Elena

Elena hails from a version of present-day Los Angeles where magic is real, albeit secretive and hidden. She is an artist, a potter and jewelry-maker, who has been in the city making her living by this trade for some time. She is also a witch following in family traditions, a devotee of the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca, a nahual: shapeshifter, spiritwalker, sorcerer. Though there are stranger things in the City by far, Elena retains the lifelong habit of secrecy, and does not widely advertise her magical skills.

• Born in Los Angeles, third child of a real estate agent and a high school ceramics teacher (who was also a nahual).

• Formally dedicated to Tezcatlipoca at the age of seven; also when she acquired her familiar spirit (tonal).

• Finished compulsory education but felt no draw to go to college. Held various entry level jobs – supermarket checker, sales associate, waitress. Moved into the hotel industry by way of a server position and wound up staying there… for the day job.

• Elena set out for work one foggy morning in 2008, and never quite got there. The point of transition between her L.A. and the City is something she hasn't been able to rediscover since.

• Has since turned her hobbies and moonlighting into more of a full-time lifestyle, and is generally happier for it.

Though a witch, Elena is not by definition malevolent – superstitions aside. On the other hand, neither is she beneficent by nature. Elena simply doesn't care much about the vast majority of people; the faceless John. Q. Public is too abstract a notion to tug at her conscience. “Right” and “wrong” as such don't really matter as motivators to Elena; so very often the definitions of each are written by the victors – or at the least, are biased by one's perspective. Which isn't to say she doesn't have conceptions of each… just limited ones, as Elena's only real loyalties are to people she actually knows. Responsibility, however, is an integral part of her character – responsibility to her community, responsibility for her actions and inactions. It is this self-accountability that guides Elena's use of her powers, at least in her personal life. To be sure, responsibility for the hexes her customers buy lies squarely on their heads.

Elena is a nahual, a sorcerer trained in Mesoamerican traditions. This gives her the following abilities:

• Familiar: Elena goes accompanied by her tonal, a ghostly jaguar which makes no impression upon the mundane world, but has some capacity to defend her from magical or spiritual attacks: namely, energy attacks or acts such as attempted possession. Cast fire at Elena, and the tonal is powerless to intervene. The tonal is undetectable by mundane senses, but can be perceived by abilities which detect magic or spirits; as a rule, if the tonal can be perceived, it can in turn interact with the perceiver.

• Shapeshifting: Nahualli are gifted with the ability to 'exchange their skin' for the shape of their tonal. Shifted, Elena is a physically normal jaguar with the mind of a human. She can shift in either direction at will – but only during nighttime hours.

• Spiritwalking: When dreaming or in a trance, regardless of time of day, Elena can separate her mind from her body, sending it out in the shape of the jaguar. When doing so, Elena is as a ghost – she can be visible/audible to mundane perceptions at will, or not, but affecting the real world takes a great deal of effort and is doomed to only minor returns. Most of the time, Elena settles for walking through things and exploring, though the mundane world is washed-out, muted, and dull to her spirit's senses. Conversely, magic and spiritual energy become much more prominent. She cannot hide her presence from anyone or anything which detects magic or spirits, but as with the tonal, anything which perceives her in this state is something she can readily interact with.

• Witchcraft: The specialties of nahualli are curses, hexes, bewitchments, blood magic, and necromancy. Which is not to say nahualli are evil by definition; hexes can be beneficial as well as not, and necromancy can provide protection against unquiet spirits and resolution to the dead (or the living). On the other hand, people pay well for less benign magics, and Elena has no philosophical objection to providing these. She has learned to be careful with her words: statements made in the heat of the moment tend to have unfortunate lasting effects.

• Sensitivity: Elena can sense magical and spiritual activity in her immediate vicinity. She is most sensitive to anything which aligns with nahual specialties (e.g. curses, roaming spirits), and less sensitive to other types of magic (e.g. wards) unless they are specifically set against abilities related to hers.

• Languages: Three of them. English and Spanish courtesy of a thoroughly bilingual family, Nahuatl from her sorcerous education.

• Trained Memory: Languages, rituals, legends and fables, spells, herbal and wildlife lore (adapted for Southern California), spirits and gods and the best ways to propitiate each… the list goes on. As a consequence of having to learn and apply these things, Elena's memory and attention for detail is rather well-honed.

• Ceramics: This skill started as something Elena and her mother could do together which was not and had no relationship to magic. It's one Elena continued to enjoy as a teen and adult, and in her current life is even fairly practical. She mostly either practices wheel-based pottery or makes small ceramic beads which are then used in the jewelry she also sells.

• Metalwork: A childhood friend singled out a workshop description one day, which turned into a fun hobby they shared, and now provides another means for Elena to earn her living. Most of her work these days is done with wire, chain, assorted nonmetal materials, and deft application of pliers, but she can and sometimes still does cut metal blanks into shape and apply solder.

• Rock Climbing: A more lately acquired hobby, courtesy of coworkers, this is one Elena has markedly less opportunity to practice nowadays. If looked at the right way, though, there's some buildings in the City with which one can make do…

• Guitar: This skill can be blamed squarely on one of Elena's brothers: he offered her guitar lessons in exchange for magic lessons behind their mother's back. He turned out to have exactly zero aptitude for sorcery, but Elena had somewhat more for music. She can't read sheet music, but her fingers know their notes, and she can manage to pick out melodies.

• Protective Ward: Elena has a tattoo imbued with a single-use charm to deflect minor magics cast directly against her. It is effective against most types of magic because it redirects the spell to the nearest possible alternative target, rather than trying to counter specific classes of magic. There must be an acceptable alternate within about twenty feet, or the protection fails. Stronger magics burn through its protection as if it didn't exist, again necessitating renewal. Renewing the charm requires re-inking the tattoo… but the charm has proven itself useful as defense and warning both, so she continues to remake it as needed.

• Contacts: Elena has made a few in the magical community: some who owe her small favors, some she owes in turn. The rest are good for information, to one degree or another. She's also in on the small-time-artist grapevine, courtesy of the day job.

• Shifting Limitation: Elena can only shapeshift at night – though phase of moon is thankfully irrelevant. It becomes more difficult to shift in the twilight immediately preceding dawn, and impossible from sunrise until the sun is gone over the horizon. Not so bad if she's human at sunrise, but not so great when she's stuck in the jaguar's skin until nightfall.

• Strength as Vulnerability: In addition to being her spiritual companion and protector, the tonal is the symbol and embodiment of Elena's magic. It can be damaged, which curtails Elena's powers until it recovers. It can also be defeated or otherwise separated from her; though the tonal will always return, its absence deprives Elena of all abilities save minor enchantments, and leaves her not much more protected than the next person against magical attacks. However, unless Elena and/or the tonal are already weakened somehow, it takes a great deal of power to disrupt their link, as it was established by what passed for a god in her world.

• Merchant: Elena works in jewelry (cf. metal, wire, wooden beads, ceramic beads, and a few more unusual elements such as feathers) and in ceramics (cf. the sort thrown on a pottery wheel). Much of this is sold, the better to earn rent and food money; she does the selling at a shared stall in the Agora on an irregular schedule. Possible hooks include new customers, repeat customers, and fellow vendors.

• Charms and Cantrips: On the quiet – old habits die hard – Elena also makes and sells things which aren't quite so prosaic. Various enchantments can be had for the asking (and appropriate payment)… if one knows to ask for them. These are generally one-use items or otherwise of short-term effect. Stronger ones can be had, but are far more difficult and therefore expensive.

• Family: Elena hasn't made it back home in years, but she has a sizable immediate and extended family; it's possible they might also tumble through – or have done so already.