Agent Ivory

= History =

Marked by Blood
For centuries the Templars have protected the world from chaos and mysticism, their drive and discipline keeping ungodly terrors at bay so that humanity could prosper. To these select men and women there is nothing so important that it stands above their creed and duty, and to many of them there are very few limits as to what a Templar should do to keep humanity safe.

Lady and Lord Lancaster were raised to believe in such things, for their families had, since the early days of the Templars, contributed to the society’s ranks with scores of successful agents, men and women of unique brilliance and, most importantly, power. Along with other families in the British Isles the Lancasters and the Humphreys believed that excellence was a birthright, that it ran in few blessed lineages, and if not carefully groomed this enormous potential would eventually disappear from the Templar society. Blood was power, and many families had this belief at their core. And so they married their scions to one another, always keeping track of who developed new, useful abilities and making sure that those individuals bred with appropriate, and also powered, suitors. These families were collectively known as The White Wolves.

The centuries passed and many of these families didn’t exist anymore, but those that did continued their practices. Secret meetings under the blood moon continued to determine the fate of their scions, deciding who they would marry and why. When it came to Lady Humphrey’s turn it was an obvious choice. Not long after the wedding ceremony Wylla was conceived, but not by her mother’s husband. Rumor has it that the young girl was not the result of careful, ritualistic breeding, but instead of some wicked farewell reunion between Lady Humphrey and her older brother.

The perversion of their sin would haunt Wylla forever on.

The Sick Cub
Wylla breathed for the first time under the auspices of an ominous red moon. When taken in the arms of the physicians the girl didn't cry, her life hanging by a thread. As the doctors examined the newly-born girl it was clear to them that the ragged breathing was a miracle in itself. Wylla was too small, too weak, too sick. And even though she should be dead, there she was, fighting to survive, covered in her mother's blood. Many who watched her birth gossip that her mother's life was taken in exchange for Wylla's, as the older woman died in labor, broken and bloodied.

Shortly after her birth, and her mother's death, the girl was taken to the Lancaster states, south of Yorkshire, where she would be kept safe and isolated from modern society. For years Wylla was attended by the best physicians and healers the Templars could dispose to Lord Lancaster, the girl's health a source of constant worry. Around the time the young blonde completed twelve years she had a wheelchair ready for her at all times, her bones breaking far too easily, and a group of medics followed her wherever Wylla went due her diseased condition. The rumors about her frail existence eventually met those of her mother's incestuous behavior, and soon enough Wylla was shunned for her blood, and her father lost much of his prestige because his heir was a genetic aberration, incapable of healing the smallest wounds.

As soon as Wylla completed fifteen years-old her father hung himself in his own chambers, incapable of dealing with his fall and the rabid gossip-mongering about his daughter and their whole lineage. The girl's custody was taken by the Templars after the incident, and the organization treated her with all the care it could provide, both her budding powers and her name worth it's attention, and dedication.

Shaping Up
Wylla was not the dream Templar her lineage would have suggested, at least not at first. Too sick to properly train the girl was seen as a lost cause from the begining, for in no way she would ever survive in a world as aggressive as the one the Templars usually venture in. Suspicious eyes followed the young Lancaster wherever she went, and the feeling of being watched and being pushed drove Wylla to a state of near depression, too young to cope with the military lifestyle her Order was famous for. She would have gone over the edge if she hadn't found a solace, and her true calling, in the Templars.

Wylla Humphrey Lancaster was a natural student of the higher forms of education, and even though she couldn't handle the recoil of a pistol or lift a large hammer the young blonde was at home when reading and studying anything that books could teach. Not only history and art lessons, Wylla quickly became an accomplished intel gatherer, and even though she couldn't shoot worth anything the woman knew all her enemies weaknesses from previous readings, being able to exploit them masterfully, or at least pointing them out for those who could. She became a paragon for all the bookworms in the Templar Society and soon all the shame and pressure she felt for failing all her physical exams were gone. She was finally getting somewhere.

As one of the finest students of the Society Wylla was sent to Cambridge to continue her studies and develop much needed social skills. After some grueling years of surviving the college experience, however, Wylla got back to her Order more prepared to deal with her peers and her own life.

True Calling
After Wylla had stabilished herself as the prime example for what a young scholar should be in the Templar Society the girl was awarded with personal quarters and more freedom, which meant the blonde could finally build a life of her own and persue her own objectives. The thing was, however, that she hadn't any. Her whole childhood had been aboud getting groomed (when she was not getting healed) for joining the Templars, and now she had some time to herself Wylla couldn't think of a single thing she would like to do just to herself. As such, she started making use of the great library at the Crucible, reading books and books about anything and everything. Soon enough she had developed and addiction to coffee, and a love for the arcane. It's methodologic procedures, the way it shaped reality and the unseen forces of the Universe through rigorous rituals and calculated formulae, it all appealed to her very core. The more Wylla learned about magick, however, the more she realized one particular discipline called to her, it's concept easier to grasp and it's effects somewhat stronger than the others. The more she experimented, the more Wylla discovered her ties to the said school of the arcane, and soon enough that's all she would be studying: Blood Magik.

It started innocently enough, with Wylla testing on her own blood a few effects, and realizing she could use Magick to keep her diseased blood from hindering her success in the Templars. She learned how to stop her constant bleedings, and how to keep her oxygen flowing, not gassing as horribly and as quickly as before. Later, she theorized about how to project it as a weapon, cursing others with her own debilitating traits, something she wouldn't test so soon on another living being. Her experiments grew bolder, and Blood became Wylla's obsession. Her whole life she was shunned for it, seen as a sick child and a by-product of sin, but as a Templar she could transform it into power, into something good for mankind.

Present Days
After her troublesome childhood, her parents' deaths and the rocky begining at the Templar Society, Wylla's life is finally shaping up into something good. Now that she is working in the archives at the Templar's HQ, she can help her more action-oriented colleagues as well as she can spend her days learning more and more about whatever it is she can read about. A dream job. She owns her own appartment at a small, and silent, London street, near her favorite cafe. She finally has some liberties, compared to when she was just a rookie, and has some time to spend with herself every night.

=Philosphy= TEXT GOES HERE

=Advantages, Abilities and Powers= TEXT GOES HERE

=Personality and Looks= TEXT GOES HERE

=Cursed Blood= Wylla is the result of her mother's sinister attraction to her uncle, coupled with the family's fanatic desire to keep their blood pure. The young Templar is defined by the traits she inherited from this union, making her twice as powerful as her mother, though it comes with a price.

On the bright side Wylla's incredible affinity for Magicks, and especially Blood Magick, comes from her mother's family. Due her unique lineage, however, Wylla is far stronger than any of her previous relatives in such things, so much that the girl sometimes shies away from such practices when it all happens too fast, and too easy. On the downside, however, Wylla's body is frail at best. Wylla can't run for too long before getting winded, she can't see three feet in front of her without her glasses (extreme case of Myopia) and cannot naturally stop her own bleeding (being hemophilic). With some very refined uses of her Blood workings Wylla recently began to control her own bloodflow to overcome some of the worst cases of her hemophilia, but she still won't practice MMA.

=Friends and Enemies= <p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua Xu (Dragon): If Wylla could have opted, her closest friend wouldn't be a Dragon operative, and if she knew about this her mind would certainly need some time to let it sink in. Li-hua Xu, or just Lily, as Wylla calls her, is a pen pal the Templars has had for over ten years now, and the only real friend she has in the world. Li-hua knows everything that Wylla herself knows about her own life, even if the tales are somewhat changed to hide their supernatural flares, and more than that, she is the only person that knows about Wylla's fears, desires and dreams, something the young Templar only shared because she thought they would never meet. <p style="text-indent: 30px">When both girls first made contact it was due Wylla's buttler initiative to make his protege, a lonely twelve year-older at the time, develop friendships and have some contact with the real world. Ever since then the pair has been exchanging letters from all around the world, sharing experiences and avoiding any mentioning about their respective secret lives. Ironically, neither of them knows about the other's affiliations, and without planing to do so now live at the same town, much to Wylla's despair. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Although she adores Lily, the blonde isn't exactly thrilled that someone that knows so much about her now lives somewhere so close they could probably see each other every day. Embarassed beyond belief, Wylla has yet to set a date with her friend, hesitant of how it might be to finally meet Lily and look her in the eyes.