Mage Ofeilia

'This Wikia page contains outdated information. Take the described backstory with a grain of salt.'

Mage Ofeilia is a canon character in both the TSWCAtS roleplays and books, made by Proxy. They were the narrator of the poem near the beginning of Outcasts and Royals: Threaded Tales.

Mage was born in Ofeilia to a duo of outlaws named Lisanna Valentine and Bianca Rosa with the name Hunter. The couple died in a fire and Hunter was subsequently forced into an orphanage, where her name was changed to Jane. She was later adopted into the royal family of Ofeilia due to the queen's obsession with Jane's birth mother, and her name was changed, yet again, to Mage. After traumatizing experiences with the misogyny and bigotry that went on in her country, Mage attempted to lead a revolt against the monarchy of Ofeilia, and was subsequently banished to Eltalor. She then took on the guise of a narcissistic, bothersome gypsy man under the name Vermillion Hellsing so as to hide from his old foes.

"''He has almost as many titles and aliases as he has women doting on him. James d'Autriche, Vermillion Hellsing, Creepy Asshole Staring at the Sky for No Reason, Voodoo-Creepy-Scary-Good-For-Nothing-Gypsy-Man-That-The-Children-Should-Stay-Away-From...but you can call him V ('NOT FOR VENDETTA!'). He's everything everyone would expect from a gypsy straight out of that wretchedly corrupt disaster of a country, Ofeilia. Extremely charismatic yet also extremely broke, 'Vermillion' is a young self-proclaimed gypsy of 25 who takes it upon himself to become Public Enemy #1. His main source of income is singing and dancing like he's on Broadway for strangers, and subsequently demanding payment despite it not being agreed upon in the first place. Despite flirting with everything that breathes and having a disheveled appearance that screams 'windowless van', he's actually just extremely eccentric and charismatic once you get to know him, not quite as narcissistic as he comes off - a bad boy with a heart of gold (but if you call him that, he'll probably kill you...or lick your ear or something as the poor sap's got anemia and the physical strength of a wet cardboard box). He merely views the world as his stage - each step he takes must be in character, filled with every ounce of his sheer, unadulterated flamboyance.''

''Despite his street performance being regarded as a general nuisance, he has a very developed singing voice - a clear and powerful tenor, with the vibrato of an opera singer. His acting is also rather professionally-executed - certainly not what you'd expect from a homeless gypsy vagrant. What lies in his past, that he must have had classical training in opera and theater?"''

Adoption
The country that the banished gypsy prince - Mage Ofeilia - is from is very small and mostly populated by nomads (often referred to as "gypsies", though some of these nomads find the term offensive as it has been used as a slur towards Ofeilians in the past, while most proudly embrace the title) who earn their income by trading, fortunetelling, acting, hosting music contests, and other forms of entertainment. They often travel the world in caravans, living rather nomadic lives. This country is known as Ofeilia. The government in this country is notably corrupt - the king being an ignorant fool that is easily manipulated by the upperclassmen - and their society is harsh and prejudiced against basically anybody who doesn't completely live up to their standards of "normal" - if you aren't male, white, straight, non-magical, fully human, rich, and don't experience gender dysphoria, you'll have quite a hard time amounting to much.

Mage - whose name was “Jane” at the time - was raised in a very poor, very shabby orphanage in the miserable town of Opal. Even from a very early age, she knew that the way women in her country were treated was not right, and she wanted to do something about it. She wanted to stand up for herself and the other girls who were suffering due to this injustice. However, this proved to be very difficult - due to her delicate, soft, and altogether conventionally pretty appearance, none of the orphanage workers would really take her seriously, and simply objectified her to the point where she was hardly more than their pet; a pretty little doll to dress up and play with. Life in the orphanage was already difficult for Jane, being a rather sickly child that nobody would ever want to go the extra mile to adopt. She hated being coddled, and it didn't help that she was ill quite often. She hated how the caretakers patronized her and treated her like she was helpless and unintelligent. Jane was also quite different from most of the other girls - she had no interest in boys beyond friendship, and found she had developed a crush on another girl (but she could tell right away this was forbidden and began stifling these emotions at an early age).

When she was about 12 and a half years old, Jane was adopted by the royal family of Ofeilia for reasons that were never fully explained to her - as far as she could gather, the queen was in the debt of Jane's deceased birth mother, and so she figured this would be the best way to repay her. She was taken from the orphanage she so hated, and she was absolutely elated by such a sudden, delightful change - she would at last be free of being treated "like a girl", she wouldn't be patronized, she'd be respected as royalty, and she could dress the way she wanted - her adoptive mother and father even insisted she change her name to something far less common and dull: Princess Mage Valentine Ofeilia.

Despite what she expected, she soon found that the misogyny she experienced had grown much, much worse when she became a princess. Young women of her rank were rarely treated with more fairness than those in poverty, and generally even had far less freedom. As the years went on, everyone she knew - her mother in particular - pressured her to find a suitor so she could one day rule Ofeilia with her husband. Even though she was always a tomboy at heart - indeed, if it were her choice, she’d rather be a musician living a simple life, wearing pants and a boys’ tunic - she tried her very hardest to be the graceful, beautiful princess that everybody wanted her to be, in fear of letting her people down - or worse, getting executed for going against customs. However, the whole time, she was able to take solace in music and theater, which thankfully was very much encouraged in Ofeilia, and she did indeed have a few friends that she knew would stick by her until the end. She knew she would never be completely alone.

The objectification she experienced - the way her various suitors (none of them sticking around for long, for Mage was always quick to plan their demise, whether through poison or blackmail) treated her like no more than livestock, the way her parents denied she was becoming physically ill from them starving her to keep her thin and pretty, the way men saw her as their property, the ridiculous standards of beauty she was to adhere to, the terribly tight corsets she was forced to wear - it all took its toll on both her mental and physical health. She had never particularly liked being a girl, but she had always been strong and always resolved to stand up for herself, she had never expected to become so ashamed of her gender; she never expected she would break. When she realized she couldn't rebel anymore, when she realized just how much her freedom was stifled, she had never felt so helpless and ashamed of herself in her life. She became sickly and malnourished on top of all this - her already weak immune system worsened as well as her anemia.

"Even though I could afford to dress how I wanted, society forbade it; even though I had plenty of food at my table, I was forced to starve to maintain my figure; and even though the men promised to take good care of a pretty little fragile, delicate young lady like me, my cries of agony went unheard; my pleas for help went unacknowledged. And I was well-aware that nearly every other woman in my kingdom suffered the same fate."

The Coup
As all of this was going on, a troubled, power-hungry young man named Ether Astrum formed a kind of a coup to seize Ofeilia with the help of his comrades. Luckily for him, Princess Mage’s parents agreed to arrange a marriage between the two of them - after all, Ether was very wealthy, and his family had the perfect reputation. Mostly everyone outside of his group was completely oblivious to his real motivations. His plan turned out to be much more simple than he expected, up until Mage inadvertently found out about his scheme by sheer luck.

Mage was met with a choice between marrying a horrible man she knew was only going to use her to become king, and most likely kill her afterwards, thus allowing her country to grow even more corrupt than it already was, or going against tradition and potentially being banished - or worse, executed. It didn’t help that even if she somehow did stop Ether from seizing Ofeilia, her equally power-hungry younger brother, Ash Ofeilia, would most likely become the next king. He had always showed signs of being jealous of his older sister, and it was clear that he would be an extremely incompetent leader.

"What did I ever do to deserve the life I was given?"

The Rebellion
Mage and her friends did everything within their power to stop Ether from succeeding without actually confronting them, but there were just too many people involved with Ether’s organization - including Ash Ofeilia, who turned out to have been a spy for the cult. Just when she and her allies started to give up on outsmarting them - the night before what would have been Ether’s coronation - Mage stepped up and proposed a new plan that involved at last facing Ether and his comrades, knowing full well that there was no way out of their dreadful situation unless it was by force.

They put their plan to confront their enemies into action late that night. Mage vowed to become queen by the next dawn’s light, or never show her face in Ofeilia again. She cut off her long, red hair with a sword she had stolen from a royal guard. She also stole the outfit that Ether would have worn at his coronation and wore it, for both practical reasons and symbolism - she was going to become queen, no matter what the cost.

After stealing a few more necessary weapons - in particular, an enchanted gun - Mage made her way back to the palace with her allies, where each of them split up to either ambush or keep watch on a different member of Ether’s cult. Mage went after Ash first, hoping to reason with him - they were family, after all, and they had been kind of friends when they were very young.

Just to be safe, though, she offered to sit down and talk with him over a cup of tea, and tipped a little bit of a certain drug into his drink that would make him drowsy and weak if things ended up getting violent. This was a wise move, for it got very heated, very fast: Ash had apparently guessed she was going to apprehend him, and so they unsheathed their weapons and began to battle over the throne.

Ash had made a fatal mistake, however - he had underestimated his sister’s intelligence and was very confused when he started losing his energy and getting dizzy. Mage had him backed up against the tall window, where she demanded he help her become the next monarch, or die by her hand. But before he could so much as consider it, the window swung open under his weight, and Ash fell through, presumably to his death.

The royal guards had heard the commotion and rushed up to the room see what had happened. Ether had warned them that Mage might try to do something of that ilk, so they proceeded to chase her through the palace, attempting to seize her.

Once Mage had lost them, she knew for certain that she was no more than a wanted criminal for treason - she would no longer be welcome in Ofeilia. It was then that she started her journey to one of the neighboring countries - Eltalor - entirely by foot.

"And now, boys and girls, I know the true meaning of 'to Hell and back again'."

Eltalor
It took her many months, and when Mage finally reached Eltalor, she was absolutely exhausted, defeated, weak, depressed, and also very sick. She used an old, abandoned house right by the little village of Anima Town as shelter when she first arrived. For a few days, she would not leave the house, having no energy to move. Eventually, though, she was starving, and she knew she had to go to the town to get food.

When she went to the market, she was shocked to find that women had equal rights in Eltalor - nobody patronized her, commented on her short hair, or even flirted with her. She was even encouraged by worried civilians to take care of herself and find a doctor - which she eventually did, and began healing at last.

In general, the people and government of Eltalor were godly in comparison to that of Ofeilia. Everyone seemed so much happier - everyone was free to be themselves. After observing the citizens for awhile, Mage had an idea: she would take on the guise of a man so as to push away the pain of the past - if she couldn't be respected and treated the way she wanted to be as a female, she'd just have to present herself as male.

A disguise was also practical since her family (and probably half the country, considering she was basically a criminal for treason at that point) would be searching for her. Partially unintentionally, she developed a persona for this disguise as not only a strategy to make herself even more unrecognizable, but also a kind of an outlet to forget about all of the traumatizing events that went on when she was the princess. She gave "him" a very narcissistic, amusing, dramatic kind of personality (sort of for her own entertainment, really - she's always had dramatic flair and a snarky sense of humor, but this side of her was often stifled) that's an exaggerated version of her natural personality. He would be fiery and charismatic, with a very flamboyant sense of humor, but even rather obnoxious (he enjoys bursting out in dramatic song when he's bored) and more or less a constant drudge to the civilians. He would also really like messing with people and incessantly flirting with others (especially when he knows it'll irritate them). To make this persona more convincing, Mage spread false rumors about all of his alleged wrongdoings and heinous crimes, and they quickly caught on. He would be exactly the sort of man that good mothers would keep their children away from.

Some people, however, can see through his persona - not everyone is gullible enough to believe all of the rumors, of course, so some just disregard him as some homeless lunatic. Others more or less catch on and figure that he at least can't be as bad as he's made out to be, and some even think that his "voodoo-creepy-scary-good-for-nothing-gypsy-man-that-the-children-should-stay-away-from" persona is just some kind of inside joke to him. Some of them even find him really entertaining and pay him to sing for them. Even despite this, though, nobody has come close to guessing correctly what "his" past is.

Mage hopes to someday reclaim Ofeilia and once again face his enemies, but for the time being, he is perfectly content with his current occupation...except when he gets recruited by gangs and guilds of thugs due to his "voodoo-creepy-scary-good-for-nothing-gypsy-man" reputation...that can get rather messy.

"Why change the past when you can own this day?"