Karin, Duchesse de La Vallière

Karin Desiree (Tristanian: Karin Désirée, English: Karin Desiree) is the Duchess de La Vallière, known as Karin of the Heavy Wind, and is the mother of Éléonore de La Vallière, Cattleya de La Fontaine, and Louise de La Vallière.

Her maiden name was Karine Désirée de Maillart.

History
Most of the article below is from the novels and the manga.

When she was around 14 or 15, she became a knight and became acquainted with Princess Marianne, who was then 13. The Duchess was Commander of the Manticore Knights. At this time she covered the lower half of her face with an iron mask to conceal that she was a woman. Rumors had it back then that she was a very beautiful person; apparently she was still a beauty in male attire.

Even in this time she was a force to be truly reckoned with. She stopped Eustace's Revolt before General Gramont could help. Troops in Germania ran in fear if word said that she was coming to the battlefield. She eventually settled down and married Duke of La Vallière, still retaining her imposing visage. The Duke would get nervous when he heard her putting on her armor to punish Louise as a kid, even the sight of the armor terrified Louise.

Plot
When Louise returned to the estate after a while. The Duchess acted as a moderator between Éléonore and Louise. Later on, she reacts in disgust as Saito and Louise kissed in a small boat floating down a river. In the novel A Duet Of Recollection (Volume 11, Chap 3), this would have been in the end of "Wings of Freedom" in Princess no Rondo

Saito and Louise went to save Tabitha and her mother. As the Duchess found out that Louise disobeyed a direct order from Henrietta to not cross the border as it would constitute an act of war, Karin's extremely strict demeanor would not let this go unpunished, even when the Queen herself asked to reduce said punishment. Riding her manticore, she went to punish Louise personally. She casted her namesake spell injuring Louise and her friends, making Saito move in to stop it, resulting in him being heavily injured. The spell is stopped by Louise's Dispel, shocking Karin. The fight was then defused by Henrietta.

Henrietta and Montmorency arrived to heal Saito and Louise respectively. They all went back into the estate to discuss Louise's situation. There she finds out her daughter possesses the the mythical Void element, much to her shock.

Spells
Karin is known as the "Strongest Wind Magic user in Tristain's history". Her Wind spells are stronger than most mages, and her affinity to Wind is so close that she only needs 20% of the normal incantation to achieve the same effects as other mages. At 100% incantation, only Void spells and high level Firstborn/Spirit magic surpass Karin's destructive power.

Karin's fighting style is very flexible. According to KSS she uses different tactics such as blowing opponents away with brute wind force and casting a speed increasing spell to match evenly with about 20 other mage knights using only her speed-enhanced reflexes and her wandsword (in this specific circumstance, she was restricted to her wandsword as this "haste" spell disabled the use of other spells momentarily).

She prefers head on fights and using her prodigal magic to overpower her opponents as fast and as feasibly possible, as compared to using indirect attacks/tricks/traps to cut her opponent down. Close combat or casting from distance doesn't matter for her, she's a master at both and shows no preference to closing in or keeping away from her opponent.

In Karin's youth (KSS-period) she was the kind to "fight first, ask later", but by the time of the series, she has gotten rid of that mentality. Now she has the "Rule of Steel" in direct contrast with how she was relatively more rebellious 30 years ago towards her comrades. However, she is unfailingly loyal to the Tristainian Royal Family, even during her youth.

Her signature move is her Heavy Wind (translation differs, alternatively it can be Hurricane, Tornado, or some other impressive wind phenomenon), a Square class spell. By current day, she has improved her spell by lacing powerful vacuum blades into her Heavy Wind attack, to the point not even Derflinger can absorb the vacuum blades fast enough before they can cut Saito.

The only "downside" to her magic is that it's too powerful. Karin held back as much as possible in Volume 11, and she still blew the entire side of the lounge into shreds as she tried casting a spell.

Karin is also the ONLY human mage to date in Zero no Tsukaima that's explicitly described in the narrative to be able to cast spells without incantations (although she still needs a wand). Though this is limited to spells she's most familiar with (i.e. the Heavy Wind) and only in cases when she's sufficiently emotional (in the KSS it happened once, when she was at Louise levels of "tsun"-ing due to Centurion's comment about herflat chest).

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