JADEITE NEPHRILIM:

The leader of the House of Glass and deuteragonist of the story. She hails from an action RPG series called Timeless Garden, similar in tone and aesthetic to the Kingdom Hearts series - minus the Disney. She was born to a simple family of farmers in an extremely lush world called Nolavi, whic was covered in endless forests and beautiful, towering buildings, and as such, for the early portion of her life she lived in simplicity and happiness with her family. However, eventually strange, shadowy creatures called the Voidsnared began to appear in her world, causing chaos and havoc. While the heroes of her world were able to fight off the Voidsnared using sacred weapons called Harmonies, it was an endless war, as the beings continued to emerge from realities unseen to continue their relentless attack on her homeworld. Eventually, once she was in her early teenage years, she discovered she had the potential to wield a Harmony herself, and as such tearfully left her parents in order to be trained how to use her power. She was an extremely skilled student, and made friends with two other students herself, and they forged an extremely close bond together. One of them, a tall male student named Quartzite, had an approach that strict obedience and loyalty was the key to surviving the coming battles, while the other, Pyrite, was a short girl who believed that understanding and analysis of the world around them and their powers as the way to defeat their enemies. Jade wasn't sure she agreed with either belief, instead believing that growing stronger naturally would be the only way to stop the Voidsnared. Despite this, she formed a very close bond with both of her fellow classmates, and in particular, her relationship with Pyrite could be described as almost romantic despite their opposing views on how to handle the problem of the Voidsnared.

She continued to live her life as a student of the Harmonic Arts while facing the Voidsnared, until one discovery on a mission lead her to learn the likely cause of the existence of the Voidsnared - they were pulled up from the depths of an ancient Void, outside the existence of Novali, by somebody she knew personally - the head of the school of Harmonic Arts where she trained, lady Naios Hydrangea. The revelation shaked her to her core - she could not fathom why such a respected person would have created the disaster that beset her world, and knew that because of said respect she could not even dare to try and expose the truth to the rest of her world's people, and would instead have to attempt to remedy it in secret. She tried to tell Quartzite and Pyrite, and while Pyri was slightly more willing to consider what she was saying, Quartz was full of complete anger that she would even dare to insinuate such a thing about the respected founder of her world's protectors. Pyri felt the need to gather more knowledge and hone her understanding of her Harmony if she was ever to consider Jade's words, let alone try and betray Naios, while Quartz refused to even associate with her. Jade was left on her own to try and discover a way to face Naios, and so turned to trying to learn how to control the power of the Void that the Voidsnared originated from, and, while she had mixed results at first, she eventually started to become able to use the power to the fullest she could for her current experience and age.

As she continued the quest for the Void's power, Quartz continued just obediently following the teachers of the Harmonic Arts and Naios, and agreed to sign up for a special project from Naios herself that would hopefully deal with the Voidsent and restore order to the plane, relying on the unique perspectives of his two fellow students, Pyri and Jade. Pyri continued her research of her Harmony, and was able to continue unlocking more and more unique abilities regarding it. All the while, Jade continued her quest to gain more and more power from the Void, and in doing so, unlocked a new power for her Harmony, which was primarily based around sand - turning it into magical glass shards by infusing it with Void energy, allowing her to create additional weapons on the fly as well as perform a manner of other attacks, changing her almost in an instant into the most dangerous Harmony wielder in Nolavi when it came to pure offensive power. While she did her best to keep her research into the power of the Void secret, Pyri eventually realized what her secret personal lessons were, and urged her to reconsider her quest for power to face Naios, instead believing that understanding one's own inner power - their Harmony - would be the key to stopping whatever she was planning.

Jade cared deeply for Pyri, and while she wanted to continue seeking the power of the Void to stop Naios, she also believed that the pure heart and soul that dwelled within Pyri could lead to another path. So, for a short period, she stopped her research, and instead focused on trying to learn more about her Harmony, which she named Desert Glass. All the while, Quartz's meetings with the old Naios, so as to discuss their plan, increased in frequency, as Naios had decided to take him on as her personal pupil, an honor he was happy to receive, and Chrysanthie, their teacher, had no reason to refuse. The details of Naios' plan soon became clear - each one of the students had a different role to play in the grand scheme. Naios sought to summon the ancient origin of all existence, the Timeless Garden, the source of all forces that are not "Void," and she claimed she would use it to banish the Voidsent and prevent further incursion. Quartz's power over light would enable him to draw the Voidsent all to the academy, as their presence was necessary to open a hole across the Cosmos, while Pyri's deep understanding of her own Harmony would allow her to use it as a key to open the pathway to the Timeless Garden, and finally, the great power of Jade would allow her to contain the Timeless Garden inside her, allowing its power to be used under Naios' direction. Naios, who had secretly known all about Jade's private training, also revealed the truth to Quartz that she was using the power of the Void, which horrified and angered him immensely, feeling completely betrayed. Naios was of course using this to poison Quartz against Jade when the time came...

Angry about what he had learned, Quartz decided to do something dratic. While he assumed that it was something Naios would not have wanted, Naios was actually counting on it, as she had noticed Jade had abandoned her pursuit of power in favor of following Pyri's way of thinking, which clashed with her ultimate desire. And thus, Quartz told Chrystanthie that Jade was researching the power of the Void, and told her to "spar" with Jade while actually fighting for real, thus forcing her to show her full hand. Chrysanthie was hesitant, but assumed that Jade would not display the power of the Void in the "sparring match," and she could punish Quartz for slander after. However, when the sparring match did come, Jade did turn out to have the power of the void, and was convinced that Chrysanthie had betrayed her for the sake of Naios. Chrysanthie was shocked and had no idea what to do, leaving her open to Jade, who, in a state of immense panic and heartbreak, accidentally killed her beloved Teacher using the power of the Void. Despite Jade begging that she didn't mean to do it and thought Chrysanthie was going to kill her, nobody but Pyri believed her, and Quartz used the opportunity to not only rally the students against her - but the other teachers next, and after that, the common people, and finally the government. Jade was forced onto the run, hiding from the world, unable to keep studying her Harmony with Pyri, and far away from the villain she sought to face.

Separated, the three of them went further down their paths in desperation. Quartz continued following Naios' instructions zealously, even after she told him that she summoned to Voidsnared into the world, claiming that she did it all to better Nolavi for the future, while Pyri continued desperately looking into her Harmony in hopes it could find her some way to save her world and Jade, eventually coming across the legend of the Timeless Garden and believing it could be used to stop Naios and banish the Voidsnared, and finally Jade continued obsessively attempting to tame the power of the Void, even gaining the ability to bind weaker Voidsnared to her will to fight in her name, and, upon discovering the legend of the Timeless Garden, became certain that harnessing it within herself was the only way she could destroy Naios and save the people she cared for. Essentially, each of the three students had fallen into Naios' roles for them, as she predicted, for she had a deep understanding of how people behave, the patterns they exhibit, and how to predict them. The three continued following these paths to ruin as Naios watched from afar, awaiting the day everything would fall into place, and the Timeless Garden would be summoned.

The day soon came, and, as planned, Quartz used the power of his Harmony, aided by support by Naios, to draw thousands of Voidsnared to the school, enough so that they blotted out the sky with sheer, all-encompassing darkness. Jade knew this had to mean that Naios' plan was starting, and rushed back to her school, determined to put a stop to this once and for all. In the same vein, Pyri quickly saw the disaster that was taking place, and was preparing to summon the Garden in order to stop it. Jade eventually came face to face with Quartz, and they had an intense battle, which Jade ultimately won. Quartz begged for help from Naios in stopping Jade from ruining the plan, but Naios simply mused that Jade was doing just what she wanted it to, before coldly stabbing Quartz straight through the chest with her own Harmony, his last words asking her why she'd betray how dutiful he was to her. Just as Jade was about to attack Naios, Pyri opened up the way to the Timeless Garden, using the Voidsnared as a "door." It opened in the blackened sky like a beautiful sun, an eternal flower blooming grace, and Naios smugly grinned - it was time. Pyri attempted to try and understand and take in the Timeless Garden, but she lacked the power necessary, and collapsed, her body ravaged by the endless power dwelling within the Garden, barely able to move, even though she still lived.

Jade faced Naios, full of anger, as the blooming sun shined on them from above. Naios quickly revealed that her own mastery of the Void was far beyond Jade's, down to revealing her alleged Harmony, Hydrangea Garden, was nothing but a secondary Harmony to her true Harmony, the Void Beckoning, far darker in aspect and far stronger in power. It seemed hopeless, almost nothing Jade did could even hurt Naios, despite Naios having the body of a crone. Naios mocked Jade for striving so much to gain power over the Void, but failing against her, and all jade could think to do was try and draw deeper and deeper from the Void's power, her strength increasing rapidly until even her body was smeared with darkness and her eyes glowed an unnatural yellow. It was at this point that it seemed Jade was finally breaking through - the battle at first changed from a complete slaughter to a vain struggle, from a vain struggle into a contest og strength, and finally it changed to be one force of might against another. When it seemed that by taking in the power of the Void, Jade was becoming stronger than Naios, and had a chance of beating her, something horrible was soon revealed. Naios chided Jade once more for having great power over the Void - but little experience or mastery, and that, as a result, she could never control it as finely as Naios herself could, and with a simple motion of her hands, Naios took control of Jade's body - which had been so completely suffused with the power of the Void, and forced her to begin taking in the power of the Timeless Garden, all while Jade futilely tried to resist.

As the garden sun as being drawn into Jade's body, Naios began to explain her reasoning for all this suffering. When she was young, she was always curious about everything around her - how it functioned, how it worked, what would happen if it was exposed to certain stimuli, what events would come to pass if two unlikely things were to meet, what endless stories and secrets could be discovered in the world around her. For a time, she was satisfied, as she went on to research more and more of the world around her, but in time, ennui developed within her. Her world was too limited, too small, there was too little to comprehend, to understand, to learn. She felt trapped in a limited world, where everything was perfect and made sense, and no new secrets or discoveries could reveal themselves to her. This world was not enough. If she was ever to learn more and more, to experience new sensations, witness new events, discover things she could never have dreamed of otherwise, she would have to find some world beyond this one, she would have to break free from the prison she was born into. Her first attempts at escaping the hell she found herself in was researching the Void that ancient texts spoke of, which she rapidly became a master of, even drawing forth the beings that dwelt deep within the void into her own world. And while it seemed that the Void could perhaps give her what she wished, when she finally attempted to travel to another world using it, she failed, as the walls of her own world were too thick, too sturdy. They could draw the Void into the world, but not allow earthly beings to exit. She came to believe that only the power of the Timeless Garden would grant her the ability to break open holes in the walls of her world - and indeed, all worlds - and set her free to explore an endless universe, where she could learn everything she wanted, and experience everything she desired.

As the power of the Timeless Garden was almost completely drawn into Jade, it seemed hopeless, only for Pyri, still half-dead, to crawl up to the prone Jade, with all the strength she could muster, and summon her Harmony one last time. She had hoped the power of understanding would have let her stop Naios, but it had failed completely... and all that was left to do was try her best to let Jade finally release her own inner power. Using her Harmony, she sent Jade into the depths of her own soul, to finally understand herself, and what kept her going, what the truth of her Harmony was. In these depths, Jade finally learned the truth of her soul, that her greatest motivator was her desire to be free from bondage no matter what, to have the power to never be a sacrifice or slave to the schemes of another ever again, and, now knowing this, she gained a deep power, hidden within herself - an unparalleled resistance to control or bondage, and thus, was set free from the control Naios had placed upon her, surprising the old woman. Pyri smiled as she drew her last breath, dying on the ground in front of the devastated Jade. Jade was still drawing in the power of the Garden, and so had to face Naios once more, and this time, she slowly won, defeating the old woman near absolutely.

However, just as it seemed victory was within her grasp, Naios embraced her own mastery of the Void, and while her body crumbled away under the power of Jade's assault, a new body emerged from the ashes, black as ink and covered in thousands of yellow eyes, moving in inhuman fashion rather than anything resembling a person. Just as Jade had begun to draw the Timeless Garden into herself, Naios was drawing the Void into herself, becoming its embodiment, just as ancient texts had prophesied that the Timeless Garden and Void would clash in this world - embodied. While the battle was intense, it seemed that Jade was going to win, as the more she drew the Timeless Garden into herself, the more she resisted the attacks of Naios, only for a terrible truth to emerge - Jade lacked the necessary understanding and knowledge to safely contain the Timeless Garden, and as she finally completely secured its power, she started losing control of herself once more, due to the sheer amount of power she had come to contain within herself. Naios gave one final speech about how despite Jade's struggling, she still failed to stop her, and achieved what Naios had wanted, musing that the ultimate hubris of humanity is that they think they can defy the fate written for them. Pressing her tendrils against Jade, she used her understanding of the Timeless Garden to force the pathways between worlds open, holes in the fabric of reality ripping open across all the worlds in her setting's multiverse, Voidsnared pouring out of them in droves. It seemed like Naios' final victory was at hand, but right as she was about to order the Garden to grant her mysterious final wish, Jade managed to wrest some small amount of control in her vain struggle, and so her endless thoughts of "kill you," which eventually progressed to just "kill," were impressed upon the Timeless Garden...

With a flash, Naios' body disintegrated into sand... and soon so did all organic, living life in her world, crumbling into sand as the once lush world rapidly transformed into a desert where the only things left were ruins, skeletons, Voidsnared, and Jade herself. The Timeless Garden exited Jade, before fading from view as the battle between her and Naios scattered the nearby Voidsnared. Jade, now fully in control of herself once more, looked around desperately, begging that what she was witnessing wasn't true, before eventually degenerating to just saying "I didn't mean to!" over and over. In an almost annoying level of "haha but you DIDN'T beat me!", Naios' soul emerged from the disintegrating puddle her voidbound body was becoming, slowly floating in front of the horrified Jade, before entering the body of Pyri, which had not disintegrated like all other organic matter because of how dear she was to Jade. Naios rose in Pyri's body, before congratulating Jade for ruining both of their missions, and creating a dead world where all she wanted was to satisfy her own final wish. Naios recognized that she would not be herself long inside a foreign body, and so sealed her memories away, before leaving through one of the tears that had opened. Jade was left completely alone, all by herself, in a world that was rendered dead and buried.

And so Jade remained there, crushed by her regrets, struggling to get by - feeding off the power within the Voidsnared rather than food, all in endless wastelands of sand and reminders of what had once came before, of the world that she had once lived within, the pristine lakes among the endless dunes serving only to remind her of how much she failed. On a sandy beach's shore, she looked off into the horizon and considered ending her life there, before reminding herself of Pyri, and the struggle against Naios they shared, and knew that she couldn't stop so long as Naios was still out there, no matter what identity she had hidden herself inside. She had to find some way to leave, as the tears would not take her the same way they took Naios, but even as she tried as hard as she could to understand and analyze the world around her like her dearest friend once did, she couldn't get anywhere. And so, having grown pessimistic as to the idea of understand and analyzing like she once was before, she began to seek power, believing that growing stronger would be the only way to survive her world, which was now polluted and swarming with the Voidsnared. But despite all her searching for Power, and occasional visitors from other worlds who got lost in hers - sometimes temporary, sometimes not, she couldn't must enough power - not even using the Void, which seemed to have started rejecting her past her default levels due to how she took in the Timeless Garden. She needed more power, from other places... For this world simply wasn't enough.

And so the lost girl named Jade began her endless quest to achieve more and more power, at first in hopes she could finally get revenge for the death of her dear friend, but in many ways, by now... just for the sake of survival, and power itself.

Jade's personality is mainly marked by a mixture of two factors - her desire for power for the sake of survival and her cynicism, which mix together in a form of social darwinism, albeit in a form closer to the original idea of darwinism rather than most examples in fiction, focusing less on superiority and more on being powerful enough to survive potential challenges - thus, survival of the fittest. She believes that one should always seek to become more powerful, as it means you are less likely to fail or be hurt, a mindset born from her failure to stop Naios, of which the singular victory was preventing her from completing her final wish, and at the cost of destroying her entire world effectively at the same time. Her sole motivator is to gain more power, and thus security, for herself and her allies. Indeed, even though she would like to have revenge on Naios, she is nowadays motivated entirely by her neverending hunger for power. Her view of power isn't limited solely to personal strength however, but also extends to alliances a person has made with like-minded individuals, claiming the sole reason humans came to dominate the world is not their intelligence or longevity, but rather their ability to cooperate with each other and form communities. However, she is also very territorial and tribalistic so to speak, seeing most groups other than her own as being rivals at best and enemies at worst, though rarely exceptions form. In the same vein, she sees knowledge as a form of power, even if she has lost faith in understanding and analysis, instead preferring raw knowledge which she can immediately exploit and use, rather than incremental knowledge which can be used in many ways. Despite her obsession with power and how she denigrates analysis, she is very intelligent and strategic, befitting her normally cool head. She is also rather good at manipulating people to do what she wants, a trait she admits she got from trying to understand her enemy during her backstory.

Jade is extremely strong willed, and in particular her desire for total freedom and safety is so complete it gave her supernatural resistance to mind control. Her determination is such that she will not stop struggling against her enemy even if it seems that defeat is inevitable, however she is at least wise enough to retreat, as it means the battle can continue once she has grown stronger in the future. Her demeanor is normally extremely cold, stoic, and smug, hiding her vulnerability and anger, which, when it reveals itself, is often painful in the former's case, and terrible in the latter's. She despises betrayers and considers treachery the highest sin a person can commit, often taking efforts to inflict horrible punishments on those who double cross her or betray her, ranging from simply a painful death, to things like being converted into a Meme. However, she is willing to deceive and betray others, saying it's simply part of being a skilled hunter, and that the rules of betrayal are limited to those who are close to her or she is expecting more from. In contrast, she deeply respects and commends people who stick to their word, especially her allies, and will satisfy debts such as people helping her for no personal reason. Despite her cool personality, she does have a bit of a dork-y side at times, especially how theatrical and hammy she can get when one of her plans succeeds or she's crushing an enemy with one of her powers. In general, it seems she has a love of theatrics, possibly developed by her years alone in her homeworld, forced to entertain herself. She thinks little of analysis and understanding, due to how Pyri's devotion to it caused much of the suffering of her world, though she also admits her blind desire to gain power caused problems back then, which is why shes more intelligent about gaining power nowadays. She still holds her memories of Pyri close to her heart, even if by now she thinks their entire struggle together was in complete vain, and that their own demons are to blame for what happened, rather than purely Naios by herself.

While not as transparent as Amber's crush on her, her crush on Amber is very hard to see, despite how cold she is towards her and how intentionally mocking and cruel she can be to Amber, possibly to try and convince both Amber and herself that they're enemies now, not friends or lovers. She cares deeply about Amber in spite of this, and wishes Amber would just accept her philosophy of power and survival, believing that Amber's obsession with exploring the possibilities of the world around her and analyzing their potential can only lead to tragedy and disaster, seeing her previous love in Amber. Despite her cold attitude towards Amber and how she tries to purposefully hurt their relationship in hopes they'll committ to becoming enemies, she still cares for her deeply and will try and save her from death more often than she'll try and hurt her, and has given the rest of the House of Glass express orders to not kill Amber, but instead capture her in hopes that they can convince her to join their side, and that she will inflict the most horrible on fates if any of them breaks this command. Her relationship with the rest of the House of Glass is very positive, seeing them as kindred spirits and useful allies, and that strengthening their connections with each other will grant them more power, not less. In particular, she treats Meme and her various iterations like a little sister, and overall tries to be an inspiring leader to the House of Glass, doing her best to give them hope and raise their spirits even in times of complete durress, in hopes her refusal to give into despair will extend to them. Likewise, she scorns the greatest enemies of her allies just as deeply as she scorns Naios, and encourages allies' desire for revenge when valid, seeing it as a way of strengthening their spirits and thus increasing their power. She has a genuine friendship with most members of the House, and also lacks negative opinions on any of her rivals in the Protagonists' also, just seeing them as a professional enemy the same way she reluctantly treats Amber. However, unlike with Amber, she is more than willing to kill them if she feels the need, and has offered no special conditions regarding their safety to the rest of the House. Jade also enjoys gaining various sources of power and despite not enjoying analyzing them as much as Amber does, enjoys playing around with various types of power to see what is the most powerful or fun.

Jade's abilities are a mixture of combat magic and usage of her Harmony, a supernatural blade forged from her soul. Her Harmony is called Desert Glass, and it allows her to summon black sands that she can use in various ways, and when augmented by the power of the Void, these sands can solidify into jade-green glass that can be fashioned in various ways, such as creating additional weapons to fight with, flinging arrows at enemies, or creating glass spikes to impale enemies. Her combat magic is quite varied, and she also knows a variety of support spells like healing and some buffs. Her power over the Void allows her to cast additional Void-type spells and summon lesser Voidsnared to aid her in combat, but ever since the Timeless Garden left her body she has less Void potential than she had before, and thus isn't as strong as she was in her first appearance. In addition to all this, she's an extremely skiled and agile fighter, being capable of striking rapidly in various combos, especially as she had both appearances as a playable character and a boss in her home game, granting her a far more varied moveset than most other playable characters from her series, making it unwise to underestimate her. She is easily more powerful than any of her followers except Master, the same way Amber is more intelligent than any of her friends. Like all Harmonies, Deser Glass is extremely strong and can damage even enemies you wouldn't logically expect it to, such as colossal golems or living islands, especially given its partially broken appearance.

Jade wears a black outfit with golden trim, with the upper portion being a mostly black top with golden streaks down the sides at both the back and front of the top, and a jade gem at the center of the chest surrounded by a golden sunburst symbol around it, in a very aesthetically inclined, stylized style. This top lacks sleeves, and instead she wears strange long black gloves along her arms, which crack apart into jade-black shards with an almost-glitter like texture a little below the shoulders, and have a similar texture around the front of the gloves too. She wears a stylish black cape with a gold edge, whough it only covers her right shoulder, and is attached to the collar of her overall outfit, which is black with golden trimming reminiscent of a Pharaoh's nemes. Around her waist she wears a jade colored sash held together by spiked golden rings, with a trailing tattered portion at the left side which flows as she moves in breathtaking fashion, especially in combat. Underneath it she has a slightly tattered tail like on a coat, which opens at the front and reveals a pair of simple black shorts with golden sun designs on the left side of the left thigh and right side of the right thigh, with jade gems at the center of both. The cuffs of the shorts are golden as well, but are otherwise fabric in appearance. On her legs and feet she wears long boots in the style of her gloved arms, down to separating into crumbling pieces at the top, and end in heels - another testament to Jade's agility and dexterity. Jade's eyes are deep blue-green, but turn bright gold when using high amounts of Void power, and her hair is short, with a style that brings to mind flames despite not pointing upwards at all, and her bangs cover her right eye. Her face is youthful, but undeniably has a look to it that leads people to assume Jade has been through hell even before they know her backstory. Jade is left handed. When amplified by Smokemirror, her Void potential rises again, though not to the heights it had once reached, and her magic becomes much stronger.

Desert Glass is a Harmony of the one handed Sword type, the traditional type associated with the "void" portion of every trio. Its grip is black and marked with green jade bands reminiscent of infinity signs, totaling 7 on the sides of the grip, while its pommel is a green jade sunburst with a glowing black pit of swirling darkness at the center. The guard is styled like a pair of wings in green jade, but is cracked and broken, with the broken off parts floating around the stable parts, and finally its blade is made of two separate lengths of jade glass, which overlap each other at the center of the blade as an infinity sign would, and break into swirling pieces with a vortex of black-purple energy at the center. The blade is rather intricate in appearance, in such a fashion I can't really describe in text. If you know how high tier Keyblades look in KH though, you should have a general idea.

Her invitation read: "Jadeite Nephrilim, sole survivor of a dead world, we hereby invite you to the Calling, the festival which crosses all worlds. Should you partake of our offer, you shall have endless opportunities to gain new power for yourself, a chance to experience pleasures denied to you for years such as companionship and the taste of bread and fine drinks, the chance to finally take revenge on the one you hate the most, and, most importantly, you may find a way to contain the power of the Garden without losing yourself as you had once had. Sign your name below, and the door shall open for you."