Ivy

[enhancomancer]

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Application
Player Information
Name: CC
Age: 32
Preferred Method of contact: plurk, dm, email
Contact Info: silverwolfcc on all things
Number of Characters in the Kingdom: Rose Tyler [Doctor Who] / Portgas D. Ace [One Piece]
Timezone: Eastern US -5:00 (GMT)

Character Information
Character Name: Ivy
Age: 10!
Canon: Xanth books: Dragon on a Pedestal, Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn, Golem in the Gears, Vale of the Vole
Canon Point: Vale of the Vole; age 10, saving Xanth from a second wiggle storm.
Gender: female!

Character History
Character History: https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Sorceress_Ivy
- As even a fetus, Ivy's magic manifested in helping her mother's magic.
- As a baby/toddler she was used to literally everything around her being able to speak and entertain her; from the stones in the castle to the monster under her bed that her mother couldn't see, and she became spoiled to the concept that pretty much all that existed was for her delight. Especially since her father's magic made inanimate objects speak so she had endless chatter to listen to
- She realized she could enhance her own intelligence, and frequently did so, and learned much about the world around her, but kept it secret from her mother at first because she didn't want to get in trouble, and adults would always find silly reasons to determine you were trouble.
- She enhanced Smash ogre's intelligence and her own, she enhanced the zombies into becoming more themselves, and she was thoroughly doted on as the first child of the King and Queen and first grandchild of the former King and Queen and three of the most powerful Magicians in Xanth [a formal title of great importance for the magic realm.]
- During an event in which the Gap Dragon left its territory: the Gap Chasm and traveled to raid the south of Xanth, bringing with it Forget Whorls, Ivy took a miniature adventure on a flying carpet, befriended the now greatly rejuvenated Gap Dragon and enhanced him into becoming her perfect playmate, guardian, pet dragon, and of course: best friend.
- Up in a tree, Ivy found a menagerie and caged collection of gargan-tuans [any over sized pun creature] but after looking through, she felt bad for them, so she and Stanley set them free. This induced mass chaos, so Ivy and the dragon went to look for someplace more secluded.
- When she and the Dragon were caught by a thyme plant; she enhanced it so that it sped out of the way of holding onto her and Stanley [she named the Gap Dragon of course] and released them, but as they were stuck too high up, she cried for help as all damsels in distress must do, and therefore at the terribly intelligent age of three, decided that the boy who rescued her [Hugo] was her Night in Shiny Armor and very handsome, intelligent, brave, and wonderfully talented [all of which he had not been without Ivy's enhancement and encouragement] and also declared him her boyfriend. As you do.
- They were caught by the cyclops, but despite encouraging Stanley and Hugo to save the three of them by fighting, when the cyclops was hurt, Ivy felt terrible for it, and instead insisted they had to make sure to fix it and make him feel better; even though he would likely want to eat them still. They were not eaten, of course, in part because the Cyclops didn't like to eat people because they're too small and taste bad, and he preferred monsters; but also because Ivy declared they should all be friends.
- During a wiggle swarm [one of the most egregious dangers to face Xanth] Ivy encouraged Stanley and Hugo to save Xanth, stop the swarm, and afterward kept the baby Gap Dragon at Castle Roogna with her family as her best friend pet.
- Determined to help the Castle Roogna ghosts, whom Ivy very much loves, she watched the tapestry and listened to a tale of how to resolve unresolved issues and bring them back to life. This had mixed results, for though she was successful, sometimes being alive isn't all it's cracked up to be.
- When Stanley went missing, she was not allowed to go looking for him, but instead her parents sent Grundy in her stead, and he took her monster under the bed with him.
- She remained very close friends with Hugo, not the least of which because Xanth didn't have many magicians at the time, so the three adults were in constant contact, and the Gorgon and Irene [Ivy's mother] were best friends, and would sometimes have him over for sleepovers to watch the magical tapestry [like magical tv.]
- When Humphrey, Gorgon, and Hugo all went missing, Ivy set out with Chet Centaur and Stanley to find out why the magic mirrors [to communicate] weren't working, where they encountered Chex, Esk, and Volney who had gone to the Magician for answers. Volney was upset that demons were turning the Kiss Me river into the Kill-Me, which had driven a demon into hiding out in Esk's hidey-hole and threatening his family. Chex wanted to know how to fly, which even Ivy's magic couldn't complete without something more. Ivy begged her parents to save the friendly river, but they were more worried about why Humphrey had disappeared, especially since, if he was found, he could explain how to solve it. Ivy dissatisfied with this answer, naturally, insisted that the solution was in rallying Xanth; the flying monsters, the centaurs, the ogres, the nymphs, the humans, and all the rest of the vole creatures; surely others could help! Aside form which, Ivy was banned from looking for Hugo and Humphrey also. She was allowed to travel to Centaur Isle with Chex however, since the centaurs were on good relations with the human governance.
- On the way they had to take a detour, and even went into the hypnogourd realm [dream-land] with a zombie guiding them, causing the land to manifest his zombie fears, much to Ivy's extreme fascination.
- Because the centaurs refused to listen to a hybrid and are very purist or "conservative," Chex was turned away. Ivy was distressed and offered to try to help, complete with using her Magician class magic, but Chex realized if the centaurs couldn't even stand the sight of her, they would certainly not do anything to help outsiders like the voles.
- They stayed at Zombie Castle for a bit, where Ivy played with the monster under the bed [her own had gone on a mission with Grundy Golem and was guarding nymphs now.]
- Esk fell into a Hynogourd, but Ivy procured help from the castle, this time instead of strength pills she'd given him before; but which would surely be noticed if she took more, she got a pathfinder spell for him.
- Despite having once saved Xanth from a wiggle swarm, Ivy was instantly excited by the prospect of helping a wiggle queen with a containment spell to help the Vale of the Voles and return it to the Kiss-Mee river. Not that she would be allowed anywhere near this, of course, as demons, wiggles, flying monsters, and ogres all converged around an annex of the void itself were a bit too dangerous for a Princess, obviously.


Canon Example: Xanth is magical crack pun Florida.
Random quotes and excerpts 1
Part 2
Wikipedia
Fandom wiki
audiobooks


Character Motivation: LOVE! LOVE IS WHAT BRINGS US HERE TODAY--

But seriously, Ivy's outright introduction is that she is a creature of love. Having been surrounded by it her entire life up to age three; and truly not knowing anything else. This is what prompts her to put Stanley [her bff: the most fearsome dragon ever] on an invisible pedestal, and also Hugo, and all of her toys, and friends, and so on. She lives for love. She thrives on love. She loves even the zombies so much that even the undead also love Ivy, because she makes them more themselves. She loves learning, and she is curious, but by golly, most of all, she loves Xanth and all its magic. As she gets older, she does focus on studies to become the greatest King of Xanth ever possible; purely because she loves her kingdom and all its subjects, and so desperately wants everyone to be able to be their utmost best and happiest and even better than they realized they had the potential for.

It's why she cannot let the Vale of the Voles be harassed by demons; and goes out of her way to sneak artefacts from the Castle to help in the quest to return the Kiss-Mee river to its natural meandering curves and loving romantic state.

There is no kind of love Ivy doesn't also love. While her grandmother and mother married for political reasons, Ivy is herself very loved and lavishes it back out on the whole world as much as she can. A lot of creatures in Xanth are byproducts of cross-breed unions, and this too, Ivy loves, and wants all people to love.

Ivy even loves random details about Mundania -- the non-magical counterpart to Xanth, that everyone considers boring and dreary; Ivy finds even that fascinating because love is still a magic that works even there! To Ivy; love conquers all. Where there is love, there is a way!!! And this is why she helps the forbidden union of a goblin and harpy, and even helps them discover they have a magic talent when together. Obviously reinforcing Ivy's belief in the power and significance of love.

Personality:

Ivy is described directly as a creature of love due to the love all around her growing up from her father to her mother, right back, and even her grandparents. She was taught very early to be kind to everything and that all beings of Xanth were her future subjects, whether they be inanimate objects like rocks, or plants like tangle trees, or clouds, humans, dragons, giants, monsters and so on and so forth. She had no concept of "danger," and instead only of intense curiosity and love. Because her ability was a capacity to enhance whatever qualities she perceived in others, this could get a bit ridiculous from turning the literally most carnivorous fearsome deadly monster in all of the land into her tamed best friend guardian playmate; to subtler effects such as just her own charm and intelligence. "All it takes is a positive attitude!" she insisted when Hugo cottoned onto her talent, extra intelligent and letting her no longer have to do all the thinking because she could rely on him to be the brains now.

She lavishes love, attention, and affection on all things in her domain, and fortunately, rarely perceives threats are more dangerous or frightening, instead latching specifically onto the exact things she wants everything to be. She refers to a pedestal that her father put her mother on; not always a comfortable place to be, but at the same time, her mother didn't dislike the attention or affection either. As such, Ivy used this invisible pedestal to place her loved ones, toys, and friends on as well. This blindly refused to ever even comprehend that there could be "negative" qualities in those she loved, and while she knew it wasn't easy or always comfortable to suddenly live up to her high expectations or be placed on a pedestal, she knew her friends and loved ones didn't really hate it either.

Her baby brother Dolph is an exception to Ivy's pedestals. Mostly because he knew exactly how to get off, and as little brothers are wont to do, he went out of his way to annoy and harass her, sometimes out of jealousy, and sometimes possibly Ivy exaggerated or accidentally enhanced just how annoying he could be to her.

Much much later, she falls in love with the one man immune to her magic [in fact, all magic] and therefore, never affected by her enhancement charm, and thus the one she knew was most real, and not a product of her wishful or naive thinking.

Ivy is extremely adventurous, curious, kind, and because she believes herself to be: confident, brave, intelligent beyond all reason, wise beyond her age and experience, and either cute or charming or beautiful. These latter qualities are more her magic being used on herself, but because of the nature of her magic, she does it without thinking about it, and tries to exemplify these qualities, because she believes them to be true about herself, even when in places or situations where magic does not work.

She adores listening to stories. She absorbs information nearly as well as the Magician of Information himself, [though without any inclination to hoard it like him] and chooses to use this for the benefit of the whole Kingdom of Xanth. Perhaps because of her father the king, grandfathers, grandmothers and mother, or most likely just her love for all of her "subjects" makes her determined to enhance them to their very best over-potential. All information she gleams indeed, enhances her own thirst for making the Kingdom better than anyone could have ever imagined, and enhances her own potential to do just that. As such, she's very patient, very friendly, and will happily listen to everyone and anyone's stories. She is empathetic enough to be very quickly moved by any injustices, or any sad stories, always wanting to fix things and make them better for everyone and anyone, and this can make her a wonderful King, and also a bit easy to sidetrack, as there is no plight too tiny to move her heart, after all, even bugs are her subjects too.

She is extremely bossy. Obviously she doesn't see it this way, but she is used to being in charge, being both a Princess, a Magician, the smartest and "best," and usually the one who knows everything. Beyond that, it's also part of her nature and how the enhancement works. By telling someone she finds them very nice, very intelligent, and very capable, and that they can indeed, absolutely find a way out of all her ridiculous situations; they often find themselves suddenly exactly all those qualities. The powers of suggestion. Again, this doesn't work well on Dolph her little brother, as he is also a Prince, a brat, a Magician too, and disinclined to her orders, especially since she doesn't expect him to and isn't capable of convincing herself that he is obedient; since she herself is not, and he is related. And besides, what fun would that be anyway? Likewise, her future husband is immune and only does what he wants, which is what she actually wants.

While she is stubborn, she is not unreasonably so, and despite being a bossy princess and future King and one of the most powerful Magicians in history [because she changes the whole Kingdom greatly for the long term, and through enhancing her long-lost twin sister, winds up expanding the "territory" of Xanth by adding layers of dimensions. Yeah, it gets ridiculously stupid] Ivy is never arrogant. She doesn't want to be, so she isn't. Instead she gives deference to the King of Clouds: Cumulo Fracto Nimbus, and always opt to diplomatically employ humility. She has no desire to rule over her subjects; merely to rule them so that they can become even better than anyone, including themselves, imagined. This is later on how she is able to navigate the extremely tricky situation of the Evil Com Pewter who freed Grey's parents in exchange for Grey's servitude. Ivy couldn't possibly be King married or engaged to a man who would be enslaved to someone who would seek destruction over the realm; or at least abuse it solely for his own gain.

While Ivy's own parents, grandparents, and frankly, almost the entirety of Xanth or Mundania [the neighboring realm without magic to where Grey's parents fled with him] would have sought an extremely war-like resolution with Com Pewter, Ivy did not. She wanted Xanth to be peaceful and prosper, and she knew with patience and friends and allies they would find a better resolution in which everyone could be satisfied. While this is obviously optimistic to the point of being considered blithering idiocy from anyone else, Ivy was indeed able to make that work for her.

She is very definitely loyal, and steadfast in her loyalty, but as this includes even towards enemies, it gets a little weird. Seriously weird. But she certainly would never leave a friend behind for anything, and always do whatever she could to offer absolutely all of herself to any situation she perceived she could help.

Ivy enjoys exploring, learning new things, seeing new places, and traveling. She finds things most people would consider extremely tedious and dull to instead be fascinating, intriguing, and fun! And because she sees it that way, she usually enhances it for others, even without her talent in effect.

As a Princess, most of Ivy's formal education was from centaurs, and as a denizen of Castle Roogna, Ivy grew up with ghosts, zombies, and monsters as routine fellow household members. She's also a huge tease of the centaurs, constantly poking at how they would correct her grammar, and in turn, any time she could correct one of them, she took it. She also spent a lot of time with the zombies of the Zombie King nearby, as he was good friends with her parents. Ivy is very fond of the zombies, and because of this, they are more lively with her and doubly fond of her as well.

Things of Ivy's extreme dislike [for her canon point] are: castor oil and smaller insects -- which she experienced on her journey alone through the hypnogourd, as well as having to pass by the garden of candy which she assumed would trap her there forever.

Because Ivy always assumes the utter best of those she loves that she places on an invisible pedestal, she took Hugo's derision of "Dummy" as a term of endearment, and while she came to better understand its meaning with time, she still used it frequently as affectionately as possible, though she understood it was not quite as beloved by others as she liked it.

For her canonpoint, she loves others being in love and all romantic and kissing, but has no desire to engage in it herself. Not to mention, there's a lack of Hugo around. But she is a huge "shipper" and wants everyone to love everyone and as long as they're blase about her watching, she will cheerfully do just that. "Gee, that looks like fun!"

Ivy's favorite cookie is punwheels; which she never outgrows, and indeed, she gets a kick out of subtly teasing Grey when she's older with many many puns, since he didn't grow up in Xanth and is more sensitive to their groan-worthy nature. Natives of Xanth often take things for granted, like magic, and do not even get how things are a pun, so this is less used except with Dolph as inside jokes, since he received much the same education as her regarding Mundania and having the same parents, has a similar sense of punny humor.

Canon Strength/Weaknesses:
Strength:
- She sees the best in people! And monsters! And everything! And everyone!
- Loves all things. Allllllllllllllll of them.
- Has a positive spin on literally everything. Because even "bad" things like tangle trees are very important to protect people or rare things and part of the ecosystem, and plenty of people would consider Stanley Steamer bad, but he's her bestest friend.
- Although she refuses to fight even "enemies" of the kingdom and instead persistently does everything to find alternative solutions to problems; Ivy has been trained since birth in strategies, and often employs these at unlikely times such as against the wiggles. Although more often for "strategic retreats!"
- Friendly! And therefore able to make friends easily as well. And not just through magic. Though luck helps a lot when the magic doesn't. And even with the magic.
- Infectious enthusiasm. While it's often accidentally magical, it manages to win over even the most stalwart anti-magic and unenthused: Grey. It's hard not to enjoy things when a bubbly girl next to you is so thrilled she claps her hands in delight about just being able to turn the oven on correctly.
- She's able to find enjoyment in fun in literally just about everything, and therefore rarely gets bored, luckily for the kingdom. Literally a quote from the book, "everything was fun to her." No joke.
- Ivy is incredibly intuitive about people and what makes them tick. This is very important given her talent, but also ensures she is more than just her talent and indeed, enables most of her diplomatic resolutions -- when it comes to living beings with emotions anyway.


Weakness:
- Naive as hell to the point that her future husband thinks she's been brainwashed into part of a cult.
- Purposefully puts her loved ones on pedestals, with odd results.
- "You have very strong scales, Stanley! So of course you'll be all right! But I'm just a cute little girl, I'm not supposed to be armored!" Ivy does not see herself as a warrior, invincible, strong, agile, or monstrous. She is 100% reliant on others for just about everything! She doesn't cook [though she can forage very well, which in Xanth is much more handy of a talent than cooking], clean [though she does consider herself neat and organized], or fight at all. She encourages others. This isn't to say she won't be by their side trying to be brilliant and inspirational, and the invasion of Xanth from the "Nextwave" happened a scant two years before Ivy was born so everyone taught her intensely about it and all the strategies used, and the important role each successive King used against the Horseman; but Ivy is absolutely useless alone and friendless. And cannot fight.
- Ivy genuinely thinks most people just need encouragement, and doesn't always realize when her enhancement magic truly is having more of an effect than she realizes. This is especially a bigger deal for her canonpoint, as it takes a lot of traveling through non-magic territory for her to understand that literally wishful thinking does not solve everything.
- Curiosity. While she doesn't flat out die from it, she certainly would if she wasn't rescued by others, and even accidentally does kill a creature or two from going too far without knowing it.
- Ivy gets crushed when things cannot be resolved with peace, love, and acceptance.
- She literally can't fathom intolerance of others. Between being raised in the most loving household they could manage; she was never exposed to insults from loved ones to each other, and she was very distressed when Chex, being a centaur with wings, was viewed as unacceptable.


Both:
- As far as Ivy believes, nothing is impossible. This is both a strength, and a weakness for obvious reasons.
- She is literally incapable of seeing most faults in anyone, even enemies. Because of this, it gives her great insight how to win people over and find mutually beneficial resolutions, but on the downside, it obviously gets her "taken advantage of," and she's stubborn and kind enough to also refuse to see it that way. [This is also why Grey is a big help.]
- Not a firm grip on "reality." Virtually none, actually. This would normally be solely dangerous, but because of her imagination for non-reality she's able to literally expand her universe, so it works out?
- For her canonpoint: Ivy believes she must be Princessly. Not just as a role, but as her identity in many facets. She's always been THE Princess, the oldest and most experienced and powerful child of the King, and everyone she's ever known always treated her like THE Princess. This doesn't just mean she tries to be polite and deferential to adults or others like King Fracto [even if she helped Brontes get his lightning back from the stormcloud], but she also acquiesces to the responsibilities of nobility and trying to behave in a manner befitting of a princess. If parental disapproval is a big disciplinary factor for "normal" folks; it goes quintuple for Ivy, who desperately wants to return her parents' love and would never want to disappoint them. This does not mean she won't follow her heart and do what she believes is right no matter what, even if she has to bend the rules, but she has no rebellious streaks at all, and her imagination for such a thing is curtailed by her trust and love instead!
- For her canonpoint: Ivy is very experienced with magic, which will come in handy; but at the same time, she's NOT used to non-Xanth magic, and that is a big adjustment. Particularly since she's never been without her enhancement [literally even as a fetus] and while she'll be eager to have MORE talents/magic and likely be very self-satisfied that everyone could and will do more if they just try and are encouraged and believe in themselves and each other; she will get quickly frustrated with people who aren't able to do all she believes them capable of, as she will instead just think they don't want to, and don't trust her, and this will lead to a lot of over-reliance on charm spells. So much charm spells. You will never have seen anyone use so much charm spells.
- Extremely affectionate. This has always been to her benefit because she always assumed everyone wants her hugs as much as she wants to give them, so they always did. It's a bit different without the enhancement in effect and especially since she used this on dragons, monsters, giants, and total strangers.
- Bossy: while this usually is how her power manifests and is able to enhance people beyond their natural potential; the downside is that Ivy doesn't always realize how directing away people from their natural inclinations is like putting blinders on a horse. They're more focused and can't see threats behind them, but also... can't see threats behind them. And it can breed some resentment, and indeed even Hugo while not exactly resenting it, gradually grew to prefer simply being un-enhanced free of the pedestal and constant directives.

Apprentice Sorcerer Application
Class: Mystic! Ivy is all about the big picture, let the details fall where they may! She is incredibly wise and intelligent beyond her years, in part because she always wanted to be and therefore believed herself to be, and actually MADE HERSELF TO BE, but also even in Mundania [where magic doesn't work], she catches on very quickly and adapts well to thinking on her feet! She already uses wishful/charming as a matter of breathing, and is incredibly squishy, in part because she believes herself to be, but also because princesses are meant to be behind the front line geniuses.
Mystic: Literally "enhancing" [verbally/psychologically/magically!!!!] Not exactly cheerleading but... really really powerful encouragement.

Sample Section

First Person Sample: Hello! [A blonde ten year old girl waves happily at the mirrors.] Castle Roogna has magic mirrors like this too, we were trying to contact Good Magician Humphrey and my friend Hugo, and we even thought the mirrors went on the fritz. You see, the inanimate can get very testy sometimes! They usually don't with Daddy's magic, but he wouldn't have been in control of the ones in Hugo's castle. Our mirrors don't contact lots of people at once though! Isn't that amazing? I wonder what spell did it!

Anyway, I know it isn't likely, but if at all possible, can we please pick up Stanley Steamer from the Gap Chasm? His mate Stacey Steamer will fill in for him while he's here, but I miss him terribly, and he'd surely be a big help in the fight against the corrosion!! And if you see him, he's big and green and has the toughest scales, and super strong wings, and he's just the bestest dragon you could ever meet! So tell him to come find Ivy, that's me! Otherwise he might eat you. Nothing personal, it's just his job so that the south and north of Xanth don't war all the time! You can distract him with beefsteak tomatoes though! He loves those, and we're always getting them from mother's garden. Don't tell!

Third Person Sample: TDM in third person prose