Character Creation Challenge: Day 22, Katrina

Photo by Tayla Walsh,
Photoshopped by me

 It is no understatement that I have thousands of characters lying around in my game room. Between mine, the ones I have inherited, and my kids, there are folders, binders, and boxes full. Katrina is one of the many, many witches I have lying around here. 

Katrina started with a very simple, now-familiar premise: "What would Larina look like if she were evil?" She morphed a bit, as my witches often do, based on what I am reading or watching at the time. This witch didn't even have a name (though I think I was partial to "Eve" from the band "Eve's Plum") until the series "Sleepy Hollow" came on and I saw Katia Winter's "Katrina Crane." I always liked Katia Winter, and she had a very "Larina" look about her. As the character embraced more evil in the show, likewise my version of her in my games.

MY Katrina is not 100% evil. She is xenophobic and thinks the world would be a better place if it were run by witches. If that means subgating or wiping out all non-witches, well then so be it. This began to happen around the time Vin Diesel's "I want to put my D&D character on the big screen," The Last Witch Hunter came out. 

Over the years, she has evolved, but one thing has remained constant: her rivalry with my witch, Larina. Katrina simply thinks she can do a better job in West Haven than Larina does. She certainly has ideas. 

Larina is the witch who believes in balance, Katrina is the witch who believes in order through supremacy. Katrina has little patience for chaotic witches, hedge-practitioners, or lone crones who refuse oversight. Katrina believes that unregulated magic is as dangerous as unregulated power.

Katrina does not see herself as evil. She sees herself as honest. In her worldview, witches are objectively superior. They see the deeper patterns, feel the older currents, and shoulder the burden of knowledge that others cannot or will not. To Katrina, allowing non-witches to govern, vote, preach, or shape destiny is not immoral because it is cruel. It is immoral because it is inefficient. 

Larina believes power must be tempered by restraint. Katrina believes restraint is a luxury the world can no longer afford. 

Katrina’s xenophobia is not born of fear. It is born of disappointment. She has watched councils dither, towns rot, and mortals make the same mistakes generation after generation. Where Larina sees people worth protecting, Katrina sees patterns that should have been corrected centuries ago.

Katrina does not burn villages or summon demons for spectacle. She prefers infrastructure. She corrupts systems quietly. Katrina is the witch who asks: "Why do we still pretend restraint protects us?"

Katrina
22nd level Human Witch, Lawful Neutral (Evil)

Secondary Skill: Alchemist

S: 11
I: 16
W: 14 
D: 12
C: 12 
Ch: 17

Paralysis/Poison: 5
Petrify/Polymorph: 5  
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 6
Breath Weapon: 8
Spells: 7

AC:  1 (Bracers AC 1)
HP: 63
THAC0: 14

Weapon
Dagger +1 1d4/1d3

Familiar: Raven

Occult Powers
1st level: Familiar
7th level: Temporary Magic
13th level: Permanent Magic
19th level: Witch's Blessing

Spells
Cantrips: Sound, Sobriety, Clean
First level: Command, Comprehend Languages, Chill Touch, Glamour, Detect Spirits, Hecate's Spiritual Dog, Hold Winds, Minor Curse, Sour Stomach
Second level: Agony, Detect Thoughts, Delay Poison, ESP, Evil Eye, Ghost Touch, Nausea, Suggestion
Third level: Bestow Curse, Mind Rash, Dispel Magic, Fly, Lifeblood, Scry, Locate Thief
Fourth level: Air Walk, Analyze Magic, Intangible Cloak of Shadows, Remove Curse, Withering Touch
Fifth level: Blade Resistance, Death Curse, Dreadful Bloodletting, Feeblemind,
Sixth level: Greater Scrying, Control Weather, Restore Youth (Healing), Eye Bite
Seventh level: Call the Restless Soul, Serpent Garden, Widdershins Dance
Eighth level: Destroy Life, Clone (Manikin) (Ritual), Trap the Soul

Theme Song: I Want it All (Eve's Plum)

Katrina has the spell "Clone" to reflect the idea that she was once considered an "evil clone" of Larina, much as Madelyne Pryor (Goblin Queen) is a clone of Jean Grey (Marvel Girl/Phoenix) in the Marvel comics X-Men. So Clone (Manikin) is an 8th-level witch ritual open only to High Witches. 

Katrina’s rivalry with Larina works best when framed as a policy and philosophical disagreement rather than a personal vendetta. She does not want Larina dead. She wants Larina to be proven wrong.

In Katrina’s mind, West Haven under Larina is a missed opportunity. A place of incredible power is being wasted on compromise, secrecy, and sentimental mercy. Katrina believes that if she were in charge, West Haven would be:

• A true witch-city
• A sanctuary for magical bloodlines
• A quiet empire hidden in plain sight

Larina governs West Haven by trust. Katrina would govern by control. 

I toyed with the idea of making them long-lost sisters or half-sisters, but that felt way too clichéd to me. So their common physical traits are red hair and blue eyes, but they are not related by blood. 

So she began as "evil Larina," but she has matured into something more dangerous: a plausible alternative. She is not wrong in the abstract. She is wrong in the particulars. 

If Larina is the witch who guards the crossroads, Katrina is the witch who wants to pave them.

Really. She is just so much fun.