Miriam

Miriam Flamel is an alchemist of the Order of Hermes, who just so happens to also work part-time at the wolf pit as a waitress and bartender. Generally seeming creepy and unsettling at first glance, she is surprisingly helpful to those that ask, but quick to request any scraps of knowledge they have in payment.

Description
Miriam is a short young woman with very long, bright red and slightly wavy hair. Her skin is an unhealthy pale shade, and if she wasn't seen out in daylight often, one could mistake her for a vampire from that alone. Her eyes always have deep, dark rings under them, which are only very rarely the result of cosmetics, and more often that of excessive sleep deprivation.

Personality
Miriam is a Visionary. Her goal is nothing less than to fix the mistakes the world itself makes, seeing it as flawed and imperfect. Her drive into deeper secrets of magic to move closer towards this goal. The world she envisions is one where random chance cannot end the life of those undeserving of cruelty, where she has her boyfriend back at her side, and mankind is enlightened by true magic. Of course, that's not all. She's also a heavily overworked, slightly sarcastic, prideful, caffeine-addicted wreck still hung up on someone she has frozen in her freezer to revive later. Stuck in the past, she refuses to move on. But on the other hand, she's also surprisingly willing to help others, has an open ear for their troubles, and has such an unfazed reaction to most things that her panicking is usually a really bad sign.

She has also proven to be very willing to leap into danger to gain knowledge and to stop rampant abuse of power, despite being about as capable as a battle mage as a sleeping sloth. Further, Aven and her packmates have made her look into environmental issues around Hamilton with little prompting, as she is quite against her home getting ruined.

This partially contrasts - and is also reinforced - by her secret. She's an aspiring Necromancer, not simply an alchemist. The art of speaking to, influencing and even commanding the dead - as well as the ability to bring them back to life. Those are her goals, which she keeps hidden from the Order of Hermes and her fellow mages.

Personal History
Miriam's life was perfect, or so she claims, until an accident took her "true love" from her. Determined to prove that the universe had made a mistake and to reverse death itself, she subsumed herself in research into the occult, which lead into a "normal" Hermetic introduction through hidden hints and signals in ancient books, slowly giving her real insight into alchemy and magic. She became an apprentice of House Solifacti, then a full Acolyte, and finally Awakened in a flash of power that her Mentor helped nurture and direct without even needing to be physically present. She has since deepened her understanding of Alchemy as the controlling principle of every material process, and how to insert the ephermeal magical processes to manipulate them.

Recently, she has struck up an odd new friendship with Aven, neither of them fully aware of the others true nature yet. She finds herself often wanting to spend time with the tall woman, easing her into human concepts she is unfamiliar with due to a 'sheltered' upbringing. Miriam so far assumes this upbringing to be related to a strange cult. Or maybe fae. You never know with those tricksters.

Paradigm
The universe is ruled by two principles: Magic and Alchemy. Magic is the ephermal, impossible to perceive. Alchemy is the interaction of matter, with each other - and with mana, the power of magic. All "science" is nothing but an application of one or both, as is everything others call "magic". As an alchemist, I manipulate states of matter. This I accomplish because I have the spark of "magic" within me, which allows me to utilize my tools to force change and reactions, as well as extensive knowledge about the interactions already possible through pure Alchemy.

Life Sphere
Life is a very complex yet also very simple series of alchemical reactions to those that know how to look at it. I understand my own alchemical pattern very well now, and that of others is beginning to make a lot of sense when examined. I can reinforce, repair and disrupt these alchemic processes. If I utilize a bit of primal mana, I could even create new, simple life-like processes from nothing, I suppose.

Character Sheet: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgi8q22vy770ibj/Miriam%20Revised.pdf?dl=0