Spring Knight
Info
REAL NAME:
IDENTITY:
AFFILIATION:
REGISTERED?:
​RELATIVE AGE:
MARITAL STATUS:
Rose-Marie Rousseau
Known
French/Hero
Yes
mid 20s
Single
ALIAS(ES):
CURRENT TEAM:
FIRST APPEARANCE:
APPEARANCE DATE:
CREATED BY:
CREATION DATE:
Green Knight, Verdant Knight
MDU Halloween Special 2016
30 Oct 2016
Don "Major Deej" Finger
6 Oct 2007
RELATIONS:
Marie Rousseau (Mother, deceased)
Louis Rousseau (Father, deceased)
Lydia Rousseau (sister, deceased?)
History
Louis and Marie Rousseau were the parents of their own 18th century magical family - an actual magical family. These parents were teachers at the French School of Druidic Magic based out of Lille, France. The school was a small one, but the only one within 500 miles on mainland Europe. The school usually only had about 75 students on the average of any given year. Louis Rousseau was the headmaster of the school, while Marie was the head of the nature magic department. Other magical expertise taught at the school included shape-shifting and animal control but the highest draw was always for nature magic.
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In the early to mid 1700s, France was in great turmoil. Wicked political games and cruel practices of the well-dressed elite, along with what would become a Seven-Year War with Britain and Prussia, were driving the country into a dismal state, financially and politically. The magical community was sincerely concerned with their schools being found out about and pillaged. As such the school's staff and students had been packing up and moving to other countries, predominantly, the New World - America. The Rousseau's planned to go to American as well by way of New Orleans as the location for their new nature magic school. Sadly, they never made it there.
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Rose-Marie and Lydia Rousseau were the two teenage daughters raised by Marie and Louis Rousseau in 1758. Both girls were noted professionals in nature magic and were, of course, the top of their class. Rose-Marie was an innocent soul who enjoyed the simple things, but also was infatuated with boys as well. Lydia was more aggressive with a bit of a mean streak in her about non-magical people. Both girls loved each other dearly, as well as their parents, however, Lydia, being a year older than Rose-Marie, knew that, by family tradition, she was to be sent back to the magical community capital (known as "The Conglomerate") in Greenwich, England, known as "The Citadel", to find her a husband to be married to; a man who was to be of great standing in the community and obviously well-to-do. Lydia didn't like the idea of being 'married off', but she did what any respecting child did towards her parent's wishes in those days - submit.
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That summer of 1758, after the Lillie, France Druidic school's closure, the Rousseaus decided to travel to the Citadel (for the first time in nearly 8 years) to find Lydia a husband while on their way to Louisiana. Being French, they were treated sourly by the predominantly 'British' magic users, and seemed to be denied access to even restaurant and a hotel. Lucky for them, a magical British family, versed from an Arcane school, took in the Rousseaus. The family that took them in was the Finch family, notably Henerage Finch, the 3rd Earl of Aylesford of Surrey, England.
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While staying with the Finch family, Lydia espied a young man named Axel Boucher. Axel was a cousin of the Finch family and was staying with them for the summer, whereafter Axel was to go to prep school and then Oxford University. He was 17, well-to-do, and seemed to have a bit of a mean streak in him as well in regards to non-magic folks, just like Lydia.
Lydia fell in love with him immediately.
Axel, however, was falling in love with Rose-Marie instead.
Rose-Marie's and Lydia's parents had been on a whirlwind effort to get suitors lined up for Lydia in the Citadel, booking their travel to Louisiana, arranging the shipping of their household furnishes, and archiving the Nature's school's closing while all this was happening and were completely unaware of the unique relationships that was evolving between the sisters and Axel.
One day during that summer of 1758, Axel took Rose-Marie out along the the manor's canal, to a spot under a magnificently large Holm Oak tree. There, after several minutes of light-hearted laughter and wooing, Axel gave Rose-Marie a long, romantic kiss.
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Lydia had followed them to the tree.
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When she saw them kissing, Lydia completely lost control.
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Axel was supposed to be hers...her ideal man. A man who was now kissing her younger sister.
She felt completely betrayed by both of them.
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In a psychotic rage, using her nature magic, Lydia fused Rose-Marie's body (and soul) into the Holm Oak she was just sitting under. Just before Rose-Marie's face was forever fused into the tree, Lydia made Rose-Marie watch as Lydia made Axel burst into flames. Axel, in his screaming death-flails, grabbed the tree that Rose-Marie was now fused into, thus igniting the tree, wall as Rose-Marie watched in horror as she finally fused into the now-burning tree.
Lydia continued screaming in unconscionable rage at everything around her, turning everything peaceful and green to death and ash.
Lydia used her nature powers to create powerfully large vines and roots to burst upward through the ground, strangling and ripping apart anything near them. The manor's staff tried to run away in stark terror as Lydia continued her psychotic rage. When a couple of the manor staff's magic users came to stop Lydia, she pierced them with wooden spires from the nearby trees, killing them instantly. A few others raced out of the manor trying to escape the devastation that was now starting to damage the manor. Lydia's eyes streaming with tears, blindly attacked anyone or anything moving. She continue this rage-filled psychotic episode for several minutes until she finally dropped to her knees in exhaustion. As Lydia looked around, dozens of dead bodies were seen skewered and strewn throughout the grounds before her, with dozens of mangled trees, massive roots and vines emanating through the manor walls and roof, as well as out and up from the canal before her, all black as death. As she assessed in horror at what she'd just done, she was her parents, Louis and Marie Rousseau. Both had several vines impale through each of them, holding the parents' blood-soaked, lifeless bodies dangling several feet above the ground near the entry of the manor. Lydia's mind went into immediate shock, but still ran from the manor and out into the woods where Lydia Rousseau was never to be seen again.
The Finch family returned an hour later to the devastation. A surviving staff member, who'd been by the canal, and saw what happened to Rose-Marie and Axel at the onset, described the incredible devastation that happened thereafter in detail. Since the Finch family was a 'magical' family, they immediately brought in the Conglomerate's elders to determine what to do next. The elders attempted to pull Rose-Marie's soul from the burned-out husk of the once magnificent Hold Oak tree (her human body definitely dead), but was only able to 'coalesce' her soul into a central core center of the tree. As such, Rose-Marie would, at best, be as immortal as long as the trunk of the tree stood, and, at worst, would instead haunt the manor and its grounds for eternity as a ghost.
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The grounds were magically 'cleaned-up' (as best they could be) as were the repairs to the manor, such to the quality that the manor and the grounds looked good enough for the coronation dinner at of King Charles III in 1761.
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As for Rose-Marie, her story didn't end there.
Over the next couple hundred years, the Hold Oak tree that Rose-Marie had been fused with became a bit of a 'spirit' tree. People usually received 'good luck' when making a wish there before the tree.
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The rest of the trees in the immediate area, however, did fare so well and instead, still had a creepy, sickly feel to them, like a sickness that would never go away. The manor's ground's changed; the canal was drained and a series of 'other' magical families bought up the deed to the manor to maintain the locals from seeing the 'strange forest' and hear the disembodied ghostly screams of what was believed to be Rose-Marie and Axel in the dead of night amidst the manor's grounds.
Finally, in the year 2000, as a direct result of magical energy being ripped from Earth by alien Soltan Star Empire invaders, Rose-Marie was able for the first time since her death to become self aware...while still as the same unmovable Hold Oak tree.
Within weeks, with the magical energy depleting from Earth, Rose-Marie attempted to 'separate' from the tree, feeling that if she stayed attached to it any longer, she'd die with it. As such, a 'lesion' grew out from the tree into a large sap-dripping, bark-covered 'growth' from the trunk of the tree. One night, Rose-Marie broke out from her homemade chrysalis chamber into a new life-form: a hybrid human-plant, all magically conceived and magically powered. The manor's owners at that time had been killed in the initial Soltan assault that damaged the manor and killed every single human, specifically magic users, on the property. Obviously, the Soltans didn't know about Rose-Marie's tree or she/it too would have been decimated. Alive, it now took Rose-Marie the better part of a day to get her 'legs' and new body into working order. She also learned she what now a plant-being and had incredible natural magic powers over plants, trees and other terrestrial plants.
As Rose-Marie was trying to understand the new 21st century, while inside the manor, she saw a television that had remained on despite the Soltan attack and invasion. There, she saw the images of the alien damage, the loss of life, and most importantly, the suffering...suffering that she was feeling as part of her symbiotic nature of her body and the magic energies of the Earth; energies that were quickly ebbing. On the TV she saw a 'live' broadcast of a band of magical knights called the "Knights Arcanus" battling in and around Greenwich, England.
She remembered that place. She also remembered that there was a magical portal in a long tunnel-cave on the property that would take magic users to the entrance of the Conglomerate's capital, the Citadel. After getting her bearings, she found the tunnel and followed it deep under Silver Hill. Half way down the tunnel, an magically locked oak door hid a relic that activated the portal. Unable to unlock the door, she instead infused her plant body into the ground and 'grew' and reformed on the other side of the door. There, she performed the same steps she'd seen done before to open the portal. The portal opened, but was so weak it started to dissipate. Rose-Marie jumped through the portal, which chopped off her lower legs as a result. Although painful, Rose-Marie quickly learned she was able to regrow her legs...so long as she was in contact with the ground.
Now at the Citadel's entrance, she was witness to the most incredible display of battle ever. Hundreds of alien Soltan troops were attacking what looked like British soldier with futuristic (to her) weaponry, several super powered people...and the Knights Arcanus. She knew about the Knights Arcanus because of their symbols they wore...and that everyone in the magical community considered them legend. These knights were called upon in times of dire crisis to save the Conglomerate and its people from death and destruction. It seems that these knights were also saving the non-magic users as well. Rather than stand there gawking at the battle before her, she used her powers to create her own organic sword and started fighting the Soltans. After a minute's combat, the leader of the Knights Arcanus, Samhain Knight, fought to a spot alongside Rose-Marie and asked who she was. Rose-Marie, not knowing what to say, simply said, "Today, I'm a knight like you! A green...no...a knight of the Spring season! Yes! A Spring Knight!".
For the first time in weeks, Samhain Knight laughed a resounding laugh heard across the battlefield.
Samhain Knight finally challenged this new 'Spring Knight' by stating, "Girl, if you are alive by the end of the battle and we win the battle, and I have seen you do your part as a knight, I will personally knight you as a Knight Errant on the spot!".
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Thirty minutes later, Rose-Marie was knighted as a Knight Errant by Samhain Knight.
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For the next few months, Rose-Marie, as the Spring Knight, fought side-by-side with the Knights Arcanus, even creating her own magical plant-based horse, "Axel" that had the same powers as she. She learned a lot from Samhain Knight and her fellow knights on a daily basis. Sometimes the training took, other times it would take dozens of attempts before she could get the basics of a combat move or a strategy. She was indeed bright, but it was believed that plant-matter doesn't retain muscle memory like the human body, and thus, made it harder for her to adjust. regardless she fought like a warrior in every battle she could, sometimes being chopped up hundreds of times in a single battle, but them reforming and carrying on the fight until the knights' victory was won. Sadly, during the final battle with the Soltans in China, the Spring Knight was unable to reform one last time.
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In the grand battle to take out the last, nearly full, magical energy siphon spire that the Soltans were using to drain Earth's magical energy with, the Spring Knight was having problems holding her plant body together amidst the massive magical energy fluxes emanating from the siphon spire. As a result her body kept exploding like food that sat too long in a microwave oven. Eventually, in a final knightly act, she saved a severely injured Samhain Knight from certain death at the hands of several Soltan Heavy Infantry troopers by using her powers to get up into the Soltans' armor, spreading her vines down into the ears, noses and throats of the troopers and in a final effort, exploded, killing the troops...and Spring Knight in the process.
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Samhain Knight and his allies eventually destroyed the spire, causing a 400% backlash of magical energy back into Earth's crust and Ley Lines, overpowering Earth with magic energies it hadn't had in centuries. in the aftermath, whatever parts of the Spring Knight that could be found were gathered, placed in a magical 'soul coalescence' jar, and placed upon the Knights Memorial back at their HQ in Spain at the Hacienda.
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One morning in 2016, Samhain Knight went to pay honors to the memorial only to find the jar on the floor, broken and a small chrysalis shell opened amidst the jar's fragments. A trail of sap led to the discovery of Rose-Marie, the Spring Knight, out in a field by the stables, drawing in the green growth of nature to make her body 100% whole once more. With no recollection of anything since the China battle, she was now ready to resume her role as a Knight Errant once again, this time with several new knights...but one thing remained the same - Samhain Knight, who was overwhelmed to tears upon seeing his resurrected fellow knight.
Today, Spring Knight is still training. She is in awe at the wonders of the 21st century and still has the outlook of a young teenage girl. She still cries tears of sap over the loss of her parents and Axel, but she has learned, as a knight, not to dwell on one's emotions lest they overtake you.
In a strange 'fan letter', written in a formal French handwriting she hadn't seen since she was 'alive' as a human, another woman wanted to know if she was actually "Rose-Marie Rousseau", for which Rose-Marie had never told anyone other than her fellow knights her last name. When she wrote back a reply of 'yes' and wanted to know more about this 'fan', she received a wreath of dead, blackened vines with a note stating, "Axel has already paid his final price; soon, you will too....again", only with the signed name of "Deathvine".
Seems like Rose-Marie's past is about to come back to haunt her...
Powers
Powers: Magical origin
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Plant Body
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Rather than flesh and blood, she is instead plant materials and sap, providing her with feeble protection from damage.
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Toxins and pesticides do double the amount of damage to her.
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She can meld her body into any form of natural plant, soil or growth. If the ground is sandy, it will slow her melding or even impede it depending on the percentage of plant growth there is her square foot.
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She can resurrect from any watered, properly soiled and sunlit location within weeks of her demise, eventually resulting in a pod that grows fro a 6' flower to human size in a 12-hour period before it hatches a new body for Rose-Marie (usually requiring for her to drink at least 10 Liters of water after resurrection or she will be feeble in all abilities and potentially die if no water in the next 24 hours of life).
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The local plants and fauna can affect Rose-Marie's body makeup; it she is in a forest, she may be able to take on a skin as strong as a tree's bark (good protection), or if amongst cactus, she will gain a spiky, needle-like skin to adjust to the environment; the longer she stays in the environment, the more her body changes to adjust.
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She can see in ultraviolet and infrared spectrums.
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She can communicate with plants, most of the time unconsciously, and 'feel' what they feel with an amazing plant empathy.
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She can weave weapons from her body, but prefers them from her hands, in the form of swords, spears, spikes and or shields, providing only the same material strength as the natural version her body is currently emulating (i.e., wood body=wood sword=good material strength; plant-like body=soft weapons, briar spikes, etc.=poor material strength to feeble material strength).
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She can change the texture and pigmentation of her plant-like skin and hair to look human (takes an excellent eye for detail to notice otherwise, or have the skills of a detective, medic, doctor or nutritionist). As such, she can change her skin color and hair color with a thought.
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Using her plant-like body features, she can change the shape and features of her body (including her face) so long as either she can add mass/remove mass through connection to soil/bio-matter/ground. If she were, for say, flying in an airplane, she would not have access unless she did so from a large plant flying with her.
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Transportation
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She can 'meld' into a soil-enriched ground with ease, transferring her essence through the soil, plants, roots and bio-matter in the ground for miles at a time, able to move up to 15 miles an hour at maximum bio-matter ground rates over the distance.
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She will move slower as the bio-matter in the ground in less in percentage per square foot.
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If caught in meld in a few square feet of land that is damaged/destroyed/burned or toxic damaged, she will receive equivocal damage as per that area of damage, however, should she be killed while in this state, she will automatically be allowed to resurrect at an equivocal rate regardless of area damage, unless the area damage destroys all soil nutrients/bio-matter, is rendered free of sunlight and/or devoid of any moisture.
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Nature Magically-created Steed: "Axel"
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Can be created from about 400 lbs of plant biomass; with wings, 470 lbs.​
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Can regenerate at unearthly rate so long as bio-matter is available to absorb from.
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Runs and flies at excellent speed.
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Susceptible to same weaknesses as Spring Knight (below).
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Weaknesses
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She requires 10 Liters of water a day to stay healthy, otherwise she looses control of her pigmentation, causing her to look 'jaundice' or 'green' when she is in her human guise. The longer she goes without water and access to water, she will begin to shrivel just like any house plant.
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Each day without water causes her to loose an entire level of abilities, reasoning, intuition and psyche.
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If she dies a from lack of water, there is a chance she may also 'not remember' her last few days when (if) she resurrects.
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Equipment
None.
Talents
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Swordsmanship (Professional)
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Combat Agility (Master)
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Combat - Knight (Proficient)
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Languages:
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English (Professional)​
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French (Master)
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Portuguese (Professional)
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Spanish (Professional)
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Latin (Proficient)
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Italian (Proficient)
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Cyrillic (Proficient)
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