEuzkSkr-mHAQdBOwJ?usp=sharing
Priority	Metatype - D Attributes - B Magic/Resonance - C Skills - A Resources - E
#Max IGs/Ascension	1

Character Information

Summary

Hysteria is a specter that haunts the Seattle streets, a walking mystery and enigma whose intentions and identity remain inscrutable. Always in the background, hidden in the crowd, they lurk, watching and listening, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pull the strings ever so subtly. As their name implies, they alter the perceptions of people with their sorcerous power, inducing fear and manipulating people on both a collective and individual level, inflaming riots, uncovering secrets, silencing detractors, and trimming and pruning the narrative to fit their hidden masters' whims. When they are near, nothing is to be trusted, not even one's own thoughts. Their true identity is kept constantly concealed, employing several layers of defense against detection: Illusions, technology, magic. If such measures fail, they will not hesitate to eliminate any possible vulnerabilities or expunge the very memory of their existence from their minds. While most mages concern themselves with flashy powers and dangerous spirits, Hysteria wields powers that are as insidious as they are potent, infiltrating the minds of their enemies before they even realize they are their enemies. As a dark mage, Hysteria will stop at nothing to ensure her power grows and her hidden masters will be done in the hopes of escaping the mediocrity she was born into, shifting through identities as easily as a mundane changes outfits, all for the purpose of their mysterious schemes. Their personality is oddly calm and chilling, revealing an incredibly sharp mind and surprisingly welcoming conversationalist if a bit cold. Though they keep their interactions with mundanes minimal, they wont refuse conversing with them if they possess a sharp mind. However, for other awakened it is a different story, they attempt to provoke thoughtful discussions on the nature of magic and power, often being strangely supportive and empowering to those they interact with, espousing ideals of self-empowerment and the importance of one's own ego in magic as well as believing in a level of kinship with those who are awakened. Whether this support comes from any sort of benevolence or merely another method they employ to further the goals of those who whisper in her dreams remains unclear.

Goals

• Wait and watch from the shadows, learning and growing
• Achieve a society that holds awakened above mundanes
• Earn the favor of her hidden masters, The Black Lodge, as a sorcerous spy
• Garner ever more magical power
• Enlighten and empower the other awakened of Seattle
• Maintain complete anonymity

Background

Before Hysteria lost themself in the depths of their multifarious identities, they were once a she. A young human girl living in the slums of Pallyup, cursed with a frail body that left her unfit to survive within the devastated streets of such an impoverished district that is struck with high tensions between class and species. In the rugged streets, crime pays, a fact her family knew well, joining gangs and making their daily bread with violence and force. Naturally, the frail girl stood out as the family runt, and she endured a childhood of shame and abuse at the hands of her mother and siblings. She was raised on the principle that she was weak, inferior, and worthless, simply a burden, only useful as a spy to stuff into a vent or alley. It is no surprise, then, that the young girl dreamt of being other people when huddled up at night, losing herself in worlds where she could be a pop star, a corpo big wig, or a scary Lone Star officer. Alas, she could not escape from the waking world forever, and for years she endured, her festering rage and resentment building within her, trapped within her weak body. This would all erupt one fateful day when her eldest brother decided to kick her around for fun as he always did when bored, her siblings laughing and placing their cruel bets on how well the family punching bag would hold up this time. For once in her life, the girl decided that she was done begging, through with pleading. In a moment, in a word, all that rage trapped within her was expelled: "Stop". Suddenly... he froze. He was paralyzed, much to everyone's surprise. Not content to stop there, the girl let her hatred consume her. She ordered her brother to take out his knife, and, while her siblings watched on with fear and horror, her brother's bleeding corpse hit the floor. This singular moment of control, of catharsis unlike any other overwhelmed her. Her other siblings made the foolish decision to draw their weapons, reacting as they always did; with violence. They only succeeded in hastening their own doom as those weapons would soon find rest in the flesh of their owners.

The girl left behind the corpse of her former life, and lived as a vagabond, exploring her newfound abilities, flitting from tradition to tradition, searching for something that could satisfy her voracious spirit, something she could resonate with and that would replicate that power she felt when she finally became more than a whelp. But in each tradition, she only found a cage; The hermetics caged by logic, the spiritualists and zealots by dogma, the shamans by superstition, and the hedonists by vice. She would not bind herself to any of these flawed ideologies, instead she would explore the depths of her magic alone. With years of exploration, she discovered a singular truth that would cast open the gates of her potential. The only cage was... herself. She needed no equation, she refused the shelter of dogma, she spat upon superstition, and she would chain her vices, for she needed none of these to access what was her birthright. She was magic, and magic was her, a fact she was as sure of as the blood that ran through her veins. With raw willpower and ego, she would bring magic to heel as one would shackle a slobbering beast. All she needed to do was snap her fingers, and this beast would sit, roll over, and speak, and in turn, the world would bend to her whim. When she made this discovery, that magic is not caged by the rules of tradition and the fickle frameworks of modern mages, she caught the attention of something... ancient. They came to her in dreams, whispering to her dark truths, showing her everything she was; weak, small, nothing. She was a worm in the grave of the world, feasting on its rotting entrails. But these whispers told her what she could be; powerful, influential, alive, and free. All those dreams where she envisioned herself powerful, in control, feared, loved... they were all her, and she was all them. She had that power, and she was meant for something far greater than rotting in a slum, wasting her talents like so many other awakened before her that found themselves lost to drugs, enslaved by ideology, or killed for their worthless secrets. She had gleaned a truth, the most basic and rudimentary truth, but one that most mages are blind to. She had proven herself worth notice, but now... she had to earn their attention. Finally, she had found what she had been searching far and wide for: recognition. And so the girl accepted the dark bargain offered to her and sank into the darkness of her psyche, led into the depths by a dark hand and left behind all she thought she was. What emerged was a shadow, one that nestled itself deep in the mind, growing and infecting rational thought until all was stripped away: Hysteria. She was reborn, the perfect tool for her hidden masters. She was now what she always wanted to be; everything she never was and all that she could be.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

• Erased

Negative

• Faceless
• Vindictive
• Emotional attachment to her golden mask

Run History

Name	GM	Metaplot	Threat	Date of Run
Reds & Compressors	Asmodeus		Medium	2 March 2086

Affiliations

Contacts

Contact	Connection	Loyalty	Archetype	Profession	Aspects	Chips
Silas Vespasiano	5	3	Fixer	Black Lodge Fixer	Black Magician, High Society Socialite, Made Man, Politico, Talismonger, Theory Savant	Even
Dr. Miles Thurston	4	2	Custom(K,G,N,A)	Talismonger	Traditionalist, Magical Relics, Professor, Former Museum Curator, Awakened Activist	Even
Elizabeth Kim	3	2	Legwork	Horizon Middle Manager	Horizon User Data, Horizon Corporate Affairs, Horizon Matrix Security, Infobroker	Even

Organizations

She is an agent of The Black Lodge, though she doesn't know it yet, manipulated to do their bidding through cryptic dreams and messages.

Allies

Faction	Reputation	Related Run(s)
Black Lodge	1
White Vory	1	Reds & Compressors

In Character Information

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1	Erased
3	Erased
6	E R A S E D

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1	They call it a "her", at least they assume they are a her, that's how they most often present at least. Runners find her unsettling at best, a nightmare at worst. No flashy magics with this one, most of her powers seem rooted in the illusions and social manipulation. The general jist is to not try to think too hard about her.
3	They are specifically a sorceress, it seems they distrust spirits and anything that isn't fully in their control. General opinion of her is negative, not because she is unreliable, but simply for the sheer insidious brutality of her methods, warping the perceptions of those around her to vicious effect, all with a cold demeanor, turning friend on friend or inducing fear and delrium. Doesn't seem like she has much regard for the life of your average hired merc or poor rent-a-cop. Oh, and it seems no one has seen under the mask... ever.
5	Seems whoever this sorceress is, she isn't working alone. A few rumors say she can even warp the memories and minds of people. After all, there's no telling what she could be doing in the gaps of your memory, but given her reputation, it's probably not good for you.

Assensing Table

Threshold	Result
1	Awakened
2	No cyberware, Aspected Sorcerer
3	6 magic/essence, severe psychological disorders
4	6 magic/essence
5	A variant of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Psychopathy

Appearance

Hysteria has many appearances and wears many faces, some of those who are alive, some dead, and even some who have never existed. But when their appearance is not shrouded by sorcery, they inhabit a simple yet imposing guise. The visage of Hysteria is that of a slightly feminine figure draped in satin, matte-black cloth in an almost religious arrangement, covering their whole body in a formless swathe of cloth. Standing out against this dark background is the gold mask they wear that bears no facial features but two black, void-like eyes that crack their way through the mask. When Hysteria speaks, it is with many voices. What may seem like a high-quality voice emulator is actually Hysteria's real voice, only, they flit between voices, never resting on one long enough for people to get comfortable. Sometimes, they are a sweet woman with an English accent and a voice like dripping honey, other times, they are a man with a harsh Russian accent. Finally, if any were to ever manage to remove their mask, they would find only a blurred expanse beneath. Hysteria cuts no corners on concealing their true identity from the world.

Matrix Persona

Much like the sorceress, their persona often changes as easily as their own identity, but when interacting with ShadowHaven, their persona is that of a figure shrouded by shadow, but where the face should be is a hyper-realistic sun that radiates soft golden light.

Character Plot Hooks

Here are characteristics of the character that GMs may take advantage of to add complications to runs, or to otherwise use when in use. If you want to use them in unrelated to runs, please ask first.

Aspect	Information	Related Run(s)
Hidden Masters	Hysteria is actively manipulated by The Black Lodge as a tool to serve their machinations, working towards whatever goal would benefit them most.
Mundane Disdain	Hysteria tends to be distrusting of involving mundanes in awakened affairs, and seeks to halt corporate meddling in magical endeavors whenever they can.
Awakened Unity	Hysteria believes in empowering and working with other awakened to further their goals, only, not to the degree they would ever grow close enough to compromise their identity... at least not yet.
Fractured Mind	The fragments that remain of their true identity reside in Pallyup, and the girl she once was still lays within their repertoire of identities, dormant.
Dark Whispers	Hysteria has a vested interest in scouring the secrets of Seattle, and attempts to involve herself in any opprotunity to collect sensitive or secretive data.