Pyrophobe, demon-summoner, one-time follower of Unity.
Her pre-play background is fairly boring - second of five children, lived in a small village near Grantabrugge, was taught to read and write and so on by the village priests (of Crofter). Some very minor hint of Drow ancestry buried way way back in the family (her parents never talked about it). There was an incident with playing with candles when she was younger and somehow extinguishing one before it caught the tablecloth, and at sixteen she was found by a group of mages who came round to the village and went off to Grantabrugge to study at the Dark College. She spent the next ten years studying hard in her college, learning elemental theory and so on, and really being quite reclusive until Natalia, a friend she'd met at the temple of Crofter in the city, convinced her to come to the Wessex Arms.
The first night she got there there were odd magic numbers on the floor, Vlad tried to chat her up, and Edgar mathemagically exploded on the ritual circle.
The second week, Unity turned up. This began a long, fruitful, very personal, and probably hilariously unwise set of religious experiences for Mary.
Since the start of 1290, she spent a lot of time with Rupert Salter, a mage from the Grey College who was also a regular at the Wessex Arms. This was cut short a year or so later when Rupert went on a mission to rescue her and Panama from a demon plane, and in order to save the rest of the character party, overcast and exploded in a storm of elemental lightning.
A ritual to clean her soul of some residual taint resulted in her being possessed by a demon and attempting to kill Umbra, the Elemental Lord of Darkness. Umbra was, understandably, probably not very happy about this. Mary wound up looking like a demon as a result, complete with stabby claws and scales.
She spent the next few months trying to leech magic from the plane she'd been trapped on to get revenge on the demon lord, and studying magic from (and eventually sleeping with) the High Mage.
Then in some fit of misguided heroism she went to Teutonia with Iris and Matt to sort out a problem with a ley nexus flaring, and died to a combination of remote delayed-action backstabbing, lack of preparation, and the burning desire to stab something in the face with a very ill-chosen target.
Was laid to rest by a Child of the Light, and her body disintegrated into darkness. Apparently none of the Lightists had realised she was magic-tainted until this point.
If the universe has a sense of humour, she's possibly sitting somewhere in the plane of the Light with the rest of its inhabitants wondering where the hell the abomination came from. Alternatively, if anyone knows what happened to Unity after he died...
Final themesong: The Escapist, by Nightwish (bonus track on Japanese version of Dark Passion Play), for various lyrics, but especially this verse:
Journey home at night, the sound of a dolphin calling
Tearing off the mask of man, the tower my sole guide
This is who I am - escapist, paradise seeker
Farewell, no time to fly
Out of sight, out of time, away from our lives
Stats! Because having a spell list so long that the character dies before she uses more than half of them in uptime is fun.
Having a load of combat spells when your character is a self-avowed coward who deals with bar fights by hiding behind the bar is also fun. (Getting claws helped a lot.)
Elemental Theory 20 20 Elemental Skill I 10 30 Elemental Power I 10 40 Literacy 6 46 Numeracy 2 48 Grey Lore I 2 50 Dark Lore I 3 53 Extinguish 1 54 Detect Magic 1 55 Blackflash 1 56 Soften Blow 1 57 Analyse Magic 1 58 Behold Magic 1 59 Elemental Skill II 10 69 Elemental Power II 10 79 Dark Lore II 3 82 Blackblade I 2 84 Dark Strike 2 86 Grey Lore II 2 88 Aura of Magic 2 90 Infuse Weapon 2 92 Ritual Magic 10 102 Elemental Might I 20 122 Talk to Magical Effect 2 124 Elemental Skill III 10 134 Grey Lore III 2 136 Repel Magic 2 138 Magic Missile 2 140 Blue Lore I 3 143 Windermere's Fan 1 144 Gust 1 145 Talk to Wind 1 146 Blue Lore II 3 149 Spark 2 151 Winds of Disarming 2 153 Elemental Power III 10 163 Dark Lore III 3 166 Blackblade II 2 168 Soften Weapon 2 170 Read/Write Romish 1 171 Speak Romish 1 172 Elemental Skill IV 10 182 Grey Lore IV 2 184 Elixir 3 187 Elemental Power IV 10 197 Blue Lore III 3 200 Gust of Wind 2 202 Dark Lore IV 3 205 Darkness 3 208 Darkhammer 3 211 Dissipate Magic 3 214 Blue Lore IV 3 217 Prismatic Blast 3 220 Mend Flesh 2 222 Income Skill (teaching) 5 227 Planar Speech 2 229 Elixir Parva 2 231 Elemental Skill V 10 241 Dark Lore V 3 244 Blackblade III 3 247 Freeze 3 250 Blue Lore V 3 253 Lightning Bolt 3 256 Elemental Skill VI 20 276 Elemental Power V 10 286 Grey Lore V 2 288 Empower Magic Weapon 10 298 Hauberk of the Elements 3 301 Elemental Power VI 10 311 Wind Words 2 313 Elixir [A] 3 316 Grey Lore VI 2 318 Dark Lore VI 3 321 Elixir Parva [A] 2 323 Comprehending the Craft 3 326 Shield of Negation 4 330 Collapse 4 334 Elemental Skill VII 10 344 Grey Lore VII 4 348 Absorb Mana 4 352 Eiger's Inesc. Scourge 4 356 Carrington's Rejoinder 4 360 Dark Lore VII 3 363 Overthrow 4 367 Extension 4 371 Speak Teutonian 1 372 Read/Write Teutonian 1 373 (...upstat for 3YGB...) Utterdark 4 377 Protection from Magic 4 381 Elemental Skill VIII 10 391 Elemental Power VII 10 401 Health I 6 407 Health II 6 413 Health III 6 419 Health IV 6 425 Grey Lore VIII 2 427 Discharge Mana 5 432 Carrington's Elixir 5 437 Dark Lore VIII 3 440 Fainting 5 445 Elemental Power VIII 10 455 Elemental Might II 20 475 Carrington's Disjunc. 5 480