#willa my dearest darlingist girl

[juliandev0rak]

Willa Clary 🌿

the creative magician with a shadowy past

Introducing…

Full name: Willa Clary

Meaning: 

Willa means “resolute protection” and “will, desire” 

Clary is a family name running back many generations, it originally relates to the word “clerk” or “cleric”

Gender: female, she/ her

Birthday: May 3rd

Age (start of story): 27

Orientation: bisexual

Magic: manipulation, telepathy, animal communication/ zoolingualism, clairvoyance, psychometry, potion making

Occupation: magical apothecary owner, farmer, artist

Familiar: Mira, a field mouse

Love interest: Muriel 

Shippable?: shippable!

Theme song: Thistle & Weeds- Mumford & Sons

full playlist

— ALIGNMENTS —

Zodiac signs: 

Sun: Taurus

Moon: Cancer 

Rising: Pisces

MBTI: ISFP

Element: earth

Major Arcana: Strength

UPRIGHT: strength, courage, persuasion, influence, compassion

REVERSED: inner strength, self-doubt, low energy, raw emotion

Minor Arcana: the Queen of Cups

UPRIGHT:  compassionate, caring, emotionally stable, intuitive, in flow

REVERSED: inner feelings, self-care, self-love, codependency

Magic:

— Telepathy: Willa can communicate her thoughts to others through her mind, and she can hear other’s thoughts in return. However, she can’t read minds and hears only what the other person wishes to communicate to her. This power works best with people she is close to and only within a near range

— Manipulation: Willa is able to force others to follow her commands, only those with strong magical abilities can block or avoid her control. She can either place a thought in someone’s mind or verbally communicate her wishes. This is not a power she chooses to use anymore, but it sometimes occurs accidentally in moments of strong emotion

— Zoolingualism: She can communicate with and understand animals of all kinds, both through verbal and telepathic communication. She has some difficulty understanding aquatic animals, and is best at communicating with animals she has a close bond with

— Clairvoyance and Psychometry: Willa has high sensory perception and is able to detect things about people’s pasts and futures by touching them or through psychometry: touching objects owned by those people. These powers only work with people she is close to, and not with any regularity. She also gets flashes of her own future, but she has no way to divine the past or future on her own— the images come to her as if by chance 

— Potions: She works at an apothecary and makes potions to heal a variety of physical and mental ailments. She grows her own herbs and plants for these potions, and while she is not adept at using her magic to physically heal wounds, her healing potions are renowned for their potency

Other abilities: Willa is an accomplished artist and loves to paint scenes of nature as well as portraits of her loved ones, she also knits and sews and makes most of her own clothing, she can sing well and is an excellent cook, she has a green thumb and enjoys gardening and cultivating plants

— PERSONALITY & PREFERENCES —

Personality: 

Willa is often outgoing and cheerful, and nearly always has a smile on her face. She loves to make new friends and has no trouble interacting with strangers or crowds. She was very shy and withdrawn as a child, but as she grew older Willa grew into her confidence and enjoys being around others. However, she is an introvert at heart and prefers to surround herself with a smaller inner circle and needs frequent alone time to recharge. 

Willa is kind and gentle, seeking to help others whenever she can. She seeks harmony and often finds herself as a peacemaker in times of conflict. Willa cares deeply about those she loves and is loyal nearly to a fault. She can be very stubborn, and when she’s decided on an opinion of someone it is difficult for her to change it. She likes to be right, and she likes doing things her own way. Willa can be a bit particular, but it comes down to her stubborn belief that her way is the best way. She likes to help others, and can sometimes help too much and risk suffocating or being clingy with her loved ones. 

While she has a wide assortment of acquaintances, her inner circle of close friends and family are her focus and she is always willing to drop anything to help them. Though she loves to help others, Willa is very independent and does not like to rely on others. She can be impulsive and loves to try new things, often jumping from one hobby to another without finishing previous projects. Willa can also be a bit impatient, but has learned that good things come to those who wait. 

Mental health: Willa faced traumatic events in her childhood and she suffers from nightmares and occasional panic attacks as a result 

Likes: soft yarn, fresh bread, cold mornings, sunny afternoons, empty canvases, swimming

Dislikes: greed, eating meat, wearing her glasses, shadows

Fears: hurting a loved one, being trapped (physically or emotionally)

Quirks: she nearly always has dirt or paint under her fingernails and on her clothes, she needs glasses to help her with reading but frequently misplaces them and hardly ever wears them 

Favorite food: strawberry scones

Favorite drink: hot cocoa

Favorite flower: daisies

Favorite color: sage green

Most likely to: paint on the walls

— APPEARANCE —

Height: 5′1 / 155 cm

Eyes: very light blue-grey

Hair: light red / strawberry blonde, wavy, shoulder length and usually half pulled back from her face in a bun or a little pony tail 

Other: fair skin with many freckles, lots of calluses on her hands from her work

Color theme: sage green, mustard yellow, brown, cream, pink

Fashion sense: Willa likes to be comfortable and wears mainly knit items she’s made herself. She wears lots of sweaters and skirts as well as floral dresses and occasionally overalls if she's gardening or working. She prefers light, warm toned colors and makes most of her own clothing. Her favorite clothing item is knit socks and she loves to create intricate patterns of flowers or even animals when she knits them. She wears comfortable boots during the day, and has a pair of yellow rubber boots for when she’s out in the garden.

— FAMILY & BACKGROUND —

Family:

Torin Clary - father - alive  | relationship: strained 

Una Clary - mother - alive  | relationship: strained, nearly nonexistent

Finnegan Clary - older brother - alive | relationship: very close

Eoghan Clary - younger brother - alive | relationship: close 

Fiadh Clary - great aunt - alive | relationship: close 

History:

Hidden on the cliffs of the Rosmare sea lies a small village called Armara. Under a near constant deluge of rain, a small community thrives on farming and fishing. Willa’s family has always lived in Armara, and they always will. The family farm goes back through many generations and it has always been expected that Willa will be there to see it through the next. 

Born to Torin and Una Clary, Willa is the middle child of three and the only daughter. When she was little, her older brother Finnegan was her best friend and she spent her days following him around the farm and learning how to take care of the animals. At three years old Willa told her mother that the sheep could talk, and her mother laughed— thinking it was simply childish imagination. But Willa insisted, the sheep really could talk, and so could the cows and the pigs and even the birds who nest in the trees. Her mother often found her talking to the farm animals, seemingly carrying on full conversations. As she got older, her parents tried to break her from this “childish fantasy”, it wasn’t real and there was no place for fantasy in Armara.

When she was six, Willa’s younger brother Eoghan was born. From birth he was perfect, everything their parents had hoped for in a child. He was kind, quiet, and more than content to do farm work and listen to his parents unlike his older siblings. Finnegan had always been a dreamer, never content to stay in one place or live the simple life laid out for him. He spent his time writing poetry and music, and dreaming of going somewhere —anywhere — other than Armara. Willa took after Finnegan, and she spent most of her childhood longing to be somewhere else. 

Willa found this escape in her dreams, which were vivid and even frightening at times. She often had dreams about a city, a place she’d never seen in real life. In her dreams Willa was an adult, grown up and able to do strange things, magical things. She tried to copy the magic when she was awake, lifting leaves without touching them, changing the color of her hair to whatever she wanted, and she found that the powers she had in her dreams were real. Willa showed her parents her newly found powers but instead of being excited, they were terrified. 

Generations before Willa was born, Armara had been a place steeped in magic. People worshiped the old gods, they used magic freely and passed it on to others, they lived at peace with nature and with the spiritual forces of the land around them. But over time the old gods faded away in favor of a new one and magic was branded as witchcraft, wickedness, evil. Those who practiced it weren’t welcome in the village, and by the time Willa was born Armara had become a deeply superstitious place. The name “witch” was given to anyone different, and the only way to thrive in Armara was to fit in. 

So Willa was told to hide her magic, to never show it to anyone and to forget she had ever had it. She spent every Sunday morning at the old stone church with the rest of the village listening to a priest talk about the horrible fate that would befall anyone who chose to practice witchcraft. Aside from attending church, Willa’s parents tried to keep her away from others, always afraid she’d slip up and reveal her powers to someone else.

Inevitably, one of her neighbors spotted Willa practicing magic behind the barn, and the whole village was caught up in the panic. Her parents were told to send her away, out of Armara to somewhere she could be “safe” and learn to repent from her wicked ways. Her parents refused, but Willa was ostracized and forced to stay away from the others. She was no longer allowed to play with any of the other village children lest her evil was contagious. Willa was a witch, and witches didn’t belong in Armara.

Despite her relative isolation, Armara was a beautiful place to grow up. Willa had her animal friends and her brothers, and she made her first real friend when she was 9, a girl named Isolde. Her parents didn’t understand her and the village hated her, but she continued to study her magic in private, learning the bounds of her abilities. She continued to have dreams about the city, and she often asked her parents if she could someday travel to find this city. Every time they forbid her from leaving— Armara was her home, she had a duty to the family and the land. Willa felt trapped, she wasn’t accepted in Armara but she couldn’t leave. 

One night under the light of a full moon, Willa went into the woods after dark, something she had been warned against since childhood. The people of Armara did not believe in the old gods anymore, but they still feared their power which was said to be strongest in the woods. The villagers did not worship the old gods, but that night Willa did. She prayed to the spirits of the wind and the trees, she dipped her toes in the freezing cold stream and prayed to the spirits of water, but no one answered. Finally in desperation she began to pray to the shadows, the very darkness around her, and she got an answer.

“What is it you want?” the shadows asked.

“Nobody ever listens to me!” Willa cried, “I want a way out of here.”

The deal was struck, though Willa did not know then how dearly she would pay for her new found power. When she returned home she found that suddenly, everyone listened to her. She asked for something and found three hands holding it out for her, she told her mother she wanted to go into town and, for once, was allowed to go. Her wish was everyone’s command and at first the power was intoxicating. But one day, she found that the unlimited power she’d been given could have grave consequences.

Willa had an argument with her younger brother Eoghan, a simple sibling squabble over whose turn it was to do a chore. She generally got along with her brothers, they were among the only people in Armara who didn’t look at her in fear or derision, but Eoghan was mad. He called Willa a witch, a term only those who hated her used. Willa was angry and hurt, and when she shouted, “You shut your mouth Eoghan Clary!” she didn’t expect her magic to take over. Willa watched in horror as Eoghan’s mouth snapped shut, his lips pulling together like they’d been sewn closed. She tried everything to fix it, commanding him to open his mouth, telling him to speak, but the magic stuck. 

As the days went by with no change, her family panicked. Eoghan’s mouth was still stuck shut and it was only a matter of time before he died of thirst or hunger. So Willa went back to the woods at night to beg for the shadows help once more. She didn’t want this power anymore, she only wanted her brother.

“What will you give?” the shadows asked.

“Anything.” 

When she returned home Eoghan’s curse had been lifted, but she found her parents even more furious than before. Eoghan had nearly lost his life as a result of her magic, so it was decided that Willa must be sent away. She had wanted out of Armara, but when faced with the prospect of leaving her family behind, Willa was terrified. She begged them to stay, but she had lost her power of manipulation and her parents were resolute. 

The next morning, Willa went to pay her friend Isolde a visit before she left. When she knocked on the door, Isolde’s grandfather opened it, his tear-streaked face shocking Willa. She learned that her friend had died suddenly the night before, healthy and alive one moment and gone the next. Though there was no proof, Willa knew her deal had caused this. A life for a life, Eoghan had been saved in exchange for Isolde’s life. 

The next day, on her 15th birthday, Willa’s parents sent her off to a city called Vesuvia to live with her Great Aunt Fiadh. Fiadh was her grandmother’s sister and many years earlier she’d been sent away by her own family under similar conditions. Witches were not allowed in Armara, but it seems they were welcomed with open arms in Vesuvia. When she arrived in the city, Willa realized that this was the place she’d been dreaming of for so long. She loved Vesuvia, she finally had a chance to practice her magic in a place where people accepted her. 

Willa flourished in the city, though she missed the nature that had surrounded her at home and the family she’d had to leave behind. Away from Armara, she began to heal, and though the guilt of what happened with Isolde didn’t go away, it was easier to deal with in a new place. She met a new friend, a magician named Asra, and began to learn how to control her powers. When the plague came to Vesuvia, she knew she needed to help as many people as she could. Willa still felt as if she had sins to atone for, and she couldn’t ignore the suffering around her even as Asra and her Great Aunt Fiadh begged her to leave the city.

When Willa contracted the plague and passed away, Fiadh ventured back to Armara to share the terrible news. Finnegan travelled back to Vesuvia with her and they held a proper funeral and mourned Willa together. He decided to stay in Vesuvia with his great aunt, and when Willa was miraculously brought back to life, Finnegan was there to help her recover.  

As she got her memories back, Willa remembered the deal she’d made and the terrible price she’d paid to obtain power. She never forgave herself for what happened, and vowed to never use her powers again. But over time, and with the help of her friends and family, Willa began to move on and learn to control her powers again instead of running from them.

Post-canon, Willa still runs the apothecary shop with her Great Aunt Fiadh, but she spends most of her time out at her farm in the forest. She’s done enough world-saving for one lifetime, and enjoys a quiet life of creativity and spending time with her loved ones. Though her life is mostly peaceful, Willa still finds herself wary of the woods at night and she sometimes feels as if the shadows are watching her.

Five facts:

Willa uses her magic to enchant her knitting with protection and warmth charms

she carries her sketchbook with her everywhere and often stops to draw a passing stranger or a pretty flower in inspiration strikes

she’s a vegetarian

she’s left handed, which was seen as a bad omen in her hometown, her mother tried to train her to use her right hand but she refused to change

Willa knits sweaters and hats for the animals she cares for, and she lets them pick out the yarn

notes: my sweet flower gal :’) i love her

thank you as always to @leila-of-ravens​ for the bio template and to all of my lovely mutuals who have loved Willa along with me 💗