User Profile

Character: Anna Thompson Marshall (Anna Mayne Thompson before marriage)
Series: The Soprano Sorceress, first book of the Spellsong Cycle series
Version: Just after chapter 19 in The Soprano Sorceress
Age: 47 (and looks it, for the most part)
Gender: Aaaaall woman, baby~ <3

Appearance: Anna is a rather average woman who has reached a solid middle age. She reaches a respectable height of 5'4", and has a strong build on the slim side of average, with ample breasts and hips, and long-fingered artist's hands with neatly maintained nails. She has hair that reaches a few inches past her shoulders, not quite long enough to be put into a proper bun, naturally blonde--her age, though, has been starting to darken her hair towards auburn, and there are some grey roots interspersed through it. This is hidden well, though not perfectly, by blonde hair dye that's starting to fade and grow out. Her skin is surprisingly good for her age, and very fair, with her age showing very little on her face, especially with make up, complementing dark blue eyes and full lips. Currently, she's wearing flattering soft green trousers, and matching blouse and sleeveless tunic--no medieval bras for her, unfortunately. A floppy, widebrimmed brown hat goes with a tied belt of brown leather straps, with a large purse-wallet-pouch strapped onto it, and blue leather boots that come almost up to her knees. The overall look is quite medieval, and looks like she should be out riding a horse--which she was indeed, before she ended up in Dollsy.

Personality: The most important thing to know about Anna is that she is a middle-aged woman working to make it in a man's world, she's a single mother of three, (one of whom has recently died) a veteran music teacher of college undergraduates, and a seasoned player in the ultra-competitive and hostile worlds of university politics and operatic singing. The practical upshot of all of this? You can not pull one over her. She will see right through you, and she will probably know how to deal with you, too. She is incredibly patient, has a fair temper but the ability to keep it under wraps, and has dealt with a lot of shit from a lot of sources--she is no stranger to lies, deception, cruelty, backstabbing, frustration, rage, pettiness, being demeaned and pushed around, loss, pain, suffering, or even grief. But on the positive side, she can also have boundless courage, guts, determination, compassion, love, integrity, loyalty, and devotion. She's a good judge of character, stern but fair in the manner of tough love and justice, always true to her word, and genuinely wants to help--and has the grit and intelligence, the practical problem-solving skills necessary to see things through and get them done. If she considers someone one of her own, you had better be very careful messing with them, because you will be inviting an enraged Mama Bear to come wreck your shit, and wreck it she will--though she may question herself for doing what needs to be done afterwards, and she may initially hesitate a bit, she can let the ends justify the needs and unleash holy hell on her enemies.

She's sick and tired of life dealing her bad hands and giving her alternatives that are all worse than the next, (and yet somehow forcing her to be thankful and keep pressing on, because while what she always has to settle for is bad enough, everything else is even worse) and never giving her a chance to get anywhere. She's also tired of being forced into situations that are designed to be frustrating and difficult to understand, with lots of hidden rules nad unspoken meanings--and being forced to either react blindly without knowing the consequences of her actions, or waste time and be hopelessly behind once she does figure things out. Life always seems to be full of wrongs she can't fix, necessary uses of force where there shouldn't be any, needing to value fluff and glitter over substance, and playing ridiculous games when you're not allowed to beat straight through the bush. Straightforward, blunt, and fiery, once Anna is given the chance to act, she'll seize it by the throat and make the best of it--and is probably just savvy enough with all her years to make people underestimate her one moment, and do better than anyone would possibly expect the next. She's a very down-to-earth person who values feelings and instincts, honestly, and not-so-common sense, and believes strongly that people should be judged by their own merits, not by their gender or circumstances in life, or other things they can't control. Even when forced into utterly alien situations, she will react with shocking calm and patience, methodically and even mundanely seeking answers and information to better prepare her for what's going on and what she'll have to face. At her core, she's one small woman being forced to fill some very big boots, and though she may question herself, hesitate, and stumble a bit on the rocky road, she will rise to the occasion and fill them with flying colors, through some combination of raw talent, pure personality and force of will, and simple luck.

Fears: Most mundanely, Anna fears losing her voice--whether in Ames or Erde, her voice is her sole source of livelihood and all that seems to make her useful to those who are more powerful and control her fate. She similarly fears losing her beauty, for much the same reason; very few will want to listen to a beautiful voice if it doesn't come from someone who is similarly pretty on the stage. She fears never seeing her children again, as well; one is already dead, and she's separated from her other two, one of whom isn't old enough to be on her own yet and who has nobody to provide for her now. She fears being stuck on Erde, basically a dought-parched medieval hellhole with a looming evil on the horizon, where most of the men are extremely chauvanistic, most of the women with any power are conniving schemers, where everyone expects ridiculous miracles from her, doesn't know exactly who or what she is, and is throwing her into situations way beyond her experience--and if she doesn't perform adequately, won't hesitate to have her disposed of, even her ostensible allies, while her enemies are plotting against her regardless. She fears her sorcery at times as well, and what she's capable of doing with it, and that power might corrupt her. She fears death as well, as anyone would.

Weaknesses: Anna is a normal, middle-aged woman, with all the weaknesses that it entails. She isn't physically stronger or faster, or more durable than anyone else in their late 40's who doesn't exercise heavily, and she is easily killed by anything a normal person would be killed by, despite her mental fortitude. Her sorcery in and of itself a weakness; it relies on what is already there to use for its effects, and can easily backlash, not work as intended, or harm her or her players. It also draws on her herself--using sorcery much draws from her very life and body, rendering her thinner and weaker, requiring constant food to regain her strength and keep from starving to death. In some cases, being a woman is also a weakness, especially in a medieval chauvinistic society such as Erde. She is also too blunt and tempermental for her own good sometimes. Children are also a weakness of hers; as a woman who recently lost her oldest child, and is apparently permanently separated from her others, she hates to see children of any sort harmed, and can't help but hurt a little when she
sees children, wanting to care for and protect them.

Strengths/Abilities: Anna is an intelligent woman who has seen and done a fair bit in her lifetime, who knows happiness as well as misery, who knows how to endure suffering and disappointment and callousness from others. She's old enough to be wiser than many, and both shrewd and patient from dealing with university politics and teaching undergraduate classes, allowing her to struggle her way through delicate situations that many younger and more inexperienced people might trip up in. She has about average strength and stamina for a woman of her age, but an extremely powerful, classically trained soprano voice, with the power, endurance, and volume to sing real opera. She also knows how to play acoustic guitar and piano.

These musical qualities give her an extremely powerful potential as a sorceress; in Erde, music is magic, with clearsong working on inanimate objects, and the more dangerous darksong working on living or formerly living objects, including people; the more powerful and precise a voice is, the stronger the sorcery it can make, with the effects being even more pronounced if she has instrumental accompaniment. Effects are obtained by singing them, with heavy attention required for both wording and inflection, and visualization required. Just about anything can be sang, though there's no requirement that it will work, or that it works as intended, or that it won't hurt herself or her players. The sorcery typically uses what is already there--so if, for example, she wants to make a dress, she'll need to have some spare cloth around, unless she wants her blankets or curtains to be cannibalized for the task.

History: Anna Thompson Marshall was born Anna Mayne Thompson in Cumberland, Kentucky, to two loving parents. She grew up interested in art and music, but ended up focusing on her music and voice lessons. She met Avery Marshall at age 18, the self-styled perfect gentleman and Italian lover, also a singer, a baritone. He swept her off her feet and they were married by the time she was 19; they had Irenia, her first daughter, that same year. Four years later, her son, Mario, was born, and six years later Elizabetta was born. During her marriage with Avery, the two and their growing family were almost Gypsy-like in their roamings, moving from place to place across America to follow Avery's work demands. Eventually, he left her to raise three children by herself, having run off to become Antonio Marsali, king of the comprimarios and exotic opera singer. Because Avery--or now, Antonio--had always insisted in paying for everything and putting his work before her own, she found it extremely difficult to make ends meet, and moved to Ames, Iowa, working as an undergraduate music teacher and small-time opera singer. She was never quite good enough to win competitions consistently, but always competent and talented enough to usually land second or third place. Irenia grew up and left the house as a viola player, as did Mario, who went to Houston and got married himself; Elizabetta soon went to Emory; at some point during all of this, she had a relationship with a man named Sandy, which unfortunately didn't work out.

Less than a month ago, Irenia was killed in a car accident, sapping Anna's already meager funds to provide even the simplest of funerals. With less than $200 to her name to last through the month, and facing a formal dinner to sing at for her college for a paltry amount of cash during a pounding rainstorm, Anna wished that she could be anywhere but Ames. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, a woman named Jenny who was capable of doing simple travel spells called forth to bring a sorceress from the mists, and Anna was chosen. She found herself in the strange medieval world of Erde, in Mencha, Defalk, where singing was imbued with magical power. Confused and disoriented from her trip, she spoke with Jenny and Daffyd, the viola player who had asked for a sorceress to be brought; he had wished for her because his father Culain, an orchestra player to the great sorcerer Brill, had been turned into dust for humming and disturbing some spellcasting, and Daffyd wished for her to do the same to Brill as revenge. Rather than turn him into dust--especially as she wasn't sure if she even could do magic--Anna allowed Lord Brill to take her to his hall, Loiseau, as an honored guest. From him, she learned about the rudiments and basic principles underlying sorcery, and about the threat which was causing massive drought to all of Defalk, the Dark Monks of Ebra. She agrees to try and help with this threat, though she hasn't perfected her sorcery and doesn't have an instrument to acccompany herself on, or any players.

One day while riding out to the orchard to clear her head, she sensed three concealed Ebran assassins sent to kill her, and managed to throw her arm up to protect herself from a war arrow that would have killed her. The first arrow tore across her forearm and palm, while the second buried itself into her shoulder. By that point, the guards accompanying her had attacked the assassins; she rode off on her palomino, Farinelli, managing to get back to the steps of Loiuseau before collapsing from pain and bloodloss. Unfortunately or fortunately for her, she never quite hit the ground, but instead landed in Dollsy, wounded and bleeding heavily.

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