Iris Widow

Iris Widow, formerly and famously known as Morgen, is a witch and paranormal detective. In the past, she was one of the members of an infamous coven that became the immortal Cat Sìth through a grisly ritual they developed. After centuries of atrocities, Morgen abandoned her old allies after a moral epiphany, going into hiding and taking a new name.

Backstory
Born into the toil of the Early Middle Ages, Morgen lived a hard life from the moment she drew her first breath. Never learning the day or even year of her birth, Morgen suffered not only under the oppressive nature of feudalism but also withstood years of abuse from her family, and this constant misery and mistreatment effectively defined these early years of her life.

For many, many years, she accepted this as simply inevitable, no matter how much she wished to escape or change her fate. Such an idea seemed impossible, no matter what she did. This changed when a passing witch turned her attention to Morgen, for only a moment, saying only that the path to freedom lay in magic, with which she could finally gain true agency.

With the slightest ember of hope ignited, Morgen desperately turned her focus towards witchcraft in secret, doing her best to learn as much as she possibly could with her limited resources, as she grew increasingly resentful of her lot in life. The chance set her brain into motion, and despite all the things holding her back, Morgen was able to begin learning magic. She took to her studies well, as much as she struggled, but her fellow villagers discovered her transgressions. The little magic she knew wasn’t enough to protect herself, and so Morgen was badly beaten, and a suitably fatal punishment arranged.

Before she could be executed, the witch that had set her on this path reappeared, seemingly just in time, and with brutal, merciless force, slaughtered all the villagers that had gathered, Morgen’s parents included. Pleased to see that the seed she had planted in the past had yielded some results, the witch, Sebille, invited Morgen to join her coven as an apprentice. Awed by the show of power and feeling indebted to the woman who had opened her future, Morgen accepted the offer without hesitation.

The coven was, besides Sebille and her closer friends, made up of other cats who had been born into similar conditions as Morgen and had been picked up by Sebille and her friends just as she had been. For the first time in her life, Morgen really felt as if she were among friends, and grew particularly close to one of these new friends, Seife. Unfortunately, despite appearances, the coven was no better an environment than her previous home was. Rather than use force, the elder members of the coven controlled their students through subtler means, manipulating them and abusing their trust to essentially use them as they pleased, like they were tools.

In this unhealthy environment, Morgen’s mental health only worsened, even as her magical skills and power grew at a rapid rate. Years of trauma and mistreatment had left her with a hair-trigger temper, and with the newfound power she possessed, she could vent her sudden, explosive anger violently, becoming one of the most feared members of the coven as she grew older. She grew even closer to Seife during this time, and a burgeoning romance grew between them, something that would end and start over again many times in the future.

The dynamics of Sebille’s coven eventually came to a violent end when a new witch inducted into the group, the thirteenth and final member, found that she had had more than enough of learning from people she considered her inferiors and who treated so poorly. This witch, Annis, through force of will and raw charisma, united her fellows, Morgen included, and turned them against their former “benefactors”. Annis confronted Sebille herself, and after an unbelievably intense duel, she brutally murdered the elder witch. She devoured what little remained of her old mentor, a show of force that made it clear that she was not to be opposed. The other teachers that had survived gave up and made their new loyalties clear, and so Annis became the leader of the coven.

This little to change the atmosphere of the coven, even if the dynamics changed and even if Morgen was now perceived as an equal. The coven was no longer led by the witches that had groomed their charges to be loyal and understood their complexes. It was now led and mostly consisted of cats that had fled from abusive situations and turned to magic in search of liberation and power. Their teachings and experiences had left each one a firm believer that violence and manipulation were what worked in the world, and so they turned these beliefs onto each other. Morgen was no different, with her reputation only growing more and more grisly as her violent temper claimed more and more victims.

The coven’s destructive activity continued for years, which became decades under Annis’ careful, cunning leadership. The passing of time only made the effects of age more and more obvious, and to escape the death it would one day bring, the members of the coven pooled their efforts and knowledge to discover immortality together. For all her fury, Morgen was among the group’s more accomplished spellcasters, and her contributions were vital to the sinister ritual the coven eventually conceived together.

This ritual would require a sacrifice of eight souls each, the souls of other felines, which were to be burned over an eight-day period, within a massive wicker statue surrounded by a magic circle. Each of the witch’s rituals were performed all at once, and when the smoke of the final statue faded and they bathed in the ash that remained, each came out immortal. Not only had their aging forever stopped, but they had gained an extra eight lives, stealing the souls of their sacrifices. They named the evolved magical beings they had become Cat Sìth, and now eternal, their activities stretched beyond the reach of age. Decades became centuries.

The escalation of the threat they presented only brought more threats to the coven, however, and many members lost lives in battles with rivals and witch hunters. When one of them discovered that they could reclaim these lost lives by killing another Cat Sìth, the unstable order in the coven began to collapse. The witches, Morgen included, turned on each other whenever convenient, taking every chance to replenish a lost life rather than linger closer to death than they would like. Over the course of centuries, many members lost all their lives and were lost to a true, final death. The coven’s numbers dwindled, but Morgen, master duelist she was, remained alive, alongside Seife, and, of course, Annis, who few had dared to ever fight.

With the misery that had permeated her life at a peak after years spent running and fighting and suffering, Morgen one day vented her frustrations on a small village, reducing tracts of land to barren, smoldering cinders. During this rampage, she came across a young child, a kitten that she had made an orphan. Usually, such a deed wouldn’t have affected her at all, but the day was a different one. Feeling the burden of years of anguish and constant anxiety, Morgen felt a tremor of guilt, which grew as she watched the child sob and beat at her with tiny fists. It brought back memories of the abuse she had lived through, of the massacre Sebille had wrought on the village she was born into, something she had never had a chance to fully process.

And she wept. Horrified and nauseated by the feelings of remorse that threatened to consume her, Morgen fled from her coven, seeking solitude to sort out her feelings. However, Annis was not so keen on losing one of her best assets, and tracked her down, making it clear that she was to come back to the rest of the coven with her or die here. Morgen chose to die, and then defied expectations by giving Annis the most difficult duel of her life. They killed each other more than once, but Morgen ultimately claimed more lives, becoming the first person to defeat Annis in a fair fight, a feat she repeated.

Down only a single life, having gained most of those she lost back when she killed Morgen in turn, Annis revived, smoldering with fury and shame, but Morgen had long since vanished, and for all her efforts, Annis could not find her again. Cursing her failure, she returned to her coven empty-handed. She lost authority for only a short while, however, quickly regaining it by brutalizing and killing Seife several times over as punishment for her lover’s desertion.

Not that Morgen, who had fled first to another country, and then to another continent, knew any of this. Living under pseudonym after pseudonym, she struggled to find a place in a society she had rejected for years, having never learnt how to truly integrate into it anyways. She moved from city to city, but eventually found somewhere large enough that she could blend into the crowds. Here, she took a job as a librarian, and kept up on her magic, fearful of the possibility that Annis would one day track her down again.

Settling down for the first real time in her life, Morgen, now living under the name Iris Widow, began to slip into increasingly self-destructive habits. She simply failed to take care of herself and drank, more and more, becoming an alcoholic, something that only wreaked more havoc on her body. She slipped out of shape and her age caught up with her, leaving her weaker and frailer than ever. But, as she found out one day when she instinctively leapt into action to protect a young child who frequented her library from being killed by a dire wolf, this didn’t really fully hold her back.

After the fight, Iris came to a realization, that she could use her knowledge and abilities in defense of others against the secret magical underworld that existed. This way, she could give back to the world, and attempt to, on some level, redeem herself for her sins. So, Iris became a supernatural detective of sorts, finally using her powers for good, rather than self-gain and indulgence, and slowly working towards the idea of becoming a better person. As difficult as it may seem.

Appearance
Iris is a very tall cat, well over six feet tall, a height so great that she often needs to slouch through doorways. She slouches all the time anyways, the weight of her age taking a great burden on her frail body and making her appear shorter than she really is. Her extraordinary height is still highlighted by her lanky, bony build, and she moves with awkwardly because of this. While Iris was always this skinny, her poor, self-destructive habits have only led to her losing more weight, and with it, her once athletic build. She has not lost her fur, however, a thick, shaggy black coat that covers her entire body and is broken by only the occasional spattering of white flecks, and a fluffier patch on her chest; though she's certainly plenty fluffy all over. The slight greying throughout Iris' once pitch dark fur betrays her age.

Amber eyes glow in the dark, as dull and exhausted as they often are, only for them to sharpen and grow increasingly focused as Iris enters a combat situation, eyes perfect for shooting the glares she likes to use whenever possible. As her eyesight has grown worse in the daylight as she's aged, Iris often wears rounded reading glasses when it comes to fine work, and, of course, reading. One of her tall, fluffy ears has a sizeable notch taken out of it, one of the many injuries she's sustained throughout her life, and one that never ended up healing. Iris' claws, hardly trimmed, slide from her large, fluffy black paws, and a large, fluffy tail swirls behind her back in a constant anxious swirl.

Iris' wardrobe is simplistic and conservative, prioritizing function more than style or anything else. Whenever she goes out, Iris wears baggy jackets, typically trench coats with pockets upon pockets, giving her plenty of room to store whatever she pleases. In more formal situations, though she'll switch into a blazer, she makes no more effort to make herself presentable. A perpetual sight is any sort of sweater, often a turtleneck, and underneath, similarly simple shirts. Button-ups are commonly seen, and once she removes her sweater, Iris often undoes the top few buttons and rolls up the sleeves so that she can breathe better. Rather than pants, she wears simple mid to ankle-length skirts, and little else.

In the past, Iris dressed a lot more dramatically, more like how she, and many others, believed a witch should dress.

Personality
Quiet, reserved, and abrasive, Iris spends most of her time alone, constantly working to find reasons to avoid others. The time she spends to herself is passed by constant brooding and introspection, and when unwanted guests disturb this, Iris lashes out with a cold and harsh wit. This miserable behavior makes it very clear that she is the bitter old woman that she appears to be, but there are a few who are able to avoid this side of hers; her few real friends, and, more commonly, children, which she has a soft spot for, treating them with uncharacteristic kindness. Even in more pleasant moods, she struggles with social situations in general, and has no real knowledge on how to properly deal with others.

Embodying the idea of an aloof and lazy cat, Iris struggles to motivate herself to pull herself out of her perpetual haze of exhausted, drunken depression to get to work. She struggles to motivate herself to do much of anything these days, seeing both her day job and secret activities as unfortunate, exhausting ordeals that she just has to deal with. While Iris is quicker to action when lives are at stake, the things that remind her of her past and her old allies fill her with a dread that makes it hard to act even as the anxious need to deal with the issue intensifies. Once she's gotten started, however, Iris pushes through with characteristic determination until she's achieved her aims. After she succeeds, she simply returns to resting, awarding herself for her accomplishments with blessed rest that is even harder to pull herself out of.

As much as she may be working to become a better person, Iris still struggles, remaining petty and selfish at heart. Playing nice is a difficult thing for her, after years spent using her magic to accomplish whatever she wanted, often at the expense of others. This time has also left Iris with severe empathy issues, and she struggles to understand others, though, due to the similarities in their situations, she has an easier time comprehending the actions of abused children and rebellious teenagers. She herself remains as rebellious as she was in her youth, with a stubborn dislike for rigid traditions and authority, clashing often with members of the Right-Hand Path and stirring up fights because of this deep dislike.

Iris' characteristic temper has faded only a little since her "prime", a time in which she could fly into violent rages at the drop of a coin. Now, her anger issues are comparatively controlled, though, when they seize her, she still often breaks things in destructive bursts of fury. Years of repressed guilt and remorse over her past actions are slowly intensifying over the course of Iris' life, and leave her a severely depressed and even suicidal woman who deeply despises herself. The only reason she has not yet killed herself is because of the difficulty such a task would present, forcing her to muster the courage to end it multiple times in a row. It helps that she wants to prove herself to the world again, by doing some good, but she still vents her suicidal issues with self-destructive behavior such as alcoholism and general substance abuse. Her omnipresent feelings of guilt have given Iris a persecution complex, something that makes her feel like she must prove herself to everyone she meets so that they will let go of the hate they doubtlessly feel.

Cold, bitter, and paranoid, Iris stubbornly persists for all her regrets.

Powers and Statistics
Tier: 9-C, 9-B to 8-A with magic

Powers and Abilities: Genius Intelligence, Expert Markswoman and Skilled Martial Artist, Enhanced Senses (She has the heightened senses of a cat, including an exceptional sense of smell and effective night vision), Extrasensory Perception (She can detect magical energy), Clairvoyance, Precognition (Her refined senses and magical awareness clue her in to the presence of magical beings and the casting of spells, potentially even on their nature and danger level through high-speed analysis, allowing her to quickly react appropriately), Magic, Levitation, Curse Manipulation, Darkness Manipulation, Death Manipulation, Disease Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Soul Absorption (She can absorb the souls of recently deceased beings to replenish energy, increase her overall power, and strengthen her soul, and the souls of other Cat Sìth can be used to restock her lost lives), Intangibility (She can phase through walls and other objects), Invisibility, Regeneration Negation, Portal Creation, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, Resistance to Mind Manipulation (Her fellow witches cannot control her through spells like Dominus) and Soul Manipulation (She has nine souls, but only one can be targeted at a time and each is abnormally powerful and resistant to spiritual attack), Resurrection (She has eight extra lives and will automatically resurrect a short while after one of them is expended, giving her originally nine lives in total; now, she has only four remaining), Immortality (Types 1 and 4)

Attack Potency: Street level (Iris has the strength to deform steel, crack concrete, and shatter bones, and can cut through metal with her claws, though not without difficulty), Wall level (She can blow holes in brick walls with casual shots from Dahlia) to Multi-City Block level with magic (She can incinerate large tracts of land and buildings with fire spells, though her full power exhausts her).

Speed: Athletic Human (She can chase trained athletes, but lacks the capacity for sustained speed she once had in her prime) with Subsonic combat speed (She can pounce and punch at speeds faster than a human could perceive, appearing as only a blur, and can react to attacks of comparable speeds without issue, deflecting bullets at close ranges).

Lifting Strength: Above Average Human (She can easily lift and throw others of comparable weight, but lacks the strength she once had in her youth and struggles to lift anything heavier).

Striking Strength: Street Class (A single punch can knock others through the air, unconscious, and leave small craters in stone), Wall Class to Multi-City Block Class with Malefic Shadow.

Durability: Street level (Despite her old age and its various complications, including arthritis, Iris can withstand the force of her own attacks and take attacks that launch others several meters, getting back up despite the power of these blows), Wall level to Multi-City Block level with Malefic Shadow.

Stamina: Physically, Iris is far past her prime, and her various health complications, including arthritis, asthma, and COPD make prolonged physical activity torturous for her and exhaustion an inevitability, especially in combat situations. The full extent of both her physical and magical strength takes quite the toll on her body, forcing her to use both more carefully. Mentally, however, Iris has a strong willpower, one that allows her to push against the odds and continue to act and fight even when her body and soul are screaming at her to stop.

Range: Standard melee range, tens to hundreds of meters with magic.

Standard Equipment: Dahlia and various enchanted bullets.

Intelligence: Though her body may have withered over the course of her long life, Iris' mind has not. She retains the cunning she's had throughout her lifespan, a dangerous thing that marked her as one of her Coven's greatest threats in the past, alongside her violent temper. She is incredibly creative, using her abilities in inventive ways, even in the midst of combat, something that makes her an unpredictable opponent. Even when it comes to more practical forms of dueling, Iris is remarkably skilled and ruthless, using her knowledge in hand-to-hand combat, spells, and curses to brutally overwhelm her opponents. While she may attempt to resolve issues non-lethally in the modern day, that does not mean that Iris is a pacifist; she's a violent opponent who fights with harsh efficiency. There is a reason she was the first opponent to defeat Annis in a fair fight, using her own genius in magic and dueling to skillfully outmatch her while countering her curses. Her magical knowledge is extensive, among the greatest in the world, as shown by her extensive array of spells, many of which she has created herself, and the evolved, immortal state she has reached through her magic.

Weaknesses: Iris is past her prime and struggles with a number of health issues, both physical and mental, including alcoholism, nicotine dependence, arthritis, and COPD, among others; because of this, she has severe physical stamina issues and cannot use her full strength - physical or magical - without it taking a toll on her body. These days, she's reluctant to use her most powerful and lethal spells against most opponents, preferring to resolve things non-lethally, though, against more dangerous opponents, she won't hesitate. Many of her spells require some sort of incantation or ritual, or even a blood sacrifice. After losing all eight of her extra lives, Iris will be left with her original, mortal soul, which will begin to age at an accelerated rate, leaving her with only around ten years of her life left. Only the souls of other Cat Sìth can be used to replenish her lost lives. Iris' focus on black magic has left her with less knowledge in spells that can be used to heal or help others; as a result, she has trouble performing even rudimentary healing spells regardless of the target.

Abilities
Iris is a Witch, a practitioner of the Left-Hand Path who uses her magic in the name of self-empowerment and gain, breaking taboos and rejecting authority in favor of elevating herself and exercising her agency. Unlike other sects of witchcraft, Iris' original coven and its practices are godless and focus entirely on the self, rather than relying on the invocation of spirits or the reverence of any gods.

This remains her primary magic of choice, though she may often dip her toes in other forms in search of knowledge and has an extensive array of varied spells at her disposal, from all sorts of sects - in the end, it all comes back down to the specific brand of the Old Craft she taught herself. While Iris may lack the animistic leanings of other, more modern witches, her magic's more internal focus has granted her a greater knowledge on the soul.

Thanks to this knowledge, many, many, many years ago, Iris helped in the development of a special ritual that elevated herself and the rest of her coven to a higher level of existence as the immortal Cat Sìth. This has granted her an extra eight lives and suspended her aging, giving her an eternal lifespan that will never corrode. However, as Iris discovered this magic when she was already in her late fifties, this has trapped her body in this state of old age, the effects of which she cannot escape even if she won’t age any further. Once, this wasn't much of an issue, as Iris kept in shape and properly took care of herself, but years of poor health have taken a severe toll on her body, which is far from what it used to be.
 * Resurrection: Whenever Iris is dealt a fatal wound and dies because of it, she will, after a delay ranging from five to thirty minutes in length, depending on the severity of the injury, return to life in a nearby safe location, with all previous injuries healed to the point that they are no longer severe, though they will still likely require additional medical attention. Even killing blows as destructive as decapitation, incineration, or the death of the soul cannot stop her from returning to life, and anti-restorative curses will only complicate the healing process.There are no known means by which multiple of a Cat Sìth's lives can be taken at once; even spells that should target multiple souls fail. Iris has a total of eight of these extra lives, giving her a total of nine; but when all eight are expended, she is left with her original mortal soul and her body will begin aging once more, at an accelerated rate, not so quickly that she would die within even the year, but enough that she would only have around a decade left of her life at most.
 * Soultheft: Iris can absorb the souls of any recently deceased beings in her vicinity to replenish her energy, increase her stock of power, and further strengthen her soul. No amount of regular souls gathered in this way can regain a lost life, only one of the nine souls of other Cat Sìth, making such a thing a commodity, one that is hunted down by others in pursuit of prolonging their lifespans even further.

Over the years, Iris' experiences have granted her a number of other abilities, those of the sort that would be gained by anyone over the course of a long lifespan with many years spent fighting and handling magic, ranging from the completely natural combat skills anyone who regularly fights would want to develop, to more supernatural abilities that could only arise from exposure to magic.
 * Cursebreaking: Iris’ knowledge of curses - which she boasts to be among the greatest in the world - allows her to analyze and remove them from other objects and people. She can even redirect and negate curses right as they’re cast, having lived through many battles between witches of the Left-Hand Path, which invariably became exchanges of deadly curses. The ability to detect and shoot down curses in high-speed combat is a necessity to survive such a battle.
 * Feline Senses: Iris' natural senses are, in many regards, superior to those of humans by default, providing her with such things as an exceptional sense of smell that can identify individuals, root out substances, and even be used for tracking across short distances, and effective night vision. This awareness is assisted by her whiskers, which act as touch-based sensory organs and can detect vibrations in the air. Her sight is slightly worse in regular daylight conditions, however, and her sense of hearing unremarkable save for its higher registers. All of these senses have been refined by centuries of experience, and come together to make her a masterful shot, even if her eyesight’s gotten worse in daylight.
 * Sixth Sense: These heightened senses - along with Iris' plentiful experience, particularly in the area of magic and fighting other spellcasters - have granted Iris a sort of "sixth sense", an ability that alerts her to danger whenever it detects potential threats in her surroundings, accomplished by a combination of all of her traditional senses and her magical awareness of her surroundings. It is most effective when magic is involved, notifying her when other magical beings are around and when other magic users are preparing spells; under optimal conditions, she can even identify a spell's potential effects and gauge the threat it presents through a minute, high-speed analysis of the magical energy being put into it, allowing her to respond appropriately. This increases in effectiveness the more dangerous the phenomena in question, with anything that presents an immediate and lethal threat sending a shock-like sensation through Iris’ body, forcing her into action as quickly as possible and accelerating her thought processes to best comprehend what she's dealing with. It is much less effective against purely natural phenomena, but Iris can still react quickly by taking note of small, involuntary muscle movements and changes in the air.
 * Close Quarters Combat: Iris has learned a number of techniques and ideas for use in hand-to-hand and close quarters combat situations, both from actual teachers, such as in martial arts classes, and through experience. In the prime of her life, and in her youth, when she was more in shape, Iris was able to rely more on her strength when it came to such short ranges, but now, as years of self-destruction have caught up with her, her body can no longer handle such intense strain and the strength of her past is gone. Now, Iris uses softer techniques, putting an opponent's strength and force against them, redirecting and controlling their movements through precise, efficient footwork and other motions.

Beyond these abilities, Iris has amassed an impressive arsenal of spells over her long lifespan. Many of these spells require incantations, symbols, or some other ritual to be used at their full power, but Iris has the experience and knowledge needed to circumvent these things and cast weaker - though still potent - variations. Often, due to her basis in witchcraft, her spells require a blood sacrifice, something that is a bit harder to circumvent.

Rather than a traditional wand, Iris uses her revolver, Dahlia, to cast and channel many spells, but she does not need it to do so; it serves only as a way to focus her power and minimize backlash.
 * Dahlia: An enchanted revolver with nine shots, made specifically for Iris by a now deceased gunsmith, and her primary weapon. Unlike the other members of her old coven, Iris has taken to modern weaponry, using this revolver as a wand of sorts with which to cast her magic. Its enchantments have granted Dahlia firing power, muzzle velocity, and durability greater than that of most firearms, even without channeling the full extent of Iris' magical power. These enchantments have also made it so that only Iris can fire Dahlia; in the hands of anyone else, the gun simply fails to function, unless they somehow manage to replicate the minute intricacies of her aura. Dahlia can be used to cast a number of spells, often in the form of specialized cartridges with specific spells encoded.
 * Cursed Bullets: Bullets encoded with curses, a favorite of Iris' and a mainstay of any witch's arsenal, now built into her firearms. These curses can have any number of effects, but one of the most dangerous is the rejection of healing, preventing any wound the bullets inflict from healing, rejecting even restorative magics. When the curse is as its strongest, blood won't clot, so even the smallest injury can eventually kill a target through blood loss. The curse can be negated by removing and destroying the bullet through magical means, or whenever Iris chooses to cancel it.
 * Shadow Tag: Bullets encoded with a spell that allows them to catch opponents by their shadows, pinning them to whatever surface the bullet impacts with, embedding into it and preventing Iris' target from moving away from that location. This also anchors any entities possessing the opponent to that body, allowing them to be dealt with.

As a witch, Iris is very well-versed in curses, the basis of offensive magic, spells meant to bring harm and misfortune to others. Curses can be used through a variety of vectors, from as little as a single sentence spelling out the curse’s aim to a more complex ritual that may use an effigy or a part of the target’s body to afflict them from a distance. Curses are empowered by the malice their user feels, both in general and for their target, and Iris is not lacking when it comes to the negative emotions curses thrive on. Many curses are improvised when a situation presents itself, and Iris has the skill to transmit them through more subtle and quick means.
 * Evil Eye: One of most effective ways to transmit a curse, the Evil Eye is simply a particularly malefic glare backed up by magic power. This glare can afflict a target with virtually any of Iris’ curses, acting through eye contact, or, when used against an unaware target, by encoding the curse into their shadow. These curses can be the more common, minor inconveniences that Iris likes to use for petty reasons, but can be powerful enough to cause serious injury, illness, and misfortune, potentially even inducing death when used with enough malice and force.


 * Anti-Restoration: Curses that reject the healing of wounds, both through natural and magical means, inhibiting even advanced processes such as regeneration. These curses can be imprinted into specific wounds to prevent them from recovering properly, but this effect can be broken by destroying the curse itself or when Iris decides to cancel its effects. She usually keeps this curse to special, cursed bullets, as it is easier to control in such a form.
 * Contagion: A broad designation of curse referring to those that manipulate or even create pathogens with which to afflict others. The diseases these pathogens cause can be as minor and harmless as the common cold, or as devastating as the likes of malaria, the bubonic plague, and smallpox, bypassing regular precautions through sheer magical force and malicious intent. Iris saves the nastiest of pathogens for the most dangerous of foes.
 * Dominus: An incredibly advanced and dangerous curse that allows for the complete control of others, body and mind, on a scale far greater than ordinary hypnosis. A victim can be directed through silent, mental commands, which they follow to the letter and to the best of their ability. Multiple targets can be controlled at once with this curse, but Iris is not willing to use it at all, refusing to give in to its power by violating others in such a way.
 * Malefic Shadow: An ancient spell, one made by Iris herself, which uses curses to animate her own shadow, transforming it into a tangible being, a manifestation of black magic itself. This shadow’s range and strength depends on lighting and its size, but within its effective range it is a deadly opponent and a strong asset. It can attack opponents by shapeshifting to grow weapons, and defends Iris by enveloping her in itself, taking blows in her place. It spreads its curse to every living thing it touches, a simple but insidiously deadly thing that slowly shuts down vital functions and wastes away flesh, killing victims within minutes. The shadow, as with all curses, is empowered by Iris’ negative emotions, but the intensity of this malice makes it difficult to control, and for Iris, it is a reminder of her past misdeeds, something that she is reluctant to use.
 * Stumble: Perhaps the most basic form of curse, a simple malediction that afflicts its victim with the misfortune of tripping or slipping during their next movement. Despite its simplicity, this can be extremely effective in combat situations, ruining an opponent’s footwork at an opportune moment to gain an opening.

Besides these curses, Iris knows a number of other spells with less malicious intents behind them, but her focus on the Left-Hand Path and self-gain has left her somewhat incompetent when it comes to Right-Hand magic; that is, magic intended to help and elevate others or aid authority. As a result, Iris is incredibly unskilled when it comes to healing magic in particular, struggling to heal even the most basic injuries.
 * Beltane: Drawing upon ambient energy in the air, Iris can start and control fires, potentially emitting them from her paws as cascades of raging heat. The power of these flames may vary, but at full power, Iris can incinerate buildings and fields, though the effort involved is often exhausting.
 * Contact Dead: Iris can contact the spirits of individuals who have died in the past hour, doing this rather than absorbing them with Soultheft, and for the purpose of gathering information, such as on the nature of their death. Those with traumatic deaths may not remember the specifics. This spell requires a brief ritual and a magic circle, often drawn with blood or chalk.
 * Door: By drawing an opening - such as a door or window - onto a solid surface and visualizing a destination, Iris can travel through this opening to reach her desired location.
 * Harrier: Iris can use this spell to greatly enhance her vision, allowing her to see across great distances.
 * Hypnosis: The most basic level of mind control, which can be triggered in others through eye contact, catching Iris’ targets’ attention and making them more susceptible to suggestion. With this in effect, commands can be given and carried out until the effect wears off, which generally takes about an hour. These days, this isn’t something Iris is very fond of using.
 * Levitate: A self-explanatory spell that allows Iris to float several meters in the air with some measure of stability. Iris cannot use this ability to fly at high speeds, only float around, seemingly lazily, though she can move in quicker bursts if need be.
 * Lockpick: A simple spell that can be used to unlock doors and other things locked through mechanical means, failing to function on advanced electronic locks, which require a separate, specialized ability.
 * Electronic Lockpick: A more modern specialization of the basic lockpick spell, which can be used to get through electronic locks and even determine the passwords for electronic devices such as keypads, phones, and computers. Such a usage requires greater focus and knowledge on the technology’s workings, however.
 * Mind Reader: With focus, Iris can invade the minds of others to sift through their memories and knowledge in search of useful information. This could feasibly be used in combat to figure out an opponent’s tactics and abilities, but it’s difficult to muster the concentration to do so while fighting. As a side effect, its use tends to give Iris headaches, which may intensify if she pushes herself.
 * Passwall: Iris can alter her body structure to allow herself to pass through walls and other inanimate obstructions as if they were not there at all.
 * Pocket Space: A storage spell that creates a small pocket dimension which can be used to store and transport items, having enough space to contain a backpack’s worth of supplies. Iris uses this to carry ammunition and other emergency items.
 * Poltergeist: A spell that can be used for effective short-range telekinesis, allowing for the movement and destruction of objects when used with enough force, or to strike opponents directly. Iris’ competency is enough for her to manipulate multiple objects at once and strike living things with enough force to break bone.
 * Samhain: Iris alters her own liminality and slips into another dimension, becoming nothing but a shadow cast into the world from outside, standing at the threshold. Because of this, she cannot be affected through normal means and can pass through obstacles as if they weren’t there. This state can even be used to erase her presence to emulate invisibility. However, this spell has quite the strain, and while Iris can cast other spells in this state, this exhausts even more energy. As a result, Iris mostly makes use of this in short periods and for defensive purposes; Passwall is more efficient when it comes to phasing, while Samhain is more focused on combat and surveillance.
 * Scry: Iris can use any reflective or glass surface to view a desired location from a great distance, so long as she is capable of visualizing it accurately or has some sort of trinket from the original location to aid in the ritual. This can be used to spy on individuals if Iris has an object associated with them or a part of their body in her possession.
 * Springheel: Using this spell, Iris can leap distances far greater than any normal being should be capable of, though her frail body makes the effort more tiring and often painful thanks to the hard landings.
 * Telepathy: A basic, mental method of communication that can be used to share thoughts, memories, and images with others willingly, transmitting them to their recipients non-verbally.