Modern History

Eris spent several lives in military service until her inability to age required relocation. With the roles of women limited until recently, she took the roles she could, each time trying to work units that let her tinker with military equipment and weapons. She never got to man the guns on a destroyer or launch torpedos from a submarine, but the advancements of tanks between WWI and WWII had her fingerprints all over them.

Her love for all things mechanical and explodey has carried through the centuries. As technology advanced, Eris followed along, learning new sciences, applying her own unusual outlook to improve existing weapons and create new marvels. Although she held several patents and funded research under the guise of various techonology and security firms, true inspiration struck a decade ago, giving birth to the rise of Jarista Industries. Under this corporation, branded as a private military organization, smaller companies were pulled in to support JI's aims. One side of the business contracts out specialized security forces and offers unique training opportunities. The other side, focuses on research and development of armor, vehicles, small and large scale weapons, rockets, etc, and are starting to touch the fringes of space travel.

JI serves as a conduit for the Cauldron to earn legitimate money, recruit potential assets, and supplement training of existing ranks.

Personal History

Raised as a soldier, training side by side with them, Eris was always considered "one of the guys" and it never occured to her that she would be anything else. On a trip to pledge fealty to her friend and King, she sought out the blacksmith of the city, needing parts for her war machines. By luck or fate, it was a man named Phoenix Aurelius who once trained with the masters of her house. Their reunion began with familiar camaraderie. When he produced an experimental alloy, she quipped that if they worked as well as he claimed, she would either marry him or buy him a goat.

The jest broke his brain, leading him to see the fiery redhead as more than just a fellow soldier, and after a few awkward advances and oblivious responses, he proposed. They were married in a lovely ceremony that unfortunately required her to wear a dress for the second time ever, which further melted the man's senses. While their relationship remains one of humor and loyalty, the core that has bound them together for over five centuries is unyielding love. Phoenix Aurelius is loved so much that she would break her oath to Isidore D'Aiglemort, abandon every responsibility, and finds even her glorious booms and dooms pale in comparison to the simple farmboy.

Philosophies to Live By

"Like many silly codes of bravery and manliness, the meat of my father’s instruction on how to die well can be distilled to a simple slogan: Die angry at maximum volume. Dying silently is out of the question."

"Better to ask forgiveness than permission and to answer their shenanigans with even better shenanigans."

"Defend the weak, protect both young and old, never desert your friends. Give justice to all, be fearless in battle and always ready to defend the right."

"It is one of those lessons that every child should learn: Don't play with fire, sharp objects, or ancient artifacts."

Early History

Born in a time when women were considered delicate and practically owned by the men in their life, Eris defied convention due to the fortune of being born to House Jarista. Niece to the eldest living member of House Jarista, the maladies suffered by her uncle Jean Jarista saw Eris becoming the surrogate Head of the House. Although young, neither age nor gender deterred her ability to effectively hold and command the members of the House. Trained from youth in the ways of war, Eris was a skilled combatant and dedicated solider, using that discipline to ensure stability among the family and its students.

As a child, she was tutored in combat and strategy, spending weeks at the royal castle. In turn, two Princes spent time at the Jarista stronghold learning of the weaponry produced by her family. When called upon to serve in the war with England, Eris did not hesitate to answer, bringing the cogs of war with her. What distinguished her from other Commanders was the chaotic nature of her strategies and use of that weaponry, an unpredictable blueprint of chaos that proved hard to counter. England lost, and the D'Aiglemort rule continued in peace for a time before...

...the realm imploded, leaving her King and friend changed.

The alliance that began between families decades ago was not been forgotten though. The camaraderie between the them was a genuine friendship that held no matter how many years passed. When Isidore D'Aiglemort became a vampire and took his new bride into the unlife with him, an offer was made to give Eris eternity too. It was not an easy choice, as she wanted to remain as human as possible and refused any life that did not include her own husband, Phoenix Aurelius. The group that Isidore was associated with had resources, aiding in turning her into a witch. Once she became accustomed to the powers, another arrangement was made. In order to help the volatile Mercy D'Aiglemort maintain some stability, Eris and Phoenix were marked.

Ancient History

House Jarista began as a small family enamored with the mechanical marvels that were starting to emerge. Considerable wealth, time, and fanaticism was given to the study and development of such devices to the exclusion of all else. The early days of House Jarista were rife with laughter from the other nobles and jeers of "lunatics" and "madness," labeling them eccentric in their single-minded focus. House Jarista might have entirely lost sway in Court and faded into nothing were it not for House D'Aiglemort seeking a spark of possibility, asking what might become if the Jaristas were right, and lending support through an alliance.

Over time, the power of technology became desired across the realm, allowing House Jarista to expand and stablize, drawing builders, tinkers, artists, and creative souls whose imagination lent to innovation and improvements. Although the core of the House was bound in blood, it was possible for others to petition for membership, undergoing a period of tutelage before demonstrating mastery in a chosen field. While House Jarista dabbled in devices of interest and utility, violence always brings money, thus their hearts were held by war machines, siege weaponry, projectiles, and the like. As steam becomes more prevalent, old concepts were born anew.

When the D'Aiglemort's came to the throne, their old alliance with the Jarista clan was not forgotten and the House was tapped to provide military assets in the form of machinery.

Magic Sources

• The Elements (Fire) - There is a wealth of power within the natural world, most of which manifests through the four primal elements of the world: earth, wind, water, and fire. The magician with the elements as a source can draw power from manifestations of those natural elements and use them to empower their magic. Pick a single element. This element becomes a source for your magical efforts.
  • Passive Power: Elemental Strength - When you cast a spell that resonates with a given element its power is amplified singificantly.
  • Weakness: You are vulnerable to magic or effects which use an element opposite of your chosen source. Air feeds fire and fire is consumed by water. Earth smothers air, but is weakened by water. Air consumes water.
• Power Item - The magician draws his magical prowess from an item. This item can be something significant to the magician himself, an heirloom passed down through the ages within a family, or something found and must be portable. Magicians who have an object as a source must carry their object with them in order to work their magic.
  • Passive Power: Reinforcement - The magician with this source subtly changes the nature of the item which serves as it's source. The item becomes supernaturally strengthened, capable of intercepting bullets or taking hits from supernatural strength without breaking.
  • Weakness - The item is the source of the magician's power and if stolen or taken away the magician is unable to work magic.
• Blood - The magician uses blood to fuel his power. This can be his own, or it can be someone elses.
  • Passive Power: Blood Storage - The magician becomes capable of storing blood in a specially prepared vessel. This vessel can be anything but must have a lid or a flap to cover the blood. So long as the blood is in this vessel, it will not rot or clot, nor will it spill out of the vessel if overturned accidentally.
  • Weakness - If the magician loses its store of blood it cannot use the magical technique(s) linked to that source with the same degree of strength.

Magic Techniques

• Destruction - The deployment of magic in order to destroy people, places, objects, and things. When people think of magician warriors, this is what they're referring. Magic which is used to destroy. This technique also encompasses magic used for combat applications.
• Protection - Wards and magical barriers, spells which protect from evil (and good) and spells like it. All can be done with this school of magic.
• Technomancy - The art of using magic to control, interact with and run electronic items, computers, cellphones, etc.
• Unweaving - Unraveling magic as it is being cast, or the capable of undoing magic currently affecting someone or something.
• Healing - The art of using magical power in order to heal injuries, cure diseases, and soothe restless souls.

Magic Item Techniques

• Inscription - The technique of making a magical effect permanent or activateable, by imbedding it in runes, tattoos, or carved into a surface.