Maria

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

Maria was abandoned outside an orphanage and raised by the Pilgrimage Church. She later tells Sherlock Moriarty that “Maria” is the only name her parents left her. Cesimir’s subsequent investigation identifies her as Maria Stevenson, born in Awwa County and raised in an Ernst Charity Foundation orphanage in western Loen 26 67 368.

She came to Backlund’s East Borough approximately ten years before the Great Smog. Around that time, she obtained her legal license under an identity registered as a believer in the Evernight Goddess, allowing her to avoid the employment discrimination faced by other women 117 157 368.

Maria devoted herself to charity in imitation of her church’s leader. Her responsibilities grew to include education, medical relief, shelter, employment assistance, family mediation, and workers’ lawsuits. By the Great Smog, she owned two processing factories established six and five years earlier 26 52 157.

Appearance

• Hair: Plain black hair, sometimes tied up while working 26 368.
• Eyes: Blue 368.
• Facial scars: Severe scars cover more than half her face, the result of injuries sustained in a Beyonder incident 26.
• Clothing: Wears practical work clothes, including an oil-stained smock at her factory 117.
• Disguises: Can conceal her scars, dye her hair, and change her clothing sufficiently to obscure her identity as the East Borough’s lawyer and headmistress 29 61.

Personality

Maria combines fierce protectiveness with an abrasive, confrontational manner. She fights group brawls, argues aggressively in court, and exploits legal loopholes on behalf of people whom respectable professionals overlook. East Borough residents regard her as a dependable protector; one longtime resident calls her their “guardian angel” and the last line they can always trust 26 61 66.

Her compassion is practical and personal. After rescuing trafficked girls, she removes her cloak, coat, and sweater to cover them against the cold. She also insists that Mr. Z must not interfere with the rescued children’s faith, later defending the Foundation’s neutrality and its pupils’ freedom to follow the Seven Gods 54 57 368.

Repeated failures to obtain money, medical help, or justice leave her furious at her own weakness. She briefly considers how many people she could save by selling her soul to Edward. Nevertheless, she refuses to deceive or coerce private detectives into accepting a dangerous commission 52 61.

She is willing to gamble with her own safety but reluctant to abandon those in her care. Even after learning that a catastrophe may strike the East Borough, she remains to prepare. When authorities later obstruct an evacuation, she rejects escaping with only those she can personally carry because the people left behind would be endangered 117 273.

Abilities & Skills

Distortion

Maria uses Distortion to alter distances, appearances, bodies, and the behavior of objects 148 150 368.

• Mobility: Distorts distance to leap down from the Charity School’s third floor 148.
• Concealment: Distorts her image to hide from Panatiya in the poisonous fog 150.
• Emergency wound control: Distorts her neck wound to stop bleeding and prevent poison from entering through it 150.
• Physical extension: Stretches her forearm and fingers to reach the Faceless Puppet’s box. The maneuver deforms her bones and tears her muscles, leaving her in need of an Apothecary 150.
• Combat interference: Makes Cesimir’s coat entangle his legs and twists his sword arm toward his chest 368.

Bribery

Maria can weaken an opponent’s control or resistance through Bribery, including unconventional offerings 150 373.

• Spits at Panatiya and uses the act as Bribery, disrupting the Demoness’s control over her binding threads 150.
• Attempts to rob Cesimir of his will to resist during their final battle 373.
• Its effectiveness falls sharply against Calamity: after losing her good luck, only two of thirteen attempts succeed 373.

Rules and Disorder

Maria can impose rules grounded in her authority over the East Borough 368 373.

• Declares the district a place where violence and status determine justice, causing the Red Gloves’ connection to the outside world to weaken and their footing to falter 368.
• Identifies these established local rules as her slight advantage over Cesimir 373.
• That advantage cannot reliably overcome his Saint-level sacred sword 373.

Close Combat and Firearms

Maria is an experienced brawler who combines enhanced physical strength, combat technique, and gunfire 26 74 373.

• Swells the muscles of her arms and legs before attacking Cesimir, then forces him backward through sheer strength 368.
• Breaks his lower leg and repeatedly targets his remaining good leg 372.
• Deflects the bone sword with precise strikes, though she cannot indefinitely pit her body against a Saint-level artifact 373.
• Is a firearms enthusiast and uses a prototype Gatling machine gun during the Capim raid 74.

Law and Investigation

• Legal advocacy: Handles unpaid wages, workplace-injury compensation, acquittals, reduced sentences, and legal loopholes 26.
• Courtroom record: Wins a workers’ case that results in the imprisonment of the opposing lawyer; Old Kohler also credits her with having the factory manager imprisoned 26 67.
• Evidence gathering: Captures and tortures traffickers who admit to working for Capim, obtaining evidence of his involvement 36.
• Operational caution: Seeks professional investigators because they are better suited to covertly obtaining Capim’s floor plan and are not already known to him 59.
• Contingency planning: Instructs Ademisaul to imitate her handwriting and maintain her work if she secretly leaves to act alone 65.

Charitable Work

Equipment / Items

• Prototype Gatling machine gun — Supplied by her collaborator in Intis. Maria combines its sustained fire with Distortion when entering Capim’s mansion 74.
• Faceless Puppet and sealed black box — Left with her by Richard as an emergency means of summoning him. Before being sealed, the puppet shows her the image of a deceased man she remembers from childhood 138.
• Sequence 5 Mentor of Disorder characteristic — A gift from Edward following the Capim operation, providing her opportunity to advance 76 79.

Relationships

• Ademisaul — Subordinate and trusted assistant. He helps with correspondence and factory work, warns her of the coming catastrophe, and later lends her luck. Maria regards his powers as essential to protecting the district 20 65 117 368 373.
• Mr. Z — Longstanding collaborator from the Aurora Order. He helps rescue and escort trafficked girls, offers financial support, and assists her evacuation plans. They fight together against Cesimir and the Red Gloves 54 57 273 368.
• Richard Ernst — Church leader and model for her charitable vocation. She summons him back to Backlund after Ademisaul’s warning, and he entrusts her with the Faceless Puppet 52 134 138.
• Edward Vaughan — The Pilgrimage Church’s other leader, whom she initially fears intensely. He supports the campaign against Capim, rescues Doctor Blake at her request, and supplies her Sequence 5 characteristic 29 36 76.
• Klein Moretti / Sherlock Moriarty — Detective she commissions to obtain Capim’s floor plan. After initially distrusting his investigation, she apologizes and offers payment; Klein later records receiving one thousand pounds from her 66 67 91.
• Mr. A — Accepts her mansion-infiltration commission. Maria secures his promise not to harm Sherlock, later retrieves him from the ruined dining room, and visits him in hospital 68 71 76 77.
• Xio — Cooperates with her in pursuing Lanevus before the deaths of other pursuers force them to reconsider 26 29.
• Doctor Blake — A valued healing priest and physician. His arrest leaves Maria desperate to recover the East Borough’s rare source of medical care 52 76.
• Alia — A young woman Maria watches over, offering food and lodging while warning her that Beyonder power entails danger and responsibility 72 117.
• Crestet Cesimir — Opponent during the Church of Evernight’s crackdown. Despite knowing her institutions have operated safely, he moves against the Pilgrimage Church; their confrontation ends with both falling grievously wounded 368 372 373.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Lanevus Investigation

Maria agrees to help Xio find Lanevus while concealing the Pilgrimage Church’s order to capture him as a traitor. She alerts Mr. Z to Xio’s investigation and asks him to withdraw Aurora Order personnel who might cause trouble 26.

After five pursuers die, Maria and Xio consider turning to the major churches. At the same time, mass layoffs and kidnappings stretch Maria’s resources. Edward encounters her during this investigation and learns of her suspicions about Capim 29.

Campaign Against Capim

Maria obtains evidence linking Capim to human trafficking, but his influence and Beyonder protection obstruct direct action. After Doctor Blake’s arrest and renewed pressure on the school, she cooperates with Mr. Z to rescue abducted girls 36 52 54 57.

She plans to infiltrate Capim’s residence, summon Edward, and evacuate the captives. Isengard Stanton declines her commission, but Sherlock Moriarty and Mr. A eventually become involved 59 61 67 68.

Klein’s premature attack disrupts the planned operation. Maria charges into the mansion with her machine gun, checks the dungeon, retrieves Mr. A, and prays to Edward. The operation ends with the children evacuated, Doctor Blake rescued, and Maria receiving the characteristic needed for advancement 74 76.

Backlund Great Smog

Ademisaul’s vision of universal death prompts Maria to seek Richard’s help. She connects the Bell of Order in the vision with the royal family, a possibility Richard also considers 117 134 138.

When the smog arrives, Maria evacuates the Charity School and helps rescue nearby residents. Panatiya captures her and takes the puppet’s box, but Maria uses Bribery, Distortion, and the distraction provided by a Zombie and dead spirits to recover it. Opening the box turns Panatiya into a wooden puppet and allows Richard to intervene 148 149 150.

Afterward, Maria finds Freya and Mrs. Liv dead and Daisy missing. She begins counting the Foundation’s casualties and questions whether an outside power altered her judgment, causing her to delay summoning Richard. Nearly one-third of the Foundation’s employees have died 150 153 157.

Blocked Evacuation

Authorities repeatedly prevent Maria’s group from departing Backlund. With 122 children committed to leaving, she seeks Aurora Order assistance rather than abandon anyone. Saint Tenebrous discusses transporting them through the Spirit World in groups of ten to fifteen, with Beyonder escorts protecting them from the artifact used 273 274.

Church of Evernight Crackdown

Falling revenue, rising food prices, and restrictions on travel threaten Maria’s ability to maintain employment and relocate her people. During a discussion with Mr. Z, she detects interference with their perceptions shortly before Cesimir reveals himself 368.

Cesimir announces that the Pilgrimage Church and Aurora Order are targets of a cleanup and that the Church of Evernight will take over the Foundation’s facilities. Maria challenges the seizure, then fights beside Mr. Z after negotiations fail. The children have already been evacuated, allowing her to commit fully to the battle 368 372.

Cesimir’s sacred sword, Darkness Pathway effects, and the exhaustion of Maria’s borrowed luck gradually erase her advantage. She continues fighting despite believing victory unlikely. Their final exchange leaves part of the broken sword through Maria’s chest and another part through Cesimir’s throat; witnessing their fall breaks Mr. Z’s remaining control 373.

Notable Quotes

“Power comes with danger and responsibility. You must consider your future carefully.” 117

“I’m responsible for the children’s lives. Since they’re already treating us as dangerous elements, we’ll use the methods of dangerous elements.” 273

“Why are you always unwilling to leave us a way to survive?” 368