Introducing Medieval!Zen (or Witch!Zen i guess?)
She is a nature based witch who increases her lifespan by luring unsuspecting victims into her forest and stealing their souls. however, she has saved up quite a few souls at this point and is more interested in messing with her victims rather than killing them or stealing their souls. she is a few thousand years old, and has another few hundred to go before she needs to gather souls again.
She currently lives in the “cursed woods”, which got it’s reputation after she tormented almost everyone who entered and sometimes even drove them insane with her tricks, some of them never even made it out. She basically made anyone who entered become completely lost, and then messed with them for a solid few weeks before letting them leave. the ones that don’t leave are kept as slaves/servants (this is thanks to a poison she puts in them. the information for this poison is in the fun facts section of this post).
When she get’s bored of the forest she travels to the town outside her forest and works under the guise of a traveling herbalist/apothecary. Her fake identity is famous for being able to cure almost anything with her remedies. When she is doing this, she is also 100% willing to make poison's and potions for the right price. in reality, she doesn’t actually care about what she get’s in return, but she might as well get some money or something out of is. She just wants to see the chaos and trouble that follows. she would also give make the wrong mixture if she was feeling extra cheeky, or if her client is being an ass.
When she’s not being a complete sadist she is more of an observer. She would much rather watch something play out than actively participate. at most she will throw in an oddball to spice things up but she is more interested in seeing peoples reactions to challenging situations. It’s all very interesting and entertaining to her.
Thanks to her long life and general sadistic nature, she is extremely apathetic and takes very little seriously. she’s been around long enough and grown strong enough that it is rare for her to ever be in any real danger. Knowing this, she has no problem pissing people off and poking their buttons. getting them to the point of attacking is sometimes even her goal, for the sake of simply satisfying her curiosity and boredom.
Her powers include:
Growing any plant from any surface she wants, as well as her own body
Controlling a plant’s movements, shape, and size, even if she didn’t grow them
She can communicate basic messages, feelings, or desires to animals, and they act docile around her. it depends on how she treats them whether or not they respond positively to her influence
she is immune to basically all poisons and toxins thanks to working with and being around so many dangerous plants for so long
as a witch, she has decent resistance to common magic. for example, she can’t be charmed or manipulated by magic, and magic based attacks have less of an impact on her. this is also thanks to her age and experience
she can sense if there is something inhuman or magical nearby. this includes creatures, weapons, potions, and naturally magical areas. this means that if something isn’t a human or animal, or if something has been cursed or blessed, she will know. she will also have a general understanding of what it is exactly.
she can steal the soul of any living creature once she weakens them enough, and use their soul to extend her life. the stronger, older, and more magical her victim is, the longer her lifespan is extended. for example, a full grown stag would give her 3 to 4 years at most, while an adult human would give her around 20-30 years. a magical creature, depending on it’s age, species, and power levels, could give her anywhere between 50 to 200 years. So in short, she’s had to collect A LOT of souls to live this long and still have a few hundred to go. if she was to be “killed” she would simply loose one of the souls at random.
Fun Facts:
her favorite flower is Angels Trumpets, or Brugmansia. Despite it’s name a appearance, the seeds are extremely poisonous and if ingested, will cause the victim to experience symptoms that include, but are not limited to: confusion, tremors, migraines, poor coordination, delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, and insanity. this is what she mainly uses to trap and torment her victims. if she’s feeling really evil, she will plant one of these seeds in her victims body and infuse it with her magic, making them basically her own zombie slaves. (yes this is a real flower, and yes it is my favorite flower irl)
She has an entire garden at her home in the forest full of toxic and poisonous plants. she makes her zombified victims take care of it, and sometimes tests different plants and mixtures on them.
the orange and pink roses in her hair are a flower of her own creation, born from her soul. it can not be grown by anyone but her, and it is in these flowers that she stores stolen souls. they cannot be trimmed or picked by anyone but her, and they can only grow from her body.
if you had to assign her an alignment, it would be neutral evil
She has two names. Zen is her birth name, and is what she typically goes by. Her witch name/title is Karma.
Now, despite all this stuff, she is currently rather passive. she has all the souls and servants she needs and is not acting on her more sadistic tendencies. if she doesn’t find you interesting, she will basically ignore your existence. if you catch her attention, she might pull some pranks and push your buttons, but it would take a lot for her to go full on evil witch mode. just don’t piss her off and you’ll make it out relatively unscathed.
If you couldn’t tell, I had a LOT of fun making this one. I REALLY LOVE THIS TYPE OF THING IF YOU HAVEN’T GUESSED YET. And I’m still working on a backstory so maybe more to come? Idk but I hope you found this interesting if you read the whole thing!