[Spirit Class 6] Rafaela Leone

○ Name: Rafaela Stellamaria Leone ○ Alias: Rafaela Sternmaria Löwe Marasciella Piccola Rafaela of the Violent Lightning ○ Age: 29 as of 2123 ○ Gender: Female ○ Race: Human ○ Affiliation: Reichsritter of the Holy Roman Empire Former Senior Marshal of the Carabinieri Warrior of Asher the Empty-Hearted ○ Alignment: Chaotic Good Evil ○ Marital Status: Single ○ Nationality: Holy Roman Empire ○ Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual ○ Height: 4’7" ○ Weight: Fit ○ Hair Colour: Blonde ○ Eye Colour: Red

Duty-bound, professional, honorable. All of these are ways one might describe the quintessential knight, but none of them are the ways in which one could ever describe Rafaela. From the moment that she cracks her ever-present grin, it is quite abundantly clear that she is a woman overwhelmingly confident not only in her abilities, but in everything about herself. There is nothing she loves quite as much as an opportunity to showboat, to display how impressive she is to others, and she revels more in the spectacle of a battle than in any actual glory from its outcome.

Many who meet her think that this grandiosity is simply a way of showing off her strength, her position, and that is true, at least halfway. She does very much want everyone to see that she is a woman of power, with wealth and influence beyond what most could ever dream of. What she does not want, however, is for people to see her success as something impossible to achieve. Rafaela wishes for each and every person who sees her boast to think that they, too, could reach the heights that she has. She was a girl who was never expected to live past even a year of life, and if she can become a knight, so too can they. Her body is small, but her spirit and her ferocity have allowed her to become a large presence indeed.

Rafaela is larger than life in many ways, full of pride and swagger, so that all others can see that such strength is possible in all of them. She does not want anyone to live idly, to doubt in themselves, but to see her as inspiration.

…Or, at least, that is the Rafaela that her friends and comrades know and hold dear. But the woman called Rafaela at present has been corrupted profoundly by the influence of Asher the Empty-Hearted. Her attention-grabbing bravado remains, but has now grown into outright arrogance. Her flashy and electrifying approach to combat is no longer for the sake of showing others what to aspire to, but is simply a means of self-aggrandizement. This Rafaela is a prideful, cruel, and selfish woman, a far cry from the hero of the people that she has always been known as.

But the real Rafaela remains somewhere within. A spirit that shines so brightly could never be smothered entirely.


○ Asher the Empty Hearted: Warlord and leader, his authority is the only thing that carries any meaning in Rafaela's mind at present.

○ Erchanhardt Burgstaller: As a Free Imperial Knight, Rafaela is beholden to no authority other than that of the Holy Roman Emperor himself. She doesn't tend to be a woman who appreciates bureaucracy or red tape getting in her way, and as such, she couldn’t possibly enjoy this position more. Of course, she does understand the gravity of an appointment so lofty, and even if she may not show it most of the time, she quite genuinely respects and admires the man who gave her the opportunity. Not for his position, of course, but for the trust he has placed in her.


Thirty years ago, in a small town on the Amalfi Coast, a girl was born who had little chance of survival. This birth was far too early, and the mother, a woman named Maria, was far too frail to survive the delivery. Despite all of this, her father believed in the child with all of his heart, and he cared for her with all of the passion that a father might ever have. He gave her the second name of Stellamaria, a reminder that even if her mother had gone to the heavens above, she surely still watched over the child.

But, whether or not young Rafaela was being watched over, that did not keep her from experiencing the reality of life. From a young age she was exceptionally frail, a small child of weak constitution who could only barely get herself out of bed. But she heard the other children playing, heard the sounds of the town outside her room, and she wished for nothing more than to join them. She climbed out of bed, took one step, then two, and then fell right to the floor. But that was fine. She would simply try again. She would try for weeks, for months, until even frail little Rafaela could walk through town as if her size meant nothing at all.

Of course, it did still very much mean something. Little Rafaela might have been able to walk, but she could not fight, and certainly could not defend herself against hollows, those beasts which still roamed the Earth on account of its current state. When her town came under attack, she did not have the strength to run home, and perhaps she would have died that day. But as the Hollow tore through the town, came closer to the little girl, it was slain right before her eyes. She could do little more than tremble in fear as she watched it simply be slain in a moment, destroyed by a passing warrior with a single stroke of her blade. Rafaela remembers quite little of the moment beyond the curved nature of the sword itself and the color green, but what she remembers most of all is the awe that filled her heart in that moment.

As she grew older, Rafaela found that she wasn’t growing all that much larger. She did everything she could, however, to at least ensure that she was growing stronger. Even if it was hardly the best source of information, she scoured the internet for ways to become strong. She found stories of a battle now centuries past, of a woman hardly taller than she was who had saved the world. It was true that the woman who had saved her life years ago had been rather tall, but that was a memory all but lost to her by now. If this shinigami could fight, then as far as Rafaela was concerned, so could she.

Day in and day out she trained, both physically and spiritually. She grew stronger, faster, and though there were no swords with which to train, she simply carved one for herself, in the same style as the one that had saved her life, and trained with it instead. Certainly there could have been better weapons to study, and she knew this, but there was a call to the sword that Rafaela couldn’t deny, if only on account of how she found it, for lack of any better word, to be extremely “cool.” Beyond that, however, it seemed that many of the conflicts in the world had been solved through spirit and through melee ability, and so it only made sense to her to pursue the very same techniques in turn.

The day came, of course, when a Hollow yet again entered her town, but this time she was prepared. She had trained with that practice blade all her life, and even if it was only wooden, it was still connected to her in a way that felt as if it were part of her. Even with nothing more than this simple fake sword, Rafaela wreathed it in the energy she had taught herself to control, and she cut the beast in two with only a single stroke, just as her savior had done years before. In truth, she surprised even herself with such a feat. In her own mind, Rafaela had always been too frail, too small, too weak. No matter how strong she grew, she had only ever felt that she was still too little to compare to the rest of the world. As the townspeople came now to thank her, to sing her praises, she almost bowed her head in a meek gesture. But, in the corner of her eye, she saw the children watching with awe, and she remembered her own youth as if it were a flash of lightning.

The faint spark of passion within her simply burst into open flame, and Rafaela stood proudly with a confident grin on her face, a hand on her hip as she rested the sword casually on her shoulder. She spoke casually of how easy it had been to defeat the monster, how she’d hardly even broken a sweat, and how anyone could have done something like that with just a little practice. Some, perhaps, found that distasteful, but in the weeks that followed, Rafaela saw not only the children training, but many of the adults of her town as well. That, really, was all that she wanted.

It took little time for word of her feat to spread outside her town, and she was invited to join the Carabinieri, to protect the law and the people. Of course, the law didn’t really matter much to her, but the promise of being able to protect more than simply her own town was enough to bait her in. She accepted the offer with little hesitation, and perhaps it was just as well. Only a few short months later, the Fourth World War found its way to Italy.

Rafaela made an exceptional name for herself during the war, becoming something of an icon of the Italian theater as a whole. The violent energy with which she cloaked herself and her blade became something feared by all those she fought, and while she certainly could have used a different weapon, the wooden sword she carried was always more than enough for her. None of this, however, earned her half as much attention as her braggadocious attitude, the manner in which she carried herself both on and off the battlefield. She would openly mock the opposition, loudly list her achievements even in the heat of combat, and all the while she made it seem as if it was never even a challenge. Even with the destruction her country faced, Rafaela never once faltered in her confidence. When the war came to a conclusion, she accepted every award, every medal, as if it were simply the obvious conclusion.

She would have been all too happy if things had remained that way, but when the war was over, it suddenly seemed as if her duties had become more difficult than ever. Not because of the threats she faced, but because suddenly she was finding herself unable to act at all. She couldn’t simply burst into criminal dens, couldn’t cut down violent offenders the moment she located them. Bureaucracy hindered her at every turn, and this became all the more prevalent as she watched the increase in corruption as Italy recovered from the war. Everywhere Rafaela looked, she seemed to find one connection or another to the Duvalier Group, but none would listen to her. What had happened to the pride they had built in the war? Why did they now simply let someone else take control, when they had the ability to do it all themselves? In the end, she was discharged, and with little else to do she returned to her town on the coast.

Or, at least, she would have. When she arrived, she found that a guest had been awaiting her arrival. The Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to speak with her regarding her removal from her post. The two spoke, and she found him agreeable, not only in his principles but in his intentions for the world, and of course in his distrust of the company she knew could not be trusted. She was offered the title of Reichsritter, to be one of the prestigious Free Imperial Knights who answered only to the Emperor himself, and who had the right to operate however they saw fit so long as it was in his name. Naturally, she accepted the title, and the moment the lengthy process was completed, Rafaela set off to begin her work. She had no time for glory or prestige merely from her position. Like always, she would find it through action.

Her investigations into the Duvalier Group proved relatively fruitful, if straightforward. Her own work had no small amount of overlap with the efforts of others, it seemed, and for that she was remarkably thankful. Contacts were made within the Gotei United and the Vandenreich both, and by all accounts the evidence she’d found was fairly worthwhile. But to take down someone as massive as Duvalier, she’d have to go to the heart of things, and so Rafaela’s work brought her to the capital city of Vastime, where so much of the Duvalier Group’s most dangerous work had been headquartered. Days there became weeks, and it seemed like she might finally find what she’d been looking for there.

What she couldn’t possibly have anticipated, however, was the collapse of the city into the abyss. To describe that chaos would be impossible, especially for a woman like Rafaela. But at the bottom of that pit, surrounded by Hollows, she fought for those few people who were still there. She had to, after all. Not out of duty, or obligation. It was just who she was. But that fighting spirit brought her to the attention of what was undoubtedly the leader of them all, and for all Rafaela’s grit, her guts and determination, her blade did nothing to the creature. Her prowess was deemed suitably useful, however, and worthy of cultivation. Others had been elevated, forced into a higher state of being. Rafaela, however, had promise as she was. She was not made stronger under the grasp of Asher the Empty-Hearted; she was simply made to comply.

Now, her mind overwhelmed by the primal and bestial nature of Hollow energy, Rafaela fights on behalf of the Warlord of Alhireth.


○ Reichsfreiheit: The right of imperial immediacy, this denotes that Rafaela is exempt from any authority other than that of the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Her word is assumed to carry power second only to the Emperor’s, and she carries the legal right to not only enforce any laws as she deems necessary, but to legislate new ones and to even operate outside of the confines of current ones. Naturally, this provides her with power that is nearly unparalleled, but it is a mark of the trust that the Emperor has in her.

○ Deceptive Exterior: Rafaela’s stature and build are, frankly, entirely misleading when it comes to the matter of her physical capabilities. She is a woman whose spiritual power and sheer determination have allowed her to surpass what should very decidedly have been her body’s natural limits, and as such, she is in fact drastically more physically adept than the average person.

○ Self-Taught Combatant: Rafaela’s style of fighting is one that was cobbled together entirely by studying, through both texts and what information she could find on the internet. Because of this, one can generally find that there is a lack of finesse to it, but this is almost made up for by the fact that it tends to be wildly unpredictable, as well as the extremely varied array of sources from which it pulls. It is unlikely that one could ever say that this style truly has “techniques,” but Rafaela nevertheless tends to have a handful of such moves that she often refers to, particularly when in more boastful periods. The most common of these, which seemingly refers to simply any bisection at all, is known as “The People’s Cleave.”


○ Fullbring Name: Know Your Role

○ Fullbring Appearance: While the blade Rafaela carries at her side at all times is a beautiful implement, and has even been officially approved as a sign of her rank as Free Imperial Knight, it is decidedly not a true sword at all. It is, in fact, a wooden replica of a sword which has been carefully crafted, painted, and over the years further adorned so as to resemble a real weapon. Currently, as a mark of her station and a personal gift from the Holy Roman Emperor, the blade has been cast over with a layer of spiritually hardened silver, while the hilt has been gilded with equally reinforced gold and wrapped with leather. A few gems dot the intricate inlay of this hilt, and generally speaking, one could decidedly call it a piece of art which resembles a real blade in most ways. However, its weight and its dull edge make the truth of this weapon clear, as not only is it far heavier than a sword of its appearance should be, but the edge is unsharpened, and any cuts the sword makes are simply on account of Rafaela’s own strength and prowess.

○ Fullbring Abilities: When releasing Know Your Role, Rafaela is capable of energizing both her own reiryoku and the reishi in her immediate vicinity to an extreme degree, turning it into a highly volatile form that is difficult for anyone to control or interact with meaningfully, and often causing outright injury if one attempts to absorb it. This energized energy resembles electricity, but generally speaking does not have any particularly electric properties. It is closer to flame when in its ambient state, and when directed is not significantly different from any other equivalent projection of energy such as a cero or shakkaho.

While it may seem relatively straightforward, this is an ability that is both highly versatile and extremely efficient, as the volatility of the energy Rafaela uses makes it nearly impossible to control once she has sent it on its course, and if she is utilizing ambient reishi rather than her own stores, it only uses the absolute barest of her own energy to serve as a catalyst. She is capable of cloaking herself or her weapon in it, or projecting it into any number of attacks both short and long range. Its chief weakness is the fact that the volatility makes any complicated construct all but impossible, as well as the fact that even Rafaela herself cannot further manipulate her attacks after they have been made.



General Skills

• Durability: C
  
• General Speed: C
  
• Strength: C
  
• Soul: D
  

Fullbringer Skills

• Fullbring: Beginner
  
• Hollow Factor: Adept
  
• Bringer Light: Adept
  
• Full Manifestation: Advanced
  

Will Skills

• Willpower: Advanced Untrained
  
• Mental Deduction: Beginner
  
• Focus: Adept Beginner
  

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