Character Name: Harriet Miller Character Canon: OC, from the tabletop superhero RPG Masks: A New Generation Canon Point: Immediately after the final boss battle of Season 1 of her original campaign Physical Description: Face claim is actress Q’orianka Kilcher ca. 2006 (image link). Age 16 and 10 months, height 5’3”.
About the Character:
This is what Harriet understands about how she came into being. Some of it may be erroneous, and she knows and accepts that. (OOC reason: adaptation to Phantasmal Rifts canon; IC reason: memories deliberately edited by Anpw.)
Outside the universe of form, underlying the laws of time, space, physics and magic, are the shinma, entities that define reality by their opposition to it. Each shinma has countless lesser aspects that simultaneously partake of and contradict its nature. One such shinma is Nishkriya, which defines conflict; as Nishkriya is perfectly peaceful, everything that is not Nishkriya—which is to say, everything in the universe—is at least a little bit violent. The aspects of Nishkriya are self-willed weapons of staggering destructive power, such as Danda the Punisher, Modaki the God-Bludgeon, and Mohana the Thief of Minds. (Note: the shinma are borrowed from the tabletop RPG Exalted.)
It came to pass that Mohana separated itself from shinma Nishkriya and entered into the universe of form through the Gateway of Sundraprisha. This could not be permitted, as it would mean that minds would be and would always have been a thing that could be stolen, like wallets. An aspect of shinma Nirguna (which defines existence—Nirguna itself does not exist, thus everything that is not part of Nirguna exists) was detached to track and retrieve Mohana: Nirvahara, the Completion of Things. In order to exist in the universe of form without breaking it, Nirvahara needed a host, so That which does not permit itself to be named (whisper not the name of shinma Nirvishesha, for it has no identity and will destroy anything that tries to give it one) created Harriet Miller and wove her history into the world.
In this rewritten world, Mrs. Margaret Miller, a software engineer for a financial services company, adopted a daughter from a semi-legal Peruvian adoption brokerage shortly after the death of her husband Stan. Harriet Miller grew up in Halcyon City, CA, the world’s superhero and supervillain capital, and led an ordinary life (insofar as life can be considered ordinary when the nightly news lists all the superpowered brawls that have terrorized the city that day) until about eight months past her 16th birthday, when Nirvahara passed through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and joined with her.
At first, Harriet lacked much in the way of free will or personal identity; she was a mask for Nirvahara, nothing more, a necessary tool for Nirvahara’s mission to find Mohana and force it back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe of form. As time went on, Harriet developed independence from Nirvahara, including a sense of mercy and justice and the ability to establish emotional connections to human (and superhuman) beings.
More or less by accident, Nirvahara/Harriet and four other teenage girls from South Halcyon Consolidated High School became the superhero team Factor Five. Initially Nirvahara saw the team as another set of potential assets in its quest, but Harriet bonded with them, and eventually made Nirvahara explain its nature and mission in a way they could understand. Once they knew the stakes, they committed themselves to helping Nirvahara fight Mohana. Harriet also started a relationship with one of her teammates, Zoë “Cygnus” Nevrakis, a third-generation descendant of the Olympian gods (some of whom had become the Halcyon City super-team called the Pantheon). Zoë's uncle Hades warned Zoë that Nirvahara was in danger of betraying its own mission by stealing Harriet's mind, and urged her to be Harriet's best friend.
Before Harriet and Zoë got much past holding hands, kissing and going out dancing together, Mohana struck. It had possessed Ravana, strongest of the Princes Beyond the Gate, beings dwelling at the periphery of the universe of form. Mohana/Ravana had taken control of a space cruiser belonging to the alien race known as the Slavers, and sent it to attack Halcyon City. In an epic battle on the bridge of the cruiser, Factor Five defeated Mohana/Ravana and forced them back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe.
In the moment that Mohana ceased to be part of the universe of form, Anpw (also known as Anubis), the incorruptible Judge of the Dead, stopped time and spoke to Nirvahara and Harriet. Nirvahara had to pass back through the Gateway as well, lest the universe come to its completion too soon, but Anpw granted Harriet separate existence as a human girl, making the fiction woven by That which does not permit itself to be named into truth. Anpw then kissed Harriet on the forehead, enkindling her with a fraction of Nirvahara’s cosmic power.
Harriet awakened, not on the bridge of the Slaver battlecruiser, but in the city ritual park of Resona Aere, catapulted through space, time and dimensions by a final spiteful gesture from Mohana. Alone, disoriented, and missing her teammates, she sought anyone who could tell her where she was and what was going on.
Harriet is a friendly girl, though she has as many mood swings as any teenager. Her basic attitude toward life is positive; had Anpw not intervened, she would have been unwoven from the universe with Nirvahara’s departure, retroactively never having existed, so her life is a gift that she will not scorn. She’s acutely aware of the gulf that separates her from unpowered humans, and even most supers: Anpw clouded her memories of being Nirvahara enough to limit her powers to a level that would not threaten the integrity of the universe of form, but she’s still on a level with Halcyon City’s most powerful denizens. Were she to lose control in a fight, she could flatten skyscrapers by accident.
Unlike many superheroes, Harriet doesn’t fight to protect the innocent or defend law and order. Nirvahara fought crime with Factor Five at first because that meant it would be able to use them in its mission, then because they were Harriet’s friends; Harriet will carry on her superheroics because there’s no other outlet for her powers that suits her personality. She isn’t anyone’s savior, except incidentally. On the other hand, when people are sad, hurt or in trouble, she will rush to comfort and support them through the process of solving their own problems. She is the sort of person who will tell you, once, that the stove is hot, watch you burn your hand on it, then bandage it and kiss you on the forehead and never say "I told you so."
Harriet is a polyamorous lesbian. She knows the world is full of homophobes and other people who would disapprove of her inclinations, but she can set their heads on fire if they get up in her grill, so fuck ’em.
Character Abilities:
Harriet’s mundane abilities are typical for an early 21st Century US teenage girl of average scholarly and athletic prowess, and need not be enumerated, except perhaps to note that she’s a good dancer with a natural sense of rhythm.
As noted in Harriet's character history, the shinma are abstractions that exist outside the universe and underlie all of space, time, physics and magic. Although there are arbitrarily many shinma, Harriet only knows how to interact with seven:
Nirguna, the Heart, which does not exist (therefore everything that is not Nirguna exists);
Nirakara, the Mask, which has no form (therefore everything that is not Nirakara has form);
That which does not suffer itself to be named, a.k.a. Nirvishesha, the Ring, which has no identity (therefore everything that is not Nirvishesha has identity);
Nirvikalpa, the Staff, which is perfectly indivisible and uniform (therefore things that are not part of Nirvikalpa are distinct and separable);
Dharma, the Cup, which is pure and without blemish (therefore everything that is not Dharma is at least a little corrupt);
Nishkriya, the Sword, which is harmless, peaceful and at rest (therefore everything that is not Nishkriya is at least a little dangerous and violent);
and Nirupadhika, the Way, which has neither extent nor duration (therefore everything that is not Nirupadhika connects to spacetime).
She can get information from the shinma, evoke manifestations of them, and abjure them. Evocation and abjuration require her to "charge her burn," bleeding physical and psychic stability to establish a transient link to the shinma; she can then "flare" a few times before her burn is exhausted and needs to be recharged. Charging takes a moment of concentration, effectively a combat round in a turn-based system, and she's somewhat vulnerable during that time. Beings that can sense the balance of cosmic forces will be aware of whether Harriet is currently charged.
Harriet can't get information from Nirguna or evoke it, because it doesn't exist. Abjuring it allows Harriet to create constructs of what she calls non-light, a kind of solid darkness (stained by flickers of deep red, and giving off quiet radio static and a whiff of ozone, because Harriet's connection to Nirguna is imperfect); she can make these in any shape and up to the size of a city bus. Normally, she can move her constructs and change their shape by concentrating, but with additional burn she can animate them independently. They last about 15–20 minutes (i.e., a scene) unless she dismisses them sooner. She can extend her mundane and supernatural senses to see through her constructs as if she were present with them, but is blind to her physical surroundings while doing that. Harriet also abjures Nirguna to summon her superhero costume, a body-hugging sheath of non-light; she's done that particular manifestation so often that it no longer requires concentration or burn.
Nirakara tells Harriet when she confronts things without form, i.e., with no localized nature (this is not the same as invisible or bodiless beings; there may not be anything in Phantasmal Rift that would trigger this sense). She could probably learn to ask Nirakara whether something is disguised or illusory, but does not have that power at present. She doesn't know what evoking it would do, but it would probably harm her, as (unlike Nirvahara) she is incapable of existing without form. Abjuring it does nothing within the universe of form, as it is already absent.
That which does not suffer itself to be named won't talk to Harriet, or anyone else, because that would mean there was something identifiable talking, which is abhorrent to it. Evoking it would allow her to obscure her identity, effectively a stealth or disguise spell, but she has not learned to do that. Abjuring it would allow her to break mind control and other effects that impede someone's free will, but she hasn't learned to do that either.
Nirvikalpa informs Harriet of the structure of reality, including the presence and extent of fissures; she could probably find out more data about fissures by studying Nirvikalpa, but hasn't done so since her arrival. She can also ask Nirvikalpa to tell her about the presence, range and direction of thinking beings. Evoking Nirvikalpa would duplicate the general translation spell in effect throughout the game; evoking it more strongly would allow telepathic contact between consenting beings, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that yet. I don't know OOC what abjuring Nirvikalpa would do—separating or isolating things somehow. If I think of something cool I'll put in a points request, I guess.
Harriet can ask Dharma whether something is pure or corrupt (i.e., poisoned, contaminated, ill, injured or emotionally or morally compromised). Getting detailed diagnostic information from it is beyond her powers at the moment. Evoking Dharma would purify, repair or heal, but Harriet isn't attitudinally suited to be a healer, so she may never learn to do that. Abjuring it would cause things to become poisonous, diseased and in all likelihood infectious; she will almost certainly never learn to do that, because ugh.
Harriet can ask Nishkriya for information about violence and destruction—whether it is happening, has happened or is imminent in a place, whether someone has violent intent, and whether something is a weapon or can easily be weaponized. Evoking Nishkriya would bring peace and calm to a place or group of people, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that. Banishing Nishkriya consumes burn to blow things up; the more surgical and restrained Harriet wants to be with such destructive forces, the more burn it takes.
Nirupadhika gives Harriet awareness of spatial and temporal distortions, such as teleportation, black holes and stasis fields. Evoking it would allow her to teleport within line of sight by expending burn, or to teleport to anywhere she's ever been with more burn, but she hasn't learned how to do that yet; I expect the damage to Nirvikalpa would prevent her teleportation from crossing fissure boundaries. It would also allow her to teleport objects and people around within line of sight by expending burn. Abjuring Nirupadhika blocks teleportation in an area or erases a spacetime distortion.
Nirvahara had access to considerably more power, and didn’t need to charge or expend burn, but such things are forbidden to mere humans. Probably just as well.
Note: Harriet's game of origin, Masks, takes a much more free-form approach to superpowers than the above; I've gone to some trouble to break Harriet's thematics down into specific abilities.
Inventory:
smartphone
wallet with $23 in cash, student ID, driver’s license, health insurance card, ATM/debit card, emergency credit card, AEGIS superhero registration card
Application: Harriet Miller
Character Name: Harriet Miller
Character Canon: OC, from the tabletop superhero RPG Masks: A New Generation
Canon Point: Immediately after the final boss battle of Season 1 of her original campaign
Physical Description: Face claim is actress Q’orianka Kilcher ca. 2006 (image link). Age 16 and 10 months, height 5’3”.
About the Character:
This is what Harriet understands about how she came into being. Some of it may be erroneous, and she knows and accepts that. (OOC reason: adaptation to Phantasmal Rifts canon; IC reason: memories deliberately edited by Anpw.)
Outside the universe of form, underlying the laws of time, space, physics and magic, are the shinma, entities that define reality by their opposition to it. Each shinma has countless lesser aspects that simultaneously partake of and contradict its nature. One such shinma is Nishkriya, which defines conflict; as Nishkriya is perfectly peaceful, everything that is not Nishkriya—which is to say, everything in the universe—is at least a little bit violent. The aspects of Nishkriya are self-willed weapons of staggering destructive power, such as Danda the Punisher, Modaki the God-Bludgeon, and Mohana the Thief of Minds. (Note: the shinma are borrowed from the tabletop RPG Exalted.)
It came to pass that Mohana separated itself from shinma Nishkriya and entered into the universe of form through the Gateway of Sundraprisha. This could not be permitted, as it would mean that minds would be and would always have been a thing that could be stolen, like wallets. An aspect of shinma Nirguna (which defines existence—Nirguna itself does not exist, thus everything that is not part of Nirguna exists) was detached to track and retrieve Mohana: Nirvahara, the Completion of Things. In order to exist in the universe of form without breaking it, Nirvahara needed a host, so That which does not permit itself to be named (whisper not the name of shinma Nirvishesha, for it has no identity and will destroy anything that tries to give it one) created Harriet Miller and wove her history into the world.
In this rewritten world, Mrs. Margaret Miller, a software engineer for a financial services company, adopted a daughter from a semi-legal Peruvian adoption brokerage shortly after the death of her husband Stan. Harriet Miller grew up in Halcyon City, CA, the world’s superhero and supervillain capital, and led an ordinary life (insofar as life can be considered ordinary when the nightly news lists all the superpowered brawls that have terrorized the city that day) until about eight months past her 16th birthday, when Nirvahara passed through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and joined with her.
At first, Harriet lacked much in the way of free will or personal identity; she was a mask for Nirvahara, nothing more, a necessary tool for Nirvahara’s mission to find Mohana and force it back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe of form. As time went on, Harriet developed independence from Nirvahara, including a sense of mercy and justice and the ability to establish emotional connections to human (and superhuman) beings.
More or less by accident, Nirvahara/Harriet and four other teenage girls from South Halcyon Consolidated High School became the superhero team Factor Five. Initially Nirvahara saw the team as another set of potential assets in its quest, but Harriet bonded with them, and eventually made Nirvahara explain its nature and mission in a way they could understand. Once they knew the stakes, they committed themselves to helping Nirvahara fight Mohana. Harriet also started a relationship with one of her teammates, Zoë “Cygnus” Nevrakis, a third-generation descendant of the Olympian gods (some of whom had become the Halcyon City super-team called the Pantheon). Zoë's uncle Hades warned Zoë that Nirvahara was in danger of betraying its own mission by stealing Harriet's mind, and urged her to be Harriet's best friend.
Before Harriet and Zoë got much past holding hands, kissing and going out dancing together, Mohana struck. It had possessed Ravana, strongest of the Princes Beyond the Gate, beings dwelling at the periphery of the universe of form. Mohana/Ravana had taken control of a space cruiser belonging to the alien race known as the Slavers, and sent it to attack Halcyon City. In an epic battle on the bridge of the cruiser, Factor Five defeated Mohana/Ravana and forced them back through the Gateway of Sundraprisha and out of the universe.
In the moment that Mohana ceased to be part of the universe of form, Anpw (also known as Anubis), the incorruptible Judge of the Dead, stopped time and spoke to Nirvahara and Harriet. Nirvahara had to pass back through the Gateway as well, lest the universe come to its completion too soon, but Anpw granted Harriet separate existence as a human girl, making the fiction woven by That which does not permit itself to be named into truth. Anpw then kissed Harriet on the forehead, enkindling her with a fraction of Nirvahara’s cosmic power.
Harriet awakened, not on the bridge of the Slaver battlecruiser, but in the city ritual park of Resona Aere, catapulted through space, time and dimensions by a final spiteful gesture from Mohana. Alone, disoriented, and missing her teammates, she sought anyone who could tell her where she was and what was going on.
Harriet is a friendly girl, though she has as many mood swings as any teenager. Her basic attitude toward life is positive; had Anpw not intervened, she would have been unwoven from the universe with Nirvahara’s departure, retroactively never having existed, so her life is a gift that she will not scorn. She’s acutely aware of the gulf that separates her from unpowered humans, and even most supers: Anpw clouded her memories of being Nirvahara enough to limit her powers to a level that would not threaten the integrity of the universe of form, but she’s still on a level with Halcyon City’s most powerful denizens. Were she to lose control in a fight, she could flatten skyscrapers by accident.
Unlike many superheroes, Harriet doesn’t fight to protect the innocent or defend law and order. Nirvahara fought crime with Factor Five at first because that meant it would be able to use them in its mission, then because they were Harriet’s friends; Harriet will carry on her superheroics because there’s no other outlet for her powers that suits her personality. She isn’t anyone’s savior, except incidentally. On the other hand, when people are sad, hurt or in trouble, she will rush to comfort and support them through the process of solving their own problems. She is the sort of person who will tell you, once, that the stove is hot, watch you burn your hand on it, then bandage it and kiss you on the forehead and never say "I told you so."
Harriet is a polyamorous lesbian. She knows the world is full of homophobes and other people who would disapprove of her inclinations, but she can set their heads on fire if they get up in her grill, so fuck ’em.
Character Abilities:
Harriet’s mundane abilities are typical for an early 21st Century US teenage girl of average scholarly and athletic prowess, and need not be enumerated, except perhaps to note that she’s a good dancer with a natural sense of rhythm.
As noted in Harriet's character history, the shinma are abstractions that exist outside the universe and underlie all of space, time, physics and magic. Although there are arbitrarily many shinma, Harriet only knows how to interact with seven:
She can get information from the shinma, evoke manifestations of them, and abjure them. Evocation and abjuration require her to "charge her burn," bleeding physical and psychic stability to establish a transient link to the shinma; she can then "flare" a few times before her burn is exhausted and needs to be recharged. Charging takes a moment of concentration, effectively a combat round in a turn-based system, and she's somewhat vulnerable during that time. Beings that can sense the balance of cosmic forces will be aware of whether Harriet is currently charged.
Harriet can't get information from Nirguna or evoke it, because it doesn't exist. Abjuring it allows Harriet to create constructs of what she calls non-light, a kind of solid darkness (stained by flickers of deep red, and giving off quiet radio static and a whiff of ozone, because Harriet's connection to Nirguna is imperfect); she can make these in any shape and up to the size of a city bus. Normally, she can move her constructs and change their shape by concentrating, but with additional burn she can animate them independently. They last about 15–20 minutes (i.e., a scene) unless she dismisses them sooner. She can extend her mundane and supernatural senses to see through her constructs as if she were present with them, but is blind to her physical surroundings while doing that. Harriet also abjures Nirguna to summon her superhero costume, a body-hugging sheath of non-light; she's done that particular manifestation so often that it no longer requires concentration or burn.
Nirakara tells Harriet when she confronts things without form, i.e., with no localized nature (this is not the same as invisible or bodiless beings; there may not be anything in Phantasmal Rift that would trigger this sense). She could probably learn to ask Nirakara whether something is disguised or illusory, but does not have that power at present. She doesn't know what evoking it would do, but it would probably harm her, as (unlike Nirvahara) she is incapable of existing without form. Abjuring it does nothing within the universe of form, as it is already absent.
That which does not suffer itself to be named won't talk to Harriet, or anyone else, because that would mean there was something identifiable talking, which is abhorrent to it. Evoking it would allow her to obscure her identity, effectively a stealth or disguise spell, but she has not learned to do that. Abjuring it would allow her to break mind control and other effects that impede someone's free will, but she hasn't learned to do that either.
Nirvikalpa informs Harriet of the structure of reality, including the presence and extent of fissures; she could probably find out more data about fissures by studying Nirvikalpa, but hasn't done so since her arrival. She can also ask Nirvikalpa to tell her about the presence, range and direction of thinking beings. Evoking Nirvikalpa would duplicate the general translation spell in effect throughout the game; evoking it more strongly would allow telepathic contact between consenting beings, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that yet. I don't know OOC what abjuring Nirvikalpa would do—separating or isolating things somehow. If I think of something cool I'll put in a points request, I guess.
Harriet can ask Dharma whether something is pure or corrupt (i.e., poisoned, contaminated, ill, injured or emotionally or morally compromised). Getting detailed diagnostic information from it is beyond her powers at the moment. Evoking Dharma would purify, repair or heal, but Harriet isn't attitudinally suited to be a healer, so she may never learn to do that. Abjuring it would cause things to become poisonous, diseased and in all likelihood infectious; she will almost certainly never learn to do that, because ugh.
Harriet can ask Nishkriya for information about violence and destruction—whether it is happening, has happened or is imminent in a place, whether someone has violent intent, and whether something is a weapon or can easily be weaponized. Evoking Nishkriya would bring peace and calm to a place or group of people, but Harriet hasn't learned to do that. Banishing Nishkriya consumes burn to blow things up; the more surgical and restrained Harriet wants to be with such destructive forces, the more burn it takes.
Nirupadhika gives Harriet awareness of spatial and temporal distortions, such as teleportation, black holes and stasis fields. Evoking it would allow her to teleport within line of sight by expending burn, or to teleport to anywhere she's ever been with more burn, but she hasn't learned how to do that yet; I expect the damage to Nirvikalpa would prevent her teleportation from crossing fissure boundaries. It would also allow her to teleport objects and people around within line of sight by expending burn. Abjuring Nirupadhika blocks teleportation in an area or erases a spacetime distortion.
Nirvahara had access to considerably more power, and didn’t need to charge or expend burn, but such things are forbidden to mere humans. Probably just as well.
Note: Harriet's game of origin, Masks, takes a much more free-form approach to superpowers than the above; I've gone to some trouble to break Harriet's thematics down into specific abilities.
Inventory: