NAME: Emma Charity Blackwell-Chambers NICKNAMES: Em, The White Lady AGE: 178 - legal documents say 27 DATE OF BIRTH: September 1st, 1838 - legal documents say 1989
OCCUPATION: Tour Guide at the Blackwell Plantation Museum HOMETOWN: Charleston, SC CURRENT RESIDENCE: Charleston, SC
MARITAL STATUS: Married to Azrael Chambers, formerly married to Benjamin Abbott (deceased) PARENTS: Harrison and Lavinia Blackwell (both deceased) SIBLINGS: Frances Hope, Hannah Joy, and Ephraim Harrison (all deceased) CHILDREN: Violet Grace Abbott (deceased)
QUIRKS: Thick Charleston accent, sometimes uses Civil War-era colloquialisms. LIKES: garden walks, haunting tour guests DISLIKES: racism, chicory in coffee
RELATIONSHIPS
OOC INFO
NAME: liz AGE: 21+ AIM: lizzielhl CONTACT:dropbox TIME ZONE: cst
PERSONALITY
Emma is delighted to once more be among the truly living. She spends as much time as possible outside, in the sun - even when it was raining. In fact, the first time she got the flu after returning to life, Emma was thrilled with it. Even though she was disgusted to be that sick. She laughs far more than she cries and she's kind to everyone. Not much gets to her, but she can't stand when others judge and oppress fellow humans because of race, creed, sexual orientation, and so on. Having lived through some of the very worst years the country has seen, racism is the one thing that causes her to lose her temper; violently.
Her magic is very tied to her emotions and if Emma isn't careful, she can lose herself in her illusions. Currently, she has been banned from casting anything that puts her visually back in time. She's been known to forget time and think she is in the 19th century, alive (for the first time), and looking for her child. She will wake from dreams disoriented, wandering the halls of the plantation museum asking for Violet, looking for Benjamin, and being very confused by the modern things she sees around her. Emma also tends to use Civil War era language and is still a little thrown off by the technology of the day.
ABILITIES
Telekensis: The smaller the item, the easier it is for her to move, of course, but she is capable of moving large objects with some focus. This ability will continue to develop the more she uses it and is particularly noticeable during times of emotional stress. However, the electrical charges that enable her to practice this can also make very modern electrical equipment short out around her, so she's careful about what she keeps on her person.
Illusion: Emma is adept at creating powerful illusions that can seem real to all five senses. If she's weaving a complex spell, only a skilled practitioner will be able to see through it. From a small glamour that changes the color of her eyes to a ballroom alive with dancers from two hundred years ago, if she can picture it, she can make you see it. The more complex an image is effects the duration that she can sustain it and how tired she is after.
Spirit Communication: Thanks to her rather unique history, she is quite adept at speaking with and sometimes controlling spirits, particularly those of the formerly living, though it isn't unheard of for her to be able to speak with dark spirits or demons as well. She would never bind either a spirit or a demon, owing to her time as both.
Incantations, Potions, and Charms: Beyond her innate gifts, Mama is helping Emma put together a grimoire of her own that she can draw from in times of need. These all require some kind of tool, circle, or other item to focus her energy beyond the book itself.
history
Born during one of the most tumultuous times in the United States, Emma Charity Blackwell was raised by devout Southern Baptist parents in Charleston. There had been a Blackwell in Charleston for as long as Charleston had been settled and, according to her father, it would continue that way until the second coming. They owned over 200 acres and grew enough staple crops to feed the household and the slaves, but primarily made their money first in tobacco and then, as the cotton boom hit in the 1830s, the majority of their lands changed over to accommodate the market demands. As the War Between the States loomed, the Blackwells made sure to make all the appropriate ties with the appropriate people to continue being successful. War could break people, but it could make them, too.
Emma was introduced to Benjamin Abbott, the son of one of her father's business partners, when she was twenty-three and they married a year later. He traveled around the country, securing relationships for the Blackwell and Abbott families as the war grew more violent. They were happy, though they rarely saw one another. Emma continued to live on her family plantation, helping her sister, Frances, with her children. And when she was twenty-five, Emma found she was pregnant with her own child. The pregnancy was a hard one and Benjamin spend less and less time on the road. Unfortunately, before she could give birth, Benjamin was accidentally killed in town when he tried to break up a fight. Despondent, Emma went into labor three days later. The delivery was even harder than the pregnancy had been and, weakened from illness and heart break, she died in child birth.
The final thing she heard as her spirit left her body was the cries of her daughter, named Violet Grace. Emma didn't want to leave the girl alone and so... She simply stayed. At first, it was just a rumor. The house staff would whisper of seeing Miss Emma lurking in the baby's room. Then the field workers agreed that they'd seen her, too. Eventually, even members of the Blackwell family thought they saw glimpses of her here and there. Always, she was wearing the white dress she'd been buried in. That was the first time she was called the White Lady and the moniker stuck as she watched Violet grow, marry, have her own children, and then die herself. Violet crossed over. Emma, now feeling that she couldn't leave her grand children, continued to stay. The slaves continued to know she was there, talking to her even when no one else would.
As the war came to a close, Emma's father saw the writing on the wall. The slaves were freed and promptly offered paying jobs and a chance to keep their homes. As it was, the Blackwells had been better than other plantation owners. They weren't fantastic, because they still owned people, but they made sure the ill were taken care of, they always bought families together, and never sold families apart. As good opportunities were slim for people of color in the South, many chose to remain and they brought their Gullah culture to the forefront, feeling more comfortable to practice in the open. Big Mama De Baptiste, the matriarch of the largest family that lived there, and the third of that name, took the wayward spirit in as her own and worked with her, trying to help her cross over and when she wouldn't, keeping her as a child. A ghost child.
Years went by and eventually the plantation ceased to be a functioning farm and turned into a museum. The Blackwell line ran out, but the De Baptiste line did not, and those that had once been slaves were now the caretakers and owners of the successful museum. Crops were still grown on small ares, but more as a display of what had been, rather than for sale. It was a living museum, cultural displays and lectures given to educate the populace on what life had been for both the rich and the owned. And, still, Emma continued to haunt. The White Lady became as much a part of the attraction as the educational opportunities.
The rumors of her haunting drew attraction of Azrael Chambers, a demon hunter and paranormal expert. He came to see if she was real or just made up to get tourists to visit the plantation. He saw her. Not just out of the corner of his eye, but really saw her. He was able to talk to her. His attention drew her into the present and gave her a sense of awareness of herself. They would talk as often as she was able to hold a material form. Eventually, they fell in love, as much as they could. Azrael was beside himself, knowing the love of his life was a spirit that could be taken from him. Eventually, using the current Mama's help, he found a spell that allowed him to give up a year of his life to give her a corporeal form for a month. She was thrilled - until she found out. Then she forbade him from doing it ever again. They would make it work as they were. After all, he'd die eventually and they'd be together then.
Things continued as nicely as possible given that he was a solid human and she was an ethereal ghost, until a man angry at Azrael for killing the succubus that the man had been sleeping with. He cast a wide spell and stole the White Lady away from her lover and her plantation home. He twisted her and warped her. Where once had been a woman who had refused to leave her daughter's side became a dark spirit that tortured the dreams of children. Azrael hunted him down and retook her. She fought him, slashing at him with the dark magic that had been imbued into her. He was injured, but he won the battle. Bringing Emma home to Mama, he was sent to rest and recover while Mama tried to return Emma to who she'd been before the kidnapping.
It worked. In fact it worked too well. When Mama, a powerful Gullah witch, was done with her work, Emma was as she had been before. All the way before. She had a heart beat again; alive, breathing, and with a little magic left over inside of her. What had been a human, then the White Lady, ghost of Blackwell Plantation, then a malevolent spirit, was now a witch. With Azrael's help, Mama had papers forged for Emma, making her the "original" Emma Blackwell's fourth great granddaughter. She proved adept at illusions, telekinesis, and mediumship. Mama adopted the girl, as it were, saw her married off to Azrael finally, and took Emma under her wing. They all live together at the Blackwell Plantation, along with Mama's two sons, and their wives and children. The White Lady sometimes still haunts the house, but now, she comes down for dinner after.