Zerie Ford

Doctor Zerie Elizabeth Ford is a powerful witch and an influential and charismatic figure with her finger on the pulse of many organizations and situations. Friendly, confident, and capable, her maternal demeanor hides experiments and dealings that often err on the shady side, and have a tendency to bite her in the ass.

Despite being less than morally upstanding, Zerie is a truly kind soul. She always does what she believes to be the best thing for herself, her family, and anyone else she considers to be under her protection, even if it spells death or worse for others. It is this, perhaps, that makes her friends with such people as Thorn and Hunter Montgomery.

Early Life
Zerie lived a charmed childhood filled with wealth and happiness with her parents and younger sister Winnaretta for many years. The family resided happily in New York City until an automobile accident orphaned her at the age of twelve. She and her sister went to live with their uncle and aunt. Their new guardians were not abusive, but did neglect the girls and squandered their fortune, leaving them with very little by the time that Zerie came of age. For a few years, Zerie held a factory job to support herself and later, Winnaretta. Due to the dangers that came with such a job, she quickly learned basic first aid, then applied that knowledge and expanded on it, becoming an adept, if self taught, nurse.

When Prohibition hit, Zerie's scientific mind and fierce determination to thrive found her quitting her factory job to join the mafia. She soon gained a reputation for creating some of the most potent alcohol, among other drugs. Despite her infamy, her strange attitude and tendency to talk at great lengths about her work distanced her from the other women in the mafia. She had been working in the mafia for nearly two years, alone, before she was approached by Esther Ingrin, who tried to strike up a friendship, and later, an affair. Zerie, aromantic and asexual despite not having the words for it, declined and distanced herself from Esther, finding friendship with young Rosalina Williamson soon afterwards. Esther continued to persist, but eventually, Zerie made it clear she was uninterested, and Esther turned her focus onto Rosalina.

Introduction to the Supernatural
Soon afterwards, Zerie met a woman who introduced herself as Xadra and who claimed to be a powerful witch with power over the elements. Xadra was the matron of a coven of witches known as the Ancestresses, and had heard of Zerie's determination and expertise with science. With a little work, she claimed, that same expertise could be applied to magic. She offered Zerie a place in her coven, which Zerie enthusiastically accepted. With the help of the Ancestresses, Zerie slipped away from the mafia, leaving no trace behind for them to find and pursue her with, then dedicated herself to the study of magic. Within a year, she was invited to apprentice as part of the inner circle of the coven, with great rewards at the end of it. However, Winnaretta, who had been abandoned alongside the mafia, weighed heavy on Zerie's mind. She missed her sister, and decided to only take the position if her sister could be brought into the coven as well. Excited to have another like Zerie, the coven agreed.

Reunited with Winnaretta and learning to bear incredible magic powers, it seems as though life had turned around for Zerie. She thrived, becoming a powerful witch who took on the title of the Witch of Vitality, combining medical knowledge and magic into almost impossible combinations. However, things were not to remain as simple or as wonderful as she anticipated. As her apprenticeship wore on, Zerie learned that the inner circle of the Ancestresses were using magic... dark even by morally grey Zerie's standards... to destroy their own souls and feed on the souls and magic of others, rendering them immortal. Finding immortality appealing, but not worth that horrible price, Zerie set out to find a better way to accomplish the task. After months of study, she finally succeeded in creating a spell that could slow one's aging so incredibly that they could live for centuries, or even millenia. Combined with a magically fortified immune system, the target of the spell could be all but immortal with fewer side effects and less trouble. She presented her findings and spell to the inner circle of the Ancestresses in hopes that they would adopt it. However, though they were impressed and delighted by this development, they refused to adopt it, content with their dark magic. They ordered Zerie to destroy her own soul to become like they were.

Horrified, Zerie developed a plan to run away yet again, faking her death, leaving no trace of herself and finding her way in the world with her magical powers and sheer wits. She presented this plan to her sister, hoping Winnaretta would join her, but there was a hitch in the plan. Winnaretta had fallen deeply in love with Xadra, and informed the coven leader of Zerie's planned escape. Betrayed, Zerie fled, disguising herself and magically hiding her tracks in hope of survival.

Founding Piper's Row
For decades, Zerie went from city to city, never staying in one place for too long. She enrolled in medical school under an assumed name and transferring to another school halfway through, and became an official doctor. Her magic led her to meet others in the supernatural underground, and she discovered the existence of inhumans and other magical humans like her. Fifty years passed like this as she ran from the Ancestresses and discovered new things as a doctor, a witch, and a person.

It was 1982 when she decided to move to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for a couple of years. She found her way into a small supernatural bar to gauge the complex political atmosphere... a vampire had recently made Harrisburg her territory, and the appearance of a new facet of the Rift that separated this world from others was causing drastic upheaval in the status quo, and many residents were scared or confused. As she sat there, asking questions and listening, she and others heard a suggestion to which a face could not be attached: "If only there was a way to create a safe room of sorts, but for the inhumans of the city. A secret neighborhood, or something."

The challenge appealed to her. She and four others at the bar last night decided to act on the idea. Wereotter Moira Mayleaf and treant Marisol Osario contributed leadership skills and direction, while incubus Grey Dunkle decided to form security and head a small militia as a last ditch defense of this "secret city." Zerie, along with the wight Phebe McIntyre, wove most of the spells that shielded the secret city from the outside world. Unbeknownst to the others, Zerie wove in spells that also masked the magical signatures of those inside, realizing that the combined power of other magic users would be enough to secure her a permanent home at last. When the secret city, called Piper's Row, opened a year later, she and the four others took on the title of Founder and became a council that made the laws and tough decisions that would keep the city safe.

Starting a Family
A few years after the completion of Piper's Row, the novelty of safety had worn off, and Zerie decided to embark upon her next task... starting a proper family. Unable to adopt through legal channels due to her home address not existing in the real world, and with no interest in marriage or sex, the natural solution seemed to be to resort to science and magic. Zerie spent several years trying to learn to clone herself. Early attempts failed, however, and when an inhuman infant was left at the entrance to Piper's Row, Zerie happily adopted her, assuming the single word on the single note left with the baby... Kendric... was her name.

A few weeks after adopting Kendric, Zerie had a burst of inspiration. She used her cloning knowledge, magic, medical skills, and a little bit of the plant DNA of her friend Marisol in order to inspire her body to reproduce asexually. Soon after Kendric's adoption, she achieved pregnancy. However, there were more obstacles to overcome, as the fetus was not developing normally. Zerie inferred that her own anti-aging spell was also keeping her child from growing, and found ways to suppress the spell so her clone could grow. Almost exactly a year and a half after becoming pregnant, she gave birth to a nearly-perfect clone of herself, who she named Mana, both as a reference to the force of magic used in some games, and for the Japanese name meaning "love." Even after being born, Mana did not assume normal growth, and Zerie soon found that Mana was not just aging slowly, she was not aging at all. To counter this, she developed a spell that would allow Mana to age 24 hours whenever it was used, and set about performing this every day; between realizing Mana was not aging and developing the spell, Mana was two years old before she even aged a day. In order to concentrate on this, Kendric was sent to live with Phebe during this time.