Hella Valaeris
Hex Starlight
Hella Valaeris is the daughter of Baemor Valaeris and, unknown to her, Bahrys Agitheos. She is the only child in her family and was raised by a slave named Jaena, rarely seeing her father in his grief during all of her childhood. A humble and mediocre start to life, it wasn’t until a heinous act brought forth the sorcerer from within that she became anywhere near extraordinary.
Appearance And Character
Born with the silvery hair of her mother and the alabaster skin that had a likeness of marble from her father, the near lack of color in her eyes is what stood out most in the child of Baemor. So pale was the lavender that she earned a tease or two over years of being likened to a ghost. A quiet child, and one without siblings, she found comfort in few and therefore has a lack of openness about her.
After an incident in her teen years, Hella has been left scarred and blind in her left eye. Her fingers are deeply blackened and her nails grow like black talons from her fingers. Often described as odd or just misunderstood, she finds solidarity in the stars and the moon, along with her affinity for creatures of the night and all things scaled. It is rumored that spiders will at times descend from her hair.
Her magic manifests as smoke, it clings to her like a pale white and lavender cloud, the pull of the air tangible. There are times when darker tendrils reach outward from her when she is filled with magic. Rumors as to what they are, what it means, are whispered in some circles behind her back over it.
History
Early Life
In the dark of night, near the end of 4824 AD, a young Bahrys cursed the gods as she brought Hella into the world, and for that they took her life. At least that is what the child of a dead woman and a grieving father had been told over and over again over the course of her childhood. Baemor Valaeris was a merchant in love, an affair that burned hot and bright between him and the woman he only knew as Bahrys. Unknown to him, the woman he dreamed of spending his life with was from house Agitheos, a lesser known and even lesser powerful dragon-lord house. That detail went to the grave with Bahrys, and her family to this day have no idea what happened to her or that they have a granddaughter in Hella.
Grief destroyed Baemor, and in that grief he turned away from his only child. In those early years, and thereafter, Hella found comfort in Jaena, a slave of mixed Valyrian and Rhyonish descent. And while she did not want for anything, she longed to know the father who only found time once a month to check in on her from afar.
Youth
Days were filled with happiness, thanks to Jaena, as Hella was given the world through the woman’s eyes and studies that rivaled that of her father’s. Where Jaena had come from, aside from the obvious clues due to her heritage, and how she came into Baemor’s possession, were beyond Hella’s understanding. Being taught the Rhyonish language by Jaena, her customs and her culture, alongside her own, she found a surrogate mother. One she truly cared for, even loved. What she lacked in a father, though he still lived, or a mother by way of an early grave, was replaced by the care of Jaena. As she grew older and realized that the woman she thought of as family was a slave, she never treated her as such and still does not, will not, to this day. Because of that love, parental love for Jaena, the longing for her father slowly died as Hella grew older.
Middle Years: A Mage is Discovered?
They came for her. Whispered words between surrogate mother and daughter in the night, the fleeting image of her father’s face as she saw it so clearly for the first time.
At the age of eleven, Hella was taken to the Iñaugrion as a potential mage. She was unsure of how it had all happened, still is to this day, of why she had been found and how it was discovered. An unwanted merchant’s daughter, a mage. What she does remember is a visit, some exchanged words, staring at the feet of those who came for her, then a quick goodbye allowed with Jaena. Her father, for the first time in her life, took her hand and knelt down to her level. With tears in eyes that were filled with regrets and pure sadness, Baemor took her into his arms then pressed his lips to her forehead and sent her off with strangers.
Betrayal filled the young girl’s mind, for her father had shown his first inkling of affection on the same day he was giving her away to strangers. While she was accustomed to his absence, she was not accustomed to being without Jaena.
It took nearly a year for Hella to adjust, to even attempt in her studies, within the Iñaugrion. Those attempts, when she decided to actually make them, she appeared to hold little promise by way of power and potential. The spells, conjuring, and art of being a mage was a struggle. She made little friends within the Iñaugrion’s walls, withdrew, and spent most of her days studying while longing for her life prior.
The Shattering and Awakening
At the age of sixteen, Hella was considered “realize” enough in her potential, which was hardly saying much as she had little by traditional means of magic, and was sent out into one of the least powerful, hardly spoken of noble families. The name of which is lost to both her and the Iñaugrion’s records to this day. Her time there was short and having been a bit of a failure of a mage, the family felt ever so slightly slighted and extremely unhappy to have her there. A fortnight into her apprenticeship, Hell’s world as she knew it was turned upside down.
Maron, a mage who had fled from the council a year prior, had returned with her perversions of magics and desired experimentation with those of Valyrian blood, those with magical blood. Gaining access to the mages with the Iñaugrion was impossible, considering his status amongst other things,so he lay in waiting for the young and naive apprentices to be sent out. The ones that would be easy pray. Those who lacked the knowledge and skill to defend themselves. The opportunity presented itself just right with Hella.
In the middle of the night, on that fourteenth day of Hella’s time under the tutelage of her assigned house, Maron gained entry under the guise of being a mage from the Iñaugrion, simply coming to check in on her. Easily gaining her trust, he was allowed into the empty house and after it was too late to realize her mistake, a knife was pressed to Hella’s throat as she was led through the city to some remote outskirts. It was when she was within the walls of Maron’s workshop, of a sort, that Hella realized she was in real danger.
Stipped of her clothing and shortly after her dignity, her innocence, she was beaten and the torture began. Experimentation as she slipped in and out of consciousness went on into the night, without the use of magics or anything high level enough that would alert the sorcerers of the Iñaugrion. It was upon the attempted removal of her eye that a storm brewed inside of her and power radiation through her body. The blade slipped causing her to scream in both power and pain. Those waves of power, bright in her mind but in actuality unseen, pulsed through the city. Her magic, her power, was like an unignorable homing beacon to those sorcerers who sensed such things, and so they came for her - even as she lay between unconscious and in a catatonic state.
Hella woke up days later back within the walls of the Iñaugrion, her fingers deformed and blackened, her left eye scared and milky - her vision lost on that side. She would later learn Maron had been tried, fairly of course, and sentenced to death. While the details of how and why were put on display, the knowledge of what had actually been done to her died with Maron.
Later Years
Recovery took time, trust in her own safety and her own latent powers was a struggle over the next five years. The questions of failure, her own and those above her to see her as the sorcerer she was, had always been? It all weighed heavily on who she was becoming as a woman. She hid herself, still one to keep to her room and still finding herself studying things she no longer needed to study. And in that inward hiding she outwardly did as well. With veil like coverings, lace, and at times gauze like materials she hid her full face from those around her and the festering eye that took over two years to heal.
She did heal, though, and by the time she was twenty three the lace coverings were removed and she displayed her imperfection. Finding friendships, mentors, and those who could assist her in abilities, she grew in power by taking in everything around her. She shied away from nothing. And though she had a lingering pull towards magics that were blood based, she does not discount those based in fire and even other magical elements outside of Valyria. She studies all that comes her way, as knowledge in her innate abilities would mean power.
Recently she has reconnected with her surrogate mother Jaena, unchained by the expectations of mages, who has certainly had a hand in Hella gaining her confidences. At the age of twenty six, she has proven herself to be adeptly powerful and has honed her talents to a fine degree. She is plagued with nightmares, though, and they do cripple her as they seep in from time to time. With little to no recollection of the night she was taken, she has found the more she tries to suppress the actual actions of the mage who both ruined her and unleashed her gifts nearly a decade ago, the more wild her magic becomes.
The nightmares grow and she feels the weight of them pressing down upon her. The weight of what was done to her and the uncertainty of if she can control what seeps into her magic. A power struggle internally that could over take the sorcerer she’s become and turn her into something… more?
Current Location
Year of Birth
4824 AD
26 Years old
Children
Aligned Organization
Hella Valaeris
Strength
0
Dexterity
-1
Intelligence
+3
Wisdom
+2
Charisma
+1
Strength
0
Dexterity
-1
Intelligence
+3
Wisdom
+2
Charisma
+1
