Prelati (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
frogfractions) wrote2017-12-05 10:26 pm
frogfractions) wrote2017-12-05 10:26 pm
agoge app
PLAYER
NAME: Endorph
CONTACT: Plurk
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yes
CHARACTER
NAME: Prelati
CANON: Symphogear
AGE: Unknown, but probably around 500-600ish years old. Her body's immortal and that of a girl in her mid-teens.
CANON POINT: Just before her death.
HISTORY: The Symphogear wiki has an article on her, but it's pretty barren. I'll summarize things quickly.
Prelati was born a man named Francois Prelati - they rose quickly through the ranks of the Italian priesthood, but had a secret fondness for both alchemy and deception. Having little actual knowledge of alchemy, but plenty of knowledge on how to deceive people, they met a French man named Gilles de Rais. Gilles needed gold, Prelati needed both a quick thrill and also money, so they came into Gilles' employ, teaching them how to summon demons (not really) and alchemize gold from common stones (also not really.) Partly on recommendations, Gilles killed hundreds of children, then was executed for his actions. Prelati begged off as merely a henchmen, and didn't meet the same fate.
Having escaped judgment for their actions with Gilles, Prelati wandered the world, committing more acts of fraud and deception for small-term gain - this all changed when they met Saint-Germain. A real alchemist with far more altruistic motives, Saint-Germain defeated Prelati. However, Prelati was spared and decided to follow Saint-Germain, along with another fake alchemist named Cagliostro. The two of them learned alchemy from her, and eventually, Saint-Germain used alchemy to construct them both immortal bodies that were far better put together than a normal human. They were also female, due to various alchemical reasons. Prelati took hers gratefully. This is another fuzzy point in the history - Saint-Germain and Cagliostro are both from a few hundred years after Prelati, historically. However, Saint-Germain is established in Symphogear as actually being immortal, much like the historical Saint-Germain liked to claim, so one can imagine that either Saint-Germain met Cagliostro after Prelati, or had already met Cagliostro and given her an immortal body. Either way.
Saint-Germain's goals were twofold. To tear down the powerful, rich, and privileged and create a society free of oppression of all forms, and end the curse of Balal. The Curse of Balal being the moon, modified into a device that blocks the universal language humanity used to share. Grateful to Saint-Germain for her mercy and aid, as well as feeling some remorse for her actions, Prelati embraced those ideas, as well as her two new friends, though her and Cagliostro often got into petty arguments.
In this capacity, the three of them joined the Illuminati, a shadowy, secretive guild of Alchemists. From there, they began making plans to both overthrow the world order and destroy the parts of the moon emitting the Curse of Balal. Also, to pick a fight with God. Helping them is the Illuminati's leader, a man named Adam.
From here, Saint-Germain, with Prelati and Cagliostro's help, begins gathering many human souls and bodies for use in alchemy. Embedding themselves in already started conflicts, aiding more tyrannical alchemists behind the scenes, so on.
After hundreds of years of doing this, the three of them meet a girl named Hibiki Tachibana while fanning the flames of a civil war in a South American country. Hibiki is the wielder of a relic, an ancient/mythological weapon. Her and her friends, other relic-wielders, work as agents for the Japanese government. Obviously, they don't dig the idea of a bunch of magical, immortal weapon dealers, so the two groups come into conflict. Saint-Germain's plans are approaching completion at this point, or at least Adam promises them that they are.
Between their many battles with the relic wielders, Prelati and the rest continue gathering souls and bodies, as well as various other alchemical materials. But when Cagliostro seems to die during one of these battles, Adam reveals his true colors. Hardly seeming to care, he suggests using Prelati as a sacrifice to push them over the edge to their goals, as well as mocking Cagliostro for her death. Prelati, angered by this, fights him, but is forced to flee. Hurrying to Saint-Germain to warn her, she's intercepted by two of the relic-wielders, Tsubasa and Shirabe. Due to her past actions, as well as the fact that she's at risk of inflicting some collateral damage on her way to Saint-Germain, the two girls don't bother trying to talk her down. Already weakened by Adam, she's defeated in battle by them. Before the killing blow, a wounded Cagliostro emerges from hiding and takes Prelati with her.
The two of them stay in hiding, to mend their wounds and not wanting to tip their hand to Adam. Using the death of her two friends, Adam manipulates Saint-Germain into helping him fulfill his true goal, the subjugation of humanity. A few alchemical mishaps turn Hibiki into a large, uncontrollable monster. Saint-Germain, who Hibiki convinced of the injustice of sacrificing others, is desperate to help her, as well as wanting to defeat Adam. However, Hibiki poses such a large threat to world stability that the American government launches a nuclear missile at her.
Saint-Germain moves to intercept it, and it's at this point that Prelati and Cagliostro emerge from hiding to help her. Admitting that they'd gotten lost somewhere along the way, they work together to stop the missile. Prelati and the rest use up too much magical energy and cause their alchemic bodies to fade in the process, thus sacrificing their lives for the good of others.
PERSONALITY:
The core of Prelati's personality is based on one thing - legitimacy. Back in her 'mortal' life, she was, of course, a charlatan, a fraud who did whatever amused her and acted mostly based on her own whims. She didn't have any devotion to God (as shown by the whole 'summoning demons' and thing), yet she was a priest. She didn't know the first thing about real alchemy, yet she passed herself off as an expert. She enjoyed it at the time, but then she met Saint-Germain - who, with just a few actions and words, completely changed her life.
Instead of being a false alchemist, she legitimately knew how to practice it, had research materials and ways of experimenting. And instead of drifting from whim to whim, she had a fully defined goal, ideals to strive for, things to believe in. This is what Prelati is grateful for, more than anything, and it's her sole motivation in life. The fact that Saint-Germain made her legitimate, made her not only a real alchemist but a real person.
Due to this fact, and her gratitude for Saint-Germain's actions, Prelati is a studious person. Having spent her first twenty or thirty years of life grasping at the vaguest of straws and passing them off as huge revelations, she enjoys new knowledge, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to research. It's implied in the show that she knows at least as much as Saint-Germain, at this point. Certainly, she knows quite a lot more than her equal, Cagliostro, as shown by Cagliostro deferring to her whenever alchemical work needs to be done. It's the end product of hundreds of years of research, and Prelati is very proud of it. Prelati even refuses to drink alcohol, not wanting to dull her mind any. Likewise, the heavy bags under her eyes speak to thousands of sleepless nights spent on research.
This well-read personality of hers extends even to her speech patterns. She tends to make elaborate statements, then summarizes with smaller ones. She makes frequent use of words like 'basically,' 'in essence,' 'essentially,' and so on. She's an intelligent person, but one that likes being understood.
However, she's hardly dull and strict. The urge to have fun and to mess with other people is still there, and it can be seen in everything from her teasing and trading barbs with Cagliostro to her almost sadistic personality when dealing with her enemies. She's still someone who takes amusement in 'winning,' either a conversation or a fight, and occasionally that gets the better of her. Rather than finishing Kirika and Shirabe, two of the relic wielders, off immediately, she instead took the time to taunt them. That, of course, gave their reinforcements time to arrive. Likewise, some of her alchemical work is built more for form than function, and her elaborate dress shows that she at least enjoys looking nice. She still has her whims, and despite enjoying her legitimacy, she still indulges them.
That sadistic personality also ties back into Saint-Germain's ideals - Saint-Germain preaches the end of the strong oppressing the weak, but Prelati has little qualms about destroying those weaker than her if they're an obstacle to her and Saint-Germain's goals. While Saint-Germain actively counts the number of people they've killed, so as not to forget them, Prelati hardly feels any guilt. She's more ashamed of the lack of legitimacy in her past than the actions she might have taken due to that lack of legitimacy. She believes in Saint-Germain's goals, and sympathizes with her motivations, but at the same time, she sees nothing wrong with defeating those who stand in her way. She's hardly a mass murderer, and she expresses some distaste for random, unnecessary death - not to mention opposing Adam's outright genocidal goals - but at the same time, she's not going to shed a tear for someone that opposed her knowingly. The ends justify the means, and if they didn't want to die, they should have stepped aside. By the end of the series, she's starting to question that ideology, as shown by her sacrifice, but it's still in its formative stages. The nuke didn't exactly give her time to weigh the pros and cons.
In this way, Prelati can be very stubborn, despite her intelligence. She barely made any attempt to talk to Shirabe and Tsubasa, even though their goals were aligned. And while Saint-Germain seemed willing to at least hear the relic wielders out, Prelati outright mocked them for trying to talk them down. Prelati sees herself as legitimate, as someone who was blessed with knowledge and the ability to do something with that knowledge. As such, she tends to look down on those she sees as less-informed. She has a hard time hearing other people out, especially if they don't understand where she's coming from. Of course, this feeds back into her teasing and her enjoyment of winning. Not to mention her speech patterns - the constant need to summarize implies people don't understand her the first time. She's condescending, basically.
Despite all these traits, Prelati's core motivation, even more than her own legitimacy, is Saint-Germain. Her studious nature is partly her desire for legitimacy, but it's also sheer gratitude to Saint-Germain, a desire not to let her down. In Prelati's flashbacks, Saint-Germain appears almost Christ-like, smiling down at a kneeling Prelati with a halo of light surrounding her. She loves her deeply, and shows multiple times that she's willing to die for her - ultimately, she does. She's a devoted follower, and as proud of that fact as she is of her own intelligence. Saint-Germain dragged her out of obscurity and into the light, and she'll do anything to repay that. This devotion extends to her fellow follower, Cagliostro. The two of them are very different, Cagliostro being a whimsical flirt with a violent streak and an inability to obey orders, and the two of them often bicker. Over what their next actions should be, basic alchemical truths, and so on. But Cagliostro is a friend and comrade, above anything, and her apparent death is what drives Prelati to betray Adam. Despite her condescending, somewhat amoral nature, Prelati's capable of forming incredibly deep emotional bonds. When she cares about someone, she devotes herself to them utterly, just like she does with her research.
It's another form of legitimacy, in a way - rather than the false, flippant relationships of a charlatan, she treats them as important and valuable. Really, that's how she is with most things. Even with her still wanting to enjoy herself, she never comes across as flippant, or like she's acting only out of idle boredom. Even after hundreds of years of it, the novelty of living as an actual person hasn't worn off - she wants to devote herself to the people and things she cares about, and wants to be acknowledged for it. When Saint-Germain thanks her for her help and advice, Prelati's expression is positively beaming. And when Saint-Germain and Cagliostro smile in satisfaction as they sacrifice themselves, Prelati smiles with them, proud to have done something wholly.
Finally, a note on Prelati's gender, since there's really not anywhere else to put it. Prelati was born Francois Prelati, obviously, and seemed to have no problems with living as a male. However, she also seems to have few, if any problems with the new body Saint-Germain's given her. But at the same time, she draws a clear line between herself and Cagliostro, who embraces her new body eagerly and constantly references the fact that she's a woman. Ultimately, Prelati seems to just not care that much, so I'd just put her down as 'agender but female leaning, mostly due to convenience.' I'll use female pronouns for her, since both the show and characters around her do, and she doesn't seem to mind, but I thought it was worth noting.
POWERS:
Alchemy: Do you like really vague things? Then Symphogear alchemy is for you! I'll just list off what Prelati's shown doing with it instead of trying to guess at how it works.
Barriers: Small, technicolor barriers forming right in front of her hands. Their maximum size seems to be about the same size as her body, and she's capable of forming two at once, one in each hand. They're able to be broken through with enough force, such as a heavy blow with a bladed weapon, and it seems as if they're harder to break through the smaller they are. They also have physical mass, so Prelati tends to use them as both her offensive and defensive weapon of choice.
Alcanoise: The creation of Alcanoise, weird looking blob monsters (seriously, these things are weird.) They're produced as a small crystal, and form into the monsters when smashed against the ground. They move independently, have a barrier similar to Prelati's that is harder to pierce but is lowered when they attack, and their attacks are capable of breaking a human being down into a pile of carbon dust. Some of them are also capable of producing smaller Alcanoise on their own, or firing lasers. However, they're also impossible to control, and once deployed tend to just rampage stupidly in whatever direction they're pointed in. It also takes a decent amount of time to produce them in any sort of numbers, and they're made from alkahest, a hypothetical substance in real life. So, basically, Prelati probably isn't going to be making any.
Elemental Control: Prelati is shown firing shards of ice. Since Symphogear alchemy is shown to be based off of the four elements (Water, Fire, Wind, Earth), presumably she has access to the other three in some capacity, though Water might be her preferred element. Regardless, she mostly sticks to her barriers, and she doesn't seem capable of forming the elements from absolutely nothing.
Frog: As a stuffed frog, it's technically an item, but its insides seem to contain an improbable amount of space, like a bag of holding from Dungeons and Dragons. Prelati is seen pulling Alcanoise crystals and various tools from it, as well as firing the aforementioned shards of ice from its mouth. It also seems to be sentient in some capacity, since it croaks loudly when she uses it in battle, and makes little noises when she pulls something from its mouth. However, it never moves on its own. The only canon information for it is that it's 'like a stuffed pouch.' Since it's capable of storing things, presumably water is her element of choice because she can keep a decent amount of it safely in the frog's mouth, unlike Fire or Wind or Earth. Adam destroys it during his brief fight with Prelati, and it's never seen again. It'd probably be one of the first things she'd pay to regain, though, and she makes frequent use of it when it is around, so I thought it'd be worth mentioning.
Perfect Body: The body Saint-Germain created for her through alchemy is immortal and unaging. It's also far stronger and more resilient than a normal human body, especially for a girl her size, capable of standing her ground against the swing of a scythe twice the size of her and sending a similarly sized girl flying with a kick. However, its capabilities don't seem outright superhuman - more like a very well-trained, very large person. Attacks with enough force behind them still push her back, and she's even shown holed up in bed with heavy wounds after an explosion, though she recovers from them more quickly than a normal person would.
Faust Robe: A sort of energized suit of armor, created with alchemy from the Philosopher's Stone. Basically, a magical girl transformation item. When transformed, her physical abilities increase to superhuman levels, and she gains a large mallet type weapon far larger than her that she swings with ease. She also becomes actually capable of forming the elements from nothing, shooting large bursts of fire from her hands, shooting ice without the use of her frog, etc. Untransformed, it sits on her neck in the form of a pendant.
General Alchemy: Prelati's capable of transmuting things into other things - mostly, she seems to specialize in transmuting people into energy, then using that energy to enhance various objects, such as a bullet. As an alchemist, she's also very familiar with chemical formulas, most of the materials and elements that exist in the world, and so on. Again, vaguely defined, but there do seem to be some rules to how it works - she needs an equal amount of one thing to make something else in equal proportion, and there has to be some kind of logic to how it works. People's souls turned into energy, coal and stone turned into gold, so on.
SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: Here, and the first half of this thread.
3rd PERSON: The second half of this thread, and here.
MISC
PLANS: Prelati's ultimately a one-season third-string villain in canon, but I find her a really interesting character. I'd love to continue her development from canon, with her slowly realizing that she still has a lot of learning to do. Canon is very focused on Saint-Germain's development, at the expense of her two sidekicks, so that'd be fun for me. Plus, since she dies at the end of the season, it's unlikely she'll get a chance to follow through on that development. I'd also like her to develop outside of Saint-Germain's shadow, which a small game where every character has to take some initiative seems very suited for.
And she has at least a bit of historical basis, so this seems like a good game to explore that a bit, too.
ITEM: Her Faust Robe pendant, if that's cool. She's stronger with it activated, but even with it she goes from like, low level magical girl villain to mid level magical girl villain, she's not really a worldbeater. Just two of the relic wielders still manage to beat her, even with her having it activated. Plus a girl walking around with a giant hammer shooting fire from her hands might fuck with the timeline. If you'd like to nerf it a little, we can say it takes some stamina or energy to keep activated, so having it going for more than a couple of minutes would require her to take a long nap after, and keeping it going for longer than half an hour or so would put her health at risk. If that's not workable, just her usual outfit from canon.
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS: @monsignor would be a fun history ref/reference to the Gilles de Rais radio play. @frogger would be hilarious, Ultimately, fine with whatever.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST? She won't remember. Presumably, they got her out of the nuke's explosion in some way, she can guess that much. The last thing she remembers is going to help Saint-Germain stop it.
NAME: Endorph
CONTACT: Plurk
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yes
CHARACTER
NAME: Prelati
CANON: Symphogear
AGE: Unknown, but probably around 500-600ish years old. Her body's immortal and that of a girl in her mid-teens.
CANON POINT: Just before her death.
HISTORY: The Symphogear wiki has an article on her, but it's pretty barren. I'll summarize things quickly.
Prelati was born a man named Francois Prelati - they rose quickly through the ranks of the Italian priesthood, but had a secret fondness for both alchemy and deception. Having little actual knowledge of alchemy, but plenty of knowledge on how to deceive people, they met a French man named Gilles de Rais. Gilles needed gold, Prelati needed both a quick thrill and also money, so they came into Gilles' employ, teaching them how to summon demons (not really) and alchemize gold from common stones (also not really.) Partly on recommendations, Gilles killed hundreds of children, then was executed for his actions. Prelati begged off as merely a henchmen, and didn't meet the same fate.
Having escaped judgment for their actions with Gilles, Prelati wandered the world, committing more acts of fraud and deception for small-term gain - this all changed when they met Saint-Germain. A real alchemist with far more altruistic motives, Saint-Germain defeated Prelati. However, Prelati was spared and decided to follow Saint-Germain, along with another fake alchemist named Cagliostro. The two of them learned alchemy from her, and eventually, Saint-Germain used alchemy to construct them both immortal bodies that were far better put together than a normal human. They were also female, due to various alchemical reasons. Prelati took hers gratefully. This is another fuzzy point in the history - Saint-Germain and Cagliostro are both from a few hundred years after Prelati, historically. However, Saint-Germain is established in Symphogear as actually being immortal, much like the historical Saint-Germain liked to claim, so one can imagine that either Saint-Germain met Cagliostro after Prelati, or had already met Cagliostro and given her an immortal body. Either way.
Saint-Germain's goals were twofold. To tear down the powerful, rich, and privileged and create a society free of oppression of all forms, and end the curse of Balal. The Curse of Balal being the moon, modified into a device that blocks the universal language humanity used to share. Grateful to Saint-Germain for her mercy and aid, as well as feeling some remorse for her actions, Prelati embraced those ideas, as well as her two new friends, though her and Cagliostro often got into petty arguments.
In this capacity, the three of them joined the Illuminati, a shadowy, secretive guild of Alchemists. From there, they began making plans to both overthrow the world order and destroy the parts of the moon emitting the Curse of Balal. Also, to pick a fight with God. Helping them is the Illuminati's leader, a man named Adam.
From here, Saint-Germain, with Prelati and Cagliostro's help, begins gathering many human souls and bodies for use in alchemy. Embedding themselves in already started conflicts, aiding more tyrannical alchemists behind the scenes, so on.
After hundreds of years of doing this, the three of them meet a girl named Hibiki Tachibana while fanning the flames of a civil war in a South American country. Hibiki is the wielder of a relic, an ancient/mythological weapon. Her and her friends, other relic-wielders, work as agents for the Japanese government. Obviously, they don't dig the idea of a bunch of magical, immortal weapon dealers, so the two groups come into conflict. Saint-Germain's plans are approaching completion at this point, or at least Adam promises them that they are.
Between their many battles with the relic wielders, Prelati and the rest continue gathering souls and bodies, as well as various other alchemical materials. But when Cagliostro seems to die during one of these battles, Adam reveals his true colors. Hardly seeming to care, he suggests using Prelati as a sacrifice to push them over the edge to their goals, as well as mocking Cagliostro for her death. Prelati, angered by this, fights him, but is forced to flee. Hurrying to Saint-Germain to warn her, she's intercepted by two of the relic-wielders, Tsubasa and Shirabe. Due to her past actions, as well as the fact that she's at risk of inflicting some collateral damage on her way to Saint-Germain, the two girls don't bother trying to talk her down. Already weakened by Adam, she's defeated in battle by them. Before the killing blow, a wounded Cagliostro emerges from hiding and takes Prelati with her.
The two of them stay in hiding, to mend their wounds and not wanting to tip their hand to Adam. Using the death of her two friends, Adam manipulates Saint-Germain into helping him fulfill his true goal, the subjugation of humanity. A few alchemical mishaps turn Hibiki into a large, uncontrollable monster. Saint-Germain, who Hibiki convinced of the injustice of sacrificing others, is desperate to help her, as well as wanting to defeat Adam. However, Hibiki poses such a large threat to world stability that the American government launches a nuclear missile at her.
Saint-Germain moves to intercept it, and it's at this point that Prelati and Cagliostro emerge from hiding to help her. Admitting that they'd gotten lost somewhere along the way, they work together to stop the missile. Prelati and the rest use up too much magical energy and cause their alchemic bodies to fade in the process, thus sacrificing their lives for the good of others.
PERSONALITY:
The core of Prelati's personality is based on one thing - legitimacy. Back in her 'mortal' life, she was, of course, a charlatan, a fraud who did whatever amused her and acted mostly based on her own whims. She didn't have any devotion to God (as shown by the whole 'summoning demons' and thing), yet she was a priest. She didn't know the first thing about real alchemy, yet she passed herself off as an expert. She enjoyed it at the time, but then she met Saint-Germain - who, with just a few actions and words, completely changed her life.
Instead of being a false alchemist, she legitimately knew how to practice it, had research materials and ways of experimenting. And instead of drifting from whim to whim, she had a fully defined goal, ideals to strive for, things to believe in. This is what Prelati is grateful for, more than anything, and it's her sole motivation in life. The fact that Saint-Germain made her legitimate, made her not only a real alchemist but a real person.
Due to this fact, and her gratitude for Saint-Germain's actions, Prelati is a studious person. Having spent her first twenty or thirty years of life grasping at the vaguest of straws and passing them off as huge revelations, she enjoys new knowledge, and devotes herself wholeheartedly to research. It's implied in the show that she knows at least as much as Saint-Germain, at this point. Certainly, she knows quite a lot more than her equal, Cagliostro, as shown by Cagliostro deferring to her whenever alchemical work needs to be done. It's the end product of hundreds of years of research, and Prelati is very proud of it. Prelati even refuses to drink alcohol, not wanting to dull her mind any. Likewise, the heavy bags under her eyes speak to thousands of sleepless nights spent on research.
This well-read personality of hers extends even to her speech patterns. She tends to make elaborate statements, then summarizes with smaller ones. She makes frequent use of words like 'basically,' 'in essence,' 'essentially,' and so on. She's an intelligent person, but one that likes being understood.
However, she's hardly dull and strict. The urge to have fun and to mess with other people is still there, and it can be seen in everything from her teasing and trading barbs with Cagliostro to her almost sadistic personality when dealing with her enemies. She's still someone who takes amusement in 'winning,' either a conversation or a fight, and occasionally that gets the better of her. Rather than finishing Kirika and Shirabe, two of the relic wielders, off immediately, she instead took the time to taunt them. That, of course, gave their reinforcements time to arrive. Likewise, some of her alchemical work is built more for form than function, and her elaborate dress shows that she at least enjoys looking nice. She still has her whims, and despite enjoying her legitimacy, she still indulges them.
That sadistic personality also ties back into Saint-Germain's ideals - Saint-Germain preaches the end of the strong oppressing the weak, but Prelati has little qualms about destroying those weaker than her if they're an obstacle to her and Saint-Germain's goals. While Saint-Germain actively counts the number of people they've killed, so as not to forget them, Prelati hardly feels any guilt. She's more ashamed of the lack of legitimacy in her past than the actions she might have taken due to that lack of legitimacy. She believes in Saint-Germain's goals, and sympathizes with her motivations, but at the same time, she sees nothing wrong with defeating those who stand in her way. She's hardly a mass murderer, and she expresses some distaste for random, unnecessary death - not to mention opposing Adam's outright genocidal goals - but at the same time, she's not going to shed a tear for someone that opposed her knowingly. The ends justify the means, and if they didn't want to die, they should have stepped aside. By the end of the series, she's starting to question that ideology, as shown by her sacrifice, but it's still in its formative stages. The nuke didn't exactly give her time to weigh the pros and cons.
In this way, Prelati can be very stubborn, despite her intelligence. She barely made any attempt to talk to Shirabe and Tsubasa, even though their goals were aligned. And while Saint-Germain seemed willing to at least hear the relic wielders out, Prelati outright mocked them for trying to talk them down. Prelati sees herself as legitimate, as someone who was blessed with knowledge and the ability to do something with that knowledge. As such, she tends to look down on those she sees as less-informed. She has a hard time hearing other people out, especially if they don't understand where she's coming from. Of course, this feeds back into her teasing and her enjoyment of winning. Not to mention her speech patterns - the constant need to summarize implies people don't understand her the first time. She's condescending, basically.
Despite all these traits, Prelati's core motivation, even more than her own legitimacy, is Saint-Germain. Her studious nature is partly her desire for legitimacy, but it's also sheer gratitude to Saint-Germain, a desire not to let her down. In Prelati's flashbacks, Saint-Germain appears almost Christ-like, smiling down at a kneeling Prelati with a halo of light surrounding her. She loves her deeply, and shows multiple times that she's willing to die for her - ultimately, she does. She's a devoted follower, and as proud of that fact as she is of her own intelligence. Saint-Germain dragged her out of obscurity and into the light, and she'll do anything to repay that. This devotion extends to her fellow follower, Cagliostro. The two of them are very different, Cagliostro being a whimsical flirt with a violent streak and an inability to obey orders, and the two of them often bicker. Over what their next actions should be, basic alchemical truths, and so on. But Cagliostro is a friend and comrade, above anything, and her apparent death is what drives Prelati to betray Adam. Despite her condescending, somewhat amoral nature, Prelati's capable of forming incredibly deep emotional bonds. When she cares about someone, she devotes herself to them utterly, just like she does with her research.
It's another form of legitimacy, in a way - rather than the false, flippant relationships of a charlatan, she treats them as important and valuable. Really, that's how she is with most things. Even with her still wanting to enjoy herself, she never comes across as flippant, or like she's acting only out of idle boredom. Even after hundreds of years of it, the novelty of living as an actual person hasn't worn off - she wants to devote herself to the people and things she cares about, and wants to be acknowledged for it. When Saint-Germain thanks her for her help and advice, Prelati's expression is positively beaming. And when Saint-Germain and Cagliostro smile in satisfaction as they sacrifice themselves, Prelati smiles with them, proud to have done something wholly.
Finally, a note on Prelati's gender, since there's really not anywhere else to put it. Prelati was born Francois Prelati, obviously, and seemed to have no problems with living as a male. However, she also seems to have few, if any problems with the new body Saint-Germain's given her. But at the same time, she draws a clear line between herself and Cagliostro, who embraces her new body eagerly and constantly references the fact that she's a woman. Ultimately, Prelati seems to just not care that much, so I'd just put her down as 'agender but female leaning, mostly due to convenience.' I'll use female pronouns for her, since both the show and characters around her do, and she doesn't seem to mind, but I thought it was worth noting.
POWERS:
Alchemy: Do you like really vague things? Then Symphogear alchemy is for you! I'll just list off what Prelati's shown doing with it instead of trying to guess at how it works.
Barriers: Small, technicolor barriers forming right in front of her hands. Their maximum size seems to be about the same size as her body, and she's capable of forming two at once, one in each hand. They're able to be broken through with enough force, such as a heavy blow with a bladed weapon, and it seems as if they're harder to break through the smaller they are. They also have physical mass, so Prelati tends to use them as both her offensive and defensive weapon of choice.
Alcanoise: The creation of Alcanoise, weird looking blob monsters (seriously, these things are weird.) They're produced as a small crystal, and form into the monsters when smashed against the ground. They move independently, have a barrier similar to Prelati's that is harder to pierce but is lowered when they attack, and their attacks are capable of breaking a human being down into a pile of carbon dust. Some of them are also capable of producing smaller Alcanoise on their own, or firing lasers. However, they're also impossible to control, and once deployed tend to just rampage stupidly in whatever direction they're pointed in. It also takes a decent amount of time to produce them in any sort of numbers, and they're made from alkahest, a hypothetical substance in real life. So, basically, Prelati probably isn't going to be making any.
Elemental Control: Prelati is shown firing shards of ice. Since Symphogear alchemy is shown to be based off of the four elements (Water, Fire, Wind, Earth), presumably she has access to the other three in some capacity, though Water might be her preferred element. Regardless, she mostly sticks to her barriers, and she doesn't seem capable of forming the elements from absolutely nothing.
Frog: As a stuffed frog, it's technically an item, but its insides seem to contain an improbable amount of space, like a bag of holding from Dungeons and Dragons. Prelati is seen pulling Alcanoise crystals and various tools from it, as well as firing the aforementioned shards of ice from its mouth. It also seems to be sentient in some capacity, since it croaks loudly when she uses it in battle, and makes little noises when she pulls something from its mouth. However, it never moves on its own. The only canon information for it is that it's 'like a stuffed pouch.' Since it's capable of storing things, presumably water is her element of choice because she can keep a decent amount of it safely in the frog's mouth, unlike Fire or Wind or Earth. Adam destroys it during his brief fight with Prelati, and it's never seen again. It'd probably be one of the first things she'd pay to regain, though, and she makes frequent use of it when it is around, so I thought it'd be worth mentioning.
Perfect Body: The body Saint-Germain created for her through alchemy is immortal and unaging. It's also far stronger and more resilient than a normal human body, especially for a girl her size, capable of standing her ground against the swing of a scythe twice the size of her and sending a similarly sized girl flying with a kick. However, its capabilities don't seem outright superhuman - more like a very well-trained, very large person. Attacks with enough force behind them still push her back, and she's even shown holed up in bed with heavy wounds after an explosion, though she recovers from them more quickly than a normal person would.
Faust Robe: A sort of energized suit of armor, created with alchemy from the Philosopher's Stone. Basically, a magical girl transformation item. When transformed, her physical abilities increase to superhuman levels, and she gains a large mallet type weapon far larger than her that she swings with ease. She also becomes actually capable of forming the elements from nothing, shooting large bursts of fire from her hands, shooting ice without the use of her frog, etc. Untransformed, it sits on her neck in the form of a pendant.
General Alchemy: Prelati's capable of transmuting things into other things - mostly, she seems to specialize in transmuting people into energy, then using that energy to enhance various objects, such as a bullet. As an alchemist, she's also very familiar with chemical formulas, most of the materials and elements that exist in the world, and so on. Again, vaguely defined, but there do seem to be some rules to how it works - she needs an equal amount of one thing to make something else in equal proportion, and there has to be some kind of logic to how it works. People's souls turned into energy, coal and stone turned into gold, so on.
SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: Here, and the first half of this thread.
3rd PERSON: The second half of this thread, and here.
MISC
PLANS: Prelati's ultimately a one-season third-string villain in canon, but I find her a really interesting character. I'd love to continue her development from canon, with her slowly realizing that she still has a lot of learning to do. Canon is very focused on Saint-Germain's development, at the expense of her two sidekicks, so that'd be fun for me. Plus, since she dies at the end of the season, it's unlikely she'll get a chance to follow through on that development. I'd also like her to develop outside of Saint-Germain's shadow, which a small game where every character has to take some initiative seems very suited for.
And she has at least a bit of historical basis, so this seems like a good game to explore that a bit, too.
ITEM: Her Faust Robe pendant, if that's cool. She's stronger with it activated, but even with it she goes from like, low level magical girl villain to mid level magical girl villain, she's not really a worldbeater. Just two of the relic wielders still manage to beat her, even with her having it activated. Plus a girl walking around with a giant hammer shooting fire from her hands might fuck with the timeline. If you'd like to nerf it a little, we can say it takes some stamina or energy to keep activated, so having it going for more than a couple of minutes would require her to take a long nap after, and keeping it going for longer than half an hour or so would put her health at risk. If that's not workable, just her usual outfit from canon.
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS: @monsignor would be a fun history ref/reference to the Gilles de Rais radio play. @frogger would be hilarious, Ultimately, fine with whatever.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST? She won't remember. Presumably, they got her out of the nuke's explosion in some way, she can guess that much. The last thing she remembers is going to help Saint-Germain stop it.