Illyana Rasputina (Earth-3988)

Scarlet Sorceress / Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina

History

Scarlet Sorceress is the new heroic identity of Illyana Rasputina, the queen of Limbo and sister of Colossus, which she chose to differentiate herself from the Scarlet Witch. She assumed the role of "Mistress of the Arcane Arts and Secrets" to investigate threats of a mystical nature, as the most powerful mutant sorceress of her reality. Her archenemy is her great-grandfather, the first warlock mutant Grigori Rasputin. She fought him, alongside the Winter Guard, once he had become the new White King of the Hellfire Club. Upon his defeat, she was invited by Starlight to join the Winter Guard. Illyana considered it a great honor, but declined, saying that the X-Men needed her power more. Starlight understood, instead naming her an honorary member of the Guard, which Illyana proudly accepted.

Powers and Abilities

Illyana's powers are similar to, but greater than, those of the Scarlet Witch in that they blur the line between mutant powers and legitimate sorcery. Her known abilities include:

• Creating forcefields
• Slowing down, freezing, and reversing time
• Projecting energy blasts (similar to those of Raven from the Teen Titans cartoon)
• Telekinesis
  • Levitation
  • Flight
• Telepathy (including complete domination of mortal and supernatural minds)
  • Astral projection
    • Create solid constructs derived from the astral plane
  • Rendering her mind undetectable to telepathy
  • Hypnotizing and placing commands and verbal triggers in the minds of others
• Creating chains of energy to bind opponents
• Conjuring, revealing, and dissipating illusions
• Elemental manipulation
  • Pyrokinesis
  • Cryokinesis
• Dissipating or dispersing magic other than her own
• Projection of chaos spheres, similar to those of the Scarlet Witch
• Conjuring and exorcising spirits and the undead, as well as higher or lower beings such as gods, angels, or demons
  • Conjuring mythical creatures such as unicorns and fairies, as well as aliens and humans
• Transmuting flesh with the traits of animals or demons
• Transmutation of matter
• Animation of matter
• Becoming invisible
• Projecting blinding blasts of light
• Casting dense darkness and fields of silence to completely mask the presence of sentient beings
• Paralyzing or causing pain in opponents by touching their hands (applies only to humans and humanoids)
• Seeing through illusions and invisibility
• Manipulation of energy
• Negating the superhuman abilities of others
• And last but not least, her classic stepping disks that allow her to teleport through space, time, and realities

Illyana, like many of her counterparts, wields the Soulsword. It was mentally forged in Limbo in the style of Cloud Strife's sword from Final Fantasy VII. It is a sword of immense size, and is completely unrealistic to be handled by a human being of normal size, but she is able to wield it one-handed. In addition, she can create a sword similar to Psylocke's psi-dagger, which is an extension of her inner ego.

Illyana is also skilled in combat.

Notes

• This version of Illyana is a blonde, beautiful, mature adult, and wears the same costume as the Ultimate Scarlet Witch, while also manifesting pieces of silver armor and a silver crown over top of it when using her powers.
  • The decision was also made to change and expand her powers beyond her stepping disks and her Soulsword, without having the ineffective powers common to mystical characters that make them less than relevant against non-mystical foes.
  • The author also made an attempt to avoid having Magik be primarily characterized by her temporal transportation powers backfiring on her and being manipulated by the demons within Limbo to be an Anti-Christ of sorts, since it made her too much like the DC character Raven, who portrayed similar things in a superior manner before Magik even existed.
  • Illyana still has the Darkchylde persona in this reality, but instead of being a demonic transformation, it serves more like the Phoenix persona in X-Men: The Last Stand, in that the Darkchylde is an essence more of an alternate rebellious personality than an outside entity.