Original/Canon Background: Rua is a character from my webcomic, Twice Blessed, who hasn't had a lot of screen time yet but will play a bigger part in the future. NOTE: MOST OF THIS HASN'T BEEN REVEALED YET IN THE COMIC, SO... SPOILERS.
(About the setting: Twice Blessed is set in a high-fantasy Earth that was created when Plato from our "real world" accidentally discovered magic. He used it to try and create an "ideal" (as per the Socratic concept) version of the Earth, resulting in two realities: our world, where Plato assumed he failed and turned his studies elsewhere, and the Earth the comic is set on, where an incomplete copy of almost everything on Earth in 400 BC combined with and attempted to overwrite everything on another world (a high fantasy world with elves and dragons and all that high-fantasy stuff), shunting much of that world into dimensional pockets that overlap with the unstable Earth copy. Because of the instability of this new hybrid world, rifts allowing travel to other realities exist in certain places, and the mutable reality allowed the birth of wizardry, witchcraft, sorcery, and other magics. Fast forward to the late Middle Ages, and you have the magic-rich setting that Twice Blessed's story takes place.)
About Rua: In the comic, Rua is a sorceress who was adopted in her adolescence by a mage named Kel. Kel sensed great and unusual Shadow potential in Rua, and trained her as her apprentice.
Rua was born to a pair of adventuring mages in an alternate version of Ireland called Athair. Rua's early years were unconventional, and she got to meet many strange creatures and witness a variety of supernatural phenomena in the wild deep forests of the country while traveling with her mom and dad. When Rua was eight, her parents went on some sort of investigative trip and never returned (likely having been killed). Soon after, Kel Rundamair, a wizard from the Empire of Veritas who claimed to be a friend of Rua's parents, came and adopted the girl and took her as her apprentice.
Kel soon discovered that Rua had something very dark and powerful within her, and sought to both train Rua and to protect her. Kel trained Rua vigorously, secretly casting multiple permanent protective wards upon Rua during her training that kept whatever dark power she had within her from harming Rua or others. Kel then trained Rua to use this power to augment her magic with the power of Shadow. While Kel cared for Rua in a way that was almost maternal, Rua gradually began to develop a strong crush on her master that she kept a secret.
When Rua was eighteen, and nearing the end of her training, tragedy struck. The priesthood of Veritas (note: Veritas is an empire, a god, and a religion) sensed the growing shadow magic in Kel's tower and formed an Inquisition to try Kel as a dark witch. They stormed her tower and Kel, seeking to protect Rua, forced Rua to flee while fighting off the Veritian Inquisitors. Kel died saving Rua, and Rua never forgave herself.
The inquisitors destroyed Kel's body, and Rua could find no one who could resurrect her master without it. When divine magic could not save Kel, Rua delved deep into her studies of Shadow magic and tried to use her dark magic to pull Kel back from the River Styx. In doing so, she almost killed herself and tore a rift between the realm of the living and the dead. Kel's spirit was returned to the world as a specter, who then sought out Delbin, the champion of Shadow. Delbin begrudgingly sealed the portal and saved Rua, but now Rua is literally haunted by the ghost of the woman who meant so much to her, slowly driving her more mad. Kel, meanwhile, does her best to continue to protect Rua, sensing that her desperate gambit to reach Kel had strengthened the dark power within Rua, endangering not just the young witch, but the world.
Re-Application of Rua (Part 4)
(About the setting: Twice Blessed is set in a high-fantasy Earth that was created when Plato from our "real world" accidentally discovered magic. He used it to try and create an "ideal" (as per the Socratic concept) version of the Earth, resulting in two realities: our world, where Plato assumed he failed and turned his studies elsewhere, and the Earth the comic is set on, where an incomplete copy of almost everything on Earth in 400 BC combined with and attempted to overwrite everything on another world (a high fantasy world with elves and dragons and all that high-fantasy stuff), shunting much of that world into dimensional pockets that overlap with the unstable Earth copy. Because of the instability of this new hybrid world, rifts allowing travel to other realities exist in certain places, and the mutable reality allowed the birth of wizardry, witchcraft, sorcery, and other magics. Fast forward to the late Middle Ages, and you have the magic-rich setting that Twice Blessed's story takes place.)
About Rua: In the comic, Rua is a sorceress who was adopted in her adolescence by a mage named Kel. Kel sensed great and unusual Shadow potential in Rua, and trained her as her apprentice.
Rua was born to a pair of adventuring mages in an alternate version of Ireland called Athair. Rua's early years were unconventional, and she got to meet many strange creatures and witness a variety of supernatural phenomena in the wild deep forests of the country while traveling with her mom and dad. When Rua was eight, her parents went on some sort of investigative trip and never returned (likely having been killed). Soon after, Kel Rundamair, a wizard from the Empire of Veritas who claimed to be a friend of Rua's parents, came and adopted the girl and took her as her apprentice.
Kel soon discovered that Rua had something very dark and powerful within her, and sought to both train Rua and to protect her. Kel trained Rua vigorously, secretly casting multiple permanent protective wards upon Rua during her training that kept whatever dark power she had within her from harming Rua or others. Kel then trained Rua to use this power to augment her magic with the power of Shadow. While Kel cared for Rua in a way that was almost maternal, Rua gradually began to develop a strong crush on her master that she kept a secret.
When Rua was eighteen, and nearing the end of her training, tragedy struck. The priesthood of Veritas (note: Veritas is an empire, a god, and a religion) sensed the growing shadow magic in Kel's tower and formed an Inquisition to try Kel as a dark witch. They stormed her tower and Kel, seeking to protect Rua, forced Rua to flee while fighting off the Veritian Inquisitors. Kel died saving Rua, and Rua never forgave herself.
The inquisitors destroyed Kel's body, and Rua could find no one who could resurrect her master without it. When divine magic could not save Kel, Rua delved deep into her studies of Shadow magic and tried to use her dark magic to pull Kel back from the River Styx. In doing so, she almost killed herself and tore a rift between the realm of the living and the dead. Kel's spirit was returned to the world as a specter, who then sought out Delbin, the champion of Shadow. Delbin begrudgingly sealed the portal and saved Rua, but now Rua is literally haunted by the ghost of the woman who meant so much to her, slowly driving her more mad. Kel, meanwhile, does her best to continue to protect Rua, sensing that her desperate gambit to reach Kel had strengthened the dark power within Rua, endangering not just the young witch, but the world.