Bellatrix

Real Name: Bellatrix Wagner

Codename: Ellie Harrison (An alias adopted to marry Casey Wagner in an official ceremony and discarded almost immediately after)

Nicknames: Bella

Occupations: Royal ambassador and politician

Legal Status: Legal citizen of the United States

Identity: Public

Nationality: USA

Home Town: Unknown

Born: July 26, 1915

Marital Status: Unknown

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Known Relatives: Maudie (mother), Casey Wagner (husband), Pamela (sister by adoption)

Group Affiliation: Victory Society AKA Veteran Society

Base of Operations: Berlin, Worcester County, Maryland, United States

First Appearance: TBA

Known Superhuman Powers: Fueled by magical energies native to her homeland, Bellatrix exhibits the following abilities:

Superhuman strength, speed and stamina - To give a rough indicator of the upper limits of her strength, she is quite able to fight on equal footing with Starson, by many considered the strongest man on Earth.

Empathy - Bellatrix is more in touch with the world around her thanks to heavy meditation augmented by her magical energies, allowing her to reach out and communicate with other cultures, sometimes even completely different species. While it isn't full-blown telepathy, she can usually tell when something is amiss, such as when a person is lying or in peril. But she tends to shrug it off and claim that it's just intuition.

Retarded aging - Due to being born on a magical island where time runs at a pace of one hour for every day in our world, she ages at a 1: 24 rate. To put that into pespective, she has only aged about 3 years over the last 70. Note: She spent the first 25 years of her life in our world and thus aged accordingly.

Weaknesses:

- She has to return to the island from time to time or the magic that fuels her powers will dissipate over time, weakening her powers until she has to rely on nothing but her combat skills and quick wits.
- She's still human and can't heal from everything. Unless she receives proper medical attention for severe injuries, she will perish.

Abilities/Special Skills: Even without her powers, Bella is still a very capable free-style hand-to-hand combatant. And while she prefers her lariat, she is trained in the use of other archaic weaponry such as javelins, bows and arrows, swords, etc. She has very minor skills in handling modern firearms, but has general disdain for them, claiming them as "weapons without poetry." She is also a skilled pilot thanks to training from Casey Wagner and her time in the military.

Languages: Speaks English and several dead languages fluently.

Weapons/Equipment:

Armor - The inner layer of her costume is covered with enchanted chainmail, serving to protect her from blunt weaponry such as swords or bullets.
Lariats and ropes - Bellatrix weapon of choice is the rope, always preferring to bind and subdue rather than harm her opponents.

Personality: Bellatrix is kind, gentle and does not use violence unless provoked. Another quirk which makes her stand out (especially back in the 1940s) is her belief in complete gender equality. Thus, she doesn't think twice about sharing a bathroom with a member of the opposite sex without even the slightest hint of intimacy and is understandably confused about why most sports tournaments are separated by gender and weight classes. To put it simple, she has no gender bias.

Personal Interests: Strong supporter of human rights movements.

History: Bellatrix was born on a magical island, right in the midst of an attack from a conqueror. Her mother Maude, queen of her tribe, sent her away so that Bella would be saved from the onslaught.

Raised in our world by kind foster parents, Bella grew up into a beautiful strong-willed woman with aspirations to join the military. Given that this was the 1940s, it wasn't exactly the most ideal environment for a girl like her. But nevertheless, military air pilot Casey Wagner took a liking to her and became one of her best friends. Their mutual friendship would eventually blossom into love, but neither was able to admit their feelings to one another.

During a test flight in 1940, Casey and Bella were shot down by enemy aircraft and crashed into the ocean, unknowingly passing through the magical veil that kept the island hidden from the outside world. They were saved by a group of of people that recognized Bella by her resemblance to the queen, who was overjoyed to see her daughter again. There was still a war raging on (At the island, only about a year had passed since Bella had been sent away) and with the assistance of Casey and Bella, the conquerors were sent away. Bella decided to stay with her people to learn their ways whilst Casey half-heartedly returned to our world.

After completing her training and choosing the lariat as her weapon of choice, Bellatrix rejoined society just as the United States entered World War II. After the war, she proposed to Casey and married him.

She would eventually join the Victory Society.

In 1960, she helped found the Earth League.

She went missing in 2008 and hasn't been seen since then.

===

My homage to the William Moulton Sharston's amazon princess.

In short, I spent a lot of time thinking out her character traits and what I could do different.

So rather than go for an all-female group of warriors... I went with her coming from a unisex (By unisex, I mean that they share common dress codes, public rest rooms etc) tribe of warriors. In short, she's my vision of what a "super-feminist" would be like turned up to eleven! Without making her descend into androgyny, as I absolutely abhor that stereotypical view of gender equalists.

My personal opinion is this: Women and men are people. And you're an asshole if try to make out either gender to be "inherently evil." True, I feel shame when dealing with male chauvinists sexually harassing people. But I don't accept double standards claiming that a woman can't be judged the same way if she's the one doing the harassing.

Moving on from a political rant, some of my thoughts about her design...

A question for my watchers... Would you feel comfortable goint at a masquerade or cosplaying as her? I spent a lot of time looking up realistic armour. While I would never think of touching the classic bathing suit look of Wonder Woman (and given that she's near-invulnerable, the look is actually a bit justified), I felt that there was no need to hold my homage to that standard and went for something that would feel like a real warrior.

Her place of origin is a nod to Avalon of Gargoyles-lore (the passage of time quote is ripped pretty much straight from there), albeit it goes back a bit further with mythological tales such as Brigadoon, Xanadu etc... Needless to say, the idea of another realm where time runs slower is an old one that I'm not above exploiting.

Bellatrix (c)