Naomi Lee

Peelmage

Darkly Verbena Mushihime-sama.

Background

A person with no friends. Naomi is a dark, dour and generally antisocial girl who keeps to herself and her strange obsession with bugs. Her short hair and eyes are an off-black dark brown, her skin tone is medium. She normally wears thigh highs, shorts, loose arm warmers and a hoodie but sometimes goes a bit over the top with the goth/dominatrix/insert-alternative-fashion thing.

Naomi is one of the youngest members of the chantry and comes across as a pick-up off the street rather than a chantry brat. No family of hers is ever to be seen. She is basically hostile by default but is less abrasive to some people than others. The streets of Plymouth are her prowling ground to sate her insatiable desire to scare, dominate, hurt and poison. Other times, she stays out of everyone's way and the only reminder of her existence is the perpetual low-level infestation of the chantry house. Her natural way of magic is through the use of 'bugs' which, ignoring artificial Technocratic divisions, readily includes worms, leeches and small crabs.

Naomi was born in the UK but spent many years in Okinawa after losing both parents. There, she underwent training under her (great?) grandmother, the powerful eastern Verbena master Hoshifuri Yaesei. She is a descendent of the Hoshifuri clan of Japan and Ryukyu, said to have dominion over insects. The clan once controlled Hoshifuri, an island in the Ryukyu archipelago inhabited by giant insects. The domain was pushed into the umbra during the Technocratic encroachment on East Asia during the 19th century. The master recently vanished during one of her many umbral journeys in search of the lost realm and Naomi was returned to the UK by the embassy.

Lore (Naomi)

1: She is 1/4 Japanese.
2: Her grandmother was a powerful mage.
3: Actually, that's 1/4 Ryukyuan and her Verbena training is an East Asian branch rather than local so she's technically a shrine maiden or something.
4: The H in her name stands for Hoshifuri. Her Japanese name is Hoshifuri Nao.
5: Hoshifuri Yaesei vanished into the deep umbra in search of Hoshifuri island.

Vital Statistics

Name: Naomi H. Lee
Age: 17
Tradition: Verbena
Avatar: Primordial

It looks like a gigantic conflation of spiritually significant bugs and carries the sense that it is a Queen.

Demeanor: Loner - I don't need you or anyone else.
Nature: Bravo - Lick it, worm.
Arete: 3
Quint: 3
Tass: -
Dox: 0
Damage: -
Willpower: 7/7 [11]
Exp:
Init: +8
Move/Dash: 18/35yds

Attributes

Physical [56]

Strength: 2
Dexterity: 5 (Lightning Reflexes)
Stamina: 3

Social [32+20]

Charisma: 1
Manipulation: 3
Appearance: 5 (Wild)

Mental [24+4]

Perception: 3
Intelligence: 2
Wits: 3

Abilities [80+7]

Alertness: 2 [5]
Athetics: 2 [5]
Awareness: 2 [5]
Brawl: 3 [9]
Dodge: 3 [9]
Intimidation: 2 [5]
Linguistics: 1 (English, Japanese) [3]
Medicine: 2 [5]
Melee: 3 [9]
Seduction: 2 [5]
Streetwise: 2 [5]
Style: 3 [9]
Subterfuge: 1 [3]
Survival: 1 [3]

Academics (Cosmology): 1 [2]
Area knowledge (Okinawa): 3 [5]

Spheres [65+18]

Correspondence: 0
Entropy: 0
Forces: 0
Life: 3
Matter: 0
Mind: 0
Prime: 2
Spirit: 3
Time: 0

Backgrounds [21+3]

Arcane: 5
Avatar: 3

Merits [18]

Animal Magnetism [3]

Reduces difficulties by 2 for rolls having to do with being animally magnetic.

Catlike Agility [3]

Reduces difficulties by 2 for rolls having to do with balance.

Double Jointed [3]

Reduces difficulties by 2 for rolls having to do with bodily flexibility.

Parlour Trick [3]

Bugs out the throat.

Spirit Sight [6]

Can see spirits naturally, interpreting them as insects, and are somewhat more likely to play ball. No difficulty reduction.

Flaws [-21]

Child [-3]

Looks like (and is) a juvenile delinquent.

Obsession [-6]

The bug princess likes her bugs.

Sadism [-6]

Personal issues manifesting as cruelty and hurtfulness to others. Must roll willpower to stop combat.

Short Fuse [-6]

Naomi has a quick temper. Must roll willpower to avoid lashing out when ticked off by something.

Magic and Gear

Paradigm

As a true descendent of the Hoshifuri clan, Naomi was gifted with spirit vision from childhood. This ability allows her to see the inhabitants of the umbra as insects. The species and physical characteristics of each insect or swarm of insects indicates the general nature of the spirit; moths, fireflies and cicadas often indicate the dead, spirits of decay may appear as maggots or flies and so on. The spirits of Naomi's paradigm tend to be primal beings: elementals that can neither defy their nature nor take complex instruction. Whether solitary or in swarms, these insect spirits are overwhelmingly brute forces of nature. Only the very oldest and greatest are intelligent and even then they cannot be easily understood by the specificities of human intellect.

Naomi can command both umbral and real insects though control of either is fairly crude - they are nature afterall, and hence not to be commanded so much as directed. She is, however, able to keep them quiescent and concealed in numbers and can create or attract more through either Life or Spirit. She can also invite spirits to possess real bugs when appropriate.

Life effects on other beings tends to revolve around the special properties of bugs. Healing may be accomplished by leeches or maggots while spiders or centipedes might be involved in delivering poison.

Hoshifuri Clan

Naomi is a member of the Verbena tradition, specifically a hereditary East Asian branch known as the Hoshifuri clan. Although sometimes regarded as a peripheral ninja clan (a few members helped repel the Mongols from Japan) the Hoshifuri clan's most famous ability was the affinity of their female members to control vermin as Mushihime - Insect Princesses. The clan wielded influence over what are known today as the Okinawan islands and Taiwan. Their ancestral homeland is their island stronghold of Hoshifurishima, a mythical place inhabited and protected by giant insect kami. The clan has been in decline since the late Sengoku period and their island had definitely been lost to the umbra by the mid 19th century.

The Mushihime were considered a specialized variant of Ryukyuan shamaness or shrine maiden. The shrines they erected and protected were invariably to rather primal and bloodthirsty gods in line with Verbena practices. Moreover, the definition of mushi exceeds the artificial divisions of the Technocracy. Although insects and arachnids are dominant, the Mushihime readily controlled invertebrate creatures like crabs or leeches and assigned these creatures as aspects of kami.

Hoshifuri Yaesei
The penultimate true descendent of the Hoshifuri clan, Naomi was sent to Okinawa and placed under her care after the deaths of her parents. She is an ancestor of Naomi - either grandmother or great grandmother through her father's side of the family - and gave her her magical training. A powerful and respected Verbena master, Yaesei made frequent sojourns deep into the umbra in search of Hoshifurishima and vanished permanently during the most recent such journey. She shared her student's power of spirit vision.

Naomi Hoshifuri Lee
The last Mushihime.

Foci

Naomi's magic revolves around mushi and the Hoshifuri brand of proto-Shinto. The simplest, most common and most easily coincidental effects involve the countless chemicals produced by insects that act as either poison or healing agent. However, there exist numerous other useful abilities such as spider or silkworm silk and so on. It is comparatively simple for a Mushihime to switch different types of bugs around, shrink them to manageable size or pull them fresh from the Tellurian. Many species are unrecognized by science but they and their abilities pass as coincidental anyway due to the general belief that nature is unknowable. The Technocracy promotes the comforting security that inhabited areas generally hold nothing deadly. The Verbena reply is the allergic reaction which kills a small but sufficient number of people regularly enough for the odd fatality to be coincidental.

Mushi

Ant
The Ant God commands the greatest armies of Hoshifuri and rules no one. It is legion - a single being of many small bodies, tireless in both war and labour. Its nature may facilitate team efforts, specialisation or allow one sacrifice to aide many. It is the sworn enemy of the Termite Gods. Hoshifuri ants could certainly be individually large but far more important was their unity of purpose; all its countless individuals once belonged to a single colony. With countless castes, a Mushihime need never be short even the most specialised tools. When commanded in numbers, even ordinary ants may be directed to coincidentally accomplish significant tasks, given time.

Antlion
The Antlion God strikes from underground, appearing and vanishing at will into the Earth. Once every sixty years, she spends a night as the beautiful Lacewing God.

Bee
The Bee God is a hoarder of gold, honey and any other treasures. Her avarice is bounded by none but her love for her broods. She employs the Striped Dancers. Hoshifuri bee's sting is not fatal but very painful.

Book Fly
The Book Fly God adores literacy and is literally a voracious reader. Originally developed by western Verbena against Hermetics and Choristers, the Hoshifuri did occasionally find use for her against the Dragon Wizards of the Middle Kingdom.

Brine Shrimp

Butterfly

Centipede

Cicada
The Cicada God is guide and herald to the dead. Its shed skin permits transmigration.

Crab
The Crab God commands the legions of the sea, the first line of Hoshifurishima's defenses. Crabs can be receptacles for souls, especially those whose lives were dominated by battle or hard labor. They spit sticky foam or bubbles.

Cricket
Keeper of seasons and times. Sings for the stars.

Dragonfly
The Dragonfly God is the swiftest of the gods. He is unanticipated in both fight and flight.

Earthworm
The Earthworm God is the all consuming mother

Firefly
The Firefly God commands all elemental and spiritual powers and is most powerful amongst the kami of Hoshifuri. In addition to those flies storing fire in their bellies, there are those whose abdomens hold lightning, snow and storm. Some carry light in order to guide others while others represent, guide or ferry the dead.

Fly
The Fly God has the power of death and rebirth, bringing decay and causing life to be born in filth. Maggots can be both killers and healers.

Ghost Bug
The Ghost Bug God is a master of camouflage. His minions disguise themselves as sticks, leaves, stones and even stranger things.

Hornet

Leech
The Leech God is among the oldest, most prestigious of Hoshifuri kami. It is one of the greatest healers and extracts the gravest price for its services. The most common price is blood (with all the significance entailed thereof) but different leeches can steal almost anything, including skins and faces. A leech can be convinced or made to regurgitate its prizes to a Mushihime's benefit.

Locust

Mantis
The Mantis God is solitary and aggressive, challenging other gods and invaders of Hoshifuri alike. She inspires fighters, including the hand to hand combat style of the Hoshifuri that was taken and perfected by Akashics of the region and in turn produced styles like the Southern Praying Mantis Style amongst others.

Mosquito

Moth

Scarab

Spider
The Spider God is queen amongst the Hoshifuri kami with the power to capture and consume any other god. Aside from the power to spin webs and consume, many spiders have strong venoms.

Termite

Unicorn Beetle

Implements

Amber

Honey

Knife
Knives are suitable for drawing blood, especially from oneself, and represent the severing of ties.

Scythe
The scythe represents the harvest and the sacrifice. However, it is a bit more obvious a discrepency in ordinary settings than a knife.

Gear

Reinforced Boot (Str+2)
Nothing like a steel toe or heel to the face. Concealable, worn as a pair on appropriate pair of boots. Deals bashing. Uses Brawl rather than Melee to strike.

Switchblade (Str+1)
Not really a proper weapon as far as Naomi's concerned (her ritual weapon is a pair of kama), but convenient and concealable when a bit of cutting is called for and highly available in the UK as well.

Tekko (Str+1)
Okinawan iron knuckles. Concealable and wielded as a pair. Deals bashing. Uses Brawl rather than Melee to strike. Allow Brawl blocks against lethal weapons.