spiritomb 2.0

(based on froy's Definitely Not Rivals of Aether project)



Background

Avery, The Unyielding Flare

Element: Earth...?
Weapon: Sword
Species: Human

From a young age, Avery was raised in an Earthen village. Recognizing her elemental gifts, the elders there taught her the ways of Earth, but Avery never put her all into her studies. Despite this, she learned the foundational techniques of the element, and mastered a few of them to a degree nearly unheard of. Still, though, Avery felt like she was in the wrong place.

One evening, a group of Wind bandits attacked the village. Avery held her own along with the rest of the warriors, but when one of her closest friends was killed in battle, what happened shocked everyone. Avery had always been calm and mild-mannered, but at this sight, she erupted into a hurricane of flame and fury. An erupting rage of attacks disposed of the bandits, but also injured many of the village’s members in the crossfire.

Avery had been building up all this fury for years and years and years, due to her Earthen training of patience and calm. And when it was finally let loose, her true elemental alignment of Fire was revealed. Avery could not live with herself for causing such destruction, and many of her former teachers disowned her – all but one.

Now, Avery has accepted this side of herself and is learning to harness it. Her elemental conflict gives her a unique edge in combat, but is also very unexplored and dangerous territory. And Avery’s strong, random outbursts of anger don’t make it any easier. With some effort and elbow grease, however, it could make her as strong as the warriors of legend.



Appearance

Avery has flowing red hair that reaches down to her waist, brown eyes, and medium-tone skin, matching Lucina in height. She enters the battlefield wearing traditional Earthen garb: brown and tan clothing such as a tunic. All her clothing is attached directly to her body, as opposed to flowing freely like a cape or dress.

Held firmly in Avery’s leading hand is a Stone Katana. (She’s ambidextrous, so her animations mirror when she turns around.) It’s really just a small, portable hilt, but when used for attack, it draws in pebbles and stones from the user’s surroundings to form a razor-sharp blade. By assimilating more massive chunks of the ground into itself, the Stone Katana allows the user to perform Earth-elemental feats by “dragging” rock into place. Just stick the handle into the ground below, and you’re good to go.

Most Earthbenders use this blade to augment their innate rock-manipulation powers. Avery, being trained with it from the very beginning, relies on it entirely for her Earth abilities, in lieu of a natural ability to bend rock. Luckily, her Fiery spirit gives her the physical strength to lug that massive amount of stone where it needs to go!



Elemental Powers

FLARING FOUNDATION: Avery’s duality of elements gives her radically different yet symbiotic modes of combat. She can use Neutral B to Focus on the fight, or enter the air at any time to unleash powerful, enraged attacks.

EARTHBENDING: Her element isn’t truly Earth, but Avery can still manipulate rock with the aid of her Stone Katana. Avery’s Special Moves, Down Smash, and Down Tilt use tactical Earthbending, while the rest of her Smash Attacks and Standard Attacks are more direct.

FIREBRANDING: In the air, Avery unleashes the true flame in her spirit. In exchange for damaging herself, she can let out fiery attacks, quick dashes, and ranged projectiles.



Stats

Avery’s movement stats are solid overall. By default, her weight is the same as Ryu’s, resilient thanks to her trained composure in battle. On that note, Avery also sports his dash speed, walk speed, and traction.

As for jump height, that’s where things get unorthodox. Avery can jump as high as Marth, and whenever she leaves the firm foundation of the ground, she unleashes her Fire Rage. Previously maroon hair now radiates a surging red, and her brown eyes do the same. She almost floats in an aura of fire, with Jigglypuff’s air movement except with a massive increase in downward velocity when using a fastfall – thanks to her “unstable” nature. Note that Avery enters Fire Rage when she leaves the ground by any means, including taking knockback.

Avery has several unique mechanics tied to this state. Defense takes a hit, as she now weighs only as much as Sheik. Avery takes 1% damage whenever she enters Fire Rage, and 3% damage upon performing any midair action except for airdodging. During invincibility, including after respawning, Avery is immune to this self-damage. On the subject of damage taken, Fire Rage doubles the effect of traditional Rage, the Smash 4 mechanic where attacks gradually gain knockback if the user is damaged.

Another bonus is that Avery’s attacks while in Fire Rage are just extremely powerful. Aerials have no landing lag at all, which is extremely strong for combos, pressure, and spacing – but self-damage makes it undesirable for simple pokes. Fire Rage also replaces all four Specials with a single, omnidirectional Air Special, meaning the other four are ground-only.

Additionally, rather than a midair jump, Avery has an eight-direction air dash which refreshes when she’s hit. It travels 1.5 platforms in the blink of an eye, and for one second after the dash ends, Avery has free flight in any analog direction, during which she can attack. Even this dash inflicts the 3% recoil damage, but also has a hitbox for 3% and weak knockback. It has no landing lag, making it a strong pseudo-wavedash. But even implementing this tiny bit of rage into an otherwise grounded assault needs to be done with care due to the recoil.

Jumping in Smash is something you might do out of instinct or habit, just like Avery is prone to outbursts when she doesn’t mean it. Mastering her gameplay is all about controlling the balance between Earth and Fire, between grounded combat and air combat, between calm and fury.