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\\
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\begin{center}
\textbf{{\Huge PUELLA MAGI: THE DESPAIRING}}\\[1cm]
{{\LARGE A companion book for Princess: the Hopeful.}}\\[1cm]
{{\large By: Faust91x}}\\[1cm]
{\large Date: \today}\\[0.5cm]
\end{center}

%************************THIS IS THE INDEX*******************************
\tableofcontents
%************************************************************************

\chapter{Statement of Intent.}
In the Winter of 2012 I became a fan of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I had just finished Fate/Zero and become acqainted with the works
of Gen Urobuchi (or Urobutcher as the fans call him...) and become delighted with the tale of the man that had defied fate itself
and destroyed everything he held dear in exchange of a miracle. A miracle that was the only hope he had left, a miracle that
betrayed him along with his ideals and thus was driven to despair...\\

I had loved every moment of it, and thought no experience would be able to top the emotions and the different ideologies explored in
Fate/Zero. It was like the Holy Grail (LOL) of philosophy. But still I felt it could do better. Because in the end the tragedy that
followed Emiya Kirtsugu's life wasn't of his own creation, for he had been robbed of his miracle by the corruption that was the
Grail. A corrupt artifact that wouldn't grant him in any way what he had asked for.\\

And I thought that certainly if Emiya Kiritsugu had been given EXACTLY what he wanted, he wouldn't have regretted it no matter the
price he might have had to pay in exchange for his receiven miracle.\\

And so, I started exploring other works from Urobuchi like Saya No Uta which is beautifully dark, but there was one title that
called to my attention despite being seemingly out of place among Urobutcher's works. Puella Magi Madoka Magica appeared in the TV
Tropes page referenced several times along Fate/Zero and Urobutcher's articles, claiming to be one of Urobuchi's masterpieces and
the Evangelion of the Mahou Shoujo genre.\\

I scoffed at the notion of someone making a dark Mahou Shoujo show even if it was Urobutcher doing it. After all, reminiscing of my
days as a child where I got to watch Sakura Card Captors in the old analog TV's, there was a lot of things Majou Shoujo was but
dark. And as such I put it off, not interested in the least on the themes it displayed.\\

I kept reading and watching anime, looking for something dark and that displayed an interesting plot. On TV Tropes I kept reading
parallels and praise on Puella Magi Madoka Magica and when google ``helpfully'' offered me the search term \textbf{Mami Tomoe death}
I finally decided to watch it before I spoiled myself further and got over it no matter how bad it got.\\

So I watched the first episodes, and found myself scoffing at how simplistic and cliché all the characters acted. I took a liking to
Homura Akemi since her first appearance as she reminded me of Emiya Kiritsugu (LOL) and her direct method to problem solving. I
believed her to be another cliché troubled rival that Madoka would convert to the side of good after Mami Tomoe's heroic sacrifice
in the last episodes as they saved the world with the Power of Love/Friendship/Heart and ate cake.\\

Then episode 3 came, and eat cake they did...and I got hooked as I couldn't believe they disposed so easily and cruelly of an
amazing character that had finally found happiness. And put my bets (and have to admit also hoped) that they would wish her back to
life. No such thing as they explored the true ramifications and logical outcome of little girls fighting against eldritch
abominations in real life.\\

The wham increaded as I saw hero of justice Sayaka (that was something like a more efficient Kariya Matou) fall into despair and
turn into that which she fought against. And I loved every second of her fall as she dragged her saviour with her.\\

Also loved the concept of Kyubey since episode 6, of an amoral and unfeeling villain that broke the characters not with phisical or
magical might but words and pure wit. Like a more dangerous and manipulative Light Yagami that was everywhere, only lied by omission
and ate his corpse everytime.\\

I thought the show had finally reached its lowest/highest point and there was nothing else that could surprise me, and then episode
10 came. And with it one of the most angst filled and awesome origin stories I've seen in such a short time. How Homura trascended
from zero to hero while losing herself in the process. And I saw how each of them even though they got exactly what they asked for,
still suffered and died because what they asked wasn't what they wanted or needed. And it was glorious...\\

As of this date, Rebellion has come. Didn't like it but accept it as another exploration of the themes even if I still feel the
hopeful end of the series was better than the movie. As a fan of the World of Darkness I got to read the Princess: the Hopeful fan
supplement.\\

A wonderful supplement that takes the idea of Mahou Shoujo as bringers of light in the darkness that is the World of Darkness. Loved
the concept of the Light and their relationship with the Fair Folk but thought it could be made darker and more similar to the
concept of Puella Magi given that the Princesses book was designed for any kind of Majou Shoujo in anime and as such is more
generic.\\

After reading the wonderful setting that is Magical Girl Noir Quest, an ongoing quest in 4CHAN where you can control the decisions
of Akemi Homura in a darker and edgier timeline, I decided to create this companion supplement for those that may want to play a
World of Darkness game with characters more like those of Puella Magi Madoka.\\

Hopefully this can be useful to someone to enhance their games.\\

Faust91x.\\

%************************************************************************************************************************
\chapter{Contracted.}
%A brief intro on the concept of Puella Magi.
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 They desire hope, but only receive curses.\\
 Even so they still fight, they're the Puella Magi.\\
 In exchange for their received miracle the final destiny\\
 of their souls after fights and more fights\\
 is to be annihilated, where it finally finds salvation.\\
 Only by dissappearing from this world it's possible to\\
 run from the despair's karma.\\
 Until the fateful day, we await for something\\
 that changes our destinies.\\
 And we keep fighting the sadness and hate which\\
 envolves this world that has no salvation.\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Homura Akemi, First Apostle of the Blessed Lady.}
\end{center}

\section{Theme.}
The theme is ``fighting the good fight''. The Contract has a profound effect in the Puella Magi's life and they only have a fixed
amount of time to make the difference. The hordes of Darkness are endless while their souls corrupt the more the Puella uses her
magic until one day its too much and she dies at enemy hands, if she's lucky. Most Puella know about this and hope to die valiantly
in battle and hopefully save enough lives to make their brief existences worth it.\\

\section{Mood.}
The game's mood is ``desperation''. You are fighting against an immortal enemy whose demise would mean cleaning all human beings of
evil and creating paradise on earth. You need to use magic to fight against the Darkness and each use corrupts your soul further
until you end up like the monsters you were fighting. Furthermore the world itself has a corrupting influence on your soul and
pushes you towards despair while you also have to face the negative consequences of your wish.\\

As the Puella learn during their brief existences, being a Puella Magi is serious business.\\

\newpage
\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{This Game Sucks!}
As you may realize shortly after reading this, the game tries to get the closest it can to what was presented in the show while also
using themes found in the excellent fanwork Magical Girl Noir Quest while at the same time working to make the Puella Magi
compatible with the rest of denizens of the World of Darkness in themes and powerlevel wise. As such it had to reach a compromise
between many varied aspects, rules and themes to get a working solution. Although it was tempting to apply a Genetic Algorithm to
solve that issue, my knowledge still doesn't reach that point and I did everything we could to make this an enjoyable and rich
gameplay experience for those trying to incorporate the Puella Magi in Princess games or as the only supernatural in your
chronicle.\\

The purpose of this game material is only that, to provide enjoyment and its in no way aimed at generating profit. This material is
free and open for anyone to use and modify as they see fit. Still, if you want something closer or even further apart from the show,
in the chapter \textbf{The World of Witches} I left several houserules and themes that can be used to modify the game in the same
vein as the \textbf{World of Darkness: Mirrors} provided alternatives.\\[0.3cm]
\end{minipage}}\\[0.3cm]

%************************************************************************************************************************
\chapter{Daughters of the Incubator.}

%A talk about the nature and history of the Puella Magi, their psychology, phisiology and the changes they suffer due to
%The Contract.

\section{History.}
Unlike the Princesses, the Puella Magi can't claim a history of great achievements or a line of powerful rulers. They don't have
queens, and they don't hide under pretenses of wanting to rule mortals for the greater good. What the Puella Magi possess is a wish
they wanted fullfilled and a price they have to pay for the miracle granted.\\

In truth, the Puella Magi are a recent phenomenon in the World of Darkness with a relatively brief history that made them inocuous
to the Princesses for some time. The first reported contact between humans and the Incubators ocurred shortly after the end of The
Long Night as Princess scholars refer to the time mankind first set foot on the moon. Interrogations to Incubators thus far tell of
their inability to detect the planet with their technology due to unknown interferences and how the moonlanding managed to make
mankind presence known to the Incubator race.\\

During these years there was a conmotion between humans claiming the presence of aliens and children getting abducted. While the
Princesses claim this to be caused by the return of the fae, another event that took place during these years \cite{Fae}, its also
common knowledge that the Incubators scouted the earth and adapted their models to be more friendly and approachable to human girls
in an attempt to further the creation of Contracts.\\

If the Puella Magi had a way to know the first Incubators they would find they were even more creepy and strange than the models
that exist in actuality. As the Incubators refined the technology to enact Contracts with the Puella Magi, the first cases of
Dethroned started appearing amongst the newly formed Puellae. Eventually they were discovered by the newly returned Princesses.\\

\subsection{The Concilium of Swords.}
The newly organized Princesses started a gathering known as the Concilium of Swords in which they addressed the threat posed by the
newly formed Puella Magi. These Magi were stronger than the average Princess which could be useful against the darkness but they
were also proved to be more selfish, harder to control and with a strong tendency to become Dethroned than the average Princess.
When it was discovered that the darkness got stronger whenever a Puellae settled, the Princesses decided to take action and a purge
was issued with three versus one votes among the Queens.\\

Thus the Princesses warred against the Puellae with several casualities on both sides. Despite their toughness, the Puellae lacked
a Queen and organization which made them easy prey to the Princesses. Nonetheless, the Princesses found to their horror that the
Blossming of the Puellae couldn't be stopped as the Incubators were almost immortal due to their endless bodies and could make any
girl into a Puella Magi with their Contract, no matter the condition of their souls.\\

Given that for every Puellae they killed the Incubators were capable of making ten more, the Princesses decided to change their
approach and upon the urge of the Queen of Diamonds, the Princesses struck a deal with the Incubators. Princesses wouldn't interfere
with Incubator machinations as long as the Incubators limited the number of Puella Magi to create, so as to give mankind chance to
replenish their numbers.\\

The Incubators were quite amiable to this ``rational'' approach and gladly signed what came to be known as the Act of the Puella
Magi which still stands and details dealings between Princesses and the Puella Magi.\\

\subsection{The Officios.}
After the agreement between Puella Magi and Princesses, a period of relative peace reached both sides and their interactions became
so scarce that each side almost forgot about the other. The Puella Magi thus found themselves left to their designs.\\

Due to the territorial nature of the Puellae and the need to prevent wars among themselves due to their increasing numbers, the
Puellae started joining in groups which became known as the Officios. Its unknown what motivated this decision although Puellae
scholars suspect this was furthered by the Incubators (the bastards) to optimize Grief Cubes collection and minimize the risks of
external threats like Princesses in case the pact was broken.\\

Most Puellae agreed to this approach and territories were segmented according to the capability of the Puellae to hold claim of a
given turf. Only the most powerful Puellae decided to go solo and most stood in thighly knit groups in the cities where they could
give each other the support needed.\\

\subsection{The Night of Nightmares.}
Shortly after the formation of the Officios, a highly distressing event befell the recently organized Puellae in the form of the
Night of Nightmares. Puellae scholars are still investigating the source of the event although most clues point to an increase in
wraith activity due to the high number of Puella Magi created and the negative energy released by them.\\

The negative energy reached a critical point and on the eve of what coincided with Walpurgisnacht in the mortal calendary, wraiths
attacked en masse and simultaneously all living settlement with Puella Magi around the world, killing thousand of humans and Puellae
. The attack lasted for a full day until the Puellae managed to destroy the majority of wraiths and pushed the rest
to the fringes of civilization.\\

Still the damage was done, the Princess saw the existence of all Puellae as a threat and agreements of cooperation were broken and
only through the fast action of all Officio leaders were the Puellae able to prevent another purge that would have resulted in the
extinction of most Puellae and their branding as servants of the dark. Up to this day the Puella Magi and Princesses have maintained
a strained non-intervention pact.\\

Furthermore, there seems to be a tendency in recent years for wraiths to become particularly agitated during certain dates such as
Samhain, Walpurgisnacht and some are rumored that even on dates such as the New Year of the predominant culture. This has become a
problem to Puella Magi and has forced them to prepare defenses and clean the cities of wraithly presence a much as possible in order
to avoid a repeat of that horrific Night.\\

\subsection{The Church of the Blessed Lady.}
Due to the secular nature of their contractors, the Puella Magi found many and varied communities, mostly of political intent
although some attempts were made to create an unified theological body in charge of the knowledge and beliefs of the Puellae
society.\\

All these movements found little support and quickly faded into obscurity until a movement shook the core of Puellae society. A cult
known as The Church of the Blessed Lady. This cult originated among the lands of Japan in the 2009's by prophet Kyoko Sakura that
spread the message of a figure only known as The Blessed Lady that supposedly contacted her in a moment of great despair.\\

This cult with a semi christian vent quickly gained a huge number of followers which made the Officios nervous of losing their
political power. In the end they were forced to give the followers of the Church of the Blessed Lady a seat and put up with their
antics due to their strange magical might and the amount of support they received from the Puellae community.\\

\section{Life as a Puella Magi.}
\subsection{Metabolism.}
The most defining characteristic of the Puella Magi condition is its static nature. Upon enacting the Contract, all biological
functions of the Puella Magi stop and start depending on the magic of the Soul Gem. As long as a Puella Magi stays as such they
don't need to eat, sleep or crap although most keep doing it anyways either because their Incubator doesn't consider a necessity to
tell them or to maintain their human facade. Disposing of their human needs altogether is one of the first things the longer lived
Puella Magi do although it tends to cause negative effects to their psyches as they start losing touch with the rest of humanity and
become something more akin to super efficient killing machines.\\

An interesting phenomenon reported in the Puella Magi is that as long as they don't pay conscious attention to the processes taking
place in their organisms they can keep working without problem. This may be a preventive feature made by the Incubators so that a
Puella Magi doesn't have to consciously make their organisms digest food they have consumed or just the product of an once human
subconscious. All Puella Magi can automatically force their organisms to stop or slightly modify their inner processes using a small
amount of magic and conscious tampering of their body, more on this can be found on \ref{Physiology}.

Nonetheless due to their dependency on magical energy to maintain their biological functions all Puella Magi slowly consume their
reserves of Light and this forces them to seek out enemies to replenish their dwindling reserves. This effect is exacerbated with
age as the Puella Magi find it harder to replenish their magical reserves and keep their bodies functioning, even though they're the
closest a human can get to immortality, the Puella Magi are living on borrowed time...\\

\subsection{Aging.}
As a side effect of the static nature of their bodies, Puella Magi do not age. This means that a Puella Magi could in theory remain
the same biological age as the moment they accepted the Contract with their Incubator.\\

Thankfully, the Puella Magi can force their bodies to give an illusion of age if they so desire using the process to tamper with
their bodies found in \ref{Physiology} or one of the body alteration Charms described in \ref{Charms} which can be useful to
maintain a human facade.\\

\subsection{Health.}


\subsection{Pregnancy.}
Due to the magical nature of the Puella Magi condition and the philactery based life it infers, the Puella Magi are rendered sterile
upon accepting the Contract. Whether this is due to their bodies becoming more machine like or the displacement of their souls being
necessary to give life to another human being, all attempts at procreation between a Puella Magi and another being will be met with
failure.\\

Due to the traumatic nature of this ``blessing'' all Incubators are advised to avoid informing of this to all Puellae Magis so as to
avoid rogue elements. This is treated as another sacrifice Puella Magi make of their humanity in exchange of the received miracle.\\

\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{Motherhood.}
Its rumored that the Queen of Alhambra made a ritual that if succesfully completed temporarily interferes with the Puella Magi
Contract rendering them human and thus able of getting pregnant. Legends say that it was given to a Puella Magi in exchange of
``exceptional services''. To this day is unknown whether such a ritual capable of interfering with the Contract effects even exists
or the identity of the Puella Magi.\\

Darker rumours whisper that the Queen of Alhambra wanted to assasinate that Puella Magi to prevent her secrets from being revealed
and that what was actually given to that Puella Magi was a ritual to summon a powerful wraith from within her womb, with the entity
``hatching'' from that foolish sob chest burster style. That doesn't stop desperate enough Puella Magi though...\\[0.3cm]
\end{minipage}}\\[0.3cm]

%************************************************************************************************************************
\chapter{Scions of the Blessed Lady.}
%On the nature of Puella Magi society and the mysterious cult to the Blessed Lady. Character creation and mechanics.
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 KYUBEY: I am a dire wolf, child-stalking, lethal trickster.\\
 MADOKA: I am an archer, horse-mounted, wolf-shooting.\\
 KYUBEY: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.\\
 MADOKA: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.\\
 KYUBEY: I am a snake, spider-devouring, posion-toothed.\\
 MADOKA: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.\\
 KYUBEY: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.\\
 MADOKA: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.\\
 KYUBEY: I am a nova, all-exploding... planet-cremating.\\
 MADOKA: I am the Universe -- all things encompassing, all life embracing.\\
 KYUBEY: I am Entropy, the Beast of Judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of
 everything. And what will you be then, magical girl?\\
 MADOKA: I am hope.\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{MadokaxPreludes \& Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman}
\end{center}

\section{Theology and Religion of the Puella Magi.}
\subsection{Church of the Blessed Lady.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 "For Madokami so loved the world that She gave us Her Only Self, that whoever believes in Her shall not despair but have
 everlasting Hope." --Homu 3:16\\[0.3cm]
 
 "When I look at the heavens, the work of your divine fingers, the moon and the stars, which your bow and arrow have set in place, what is humanity that you are mindful of them, and the daughters of hope that you care for them?" --The Psalms of Kyouko 8:3-4
 \\[0.3cm]
 
 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. – Mamisan 12:12\\[0.3cm]
 
 Holding the hearts and desires of all my friends. Changing the heart of despair into hope! Wishing for your unlimited desires, and forever spiraling downward, growing even larger! That’s what hope is! If you’re going to wish, wish for the heavens! If your wish brought you despair, then create hope with your own hands! Break down the impenetrable wall of injustice and agony! Kick reason and logic to the curb! Do the impossible! That’s the Puella Magi way! So I ask you one more time…

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!!!\\[0.3cm]
 
 Hello sir or madam, do you have a moment to talk about Eternal Salvation?

The Church of Madoka was founded when our beloved Goddess ascended to the heavens and brought salvation to all those who were in despair, thereby sparing us from our ill-fated destinies filled with endless agony, perpetual wandering, and transmigration.

Because of hope and disappointment, faith and doubt, wishes and curses, human beings continuously go through conception, death, and rebirth, and our consciousnesses are trapped within this endless maze until the accumulation of our karma lives out its consequences.

There is hope, however.

"Madoka," as we know her, is a force of nature existing outside of our universe—a goddess, who bends the known laws of the world across all times and timelines. Before Madoka's loving sacrifice, we were all suffering within an eternal cycle of hope and despair. Inevitably, our actions and ideas grew to affect all futures in a never ending cycle of karma: action leads to consequence leads to action leads to consequence, and so on, and there seemed to be no escape from cause and effect...

When she ascended, Madokami became the embodiment of hope that reached into our world to save us with her own hands. We are alreay saved, you see; we must simply remember her sacrifice and she will always be with us.

I won't take up any more of your time, but thank you for listening!

Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone.\\[0.3cm]

People are often in a dark place. People are often lost. They wander around aimlessly until someone extends a hand. Madoka Kaname extended her hand to everyone struggling with the darkness within their own heart and to this day continues to reach out to any and all who need her help. Now when I look up at the stars, I can thank her for it.
\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}


\section{Purity.}
%The power trait of Puella Magi.

\section{Innate abilities.}
\subsection{Physiological control.}\label{Physiology}

\section{Charms.}\label{Charms}

\section{Treasures.}
\subsubsection{Sunder's Sketchbook --- Level ??? Treasure.}
Sunder's Sketchbook looks like an old and worn leather notebook with golden meaningless runes on the cover. The book looks like a
normal sketchbook with a musky scent of ages. The book can't be opened forcefully, rather it must receive sacrifice before it can
lend its power to its user. In order to use the book, a Puellae must spend one point of light, after which the book shows its
contents and the runes on the cover change to display the user's name.\\

While the book was once blank, its original owner made good use of it and now presents manga like pictures of thousands of people in
different states of hurt. All these used to be real humans, now consumed and suffering for all eternity in the books pages.\\

By spending one point of light the user of the sketchbook can have a drawing she makes tear itself from the pages and act as a
servitor. These are dumb creatures that can only receive weak commands like attack! or commanded to protect a specific location.
The servitor remains in the world for one minute per point of light spent. They're also very weak creatures that nonetheless can be
mass produced as disposable suicide units.\\

\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{Sketch servitor stats.}
\textbf{Attributes.} Strength 2, Stamina 2, Dextery 1, all other attributes 0.\\
\textbf{Skills.} Brawl 3.\\[0.3cm]
\end{minipage}}\\[0.3cm]

The sketchbook's most legendary ability though is its ability to suck living beings into its pages. This was the source of Sunder's
legend as the insane Puella Magi used it to suck her entire town into her book and was only stopped after another Puella Magi put an
end to her suffering.\\

By spending 5 points of light and making a succesful brawl attack the sketchbook sucks in the target permanently. Those sucked into
its pages can't leave them and are forever a part of the sketchbook, their souls used to feed its power. Supernatural beings
get their power traits as extra dice to resist being taken in but once inside the sketchbook are as vulnerable as any other being.\\

Targets sucked in can interact with the sketchbook's user telephatically and the user can also spend one point of light to
``animate'' those that are trapped within for a full scene or create drawings that can interact with those trapped within its
pages. This was used by Sunder to draw the target's nightmares or torture them by erasing parts of their bodies (which has the same
effect as severing those parts with the added horror that they can't die). The targets suffer the full effect of the drawings and
can fight back against the hazards in the sketchbook.\\

While it may look like a very powerful and useful artifact in the fight against the hordes of the Dark, it has the drawback of
slowly turning the user insane. The victims trapped inside the sketchbook can't ever get out (barring the possibility of legendary
magics) and the user can hear their whimpers of pain within his mind as long as he remains the sketchbook's master even outside of
telephatic rank or asleep. Not even erasing the victims can stop their suffering as their souls are used by the sketchbook (and
now have to suffer as if their whole body had been consumed...) to fuel its eldritch magics. This isn't helped by the fact that
Sunder has a whole city worth of people in eternal torment within the notebook. The user has to roll for a Breaking Point with an
added penalty of -1 to the roll for every day in possesion of the sketchbook.\\

\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{Credits.}
\begin{itemize}
 \item To BHS for his/hers amazing story \textbf{Respect} which was the basis for the Sunder's Sketchbook treasure. The story can
 be found here:\\
 \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8134552/4/Respect}
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}}

%************************************************************************************************************************
\newpage
%\begin{center}
% \includegraphics[scale = 0.8]{TheArcher1}
%\end{center}

%\begin{center}
% \includegraphics[scale = 0.8]{TheArcher2}
%\end{center}

\chapter{The Price of Hope.}
%Antagonists.

\section{Equivalent Exchange.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 "Hope and despair balance back out to zero.\\
 For as much happiness as we wish on one person,\\
 we can't help but curse someone else."\\[0.3cm]

 \textbf{- from the Psalms of Kyoko, First Prophet of the Blessed Lady.\\
 Only signed as ``A Fool''.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\section{Kyubey.}
\section{Jyubey.}

\section{Other Puella Magi.}
Due to the amount of Puella Magi that can be created at a time by the Incubators (some believe on purpose...) and the negative
effects bleeding has on the environment, most Puella Magi are extremely territorial and don't take kindly to others of their kind
occupying their domains. Due to this its not surprising that one of the most common enemies all Puella Magi face is others of their
kind.\\

While ideally a single Puella Magi could hold a territory indefinitely to maximize kills and minimize the danger that bleeding poses
on an area, the desire for company and safety in numbers is a powerful driving motivator for Puella Magi. This needs prompt them to
create small cliqués whose purpose can vary widely but usually stands around protecting a given area from outsider intrusion.\\

\section{The Puella Magi Holy Quartet.}
One of the most powerful and perhaps the most famous group of Puella Magi in the modern nights. The Puella Magi Holy Quartet sprung
during the transistion of the millenia reaching their full strength in the year 2011 and mysteriously vanishing afterwards. They
were in charge of uniting the Japanese branch in a stable whole and acting as the representants of the Asiatic Puella Magi both
to the Royal Queens and the rest of the Puella Magi in the world. Their leader Mami Tomoe taking care of furthering cooperative
efforts among the Puella Magi and doing their best to combat the encroaching hordes of the darkness in Japan and beyond.\\

Among the exploits these Puella Magi performed are singlehandely destroying all opposition to the unification program established
by their group and the formation of a support network for Puella Magi with only their rival Oriko Mikuni and her group as survivor
of their purge, along with their more famous participation during the Night of Nightmares in which the original members
singlehandely obliterated all wraiths assaulting the city of Mitakihara and managed to reduce casualities by evacuating the
inhabitants before the battle even began, which has added precognition to their list of attributed abilities.\\

Sadly just like all things related to Puella Magi, they also had to end and the Puella Magi Holy Quartet split up due to
irreconciliable differences according to the only remaining member, their leader Tomoe Mami that has dedicated more and more efforts
towards pacifying the asiatic region and creating support networks among Puella Magi. Currently she also acts as the asiatic
representative of the Puella Magi and chief strategist to keep the asian union peaceful through both combat strategy and political
accumen.\\

Meanwhile Kyoko Sakura is the legendary founder of the major cult like movement called the Church of the Blessed Lady acting as its
prophet and representative to the rest of the Puella world. She is said to still keep in touch with Mami Tomoe and although usually
taken as rivals, they have been seen having tea together and are rumored to be having an affair.\\

Of the other members...Homura Akemi is said to have gone mad shortly after the battle of the Night of Nightmares, already known to
be unstable even before the Holy Quartet earned their name, she is said to have been driven mad by the horrors she envisioned during
their greatest battle and her psyche broke. While most Puella Magi believe her to have died a long time ago, either killed by the
wraiths or due to lack of magic, those in the know report her to have popped up at the strangest of places all over the world
mumbling incoherently and apparently seeking out something. The most hopeful believe her dissappearance as Homura Akemi and the
mysterious simultaneous apparition of the legendary Archer Lady that fights wraiths is too much of a coincidence, especially those
that remember her to have been the most magically powerful of the group.\\

Miki Sayaka, their most brash member on the other hand dissappeared completely from the map and most Puella Magi believe her to be
dead although no one has the guts to ask the remaining members. The darkest rumours say that at the height of her madness, Homura
Akemi assasinated her in cold blood and was the reason of the group's split up. Whether that's true or only rumours remains unknown.
\\

While the split up of the Puella Magi Holy Quartet was felt among the Puella Magi in Japan, Tomoe Mami worked quickly and with zeal
to create a replacement group called the Puella Magi Holy Quintet which stays strong as of today to fill up the space left by the
other members along with a powerful ``pacification'' campaign to avoid any kind of rebellion. Whether this experiment will work out
or the rest of the Puella Magi (particularly their rival Oriko) seize the opportunity to fill in the power gap remains to be seen.\\

\subsection{Tomoe Mami, Leader of the Puella Magi Holy Quartet, Leader of the Puella Magi Holy Quintet, Chief Strategist of the
Asiatic Puellae.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 I think I haven't made myself clear. I expect you to have tea, and then you will retreat your group from my territory.\\
 Now, do you want sugar?\\[0.3cm]
 \textbf{- Tomoe Mami talking bussiness.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Description.}
The most famous member of the original Holy Quartet and founder of the new Holy Quintet, Mami Tomoe was the daughter of high society
parents in the city of Mitakihara. Her career as a Puella Magi started abruptly after the driver of the limousine she and her
parents were in was caught in a major crash due to the driver being distracted by a ``cat-like thing'', killing both of Tomoe's
parents and severely injuring the driver. As she was close to death, she came into contact with Kyubey and accepted the contract to
spare her life. The nature of her wish meant she was saved but in the heat of the moment she forgot to wish for her parents and they
died. This is a constant source of shame and only those closest to her know of this story.\\

Left orphaned and with a huge fortune, Mami Tomoe dedicated fully to cleansing the city of Mitakihara and earning a reputation even
before the Quartet's formation as a dangerous and powerful Puella Magi. Reports of the Incubator say she was created with an
unusually high amount of magical power that coupled with her facility to kill anyone made her a force to fear.\\

While preferring to be polite and making peaciful deals with other Puella Magi, those in the know remember her to have killed a lot
of competing girls ruthlessly if they proved to be a menace to her or the city. Rumours abound of potential Puella Magi suffering
strange ``accidents'' before they contracted. Whether this is true or only a lie made by political opponents is unknown and the
Incubators have refused to answer.\\

One of the most fond memories of Mami during her time as a solo Puela Magi happened shortly after she took control over Mitakihara.
During one of her patrols she found fellow Puella Magi Sakura Kyoko that, after a rocky start in which Mami made sure she wasn't in
the city with the purpose of killing her but a rookie with earnest intentions, they became friends and Tomoe decided to become
Kyoko's instructor. Together they defeated the wraiths and cleaned both cities with ease, becoming close friends at the same time.
Due to Kyoko's trustworthy attitude, Mami Tomoe overcame a little her feelings of loneliness and guilt over her parents death. With
Kyoko's emotional support she became a stronger Puellae. This proved to be her undoing though when Sakura Kyoko lost her family,
which prompted the rupture of their friendship and culminated in a battle in which Mami Tomoe was defeated.\\

Ashamed by her loss and without her emotional support, Mami Tomoe became paranoid and unwilling to risk another betrayal, which made
for a less personal dealing with other Puellae and a mask of perfection she wore in all her dealings along a more Machiavelian
streak.\\

Due to her magnetic and amiable personality Tomoe Mami attracted the attention of fellow Puellae Sayaka Miki which helped her smooth
her relationship with Sakura Kyoko (although it was never as sincere or good as it used to be), and even Homura Akemi fell to her
compassionate attitude and honeyed words. By the time Homura Akemi transferred to Mitakihara, Tomoe Mami had already formed the
basis of the Puella Magi Holy Quartet.\\

While initially the Quartet was seen as a minor threat that nonetheless most Puella Magi in the area refused to combat due to Tomoe
Mami's reputation, the Puella Magi Holy Quartet (once again on Mami Tomoe advice) decided to unify the consantly infighting Puellae
of the region with the precept of a unified network to support other Puella Magi against the darkness and stop unnecessary
bloodshed. While most Puellae saw it as a noble effort and quickly joined the Quartet's initiative, others saw it was an attempt by
the Quartet (and Tomoe Mami in particular) to gain power and quickly opposed them.\\

The opposition was crushed though in what is now known as the Cold Purge in which the rebellious Magi were captured or killed off by
the Quartet. Some whisper that Tomoe Mami herself subjected them to Soul Gem torture and executed the rebels personally. Only Oriko
Mikuni was able to escape the purge thanks to her unique abilities and even then only barely.\\

Tomoe Mami then spent the next four years establishing cooperation relationships with the Royal Queens and unifying the remaining
Puella Magi. This era is distinguished by being the one with the least number of Puellae sucumbing to Soul Gem corruption and the
lowest number of high power wraiths appearing in the cities. This was seen as an improvement by most Puellae and a sign of hope in
the hard work of this group.\\

Then the Night of Nightmares came. All the world suffered and saw their cities burn down in the chaos and confusion that was the
Night of Nightmares with the overwhelming devastation of the wraiths. Mami Tomoe herself was baffled about this and became even more
suspicious of Homura Akemi that had correctly predicted the event several weeks before it even happened.\\

Even though she did her best to keep her head and not let herself be carried by this, the emotional stress she got afterwards and
what happened with Sayaka was too much. The Puella Magi that she had tried to keep restrained lashed out and Mami Tomoe broke. It
was just for a moment, but it was enough for her to lose the support of the remaining members of the Holy Quartet. Shortly after
Homura dissappeared and Sakura decided to go on her own. After many years of adventuring she was on her own again...\\

Devastated, Mami Tomoe has decided to drown herself in her work as a Puella Magi and dedicates her full time to managing the Puellae
of the region. Her goals for now are maximizing the efficiency and wiping out all the remaining wraiths in the city so as to avoid a
repeat of that horrible Night of Nightmares where she lost everything. She also has been having this nagging feeling that its time
to expand further and spread her organization's prosperity to the rest of the world, whether this will work out or will end in
disaster remains to be seen, especially as her once partner Sakura Kyoko has created her own organization and has seized a huge
amount of power of her own (not that she minds killing Sakura but she'd rather not to, it creates bad rep). And what is this cult of
Gretchen they talk about?\\

\subsubsection{Appearance.}
Due to having German ancestry, Tomoe Mami was born with rich blonde hair that she adorns in curls only fitting her high class
standing. She also has bright yellow eyes that shine like the sun and even though it ashames her to admit it, the biggest bust out
of all the Puellae in her charge.\\

Most of the time she dresses professionally with a black skirt and a bussiness suit that nonetheless enhances her voluptuous curves
(all the better to sway competitors and rivals alike) and black shoes. On the rare moments she goes casual, she likes to go with a
floral motive with dresses and other feminine wear along with a special perfume she made that enhances her appeal (and dims the will
of others to resist mental charms...).\\

Transformed, Mami Tomoe manifests a ranger outfit with brown stockings, high boots and a feathered berett. Her Soul Gem manifests as
a hair clip in the shape of a flower. Although her original power was to manifest ribbons, Mami prefers to fight using
one shot Victorian era muskets and guns fitting her idea of giving it all in one shot. In recent years her outfit has taken on a
webbed pattern of ribbons which although worrying seems to be little more than a result of Soul Gem maturity.\\

\subsubsection{Roleplaying Tips.}
Politeness and grace, that's your distinctive feature and you do your best to keep it both in court, the battlefield and the torture
chamber. You're kind of a perfectionist but who wouldn't? Its a necessity due to the stress of directing all Puella Magi of the
country. Even though you have been offered the title of Queen several times you feel you fit much better as a strategist and working
behind the throne, after all, if a gentle nudge (or a veiled threat...) to the Queen can make her follow your advice, why trouble
yourself with being a public figure?\\

You have this knack for reading people and making them do what you want. Sometimes you find it unnerving and scares you of what you
could do if given the chance, so you try to work towards the wellbeing of those in your charge. After all, manipulating them like
the pawns they are is okay if its for their own good, right? And if doing so benefits you in some way...well, it can't be helped!\\

You hate bringing the iron gauntlet and the musket but you aren't afraid of doing so if someone threatens you or your charges and
even though you hate to admit it, you relish showing them firsthand why you were the most feared member of the Holy Quartet. Always
plan for a counter in case anyone tries to betray you, no matter how sincere and trusthworthy they look like, they all want
something from you, ALWAYS.\\

Finally although you're happy with your new Holy Quintet (you always felt the name lacked something...) you have this nagging
feeling something's off, like you were supposed to make a quintet but with the old members. Although you tend to feel lonely and
have trouble relating with the rookies you know they depend on you and as such you drown in paperwork to numb the feeling, it works
...sorta.\\

\subsubsection{My Wish.}
To not die alone, fate itself seems to protect Mami Tomoe as long as she fights on her own.\\

\subsubsection{My Curse.}
Due to wishing to not die alone, the corresponding curse was a life of solitude. Mami Tomoe finds herself unable to establish more
intimate relationships than mere acquaitances and Tomoe seems to become especially vulnerable when she fights along people that care
for her.\\

\subsubsection{Traits.}

\subsection{Sakura Kyoko, The Red Devil, First Prophet of the Blessed Lady.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 Let me tell you sisters, I once lost my way. I felt\\
 despair, I felt the world was unfair and wondered what\\
 I had done to deserve my fate. I once hated sisters,\\
 I once lived only for myself.\\[0.3cm]
 
 But let me tell you sisters, of our saviour. For the\\
 Blessed Lady showed me the truth, so that we\\
 don't fear despair. For always somewhere she is fighting\\
 for us, as long as we remember her we are not alone.\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Sakura Kyoko predicating.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Description.}
Born to a highly religious family with a father working as a preacher for the Christian Church in Japan, Sakura Kyoko always had a
very strong sense of morals and conviction, chosing what she saw as the right way even if it meant hardship. Even though her family
was considered lower class by the standards of Kasamino City, Sakura Kyoko wasn't interested in material gain as befitting of her
highly spiritual upbringing.\\

That was until, when she was about ten years old her father started preaching a modified version of the Church teachings. No one
knows what exactly made him take that decision with some believing him to have made the choice on his own while others believe him
to have been victim of supernatural corruption. Whatever the case, his teachings were rejected by his congregation which disbanded
and resulted in his excomulgation from the main Church.\\

This sudden event meant that Kyoko's family no longer had a source of financial support, which only worsened due to her father's
indulgence on alcohol to drown his sorrows. Even though her father tried to continue preaching his message, the lack of resources
meant that her family barely had to eat and Kyoko found herself having to rely on theft and other...less than savory methods to
provide food for her family. Even though enraged at the unfairness of the world, her faith helped her stay strong and fight for her
father, mother and particularly her sister Momo.\\

Then Kyubey came, and offered honeyed words of a better future. Kyoko readily jumped at the opportunity and wished for something
that could help her family. She wished for people to listen and understand her father's teachings, she became a Puella Magi.\\

The day after, her family found the Church full to the brim with people and it kept attracting more and more followers that came to
listen to her father's teachings. In the meantime Kyoko fought against the wraiths in a personal crusade to change her world.
Invigorated by her ability to change her situation and renewed faith on her mission to change the world behind the scenes while her
father treated the spiritual problems of mankind.\\

During one of her journeys tracking a wraith to the neighbouring city of Mitakihara, Sakura Kyoko met veteran Tomoe Mami and after
calming Tomoe's apprehension (something that inclued Tomoe wrapping Kyoko in ribbons...) they became quick acquaitances. Tomoe that
still fought alone in those days against the wraiths offered Kyoko a chance to become her apprentice and company in patrolling both
Mitakihara and Kazamino, something that was readily accepted by Kyoko as a mutually beneficial method to better clean the cities of
wraiths and a chance to learn from a veteran. Their alliegance quickly gave way to friendship after the two recognized their shared
ideals and methodologies.\\

With Tomoe Mami's assitance, Kyoko became a proficient Puella Magi and refined her abilities while providing Tomoe of the friendship
and companionship she hadn't felt since her family died. Its at this stage that Kyoko started considering Tomoe a part of her family
and even fantasized of asking her to live with hers when tragedy struck.\\

Kyoko's father had always believed it was strange how his followers blindly obbeyed his instructions and wondered about his
daughter's change of attitude and sudden dissappearances. No children could go between cities that easily after all, especially with
the dangers out there. This confussion and worry led to him being trapped in a witch labyrinth and being almost killed. Only thanks
to the fast actions of Kyoko was he saved although at the cost of revealing her secret to her father.\\

After learning of her dealings with the Incubator, her father reprimanded her for practicing witchery and making deals with the
devil along with falling in despair after learning his followers were all a product of magical intervention. Mad with rage he told
them to stop following his teachings and they obeyed.\\

While Kyoko went over to Tomoe in confusion at how her father had taken the news and being reassured things would be alright, Kyoko
returned home only to find her home and Church burnt to the ground. Shortly afterwards she learned that her father in a drunk rage
had killed her sister and mother in cold blood, their remains still bleeding and fresh in the house. She found her father's dead
body hanging by the neck from the chandelier at the middle of the Church.\\

Her family destroyed by her wish, her beliefs shattered. Sakura Kyoko resolved to claim all magic as heretic and inherently selfish,
deciding to never again use it for other's benefit so as to minimize the destruction it brings. Given this change in ideology, Kyoko
and Tomoe's relationship deteriorated until Kyoko decided to go solo in fear of bringing more suffering to her mentor. This resulted
in a fight that culminated with Kyoko defeating Tomoe and returning to Kazamino, city that she claimed as her territory. This battle
would weigh on Kyoko's conscience for many years.\\

Due to her experience and training coupled with her ruthless attitude, Sakura Kyoko quickly made short work of any rivals and took
complete control over the city of Kazamino, getting the nickname The Red Devil. Due to being a fairly small city, she managed to
lord over it and even though she was homeless, the young Puella Magi quickly made a life for herself using her powers to steal from
bank machines and live as a nomad in several hotels. Two years after she had taken control of the city, Kyoko started making forays
into Tomoe's territory in an attempt to know what had happened to her former mentor and small hope that they could once again get
along, although to her chargrin, Tomoe didn't trust her motives for returning and let her go with a stern warning and willing to
kill her should she return.\\

Not one to obey the rules or respect authority, the jaded Kyoko kept to her ocassional travels to the city and battled Tomoe Mami's
new apprentice, fellow Puella Magi Miki Sayaka due to seeing her unfit to being a Puella Magi and due to a shameful feeling of
jealousy over someone taking her role of apprentice. Given Kyoko's experience and great ability, Miki Sayaka was almost killed in
the skirmish and was only saved thanks to Mami Tomoe's fast intervention which forced Kyoko to retreat.\\

Even after this confrontation, Miki Sayaka sought a rematch with Kyoko on her own and they kept fighting both in Mitakihara and
Kazamino. After a particularly brutal beatdown that ended with both Puellae kocking each other, the two struck a fast friendship
that blossomed into something...more, at least on Sakura Kyoko's part. This proved crucial in smoothing Kyoko's differences with
Tomoe Mami and made way for the Puella Magi Holy Quartet.\\

Against Sayaka's protests, Kyoko also befriended fellow Puella Magi Homura Akemi that although mysterious and cold towards the
others, proved to mellow a little bit in Kyoko's presence (as if they had always been friends...) and thus Kyoko usually acted as a
mediator between the dark haired Puellae and Sayaka.\\

With the formation of the Puella Magi Holy Quartet, Kyoko finally found a measure of stability and something akin to the family she
had lost. While Mami and Homura acted as the strategists and magicians of the group, Kyoko and Sayaka acted as its soul and muscle
with Kyoko bearing her vicious battle prowress and street smarts to help. Beyond that, Kyoko also found herself solving disputes
within the group and even though she lacked the politeness and political acumen of Mami, she made up in blunt honesty and no
nonsense attitude. So trusted was she that she became Sayaka's only confident and was aware of her gradual mental degeneration and
even Homura took her out from time to time and revealed glimpses of lives that never were, and lots of things that made no sense to
Kyoko and that she was sure no one would get to know, like the fact Homura was capable of crying.\\

Even though she disagreed with Mami Tomoe in her desire to expand the Holy Quartet's territory to other cities, she supported her (
mostly to please Sayaka) efforts and subjugated all opposition quickly. The Holy Quartet became one of the principal if not the
biggest representative of Asian Puella Magi to the world. Kyoko left the administrative tasks to Tomoe, preferring the field work
and sparring with Sayaka. Together the two Puella Magi made an invincible duo and Kyoko found herself reawakening some of her lost
idealistic self with Sayaka's support.\\

Then the Night of Nightmares came and Kyoko was forced to mobilize herself against the forces of wraiths that attacked every city.
Having just returned from a mission in Kazamino, Kyoko was forced to cut a path across the demonic horde and bring reinforcements to
neighbouring cities. A thankless and tiresome task that nonetheless proved essential in preventing major losses of life.\\

Despite their major victory against the wraith hosts, the Night of Nightmares was the beginning of the end for the Puella Magi Holy
Quartet as the pressure of settling disputes and understanding what had happened brought the worst out of every member of the
Quartet. This culminated with a four way battle between each of the members. Trying to contain the damage made by Sayaka and
Homura's battle along with Tomoe Mami, Kyoko was severely injured after a bladed projectile hit her Soul Gem producing a crack on it
that would have killed her had not Tomoe Mami given her immediate medical attention. Sayaka left the Quartet and was never seen
again.\\

The damage her Soul Gem sustained during the battle nonetheless had serious consequences as Kyoko found herself more emotionally
unstable and gathering despair too quickly for the Grief Cubes to absorb and the bleeding to take place. This along with the severe
emotional loss that was the dissappearance of Miki Sayaka made Kyoko lose all desire to keep living. In order to stop being a burden
to the Quartet, Kyoko decided to retreat back to Kasamino and await death.\\

No one knows what exactly happened afterwards, not even Kyoko whose memory became fuzzy at that point. All she knows is that when
her Soul Gem had reached its peak of despair and was about to burst, a figure appeared to her, a figure that Kyoko knows only as The
Blessed Lady. The redhead doesn't know much about what happened or how the Lady looked like, but what she remembers well is the
feeling of infinite love and warmth irradiating from her and the mission she was given: to spread her message to all Puella Magi in
the world so that they don't despair but find everlasting hope. The redhead claims to have awoken in her father's Church with a
completely clean Soul Gem amd knowledge of the Puellae Oblations.\\

In the modern nights Sakura Kyoko spends her days as leader and prophet of the Church of the Blessed Lady, a movement that has
spread far beyond Japan to reach several continents in the world. This phenomenon and the fact other prophets appeared shortly after
Kyoko started her movement are clear proof to the redhead that there really is a God watching over them. This has given her hope
that maybe, just maybe, there's really a point to becoming a Puella Magi. Given the power she commands and the number of followers
her ``cult'' has attracted, Kyoko was offered a seat among the Officios, albeit reluctantly. Although the redhead couldn't care less
about politics with her only purpose being to spread the message of her God and saviour, Kyoko accepted after realizing the good she
could do to the Puellae community and provide the spiritual backbone that might prevent the Officios from becoming too corrupt.\\

Out of the four members of the Quartet, Kyoko keeps in touch with Tomoe Mami with which she keeps a close albeit mostly professional
relationship and which Kyoko hopes to turn into something closer to their old friendship. Meanwhile, even though she doesn't see
much of Homura, Kyoko still sees her appear from time to time to share information on the state of the world and messages from the
Blessed Lady (somehow Homura seems to be VERY important to the Blessed Lady and viceversa, having caused a huge impression in Homura
when the redhead gave her one very personal message from God, an impression that almost caused her frigid mask to melt). Of
Sayaka...Kyoko has no idea what happened to her and even though she knows she has to move on after so much time without
information on the bluenette's whereabouts, something in the redhead's heart still aches for what could have been, a wound on her
soul like the one she sports on her Soul Gem.\\

Besides spreading her God's message and attending Officio matters, Kyoko still enjoys spending some time fighting agains the wraiths
, bringing to them the good fight with spear and holy fire. A matter of recent distress to the redhead has been the strange messages
and visions she has received from her God. Even though She kept communication with the redhead through visions and dreams, lately
they have become more and more harrowing, signs of an impending doom the redhead has been unable to understand. As if that wasn't
bad enough, in recent raids Kyoko has led against the wraiths they have found cults of humans and Puella Magi worshipping something
only known as Kriemhild Gretchen. The fact that Homura reacted with horror at hearing that name in her last meeting did little to
ease her worries...\\

\subsubsection{Appearance.}
Physically Sakura Kyoko hasn't changed much from her old days and even though she's a twenty years old Puella Magi, she looks like a
much younger redhead with a sweet tooth. She's taller than Mami although not taller than the regional standard and her body is
fairly muscular and thin. Her ``femenine features'' not as developed (she still was a lower bust size than Sayaka) although that has
never been important to her. Her distinctive features are a pair of fangs she tends to show when smirking or eating, something she
tends to do all day long. Her eyes sparkle with a sincerity and purpose rarely seen, a conviction in her ideals product of her 
upbringing and tempered by her life with Mami, Sayaka and her knowledge of God. She exhudes an air of raw and wild beauty.\\

Not being a fan of rules and constraints herself, Sakura Kyoko dresses on informal attire consisting of a black shirt that bares her
midriff and leather pants (to the chargrin of the more formal Officios). She also tends to wear a green hoodie to cover her body and
provide warmth due to the region's cold.\\

In her transformed outfit she sports a red sleeveless dress with a cracked eye shaped Soul Gem (that nonetheless functions like any
other, maybe even better) in her neck choker. Her trusty segmented spear that she summons for battle has returned to her original
cross shaped tip with the eye in the middle that she sported when she was a rookie Puella Magi, a sign of her newly held beliefs
and convictions.\\

\subsubsection{Roleplaying Tips.}
If they had asked you if you believed in God a few years earlier, you would have laughed in their faces (and given them a beating
for good measure...) but not now, you have found God and a new meaning to your existence. If only you had known about this before,
then maybe she wouldn't have...it doesn't matter anymore. You've never been one to dwell on the past and sentimentalism. You have a
lot of work ahead of you.\\

\subsubsection{My Wish.}
For people to listen to her father's teachings. Acts like a curse of obedience, automatically anyone that listens to Kyoko's father
feels compelled to listen to what he has to say [VOID].\\

\subsubsection{My Curse.}
For some reason Sakura Kyoko tends to hurt those she wants to help even without meaning to. All those that she cares about tend to
suffer bouts of bad luck and see their ideals crumble before their eyes.\\

\subsubsection{Traits.}

\subsubsection{Judgment.}
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." – TDK.

"And how true it is for a Puella Magi!" Thought Sayaka bitterly as she rested on her elbows, feet moving back and forth restlessly; as restless as her soul, which now stood on her drawer, a murky pale blue light coming out of it. Her Soul Gem, her very being embodied in a physical phylactery, a gem very much like those Faberge eggs that made beautiful jewelry arrangements, "probably made that way by the Kyubey's to be more enticing and help avoid undesirable questions" said a small cold voice in the back of Sayaka's head, almost like a whisper, filling with poison her very being. The subject of her hatred was standing above her bed, always watching, always waiting for her inevitable transformation, waiting to reap his reward at the cost of poor girl's souls. Oh how she longed to crush that annoying furry head, drive a blade through those cold red eyes and crush that pathetic smile out of his face…it never worked, she had done it before and it was useless.

Sighing, she stood and got out of her bed, repeating the same routine she had set all those years ago when she was a young idealistic girl, "a fool" repeated the same cold voice, making her feel despair once again. What was worse was that it was pretty much true. Just like this routine, it was nothing but a fool's gamble for time, it wasn't anything special, but it nonetheless was one of the few anchors she had left to stand on this reality and not lose herself into despair. She HAD to do it.

Standing in front of her mirror she examined herself looking for changes. She was older now being 20 years old, college age some would say, still, she had dropped from high school when she was younger and started working at delivery on a café. The pay was little and the work was exhausting, still, it gave her ample time to be on the lookout for witches and her boss was pretty lenient on her escapades which left her with lots of time to do what she does best, hunting them… looking in the mirror she saw the same face she was used to, long blue hair disheveled and tangled. She didn't remember how much time had passed since she had taken a bath, cold dead eyes, "the eyes of someone dead, a zombie" said the voice, helping express her inner thoughts of depreciation and hatred. After dropping out of high school she had developed a pretty toned frame due to her constant battling with the evils of mankind, but her figure had become more crumpled with the passing of time, just like herself. When looking at her face she saw someone aged beyond her years, she looked 30 at least, and her hair was beginning to turn white at the edges while her eyes had taken on a steel gray tone. She constantly forced her body to age with magic to keep the human façade, but the gray eyes and white hair wasn't something made willfully. Doesn't matter, you're already dead anyway, repeated the voice.

Taking off her crumpled and dirty clothes and tossing them to an ever increasing pile, she took her murky Soul Gem from the drawer and focused her thoughts and magic, momentarily losing herself in the flow of energy as she materialized a small blue dagger with a beautiful ornate golden frame. The glistening object then made its way across her body, starting with her wrists, cutting away at her flesh, staining the steel a dark red as it passed through her delicate skin. Then she proceeded to cut across her legs leaving red stains all over while the dagger left a searing sensation as the steel marked her body and finally she cut across her stomach, momentarily losing herself on the feeling of pain, letting it remind her of the now, the reality she now stood in, and who she was, for she was a Puella Magi, a defender of justice, "and a potential monster"…

She sighed. Not good enough. Keeping this routine would calm the voice somewhat, but with every passing year the voice kept becoming stronger and stronger, she didn't know how long it would be before the voice was all that remained of her. She didn't even know when the voice started, she remembered a long time ago, when she was a naïve and energetic girl, hanging out with Madoka at school, going out shopping without a care in the world. Such happy times seemed so far away now…

Cleaning the blood from her body with a stained towel, she got dressed and looked outside. It was dark, midnight maybe, the streetlights shining strongly from her window. She felt the despair running through the streets, sewers with endless filth and corruption. Straightening herself, she took the keys out of her pocket and exited her apartment.

She had taken to living alone after her 'separation' from the rest of the girls, "right, as if you could call THAT a simple separation" whispered the voice with malice. "Shut up!" said Sayaka to no one in particular. It was pointless to argue, she had work to do.

Feeling the ebb and flow of despair; an ability she had mastered long ago after years of practice, she felt the strings connecting the filth of the city, feeling the witches across every corner: to her right one was feeding upon a hapless old woman as another Puellae approached to battle her, to her left she felt a band of drug addicts fooling around on a darkened back alley, their vices feeding out another witches familiar that would, if given some time, devour them alive. "Good" thought Sayaka, or was it her other self? It was getting harder and harder to tell the difference.

She kept striding forward, feeling the energy across the city until she found something that caught her interest.

"Give me the money or you're dead meat" said a dark skinned bulky man holding a gun against old Timothy, beads of sweat dripping across Timothy's face as he struggled to keep from breaking down right then and there. He had been planning to buy some milk, that's all he wanted! Why did something that simple generate so much trouble? He thought as he opened his wallet and got out what little money he had. Only five dollars, which was all he had for the week and didn't even get to enjoy it!

"Hand it, now!" said the thief threatening the gun to his victim's chest. As his victim was handing the money the thief saw something glinting on the edge of his field of vision. Most probably a cat, he thought. Such a bad mistake…

A blade went flying with such speed it rippled at the stale night air and cleanly sliced apart the thief's hand, gun falling to the floor. It took him a moment to understand what had happened, after which he let out a shriek of pain as he grabbed at the stump where an arm had once been.

"You chose to make a life by taking away from others…now I'm going to take you, a piece at a time…" spoke a malicious and cold voice from the dark alley.

Sayaka marched forward, in full Puella Magi outfit, ragged cape swishing at inexistent wind. Her outfit had changeda long with her perception of the world, and now it had shifted from her white and blue colors representative of a knight in her mind to a gray and dark blue outfit. The cape was ragged and longer, now more fitting for what could be mistaken as the robes of a judge and executor.

Not even flinching at the figure of the thief that stood awestruck at such a weird event, it was too weird to be real! Sayaka's eyes looked cold and dead to the world, but what sent a shiver running through the thief's spine was the sadistic smile that was plastered on that girls face. She looked psychotic!

Taking one step backwards in a vain attempt to flee, the thief soon found himself stuck to the ground by another sword piercing across his left foot. He screamed in pain but was soon silenced as another sword pierced his mouth and lifted him from the ground by the force of the impact. He was left on the ground, right foot twitching, barely alive himself.

"Good enough" thought Sayaka coldly. The next few minutes were spent turning the thief into a living porcupine as Sayaka materialized blades and stabbed different places, doing her best to keep him from dying. After she was satisfied with her work, she materialized one last blade and spoke: "Now you're relieved of your sins, you can die now" and plunged the blade into the thief's head.

Meanwhile old Timothy looked in horror at the actions of that girl. She turned towards him, cold eyes staring right through his soul, fortunately no longer did she sport her sadistic smile and instead looked at him with frozen calm, as if evaluating him.

Focusing her cold blue eyes on the man before her, Sayaka released a small flow of magic across her body and to her eyes until she saw the man's life before her. Bits and pieces running way too fast for the human eye to catch and an overpowering noise that made her feel like her brain was on fire.

She was used to the sensation as she coerced the magic to heal her brain as it ruptured its veins trying to cope with the effort of gathering information not meant for her to pry. It was an ability she had learned a few years ago, a natural progression of her wish for healing coupled with her ideals of justice. By focusing her mind into a soul and examining it for imperfections she could discern the 'diseases' of them as easily as bodily ones. Still, she used it for a very distinct purpose than healing…focusing on specific memories, using the taint of negative emotions to guide her and filtering out the rest in order to prevent straining her brain too much (the first time she tried this ability the strain almost killed her and left her comatose for a week) she saw a young boy smoking on the backseat of a car, his parent's car while they were away. She then saw the boy turning into a teen and screwing with a girl, coercing her against her will the voice answered her, anger running through her mind like a hot knife.

She then saw the same teen, turning into a man, with a blonde woman and, prying on the feelings of guilt, she knew that he was married now, and was cheating on his pregnant wife while she was at home, patiently waiting for his return from a "work meeting".

And she no longer saw old Timothy, the old frail man victim of assault, what she saw was Timothy the cheater, Timothy the man that now had left for milk and would abandon his daughter to fool around with women, Timothy the monster…

"Antony Timothy" said Sayaka in calm voice devoid of emotion, masking the anger that bubbled and threatened to escape at any time. "You've been charged by the crimes of felony, rape and adultery, how do you declare yourself?" she said, not waiting for an answer, it was pointless to listen to their pleas anyway.

"Wh…wh…what?" said the man before her, the monster, before her as if pleading for his life.

"You've been declared guilty and will now proceed with the execution" said Sayaka as the same sadistic smile crept on her face. "Time for judgment" she said in an exhilarated voice as she launched a volley of swords and skewered the man before her mercilessly.

Those that had to atone for past sins could go without as much pain as those criminals that kept to the evil of their ways. That was Sayaka's justice, her way. She transformed out of her Puella Magi outfit and looked at her Soul Gem, now dimmer due to the strain of materializing all those swords and lack of Grief Seeds. She would soon need to go hunting a Witch if she planned to stave off the transformation, just a little more time, she thought. Still, it was pointless, this world was devoid of any value at all, all people committed sins, it was just that she could see it better than the rest of hypocrites that lived in this world.

It was an irony that escaped Sayaka that by focusing on the sins of the people around her she excluded the good they brought to the world, by judging the negatives she left away the positives, and so she judged, and killed endlessly. And it was a bitter irony that by removing an evil man from the world, by removing Timothy the cheater, she had also removed Timothy the shopkeeper, the man that used his weekends to bring food to the poor, Timothy the man who daily left food to strangers, Timothy the neighbor that always had a helping hand to his neighbors, and Timothy the father of the now orphan daughter that loved and depended on him as her mother passed away from cancer two years ago, leaving her in grief and now at the hands of her abusing uncle, ripe prey for the Incubator's machinations.

And so Sayaka kept going on, judging life on the sins accumulated, and accumulating more and more as the blood kept staining her hands…

\subsection{Sayaka Miki, The Mad Judge, Freelancer and Executor.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 (with a vicious smile) Time for judgment!\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Sayaka Miki giving her veredict.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Description.}
Born to a middle class family and displaying a tomboyish attitude since birth, Sayaka Miki was often the oddball in the Mitakihara
middle school. Due to familiar pressure to become something greater and pursue becoming higher class, Sayaka made friends with high
class school president Shisuki Hitomi with her parents dissuading other relationships for the sake of their daughter's ``wellbeing''
. Due to those factors and a sense of emptiness Sayaka felt since a young age, she chose to spend most of her time reading heroic
tales and comics where good triumphed over evil. This would mark her perceptions and behavior for all her life.\\

Another major event in her childhood was when her parents took her to listen to a classical music concert in an attempt to make her
a more refined lady. This concert gave Sayaka a huge appreciation for this music and helped her befriend the violinist of the
concert called Kamijou Kyosuke. They would get to become friends and Kyosuke would help fill the void Sayaka felt a little. That was
until he was caught in an accident that resulted in the violinist losing his left arm along with both of his legs, leaving him
bedridden up to high school.\\

Due to this tragic event along with her parents giving up on their daughter doing anything for herself, Sayaka decided to skip
school and spend most of her time tending to her childhood crush while drowning herself in music and stories. As her life fell apart
Sayaka got caught in a witch labyrinth and rescued by Puella Magi Mami Tomoe, starting their friendship.\\

Inspired by Mami Tomoe's heroism and taking the Contract as an opportunity to return her crush's dream by wishing him back to
health, Sayaka Miki made her Contract with the Incubator. During the first months Sayaka got to learn from Tomoe Mami the basics of
the Puella Magi lifestyle while growing further apart from her family and friends, all except Kiosuke that she tried to visit
whenever possible.\\

While her life as a Puella Magi improved, her mundane life crumbled apart and Sayaka was expelled from her school and charged with
assault after severely maiming fellow student Shisuki Hitomi for ``stealing her boyfriend''. With her civilian life compromised
Sayaka broke ties with her family and escaped home to become a Puella Magi full time.\\

This decision led to friction with Mami Tomoe due to her reckless attitude which only worsened after Sakura Kyoko decided to enter
Mitakihara. This ended in a fight to the death between Sayaka and Kyoko that was only stopped thanks to Mami Tomoe's fast thinking.
Sayaka Miki moved ``temporarily'' to Mami's apartment.\\

Its also during this time that Homura Akemi entered the picture by trying to forge an alliance with Mami Tomoe. Sayaka automatically
took a dislike to this ``new girl'' due to her reserved and creepy attitude. This along with the fact this girl decided to team up
with Kyoko Sakura and seemed to know more than she let on gave way to mistrust between both parties. In the end and against Sayaka's
protests, both Homura and Mami decided to ally together. The Puella Magi Holy Quartet began.\\

Even though Sayaka did her best to keep tabs on the activities of Homura Akemi and Sakura Kyoko, expecting them to backstab
kindhearted Mami any second, she found the first one too discreet and hard to track while Kyoko proved to be more trustworthy than
Sayaka expected. Somehow against her best efforts they became best friends.\\

The first years of the Quartet were met with huge successes both in cleaning the cities of wraiths and squashing all invasion
attempts from other Puella Magi. After Mami proposed to expand their domains and share their prosperity to the rest of the Puella
Magi, Sayaka Miki was the first to support her ideals and jump into the fray which garnered her a reputation as a vicious killer of
those that opposed the Holy Quartet (and Mami Tomoe's interests).\\

Its during this time that frictions started getting worse between Akemi and Sayaka over the way of combating the darkness as Homura
prefered a more indirect approach and was against taking the freedom away from the rest of the Puellae while Miki argued that the
Puella Magi needed a support network so as to better defend themselves from external threats. Sayaka also argued that the activities
of the rest of the inhabitants of the World of Darkness were of interest to Puella Mami due to crimes they commited increasing the
hold of the darkness over the cities they patrolled.\\

While Mami Tomoe herself forbid Sayaka from starting fights against other beings not directly related to the darkness, the young
Puella Magi secretly took to vigilantism thinking of herself as a knight in silver armor fighting against the evil of the world.
Only Kyoko got to know about this secret and although she begged the blue haired knight to stop, her pleas fell into deaf ears.\\

As Sayaka's mental state deteriorated, she started having difficulties with the rest of her team, constatly fighting with Kyoko due
to her moral compass and even with Mami Tomoe criticizing her aggressiveness. Nonetheless she proved to be a very effective
combatant during the Night of Nightmares and wiped a huge portion of the invading wraithic horde.\\

Despite their victory, the animosity between Sayaka and Homura reached its peak after the blue haired Puellae questioned Homura's
knowledge of the event. Tensions escalated and triggered Sayaka Miki's berserker rage which resulted in an all out battle between
the two Puella Magi and forced the intervention of both Mami Tomoe and Kyoko Sakura. The battle was stopped only when Sayaka Miki
severely wounded Kyoko Sakura leaving her on the border of death and with severe damage to her Soul Gem. Ashamed at what she had
done and unable to reconciliate her vision, the wounded Sayaka Miki escapted and was never seen again by the rest of the Holy
Quartet.\\

In truth, Sayaka managed to survive and wandered west until settling in a god forsaken city where she continues her vigilantism. Due
to her sense of righteousness and purpose she managed to avoid becoming a witch and her combat experience meant she easily disposed
of external threats despite constantly being low in magic. To this day Sayaka keeps acting as a vigilante in the towns and has taken
her battle to mundane criminals or what she considers criminals, punishing even minor offenses with death or worse.\\

\subsubsection{Appearance.}
Despite biologically being only in her twenties after judicious application of her magic, Sayaka looks at least in her thirties with
a malnourished appearance. Her eyes, once blue like the ocean are dull and have a steel grayish tone to them while her hair sports
several white lines. All these changes weren't voluntary and stem from Soul Gem exhaustion due to Sayaka's reckless use of magic and
lack of sustenance.\\

When not spending time in her apartment, Sayaka dresses in the first thing she can find (a wraith killing machine needs no clothing
after all) without care about protocol codes. Justice can't wait...\\

In her transformed state, Sayaka Miki's once light blue suit has become a dull metallic blue with black cracks and rust along with
breast, shoulder and leg plates that serve to protect her body from physical damage. Her cape, once white and pristine has become
gray and ragged like her ideals and while it once fell up to her waist like a hero, it now falls up to the ground fully covering her
body in the manner of a judge or executor mantle.\\

\subsubsection{Roleplaying Tips.}
Since you were a child you always felt something's amiss, like this shouldn't be happening or you shouldn't be alive for some
reason. Then again, you don't feel much these days...physically that is. You're just a machine, a zombie created with the purpose of
dispensing justice and wasn't for it, you believe you'd be dead a long time ago.\\

Be a machine, you're dead. Try telling yourself that until you believe it. Maybe that way the pain you feel in your chest, no, your
very soul will subside. Be brutal in battle and disable your opponents as fast as you can so as to minimize corruption. Even though
you hate to admit it, getting wounded and the rush of battle is the only thing that makes you feel something, and even then only
barely. Punish without mercy and brutally to make an example. Those that must repent for past sins can die without much suffering,
those that keep to their evil ways...you make sure they feel the pain they caused so as to clean their souls and let them pass on.\\

Even though you try to be impartial when judging people, crimes against woman particularly enrage you as they remind you of...him.
You tend to go berserk when facing such cases, the rage strong within your soul.\\

\subsubsection{My Wish.}
To heal Kamijou Kyosuke's arm so that he can play again.\\

\subsubsection{My Curse.}
To become as unfeeling and numb as the hand of the violinist that was healed and to suffer the anguish and loss of humanity that it
entails. Due to this Sayaka has most senses numbed and must pay conscious effort to experience any sensation, even then only the
most extreme forms of pain and pleasure can prompt a response from her. The world has become a gray and unfeeling place that she
can't enjoy anymore.\\

\subsubsection{Traits.}

\subsection{Homura Akemi, The Archer Lady, The Chosen One, First Apostle of the Blessed Lady.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 I miss that smile. I wish to someday meet you again.\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Homura Akemi's pilgrimage.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Description.}
You did it for Her, all for Her. Just so that she had a chance at a happy life. And you would do it again, just for Her...\\

Left in the orphanage since birth, Homura Akemi has no knowledge of her parents and never got information on their whereabouts or
identities. When growing up she was often the victim of bullying by the rest of the children in the orphanage due to a heart
condition she was born with that resulted in a frail and sickly complexion along with her partial blindness that forced her to wear
thick glasses.\\

Due to her condition she was forced to spend entire months in bed and avoid all activities beyond rest to avoid over exciting her
heart. This resulted in her missing school for several seasons and impaired her already deficient physical and social abilities.\\

Constantly feeling unloved and like a load to the world at large, Homura developed suicidal tendencies and a big lack of self esteem
that accompanied her for the rest of her life.\\

After receiving a heart operation that ensured she would be able to attend school as long as she didn't overexert herself, Homura
was released from the hospital on periodic probation and enrolled in Mitakihara middle school. There she would have her fateful
meeting with Kaname Madoka, then Puella Magi, an encounter that would mark her forever.\\

Even though she again suffered due to her shortcomings and lack of self esteem, Kaname Madoka was always by her side, supporting her
and encouraging Homura to do her best. This would continue after Homura learned of Madoka's secret life as a Puella Magi and started
following her along with Mami Tomoe in witch hunts.\\

Then Walpurgisnacht came to the city, a monumental witch of unknown origins that devastated the city and that was only stopped
thanks to Mami Tomoe and Kaname Madoka's heroic sacrifice. Having been witness to the event and despairing at having lost her
emotional support, Homura Akemi was offered a wish by the Incubator hoping to make up for the energy wasted in Madoka and Mami's
deaths. After some thinking Homura wished to repeat her meeting with Madoka, so that she would be able to protect them thus getting
to meet them alive and getting a chance at becoming stronger herself.\\

This decision would put in motion a chain of events that neither Homura or the Incubator could predict.\\

Homura was granted the much valued and extremely rare gift of time travel, being thrown in a stable feedback loop that would last
from the beginning to april to the day Walpurgisnacht arrived to the city. Additionally she was granted one month worth of time that
she used to interact with reality in her own pace pretty much ``stopping'' time for the rest of the world until she deactivated her
powers or her alloted time was consumed.\\

Despite the potential for abuse of this ability, Homura Akemi started as a fairly mediocre Puella Magi with lack of control over
even the simplest abilities available to all contracted and some of the lowest magical reserves known to date. This was exacerbated
by the protective wording of her wish which meant that Homura lacked any offensive ability. In order to make up for these
deficiencies and after once again befriending Madoka and Mami, Homura set to make her own set of mundane weaponry beginning with a
golf club and later developing pipe bombs that she stored in the hammerspace provided by her time stopping buckler.\\

This timeline was marked by the Puella Magi trio defeating Walpurgisnacht but losing Tomoe Mami in the process and corrupting Madoka
to the point she turned into a witch, an event that made Homura realize the Incubator's true nature.\\

Horrorized at what was their ultimate fate but undaunted, Homura decided to warn the other Puellae about the true nature of the
Contract but found her warnings fall on deaf ears and being marked as insane by the rest. Even though Madoka supported her, she also
refused to fully believe her story and all the others were horrorized when Miki Sayaka, an addition to the team that began as an
anomaly but that started contracting after a given set of timelines, inevitably turned into a witch. The event rather than uniting
the team against the common enemy that was the Incubator, made the Puellae turn against each other with only Homura (and sometimes
also Madoka) surviving.\\

Nonetheless the result was always the same as Madoka sacrificed herself to defeat Walpurgisnacht and Homura was forced to mercy kill
her after Madoka made her promise she wouldn't let her become a witch. Homura decided to prevent Madoka from making the contract in
order to avoid all the problems that the Contract entailed.\\

In looking for allies, Homura Akemi learned of Sakura Kyoko and Mami Tomoe's relationship and the two struck a fast alliegance in
most timelines due to the trustworthy and grounded attitude of the redhead. Due to the wear and emotionally taxing work of repeating
the same tragedy again and again, Homura Akemi started seeing the rest in a more detached and clinical way so as to avoid despairing
during their inevitable deaths. The black haired Puella Magi also became increasingly ruthless in her methods by resorting to theft
of military grade weaponry that she hoped would bring stronger firepower to bear against Walpurgisnacht's almost impenetrable hide
and killing everyone that got between her and her goal.\\

This began by labeling Miki Sayaka as too troublesome to save after making her contract and Tomoe Mami being mentally unstable and
too dangerous to Homura due to her abilities being a direct counter to her timestop and her propensity to ``lose her head'' when
learning the true nature of the Puella Magi Contract.\\

Homura Akemi found several distinct patterns across her repetitions which she used to make statistics that let her predict future
events and the results based on the threads of fate. She also saw several anomalies such as the apparition of an Oriko Mikuni, a mad
prophet that was too dangerous due to her special set of abilities and that Homura took the care to kill in all following timelines
before she made the contract.\\

At first horrorized by her indiscriminate killing of innocents, Homura treated it as acceptable losses in order to win her battle
against the Incubator and Walpurgisnacht. In some point she stopped thinking of herself as human and losing her attachment to her
once friends, only Madoka remained as her single obsession and even she became something of an abstract goal she had to achieve over
her initial conceptions of becoming friends again.\\

Due to her increasingly morally dubious methods and moral degradation, Homura found her relationship with Madoka drifting further
apart with every passing iteration, the pink haired girl treating her with mistrust and fear. This more than anything else hurt
Homura more as she was forced to recognize their relationship would never be like it was originally. Homura decided to treat the
entire world as pieces in her battle to save Madoka and, in order to ensure her protection, leaving Madoka in the dark and commit
suicide after defeating Walpurgisnacht in order to prevent Madoka from knowing what had happened.\\

She never got to put the last part of her plan in motion though as the Incubator managed to see through her gambit and talk her into
despair by revealing how she had singlehandely made Madoka's fate increasingly hard to change \ref{Quantum} while increasing her
magical potential to universe shattering levels. Left with too little energy to repeat her journey and lacking the will to do so,
Homura Akemi was almost turned into a witch until Madoka made the last wish that changed the whole system. This wish resulted in the
deletion of witches that triggered a space time paradox that ended in the destruction and birth of a new Universe free of witches
and the ascension of Madoka to a conceptual state. All memories of her as a person and all timelines where she could potentialy
exist were deleted, nullifying Homura's wish.\\

Due to the nature of her wish, Homura was able to recall Madoka shortly after remaking her Contract which was also considered an
anomaly by the Incubators due to how it was worded. This happened a week before her release from the hospital which was the point
her loop started in the pre Madoka universe. The following days her memories started to return and Homura felt herself despairing as
she recalled her past failure. After a failed suicide attempt in which Homura tried to down a lethal dose of pain killers, the black
haired girl received a vision of Madoka that gave her a sense of purpose and a new mission. With renewed faith and after being
released under probation due to her mental state, Homura attended Mitakihara middle school.\\

In a strange change from earlier timelines, Homura was surprised to find Miki Sayaka absent from school and even attempts at
locating her at her parent's home met with failure. Nonetheless Homura managed to make contact with Mami Tomoe and learned of the
impact the non existence of Madoka had on the blue haired Puella Magi. Sadly this wasn't enough to quell the resentment the
bluenette harbored towards Homura and even though she did her best to avoid the blue haired girl, they usually came to blows after
Sayaka's insistence on following Homura around.\\

A month later Kyoko entered the city and the two became fast allies and friends shortly afterwards. Taking advantage of Kyoko's ease
at establishing relationships and her bond with both Sayaka and Tomoe Mami, Homura was able to integrate into the Puella Magi Holy
Quartet without much fuss.\\

Honoring Madoka's sacrifice, Homura did her best to clean the city of witches and becoming an useful member to the newly formed
Quartet. Trying to avoid unnecessary bloodhsed among Puella Magi, Homura Akemi limited her support towards lending her considerable
magical and tactical knowledge to the team and only entering combat against wraiths. Once the city was pacified, Homura Akemi spent
a lot of time going between cities either in company of Kyoko or alone to deliver messages to the rest of the courts and giving
support in cities with lack of strong Puella Magi. This was motivated in part to avoid inner conflict with the rest of the group
(particularly Sayaka) and to avoid showing her weakness to the others.\\

For all the good the Holy Quartet did, there were always wraiths to combat and those in the wilderness grew to become particularly
cunning and dangerous. Homura also had to contend with her own sins and even though her Soul Gem was exceptionally powerful and
consumed almost no energy (as if the power of all the timelines that never were gathered inside her Soul Gem), her depression about
her failure and the nightmares of what she had done in all those timelines took its toll in her mind. She usually awoke feverish and
with a raw throat after recalling particularly horrifying memories. Given that this wasn't ignored by the rest of the Quartet and
given her aloof and cold nature, Homura was always something of an outsider in the group and never made close relationships with
the other members, trusting only Kyoko with the least of her memories and a moment of weakness.\\

Still, Homura kept seeing Madoka in her dreams and memories, the feeling like the twist of jagged glass in her heart. But also
getting important information such as the coming of the Night of Nightmares that came to Homura in a feverish dream two weeks before
the event took place. Although the black haired Puella Magi already suspected something would happen at that date just like
Walpurgisnacht, the information proved to be invaluable in evacuating the inhabitants of Mitakihara and reducing the lives lost in
the wake of that tragic night.\\

Sadly what Homura didn't account for was the mistrust the knowledge of this would create in the group and that bad management of the
information caused an infighting that ended with the dissollution of the Holy Quartet and the almost death of Sakura Kyoko.
Heartbroken at this failure in keeping Madoka's friends together, Homura Akemi decided to leave the city and going solo in her quest
towards wraith elimination. Homura Akemi was dead to the human world by the end of the month, all records indicating death by
cardiac arrest.\\

In the following years Homura would travel across the world in what she considered her pilgrimage for atonement over her crimes in
the past timelines and her failures in the present one, trying to find an answer from Her and hunting in the wilderness for the most
dangerous wraiths in order to prevent a repeat of the Night of Nightmares. She would travel across the entire world gathering
knowledge on the Puella Magi and the Incubators while making a legend for herself as the Archer Lady. Still the nightmares never
stopped and she had visions of futures that never were, along with signs in the world and what had to be done. Homura attributes
this as being in Madoka's favor and she readily interpreted and followed those patterns to perform her holy mision.\\

In the modern nights Homura keeps roaming the world, her convictions still strong even if her mind isn't particularly stable. Even
though she knows of Mami Tomoe's ascension to strategist of the Puellae in Asia and of Sayaka Miki's career as executor, Homura
Akemi only maintains brief contact with Sakura Kyoko due to her work with her Church of the Blessed Lady. Although she hates to
admit it, Homura feels a little jealous over Madoka favoring another person over her to spread her message, then she remembers her
almost null social abilities and agrees that Kyoko is the best option in sharing her words.\\

Although she has gone far and wide in the World of Darkness, Homura has spent an increasing amount of time in the desert hunting the
dangerous and cunning wraiths that prey on unwary travelers. She has found that the places most isolated from humanity are the most
conductive to getting visions from her goddess and has spent the past months hunting (and haunted) by visions from Her. Shortly
after getting word from Kyoko of a dangerous cult that was corrupting a high number of Puella Magi and personally performing several
raids on their hideouts, Homura has confirmed that something very wrong is happening to Madoka. Given the nature of her wish it
should be impossible for Kriemhild Gretchen to be in the world, and yet like all anomalies she exists.\\

\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{On Fate and the Schrödinger cat.}\label{Quantum}
Gen Urobuchi in an interview admitted to not have fully thought the mechanics of Homura Akemi's time travel and as such fans were
left to ponder whether it was a single feedback loop or instead Homura Akemi's conscience travelled across parallel timelines. The
simplest possible solution is to apply the corollary of Maximum Diabolus from the Rule of Cool: whatever causes more despair is the
right answer!\\

But if you're curious, a possibility comes from the concept of Quantum Mechanics in which a given particle can hold several states
at the same time (something like spin, up, down, etc., a physicist could shed some light here...) and only takes upon a given state
after observation. Given that Homura was travelling across unexistant timelines and acting as the ``observer'' of these, even after
she left them the state in those lines was already set the moment she abandoned them for another, leaving a thread with a given
ocurrence already in effect. If multiple threads started sporting the same end: Kaname Madoka dying, then due to probability the
number of threads that would follow that pattern would increase because there are more states in which Kaname Madoka dies than those
in which she survives. Hence why the more Homura travelled across time and thus fixed the state of more and more potential timelines
, the harder it became to change Madoka's fate.\\[0.3cm]
\end{minipage}}\\[0.3cm]

\subsubsection{Appearance.}
Due to no longer needing a human identity, Homura Akemi hasn't aged a day since the one she made her contract. She still looks like
a 14 years old japanese girl with long black hair that goes past her lower waist and deep purple eyes. She lets her hair hang free
and only holds it in place by a pink ribbon, her only memory of Madoka. The other was given to Sakura Kyoko as a symbol of
friendship and in the hopes it can be preserved. Strangely, the ribbon doesn't seem to corrode or lose its color and has proved
exceptionally resistant to entropy, something Homura attributes to Her grace.\\

In her civilian attire Homura has taken a liking to long black sweaters and pants although she also keeps a black hoodie she
received as a gift from Sakura Kyoko and that she wears along with a red scarf when trying to hide her identity or when going out in
cold weather. She's rarely seen casual as she spends an increasing amount of time transformed to preserve her clothing (and even
then her Soul Gem doesn't seem to suffer from it...). Homura also has a leathr trenchcoat and (to her chargrin) a black gothic
lolita dress gifted to her by Tomoe Mami on the excuse of wanting her to have varied clothing (seriously what was she thinking? Or
was that Candeloro wanting to play dress up through her?).\\

In her transformed state Homura Akemi's costume remains the same old white and purple design with a diamong pattern that resembles
a japanese school girl's uniform. Its sleek, simplistic and molds perfectly to her body, hence why Homura prefers to stay
transformed if possible. Although she still keeps her buckler, it lacks the sand and a critical gear at the middle that was used
when she turned back time, a signal that she no longer has access to it. Although she can't turn back or stop time anymore, Homura
still retains her hammerspace along with the many guns and explosives she stored for Walpurgisnacht and that never got to use. Due
to sentimental reasons, she rarely uses it in battle except to lend extra firepower to non magical allies. She instead relies on her
new abilities that seem to include the summoning of a bow with an unlimited amount of magical arrows and a pair of white wings that
can deflect attacks or be used for flight. Her symbol as a servant to Madoka and her unwavering faith.\\

\subsubsection{Roleplaying Tips.}
While you always felt like a stranger in the other timelines and sought to find the history where you really belonged, at least they
had Madoka to give you purpose. Now you feel even more of a stranger in a strange land and have nothing but the promise to meet
again to guide you.\\

Sometimes you feel her presence, in the warmth of the sun that caresses your skin or the smell of the flowers. You don't know if
she's trying to comfort you or taunt you over your failure in saving her. You failed, there's no other word for what happened and
now you must pay the price. Still, sometimes...in your darkest hours where your life with Madoka feels like only an illusion of a
desperate soul that you wonder if maybe, just maybe, it would have been better to kill her and turn back the clock.\\

You would be lying if you said you don't feel resentment over what she did. In the end she once again sacrificed herself for
everyone but you, and this time made sure that you wouldn't get the one thing you desired the most: a happy life for her. You try to
bury those feelings in the mission and await for the promised day.\\

The years pass like tar and make you miss the time loops where every tick counted, the nightmares never leave you now. Maybe you
deserve it, you have tortured, you have killed and done much worse for her. In some particularly horrifying timelines where the
accumulated despair poured over the still uncontracted Madoka and twisted her into something evil and insidious, you still protected
her and sinned in her name without flinching, hoping to finally set things right even if she was never like the Madoka you first
met. In others you went so far as to hurt her, like those in which you kidnapped her trying to hold her until the passing of
Walpurgisnacht or those were you acted as the enemy, mutilating her and killing her friends to scare her into submission. In some
time lines you were too insane to function and ended up killing her when she made signs of crossing the line. And even after all the
suffering, you'd gladly do it again if given the chance...\\

Death is what you desire most, but you don't dare to take your life or let yourself be killed, you promised her and if there's
something worthy in you is that you always do your best to keep true to your word. Sadly no one seems strong enough to do you in and
your Soul Gem shines like a thousand suns, like it won't ever extinguish. Sometimes you fear she lied and you'll spend eternity
chasing after shadows of her and fighting wraiths forever with Kyubey as your only company...\\

Even though your connection to Madoka still remains and she has contacted you in your darkest moments to give you brief words of
encouragement, the messages have always been brief and cryptic, made all the harder by your mind having trouble separating fantasies
of wish fullfillment from reality. Sometimes you can't even discern if you're still dreaming or awake. Lately though, the visions
have become darker and more harrowing, as if Madoka is mocking or torturing you. You know something's not right and with Kriemhild
Gretchen's appearance your worries have been confirmed. Still, the visions seem to follow a certain pattern, a word ringing in your
ears again and again: \textbf{Rebellion}. You don't know what that means for the future or Madoka herself, but you have the
advantage of preparation, you're probably the most powerful Puella Magi in the world and you keep training so that when the time
comes to fight, whoever is hurting Madoka will pay.\\

\subsubsection{My Wish.}
To redo her meeting with Kaname Madoka so that instead of being protected by Madoka, Homura protects her [VOID].\\

To protect the world She loved [UPDATED].\\

\subsubsection{My Curse.}
To redo her meeting with Kaname Madoka up to a month before Walpurgisnacht's arrival whether she succeeds in protecting Madoka or
not [VOID].\\

To protect the world that Madoka loved for all eternity and never find eternal rest [UPDATED].

\subsubsection{Traits.}
\textbf{Merits:} Eidetic Memory, Inspiring, Light of a Thousand Suns.\\

\begin{itemize}
 \item \textbf{Wings of Corrosion.}\\
 Homura Akemi has learned how to harness her own despair and release it in a ultimate attack for devastating efficacy. By emptying
 her reserves Homura can release her despair as a pair of deformed wings with the properties of witch barriers that instantly
 corrupt everything in a number of meters equal to her Light dots. Everyone caught in the blast receive the despair in aggravated
 damage and lose the same amount in their power trait. The damage takes the form of extremely accelerated aging and putrefaction.\\
 
 Due to the aggresive and indiscriminate nature of this attack, Homura only uses this when fighting alone and knowing no innocents
 can get hurt.\\
\end{itemize}

\subsubsection{Kanna Asumi.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 My wish is to destroy the world...
\end{center}

\subsection{The Pleiades Saints.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 "Those seven stars up there! We're named after the seven sisters of myth."\\
 \textbf{- Niko Kanna, Puella Magi Kazumi Magica}
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Oriko Mikuni.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 "It is human emotion that created the gods...and created the wraiths. It created everything."\\
 \textbf{- Oriko Mikuni, Puella Magi Oriko Magica.}\\[0.5cm]
\end{center}

\subsubsection{Kirika Kure.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 ``Love is infinitely finite!''\\
 \textbf{Kirika Kure, Puella Magi Oriko Magica.}\\[0.5cm]
\end{center}

\subsection{Followers of Kriemhild Gretchen.}

\subsubsection{Legion.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 A thousand voices: We are legion!
\end{center}

%************************************************************************************************************************
\chapter{The World of Witches.}
%Introduction to the Puella Magi dreamworlds and alternate character creation. Shards from NWoD: Mirrors.
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 This is the world of witches.\\
 
 This is my destiny. There's only a sparkle\\
 and regret...what did I want to protect?\\
 I don't remember anymore.\\
 
 Ah, so this is my despair...\\[0.3cm]

 \textbf{- Homura Akemi, Extract from the book of Rebellion.}\\[0.3cm]
\end{center}

\section{The Mirror Breaks.}
Although this game aims to be used for playing a chronicle more similar to that of Magical Girl Noir Quest which is very fitting for
a world such as the World of Darkness and the rules and personalities of the characters were tweaked to make it more compatible with
the other books, its possible to make a game that is closer to what was shown in the original series with a few minor tweaks. In the
following chapter we show a series of shards based on home rules and themes that aim to explore the different aspects of the Puella
Magi.\\

\section{Shard - Puella Magi Madoka Magica.}
In order to make the game more like the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the first thing is to decide whether the game wants to
take place pre Madokami or post Madokami (currently due to the lack of information on the world post Rebellion it has no counterpart
and instead we advice you use the rules found in \textbf{Shard - The Fake City \label{WhoDreams}}).

\section{The World Pre-Madokami.}
\subsection{Theme.}
The theme changes to exploring the cruelty of a system especifically designed to torture and exploit preteen girls to keep the
Universe running. This is a case of the Universe literally being powered by a Forsaken Child as the Puella Magi are deceived by the
Incubators and forced into a fight not fit for a girl their age. As they face the horrors of the World of Darkness and their souls
corrupt while they fight for their wish, the Puella Magi lose everything and are either killed (if lucky) or become that which they
were fighting. Witches trapped in their dellusions and personal hells until someone comes to release them from their suffering.\\

In this world there is no hope for the Puella Magi and the struggle becomes one of survival rather than of making a change. Can you
survive just one more day?\\

\subsection{Mood.}
The mood is resentment. Resentment at the injustice that brought you to this fate, resentment at the Incubator that tricked you into
a life of service and resentment at the rest of Puella Magi for existing. This sometimes becomes laced with paranoia as everyone
tries to take each other out first.\\

\subsection{House Rules.}
\begin{itemize}
 \item \textbf{Grief Seeds matter.}\\
 Only witches drop Grief Seeds and only one is obtained per witch. Fighting against crime, familiars or the other beings of the
 World of Darkness has no reward to the ever corrupting souls of the Puella Magi and as such only the insane or stupid try to fight
 other things besides witches.\\
 
 As a possible house rule, defeating a witch provides one Grief Seed. Roll a dice and the result is the number of Purity points it
 can restore. Usually only one use is allowed and truly exceptional witches may provide two or even three uses at most. Its all or
 nothing and unused Purity points are lost.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Puella Magi are bastards.}\\
 Take down the other Puella Magi before they do the same to you. There are small alliegances here and there but most are brief and
 end in blood and tears. There are no Officios and no organization, the Incubators do their best to further Puellae infighting to
 ensure that. Most Puellae farm familiars and the most ruthless even capture humans to feed them in the hope of getting more
 witches.\\
 
 It can be treated the same as the Beast scent in \textbf{Vampire: the Requiem}.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Incubators are even worse.}\\
 The Incubator isn't your friend and if you believe that, you're in for a brief existence. Incubators will do their best to mislead
 all Puella Magi into making stupid wishes they'll regret and provide ``helpful'' assistance that results in the Puellae making even
 more stupid decisions, digging her grave further and maximizing her despair. Incubators usually fight amongst themselves and make
 races to reach the highest number of witches in the lowest amount of time.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Full Grief Seeds are dangerous.}\\
 If a Grief Seed is left for an extended period of time, like for example a number of weeks equal to its corruption value then the
 Witch bursts forth from the Seed again. Roll one die to determine when the witch will burst although it tends to do so at the worst
 time possible (scholars believe its due to those times achieving more despair).\\
 
 \item \textbf{Wishes can wreck the world.}\\
 Wishes have far more over reaching consequences and are more powerful. Anything is possible from getting unlimited time travel, to
 bringing the dead back to life, curing vampirism or other impossible diseases, solving world hunger, causing a zombie appocalipse
 or becoming billionaire. Besides the obvious possibilities of abuse, the wishes keep all the other rules and they always come back
 to bite the Puellae that makes them.\\
 
 \item \textbf{One wish one power.}\\
 The Puella Magi get only one ability related to the wish nature and its magnitude. Discard Charms and only grant the Puellae
 whatever ability is most narratively fitting no matter how powerful it is. Anything from infinite sword spam, world creation,
 perfect future precognition or unlimited time stop are possible. Given the potential abuse on this rule and the difficulty making
 a power set for every possible wish and ability, this is left to the storyteller's discretion.\\
 
 Puellae can learn other secondary abilities thematically related to their main power. This is also left to the Storyteller to
 decide.\\
 
 \item \textbf{He who fights monsters...}\\
 All Puella Magi lose Purity daily and even the strongest find harder to maintain their Purity high as years pass. In the end all
 Puella Magi that aren't killed in battle end up as witches.\\
 
 Each year in chronicle lower the Puella Magi Purity level by one dot that can't be recovered. If the Puella Magi raises her total
 score she will find that there's a limit to how much Purity she can have. For example: Rose, a Puella Magi with three dots of
 Purity passes her first aniversary after contracting and finds her Purity lowered to two despite not having spent much magic. If
 she were to raise her Purity levels she would find herself unable to go beyond Purity 9, her Soul Gem is fading although Rose can
 still buy her lost third dot with experience. Rose doesn't worry about it and the next aniversary Rose finds to her distress that
 her Purity gets once again lowered, she only has one dot left and her Purity can't rise above 8. If Rose doesn't adress this
 problem and finds her Purity lowering to zero, her Soul Gem cracks and she becomes a witch.\\
 
 If the Storyteller wants to make it closer to the series, he may opt to discard Purity altogether and only grant all Puella Magi
 a number of random dots in ``energy'' by rolling a dice. The Puellae can raise that score up to ten or beyond by gathering Grief
 Seeds but if somewhere on the line they spend more points than they have in reserve, they instantly turn into witches.\\
 
 All Puellae consume one point of energy each day/night after waking up, their bodies need it to keep working.\\
\end{itemize}

\subsection{The Puella Magi Holy Quintet.}
\subsection{Mami Tomoe, Protector of Mitakihara.}

\subsection{Sakura Kyoko, Pocky Bandit of Kazamino.}

\subsection{Sayaka Miki, Hero of Justice.}

\subsection{Madoka Kaname, Messiah Complex.}

\subsection{Homura Akemi, Moemura ver.}

\subsection{Homura Akemi, Time traveler.}

\subsection{Walpurgisnacht.}

\begin{center}
 \itshape
 She had failed.\\
 
 Are you leaving?\\
 
 Now she couldn't leave, she was stuck to watch as her friends and herself fell.\\
 
 If I go back, history will get worse and worse every time.\\
 
 She couldn't help in the least. All she could do was bring upon Madoka this hellish misery. She was worthless.\\
 
 You feel something for her, don't you?\\
 
 She never deserved Madoka in the first place. She didn't deserve her friendship and she didn't deserve to be loved by her. She
 never succeeded in repaying Madoka for that first time she saved her, that time she smiled to her, that first time she spoke to
 her. Madoka succeeded in protecting her. She only failed and failed and failed again.\\
 
 Again.\\
 
 And again...\\
 
 It all seemed like a huge tragedy she kept replaying over and over again, one where the end was always predetermined, where her
 doom was assured. Maybe it was a tragedy...maybe she was playing a play someone else wrote, along with Madoka and everyone else...
 \\
 
 Looking back on her own story, her own character, it felt kind of...romantic. She was only a character that the play doomed to
 fail, all in the name of friendship and unspoken love. She gave her all, fought destiny and sadness, broke the limit of time to
 save a certain pink haired girl from certain death and growing despair, only to fail each and every time in scenarios worse than
 the previous ones. Yeah...romantic.\\
 
 This idea somewhat soothed her pain and grief in this fateful hour. It didn't sound so bad once you put it this way. Living was all
 a huge play, one with roles and acts and plot. Some roels were doomed to fail and live misery, but it was all to make the play
 beautiful, tragic and perfect.\\
 
 She grinned, and started laughing. Her voice didn't sound anything like the one she remembers, but its okay since it was part of
 the play. Everything needed to be organized neatly in order for the great tragedy to take place! So much to do, so little time to
 do it!\\
 
 Wait...time. A tragedy around time! That was a perfect fit! She was once the main protagonist, the one that was doomed to fail in
 a tragic and heroic way, but she grew bored of that. Now, her role will be that of the main villain. Yeah! That sounds just
 perfect! The main villain that will appear across time and whom the main protagonist will have to fight, and fail some way or
 another! It needs to be tragic, wonderful and emotional! The perfect tragedy, hers to build.\\
 
 Quick, quick! Let's start! There is much to do, and time is waiting for me to make an appearance on stage!\\
 
 Ladies and gentlement! Let the show beging!\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Puella Magi Kizeki Magica.}\\[0.5cm]
\end{center}

\section{The World Post-Madokami.}
\subsection{Theme.}
The theme becomes a lot like the one presented in \textbf{Princess: the Hopeful}. Becoming a light in the dark that is the World of
Darkness and fighting with the knowledge that although the fight may be eternal, you can count on the support of your partners to
fight alongside you and those that come after you to take the mantle after you're gone. In this Shard, although the fight is brutal
and dehumanizing, there's always hope that at the end of the day, you might have made a difference and the Lady will give you your
reward.\\

\subsection{Mood.}
The mood is bittersweet as the Puella Magi make their way in the world, fighting for their happy ending. They will inevitably lose
their youths, they will lose friends, they might even lose their life but there's a point to it all. They are making a difference
and that's all that matters. There's hope.\\

\begin{itemize}
 \item \textbf{Grief Cubes matter.}\\
 All wraith drops Grief Cubes which are the only way for a Puella Magi to recover from despair. Hunting criminals or other beings
 of the World of Darkness gives no benefit to the Puella Magi. Wraiths appear at random although they prefer places of strong moral
 decay.\\
 
 After defeating a Wraith roll two dices, the first determines how many cubes are dropped and the second defines how many points of
 Purity each cube restores.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Strength in numbers.}\\
 Wraiths are weaker than witches but make for it in numbers and cunning. Likewise all Puella Magi tend to unite in small groups
 called ¿WHAT? where they join to fight against the darkness. Banding together provides emotional support and resources that prove
 invaluable in the fight against the darkness, starting with a facade and cover.\\
 
 All groups count as level One Tier with the most powerful going up to Second Tier. There are no global organizations as the Puellae
 don't last long enough.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Incubators are OK.}\\
 While the Incubators are still bastards that care only for efficiency, they care only for efficiency and don't get extra energy
 from a Puellae despairing. As such most Incubators provide useful advice to their contractees and do their best to make them last
 as long as they can. This isn't always a good thing as some Incubators are known for stealing the gems of fallen Puella Magi or
 keeping others in pain for weeks with their magi tech until they're once again fit to go. To the Incubators that lack the concept
 of pain its the same if a girl is fighting with only one arm or two, what matters is the result.\\
 
 Then there are those that punish girls or make experiments with their Soul Gems to maximize their duration...\\

 \item \textbf{Wishes can wreck the world.}\\
 Wishes have far more over reaching consequences and are more powerful. Anything is possible from getting unlimited time travel, to
 bringing the dead back to life, curing vampirism or other impossible diseases, solving world hunger, causing a zombie appocalipse
 or becoming billionaire. Besides the obvious possibilities of abuse, the wishes keep all the other rules and they always come back
 to bite the Puellae that makes them.\\
 
 \item \textbf{One wish one power.}\\
 The Puella Magi get only one ability related to the wish nature and its magnitude. Discard Charms and only grant the Puellae
 whatever ability is most narratively fitting no matter how powerful it is. Anything from infinite sword spam, world creation,
 perfect future precognition or unlimited time stop are possible. Given the potential abuse on this rule and the difficulty making
 a power set for every possible wish and ability, this is left to the storyteller's discretion.\\
 
 Puellae can learn other secondary abilities thematically related to their main power. This is also left to the Storyteller to
 decide.\\
 
 \item \textbf{The Light at the End.}\\
 All Puella Magi lose Purity daily and even the strongest find harder to maintain their Purity high as years pass. In the end all
 Puella Magi that aren't killed in battle dissappear to the confusion of the Incubators.\\
 
 Each year in chronicle lower the Puella Magi Purity level by one dot that can't be recovered. If the Puella Magi raises her total
 score she will find that there's a limit to how much Purity she can have. For example: Rose, a Puella Magi with three dots of
 Purity passes her first aniversary after contracting and finds her Purity lowered to two despite not having spent much magic. If
 she were to raise her Purity levels she would find herself unable to go beyond Purity 9, her Soul Gem is fading although Rose can
 still buy her lost third dot with experience. Rose doesn't worry about it and the next aniversary Rose finds to her distress that
 her Purity gets once again lowered, she only has one dot left and her Purity can't rise above 8. If Rose doesn't adress this
 problem and finds her Purity lowering to zero, her Soul Gem cracks and she dies (although she does so with a smile...).\\
 
 If the Storyteller wants to make it closer to the series, he may opt to discard Purity altogether and only grant all Puella Magi
 a number of random dots in ``energy'' by rolling a dice. The Puellae can raise that score up to ten or beyond by gathering Grief
 Cubes but if somewhere on the line they spend more points than they have in reserve, their Gems shatter and they die instantly.\\
 
 All Puellae consume one point of energy each day/night after waking up, their bodies need it to keep working.\\
\end{itemize}

\subsection{The Puella Magi Holy Quartet.}

\section{Shard - The Nightmare World.}
Going for a lighter and softer alternative to the grim despair presented here its possible. One example of a possibility was shown
in detail on the movie \textbf{Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion} that also opens possibilities for a chronicle starting in
Lighter and Softer territory and slowly progressing to Darker and Edgier grounds as explained in \textbf{Shard - The Fake City}
\ref{WhoDreams}.

In this case, the despair and evil of mankind takes on the form of strange and eerie but still not overly dangerous beings called
\textbf{Nightmares} that embody a given person's problem. In order to defeat the Nightmare the Puella Magi need to solve whatever
problem that person may be having which presents the possibility of turning the chronicle into something more personal and
introspective by making the Puellae face the intrincate depths that is a human psique and the desires buried within.\\

\subsection{Theme.}

\subsection{Mood.}

\subsection{House Rules.}
\begin{itemize}
 \item \textbf{Human monsters.}\\
 All nightmares embody the dark repressed emotions within a given human being. The nightmares manifest after a given person has
 gathered a big amount of darkness within and generates a barrier just like a witch representing the thoughts and repressed desires
 of the human that originated it. Even if the Puella Magi kill it, the Nightmare reappears again the next night and continues doing
 so until the Puella Magi solve whatever problem troubles its human. The chronicle then changes from one of violence to one of
 mistery as the Puellae investigate the source of a person's distress and find a way to comfort and dispel those fears. After they
 do so the Nightmare can be easily killed or even dissappears on its own.\\
 
 As an add on, dispelling a Nightmare this way automatically purifies the Soul Gems of all Puella Magi that contributed in the
 effort and that are in the presence of the Nightmare when it expires, refilling all lost Purity. If the Nightmare proves too hard
 or the Puella Magi are in a hurry, they can kill the human to dispell the Nightmare but don't recover the spent energy.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Strength in numbers.}\\
 Due to the variable nature of Nightmares and problems the Puellae have to solve, they tend to congregate in small teams that make
 hunting and investigating easier.\\
 
 \item \textbf{Incubators are your friends.}\\
 Incubators act like a typical magical girl mascot and provide counsel and care to their contractees. They are genuinelly good (or
 they can be acting to maximize horror at a later time...) and do their best to help their contractees.\\
 
 Incubators act like a free five dots Mentor provided that the Puella Magi heed their advice and help them from time to time in what
 seems like random errands.\\
\end{itemize}

\section{Shard - 1984.}
"Big Brother loves you, remember that. You must love Big Brother back because he has given you everything. Big Brother loves you,
remember that. In order to achieve peace and prosperity you must eliminate all dangerous thoughts and behavior. Big Brother loves
you, remember that. Do as Big Brother say and everything will be alright. Big Brother loves you, remember that. If you feel bad
then you must be reconditioned. Big Brother loves you, remember that…"\\

Homura Akemi woke up to the alarm's beeping sound, her eyes opening up mechanically as she stood up from the bed and instinctively
eyed the camera in the corner of the room; the little red light blinking and watching her as she slept. A smile automatically
forced itself in Homura's mouth, it was something as natural as breathing and not wasting anytime she disconnected the neuralizer, a
round glowing piece of machinery that Big Brother used for 'education' of all inhabitants. The neuralizer monitored the brain
activity of the user and broadcasted it to the Ministry of Love's Headquarters where teams of agents watched for 'undesirable
thoughts or feelings in the population'. Removal of the device guaranteed the automatic visit of one of the Ministry's agents and
in the worst cases a visit to Room 101.\\

Homura did her best to not shiver at the idea and instead made her way to the bathroom where another camera watched her as she
entered the shower and brushed her teeth afterwards. Water had become available to her after getting her new job which ensured she
would get 5 liters of the vital liquid daily and she had even managed to replace the old bathtub and decorate the room with black
and white tiles. Not that she cared at all but it was expected for all citizens to spend at least 70 percent of their pay in
something useless they didn't need to keep the consumer economy running, 'and…' she stopped the thought short; it was way too risky
to allow a thought against Big Brother as they had agents monitoring the population…\\

Still with her fake smile Homura Akemi got to the basin and searched for the one thing she needed desperately. 'Come on, come on…I
know I have some here…aha! Bingo!' she smiled a more honest yet still clearly cynical smile as she found the bottle where she
stored the Prozac. Only 3 pills where left and she felt tired at the idea of having to replenish them, not that they were hard to
get…popping the three pills into her mouth and eating them dry, she finally dressed in her 'uniform', a black and white suit she
got along with dark glasses as she got to the kitchen where she ate the egg powder all citizens were given once again without
drinking an ounce of water.\\

She stared at the room next to hers where her mother still laid, drugged and unwilling to stand up. 'This is the third day…' she
thought grimly at the prospect of having to explain an agent of 'love' the reason her mother wasn't waking up. For a moment her
smile started to falter but she managed to recover just in time and stared at the camera watching her from the corner of the eye.\\

She got out and prepared to get onboard of the metro bus system that ran across the city; it was an extremely fast way of
transportation if it wasn't because of the fact that everyone stared at her with hate. Not that she could blame them but she had
learned a long time ago to ignore their stares and keep her grin on, it was either that or a visit to Room 101 so…she nonetheless
had to be careful as the metro system was one of the preferred spaces for thievery and assassination attempts as the crowds of
people were compressed in place like sardines and the huge amount ran across predefined lines like a wave that pushed and stomped
upon those few that dared to go against the current. It wasn't uncommon to have someone get 'accidentally' pushed against the metro
rails just as the huge metallic behemoth was passing and given her status she had to be especially careful.\\

The crowds instantly gave her the evil eye and she knew they were wishing her an especially painful death but thankfully they were
too scared to take action as anyone that got caught would immediately get treated to 'reconditioning', which did little to help her
mood.\\

She got slammed several times as she tried to make her way across the crowds and like a sardine she got slammed against the door
while sweating profusely due to the lack of space and air conditioning in the machine. Given that the heat was almost unbearable
and most people didn't get to take a bath, the whole system became almost unbearable as the smell overpowered her senses; she did
her best to avoid breathing as she stared at the window and saw everything in a blur as the machine sped up to take her to her
destination.\\

Finally, after 5 different places and when she felt her stomach would return her morning food she finally managed to arrive to her
workplace, the Ministry of Love.\\

The Ministry of Love was a huge white marble building without windows, possibly the biggest of the four ministries that controlled
the Asiatic Union. Homura didn't know if the European Communion and the American Block had the same kind of infrastructure but
somehow felt that it would be very similar.\\

The Ministry of Love was also one of the most unpleasant places one could end up in as it was dedicated to controlling the thoughts
and feelings of the citizens to be more 'amiable' with Big Brother's agenda, whatever it was. Lots of people equally dressed in
black suits and glasses made their way in and out of the building through several of the wide entrances that surrounded the place.
There were 16 different doors to get into the building and it was very easy to do so…the problem was getting out.\\

As she walked she noticed the cameras surrounding every corner and watching intently everyone and she stared at several posters of
propaganda made by the Ministry of Truth which marked phrases like 'No, you can't', 'Big Brother knows best' and 'Freedom is a
dangerous evil' where the most common while a huge golden plaque that marked the Ministry's motto hung over the building with the
ominous words 'Cruel to be kind…' which gave, in Homura's opinion, a very good idea of what atrocities were committed there.\\

Besides the Ministry of Love, the Asiatic Union had the Ministry of Truth whose goal was to define the educative system and
controlled the media that people had access to. It was in charge of deciding what was 'the truth' most appropriate for the masses.
Homura had several friends there, if people that would backstab you anytime would be considered so. It also was in charge of
scheduling soccer and football games whenever a new law that wouldn't be approved by the citizens would be approved in order to
distract the population and, after the approval of the SUPA law (Surveillance of Undesirable Philosophical Advertising) they had
gained total control of the Internet and had full power to command an agent of the Ministry of Love to apprehend and recondition
any citizen that published what they deemed 'undesirable content'.\\

There was also the Ministry of Peace whose very well known motto 'War is Peace' was advertised every time they planned to start a
new war against another one of the three blocks. The country had already gone through at least 17 different World Wars already and
they seemed to desire another one very soon. What was most interesting about it was that according to the Ministry of Truth, all
wars had been won by the Asiatic Union without giving any information on the losses or when had and how had they been stopped.
Somehow Homura felt that they had just kept on fighting the same war all these years non-stop. It had also done wonders to the
weapon industry as thousands of factories manufactured different and more deadly types of weapons everyday.\\

Finally but not less desirable and considered the second worst Ministry to work in was the Ministry of Plenty whose job was to
manage the resources of all the Asiatic block and give information to the population of the state of the economy. It was funny that
they had predicted an increase in economic gain of 5 per cent, which had been increasing since Homura was born and yet most of the
systems in the city (sans the cameras and surveillance) had gone without maintenance. It was also fun that people always took it as
truth and ate the Ministry of Truth's propaganda about their luck on living in a 'rising economy' not even questioning while they
watched their TV screens in abandon. The Ministry of Plenty was also in charge of managing the production of negergy which kept the
world population running which even the rest of Ministries deemed an undesirable task.\\

Finally arriving at the main entrance with the same fake smile in her face, which was also kept thankfully due to the Prozac
finally taking effect, Homura made her way to her department. She was an 'Ascended Agent' of the Thought Police which meant that
she was in charge of apprehending or 'putting down' undesirable magical threats to the world at large which included among other
things rebellious Puella Magi or in rare cases, Witches. They pay was good and proportional to the brief lives the agents of this
department tended to have and it also meant she had plenty of freedom when on a hunt to use whatever methods available to take down
the objective. Finally it also meant she was given license to own and use a Dominator which is one of the principal reasons she is
feared and reviled by the population at large; it was a big black pistol similar to her Beretta but larger and with blue lines that
pulsated with energy; it was a weapon designed by the Incubator's and that the humans had adapted for their own use with three
action modes: the non-lethal paralyzer which gave a non-lethal energy discharge that activated all nervous terminals across the
target's body at the same time, provoking spasm and loss of control of the limbs along with long term but treatable numbness and
loss of vowel control. It was usually used against human rebels; the second mode was the Lethal Eliminator which as its name
implies shoots a larger energy beam adapted to the frequencies of the human body and whose effect on humans was to automatically
boil and expand the organic matter in the affected area making it explode in a shower of blood and charred bone. As expected this
mode was lethal to most people with the most optimistic cases of shredded limbs when impacting on a non-vital area of the body,
along with blowing up any inorganic matter that came into contact with the beam. Its use on human beings required strict approval
of a higher rank officer of the Ministry of Love and was usually reserved for rebellious Puella Magi targets.\\

The last mode of operation of the gun was the Destroyer Decomposer, or DD for short, which was a blast that automatically blew
heavily armored targets and obliterates inorganic matter close to a one meter radius from the target, making it mostly reserved for
Witch targets only.\\

Sadly or fortunately the gun had several safelock mechanisms that prevented it from being stolen and used by someone not authorized
by the Ministry as it was registered to one agent and only one agent to operate. The gun also requires authentication and
synchronization to the Ministry of Love's databank when in use and the gun automatically sent anonymous data of the situation to
the Ministry which had complete authority to lock down the gun and force it into hibernation. Finally it also emitted a beacon
signal that can be tracked by any other agent which made unauthorized possession not only undesirable but extremely dangerous.\\

Getting in front of the door Homura got authenticated by the lock mechanism by three different methods: first a general facial
recognition followed by a retinal exam which she quickly passed and finally a handprint exam after which the door spoke in a
robotic tone "Welcome back, Agent 29F53 – Akemi Homura"\\

Getting inside, Homura was greeted by a redhead boy sporting the same grin as hers as he looked at her.\\

"Hello Agent Homura" the boy said. He was fairly tall and muscular for someone his age with several scars across his face product
of a witch they had faced together. He worked in the same department as Homura and even though he firmly believed in Big Brother
wasn't also above questioning authority to save lives. It had garnered Homura's grudging respect along with several visits to Room
101.\\

"Hello Agent Shirou" Homura answered to him in a monotone voice.\\

"Ready for Conditioning?" he said with a honest and happy voice which made Homura cringe inside. She didn't remember today was
conditioning day. Given that the agents of the Ministry of Love were issued weapons and had to deal with subversive members of
society they were all given an extra weekly conditioning session beyond those issued for normal citizens.\\

"No I forgot" admitted Homura while feeling her smile falter a little.\\

"Are you kidding? It's amazing! I hope I can get the people die when they're killed thing, I'm not so sure if I got it right from
last time" the boy said sheepish. It made Homura want to facepalm.\\

"Well, let's get done with it" Homura replied and they walked to the conditioning room. It was a huge movie theater like room with
hundreds of leather seats for all the agents and a huge screen in front of them. Neuralizers were set in each of the seats and
Homura took her own as she sat, putting it in her head against her will.\\

All the agents seemed eager for it to start while Homura felt her stomach sink a little. The light dimmed and she felt the
familiar sting of a needle in her chair which indicated she was about to get drugged again; a necessary procedure to weaken the
will to resist the conditioning that was considered a 'gift' from Big Brother by everyone but her. She felt herself getting drowsy
as the stinging liquid entered her system and the neuralizer started operating.\\

"It was the year 1984 when the Incubator conspiracy was discovered"\\

Within Homura's drowsy mind flashed a scene she knew from memory as she saw it every night at home. A black and white room with the
Japanese flag and a wooden table, the Presidential Room of Japan. On it, a dark skinned man with glasses and a sinister smile
stretched his hand to greet a floppy white ferret like animal with big rounded eyes. Even if the screen didn't show it, Homura had
seen the deep red in those cold eyes and felt her stomach squirm.\\

"The masses entered a state of hysteria upon discovering aliens between us and several countries started preparing for war against
this alien species."\\

The screen changed to several atomic warheads from the American Block along with a red and blue flag with stars Homura remembered to
had seen before but was unable to place the country it belonged to with the words in red below that spelled "Our hated enemies".\\

"Even more appalling was the discovery of the Puella Magi system which makes use of the despair little girls as a form of currency
by several alien species across the Universe and that represents a direct counter to Universal Entropy"\\

The screen changed to an image that always made Homura shiver as she looked at a brown haired girl of about 7 or 8 years looking at
the screen with a look of profound despair. She had short curly hair and huge eyes along with a dress that was stained in dirt and
what Homura assumed was blood. Behind her two officers with assault rifles were guarding her as red words in the screen spelled
'Sally Thompson – Alias Sally the Witch (1984-1985)'.\\

"Due to the public hysteria and demands for control given a potential war of attrition against an unknown species, our beloved
president Gendou Ikari made personal contact with the alien species and organized a meeting to discuss common interests among the
aliens and humanity"\\

The screen showed the same dark skinned man with glasses and white gloves in a contemplative pose staring directly at the screen
with the words "Our beloved president" beneath. Afterwards it changed to show him writing an official document, the Puella Magi Act
he signed along with Hachibey, leader of the Incubator race as Homura had read before.\\

"In the Puella Magi Act president Ikari made the proposal for long term commercial relationship between the two parties. In exchange
for information on the Incubator's despair based technology which became commonly known as 'negergy', humanity would provide 60 per
cent of the world population's negergy to counteract the entropy of the Universe and to be used as currency to the Incubator's
race."\\

The screen changed to another black and white scene of a surgery room where the girl known as Sally screamed wildly as she was
connected to The Collector, a machine designed by humans from the Incubator's blue prints to gather the despair of girls directly
without having to trigger the Soul Gem transformation, literally draining the soul without the dangers of witchdom. Homura's smile
shattered momentarily while looking at the hollow eyes of the girl, her jaw slack and her back arching as she writhed in pain and
shook against her restraints in vain while two surgeons in lab baths saluted the camera and made a victory sign. From afar Homura
could listen to the laughter of the rest of the agents upon the scene which was a sign that she should be laughing too. Her mouth
opened but a sound more like a whimper came out as she watched the girl getting consumed by the machine.\\

"The technology powered by this negergy was then used by our beloved president to empower humanity and a whole new age of peace,
plenitude and happiness befell the world; a state of rapid growth that continues until the present time."\\

The scene changed to show the growth in the city as the negergy became widely spread to power every device on earth as a
replacement for electrical power. It had the advantage of being completely clean, easy to transform into any other form of energy
and generated close to zero waste to obtain and process as it came directly from the souls of human girls.\\

"Of course the rest of the human blocks became jealous of our progress and so enemies were made."\\

The image showed the first agents armed with standard firearms fighting against witches and other more mundane threats like soldiers
from the other blocks. In this part everyone was expected to boo and shout demeaning words at the 'enemy' and so Homura had no
other option than to follow the rest as the agents raged on a tirade of threats to the pictures that appeared inside their minds.
It showed scenes of witches cutting agents in half as they fought desperately against them. The scene changed to several war planes
that shoot energy beams and the development of the first Dominators issued to the agents. It then changed to a scene of president
Ikari deploying the first BBots which were biological robots designed to fight against planetary level threats. In one image
president Ikari stood besides three boys that sported the same look of despair as Sally, the words beneath spelling 'Ayanami Rei
(1900-1901), Shinji Ikari (1900-1902) and Asuka Langley Söryü (1901-1903) with our beloved president'. The scene then changed to
the three huge biological robots charging against a huge humongous object which as the screen indicated was labeled 'Walpurgisnacht
(? – 1902)'. Afterwards it showed the redheaded girl writhing in pain inside of the robot as it literally ate her to empower the
system and ended with a city in ruin and the three robots damaged beyond repair with the word 'VICTORY' in huge red letters.\\

"Victory after victory was assured but a sad event befell us as our beloved president passed away."\\

The screen went black and then showed the image of Gendou Ikari in the background; from what Homura had heard in rumours he had been
assassinated in cold blood and too little of his body had been found to show in the movie.\\

"But despite such a sad event, we kept striving forward and a new leader appeared to guide us to a new era of peace and prosperity.
The Big Brother"\\

The screen showed a man in his thirties, a picture only and everybody stood to salute him as the words flashed in the screen
'LOVE BIG BROTHER'.\\

"He alone unified the Asian Union and organized the four Ministries of Love, Prosperity, Peace and Truth."\\

The four edifices where shown in the screen while everybody stood waiting for the last part of the training.\\

"And so as members of the Ministry of Love you must be proud, for you are in charge of maintaining peace and order in our beloved
country. For Big Brother that loves us dearly, for Big Brother knows what's best for you."\\

The screen then showed several girls the Ministry of Love had dealt with in full color, starting with a scene of a blonde girl with
blue eyes that ran across a backalley, a look of pure terror in her face as she got surrounded by agents of the ministry. The
screen read ' Usagi Tsukino – Alias Sailor Moon (1992 – 2009)'. The girl tried to transform and defend herself but before she was
able to, the agents shot her with full power Dominator and she exploded in a shower of blood. Everyone was expected to laugh in
this part so Homura did her best impression of a laugh while feeling sick of the stomach.\\

It changed to showing a series of girls surrounded by guards in a mall as they shot several spells at the agents, managing to take
down several but getting severely maimed. After a long and drawn out battle the agents managed to overpower them and killed each in
cold blood. The screen showed 'Identities Unknown – Alias Precure (? - 1900)'.\\

Finally a girl in a black witch costume which the screen indicated as 'Meg Kanzaki (? – Present)' as the girl was cornered in a
building's rooftop as she tried to run away only to be shot in the leg by an agent and have it blown to bits. The girl moaned in
pain as she crawled and cried loudly, the sound pounding against Homura's head as she heard her pleading for mercy. The agents
closed on her and instead of using the Dominator's decided to hit her with batons until there was only a red smear on the floor and
grabbed the girl by the arms, still twitching to be taken into The Collector. 'She was captured then'\\

"You must remember, you're doing this for the greater good. Always somewhere Big Brother is fighting for you. As long as you
remember him, you're not alone…"\\

The screen showed the picture of Big Brother for several minutes in which everybody shouted in joy and clapped their hands after
which the screen went black.\\

**********************************************************************
Its over, the Confederacy won. Their plans worked and they managed to 

\subsection{The Puella Magi Holy Quintet.}
\subsection{Mami Tomoe, Fading Legend.}

\subsection{Sakura Kyoko, Rebel Spirit.}

\subsection{Sayaka Miki, Agent of Change.}

\subsection{Madoka Kaname, Targetted Messiah.}

\subsection{Homura Akemi, Double Agent.}

\section{Shard - The Clock Stuck at Midnight.}
This shard can be used as the beginning of a chronicle or as a way to lead the players towards a mystery after having acquired a
time related plebotium or ability. Its recommended for players that have some nexus with the passing of time and those that like to
play under pressure.\\

The Clock Stuck at Midnight starts when the players, having obtained a plebotium or having just finished a mission find themselves
in their apartment or where they usually hang out. They're given a mission they must complete and go about it, at the fifth night
they go to sleep and find themselves back at the apartment as if nothing had happened. Until they get a call where they are
assigned a mission...that they just completed. They can accept or reject the mission, no matter what they do afterwards, they find
themselves once again at the apartment after the figth night. The characters have just found themselves in a recursion of time.\\

If the players investigate, they find that a certain event happens at the fifth 

\section{Shard - The Fake City.}\label{WhoDreams}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 Its a real good day, isn't it?\\
 Always a good day...\\[0.3cm]
 
 \textbf{- Its a Good Life.}\\[1cm]
\end{center}

An awesome way for the Storyteller to move a chronicle that is in the Lighter and Softer end of the spectrum to Darker and
Edgier territory is to play the story of the Fake City.\\

In this case the Puella Magi start fighting and learning the nature of their conditions, maybe even perform some succesful rescues
and familiarize themselves with the setting. They get victorious and overcome the odds set against them. As time passes though,
things start getting weird. Perhaps the shop they used to see across the street has closed, the owner nowhere to be found but all
things left in place, as if abandoned. The Puella find less and less enemies, and those that do are weaker and the problems are
easier to solve and have less consequences (victims return without harm, they find themselves completely unharmed after a battle
that would have been dangerous otherwise).\\

The oddities start increasing, people don't remember parts of their lives or sectors of the city look too clean and lacking too many
details. Events also turn ridiculous like everything turning out right, people always getting what they want (your neighbour just
won the lotto for the fifth time, this week...). Fame, fortune and good luck follows the characters everywhere.\\

If the characters investigate, they start finding that people don't really remember entire segments of their lives, battles are won
even if they themselves choose to do nothing and reality itself seems to thwart their attempts at investigation (they decide to meet
someplace but they find they're always busy with their jobs and loved one's demands, they're distracted by people that want to give
them prizes at strange hours or find a part of the city is nothing but cardboard and there's literaly nothing beyond...). If they
persevere and piece the puzzle together they find out that the city (or the world itself) is actually the barrier of a powerful
being that controls reality and their lives have been nothing but a fake, a weak attempt at storytelling by that same being.\\

The most logical solution in this case is to face off against the being and put and end to this farce, right? But what are this
being's intentions? The world they inhabit is an utopia where the good guys always win and there's no suffering. Is it alright to
bring an end to this just because its a lie? And what if the loved ones of the Puellae had really unhappy existences before? Or
worse what if they were dying or dead and the only way for them to keep living is inside this being's barrier? What if one of the
characters themselves is dead or will die if this word is destroyed?\\

Furthermore this being is actually omnipotent and may or may not be omniscient to booth. Can the Puellae actually form a resistance
against a being that can warp reality with but a thought? Is any place actually safe?\\

The nature of this being can be anything from an extremely powerful witch (ex. Kriemhild Gretchen, Homulily), an extremely powerful
Puella Magi with a very particular wish, or something weirder like a physical god/eldritch abomination (ex. Homucifer). This entity
may or not be conscious of what is doing and may not have realized that the world it lives in is practically their doing. If the
entity is conscious of its power such as the case with Homucifer or Kriemhild Gretchen, then it can actively oppose anyone that
threatens its perfect world and snuff them like a candle or in the case of Gretchen, offer the players their heart's desires in
exchange of leaving the world as it is. Or it can brainwash the Puellae and reset reality back to before they realized anything
strange happened.\\

If the subject is not conscious of this phenomenon though, then learning about it could have unpredictable and dangerous effects,
especially if the entity breaks down and channels its despair into reality itself. Reality could end up becoming hell or completely
breaking down if the players aren't careful. Just like with the first case, the subject may or not want to relinquish power over
reality although in this case there's a chance the players can kill the entity before it realizes its true power. They'll have
subconscious defenses set in place but its still doable.\\

If the players choose to ignore or manage to bargain with the entity, then things keep being perfect...until they don't. Keeping
control over all of reality is an extremely taxing job not made for human minds, and these powerful beings could start breaking down
after a while. Maybe their fantasies and darkest desires start manifesting in reality when they sleep, or those fears they hid for
so long materialize when they're distracted and start wrecking reality. Maybe they suffer an outburst of anger or sadness and
reality lashes by killing thousands. Or maybe they simply got tired of playing normals and decide to exercise their powers more
liberaly...like turning buildings into their favorite foods, enslaving the masses or crafting torture chambers for those that
displease them. The stakes become much higher as the Puellae fight to stop an almighty tantrum from wrecking reality or simply to
survive.\\

\subsection{Theme.}
The theme of this shard changes to freedom vs happiness. The characters find themselves living perfect lives where they no longer
have to suffer but at the same time know everything is a lie and their lives are controlled by another possibly unstable being. Is
happiness born out of a lie really worth it? Is it okay to be free even if you end up hurting?\\

If the players choose to act against the overlord, the theme changes to selfish vs selflesness. The characters will bring the end
to a world made to make people happy and might be the only thing keeping thousands, maybe even one of their own or their loved ones
alive. While they might be doing the right thing not everyone will benefit from it and they must be prepared to accept that they'll
bring forth a world where pain, violence and death happens to everyone and people will suffer for their actions. Is it really right
to neglect someone that is bound to be raped, humilliated and abused daily just because they are living a happy lie? Is it really
their right to choose for others?\\

No matter the decision, the outcome will weigh heavily on their Souls...\\

\subsection{Mood.}
The mood of this shard changes from the bittersweet realization to paranoia. The characters are against the powers of reality itself
and against a being that can be anywhere and can kill them or subject them to a fate worse than death with but a thought. If the
being doesn't know about its powers, the players have a chance but must be extra careful to end the dream before it ends them.\\

If the characters decide to act, the mood can once again go bittersweet in a powerful way. The characters have no chance to fight
this being one on one and must instead find a way to convince it to relinquish reality for good. If the characters explore this
entitie's motivations they'll find behind a soul broken by the horrors of reality, someone so shocked and horrorized by the pain and
suffering of the world that, unable to face it decided to flee and enclose itself in a comfortable lie. In trying to convince it
to stop the characters will have to face the truth of suffering, that the world can sometimes be a horrible place to people that
don't deserve it and that although suffering is inevitable its important to learn and move on. In doing so the characters might find
themselves forced to face their own insecurities and leave behind people they themselves loved (perhaps a parent, lover or friend
is no longer alive and only manifested upon the character's desire). The characters themselves may have to bid their goodbyes and
move on.\\

If the characters manage to release reality from that entity's grip with whatever mean available, they will certainly return changed
from the experience. But paranoia can be created if they suddenly find that the ``real world'' may not be as real as they thought.
What if the entity only lied or faked defeat in order to restore the status quo? As the saying goes ``who dreams?'', are they really
free or the nightmare starts anew?\\

\fbox{\begin{minipage}{0.9\textwidth}
\subsubsection{Sources of inspiration.}
\begin{itemize}
 \item \textbf{Kriemhild Gretchen.} The most obvious source of inspiration comes from Puella Magi Madoka Magica itself. Gretchen is
 Madoka Kaname's witch form and its purpose is to create a perfect world without suffering by absorbing everyone into her barrier.
 No one knows what happens inside, but a favored hypotheses is that everybody's heart desires are granded. For an idea you can also
 check this amazing story for an idea of what's Gretchen's barrier like, even if its less subtle than most:\\
 \url{https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9473166/1/dreaming-of-eden}
 \item \textbf{Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion Story} is also a very obvious source of inspiration with a more subtle barrier.
 \item \textbf{It's a Good Life} and \textbf{It's Still a Good Life} from the \textbf{Twilight Zone} series are also some very good
 examples of worlds ruled by almighty and petty beings and the suffering caused by their tyrannical rule.
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}}

\subsection{Kriemhild Gretchen, the Witch of Salvation.}

\subsection{Homulily, Nutcracker Witch.}

\subsection{Homura Akuma, The Adversary, She Who Fights the Law, God of the New World.}

\section{Shard - The Puellae Go Public.}
\begin{center}
 \itshape
 ``Kill witches, get bitches!''\\[0.3cm]
 - \textbf{Incubator Incorporated Advert.}
\end{center}

\begin{thebibliography}{100}
 \bibitem{Fae}Fae: the Forgotten.\\
 \url{faetheforgotten.org}
\end{thebibliography}

\subsection{The 9th Officio.}
\subsection{Kyubey, Incubator of the 9th.}

\subsection{Mami Tomoe, Vindicare and Right Hand of Kyubey.}

\subsection{Kirika Kure, Eversor Rank Leader.}

\subsection{Kyoko Sakura, Eversor.}

\subsection{Sayaka Miki, Eversor.}

\subsection{Ekatherina ``Karn'' Valnikova, The Betrayer, Retired Warmaster.}

\subsection{Malal [Madoka Kaneda].}

\subsection{Murderface, Girl A, Vindicare Rank Leader [Homura Akemi].}

\subsection{The 10th Officio.}
\subsection{Midori Hanegawa, GreenGreen, Callidus.}

\subsection{Others.}
\subsection{Wendy.}

\subsection{Faust, Pinky, The Blessed Lady [Madoka Kaname].}
\end{document}