Tales of the Potentials: Johanna Marais

Born in Berlin, Johanna was considered by those closest to her a free spirit. As a girl, she was always fascinated by the invigorating nature of magic, namely magic that summoned otherworldly creatures. One afternoon during an elementary school trip, Johanna and a few friends found themselves running and screaming from a double-headed stag with sky blue eyes and a bite that split into four ways. It ran amok looking for a place to sleep, until a peculiar sort emerged from what looked to be a spiraling portal. Fascinated and scared at the same time, Johanna stayed behind to witness what was about to happen.

They sparred for a bit. According to the Berlin Pendragon Collective, two headed stags carry the weight of the world in their heads. They are classified as "dimensional messengers" to warn both witches and wizards when a cosmic disturbance is to come. With just one touch of his index finger, the stag went into a deep slumber as it disintegrated into an hourglass shaped vial of sky blue ash. For the first time, Johanna found her calling in life to become a witch.

By the time she turned 14, bullying in school was at an all-time high. She would recite incantations during gym class, repeatedly draw the two-headed stag she once saw; the very thought of magic existing in the world helped her sleep at night. Over the years, cities such as Berlin, Munich, Hanover, were all under suspicion of otherworldly creatures living among humans. People would go missing, some would come back as another thing entirely, murders and rebirth of animals that passed away from loving families.

Was all this the work of the Pendragon Collective, Johanna thought? Her father and younger brother, Jannik entertained the idea of the fantastical, if only to appease her until she was kicked out of her home at the age of 18. It was tradition in the Marais family to make their own way when becoming a young adult. Some of Johanna's relatives studied abroad in Amsterdam, Italy, while others went to college in America. Johanna chose to stay behind however. No one in her family knew what happened to her, but rumors spoke of the Pendragon Collective taking in runaways and training them in the art of dimensional magic.

She learned under the tutelage of the Collective's founder, Marques Olivier: an eccentric sort with a weary view on what has happened and what could potentially come to pass. Their goal was to understand the minds of other creatures, pray to the two-headed stag, and learn how to manipulate air currents into bladed weapons. It was a rocky stint, and the belittlement from the more practiced hands of the Collective held nothing back, but Johanna took it in stride and learned what she could to become a Pendragon.

It served her well into her thirties when the world shifted into something abhorrent. Hellmouths and demons leap frog through dimensions, causing great peril on the human population. Even with the upsurge of Potential Vampire Slayers fighting the good fight, she, Marques, and an air bending witch named Camille did their part when Munich was under siege by a Hellmouth spitting out vampires. Her instincts served her well when she eventually meets a Potential named Janet in Acapulco, Mexico.