APPLICATION ::
Character Name: Jeanne d'Arc
Character Series: Jeanne d'Arc (PSP)
Character Age: 18.
Background:
A long time ago, the powerful fiend Gilvaroth set his sights on the human realm and sought to conquer it with his armies of monsters, led by specially chosen demonic beings called Reapers. Around the world, forces of man and therion ("animal people", in a nutshell) banded together to oppose them. The clash became a long and bitter conflict known as the War of the Reapers. To bring about its end, five magical armlets were forged and given to five warriors, who managed to use them to banish Gilvaroth from the mortal sphere.
Many years have passed since that day, but peace has not yet returned to the world. For nearly a century, France and England have been embroiled in a vicious war over land inheritance, with the English seeking to conquer France and make the six-year-old King Henry a monarch of two countries. The weary and fractured French resistance was falling apart, but not fast enough for The Duke of Bedford, regent and advisor to the English throne and also one of the five former heroes. Determined - and desperate - to safeguard his country and his young king, he decided to summon the very evil he had once helped to defeat and allowed the powerful Gilvaroth to enter Henry's body. Yet unbeknowngst to him, Gilvaroth had no desire to share the childish body and intentionally booted out Henry's soul.
Meanwhile, the small village of Domremy was enjoying a festival. In the middle of it, Jeanne was sent by her father, a goat herder named Jacques, on an errand to find Roger - a mysterious young man the village had taken in when they had found him wandering and witless years before. On this night, Roger had gone into the nearby woods and hadn't returned. Jeanne, along with her best friend Liane, set out for the chapel housed within the woods to find him. However, when they arrived, the girls found a horse carrying a dead English officer instead. Upon searching the body, they discovered a strange, glowing bag tied to his belt. When Jeanne reached out for it, a magical armlet burst from the bag and attached itself to her wrist.
Before either of them had time to finish processing the situation, they were suddenly attacked by demonic orcs from the woods. An unknown voice sounded in Jeanne's head, telling her to take the fallen soldier's sword and fight. She did so and, despite never wielding a blade before, proceeded to defeat the monsters with Liane's help. Soon after, an injured Roger appeared from the woods. He had also been attacked by demons and had only narrowly escaped. Jeanne began to fill him in on what had happened, only to be cut off by the distant scream of a villager. Realizing that their home was in danger, the trio ran back to Domremy.
But they were too late. An English officer and his command of orc demons had already set the town to fire and the sword. They quickly attempted to murder Jeanne, Liane and Roger, not wanting to leave any survivors. In the middle of the ensuing battle, Jeanne again heard the mysterious voice. This time it was imploring her to raise the arm that wore the armlet. She obeyed and was suddenly transformed into a powerful persona, gaining increased strength and intricate body armor. With this new advantage on her side, Jeanne was able to help her friends defeat the enemy forces. However, the victory proved to be an empty one. Domremy lay in ashes, along with everyone that the trio had known and loved. Jeanne, filled with grief and fueled by a desperate need to make the English pay, decided to march for the garrison in Vaucouleurs at once and enlist in the French army - more or less dragging Liane and Roger with her. Once there, Jeanne related to the head official, Captain Robert, of the voice she had heard; the very voice, she was convinced, of God himself. However, Captain Robert not only brushed aside her convictions, but denied her enlistment. ("A rustic like you....in the army? People will think it a joke.") The two were then interrupted by a garrison officer relaying the news of an English attack on the defenseless town of Neaufchateau. Worse still, all troops had already been deployed in preparation for the dauphin's next assault.
Refusing to waste further time arguing with the captain, Jeanne traveled to Neaufchateau, Roger and Liane following in her wake. She tried to activate her armlet in order to plow through the enemies quickly, but it failed her. Things could have ended very badly for her if Captain Robert had not already dispatched two soldiers, Jean and Bertrand, to Neaufchateau after Jeanne had left his tent. These men proved invaluable in battle as they aided Jeanne and her friends in saving the townsfolk.....most of the townsfolk. Jeanne and her party arrived too late to rescue everyone - one survivor actually committing suicide in front of them - something Jeanne viciously blamed herself for afterward. Her self-abrasions were interrupted, however, by the mysterious voice. This time it instructed her to travel to the city of Nancy, carrying with the words an implication that Jeanne would find answers there.
Eager to obey the voice, Jeanne set off immediately. While her company was passing through the Forest of Fraude, the group discovered a gang of English troops harassing a French noble that they had cornered. Jeanne recklessly charged in and put paid to the soldiers. However, the mysterious noble left without answering Jeanne's most important questions- and to further complicate things, it was revealed that Jean and Bertrand were working for the Duke of Lorraine. This man had been afflicted by disease for some time and had hoped that Jeanne's magical armlet could cure him. But when Jean and Bertrand brought the girl to him, he realized that the armlet's power should be put to the much better use of saving and uniting France. To aid Jeanne, he assigned two of his men to guard and fight for her, Colet and Marcel, and put the entire group on the road to Chinon in order to pry the dauphin out of hiding.
Unfortunately for Jeanne, the new recruits proved difficult to get along with at first- Colet in particular. Arrogant and rude, the rogue even tried to ride ahead of Jeanne while the group was passing through Soir Valley...only to run right into the English official named Talbot, who quickly attacked with the intention of getting rid of the now famous Jeanne. He was successfully denied his wish several times throughout Jeanne's journey to Chinon, despite all his attempts, but was by no means the last obstacle she had to face; upon arriving at the place where Charles, the dauphin, had agreed to meet her (ignoring the protests of his lisping advisor, Georges), Jeanne was made to pick out the royal figure from the crowd as a sort of test. Thanks to a tip by the mysterious noble, revealed to be named Gilles, Jeanne succeeded; Charles became quite fond of her afterward, easily believing that she was indeed sent by God to reclaim France and put him on the throne.
However, most French nobles didn't share this view; at war councils, it was Gilles who could get their attention, not Jeanne, especially in the early stages of the Orleans campaign- a strategy the nobles wouldn't even endorse at first, preferring to leave Orleans be. Jeanne, enraged by this consensus, strode off to reclaim the city without the rest of the army. And true to her word, Jeanne reckessly confronted the enemy forces that were holding Orleans in a state of siege with only a handful of allies at her back, stubbornly ignoring Roger's protests. Before the battle, she was joined by two therions; La Hire, a long-time friend of Gilles, and Rufus, his companion. With their help, Jeanne was able to break the English stranglehold on Orleans. Yet her victory proved to have twofold effects; she both freed the city and gave its people hope for the first time in years.
Still, the nobles continued to disagree with Jeanne on pretty much every point she made, and even purposely left her behind when the time came to mount an attack on the Bastille of Saint Loups. And even though it was Jeanne and her friends who ultimately saved the day, they still weren't much inclined to listen to her. Then, next came the Bastille of the Augustins. It was here that, angered by the open contempt of the nobles she had to cooperate with and the perceived lack of support from Roger, Jeanne boldly put herself in harm's way to encourage her soldiers. As consequence for this foolhardy behavior, Jeanne was shot in the back with an English arrow and almost died; it was only thanks to Roger, manifesting some strange power in his desperation to help Jeanne, that she survived.
....only to wake up in Mayfield.
Personality:
Imagine watching your hometown burn to ashes and believing that your family was murdered. Imagine having nothing left in the world but two friends, a frog, and a magical armlet through which you believe to hear the voice of God. And if that's not bad enough, imagine that the source of all your troubles was a powerful foreign army hellbent on claiming your leaderless and divided country for its own.
You'd probably break down and cry and think the situation hopeless. But then again, you aren't Jeanne d'Arc.
Yes, Jeanne d'Arc. La Pucelle: the Maid. An assertive girl who appears to take everything, if not in stride, then upon her own shoulders, even when in reality she'll become unable to sleep for days at a time due to the troubles weighing on her mind. A thing that will never be admitted openly, of course, because when you're Jeanne- a person depended on, believed in, looked up to -you can't afford to show just how tired or scared or doubtful you are if it will only make others lose faith in you, in themselves, or in the cause to save your nation. Yet this noble desire- stemming from a noble, if deeply immature, nature -comes with the adverse effect of rendering Jeanne isolated and alone by her own hand as she grapples with the change in identity and responsibility from "villager thrust into a war" to "heroine and savior of France".
In a word, Jeanne is driven. Doing something, no matter how foolhardy or desperate, will forever be a thousand times better than doing nothing in her book. It's this sort of determination, in fact- coupled with some very powerful emotions -that spurs Jeanne to first seek admission into the French army and then forge her own path when denied enlistment, paying absolutely no heed to social norms or even the likelihood of failure. She pursues her goal of protecting everyone with a focused intensity that borders on fanatical obsession, leaving little room for the wants or needs of a normal 17-year old. (And this is just how Jeanne pretends to like it.) However, the downside of Jeanne's short-sighted determination is the tendency to turn a blind eye to the emotions of her contemporaries. She can become unreasonable and demanding because she doesn't understand why those around her might be struggling, forgetting that not everyone is like her; that is, passionate almost to the point of self-destructiveness. Unlike her best friend Liane, Jeanne is terrible when it comes to being tactful. She can be thoughtless and painfully blunt, not to mention utterly oblivious to the atmosphere or feelings of others. This isn't because Jeanne intends to be cruel, although she doesn't balk at being harsh if she thinks it warranted; she just rarely thinks about how deeply her words might affect someone before she speaks, let alone notice the results and reactions, especially when her emotions are fired up.
It's easy to infer from this that Jeanne possesses the (occasionally exasperating) qualities of being stubborn, straightforward, reckless and headstrong. Yet beneath this hard, warlike shell is a great deal of tolerance, selflessness, and even naivity. Unlike some in her world, Jeanne places no value on your gender, your family line, or even your species; if you're on her side, she'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. And if you're a fellow Frenchmen, why, Jeanne would have a hard time swallowing the idea that you aren't eager to fulfill the patriotic duty of saving your homeland. It's also important to understand that although Jeanne despises the English at this point and involves herself deeply in driving them from France by whatever means necessary, she's no bloodhound. While she makes a good stab at being hardened, she's not heartless, and she doesn't enjoy war. The truth is that she fights so hard and with such eager ferocity because she believes that it will end the bitter conflict faster; that the enemies of her country will be routed at a lesser cost of blood and treasure; that she will hopefully find time in her life to properly grieve and feel something other than reckless, impatient anger. In battle, Jeanne commands from the front of her army, never the back, throwing herself willingly into danger without a thought as to how she could pay for it.
Furthermore, while Jeanne is ardently religious, she's by no means a true fanatic. While she honestly believes that the mysterious voice speaking to her through the armlet is that of God, she's compelled to obey the voice and drive the English away for the sake of France, not for some possible reward in her afterlife. She does not fight in a religious stupor, convinced that hearing the Voice puts her above others- beyond the privilege of being granted the freedom and supplies she needs to fulfill her mission, anyway. Paradoxically, she is both humble and arrogant in this respect; God himself has entrusted her to save France, so it's only right that she be assisted to the fullest extent, but her desire to protect everyone is ultimately founded more on her own wishes than some holy command. As such, Jeanne never considers herself infalliable just because she thought that God had chosen her. She only speaks of it when necessary, such as to bolster the courage of her soldiers or to catch the attention of important characters like the dauphin- she's here to win a war, in other words, not convert.
While Jeanne is more than capable of maturing and, indeed, grows a great deal over the course of her story, she's still very much a diamond in the rough right now.
Abilities: On her own, Jeanne is a normal girl who happens to possess a fair amount of strength and stamina. Thanks to the armlet and some experience, she's decent at both wielding a sword and casting the spells of her world. (However, Jeanne must have certain items in order to use the aforementioned spells in the first place, so it's not really a natural ability beyond that of being able to manipulate the items.) She can presumably cook, clean, sew, and other such mundane things expected of young girls in her time thanks to her upbringing in a small village.
Speaking of the armlet! When equipped, it grants Jeanne full body armor, greatly increased strength, and various special finishing moves depending on the gem being utilized by the armlet.
Sample Entry: Dear mun post.