Fara Somers
| Biological | |
| Full name: | Fara Somers |
|---|---|
| Born: | |
| Birthplace: | Egmont, Tasnica Republic |
| Sex: | Female |
| Race: | Human |
| Hair: | Red |
| Eyes: | Green |
| Height: | 5'4" |
| Weight: | How rude of you to ask! |
| Personal | |
| Marital Status: | No |
| Family/Relationships: | Miles (brother), Ernst (father), Margaret (mother) |
| Religion: | Raineric |
| Title: | |
| Nicknames: | The Mana Knight |
| Hobbies: | Playing soccer, dancing, fencing, enjoying the college life. Likes Pop music. Follow's Egmont's teams in pro sports. |
| Known skills: | Mana-based melee mayhem! |
| Favorite color: | Green |
| Inspiration: | Roxanne |
| Motto: | |
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab239/TJRumans/FaraRegular.jpg
Fara Somers is an average, all-Tasnican girl whose life changed forever when she found the Mana Sword. Currently a student at the University of Albrook.
| http://www.kupopolis.com/kupopowiki/images/meta.gif | Meta•Fact: Although I never described it in story, or even really thought about it, when I went to make her in City of Heroes I went right for red hair. -Celiose |
Origins
Fara is the daughter of Ernest Somers, Junior and his wife, Maggie Somers. She also has a younger brother, Miles. Ernest is an aerospace engineer with the Kuat Consortium, a company man who has been with the corporation since it was formed. Maggie was a nurse in the Great War, but is now a full-time homemaker. The Somers family has a nice house in the suburbs of Egmont, where Fara was born.
Fara is part of the post-Great War generation, having no direct knowledge or memories of the war. She grew up in an atmosphere of optimism, as the Tasnica Republic was rising as a great power and enjoying enormous prosperity. Fara attended Egmont West High School, where she earned middling grades. She was, however, quite active on the school's soccer team; as a forward, she was the leading scorer on a squad that earned two state championships.
Her junior year, she found the Mana Sword. The boy she was dating at the time, Marcus Heinkel, tried to kill her, and then she beat him up with the sword. And then Rainere showed up and tried to explain, in her super cryptic way, that Fara was now the Mana Knight, a hero and protector for all the Web!
...which, at first, greatly confused Fara. Her first question: "Why me?" Rainere's answer: "Because it could be no other." Which just about sums up about how useful Rainere's answers were.
Despite her reservations about her worthiness as a hero, Fara pursued Marcus to a mystical site being used by the Secret Imperial Society. She defeated Marcus, and then used the sword to distrupt the Society's EVIL ritual.
Fara then joined the fencing team, as a way to help train and build more extra-curriculars for her college application.
Rock and Roll
For summer vacation, Fara's family took a camping trip to the Upperlands. Fara and Miles both complained that this was "totally lame". When the rest of her family went on a hike, Fara stayed at camp and started a fire with the Mana Sword.
And then she was attacked by a Rock Demon! She battled the individual Reklar, and was surprised it continued to fight despite massive wounds. It was about to eat her when she was saved by Roxanne. Roxanne chided Fara for being "some Mana Knight", and explained that she was a Valkyrie, a daughter of the ancient Taznikanze God of War and the Seas. Fara was a little slow in absorbing all this, although the fact that Roxanne was named for the North Star in Mana's sky helped. Roxanne nonetheless explained that she had been hired by Rainere to train Fara, and Fara found the valkyrie infinitely easier to deal with.
With Roxanne's help, Fara fought against the Reklar. She failed to prevent Deggial from stealing the Hammer of Sebedor, but she did help rescue the Amazing Rando. The Amazing Rando, a Kuat Arms Expert and Mana Mage, told her that thousands of Reklar were heading for Egmont. She helped get him back to Damien Gavalian, who began to prepare for the defense of the city.
The Reklar attacked when Fara was having dinner with her family. Fara revealed to her family that she was the Mana Knight, and had to defend her home. After slaying several impudites and Reklar, Deggial, a beast of flowing magma, challenged her to a one and one duel. Declaring herself "A true warrior of the the four great powers," Fara accepted. She realized that being the Mana Knight was not necessarily her destiny, but it was her choice. Then she got her butt kicked. Roxanne intervened by tossing her one of Terence Shale's gravitic beat sticks, and with the secondary weapon, Fara was able to slay the beast. Then Fara worked with the Shield and others to take down [{Grendel]] as he climbed the top of Consortium Tower.
This would've been the end of it, but Grendel was a jerk and tried to steal Donghar from the tomb of Belgememnon in the Temple of Fame. Roxanne's sister. Gabriela the Grave, took Fara to the Pure Land to stop him. Grendel had been much weakened from the earlier fight, and Fara was able to fight him one on one. Fighting amongst the tombs of the greatest heroes the Taznikanze had ever known, Fara Somers defeated the King of the Reklar and cut Osprey out of the beast.
Fara's college life
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab239/TJRumans/FaraSoccer.jpg
Fara moved to Albrook to attend school at the University of Albrook.
Fara's academic record of utter mediocrity has continued so far in college. However, she's still on the school soccer and fencing teams, though she's been skipping fencing practices more and more. She made friends with her freshman year roommate, Denise Pascale, the daughter of a wealthy Centwerp stockbroker and a total hotchick. Fara also interns at the local Kuat office; her supervisor is Amy Robyn. As in intern, Fara enters data, organizes supply closets, moves boxes, and does other things which are not at all as cool as saving the world.
Fara did take a job from Praxer Riose to deliver a Scandian electrochemical data rod to Lobo the Todo at Goto. The exact contents of the rod are not known.
Fara continues her training with Roxanne, and regularly has dinner with the strange sort of family that's sprung up around Roxanne, including Osprey, Terence Shale, and Roxanne's neighbors, Eleod Vrinnicus and his wife, Grilka.
Powers and abilities
- The Mana Sword can channel energies based on any of the Twelve Elementals of Mana Elementalism. The Elementals behave similarly to Mana Elementalist Magic. The Twelve Elementals are: Salamando (Fire), Undine (Water), Gnome (Earth), Sylphid (Air), Lumina (Light), Shade (Darkness), Luna (Moon), Sola (Sun), Dryad (Nature), Ofanite (Man), Kethalis (Death), and Althenar (Life). This can be used offensively or defensively.
- Offensively, the best option is usually to use an element in opposition to whatever you're attacking. Some of the elements can have useful secondary effects as well; Undine can induce freezing, Sylphid can cause aerial shockwaves, and the like.
- Defensively, the best option is usually to use an element that's very similar to what's hitting you. So if Fara is being attacked by a flamethrower, Salamando is the way to go. Lumina is pretty reliable against most energy based attacks, and Gnome is the go-to guy for bullets and impact damage.
- One of the biggest limitations on the sword's powers is that Fara can only channel on Elemental at once, and it takes intense concentration to switch.
- Fara can also "pull her punches" with the sword to land non-lethal blows.
- The Mana Sword can cut strands of mana, allowing Fara to counter any spell cast at her.
- Even without using the sword, Fara is stronger, tougher, and more agile then a normal human, though she is nowhere near the Shield's levels. (This has helped her kick mega-ass on the University soccer team!)
- The Mana Sword can be manifested or de-manifested at will; it's part of Fara, and cannot be separated from her without her will. She's found that even if she puts it down, she can will it back to herself.
- The Mana Sword can appear in almost any style of sword. Fara prefers a robust broadsword, but sometimes switches over to a zweihander.
