SOPHIE SUMMERHELM

Age
19

Gender
Female

Height
5'3''

Build
Petite

Species
Human

First Impressions

"I'll do my best! (CV: Marieve Herington)

Sophie is 5'3'' and has the healthy, bright-faced look of someone who spends a lot of time outside. Her complexion is healthy, but despite this, she's a little small for her age (nineteen years old), sort of slight and petite in a way that makes people sometimes mistake her as being a year or two younger than she is. She's pretty, with a heart-shaped face and rather large eyes that, combined, make her look a little like a doll. To those who'd recognize it, her features give pings of being European (or the fantasy equivalent, depending on whatever world you come from).

Sophie's hair is wine red and grows just past her chin, not quite meeting her shoulders. Her bangs are neat with a straight cut across just level with her eyebrows and two longer pieces that frame her face.

She dresses in warm, practical clothes, suited for the outdoors. Her usual outfit consists of a Prussian blue, long-sleeved one-piece dress that has a box-pleated skirt and a white panel down the front center of the dress and tall, thigh-high walking boots. In colder weather, she will top this with a brown, hooded traveling cloak and gloves. In summer, she will switch this out for a different one-piece dress in a similar style, made out of breezier materials in lighter, brighter colours.

Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Book

Info & Personality

Setting & World Info

Sophie is the daughter of Elisabeth and Kirsche Summerhelm, a pair of hardworking farmers. She unfortunately never had the chance to know her mother – during the Age of Catastrophe, Elisabeth had contracted an incurable disease that plagued her for the rest of her life. Doctors were unable to diagnose, let alone cure it and she passed away when Sophie was a toddler, unaware that she had passed the disease on to her daughter as well.

Shortly after her mother's death, Sophie also began showing symptoms of her mother's disease (weak lungs, fatigue, and other nastiness). Her illness rapidly escalated to the point that Sophie spent much of her childhood bedridden and being treated for one malady or another. When she was eleven years old, Sophie contracted a winter illness that along with the rest of her symptoms threatened to be fatal. By sheer coincidence or fate, one of the founders of the Church of Light, the Legendary Alchemist, Amelie, was passing through her town. Sophie's father begged Amelie to save his daughter and never one to pass up a PR opportunity for the Church, she deigned to do so. It was a long process but Amelie was able to use the power of alchemy to treat and eventually completely cure Sophie's illness.

During her recovery, Sophie and Amelie formed an unlikely friendship that eventually blossomed into a partnership of student and teacher in response to Sophie's enthusiasm for alchemy. Amelie stayed in the village for a year, teaching Sophie all she was able to pass on in that time and when she left, encouraged Sophie to continue her studies. Sophie did just that and spent almost all of her time afterward studying alchemy by herself and using her newfound skills to help the people closest to her.

When she was eighteen, her father Kirsche also passed away. He too had suffered from poor health in the wake of the Age of Catastrophe and though Sophie tried, she was unable to fully cure him. Following his death she sunk into a depression, blaming herself for being unable to save him. But with the encouragement of the townsfolk she had been helping for so many years, Sophie picked herself up and decided to begin traveling Adelheld to put her knowledge into test.

Some time after she began her journey, Sophie began occasionally traveling with an older friend of hers, Marie Cooper, who had similar interests in the natural world. While on their way to Telna, to visit Sophie’s teacher, they encounter Lucille Lu[STATIC NOISES] and Valencia Seville who were traveling in a similar direction for their own reasons. Lulu enthusiastically attached herself to them, and the four formed an informal party. While traveling, the party were subtly encouraged to seek out and gather a number of ancient treasures that had been scattered around the land. These treasures were scattered parts of a suit of armour that was needed for Ulrich to contain Caleigh's power once he revived. Along the way, they were joined by Alice who was Ulrich's child, fleeing the Church in disguise.

As slowly became clear, however, the Church of Light was corrupt at the heart and through their adventures, the Hexaparty's goal changed from gathering the artifacts for the Church to gathering the artifacts to keep them out of the Church's hands. Eventually, they were also joined by Aran defecting from the Church and by Celadon who was mostly just happy to be here. Their effort came to naught when the party came face to face with Ulrich and, pressured by her father, Alice found herself giving into him and handing over the artifacts. The betrayal was only momentary, but it gave the Church a devastating advantage. Remembering what had happened the last time the Heroes battle Caleigh, the Hexaparty decided to seek out a blessing from Leta in order to help them face Caleigh.

Sophie's canonpoint is shortly before the Hexaparty set out to face Ulrich head-on.

Sophie is a cheery, energetic girl who’s full of pep and determination to do her best at the things she puts her mind to. Her honesty and straightforward nature are what drive her forward through life with energy and passion and full-throttle force. She hates conflict and fighting – while she's certainly much better about it at her current canonpoint (you don't settle in to fight god without learning to get a bit rowdy) she's still the sort of girl who prefers not to rock the boat too much and if arguments spring up around her, she'll hurriedly try to play peacemaker whether her attempts at making nice are particularly welcome or not. Sophie's biggest desire in life is to spread happiness and joy as best she can and sees resolving conflicts as a part and parcel of doing that. To that end, she can sometimes be a bit of a busybody and can't always recognize when her opinion isn't welcome.

To a degree, this is a help more than it's a hindrance – Sophie is the one who convinces the Hexaparty to make nice with Aran who had until then been, you know, trying to kill them – but it's unfortunately also served up with a side of naivete. Sophie is trusting to a fault and it's entirely too easy to trick her or make her believe your intentions are sincere. This stems from Sophie being a little childish for her age in ways that are a bit hard to pin down. She's certainly mature and capable enough to look after herself and be independent in all the ways that matter but she has a certain lack of experience when it comes to the gray areas in interacting with people. She's polite to a fault (sometimes to the point of silliness) and a fast learner, but her immaturity in this regard shows itself more often than not. She's also a little lacking in common sense, here and there – she's not dumb she's just a little scatterbrained even when she’s doing her best, often necessitating a voice of reason to reign her in. At the worst of times, she can be downright ditzy and her priorities can seem wildly out of whack to those looking in from the outside. She's a high int, low wis build, is what I'm saying.

What she might lack in street smarts, though, Sophie more than makes up for with heart. She's a generous, giving sort of girl who loves to help out people in need and seems happiest when she's doing her bit to make the world around her a better place. She's a bit of a mood maker, who makes use of her own abundance of positive energy to try and motivate people who look like they need it. A big part of why she took up learning alchemy in the first place was because she viewed it as a way of creating miracles and happiness in places there would otherwise be no hope. Sophie herself was saved by one of those miracles and now she wants to be able to pass that magic onto as many people as she can.

This goes tenfold for the rest of the Hexaparty. Growing up mostly alone, Sophie's never really had a close-knit group of friends like the rest of the party and the fact that she has one now means all the world to her and more. Sophie adores her friends with all her heart and it's that love and enthusiasm for the things they do together that give her strength.

Inventory

⦿ Alchemy Supplies: A reinforced cauldron and a handful of basic supplies, just enough to make two or three healing salves if she's careful enough. That cauldron is probably not intended to be portable but she's got it in her backpack anyway...

⦿ Wooden Staff: A heavy wooden staff, with a slightly hooked end. It's about two heads taller than Sophie and has been reinforced with alchemy to be usable as a weapon.

⦿ Notebook: Sophie's notebook that she uses to plan new alchemical recipes in.

⦿ Bits and Bobs: Some traveling supplies – a blanket, some dried meat and a waterskin.

permissions

art from "nelke and the legendary alchemists", code credit