Holly Blackthorne

Real name:
The Honourable Lady Holly Blackthorne of Caer Valor.

Alias:
The Chosen One; the Heroine of Evershade, Future Queen of Tir’Galdur

SMPB Ranking:
Level B (Citywide)

Identity:
Publically known.

Occupation:
Witch for hire.

Powers and abilities:
Highly skilled sorceress, trained in various forms of magic including combat magic, teleportation, transformations, spellcrafting and healing. She’s treated both her hat and coat with spells that allow her to store and carry with her an incredible amount of things both magical and mundane. Flame mark on her belly grants her supernatural luck, meaning that random coincidences almost always work out in her favour… even if they may do so in a roundabout and convoluted way.

Weaknesses:
Her luck mark only works as long as it’s uncovered, meaning that if she covers her midriff she’s no luckier than your average person. Not particularly strong or fast physically; without her magic she’s easy match for even low-powered supers. Poor eyesight, meaning she has to wear glasses.

Appears in:
Holly Blackthorne and the Silent Choir (major role)

Profile

Holly Blackthorne is not the future Queen of Tir’Galdur, thank you very much. She’s merely a humble witch-for-hire who operates out of Mystic Grove with her lovers Harlan Gardner and Robyn Foxlane — specializing in curse-breaking, magical investigations, and the occasional supernatural cleanup job. That is all she is, and all she’s interested in being… the fact that several nobles of Tir’Galdur insists that she is “the Prophecized Queen of Tir’Galdur, Heroine of the Battle of Evershade, Vanquisher of the Dark Usurper, Last of the Heroic Bloodline, the Chosen One Destined to Take Her Rightful Place on the Throne and Bring Back the Golden Age” is really just propaganda and lies thought up by cynical nobility who want a convenient puppet on the throne. There’s no such thing as Destiny, and those old prophecies have been recycled ad nauseum to validate whoever’s on the throne at the moment.

It is true that Holly is technically Tir’Galdur nobility — her mother, June Blackthorne of Caer’Valor, was a minor noblewoman living in Tir’Galdur, who married a commoner from Paragon Bay. It’s also true that the Dark Queen Vespara targeted Holly when she was a baby, forcing her parents to flee to Paragon Bay, and that Vespara eventually killed said parents while Holly herself survived with a strange flame-shaped mark on her belly. It’s even true that years later, Holly did attend Evershade Universe of the Arcane Arts in Tir’Galdur, was heavily involved in the final downfall of the Dark Queen and could even be said to have struck the final blow against her.

But as Holly points out, none of this even remotely means that she’s any sort of Chosen One, and besides the entire defeat of Vespara was pure luck. “I wasn’t even trying to defeat her,” she claims. “I just stuck a magic flute up her pussy.”

Nevertheless, many nobles of Tir’Galdur still insist that Holly is the true Queen, and many plots have been made to make her give up her life of helping “unworthy mundies” in Paragon Bay and return to Tir’Galdur to “fulfill her Destiny”, and they are willing to resort to questionable tactics to make it happen.

Important Relationships

Robyn Foxlane and Harlan Gardener:
Holly’s two roommates and lovers, who both live with her at 27 Willowbound Lane, Mystic Grove. They all met and became friends when Holly studied Sorcery at Evershade University of the Arcane Arts — Robyn was a Bardic student and Holly’s roommate; Harlan a Wizardry student who hailed from Paragon Bay. They eventually became a romantic threesome, and when Holly returned to Paragon Bay, Robyn and Harlan came with her. Currently, they all live together; Harlan is Holly’s assistent in her witch-for-hire business, while Robyn is trying to break into showbusiness.

Queen Vespara:
Almost more than anyone else, Queen Vespara is responsible for Holly’s current situation. She was the one who tried to turn Holly into her vessel when Holly was a baby; it was her botched ritual that killed Holly’s parents and gave Holly her characteristic flame mark, and it was defeating Vespara that ultimately made the Tir’Galdur nobles decide that Holly was the Chosen One and the true Queen of Tir’Galdur. Currently Vespara’s spirit is trapped in a magic fluet hidden in a vault in Coven’s Refuge, and Holly is in no hurry to see her again.

The White Coven:
While Holly is not officially part of the White Coven, she is closely allied with them and personally knows all their most prominent members. Her lover Harlan was one of Count Ravenwood’s apprentices before he attended Evershade University and is still technically a member of the Coven. As such, Holly often cooperates with and aids the White Coven, and can call on their aid when she needs it.

Monkaya:
In the beginning, Holly mostly knew Monkaya through the White Coven, as the monkey-themed superheroine’s one of very few non-magic-users who’s allowed to come and go at Coven’s Refuge as she wants. However, after Monkaya helped Holly out on a few difficult cases, most notably helping her rescue a kidnapped Robyn from The Silent Choir, they’ve developed a closer friendship.

Lady June Blackthorne and Leo Langdon:
Holly’s parents, who tragically died interfering with Queen’s Vespara’s attempt at turning Holly into her vessel. Holly doesn’t remember her parents at all, and gets annoyed by people who think she misses them and secretly cries about them — “I don’t care what that stupid song says, you can’t miss someone you never knew,” she says.

Pierce, Valerie and Daisy Langdon:
Holly’s paternal uncle, aunt and cousin, who took her in after the death of her parents. Unbeknownst to Holly (and Daisy), Pierce and Valerie used too be henchpeople for Madam Malin, one of the crime lords of Paragon Bay. After they took in Holly, however, her supernatural luck quickly made the family rich, allowing them to quit their jobs and open up a beachside night club in Crystal Seas. Holly has a decent relationship with the Langdons, but realizes that she doesn’t have much in common with them.

Lady Davinia Duskvale:
She was Holly’s “rival” during her early days at Evershade, but it turned out that she was in fact Queen Vespara’s “reserve vessel”. Davinia was possessed by Vespara from the age of five… during her childhood and teens she just experienced Vespara as a voice in her head, but when she turned twenty, Vespara took her over completely. During the battle of Evershade, Holly managed to banish Vespara from her… thanks to a magic flute up the pussy.

Countess Lucinda Duskvale:
Davinia’s mother, and possibly the real brains behind the entire Vespara story. She is still trying to get Holly back to Tir’Galdur, mostly because Hoolly would make a perfect puppet queen.

The Silent Choir:
A mysterious cult-like choir with a hypnotic hum, who turned out to consist of Bardic students from Evershade… all brainwashed and obedient to Countess Duskvale. They briefly turned Robyn into one of them, and even almost turned Holly into one of them as well, but thanks to a lucky gambit, a meticulous plan, and help from Monkaya and Harlan, they were eventually defeated. But is their threat truly over…?