Herald Athena (Work In Progress)

Real Name:Reilly Roberts
Renegade Name:Herald Athena
Title: Angel of Balance/Harbinger of Chaos/Warden of Order
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Race: Herald of Balance (Based on a human)
Hair: White and knee-length
Eyes: Gold with slit pupils
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 144 lbs
Blood type: O-


Initially, she was a woman with medium-length brown hair standing at approximately 5'4", and (while not what Hollywood would call "beautiful") is easy on the eyes. Upon empowerment, the energy she was imbued with altered her body; her hair faded to pure white and became waist-length, her eyes became gold with slit pupils, a pair of black wings sprung from the small of her back, she has a set of horns on her head, and her body is tattooed head to toe with black script that has some resemblance to Aramaic languages. She is often scantily clad, with her color scheme varying on who she’s aligned with at a given point.


On a personal level, Athena is charming and enterprising, and at least willing to be frank about her current alliance with those she has a personal affinity for. She’s practically married to her position as a Herald of Balance. As such, she treats herself as above Good and Evil, and has no issues making it known. Exactly how  she makes it known depends on which role she is playing:

Athena as a Herald of Light behaves calmly and gracefully, and merely treats her station above traditional human morality as a simple matter of reality. Light Athena behaves in a traditionally ladylike and polite demeanor. She goes out of her way to avoid involving civilians at all possible cost; unlikely to engage in traditionally hedonistic behaviors.

Athena as a Dark Herald is an entirely different animal. She’s smug and more than willing to rub her status into anybody’s face. She loves corrupting passers-by into doing her will. She displays a sadomasochistic streak and behaves in an unrestrained manner, prone to fits of maniacal laughter in battle. She practically lives to pursue life’s pleasures.


"Heralds" refers to people chosen by the supernatural "Keepers of Balance" (known occasionally simply as the Powers That Be) to maintain the balance between Good and Evil, and Order and Chaos. Of hundreds born per generation with the capacity to harbor the power of a Herald, the Keepers of Balance only select a few dozen at any given time, and usually from the human race.
One such person was a woman by the name of Reilly Roberts. Throughout her life, she walked along the gray line, having been both a law-abiding citizen to a petty criminal. It all began with being orphaned at the age of fourteen, and subsequently claimed by the gang that murdered her parents as their “prize” to be passed around from man to man.
One day, she was shot during a gang war during one of her many stints as a petty thief. Despite being on the verge of bleeding out, a blinding light and sensation of vertigo gripped her. The Powers That Be chose her to be one of a select group of agents that maintain the balance between Good and Evil, and Law and Chaos. Her clothing stripped itself away, and her body healed and changed as power flowed into her body.
Wings came in with feathers black as night, her hair faded to the whiteness of snow, ivory horns emerged from her head, and runes tattooed her body. Her mind became one of absolute subservience to the Keepers of Balance, for she had been chosen precisely because of her experience with both sides of Good and Evil.
The needs of the moment - as decreed by the Keepers - required that the gang war be brought to a halt, with no survivors. So, Reilly sat as a passenger of her body as the criminals were eliminated with no remorse. The initial horror of the raw carnage she inflicted upon those that made her life Hell washed away as Reilly rationalized her actions as being for the better of the people of the city. In time, she rationalized every action she took as being for the continued existence of humanity.
For the years to come, the newly christened Athena has acted alternatively as an instigator of Chaos and a Bringer of Order, following the whims of the Keepers without question.


>Her powers are psychic in nature and based upon Light and Darkness (and, correspondingly, Good/Positive and Evil/Negative energies).
>All Heralds - no matter their current alignment - possess the power of flight, charm (rudimentary hypnosis), and illusion.
>All Heralds can generate psychic barriers, but only Heralds of Light can project them on to allies.
>Herald transformations of the body that their power is infused in vary, as do their physical traits and weapons, but they all possess strength above the human baseline. For Athena, she can use her horns for impaling and use her wings as makeshift bludgeoning weapons. Some fellow Heralds have sported claws in ages past.
>All Heralds can recover from injury and illness much faster than normal humans, healing in days that a human would require weeks for.

>When acting in the capacity of a Dark Herald, Athena’s abilities are centered around destruction, causing pain, and inspiration to evil. A few examples:

• Psychic crush: an opponent is engulfed in an aura of darkness that compresses around them, both slowing them down and crushing them. The sensation is often described as being slowly crushed by a hydraulic press.
  

• Agony Arc: Manifesting as an arc of lightning that jumps from target to target, energy is shot from Athena’s hands that causes crippling pain, also immobilizing enemies. Sufficiently resilient enemies can avoid being immobilized, but still suffer pain.
  

• Corruption: Engulfs a non-combatant in an evil Aura, drawing out the darkest parts of their soul and enslaving them to Athena’s will. Once corrupted, the enslaved cannot be liberated except by an opposing Herald’s Purification.
  

>When acting as a Herald of Light, Athena’s abilities revolve around healing, defense, purification, and non-lethal takedowns. A few examples:

• Ameliorating Aura: gradually heals the target over time.
  

• Stasis prison: Traps the target in a gem of holy energy. While in a stasis prison, the target can neither act, nor be acted against.
  

• Mind Maze: Traps an unaware opponent in their mind, leaving them unable to act. Cannot be used if the target is in combat, and breaks if the affected enemy sustains damage. Only usable on one enemy at a time.
  

• Psychic Judgment: Manifests as an arc of pure lightning, the target suffers spasms and pain that are akin to being hit with an overcharge taser. Enemies eliminated this way are rendered unconscious.
  

• Purification: cleanses a victim of a Dark Herald’s Corruption.
  

> Psychics, demons, and divine beings can see through the illusions that Heralds are capable of producing, and particularly resilient minds can resist the charm effects.
> A Herald acting at a specific role requires to be in a matching environment to maintain their power; thus, a Herald acting in favor of the forces of Darkness must remain in shadow and will gradually lose stamina as exposed to light. The reverse is true of a Herald acting in the interests of Light - since Heralds change objectives frequently, this can make this weakness unpredictable.
>Heralds feed on the psychic emanations of sentients that commit good and evil acts to sustain them, depending on the side they act for. A Dark Herald is thus weakened when actions of compassion echo throughout the sphere of human thought, and strengthened by actions of cruelty; the inverse is true of Light Heralds - in effect, stamina is decreased in an area where the opposing alignment is dominant.
>While all Heralds can recover from injury and illness much faster than normal humans - healing in days that a human would require weeks for - they are no less vulnerable to physical harm. A shot to the head from a bullet would be no less fatal for Athena than for any other human, though a shot to the gut is more survivable than a human of equal age and physical condition.





Strictly speaking, Athena is a minion herself.
Any minions she happens to have with her at any given time are thus assigned to her by the Keepers within a given circumstance rather than controlled or summoned outright.
The only minions she can outright claim to be hers are those brought under her thrall through her charm and illusion magics (and thus, are almost exclusively human).



> Ageless: while acting in the capacity of a Herald, Athena doesn’t age until the Keepers revoke her status as one.

>Hedonist: Regardless of which side she acts for, personality traits of her prior life as Reilly Roberts surface, and she pursues life’s pleasures from fine-dining to good lovers when not actively on the field. She especially has a love of gems.

>Runes: The rune-like tattoos which decorate her body glow when her overt powers are in use.