Odessa

"Oh, NOW you people need a fucking witch." Odessa, also occasionally (formerly) known as the Marshland Witch, is a peat-caked, mummified bog corpse who was mysteriously resurrected after spending over 300 years in a shallow grave just underneath the spawn area. She has since taken up her old ways of witchery, building an underwater apothecary not too far from the spawn-shrine where she offers potion-making and general spellcasting services (though, more recently, her efforts have been devoted to studying the candy-blight instead).

Alive
While alive, Odessa was on the shorter side, with moderately tanned skin, black and curly hair that she often tied up in poofy buns so it wouldn't get in the way, and icy blue (bordering on white) eyes that ever so slightly glimmered. In contrast to her slightly plump build and lack of defined musculature, her hands were calloused and bore streaking lavender arcane scars that snaked up her forearms, implying a history of working with both her hands and the arcane arts.

As for outfits, she tended to wear loose, flowing clothes such as sundresses and mage-robes, including a few witchlike robes she stitched together herself from bamboo and various textiles. Her favorite color was green, and most of her clothes revolved around it and complimentary hues.

Post mortem
Sure enough, spending over 300 years preserved in cool jungle peat and highly acidic water has changed her appearance; she, in the simplest terms, looks like a corpse. Her skin is stained a sickly brownish-olive, her once poofy hair is now matted and sits in sad, wet clumps atop her head, and her eyes, while still the same piercing pale blue, are now often kept shut due to her deteriorating musculature. The once-plump build she bore in life has all but evaporated, giving way to a deathly gaunt visage and a physically frail, bordering on skeletal body. The only splash of bright color on her muted form consists of a pinkish-white flower that seems to be growing out of her skull.

When she first awoke, her neck was also broken, bent to the right at a concerning and disquieting angle. This has since been partially corrected by Haunter.

Odessa's only outfit nowadays consists of the clothes she was buried in: a ragged, mouldering brown robe of sorts, a faded and dirtied blue buttoned blouse, and a coarse ankle-length brown skirt.

Personality
Upon first awakening and clawing her way out of her shallow grave, Odessa wasn't exactly ready to be personable-- and who could blame her? She was confused, lost, a tad bit frightened, and bore a deep-seated grudge against something she couldn't even remember. This manifested in her being something of a bitter old crone who was rather dismissive and blunt, only saying what needed to be said and ultimately trying to nip any social interactions in the bud from the first word spoken. Though, feeble rays of a personality underneath this confused, prickly exterior could be seen even then; she seemed to take pride in her magical craft to the point of slight haughtiness, and she still chose to offer her services to whatever public there was now. It just felt...right to her, though she couldn't wholly understand why.

Now, having acclimated to today's Clamor (outside of the death of organized magic, which she still hasn't fully gotten used to), she's more or less gone back to her old ways. She's still rather hard-headed, aloof, and has something of a take-no-shit attitude, but now she's actually open to conversing, especially in an academic or magical context. The appearance of Haunter, the one source of nonsense she can actually tolerate, has unlocked her sharp and dry wit, which she often uses to keep him in check or surprise those she's comfortable cracking jokes around. Unfortunately, she hasn't had much of a chance for jokes nowadays, what with her studious nature focusing fully on both addressing the sweetrot issue and bringing magic into the world-- something she seems genuinely eager to do.

Strengths
Drowned Physiology:

Having been somehow revived after spending centuries as a bog mummy, Odessa has come back as a drowned: she can breathe underwater just fine, and actually sees a little better through the murk than the average person. She would also be naturally good with a trident, if she were to get her hands on one.

General Witchery:

Outside of her specialty in sealing and abjuration magics, which she can use to great effect, she is also a natural potion-brewer, and knows the tricks necessary to make a given potion more potent or longer lasting. She also knows her way around an enchanting table, and can read the scripts necessary to ensure the best possible enchantments.

An Academic:

While she did lose her life, she did not lose her mind. Odessa is sharp, studious, and motivated-- she's quick to sense when things might be off, and relatively quick to find solutions or devise plans of action.

Weaknesses
Sunlight Sensitivity:

Being undead, Odessa has a rather hostile relationship with the sun, and she'll start burning up if she so much as takes a single ray.

Old and Frail:

While Odessa is an adept spellcaster and has more than her fair share of tricks up her sleeve, her 300-year interment in the earth has left her body weak and fragile. She cannot move that fast, on account of her atrophied musculature, and is not exactly proficient with most weapons.

The Past
Much of Odessa's past is shrouded in mystery due to her partial amnesia-- something that she was apparently struggling with in life, as well.

The earliest records of the Marshland Witch's existence describe her as a 30-something year old drifter with strange clothes and mannerisms (according to Fidelis Morelli), who arrived in Nol's Hill some 300-odd years ago. Frederick Nol, the founder of the town and the descendant of a Dieu Du Sang gladiator, was the first to greet her; he did not share the villagers' apprehension regarding mages and magical arts in general, and directed her into the bordering jungle to meet some associates of his.

These associates turned out to be a coven of witches, known as the Four Sisters of Jade, who had been residing in the jungle long before Nol's Hill sprung up. While she was unable to actually join the coven, as their magic would not function unless there were exactly four members, she was quickly taken under their wing, and Chantal Newmaker in particular seemed to take a liking to her almost immediately.

From then on, Odessa, known as the Marshland Witch to the people of Nol's Hill, offered healing and other magical services out of a hut she'd sealed in place over a nearby lake. Thus, she was quick to enter the town's good graces, and ended up becoming something of an unofficial liaison between them and the more enigmatic Sisters of Jade. At some point in her life, she met an enderman known as Lily and a vampire known as Vincent Evercrest, both of which she established friendly working relations with.

Unfortunately, good things never last forever. After Frederick Nol succumbed to illness, his son, who had been groomed into adopting anti-magic views by strange "clergymen from the east", quickly soured relations between the town and the witches-- culminating in a witch hunt that saw Odessa hanged and buried in a shallow grave.

The Present
One day, some 300 years later, Odessa woke up.

She saw nothing. She heard nothing, save for the muffled trickling of water. She felt nothing, save for the prison of acidic peat that entombed her. She did not know where she was, and at first, she did not know who she was.

All she knew was that she had to get out.

With a lot of persistent digging and a touch of magic, Odessa escaped her grave, and built an underwater apothecary while still in a half-delirious state-- it felt right to her, somehow.

The adjustment period was kind of rough. Odessa was prickly, bitter, and somewhat of a crone at first, though this was mostly due to her confusion at her surroundings and vague feelings of spite she couldn't fully understand. Nol's Hill was gone, save for Lily's house; in its place was a meager village, barely a few buildings, and what appeared to be some kind of candy patch on the ground. She was quick to learn that over 300 years had passed, thanks to those who discovered her apothecary; this, too, took some serious getting used to. She was just...overwhelmed, and more than a little tired.

Thankfully, though, at least one familiar face eventually came around to greet her.

An old friend of hers from when she was alive, Haunter, heard tell of a witch named Odessa living around Riverbend-- one that he knew from hundreds of years prior. Odessa was quick to latch onto his presence as one scrap of familiarity, which comforted her enough to start opening up and truly learn about the world around her. Her academic mind was quickly put to work alongside one Cedric, a wither skeleton, to solve the issue of the candy-blight, which was apparently an intruding, malignant force from an alien dimension.

One day, a bizarre riddle appeared within the library mailbox, which was later determined to be directed towards Odessa. This coincided with the reappearance of the Jade Sanctum and the rediscovery of Odessa's now sunken and ruined hut, which unlocked a portion of her lost memories: mostly those regarding her life in Nol's Hill, which took some time to fully process alongside her new knowledge regarding the Sisters' fates. It did not, however, explain the second puzzling note that was seemingly also directed at her, which she is still attempting to parse.

Currently, she is attempting to figure out how to banish Pixie-Stick and the sweets it rode in on, alongside her efforts to revive the magical arts in the current day and figure out the mystery of her revival.

Adder
In a world where magic seems to have faded into the history books, the discovery of a magical curiosity was quick to pique Odessa's interest. She not-so-subtly wants to study Adder, and while her short, vague answers to Odessa's questions frustrate that effort somewhat, this mushroom being seems amiable enough. She hopes her studies and potential experiments will also realize Adder's desire of knowing more about herself, and in turn lead to better answers to her questions.

Azalea
Poor, poor little thing who is in far over his head. Odessa actually pities him, in a sense; not only is he far from home and in an unknown world, something she can technically relate to, he seems to be the center of everyone's attention as the current sweetrot case study (and just in general, though at least he's liked). Despite this, however, she can't help but be frustrated by his recklessness and weak will, and hopes that his time spent under close scrutiny by Edgar will teach him a lesson or two about being careful with his curiosity-- and maybe impart on him the confidence to actually gain a stable foothold in Clamor as a bonus.

Cedric
Odessa's first meetings with Cedric started out rather rocky-- he is a man of science who flat out refused to believe magic could exist at first, which frustrated her and led to a handful of brief academic scraps. Now, with the looming threat of the candy corruption that requires both scientific and magical experience, they have bonded together as fellow scholars, teaching each other what they know. She greatly respects his work ethic and wealth of scientific/technological knowledge and hopes that they can continue working together even after this storm has passed.

Charity
While she only knows of this "Charity" in passing, the arrival of a true demon in this humble little section of Clamor has her on high alert. She only hopes that the knowledge that she and Edgar possess will be enough to stave her (and Trivia) off until they solve their current existential threat.

Edgar von Roses
The academic respect Odessa holds for Cedric is matched only by her respect for Edgar, who she recently learned is actually the son of an old associate of hers, Vincent Evercrest. Unlike his father, however, Edgar seems to be a wide-eyed idealist, hoping to use his vast resources and kind demeanor to rehabilitate the vampire's image in modern days. Odessa appreciates and acknowledges this, though she worries that this desire to seem like a hero and separate from his father will cause him difficulty in making tougher or...less savory decisions, should the need ever arise. Nonetheless, his intelligence and diligence cannot be discounted, and she's happy to refer to him as a fellow scholar.

Haunter
It was the (unsurprising) realization that Haunter was still around that finally broke through Odessa's recently-revived bitter demeanor. These two knew each other prior to Odessa's unfortunate demise, and despite Haunter's relentless prank-pulling and general bullshittery, Odessa seemed to appreciate his company, even going as far as turning the tables on him with her sharp wit whenever the opportunity arose. Now, with Odessa back up and at 'em, not much has changed. Perhaps Odessa feels more at ease with something familiar to hold onto within the now-unfamiliar Clamor she woke up in.

"Katabasis"
Odessa knows absolutely nothing about the entity that refers to itself as "Katabasis"-- if it even is an entity. This unnerves her, as based on the two cryptic (and INCREDIBLY magically-infused) letters it left within Azalea's mailbox and the Jade Sanctum, it seems to have some level of familiarity with her and her past.

Mako
Odessa's direct interactions with Mako have been rather limited save for an introductory meeting, where he cemented himself as someone she wouldn't exactly want to spend a lot of time around. Cocksure, arrogant, and wielding powers that he has ABSOLUTELY let go to his head-- his attitude reminds her of something, but she can't place what. She also knows that, unfortunately, Mako is exactly Haunter's type, and she cannot fathom how he is still going after the lightning shark after he fucking died to him.

Lambert
As a fellow drowned, Odessa shares a slight kinship with Lambert, which would likely develop if they actually found more opportunities to interact. For now, though, she thinks he's a real genuine and stand-up guy, if a tad bit simple.

Pixie-Stick
Odessa hasn't actually met the entity known as Pixie-Stick outside of viewing it in the distance under the effects of an invisibility potion, but from the rampant hearsay she's wrapped herself up in, she takes that as a blessing. While she is incredibly wary of its otherworldly capabilities/magicks and actively working to cure the candy-blight, she holds little ire towards the being itself. Rather, she views it as a problem to be solved alongside the corruption, and is in the camp of banishing it back to its home dimension rather than killing it outright.

Shrub
Odessa only recently met Shrub upon his acquisition of a strange magical artifact, and she already wants to take him under her wing. His curiosity of the world around him is boundless, his resourcefulness is admirable-- she thinks he'd make an excellent student of the arcane arts in terms of attitude, and she's more than willing to teach him. In terms of academics and function, however, Odessa realizes that he may not be the most book-smart person she's ever met, and will likely need plenty of time to attune to his own arcana (possibly through the Lunar Hourglass). She also worries about his naïvete, and hopes that he isn't forced to learn his lessons the hard way.

Trivia
Knowing what she does about Netheric beings and how their magicks generally tend to function, Odessa has every right to be incredibly wary of Trivia, much to his frustration. She knows better than to sign any of his contracts, say anything that could be construed as a pact, and speak her name in his presence. On the other hand, however, both of them are aware that she may be the only person currently alive who could potentially lift his banishing curse, which she tries to hold over him to keep him in check. And while she's still understandably hesitant to assist a vexling in getting what he wants, she figures that getting him out of Clamor's hair would be better than letting him revel in the current chaos.

Van der Stof
Odessa does not like Van, and from what she can tell, the feeling is mutual. Being attuned to the arcana around her has revealed that there's something about him that feels off, somehow, though she can't place it, and he's certainly not forthcoming about it. Outside of the strange arcana radiating off of him, she finds his secretive, haughty, and glaringly shady personality absolutely insufferable. It's a good thing he's avoiding her, then, but she can't shake the feeling that there's something to his avoidance...

Trivia
- Odessa's associated hex code is #26362c