Position/Role: Mother Superior of the Fell Maidens of Soth | Knight of Tyranny | Captain in the Imperial Army | Matriarch of the Voka Drow
Skills/Powers:
⍱ Expert Fighter: Vira'Trys has trained all her life in several martial styles (her favored being sword and shield combat). Her body has been honed into a fighting machine, and some would call her daily training regimen insane.
⍱ Calvary: She is also trained as a mounted fighter
⍱ Cowl of Conquest: A unique fusion of the Kendov and Glimrel schools of magic, fueled by zealous commitment, the Cowl of Conquest is the trademark of the Fell Maidens. More appropriately categorized as an aura, the Cowl is a purple cloak of dark magic that fouls the air and terrorizes enemy combatants, causing them to take flight or freeze. Only the particularly strong willed or those versed in the school of Glimrel can resist its effect. It can also rend away other magical boons (buffs).
⍱ Wrathful Burst: This is magical attack that utilizes the active Cowl of Conquest to deliver a powerful burst of raw arcane energy in a radius around the user.
⍱ Dark Mage: Vira'Trys has spent some years learning the dark arts, especially since it was necessary in creating the Cowl of Conquest.
⍱ Competent Strategist: She's studied battle strategy, but lacks the needed experience to refer to herself as an actual strategist. However, she can read the flow of battle aptly enough to make split seconds decisions.
⍱ Meditative Rest: She substitutes meditation for sleep. Most of the year. While soldiers sleep in their tents, groups of Fell Maidens will sit cross legged around fires in meditative seats, clutching a symbol of Soth.
The Fell Maidens:
This group of female Drow warriors were designed specifically as the tip of the spear for Kieran's invasion. Highly dedicated, zealous, and learned in the Glimrel school of magic, they are meant to break enemy lines, crush morale, and be a bulwark of terror that ruthlessly advances forward. This company grew from 50 members in a temple dedicated to Soth, to over twice that number years after it's inception.
Gear:
Fell Maidens are all equipped with a full plate suit of amyzantium armor and weapons. Amyzantium as an alloy is light, just as strong--if not stronger--than any other armor, and particularly conducive to casting in combat. It's great to wear for battle-mages as heavier metals and alloys tend to disrupt magical energies, and its particularly synergistic for the Fell Maiden whose body and strikes radiate with an aura of dark magic near constantly. Amyzantine itself is a pinkish metal, so amyzantium armor is often trimmed or inlayed with the metal itself.
Appearance:
A stunning beauty that only the dark elven nobility can produce, Vira'Trys would rather use her allure to intimidate rather than beckon unwanted suitors. She is taller and shapelier than most her kind, but her figure is one that was sculpted for martial life. Her eyes are a rare amethyst that shift in color based on the circumstance--red when she is angry, and gold when she is subdued and in a particularly good mood.
Typically, for casual wear, Vira'Trys dons an expensively tailored black dress made from fine wool. It's fitted through the bust and waist, but flows freely with a flair near her feet. It prominently features a plunging neckline that ends near the base of her sternum and climbs into a standing collar that tapers to a point at the nape of her neck. The only decorative piece the dress features is a colorless braid fashioned into the dress to indicate her military ranking.
Personality Traits:
⍱ Silent: "What goes into my mouth is less likely to defile, than what comes out."
⍱ Indomitable: "My will never crumbles."
⍱ Ruthless: "I do whatever it takes, no matter the cost."
⍱ Guarded: "Trust is a luxury for the weak."
⍱ Misunderstood: "I may seem distant because of my work, but I am not completely cold."
⍱ Motherly: "Avert your gaze young man. I am old enough to be your grandmother."
Ideals:
⍱ Meritocratic: "The best will rise and the weak will fall. If one stronger than me arises, then I too must grow stronger."
⍱ Victory, No Surrender: "I will fight on any ground at any time; whatever the cost may be, I will never surrender."
⍱ Burden of Command: "The people under my command trust me with their life- I will not fail them."
Flaws:
⍱ Failure: "I harshly judge those who accept defeat... it is absolutely intolerable."
⍱ Friendship: "I could willingly cast allies and subordinates into the jaws of war if it meant winning. But a precious friend... is a weakness my enemies could exploit."
⍱ Fatigue: "I've been working for so long... I can't imagine an end just yet."
Brief History:
Vira'Trys climb to power begins in ancient times with the loosely assembled Vraenor tribes who had just recently discovered magic. Among those tribes was a particular sect of matriarchal dark elves known as the Voka. Their heritage as dark elves made them potent wielders of the arcane, but it was said that their women were more latently talented in magic than their men--hence the disparity between them. They also worshiped a pantheon of goddesses and one of those goddesses was Soth; goddess of war, the massacre, the storm and the flood. Once exiled their descendants fled into the icy mountain range known as Nevryn's Reach. Over time they wrought great cities into the cliff-face, made livable with the help of developing technologies and magic.
Long after Gareth discovered dark magic and Netherium became the heart of an empire, a Vokan priestess predicted that a descendant of Gareth would lead a great reclamation of their ancient homeland. The Houses of Voka fractured at this prophecy, each wanting to earn their own glory in the predicted days of reclamation. The years past by and eventually a noble drow woman named Vira'Trys inherited her family estate, titles, wealth and lands at a fairly young age. Her House of Morn was known for its business in metallurgy (their exclusive production of an alloy called amyzantium, along with the rights to mine pinkish metal amyzantine), and worship of the Goddess Soth. Her inherited holdings are sanctums in Nevryn's Reach called Methysko.
Vira'Trys' own bid for the favor of Gareth's descendant was to invent an order of knights dedicated to the teachings of Soth. She spent many years studying the school of Glimrel, and dabbling in Kendov. Through countless years of training, focus, determination, and experimentation, she invented the techniques that would be used by the Fell Maidens in the future. It may sound like Vira'Trys was immediately persuaded by the promise of glory and joined the rat race to impress upon an overlord whose time of arrival the Houses could never know. But in reality her hand was forced by the vicious politics of the Voka drow.
When it was apparent that Kieran was the heir they were all waiting for, Vira'Trys formally offered Kieran the Fell Maidens when he was just a teenager. He countered her offer with a test, only willing to accept the aid of a Voka who could unite their clan once again. Vira'Trys turned her focus to uniting the Voka through whatever means necessary. Some houses were eliminated outright but many fell under rank and file, recognizing House of Morn's strong leadership and the formidable force that was the Fell Maidens.