Maria Iglesias
Background
Little is known of Maria's past before she became the grand inquisitor. She was a farmer's girl, and is significantly more happy in the outdoors than cooped up in a church or somewhere else, often shirking her duties to look for snails in the field to cook later. She was classically trained in opera and theater, making her an extremely good singer. These talents have helped her greatly in many speeches. Her bloodline also plays a part in her wanting to dress all fancy, and taking great care of herself. She also finds great value in art and well crafted items, keeping weird knickknacks wherever she goes and supporting people with potential.
Maria is extremely xenophobic against non-humans and non-heavenfolk. The exception is catfolk, whom she's particularly fond of due to her love of cats. Sometimes she even purposefully look the other way for their transgressions. If a catfolk was to work under her command, her maternal instinct would pop in and she’d probably dote on them, but would try to remain professional as much as possible. But apart from thus exception, unless proven otherwise, she will look at other races as uncivilized savages.
She has been an inquisitor for 10 years, under the pontiff command and once operated near Sancha Gobzales village because of demonic presence, as a precautionary measure, for cleansing, and other inquisitorial stuff. During her time in the area, she learned Nahuatl, because her duties required to ask "questions" to the locals. It's around the same time that she took Sancha under her wing into the inquisition. Maria doesn't kill kids, no matter what, and instead try to save them through rehabilitation and so forth, for even someone as zealous as her has lines she won’t cross. She runs an orphanage on the side of her inquisitorial activities. Sancha later escaped and was rescued by Flayne la Karrotte.
She once was in love and had an affair with Pascal Karrotte, and is the mother of Lucien Karrotte. We don't know why or how it ended but Maria now despise her son and Pascal, and she knows something is strange about Flayne. The reason he has custody is mostly because she doesn’t want anything to do with him, believing Pascal to be tainted.
Powers
Maria is unique in a sense, as the blood of pride runs through her heavenspawn veins, thus her golden eyes, but she's too prideful to be bound to him, which of course Pride adores. Maria isn’t chosen, however she still is a prime candidate in Pride's eyes, which grant her some of his blessings. Being a heavenspawn she is naturally gifted with the blood of the divine beings, granting her innate understanding on the world around her. Maria's resilience comes mainly from her affinity with healing magic, which makes her very durable. She is on the top 3 of the greatest healers within the Familiar Lands and could heal herself as fast as she gets hurt, giving the illusion that she is invincible. She also wields fire magic, that sometimes she'd use in tandem just to get some answers out of people during her interrogations.
Her race are people blessed by the heavens, and thus because divine blood flows through her veins, she commands a presence beyond a normal human. At 8 feet tall, she stands on the higher end of heavenspawn. On top of that, her duties requires to deal with people everyday, granting her a terrifying aura of a dominating, strong personality.
Maria wields both magic and the blade, but she's more of a spell caster than a true warrior. She prefers to use magic powered by sheer faith, but can hold herself in melee, wielding the infamous Spear of Lovinus. Blessed by the gods for her blood and being a candidate to Pride, she is very lucky, for the higher the luck the more blessings they receive. The same principle could be applied to Gabriel Zima for example.
Trivia
- Even she considers the Siege Knight as going too far, and too deep into heresy. He would also view her as too zealous for her own good, as Siegrfried is an agnostic and leans more into science.
- She is a known pyromaniac and pyrophile, she delights in flames and setting things ablaze, much to her prisoners dismay.
- Maria is meant to look like a reflection of what Flayne could become if she ends up doing the wrong things.
- Sally Whitemane from World of Warcraft is one inspiration for Maria. Binkie stan the scarlet monastery.
- Maria would‘ve loved Dante’s Inferno if it existed in the Familiar Lands.
Appearances
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