Elizabeth River
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Pawn of Gambling
Domina Alea

Passion: I make my own luck (2)
Skill: Con-artist (2)
Skill: Poker Player (4)

Affliction: The law does not apply to me (3)
Affliction: Me and my lifestyle is addictive (1)
Affliction: I am addicted to random chance (1)
Bond: I am always one step ahead (5) (Wondrous Anchor: Fastest horses in Creation)
Bond: I make my own luck (2) (Miraculous Anchor: Controlled Chaos Dice, create semi-controlled random events)
Bond: I am the Unchosen One (1) (Miraculous Anchor: Selenas Picard, Excrucian Deceiver who runs a game-show)
Bond: I run the greatest Casino in the Cosmos! (1) (Wondrous Anchor: Cosmic Casino, greatest in Creation)
Bond: I am a mob boss of the Cammora (1) (Wondrous Anchor: The Cammora, feared secret society above the law)
Bond: I have what you're looking for (1) (Wondrous Anchor: The Vault of Desires, has what you want most)
Bond: Every day I'm shufflin' (1) (Miraculous Anchor: Miracle Capturing Cards)
Bond: I am best friends with the Power of Spies (1) (Miraculous Anchor: Hattori Hanzo, super ninja)

GAMBLING
…risks it all (2)
…is decided by chance (1)
…lives on the edge (1)
…plays the odds (1)
…is addictive (1)
…tempts fate (1)

ASPECT 0
DOMAIN 0
PERSONA 0
TREASURE 5

GIFTS

Unchained (2) (Lesser Destruction of Fate 5 + Simple -1 + Local Targets -1 + Very Limited -2 + Rare 1)
Stone Cold Gangster (7) (Skill: "Gangster" Aspect 7 + Simple -1 + Local Targets -1 + Flexible 1 + Rare 1)
Eye of Chaos (1) (Lesser Divination of Weakness 2 + Simple -1 + One Target -2 + Flexible +1 + Rare 1)

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BACKGROUND

Elizabeth was raised in 1920’s Atlantic City by her con-artist of a father. He was a train-wreck who was always getting into trouble. He lived in the moment, never looking back but never thinking ahead either. He told her; “you’ll never have regrets if you just don’t give a fuck. Life is fleeting and there was no point in fearing death as it will come when destiny calls.” He had a Zen about him that Elizabeth always admired. He called her Ellie.

They would live day by day, hour by hour, stealing what they couldn’t scam out of people. It was rough but it was much better than the kids working the factories or the mines. Elizabeth always appreciated her Dad being there for her. They would gamble, con, cheat and sometimes even deal to get by. She did her best to keep him alive, using her ability to make up stories and think fast. She had to be responsible for both of them.

Some days they lived like kings, others were not so glamorous but they always had each-other.

Then one day all of that was at risk. His bad destiny had finally caught up with him, and Ellie’s father found himself in a game for his very life. Her father got wind of an underground poker game that was going down and woke Ellie up in the middle of the night. This was a good chance to shark some drunks out of all their money, not to mention a great opportunity to unload some of the drugs he had conned from some dealers pretending to be a DEA agent. He wanted her to know he was going out but that he should be back by morning. They would be out of this shady hotel by tomorrow.
But her father did not come back. She waited and waited, but dawn came and he was still missing. Elizabeth searched for her father through the underbelly of the city but found him moments too late. Her father was dead, and with the element of surprise behind her, the twelve year old girl grabbed a gun from a gangster’s hip and managed to shoot five men in the blink of an eye. Covered in blood, traumatized and in total shock, Elizabeth stumbled out of the smoky club before collapsing outside.

The man who found her, the man who ran the poker game that had killed her father, was a Cammoran named Mully Thorneye. He couldn’t let the little girl die in the snow banks outside his club, not after she had pulled the feat of killing his best guys. He took her in as his apprentice. She awoke to a new life, one where she was groomed to be a Cammoran, one of the secret masters of the world. Thorneye became like a second father to her without Ellie ever realizing his involvement in her father’s death. She mostly just poured herself into the criminal world of magic and mystery she had been adopted into.
Elizabeth had a meteoric rise from the bottom ranks of the Cammora, performing suicide missions and menial dirty work, to the upper echelons, orchestrating international criminal enterprises and commanding an army of subordinates. At the beginning they expected her to die, as many children indoctrinated into the secret society did in their first few years. Instead she excelled, becoming a top earner through her guile, skill and forethought. She was a natural gangster, a criminal genius who wasn’t afraid to risk it all for a big payoff. After losing her father she had a cold heart, and she swore to not make his mistakes and let fate dictate her life. She would make her own luck. Her superiors could not deny her rising influence, and soon gave her a job dealing directly with the Sovereign Powers of Earth.

She would run a no-limits, no-magic, invitation only poker game. What started as a very small, very private affair held in the underground of Atlantic City blossomed under Elizabeth’s careful guidance into a profitable and influential gambling ring that was patronized by the most powerful and well-known of the secret, magical world. Spirits and gods, Powers and Imperators, even some of the truly rich and powerful mortals on Earth, all of them fought for the privilege to be invited to her game. She amassed huge amounts of favors, wealth, magical powers and information. At the beginning she had to tithe most of this to her superiors within the Cammora, but she squirreled away the most precious bits for herself. Soon she operated a whole cartel, kept the vast majority of her profit, and wielded influence throughout the society from her base in Atlantic City.

And then one day the Power of Gambling invited himself to the game. He could not be denied since without his blessing the game could not function. He also could not lose, his destiny had been crafted so that chance was always on his side and his victory was absolutely assured. Worst of all he came for a reason. He admitted Elizabeth’s game was the best on Earth, perhaps in all Creation. So he wanted it. He challenged her to a game of poker for the ownership of her game. Despite her loss being fated, Elizabeth accepted the challenge. She was headstrong and calculating, and she had no fear of tempting fate. She met the Sovereign’s stakes with one of her own; if he lost he would give her his heart, and with it, the Estate of Gambling. Absolutely confident in his destiny to win, the Noble accepted the Cammoran’s offer.

The game was a nail-biter. The Power was assured amazing cards but Elizabeth knew the game was about skill, so she played like she always did, playing the odds and letting the cards fall as they may. She could feel the inevitable power of Fate collapsing in on her, twisting her decisions, cheating for her opponent. She had never let anyone cheat her so she had no intention of giving in. She grit her teeth, set her sights on the big pot and pushed against the crushing destiny. Somehow, through some unknown power, Elizabeth corroded the fate touching her. Where it tried to constrict her it wasted away. She had awoken to her undestiny, her true nature as the Unchosen One, the antithesis of Fate itself. She overthrew what was predetermined. She won the game.

Looking at the cards that he had been dealt, the Power had no choice but to concede his loss. There at the poker table he reached into his chest and handed Elizebeth his heart. His last words were; “Good game.”

That day Elizabeth became the Domina Alea, but she also became the Unchosen One. At the same time as she was introduced to her new Familia and Imperator, made familiar with her new responsibilities and powers, and reorganizing her enterprise and influence within the Cammora, she was also engaged in finding out how she had won, what power she had drawn upon even before her Commencement. She finally found out after being drawn into the Deceiver game-show of Selinas Picard, where she won what she sought and learned of her purpose to bring down the web of fate that trapped everyone in Creation. Selinas sympathized with this goal and freed her from his studio, but he often returned to talk to her and discuss the end of destiny. They share a great love of random chance as well.

Now quite comfortable as a Noble, Elizabeth has spent decades expanding her crime empire and creating her ultimate work, the Cosmic Casino. Created as a temple to the death of Fate the casino uses chance and chaos as fuel to create and engine to weaken and destroy fate. It also serves as the heart of her criminal enterprise, a favored hot-spot attraction for creatures from all over the World Tree. Things from far away realms make the long pilgrimage to the Chancel just to risk it all on her various games catering to the strange and miraculous. Anyone with a big dream or bigger problems can find themselves there in the table games floor and have an honest shot at achieving everything they ever wished for. She gathers massive amounts of information, influence, wealth and artifacts from the business, leveraging it into her new rank in the Cammora as number one directly beneath Lord Entropy.

But she is not satisfied.

To destroy Fate, the cage that traps us all, she will have to do great and sometimes morally reprehensible things. She is a hardened criminal, a smooth mastermind and kingpin orchestrating a world-wide conspiracy propping her up. She refuses to pursue her powers to control gambling, she would rather preserve it as the pinnacle of Fate’s opposite, pure random chance. Elizabeth can now dissolve destinies at will, and she has no plans to stop there. She may even have to transcend her current power level and rise up farther, but nothing will stop her from letting pure chance reign over Creation.

PERSONALITY:

When people have problems with destiny, when they are born to cruel fates, Elizabeth is always ready to help. She is selfless in her war against predestination and will free anyone from its trap whether they want her to or not. She can also be very frightening when she wants to be. Being raised by the Cammora has taught her the benefit of keeping people in line with fear. Her heart can be very cold. She maintains powerful bonds of loyalty with her cartel but it takes a long time to earn her trust.

She is always one step ahead, extremely cautious and living in the future. She is a criminal mastermind that defies all expectations. She is aware of almost everything that goes on in the Society of Flowers, and everything of note on the Mythic or Prosaic Earth, a feat she manages through her alliance with Hattori Hanzo, the Power of Spies. She is always considering her options, playing the odds, but at the same time always pushing the envelope, living on the edge and tempting fate. She is in her own personal war, and she is always recruiting people to her crusade and conspiracy to end Fate as we know it.
She prefers to sit back and let her minions in the Cammora do her dirty work. Since her rise to power she has made the Cammora more efficient and more influential in the criminal underworld. Under her leadership the centuries old secret society is more ruthless and frightening than ever.

Chance is her weakness. She feels constantly pressed to have as much riding on the line as possible to keep as far away from the meddling hand of fate. She can always be one step ahead, always knowing the odds but that can only take her so far. She has to be willing to risk it all, to feel the rush of not knowing what happens next, that is what keeps her sane.

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