Praise

Bear

• Character Essentials

  First and foremost, it should be acknowledged that this character features a fair number of largely symbolic details, mostly concerning the aspects of deceit and lying. With that consideration in mind, it is important to address Madeline's (Mads for future reference) origins.

  
  Exodus 20:1-17 according to the standard King James Bible: Pure Cambridge.
  1 And God spake all these words, saying,
  2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
  3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
  4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
  5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
  6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
  7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
  8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
  10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
  11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
  12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
  13 Thou shalt not kill.
  14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  15 Thou shalt not steal.
  16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
  17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
  
  Through Moses, these decrees from God were presented to the people as a framework of moral expectations upon which behavior was to be altered accordingly. In retaliation, each Commandment* was met with a counter from Lucifer. Whereas God ordained the practice of these rules, Lucifer created a creature for each to encourage the opposite, seeding their way through the world in defiance of the Lord above. This is where this character comes in.
  
  Throughout the years, a number of different names have been adopted in reference to her, whether it is the Latin word Mendax for liar or the Hebrew word for deceiver, Ramai. As of recent years, she has come to call herself Madeline, more so a joke regarding her slipping sanity than serious attachment to the name. ***add more detail
  
  The term 'demon' is certainly a more suitable (arguably easier) way to describe these individuals, but it is also not entirely accurate.* Their creation echoed the order of the original Commandments, one made first to challenge monotheism and the last designed to inspire envy. ***add more detail
  
  Abilities
  Delving into the areas of Mads which require further explanation, it is best to start with her various appearances and following that, her masks. As indicated on the previous page, one ability that she utilizes is imitation. In layman's terms, Madeline can and does shift her features and voice to resemble essentially anyone, animals included. This makes it difficult to really specify who she is as she is more than one set thing. Following that, she is referred to as female because her original (also favored) form was such, giving foundation to her identity.
  
  Despite the countless possibilities that spring forward at such an ability, it is worth noting that Madeline is unable to completely copy another person's appearance, whether they are alive or dead; e.g. she looks like your character but perhaps with a different skin tone and altered hair. In addition, her own capabilities do not change and are not improved from her original form with a few exceptions. Giving herself wings will not grant her flight, her strength does not waver or grow with other forms, and so forth. Aside from the more obvious facets of this which allow for various means to deceive, it is largely symbolic of not being genuine. Unlike the true subject, the small changes of variation are indicative of that insincerity.
  
  Furthermore, Mads is very rarely without a mask of some sort obscuring a part of her face; the correlation between deceit and this is fairly obvious, alluding to the deceit which fuels her very purpose. It is also a crucial aspect of her existence for several of her masks carry pieces of her soul. As such, there is a certain protective nature she harbors for them, taken to the extreme if need be. This accessory also strongly correlates to some of what Madeline can do, such as her reincarnation. While she may and can be killed, that impacts the physical body solely unless a mask she wears is destroyed. Should her death occur and the mask remains unharmed, that physical body dies and she will occupy a new one, unable to return or imitate the appearance of that body. In order to truly kill her, each mask containing a piece of her soul must be destroyed. She has multiple. Liken it to Voldemort from Harry Potter, if you'd like. A few of these masks over the years have been destroyed, accounting for her mild eccentricity and worsening morality.
  
  These masks also play a role in the strength of her intuition regarding determining whether a person is lying or not.