Valkyrie

Valkyrie is a fierce warrior and descendant of the Old Norr, those barbaric tribes that once inhabited Teleria’s furthest, icy north, but were scattered to the four winds by cataclysmic events of the past. Valkyrie’s people were one of many groups who settled in the Krokhan Desert, a place that was, on the surface, the very opposite of the icy lands they had once called home, yet in truth was little different. Whether the hardships they suffered were caused by freezing cold or searing hot, the Old Norr were inured to them, and they relished a place that would test their strength and weed out the weak. When Valkyrie was born, her people were as fierce and proud as the day their forebearers left their frozen fjords. Valkyrie was born of a senior member of her tribe, but that counted for nothing — her upbringing was as harsh and uncompromising as that of any desert youth. The brutalities of life in the Krokhan Desert swiftly forged her into a hard and skillful warrior, and a stalwart defender of her people, and she also developed an uncompromising nature. What Valkyrie wanted, she took. Might in her view always made right, and she was convinced she was destined for great things. A being with such a mindset was destined for a shock, for there were beings and peoples in Teleria beyond the borders of the Krokhan mightier than Valkyrie’s tribe. She learned that when the Elven armies of Kephale Chassiana arrived on the desert’s shores. Chassiana of Aravia was a powerful High Elf noble. Intending to channel trade from the east, she sought to to establish a colonial outpost on the edge of the Krokhan Desert. With a force of Elves and Orc mercenaries, Chassiana found an ideal location and immediately sent out cold, arrogant letters to the local tribes, demanding that they submit to Aravia or depart the immediate region. The older heads of Valkyrie’s tribe argued that resisting an Aravian army would likely mean death, but not so Valkyrie. Scorning their lack of courage, she drew her sword and personally cut down Kephale’s messenger. That, then, looked her people on a path of war, regardless of the intentions of the tribe’s elders. Given command of the warriors by popular acclaim, she sent riders to rally neighboring Nomad clans. Almost all agreed to a temporary alliance, and for the first time in many decades the inhabitants of this corner of the Krokhan Desert set aside their differences and went to war against a common foe. Valkyrie soon realized that meeting Chassiana’s well-drilled and well-equipped army in a pitched battle with her small confederation of tribes would be an exercise in self-destruction. Instead, she played to her people’s fast-moving warriors and knowledge of the terrain, conducting a guerrilla campaign amid the dunes and rocky valleys. Valkyrie and her warriors struck like a desert scorpion against Aravian outposts and convoys, melting away into the scorching heat before retaliation could find them. For months they wore down Chassiana’s control of her new territories, until finally the High Elf noble led the bulk of her forces inland to force a confrontation. This was what Valkyrie had waited for. Her forces led the Aravians and their allies on a chase through the desert for weeks, and Chassiana’s Orc allies abandoned the cause, frustrated and hungry. Chassiana eventually found her dwindling and exhausted forces trapped between sheer cliffs and a wide expanse of quicksand. Here Valkyrie launched one final, devastating attack, destroying the Elven host. Chassiana broke out and fled to Aravia. Her reputation was in ruins, and she never realized her dreams of power and wealth. Long were the Nomads’ victory celebrations, but Valkyrie viewed them with something akin to regret. For a while the clans had known unity, but she knew that soon enough old enmities would again rear their head, and the alliance she had built would come apart as quickly as the shifting sands. She longed for the chance to lead something more potent than just one tribe. On the night of the victory feast, Valkyrie received just that. In a waking vision, she was visited by a being of light. Calling herself the Arbiter, the being claimed that Valkyrie’s victories had been noted. Lumaya, Goddess of Light, had need of mighty warriors in the coming struggles against the dark, and Valkyrie was one such warrior. If the fierce child of the Old Norr would swear her allegiance to Lumaya, she would be granted immortality, and chance to face greater, darker foes. Valkyrie readily accepted. That night, she departed from her kinfolk, riding out beyond the desert, and into the annals of legend.