Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch

Subject Facts

Full Name: Wanda Django Maximoff
Codename: Scarlet Witch
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Archetype: Super Hero
Aliases: N/A
Marital Status: Single
Affiliation: Avengers Unity Division

Subject Attributes

Superhuman Abilities: Chaos Magick - Originally, it was theorized that Wanda would have had energy-manipulating powers similar to her father, Magneto. When she was seconds old, however, the Elder God Chthon chose her as his future vessel, and so imbued her with his power. This altered Wanda's eventual abilities, making her a conduit for chaos magick. At first, Wanda knew only that with focus and a gesture she could release orbs of energy that made bad things happen, usually in a way that benefited her or her allies. When the true source of Wanda's powers were revealed by Agatha Harkness, she likened these "hexes" as grenades of chaos magick/energy that, when they detonated, yielded results. Once Wanda realized that her abilities were a strange blend of mutant genetics and sorcery, she began training in the mystic arts. Now she can do much of what other sorceresses can. The difference is that her spells or hexes are powered by chaos magick, instead of other sources (such as Doctor Strange's calling on power from artifacts or mystic beings to work magic). The issue here is that chaos magick is, by its very nature, volatile and dangerous; evil, arguably. Working with it is potentially dangerous, and if Wanda messes up a hex - which is what she refers to most of her spells as - things could be disastrous.

Nexus Being - The Scarlet Witch is a "nexus being". This is a living focal point of magical energy, of which only one can exist in a single universe/reality at one time. As a nexus being, Wanda is constantly absorbing various energies and retaining them. This means that Wanda can cast more powerful spells, or mete out more astounding hexes, depending on the amount of energy she has stored up. It also means that, with the right preparations she can absorb energies of various types to power hexes or works of magic. Wanda's nature as a nexus being also makes her attuned to things that others are not; she has had prophetic visions more than once about events that threaten the universe, and so on.

Standard Abilities: Witchcraft - Wanda was trained in witchcraft by Agatha Harkness. She knows its principles and a considerable knowledge about magic creatures and matters of the mystic or occult. Due to her prior experience with the decidedly darker tones of the world of magic, Wanda is more familiar with demons out of all such creatures.

Multilingual - Wanda knows English as well as her native language, and can get by in most tongues found throughout Europe.

Avenger - Because of her long history with the superhero team, Wanda is proficient in the use of hi-level technology that they regularly employ. She's also a capable and confident pilot of their aircraft, the Quinjets.

Hand-to-Hand Combat - The Scarlet Witch always relies foremost upon her magicks. However, she has been trained by Captain America himself, and several other martially inclined Avengers over the years in hand-to-hand combat, and is able to defend herself through strength of body if need be.

Paraphernalia: Wanda may employ any number of utensils, objects or artifacts in her pursuits with witchcraft. She's also a carrier of an official Avengers ID Card, which acts as a communication device and offers her security clearance in Avengers facilities and others.

Subject Weaknesses: Glass Cannon - The Scarlet Witch can wreak havoc on her enemies through nimble hexes and destructive magicks. However, she is a mortal woman and can very easily be incapacitated or even killed.

Battery - Wanda's constant storing of energy can prove dangerous. It is thought that, if she has too much at one point, her powers can get the best of her, and make her lose touch with reality.

Chthon's Chosen - Wanda is the chosen vessel of the Elder God Chthon, and has been possessed by his spirit in the past. He will ever try to return to the world and reign in terror through her.

Confidence + Reputation - Wanda's powers have always been tied up in her self-confidence and emotional state. When she's sure of herself and especially angry she can work feats beyond her normal limitations. By the same token, if she's doubtful, things that should normally be simple might fail her. Particularly because Wanda's reputation now is so tarnished and she's so determined to overcome it.

Subject History

Wanda was born just after her twin, Pietro, in the Citadel of the High Evolutionary on Mount Wundagore in the Eastern-European country, Transia. When Wanda was beheld, a strange light lit up the mount. Her mother, Magda fled the Citadel shortly after, leaving the twins in the care of the bovine/human, Bova. She tried to give the twins to an American superhero initially, but he was too full of grief from his wife's passing. Instead, Bova went to a Romani couple; Django and Marya Maximoff. With these loving adopted parents, Wanda and Pietro were raised. While still a child, Wanda interacted with witches desiring to bring her into their coven. When they were attacked by minions of the Elder God, Set, Wanda's powers manifested, and she was saved by another Elder God, Chthon, who had his own plans for her.

Pietro exhibited powers soon after, as well. The twins' powers eventually drove them into conflict with other humans. When Wanda's abilities accidentally set fire to a building, she was cornered by a mob who was intent on killing the "scarlet witch". She and Pietro were saved by the intervention of the mutant Master of Magnetism, Magneto. To repay the debt they owed him, the twins joined Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. For a time, they operated thus, running into conflict with Charles Xavier's X-Men several times. Finally they could no longer abide by Magneto's villainy, and left the Brotherhood, feeling their debt no longer owed. For a time, the pair wandered Europe, until they heard news that the Avengers were accepting applicants for a new roster. Believing that this was a way to help the world properly, the twins applied and were accepted. They debuted in the Avengers, headed by Captain America, alongside fellow villain-turned-superhero Hawkeye.

After that point, Wanda remained with the Avengers for the majority of her adult life. She met the synthezoid the Vision, with whom she fell in love and married. Wanda and the Vision attempted a domestic life, made more domestic yet when Wanda used her powers to become pregnant by the Vision. She had twin boys, Thomas and William. When the twins turned out to have been pieces of the demon Mephisto's soul and were reclaimed, Wanda went through a crisis. She and the Vision rejoined the Avengers and even headed the West Coast division for some time, but during an incident where the Vision was dismantled and put back together with no personality or feelings toward Wanda, their marriage suffered. With the help of Agatha Harkness, Wanda learned that her powers were more complicated than a simple genetic mutation, and that she actually channeled "chaos magick" and was a nexus being; that is, a living focal point of magic.

During these formative years, the twins had a few substantial revelations. First, they believed their biological parents to have been the American superheroes, the Whizzer and Miss America. This proved to be false, and then they were reunited with Django Maximoff, who had survived the attack that they believed to have killed him and Marya. The twins operated under the assertion that Django was their true father for some time until, while Wanda was visiting her new niece Luna, none other than Magneto revealed that he was their biological father.

In the aftermath of several events that increasingly estranged her from her husband, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch separated. Wanda continued to operate as a primary member of the Avengers. After Wanda lost her sons, her memories of them were suppressed. That is, until something was said that jogged the Scarlet Witch's memories. She remembered losing her sons, and desperate to reclaim them, went to the only person on the planet who was both mystically strong enough, and morally grey enough to help her; Doctor Doom. Together, the two tried to harness the Life Force, except due to the sinister intent of Doom, the Life Force took over Wanda and gave her reality-warping powers. The Scarlet Witch went on a rampage that destroyed the Avengers, then was whisked to Genosha by Magneto in the aftermath.

Quicksilver realized that the Avengers were planning on possibly murdering Wanda while she worked through her Life Force-inspired psychosis with the help of Charles Xavier. Pietro convinced Wanda to remake the world into something that everyone would benefit from. Still harboring the powers of the Life Force, Wanda created a world known as the House of M. This reality deteriorated when a girl with the power to restore Pre-HoM memories came along, and at the climax of the heroes' march on the House of Magnus, Wanda used the last of the Life Force to accomplish several things; to disperse of the House of M reality, and the de-powering of 90% of the world's mutant population. After the famous words "No more mutants," Wanda magicked herself to Transia and suppressed her memories, thinking herself to be a normal woman who was born and raised there.

Later, Wanda went to Castle Doom in Latveria to petition Doctor Doom on behalf of his people. Victor took Wanda into his household and appeared to fall in love with her. The two became engaged. Wanda's idyllic fairy tale was interrupted by the appearance of a small sorcerer, Billy Kaplan. In the whirlwind events that followed, instigated by the Young Avengers, Magneto and Quicksilver, Wanda's memories were mended. She realized that she could re-power mutants affected by M-Day, albeit one at a time. Doctor Doom's part in Wanda's previous psychological break and rampage was revealed, and the X-Men grudgingly agreed to leave Wanda be in light of that.

The Scarlet Witch stayed under the radar in the next few weeks until the conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men forced her to intervene. She played a pivotal part in their battle, particularly against the Phoenix Force-possessed X-Men, since she was the only person whose powers stood a chance against them. Ultimately the struggles were ended when Wanda and Hope Summers came together to banish the Phoenix Force, consequently counteracting the affects of M-Day and re-powering any mutant formerly affected by it.

Next, Wanda joined the Avengers Unity Squad at the behest of Captain America. With this team she battled threats such as the Apocalypse Twins and an approaching Celestial. The Red Skull soon launched an attack using Charles Xavier's telepathic powers. Wanda worked with Doctor Strange to cast a spell, but when it backfired, it inverted the morality of heroes and villains in the vicinity. The Scarlet Witch was one of the heroes-turned-villains and before the Axis event was corrected, cast a spell that allegedly revealed that Magneto was not her and Pietro's father.

This paternal revelation lead Pietro and Wanda to Counter-Earth in pursuit of answers. Once there, the High Evolutionary claimed that they were the children of Marya and Django Maximoff, and their powers were the results of his genetic experimentation on them as infants. They combated Luminous, one of the High Evolutionary's specimens who apparently had the twins's combined abilities. Ultimately, with the Avengers Unity Division, they forced Luminous and the High Evolutionary to flee, and liberated a whole civilization of his experimental rejects before returning to earth.

Wanda embarked on a quest, along with the ghost of her former mentor, Agatha Harkness, to fix witchcraft, which had been broken. The journey took her across the globe and ended with revelations, such as the apparent real mother of her and Pietro, Natalya Maximoff. During these events, the second superhero Civil War occurred, which Wanda avoided. Ultimately she, Pietro, Natalya and Agatha fought the manifestation of Chaos on the Witch's Road to save witchcraft. Natalya sacrificed herself in the process, but not before revealing that apparently it was not the High Evolutionary that killed her, but the twins's father.

Once earthbound again, Wanda assisted Doctor Strange against the magic-destroying science cult, Emiprikul. During the impostor Steve Rogers's Secret Empire, Wanda was possessed by Chthon, who used her as his vessel to aid Hydra's global domination. Thor subdued her in the climactic battle that ended the event, enabling Doctor Strange to exorcise her. Following this, Wanda joined the Avengers Unity Division to recenter herself and began a romantic relationship with Brother Voodoo.

The Grandmaster and the Challenger made earth the battleground for a celestial battle, pitting the Black Order against various members of the Avengers teams, including Wanda. Ultimately, the Scarlet Witch was the catalyst against the Challenger in the event's final battle, channeling the strength of every Avenger, past and present, to strike him down. Regrettably, Pietro had vanished from reality during the tumult, and Wanda and Brother Voodoo, along with Synapse, searched for him; to eventual success.

Most recently, Wanda was alongside other Avengers set against the vengeful agenda of Styx and her children. The Scarlet Witch was stricken blind by Styx, and transported to the Hyperborean Era, where she allied with Conan the Barbarian, until both were brought to the present, where Styx was finally beaten by Vision in the House of Creation.

Subject Interview

Wanda Maximoff stood in the middle of a cavernous room amid countless boxes and pieces of disarrayed furniture. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked around slowly. Blankly. There was an exhaustion in her eyes and a melancholic tinge to the air around her. Wanda sized up her surroundings, trying to envision what her new common room might or ought look like once her things were unpacked.

"Her things." The Scarlet Witch didn't have an overabundance of belongings. She'd had little more than the rags on her back that fateful day all those years before when Magneto had found and "saved" Pietro and herself. When Wanda was part of the Avengers at the start she'd accumulated a small number of personal affects but no more than could fill her admittedly spacious room in Avengers Mansion. When she and Vision had attempted a domestic life, they'd filled a whole house together with material things but that was a long time ago and Wanda didn't think that she would want any of them, just then, anyway.

Coming back from the supposed grave could make a dent in your possessions. Wanda still had a decent measure of things - most of them, ironically, those that she'd filled her room at the Mansion with so long ago - but not enough to rightly fill her new residence. The Scarlet Witch thought, yet again, if it had been wise to move into her own space. She was sure Pietro would be around enough that she wouldn't be lonely, but the thought of returning to Avengers Mansion (or was it "Tower" now?) whispered at the edges of the choice.

Wanda knew that it was little more than impossible to do such a thing at that time, though. In her mind, at least. The world was still recovering from what she'd done in the madness brought on by the Life Force. Her grip on her upper arms increased painfully and she bit her lip. Wanda was intensely aware that she had a long way to go before she would ever come near atoning for... everything. She was just taking one day at a time, as it was. What alternative was there? Wallow in self-loathing or -pity? No. The Young Avengers had shown her that that was not the way for Wanda or the world to mend.

The sorceress was drawn from her thoughts with the technological beep that came from another room. Wanda's fingers unfurled and her arms fell at her sides. She left the piles of cardboard and furniture behind. Her new apartment was a penthouse - she'd thought the relative seclusion that it offered would be a blessing to her, and a matter of safety for her neighbors. The penthouse itself was very... suiting, Wanda would say. Pietro had called it "horror meets romance meets church," if Wanda remembered right. All tall ceilings, arched pillars, Gothic moldings and windows as often stained glass as they weren't. It was part of one of the oldest buildings in New York City. Wanda felt that the rich history behind it called to her as much as the Noir.

The Scarlet Witch moved into her kitchen, which was bare save an empty refrigerator and yet another pile of boxes. Only one utensil had been unpacked insofar, and it was the source of the sound from before. The coffee pot was full and steaming. Wanda had to open three boxes before she found a suitable mug. She filled the glass and took a precursory sip. That, at least, brought a faint smile to the corner of her mouth. Wanda moved through the apartment again, this time emerging through double doors onto a balcony sheltered on all sides but the front. New York City roared beyond the stone railings and Wanda listened to it thoughtfully while she nursed her drink.

Hopefully this change that she was trying to bring into her life would be worthwhile.

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Di

Other Characters: N/A

How did you find MFT?: Creator/founder