Name: Althea “Knight Templar“ De Vries
Age: 27
Bounty: (former) 42.000.000
Species: Human
Occupation: swordfighter
Allegiance: Follows the path of righteousness! Just... no one else seems to.
Home Village/Ocean: North Blue
Appearance: Althea is about 5'8'' tall and, though she doesn't really reveal much of it, has a good figure. It may not be as busty as other womens figures, but is still, in its way, a great pleasure to look at. In fact, when described by anyone, the thing that was always mentioned, next to her cruelty, was her beauty. And beautiful she is. Graceful, in a way.
She's pale with a nice, feminine face and even looks a little frail. Herstraight hair is kept short, not even reaching her shoulders, and is red. It fits her eyes, which are of a striking gold in colour.
As to clothing, she wears a mail shirt and a hood made out of the same material (some say it's silver, others say it's platin, no one knows for sure, and she says it could as well be copper to her, so whatever), which loosely covers her neck and head, only leaving a big hole in the front. For special times, she also has a helmet protecting her entire head. She mostly keeps it off, though, so she can see clearly. When it's off, she has it hooked to one of her belts.
The chainmail is hardly ever visible, though, as she wears a long white robe ( almost down to her ankles) over it, cut up on thesides of her legs so she can move freely. Its arms go down to her elbows, and from there, she wears metallic vambraces. Her hands, too, are guarded, but only by leather gloves, which pick up where the vambraces end, slightly above her wrists. She says it's because she has to be able to move her hands freely.
As if all that armour wasn't enough allready, over the robe, she wears a cuirass, metal as well, which protects her shoulders and all the important organs. And this was just the protection on her upper body...
There are two loose leather belts across her waist, and one stretching across the cuirass over her shoulder, connecting with one of the others at her back. On one of the loose ones, she carries a dagger, the other one is for her helmet, whenever she's not wearing it. The one on her back, though, had her feared greatsword, “Epiphany“ strapped to it, which is known to be the only one of its kind, and, though such rumours have yet to be confirmed, one of the last works of the great Eklund, the most famous blacksmith of North Blue, who disappeared years ago. Now it has a normal, kind of cheap blade strapped to it, but only until she gets her belowed greatsword back.
Her legs, as well, are protected, though not as heavily as her upper body. Though they, as well, are covered with chainmail, it's a little thinner and more lithe to allow her to move faster. The only other protection they have are, apart from a pair of leather boots and metal knee rails, thin, loose, brown leather pants (not the shiny kind, more the:"not as heavy as armour, but still pretective" kind).
History:
Ever since she could remember, Althea was sure of one thing: People are evil.
Well, actually, at first it was: People who are against the law are evil.
This was the view she grew up with, her father being a marine captain, and later commodore. Her mother, she doesn't remember. She was too young when she died. But she knows she must have looked a lot like her.
Instead of becoming overprotective over his daughter, her father became a bitter man fixed on bringing down any pirate. No real time for family, but she never blamed him.
It only strenghtened her view of evil people. They took her mother from her, and now they were taking her father, too!
Aside from being incredibly lonely sometimes, being schooled at home in a way that made it look like her teacher thought she was a genius, fencing and other swordfighting lessons in the afternoon, and a general lack of sleep, her childhood was uneventful.
When she was eightteen, she joined the marine, and the rest of her life seemed to be clear from that point.
For years, she fought and worked as hard as she could, more for her father than herself. Still, she was generally considered a disappointment. Not that she had been that bad a soldier, but seeing who her father was, she had been expected to do a lot better.
She never made it far, even after years in the marine, she was only a lieutenant, and had just barely made it that far. Maybe she just wasn't made for this. It wasn't like she was weak, she was stronger than some of the captains at that age already. She just lacked a certain... skill when it came to tactics. Intrigues. Things that would require her to think as though she would potentially want to backstab someone, marine or pirate or whatever.
One day, her and some of her men were under the command of a captain named Ferguson. A widely renowned man, and just as much of a hard headed non intrigist as she was. They were out to catch some pirates. The man on Fergusons side, Anders, was the one responsible for forming a tactic for the fight. Althea was in charge of one attack squad, which was to attack head on first, which Althea liked. Later, backup would arrive to support them.
Of course, they hadn't been told the whole strategy. That was what Althea soon came to see, in the fight against the pirates. The backups didn't arrive. At first Althea thought that the yhad probably been stopped by the pirates. But after a while, she came to see the real plan. The longer they thought, the more men she lost. They had never stood a chance. They were a sacrifice. But why?
Maybe it was to find out just how strong the pirates were, maybe it was to make them think they were being hunted, to have them escape to the sea hastingly, where they'd run into all of their ships. This or that way, Althea would never know. She doesn't know the name of the man who had finally hit her hard enough to make her fall, doesn't remember his face.
But she remembers to this day the betrayal and the realisation: People are evil. The side they're on doesn't matter, their status doesn't matter, their money doesn't matter, their family doesn't matter. There is no one to trust. People are evil.
As she lay there, taking her last breaths, her face in the dirt, tears ran down her face. She didn't know how long she was lying there, waiting to die, she may have lost conciousness for some time, and she might have had some hallucinations as well, but when hs ewoke up, she wasn't at the beach anymore.
At first she thought it was heaven, but when she tried to get up and a stinging pain ran through her side, she knew she was still alive.
For the next week, she had high fever. A young man and an old, scary one took care of her, cured her.It was their hut she was in. When she was able to talk to them, she found out that their names were Berthold and Grandolf Eklund, that they were not, in fact, related, and that Berthold, the young man, had found her on the beach and brought her here. In his spare time, he was also a donkey, appearantly. Much more interesting than that was Grandolf, the old man. She wasn't sure at first, but as time passed by, she became certain that he was, in fact, the Grandolf Eklund, the legendary blacksmith who had vanished years ago.
When she was able to walk, she started helping Berhtold with his work, and the two got very close, until he was like the brother she never had. Life was, for the first time, good. Fulfilling, almost.
If only there hadn't been her knowledge of humanity. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't just sit and watch the world turn, watch the evil walk free over it's face. And with Grandolfs help, she knew she could do something about it.
Grandolf, though, didn't understand. He didn't want to support her in her honourable quest. If Berthold had been the master blacksmith, she was sure of it, he'd help her!
One day, Grandolf got very sick. Very, very sick. So sick he might die. And Althea felt sorry. The old man had saved her, had made her a part of his small family, and all she had done was to push him to do things he didn't want for her mission. Had she even thanked him?
This sense of guilt was what forced her from his side, instead of to it. She felt it whenever she was in his presence, and found herself not worthy to be by his side.
And so, the night he died, she wasn't by his side. She was in her bed, fast asleep.
The moment she woke up, she felt something was wrong. When she rushed downstairs, she found Berthold in the old blacksmith shop. He looked like he hadn't slept all night. In his hands, he held a sword. And behind him, standing in front of the amboss as if he was still alive, stood Grandolf Erklund. She rushed to his side, but couldn't do anyhting than to acknowledge he was gone.
Berthold told her, as they buried him, that his last words concerned her.
“He told me not to leave you alone. Oh, and he said that whatever you do, you should always take pride in it. Never feel guilty for anything.“
In his voice, it sounded so very different, but Althea, in that moment, almost felt as if she could hear the old mans voice.
There was nothing left for her in the old hut now. With Eklund gone, it was void of the spirit that once seemed to have inhabited it. It had lost its soul. Whatever it was, she couldn't live there anymore. And she had plans, big plans. And now, she had the sword to fit them. When she opened the closet in the blacksmith shop, looking for something resembling money, or other things that'd help her on her journey, she found something much better. It was an armour, still shiny and new after all the years it had laid in there. Berthold told her it had belonged to Eklunds wife, who had been some kind of warrior queen in her younger days. Now though, she was gone, and so was he.
Not only would it have been a waste to leave it there, but Althea thought that, if she was the deseased spirit of a warrior queen, she'd rather see her armour put to good use.
And so it came that Althea and Berthold, the donkey man (though mostly nudist donkey), started their journey. On land, mostly, but also over water. Icognito, of course. It works fairly well if you think about how most people wouldn't recognise her without her armour. It's just that the shiny, pretty armour and the great sword pointed at you stays in your mind a lot better than the face of the girl holding it. And on her bounty poster, she's still wearing the chainmail hood, which shows her face, but covers most of her hair. Without the armour, she just doesn't look like that. Much more like a frail, harmless girl wanting to go to another island for private reasons. Maybe to visit her grandmother? To start a killing spree? No, never!
And this is how she gets across the water. Thgou she really hates ships. They make her seasick. Even looking at one is enough to make her shiver. But for exterminating evil, any day!
She killed a lot of men, a lot of evil, but never became worn form her task. She never saw how impossible it was to cleanse the world of so much evil that the only one left would be herself.
Her career was abruptly ended when she had reached some notoriety one the Grand Line. To be fair, it was mostly her fault. And Berthold told her not to do it! But she still did... Attack Impel Down. Alone.
That place was, like, evil incarnate! The torturers were evil, and the tortured were, too! Maybe she should have used a bomb instead of a head on attack. But she was never the tactical type.
She got to the end of the second level, which was pretty impressive seeing how there were guards everywhere. Many of them died on her hands. So did many of the prisoners. Way to make yourself popular in your new home! Of course, she was caught. Still impressive. And this way, she only had to be transferred first back to level one, to be stripped off her belongings and clothes, “baptized“ in boiling water (unlike some amazing people, she did flinch, and she did scream. It hurt.), and put into her prisoner outfit, before being put into level three. Despite her bounty being a little low to be put there, she still was due to the boldness with which she had comitted her crimes, especially this last assault. She's still there, happily killing everyone who gets too close. So much so that it's been discussed to pur her one level deeper even, just because the corpses keep piling up and would have raised her bouny by now even if she was outside of prison.
Personality: Althea is, basically, someone who has taken “good“ and “just“ far beyond the levels of being an extremist with good intentions. Where she sees evil, she attacks it, no matter whether it may be the evil of taking candy from a baby, or the evil of killing said baby, it all seems to be the same to her, and her punishments are hard. Oh, and thinking about a crime is equal to comitting it, as well, so pray to god she doesn't read your mind somehow.
She doesn't compromise, and she doesn't let anyone get away, be it marine, government agent, pirate, rebel or civilian.
She never gets angry or passionate about what she is doing, and, besides punishment for those who are evil, doesn't give a hint of motivation for it. It seems she's doing what she has to do, but why she feels she has to remains in the dark. It even seems, sometimes, as if she's not too happy about having to do it. She is not, by far, the coldblooded killer the media describes her as. She even prays for the “evil souls“ she cleansed. Wakes up crying sometimes because she heard their voices in her dreams again. But despite this, she never does believe herself to be wrong. Maybe she did, once, but the thing is that, no matter how obsessed she seems with good and evil, she sees herself not only above them, but completely void of the concept.
Mostly, though, she's a good mannered, calm, dutiful girl, and will remain so even while she chops your head off and spills your intestines all over the floor.
Ironically, despite not being a good, or an evil person, she still holds on to honour. For example, if someone saves her life, she will be indebted to him, and she will pay that debt. This honour, and only this, can keep her from bringing evildoers their punishment... but that doesn't mean she'll let them get away. The next time they meet, no matter what it is her savior did for her, he's a dead man.
Also, and on a completely different note, she hates ships! She gets seasick from even looking at them! Why did she join the marine? Because... her father... wanted her to. Yeah.
Ship: none
Ship Flag: none
Devil Fruit: none
Special Abilities: Though she doesn't have a style, she's still considered a swordmaster. Also, just try to get past that armour.
Learned Techniques (Keep it 1-25): Sword techniques, Devil fruit moves, rokushiki, anything special move wise
Weapons/Items:
Ceremonial dagger (which is basically a normal dagger with "ceremonial" added to it to make it sound better. It's not.)
Epiphany (great sword)
Goals:
1.To cleanse the world of evil. This might or might not translate to:“ To cleanse the world of either that troublesome free will or life itself“. Then again, it might just be: “to cleanse the world of evil.“
1.1. To achieve this goal, she knows she has to get her hands on her greatsword again. In her eyes, she's the only one who has the right to wield it anyway.
1.2. And she has to get her partner, Berthold, back from the marines somehow. It's a rather stupid reason, but she needs him as a scout and for carrying stuff. Hey, she's still a girl.
Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:41 pm