As Samaela will tell you, she comes from a land where war and death still exist -- a land outside the Mess, obviously. But how did Samaela come to be in the first place?
Once, there was a war, and, as people in nations at war tend to do, the people of the invading nation had dehumanized the people of the "enemy" nation. Indeed, the citizens of the invading nation had come to associate "the enemy" with devils, and propaganda posters depicting the enemy devils were all the rage. In the midst of this war, a native of the "enemy" nation committed an unreciprocated act of kindness when she assisted a young POW who had escaped. This was captured on film, and the unedited footage was broadcast to the citizens of the invading nation. This challenged the citizens' conception of "the enemy" -- how could a devil do that? One might imagine that once their government presented its spin, the citizens would go back to seeing "the enemy" as devils. But for a moment there was confusion.
It was at this moment of confusion that something unusual occured. Something -- perhaps Puzzlebox itself -- caused a being to come into existence. This being looked a bit like one of the devils on the propaganda posters. However, she also looked a bit like a depiction of an angel that could be found in religious art. And so the being was, knowing that her name was Samaela but not knowing how she came to be or understanding why she was simultaneously feared and revered by the masses.
After spending a lot of time doing her "angelic" duties of miraculously healing people who were injured at war, she more or less became the slave of some mages whose incantations allowed them to use Samaela's powers for hurtful purposes. After some time -- it could have been centuries, for all she knew -- one of the mages uttered a garbled incantation, allowing Samaela to escapte.
Samaela ended up in The Frying Pan -- the name given to a house of sorts by its owner, who referred to himself only as the ROM Collector. The ROM Collector convinced Samaela that she would be doing the world some good by delivering packages to various people. Eventually she learned that what she was delivering was ROMs with recordings of people taken at their most private moments without their knowledge. She then considered the ROM Collector's uncanny ability to always know where she was to be a threat, so she ran away to the nearest place she could find. That place happened to be the Mess.
Like an angel Samaela has the motivation and the ability to help others during times of crisis. Before being enslaved by the sadistic mages she spent much of her time protecting and healing sentients who had been injured during battle.
Like a devil Samaela has no sense of allegiance, except perhaps to her own self. This is not to say that she is an egoist. On the contrary, she tends to be indiscriminately altruistic. She won't hesitate to assist an "enemy" who has fallen in battle. Indeed, she doesn't have any loyalties based on nationality, species, ideology, or fashion trend. She seems to have never even formed the concept of such loyalties. Obviously, she would not join a faction under ordinary circumstances.
Samaela has had prolonged contact with the following sentients (listed roughly in the order in which she met them):
Part of the inspiration for Samaela came from reading works about and by the Situationist International. Other inspiration came from reading about the religion/mythology of ancient Egyptians, ancient Canaanites, Christians, and Muslims.
There's more to come on this page.
Feel free to add your own comments here. (Inspired by Characters/Kehari?, who in turn was apparently inspired by Ataxia.)