Ellen McCarry

Ellen McCarry (b. 25 June 1970) is the 3rd and current Director of the Echo Division. As the Director of the Echo Division, she is the current controller of the Sunken Temple Key. She is a veteran of the Grey War.

History
Ellen McCarry was born into the McCarry family on 25 June 1970. The McCarry family is a minor branch of the Neumann family of House Neumann, but the family was well-known for its strong magical lineage. Her father, Leslie McCarry, was an early magitech engineer working for the federal government, while her mother Martha McCarry was an experienced magical sportsman. McCarry inherited this strong magical heritage, showing her magical abilities from an early age.

She attended the Rosetta Academy from 1975 to 1988. Although she maintained only average grades in mundane studies, she excelled at her magical education. She became a journeyman magician in 1986 and graduated from the Rosetta Academy in 1988.

Following her graduation from the Rosetta Academy, McCarry did not attend a university, but rather she trained with a master magician from House Neumann to attain the rank of master magician. She ascended to the rank of master in 1991.

McCarry joined the Federal Bureau of Magical Affairs in 1994 and was quickly transferred to the Echo Division. Her arrival at the Sunken Temple was marred by rumors that she only attained her position as a relative of the politically and magically House Neumann, but she soon accrued a number of accolades of her own as a member of numerous expeditions into the Deep Sector.

Although McCarry was part of the Echo Division, she was recruited into the Guild forces during the Grey War. She saw combat during the Mississippi River campaign, receiving minor injuries in a couple of battles. She was among the Guild forces preparing to cross the Menominee River when the Michigan Disaster began. She assisted in evacuation efforts along the border area.

She escorted Tobias Vain, a prominent Scholar of the First Sin who had tried to cross the quarantine border and was captured, back to the Sunken Temple. Vain had been closely associated with the Scholars' artifacts, and the FBMA was interested in the source of the Scholars' artifacts in order to further secure the potentially dangerous objects. She was one of three witnesses to Vain's murder of Roman Yarbrough. Following the murder, she took control of the Key and became the next Director of the Echo Division.

McCarry's tenure as the Director has been marked by an extensive purge of former Scholars and Scholar sympathizers from the Echo Division. As a result, many of the agents within the Sunken Temple are new agents of the FBMA, and a number of breakthroughs has been credited to these fresh agents. The Sunken Temple has also been relatively peaceful compared to the tenures of McCarry's predecessors. Numerous expeditions into the Deep Sector have occurred in the past 20 years, and any new thresholds within the Shallows are quickly contained and explored.

Education
McCarry's early magical education came from her immediate family. The McCarry family has a long history of powerful magicians, and her father sought to instill a strong sense of pride into his children. His children learned the basics of magic from an early age, and McCarry showed a special talent in magical sports that she learned from her mother.

She received a thorough magical and mundane education at the Rosetta Academy. Although she struggled with some of her mundane courses, she proved herself to be a strong magician, becoming a journeyman magician by age 16. She received several accolades for her performance in magical sports and was known for her skill at various sports.

McCarry became a master magician at age 20 following an extensive period of training under Fredrich Klima, a member of the powerful Klima family within House Neumann. The exact details of her training under Klima are unknown, but her skill in magical dueling saw a marked improvement, a skill she would put to great use during the Grey War.

Personal Life
Ellen McCarry is the second daughter of Leslie and Martha McCarry and their fourth child. Although she had a large immediate family, the marriage between Leslie and Martha was not always stable. After she joined the Echo Division, she rarely saw her family or made contact with them.

McCarry prefers to separate work from her outside life, though her ascension to the position of Director of the Echo Division makes this incredibly difficult. She often refrains from interacting with her subordinates in a manner other than that of a superior-subordinate, and she refuses to accept any romantic or sexual aspect to this relationship.

Key
McCarry holds the Key of the Sunken Temple as part of her position as Director of the Echo Division.

Most of the time, the Key assumes the appearance of a small handgun, similar to the Key during Glenn Loggia's tenure. It is capable of transforming into a variety of firearms to suit the situation that McCarry faces. It maintains its solid matte black coloring

McCarry dislikes the shape of the Key in her possession. She still struggles to overcome her trauma from the Grey War, and the Key in the shape of a gun only makes that recovery more difficult. She also does not like to rely on the Key to perform her duties as the Director, though she cannot deny that the Key is useful in many situations.