Post by Aegis/AJ on Oct 12, 2011 22:10:10 GMT
-General Stuff-
Name: Azura Coldsnap
Nickname/Alias(es): The Frosty Filly
Race: Unicorn
Gender: Female
Age: Young Mare
Additional Status: She is technically over 500 years old but has been magically frozen for most of it
-Physical Stuff-
Pelt Color: Blue-Grey
Mane/Tail Color and Style: Her mane and tail are ice blue with darker blue streaks through it. Her mane is kept extremely long but not very tidy. Her tail consists of two long strands, arching in a scythe-like fashion, almost akin to a rooster's tailfeather's.
Eye Color: Blue
Cutie Mark: A trio of snowflakes
Other Scars/Markings: Freckles around her eyes
Physique: Azura has a rather diminuitive stature, hence why she became known as the Frosty Filly despite being a young adult. She has a rather small and lithe build.
-Social Stuff-
Current Residence: Secret hideaway cave in the Everfree forest (past the river, under the large oak that's been partially frozen over...or you could just follow the signs)
Job: Mischief-Maker, Aspiring Evil-doer
Mother: Unknown
Father: Unknown
Sibling(s): Unknown
Other Family: Unknown
Closest Friends: None at the moment
Courting/Courted By: N/A
Mate: N/A
Foal(s): N/A
-Personality Stuff-
Likes: Winter, snow cones, ice cream, solitude, plotting/scheming, nighttime, ice skating, freshly fallen snow, singing
Dislikes: Summer, open flames, spicy foods, do-gooders, ponies in general, excessive cheerfulness, arid weather, her nickname
Motivation: Most days, Azura is driven by a need for revenge upon the ponies of the world, to inflict misery and sadness upon a world she feels has scorned her. She follows of the words of her personal mantra, "Love and happiness are fleeting; friends and hope lead only to disappointment. Power is the only thing that is everlasting and it is better to be infamous than to be forgotten." Other days, Azura is simply bored and seeks out amusement at the expense of others - not every day can be devoted to evil plots and schemes after all.
Strengths: Cryomancy, evil scheming, escape artist, sneaking, agile sprinter, stubborn determination
Weaknesses/Flaws: Physically weak, reckless, lacks foresight, easily frightened off, often over-estimates her abilities, overconfidence, cowardly, prideful
Fears: Extremely hot, dry summer days, being imprisoned again, being forgotten, being abandoned
Overall Persona:
Azura likes to think that she's the most evil pony to terrorize Equestria since Nightmare Mane but the truth of the matter is that she barely even ranks up in the top one hundred. But Azura is, if nothing else, stubbornly determined to prove that she can be just as sinister as the great villains in pony history. What Azura lacks in physical strength, cleverness, and general competence she certainly makes up for in youthful exuberance, single-minded determination, and her magical abilities. Azura is a potent cryomancer, capable of creating ice at a whim using beams of freezing energy or a chilling mist. Originally hailing from the area now known as Stalliongrad, Azura has a natural affinity to the cold and now moreso with her ice-based magic abilities.
Believing it is better to be infamous than to be forgotten, Azura is determined to make a name for herself through whatever means necessary. Despite her boastful confidence, she is far less of a threat than she would like to think she is. While utterly enthusiastic towards her goals, she tends to overlook minor, critical details that can often lead to her undoing and her 'genius schemes' usually have glaring problems that can be pointed out to by a simple foal. Ultimately, she's not that good at being 'evil,' but that doesn't stop her from continually trying to do so. Perhaps one day she'll figure out what she's been doing wrong.
Much to her namesake, Azura's attitude to others is ice cold. She treats most people with, at best, quiet disdain but while her general attitude is cold, her temper is quite the opposite. Azura is very quick to anger, especially when people point out her mistakes or challenges her sense of competency. To no surprise, when she gets angry is often when she makes her biggest mistakes since she gets very easily distracted by these emotions. She's also fairly forgetful, which is a bad trait to have when you sometimes brew complicated schemes that require one remember crucial details (like which way it is back to your carefully planned escape route).
Though little is known about this pony, it is quite obvious that she suffers from deep-seeded feelings of abandonment and inferiority. She lashes out at anyone and anything that tries to get close and continually pushes herself further into seclusion, often only associating with other ponies if she believes she needs to in order to get something from them. Thankfully, despite her insistence that she is, in fact, evil incarnate, her actions rarely reflect that belief. Thus far throughout her career, the only pony who's ever really been injured by her actions is herself, save for the occasion slip and fall on patches of ice she creates. She's cruel and mean-spirited but rarely violent. The main reason her career had lasted as long as it has is because most people agreed that she is, for the most part, harmless.
Background:
Long, long ago in the lands that are now known as Stalliongrad, there is a tale of a sinister pony who terrorized the inhabitants of the land. Okay...maybe 'terrorize' is being a bit generous - irritate is probably closer to the mark. And she wasn't so much sinister as she was a nuisance. And it might have been more of a footnote than an actual tale.
Anyway, somewhere in a book about pony history there is a section of text detailing the events surrounding a pony who was a menace (nuisance) to the ponies inhabiting the area that is now known as Stalliongrad. Her name was Azura Coldsnap and if the story is to be taken at face value, then she was a powerful cryomancer who inflicted great suffer and misery upon all she encountered. It wasn't until the intervention of Princess Celestia who did battle with the evil unicorn that Azura's reign of chaos finally came to a close. Of course, stories do tend to be a bit embellished, especially over the passage of time. The true story of Azura Coldsnap is arguably less sinister and more tragic-comedy. For starters, Azura and Princess Celestia had never met before, much less did battle with one another. And even if they had, Azura was so young and inexperienced with magic at the time that it couldn't have been a more one-sided fight if Azura had shown up already unconscious. It is far more likely that Celestia's name was attached to the story in the decades that followed and since it is not a very well known tale, no pony ever bothered to do any fact-checking.
And the supposed 'reign of chaos' was hardly chaotic, let along a reign of any kind. In truth, Azura's evil antics were tolerated by the townpony for the simple fact that it offered a pleasant distraction from the monotony of everyday life. For the most part, she was so harmless that it offered some excitement to the town and entertainment when the Azura would eventually be chased out of town by the sheriff or the town guards. Heck, at one point Azura was being used as a means to boost tourism to the area. Sure, on occasion Azura would freeze over somebody's crops, empty a store of its confectioneries, or even turn the town center into a skating rink but the town had endured far worse things at the hands of the weather or random fate. Anything Azura succeeded at rarely lasted more than a few days or a week before things went back to normal and ponies would chat about the latest 'Azura mishap' over the water trough.
Oddly enough, despite having a small degree of notoriety, very little is actually known of the pony. She came to the town one day as a young filly, alone and already quite mean-spirited. At first, the young filly merely did whatever she needed to survive day to day, mostly stealing food from vendors. But over time she started stealing other things - trinkets and bobbles and whatnot - and starting vandalizing property. It wasn't until she managed to steal an old mogic tome from the town's library that she started dabbling in magic, using the stolen tome to learn new spells. With her newly developed magic abilities, Azura's aspirations began to grow and she started hatching more devious schemes to torment the other ponies. Her youthful appearance and her magic wound up earning her the nickname of 'Frosty Filly,' a name that is used more like a petname than an actual supervillain identity. She actually grew to hate being called it and demanded to be called 'The Frigid Queen of Terror.' Of course, nobody ever did.
After a few years of sabotaging festivals, ruining crops, and other mischief, Azura realized that she was no closer to infamy than when she began. In fact, she had slowly turned into a source of amusement for the town. This just enraged her even further and she delved into her studies to find a new spell. What she found was an ice spell so powerful that it could encase her target in magical ice, freezing even time itself! And Azura even found the perfect target for the town was holding a special gala as Princess Celestia would be coming to visit. Azura knew that her destiny lay before her - that she would earn eternal infamy as the one who froze Princess Celestia in time...FOREVER!
Unfortunately, the problem with hiding away in a cave plotting the downfall of your enemies is that there's nobody around to tell you that the Princess' visit was being postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. So when Azura sprung her master plan, instead of ambushing a town hall gala filled with ponies and the Princess, instead she got a half-empty conference hall where the town guards were meeting to discuss the new preparations. And thus before you can even say 'postponed?', Azura was frantically trying to escape the guards. In desperation, Azura used her new spell...but apparently the beam is prone to bouncing off highly reflective surfaces (like the mirrors on the walls and the smooth iced-over floor). Missing her target, the beam bounced off several surfaces before coming right back at Azura, freezing the pony solid. Despite their best efforts, the ponies of the town couldn't figure out a way to get break the enchanted ice and free Azura. Figuring it might be a good idea to give Azura some time to think about her misdeeds, the townpony decided to leave her frozen for a little while. However, days turned into weeks, which turned into months, and then into years...until eventually the ponies just forgot all about Azura.
As time passed, Azura's name slowly faded from memory and the frozen statue of Azura was relocated one of Stalliongrad's parks. Yet, even frozen, Azura was still aware...slowly studying the magics that bound her. It took her the better part of almost five centuries but eventually, Azura found a way to crack the magic bonds that sealed her and finally freed herself. Freed from her prison, Azura's first order of business was to reign frozen fury upon the ponies of Stalliongrad...except that the city was already going through the worst blizzard of the year. Kind of like trying to spit on a fish. Disappointed with this fact, Azura bitterly headed on her way...determined to regain her infamy in pony history.