Hester Prynne (Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha)

Hester Prynne is a reinterpretation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne character by the same name, as appears in The Scarlet Letter. This version appeared briefly in some panels for a reimagining of said classic literature work as if it were a Disney animated feature, done as part of a high school assignment in the fall of 2001. The collection of her reinterpretation plus some Gray Champion fanfics led to what later became known as "Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha," as it laid down the Marlquaan and other foundations for the mythos of what would evolve into The Gerosha Chronicles.

Skills

 * Diplomacy
 * Stitching
 * Jewelry-making

Weaknesses

 * Frotchimar link
 * Frotchimar is able to exploit her loneliness, and initial belief that Roger is dead, to sway her into an affair with Dimmesdale, as the demon sought to use the scandal that would result in order to undermine Hester's heroic intentions in life, and her effectiveness in them.
 * That the Shrouded Entity drugged Hester and Dimmesdale only further enhanced Frotchimar's power.
 * Frotchimar in later 'verses would go on to not only do this same thing to every version of Hester, but would later set his sights on using sexual temptation to corrupt countless other targets, with a preference for targeting women. Key targets for Frotchimar's destructive mind games include (but are not limited to) Candi Flippo, Miriam Flippo, Marina Baret, Hea Pang, Jissika Sundue, Siaja Tiktak, Pam Marcones, Mingmei Cheng, Hadley Mint, Stephanie Barrin, and Tabitha Pang.
 * His bid with Luminarod to continue this, with protection against angelic threats like Cherinob, was conditional upon him always succeeding at undermining his target. For centuries, every woman he specifically targeted, eventually succumbed to sexual temptation.  His power was only broken when Tabitha resisted him - though she too nearly failed, as he used her feelings for Jordan Sterlie as leverage against her.
 * He was unsuccessful against Kicked Deer. However, this was more due to John's stubborn morality than Orenda's willpower.  As such, Orenda couldn't take credit for Frotchimar's failure; sparing Frotchimar from being destroyed by Cherinob.
 * Against Hester, Frotchimar is able to double-whammy this, by using the virtue-signaling-yet-hypocritical townsfolk of Boston against her - playing on their insecurities to bring her down further, while also jeopardizing their souls.

Equipment

 * The Beamer's Ruby (formerly)

Character bio
Hester married Roger in a more idyllic time, when the two of them had strong aspirations of helping a Dutch minister with his plans to start a missionary project in the Hmong parts of Thailand. Roger briefly visited that area, only to see a small amount on nin-chyo that was stolen from a vault be put on public display. He saw it melt a man into a puddle. After uncovering a Marlquaanite ruby back in the Netherlands, Roger was given the ability to freeze things solid. The Society of the Icy Finger discovered him, and played to his fascination with his newfound powers.

He was soon seduced by their temptations of him becoming part of "something bigger" though them, and quickly went to the dark side. Hester fled to Boston to get away from him. However, she was unable to explain to any court that Roger had become a deranged Marlquaanite Ice Elemental, fearing that she herself would be accused of witchcraft by the locals. Therefore, she was unable to finalize a divorce.

She tried to being life anew as a seamstress, similar to her Hawthorne novel counterpart. This put her and the town preacher Arthur Dimmesdale into a trap; when the Shrouded Entity drugged both of them - leading to them having an affair while under the influence. The Entity did this in retaliation to Dimmesdale having successfully resisted both his Zeran traps and the Entity's various efforts to steal some of Dimmesdale's blood to make an evil clone.

A few months later, Miles "the Oraphim" Wealthington drove the Entity out of Boston. But superstitious fears of him remained among the populace, leading to a growing fascination with witchcraft by the locals. Hester discovered that her night with Dimmesdale led to pregnancy, and the two tried to cover up the affair. When that proved no longer possible, she covered for him by refusing to state who the child's father was. She was initially thrown in jail for the duration of her pregnancy.

However, Miles found her and bestowed on her possession of the Beamer's Ruby - which he had hidden in a necklace pendant and didn't tell her of its true nature. She believed it was a gift that she was entrusted with keeping safe, and nothing more. The guiding carve on it showed some of the ruby through what resembled a letter "A." The town investigator decided that the "A" stood well for "adultery," and made her wear the necklace in public as a reminder of her shame.

After discovering that her necklace was the Beamer's Ruby by accident, she started her own secret society to have it kept far out of the Icy Finger's reach. The ruby and necklace together came to be known as Hester's locket - one of the most powerful artifacts in all the known universe.

Said accident triggered the ruby inside her necklace to fire its beam off of Dimmesdale's chest, right as he revealed to the public the letter "A" he had carved into his own chest due to his shame over his affair with Hester. The beam reflected off of this, and onto Roger - who was in the middle of using his powers to try to freeze Dimmesdale solid and prevent the public confession.

Said beam, upon hitting Roger, stripped him of his Marlquaanite powers. However, it also did so while he was using them, causing them to backfire on him and freeze him solid. Worse, the ice bits shattered, killing Roger instantly. However, the townsfolk chalked up what happened to Roger getting what was coming for him for "not knowing what he was doing" while tampering with arcane arts. Therefore, no charges against Hester were ever pressed for Roger's death.

Hester's life path more or less, unless otherwise noted, deviates little else from that of her Hawthorne novel counterpart.

Personality
Hester was portrayed in the beginning of early shorts in the class sketches to be remorseful, yet hopeful that a better future awaited her. She was still alive, a sign to her that God wouldn't let society do to her what she sensed they desired to in their hearts. She agonized over what her state of mind must have been, and what drove her to it, that she'd be willing to risk everything for an affair that made no sense to her in her sober mind. In spite her insistence that she was not in full control of herself at the moment of her act, she assumes responsibility for the results.

She is also determined not to let the bitterness of society around her poison the mind of her daughter, Pearl. While she doesn't ever meet John Domeck, she does meet John's associate: Miles Wealthington. She seems to want to keep the peace in her hometown, even if that means making numerous sacrifices toward this end - which include tolerating both Dimmesdale's hypocrisy, and her estranged husband's cruel taunts. When the locket activates upon Chillingworth's ultimate act of homicidal rage, and causes his freezing powers to backfire on him and kill him while sparing Dimmesdale from a similar icy fate, Hester shows genuine shock and horror that either man should be chosen by fate to die.

Her mannerisms, especially in this early version, were retooled from the proto-feminist of Hawthorne's imagination, to make her a nod to the mannerisms of Disney Princesses from the Disney Renaissance era - especially Belle. Her restraint against Chillingworth even amidst his taunts is modeled after Odette from Nest Entertainment's The Swan Princess, but with the justification being more that she genuinely hates violence, rather than restraint out of fear of the consequences for visiting violence on a magic wielder.

Far from being a fully faithful re-creation of Hawthorne's version, this incarnation was set up to be a play on Disney Princess tropes from that company's Renaissance Era. She sets out initially with a Belle-like wide-eyed idealism about the world around her. However, disillusionment with the world - and with herself - quickly changes her into a sad-yet-still-kindhearted creature.

She is never broken completely; yet this one is far less strong-willed and commanding than Hawthorne's version. She does show incredible generosity around town; yet she also becomes slightly discouraged more easily when her kindness isn't returned.

Trivia

 * While this one's story is deviated from Hawthorne's only as necessary, latter incarnations in Gerosha mythos would become more directly involved with Miles Wealthington - to the point of officially joining the Order of the Oraphim at one point. She was surprised how accepting they were of her, in spite holding a similarly negative view of her past behavior as did the rest of her town.


 * The desire for Hester to have a modern analog that could be John Domeck's guide to navigating the 21st century led to the creation of Heeshwa Pwong, a concept for a character which later evolved into Hea Pang.
 * Likewise, Hea's daughter with Kyle Medsor, initially unnamed, evolved into Tabitha Pang - seen as a way to have a modern version of Pearl that winds up actually doing something.