Stained Glass Scarlet (Victory)
Origin
Maria Arnales was a run-of-the-mill streetwalker in Paragon City; that was, until Sister Mary Alice came into her life. Sister Mary Alice was the proverbial nun with a heart of gold. She took in Maria and made it possible for her to get off the streets, away from the pimps and pushers, and slowly start to turn her life around – kick her drug habit, stop turning tricks.
After a period of time, Maria knew just what she wanted to do with her life – become a nun just like Sister Mary Alice and do good works the same as her mentor did. As her new name, she took what seemed very appropriate – Sister Mary Magdalene.
Things were wonderful – for a time. At first, Sister Mary Magdalene mostly paid lip service to a belief in God, but soon came to truly believe in the power of the divine. She saw many things that could only be explained by the miraculous during her time with the Sisters at St. Catherine’s Priory. It was the happiest time in Maria’s previously tumultuous life. Alas, it would not last.
One day some time later, Sister Mary Magdalene returned to the Priory after a long day of ministering to the many left homeless in Paragon City in the wake of the failed Rikti invasion. To her immense shock and anguish, the Priory had been completely razed to the ground. In agony, Sister Mary rushed into the ruins, hoping against hope to find survivors. What she DID find, however, was the broken, battered body of Sister Mary Alice. Before taking her last pain-wracked breath, Sister Mary Alice described the assault of crazed Circle of Thorns thugs. (In later investigations, it was never clear whether the Circle had a reason for attacking the Priory, or if the thugs were just on a destructive bender.)
Kneeling amidst the ruins of the only life that had ever meant anything to her, holding the broken body of her closest friend and mentor, Maria’s soul felt like it was being torn asunder, her world spinning out of control. As she later told it, she cried out to her Lord and Savior, and in that moment, her pleas were answered. Everything went white, and when Maria later woke, she felt a strange tingling sensation.
Maria is convinced that her newfound powers are a direct gift from God, and she uses them to defeat whatever evil she is able to. No longer a nun, she is back living on the street, gaining rest and sustenance wherever she can, her mind on only two things: doing God’s work by defeating evil and, perhaps even more importantly, visiting divine retribution on the Circle of Thorns and their allies at any chance.