Katharine

Biodata

Background / History

Birth and Rescue

Katharine was born into the Dikezi merchant family under the name Kalila. Augustus ordered her family killed and had the newborn taken by Dainkesi’s Dark Side Operations Group. She had been selected because her features resembled those of Emperor Lorenzo and Imperial Consort Samanya, making her useful in a deception involving their daughter Janet 285 419 560.

Aideluzi tampered with the infant’s heart to deceive Scholar Bay Owl into casting a bloodline disguise spell on Janet. He later described the condition as a curse that should have killed Katharine within two hours. Ashy Drongo delayed her death, while Bay Owl returned to Faerie Dragon form and flew her to White Pheasant for treatment. Albatross and Indigo Kite also helped save her 604.

A scholar-like woman subsequently entrusted her to adoptive parents, who raised her as their own. Her rescuer gave her the name Katharine. After learning her birth name, she chose to keep Katharine because it also represented love and hope 285.

Convent Education

Katharine entered the Temple of Light’s convent academy, where she met Zijin in her Ailisha form. Katharine was eight and Ailisha appeared six. Zijin checked her heart for surgical traces but found none, initially concluding that the girl merely shared the rescued infant’s name 418.

Their relationship became combative after Zijin exposed Katharine’s carefully hidden chest scar on their first day together. Katharine later recognized much of Zijin’s childhood teasing as an awkward form of guidance 426.

Around fifteen, Katharine began investigating her origins. Her golden hair, appearance, and build differed markedly from those of her adoptive parents; the fine cotton clothing she had worn as an infant suggested a relatively prosperous birth family. Her investigation eventually uncovered a family portrait whose subjects shared her features and blue eyes 285 426.

Zijin confirmed her identity during this period and introduced her to the New Divine Language. Katharine also deduced that her schoolmate was the wanted Ancient Stele Destroyer 426.

Church Career and Reform Movement

Katharine distinguished herself in the Gospel Department through hard work, but her commoner background and lack of patrons blocked further advancement. Her responsibility for general education nevertheless gave her extensive connections among commoner clergy, including teacher–student ties with many members of the Northern Stream 183 190.

Over more than twenty years, she subsidized inexpensive books, organized mutual-aid groups, promoted equality, challenged the Divine Covenant Faction’s hereditary religious authority, and established scholarships. She carried out these activities disguised as Ailisha, using the former saintess’s reputation to give Pale New Words immediate influence 191.

After tracing her birth family’s deaths to the Divine Covenant Faction’s upper ranks, Katharine secretly exchanged Holy See intelligence for Xialike’s resources and support. She eventually became the Tribunal’s chief priest and shifted toward military command 271 426.

Meiwu’er and the Imperial Marriage

Katharine adopted Meiwu’er and Waliwei’s daughter Yise after Waliwei was assassinated. To protect the child from Meiwu’er’s political enemies, they staged Yise’s death and presented her instead as Katharine’s illegitimate daughter. Katharine accepted the resulting rumors about her private life as part of the cover 426 605.

When Katharine’s covert activities began attracting suspicion, Xialike proposed making her empress. He wanted a capable outsider to manage the imperial household without empowering another noble family. The proposal also prompted Meiwu’er to confess his feelings for her 426.

Katharine became pregnant shortly before Meiwu’er died when his suppressed Sevenfold Poison flared up. Although she had not intended to have children, she chose to give birth to Tuanzi. Xialike’s subsequent marriage to her was nominal and partly intended to protect mother and son; he genuinely wished to acknowledge Tuanzi as his adopted son 426.

Appearance

• Golden hair and blue eyes: Her resemblance to her biological family helped her establish her origins 285.
• Youthful appearance: Despite being in her forties, she appears only slightly older than Su Ming and Zijin. Her high-ranking combat class slows her aging; a human of her strength can live beyond 150 years 179.
• Refined bearing: Su Ming notes her luminous skin and dignified appearance while she is recovering from serious injuries 179.
• Chest scar: A straight scar approximately ten centimeters long runs from below her collarbone toward the center of her chest. Prominent and raised in childhood, it gradually became a faint mark 360.
• Resemblance to Janet: Xialike once mistakes her for his sister. This resemblance is connected to the circumstances of Katharine’s abduction as an infant, not an established royal lineage 419 461.

Personality

Katharine is calculating, observant, and comfortable with deception. She favors anticipating an opponent’s movements and preparing an ambush rather than fighting on equal terms. She openly admits that she prefers easy opponents and dislikes troublesome ones 177 183 192.

Her commitment to reform is more than a cover for revenge. She condemns plans that treat famine and civilian deaths as acceptable instruments of territorial expansion, and eventually rejects sacrificing Star Sand’s members to settle her personal grudge. Protecting her followers becomes one of her two explicit goals alongside revenge on Augustus 211 285 286.

That concern coexists with considerable cruelty toward enemies. She leaves Dainkesi frozen to the prison floor until he dies of thirst, participates in family-wide political purges, and deliberately leaves Aideluzi alive after revealing the destruction of his family so that he must endure the knowledge 604 605.

With trusted companions, she is teasing and irreverent. Her exchanges with Zijin preserve their school-era rivalry, while her concern for Yise and Tuanzi frequently interrupts political and military business 181 426 501.

Abilities & Skills

Water and Light Magic

Katharine is proficient in both elements and channels spells through her magic book 148.

• Ice blades: Creates dozens of freezing blades for sustained pressure and precise disarming attacks. She uses them to defeat Sabina after relieving nearby Star Sand fighters 282.
• Solar Flames: Casts four in rapid succession to break a mage’s shield and pierce his chest 192.
• Radiant Flow Arrow Rain: Combines light and water magic into a large-scale barrage of blue-white arrows. Against Ke’er site, its tactical purpose is to interfere with perception rather than simply inflict damage 577.
• Restraint and suppression: Binds an enemy mage, dispels his shield, and seals his magic power before taking him prisoner 192.
• Rank limitation: During the Star Sand Accord, she estimates that reaching Saint Rank would take decades even with good fortune. No personal breakthrough to Saint Rank is documented in the supplied material 286.

Illusions and Concealment

• Water Curtain Heavenly Splendor: A large-scale High Rank illusion that hides the Youth Civilization against the snow and suppresses its locomotive noise for an hour 201.
• Illusory Light Spell: Blurs her body into a faint silhouette for covert movement 460.
• Localized deception: Conceals dragons from passing goblin sentries 431.
• Dragon illusions: Creates lifelike airborne dragons to intensify panic or draw defensive fire before real dragons attack 433 435.
• Formation support: Casts Jade Vision and Water Curtain Heavenly Splendor while accompanying Zhimeng and a dragon detachment 422.

Military Command

Katharine builds plans around detailed intelligence, terrain, logistics, and enemy equipment. Officers describe her studying everything from waterways and mountain ranges to the provisions consumed by a hundred-person unit, then conducting overnight sand-table simulations 501.

• Ambush planning: Uses concealed positions, false information, and predicted enemy routes to shape engagements 192 194 431.
• Combined-arms coordination: Commands mages, dragons, necromancers, priests, and Final Bone Mad Machines in the same operations 435 577.
• Improvised attacks: Orders dragons to uproot and drop trees when heavy aerial bombs are unavailable 435.
• Casualty management: Prefers waiting for supporting forces rather than needlessly risking her troops against an organized force of twenty thousand goblins 431.
• Traditional limitation: Her effectiveness declines when a battle exceeds what she can simulate, particularly under unfamiliar conditions 501.
• Technological improvement: Su Ming’s tablets, electronic communications, data systems, and simulations greatly improve her analytical speed and depth. She reaches at least her 142nd simulation of a direct assault on the Radiant Holy City 501.

Intelligence and Political Operations

• Church informants: Maintains a network inside the Church of Light. Even under wartime secrecy, she reconstructs likely naval deployments from ship movements and logistical activity 304.
• Resource mobilization: Uses her educational and commoner-clergy connections to obtain assistance despite losing formal authority 183.
• Disinformation: Fabricates evidence and intelligence implicating the Plundering Clock in the Sacred Mountain massacre 289 360.
• Defection campaigns: Organizes soldiers within Ke’er site’s army to turn on their officers during Star Sand’s attack 577.
• Interrogation: Captures scouts and enemy mages for questioning, using threats of torture when necessary 192 193 194.

Communication and Utility Magic

• Eternal Echo: Sends messages through the natural world to a recipient with matching soul characteristics. It cannot be blocked or rejected, but develops considerable delay over distance 209.
• Eagle Eye: Identifies the magic-crystal mirrors used to redirect Zijin’s long-range spell 189.
• Levitation: Lifts herself and a snowmobile onto the train’s loading platform 192.
• Raven Key restriction: She can pass on Waliwei’s instructions but cannot activate the key’s Tassel Tribe power herself; she relies on Yise to seal Jielusi’s possessing creature 755.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Green Bamboo Slips and Rue Book Wrappers: Also called Blue Bamboo Slips and Rue. An upper-tier magic book and rare magical military treatise given by Master Beckmann; Zijin taught Katharine how to use it. Its pale-gold pages are resilient, and it stores searchable historical, geographical, and cultural texts in addition to supporting spellcasting. Its drawbacks include cost and continuous magic consumption 148 177 426 501.
• Crystal ornaments: Activated alongside her book’s amplification mode when casting Water Curtain Heavenly Splendor 201.
• Technology-side tablet: Used for data management and repeated combat simulations; Katharine considers its practical efficiency superior to her rare magical military treatise 501.
• Temple of Light cardinal’s identity card: Gives this to Zijin to secure Gospel’s obedience 180.
• Lionheart Key: A token passed between Azure Howl kings that transforms into a Saint Rank magic sword. Katharine activates it and tests its blessing aura; the weapon’s rank does not establish her own 796.

Relationships

• Zijin / Ailisha / Scholar Bay Owl — Childhood schoolmate, rival, mentor, and one of her rescuers in infancy. Their habitual bickering conceals lasting gratitude; Katharine also spread the New Divine Language under Ailisha’s identity 191 418 426.
• Su Ming — Initially an enemy she attempted to eliminate as the White Bone Mark’s controller. After he helps rescue her and Tuanzi, they become military and political partners 178 180 286 530.
• Meiwu’er — Deceased partner and Tuanzi’s father. Katharine remembers their relationship tenderly and adopts his daughter from his marriage to Waliwei 426.
• Yise — Adopted daughter, publicly presented as Katharine’s biological child for protection. After learning the truth, Yise explicitly affirms that Katharine is still her mother 604 605.
• Tuanzi — Biological son with Meiwu’er. Katharine keeps him close even while fleeing pursuers and fighting under severe injury 178 188 426.
• Xialike — Husband in name, longtime intelligence partner, and political competitor. Their agreement allows each to pursue independent interests rather than requiring her obedience as his empress 426 530.
• Waliwei — Yise’s biological mother. Katharine protects her daughter and passes on her Raven Key and instructions 604 755.
• Jielusi — Subordinate whom Katharine protects after discovering her possession. She later acknowledges that sealing the creature without understanding it was a mistake and assigns Jielusi a liaison role with the Final Bone Mad Machines 291 755.
• Princess Dafulin — Political acquaintance whose abilities Katharine respects, but whose willingness to profit from famine she vehemently condemns 187 211.
• Augustus — Principal target of her revenge for the Dikezi family’s murder and her own abduction 285 560.
• Aideluzi — Responsible for the lethal condition imposed on her as an infant. Katharine leaves him imprisoned and alive after revealing that Augustus killed his family 604.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“Light magic isn't the same thing as righteousness. Believing in a god doesn't stop people from doing evil in the name of doctrine.” 180

“First, take revenge on the pope. Second, protect my followers in Star Sand.” 286

“Su Ming and I won't start a war like that. None of ‘us’ wants to see vast numbers of lives devastated.” 530

Trivia

• Katharine’s chest scar initially misled both her and Zijin: physicians identified a precise surgical incision, but no chest organ showed evidence of an operation. The later account establishes that the original heart condition was deliberately inflicted 360 418 604.
• Her early claims naming Yignaxiu as Tuanzi’s father and Weiaoyasi as Yise’s father are contradicted by her later disclosure that Meiwu’er fathered both children 180 426.
• She is not a member of the Tassel Tribe; Yise’s memory-related inheritance comes from Waliwei, not Katharine 604 755.