Ophelia came from a wealthy family of sorcerers who taught her the magial arts from a young age. She had a privilaged upbringing in Sparta, but the social and legal structure (and in particular gender roles) in Ancient Greece prevented her from pursuing the career of her choosing. She studied philosophy, dancing and music, but she often sneaked into the boys' school to learn about reading, writing and advanced mathematics. As she grew older, she watched physicians perform surgeries on patients and she wanted to do the same. She learnt a lot about medicine by observing and speaking to the physicians, but in Greece she could never practice medicine.
So, around the age of sixteen, Ophelia married the man her family had chosen for her. She convinced her husband to use his life savings to move to Egypt, where women and men had equal legal status. Once they arrived, she promptly divorced him. She remained in Egypt, where she could have better opportunities.
In Egypt it was still difficult for women to pursue careers, but not impossible. Ophelia started her career as a nursemaid with simple duties like washing patients and helping them eat. Once there, she pestered the doctors to let her become an assistant. Opportunities to advance were never freely offered to her; she had to seize them whenever she could - inserting her opinion or picking up a surgial tool if a doctor hesitated. When a large troop of wounded soldiers returned from battle, a traige situation arose and the doctors allowed her to treat patients as the alternative would have meant letting them die.
From that point Ophelia became a surgeon herself. She set up her own clinic and secretly used magic to boost the success of her medical procedures. She became popular, especially amongst female patients who felt more comfortable with a female doctor.
Ophelia was very interested in learning more about the body and what it could do, so she experimented on her patients without their knowledge. If they died as a result, she could just blame their death on illness or injury. This went on for many years without anyone ever finding out, and as time went on, Ophelia's experiments became more and more intricate.
Ophelia developed illness herself. Arthritis caused intense pain in her hands, and eventually she could no longer use them. She amputated her arms herself and had some wooden replacements constructed. She attached these to her stumps and used magic to animate them like real hands. She allowed everyone to think that she had performed a miracle of modern medicine and it boosted her popularity and success as a surgeon.
Eventually, someone found out about her experiments. A patient died as a result of her experiments on him. His wife figured out what had happened, and shot Ophelia, killing her instantly.
Ophelia crossed over into Hell where she encountered the undead souls of many of her former victims. They didn't realise the truth and believed that she had helped them. They hailed Ophelia as a hero and wondered why someone so wonderful had gone to Hell instead of Heaven. Ophelia told them it was due to petty acts committed in childhood, which she regretted.
A tyrant named Yarrow reigned over a large section of Hell, terrorising all the undead souls in his power and making the afterlife a miserable existance for everyone around him. Ophelia gathered her followers and used their strength combined with her magical talents to defeat Yarrow. She then saw that Yarrow was just an immature boy who needed guidance, so she struck a deal with him; she would provide the leadership and guidance he needed and in return he would support her. He has now become her faithful subject and looks up to her as mentor.
Ophelia soon became one of the most powerful archdemons in Hell. It's a dog-eat-dog world in Hell, where undead souls fight for scraps of power, with the loser usually getting dismembered. Ophelia gathered up the souls of the defeated and promised to help them. Using her surgery skills, she designed and crafted bodies/body parts and installed the souls inside them. Those souls whose personalities she liked would become servants to her. As for the rest, she diminished their intelligence to animalistic. They therefore became monsters which she keeps as pets and sets to work for her like guard dogs and so on. This includes eight powerful witches who she turned into snake-like creatures attached to her own skull, enabling her to take all of their magical abilities herself.
A powerful magician in the living world ressurrected Ophelia about 500 years ago. Once ressurrected, Ophelia had to abide by the magician's rules and bow to him as master. She was forbidden to kill her master, so she summoned Yarrow and ordered him to do the deed. Once the master was dead, Ophelia turned him into another pet monster. She and Yarrow were now free to inhabit the living world as they pleased. They could keep themselves alive indefinitely by consuming the souls of the dead and using their energy to sustain themselves.
Ever since then, Ophelia and Yarrow have enjoyed splitting their place of residence between the living world and underworld. Their magical and demonic abilities enable them to live in comfort. Ophelia can summon her servants and her monsters whenever she likes, and send them back to Hell when she no longer wants them around. Ophelia has devoted a lot of time to her favourite hobby - medicine - and Yarrow spends most of his time having fun.
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