LogFAQs > #883950233

oh, boy.... Jess. well, I guess I'll give a full history dump.

she actually is from another dimension, specifically an alternate version of our Earth from around the 1980's. she was a major character in Catharsis if you're unfamiliar or don't remember so I'll try to give more background info for those who are curious. so basically she was incredibly depressed and it's implied she had a terrible home life, and attempted to commit suicide when she was in her teenage years. however, instead of dying for some reason she was transported to Purgatory instead (it's likely that Keyuri, the RED DEATH, must have had something to do with this since there's no other explanation).

once Jess woke up in Esland she went on a childhood quest to defeat the Glass Heart Witch and liberate the Northern Tundra as a sort of Wizard of Oz parallel (many of the characters of Catharsis were references or parallels to characters from classic tales. Val played the role of Peter Pan for example, while Jess was essentially a Dorothy type). the story of Catharsis actually begins 10 years after this, when she is no longer a childhood Hero but instead just a friend of the king and loyal servant of the realm. she was offered a chance to return home but chose to stay in Esland instead because she is happy here. think of this as a parallel to the Wizard of Oz scene where Doroty returns to Kansas. Jess, instead, is a subversion of this trope. she doesn't want to go back to her shitty life, she wants to stay in this magical realm where she is happy.

now, Jess actually has some kind of special power which probably has something to do with the fact that she's from another Dimension. in the most strict terms she is not a 'Human' as they are defined in Purgatory. yes, she was a 'Human' in her home dimension, but HERE she is considered an "Outsider" (which is a blanket term for beings that come from other Dimensions). It was explicitly stated that she has a special aura which boosts the courage of her allies as well as reducing their tension. Essentially, being around Jess at all makes people believe in themselves and it makes them feel more at ease. Obviously this will make it incredibly easy for her to make friends. for the record, I got the idea for her power directly from the Oz stories -- there's specifically a line where Dorothy is cited as being the strongest character by one of the other characters, because she has the ability to inspire her allies and make them believe in themselves. I thought that was a REALLY interesting power to have. as for stuff like her skill at riding and jousting, these just come from 20 years of experience as a Hero of Esland.

additionally as pk2k mentioned above, there was a period during the Catharsis game where players were offered a chance to Boost the power level of any character on the roster. the person who won the Boost power chose to apply it to Jess. I believe his intention was that by boosting Jess (since her power was known), they would effectively boost the power of every player character (since her power is to boost others, boosting her boosts EVERYONE). so yeah her power is even stronger than it initially was when she first came to Esland.
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