Amandine Lovelace

"'You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles, repentant. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.'""ーMary Oliver, Wild Geese"Amandine Lovelace is a major point of view character in the Sixth Epoch hexalogy, introduced in Paroxysm and present in all books thenceforth.

Initially, Amandine was an Empyreal Acolyte and went through all of the Essential Trials until the final Trial, before which she defected and thus became wanted for treason. As she did not go through with the final Trial, she retained some of the gifted magic she had been bestowed, but never began her official training. After her defection, she became part of the Sepulchre, under the protection of the Cailleach.

Early Life
Amandine was born to Valentin, a Kokori nobleman, and Amora, a Krimsan travelling alchemist a year after her parents married. Raised in a genderless and gender non-conforming local society, Amandine realized her gender identity and communicated it towards her family. Two years after her birth, her sister Darcy was born, and two years after that, her final and youngest sister Ines.

Education
As an aspiring Empyreal, a high quality, full-bodied education was expected of her.

Personality
Amandine is a highly optimistic, emotional woman prone to cheerfulness. She is sanguine in nature, and easily trusting; she whole-heartedly believes in the good of everyone. However, while she is highly empathetic, she is still capable of being carelessly insensitive, and has a habit of embracing a saviour narrative and trying to help others even when they do not wish to be helped. She is rather nostalgic, often reflecting on the past and comparing it to the present. Her primary flaw has been referred to as her cowardice; as much as she wishes to be a hero, such as those she read in stories and fairy-tales growing up, when the moment demands a sacrifice or a deep commitment, she balks. This hesitance and fear has caused several tragedies in her personal life, and is the reason her life was so thoroughly uprooted. But she is good-humoured, willing to change, and deeply loving.

Amora Lovelace (nee Derosier)
As mother and child, they have a close relationship. However, Amora was the primary disciplinarian while Valentin doted on Amandine, which made their relationship less companionable but more reliable. There were long periods of time where Amora had to be absent due to business, preventing them from having a lot of intimacy as a parent and child, but Amora's dedication to her craft and her work may be part of why Amandine herself grew up so singularly devoted to one path. Ultimately, Amandine considers her mother her "rock", even if at times she resented her for playing her part.

Darcy Lovelace
The relationship between Darcy and Amandine has been fraught since youth. Though ultimately they are more similar than they think, it was these similarities that caused tension between the two; Amandine's academic success and the parental favouritism involved did not help matters. When Amandine deserted her post and became a criminal, Darcy's opinion of her lowered immensely, and she was the leastーapparentlyーaffected by Amandine's fate.

Julius Derosier
"Main article: Julius Derosier"Julius is Amandine's uncle on her mother's side, and the two are not particularly close due to the distance between their families. However, Julius is always generous with his nieces, and sent encouraging letters towards her during her studies in Ducere, rooting her on.

D'Angelo Derosier
"Main article: D'Angelo Derosier"D'Angelo is Amandine's cousin, the son of Julius and Isabela Desrosier.

Gatherer Jade
" Main article: Gatherer Jade "Gatherer Jadeーor simply "Jade"ーwas the first member of the Empyreals to meet Amandine in person, and was specifically assigned to collect Amandine from her home and bring her to Caerulus. Amandine was greatly intimidated by Jade initially, and admired them at the same time for their peaceful manner and elegance. Jade's influence in her training as an Empyreal prevented her from stepping out of line, though eventually their tolerance for the Empyreals' more brutal manners of handling rule-breakers broke Amandine's trust and ultimately pushed her to desert.

Bela Tordonna
Bela was Amandine's Foil in her Empyreal training, someone who went through several Trials and lessons alongside her. They were exceptionally close, though Amandine's desertion left Bela to face the final Trial alone while it was made for two. Amandine presumed that Bela must have been removed from the programーor worse, been punished (potentially fatally) in her steadーbut discovered otherwise. As it turned out, Bela endured the Trial alone and succeeded, showcasing a remarkable endurance and strength. However, Bela's sadness and fear from being subjected to that grew into a seething resentment, finally mutating into pure hatred. Bela has taken it upon himself to be the one to bring Amandine to justiceーa justice which ends with a public execution.

Guidance Onyx
" Main article: Guidance Onyx "

Remus Wick
"Main article: Remus Wick"

Agatha "the Hag" Cailleach
"Main article: Agatha Cailleach"The Hag, or the Cailleach, was Amandine's protector during her time at the Underworld. While they did not interact directly very much during her year there, the Cailleach spoke of her appreciation of her and acknowledged her great potential after an injured woman arrived, calling upon Amandine directly to help alongside Leech and Ashwing.

Elenora Ashwing
"Main article: Elenora Ashwing"

Doctor Vladimir Leech
"Main article: Vladimir Leech"Leech was Amandine's primary teacher during her time in the Underworld, due to her desire to put her abilities to good use. He was an odd sort, mildly eccentric and anti-social, and so she often felt awkward or pressured during her lessons with him. However, she still appreciated all the efforts he went to help her with her unusual abilities, and acknowledges that she would not have developed the skills she has in later chapters without his initial help and guidance.

Orun Li
"Main article: Orun Li"

Doctor Pandora Anach'k
"Main article: Pandora Anach'k"Doctor Pandora Anach'k, a disgraced scientist and turned revolutionary, became Amandine's closest mentor after her joining Atlas. As the Head of Medical on-board, Anach'k gave Amandine a space to continue her studies of the healing arts and put it to practical use. As a person with biological magic themselves, Pandora also gave guidance regarding her hemokinesis and understanding it in a more developed and nuanced way. While Pandora was not the most friendliest of people, Amandine became a subject of immense fondness, eliciting a protective if strict reaction.

Appearance


Amandine is a dark-skinned black woman with bright maraschino-cherry red-pink hair, which falls below her shoulders in loose coils. As a Disian Elf, her hair colourーincluding body and facial hairーis naturally in a pink hue, and her ears are short and pointed, showing her innate magical ability. Her skin is warm in undertone, and she frequently blushes.

Her heart-shaped face is small and often commented on to be cute, with an endearing wide, short nose and a deep cupid's bow in her plump mouth, giving it a heart-like shape. Her eyes are round and bright, a deep warm oak colour. Her cheekbones are prominent, though not so sharp as to make her face intimidating. She is fat, and stands at 5'0, making her rather tiny. She enjoys comfortable, feminine clothes.

Hemokinesis
Due to her training as an Empyreal, she was gifted the ability to manipulate blood. However, due to deserting her studies before they could officially be assimilated, she is untrained and has a poorer level of control over it than those Empyreals trained with a similar ability. Through guidance from Leech, the Hag and Pandora Anach'k, she develops this into a specialty of hemokinetic healing, using others' blood to heal themーor her own to heal themーthough eventually an offensive hemokinetic ability is developed through necessity.

Empathy
A genetic ability present in most Disian Elves, Amandine is hyper-sensitive to the emotional reactions of others; she can usually tell what emotions they are feeling, though this "empathy" does not mean she knows why they feel that way. She usually adopts this emotional reaction, even if she has not been triggered by the same thing. This creates an empathic link between her and others instinctively, although it needs to purposefully be worked on to become powerful. There are some species that this is negated byーsuch as the Umushi. Unfortunately, her empathic attachment can be used against her to an even higher degree; those she has an empathic connection with dying will make her briefly experience the death. As such, she initially avoids conflicts.

Strength
Amandine possesses a higher strength than the average person, being able to not only endure attacks or injuries that would usually cause a more severe reaction (such as being bruised rather than having a bone broken upon impact, for example) but sustain heavier amounts of weight.

Notes and Trivia

 * Amandine means "much-loved".
 * Lovelace is a name associated with Ada Lovelace, a famous English mathematician and writer who is believed by some to be the first to recognise that machines had potential functions beyond simple calculation.
 * In Western Tropical astrology, she would be a Libra sun in the third house, with a Leo rising and a Pisces moon in the eighth house.
 * In the Enneagram, she would be a Type 2: The Helper.
 * Her temperament is sanguine.