Anastasia Valentine
Anastasia Valentine (a.k.a. Jade)
Anastasia "Jade" Valentine is an oracle from Jannat who was transported into the future to serve the Order of the Blue Magi.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Anastasia "Jade" Valentine was born to a moderately wealthy family in the capital city of a world who's name within the planes has been lost to the ages. From an early age, she showed some innate magical talent, and her family thought she could grow into a powerful sorceress. With that in mind, early into her childhood, they sent her to the best magical academy they could afford, the Ironston Institute of Magical Study, she spent almost all her time there, getting the fanciest magical boarding school experience one might expect.
When she was still a young girl, she met an odd, quiet girl who would grow into the most important person in her life, Selina Marie. While Jade was much more outgoing and sociable, liked by most who knew her, Selina was quieter, left out of the games by the more popular children, often found with her nose in a book. Though she was certainly the smartest student in the class, this did not help her position among her classmates. Jade and Selina quickly grew to being best friends, when they went their separate ways for the summer break (Jade to her family's estate, Selina to the orphanage), they would send many letters back and forth.
But little girls quickly grow into young women, and as the pair entered their teenage years, they grew into something more then friends. Though it may have taken awhile for the pair to realize, there was no one else they would rather spend their lives with then each other. At the age of sixteen, Jade told this to her parents, as they had intended to marry her off to a local noble. Her father did not take this well, saying how she had brought shame to their family and he had no daughter.
Upset and very much in love, this is the moment when Jade's powers finally awakened. Her hands began to glow and she grabbed her father, and as she touched him, he disappeared, without a trace to as where he went. She tried to explain how she didn't mean to do this to her mother and brother, but her words fell on deaf ears, as the pair could not understand the incoherent babbling that came from her mouth (Jade would later identify this as the language of Devils). Running from her home, she made her way to Selina's home, embracing her and telling her that she is the only family she needs now.
Returning to finish her studies on a scholarship (much like Selina) from an unknown benefactor, the pair excelled in magical studies, rising to first and second best in their class respectfully, though their young love did sometimes get them the occasional glance, most paid it little mind. As Jade's powers further developed, she began her training into the divine magic at the temple to Qualim, The God of Magic and Time and Creation in their world. She began as an attendant to a priestess there, who helped her to develop her magic, as well as taught her basic combat skills and armor training.
Selina, however, went down a different path. While Jade hoped to reach immortality through the strengthening of her divine powers, Selina had to make do on her own, focusing her studies on necromancy. Her studies got darker and darker, the study of the undead and the like, though she insisted it was purely academical.
As their powers grew, they took on minor jobs, killing goblins, laying to rest awakened undead and the like, all in pursuit of their goals. Eventually, they were exploring the ruins of an old temple where they found an old staff. The staff glowed with the aura of dark magic, and though Jade warned her of the danger, Selina picked it up anyways. As she touched the staff, something happened to Selina, her eyes began to glow red and she spat a dark curse out, freezing Jade in her place. Clearly possessed by some force, she began to speak a magical incantation known to neither of them, and a portal to the black void opened and a man stepped out, dressed in black armor seemingly made of pure darkness. Selina seemed to be under his power, as he exclaimed joy to be released from his interplanar prison. Deciding to celebrate, he made love to the apparently willing Selina as Jade could do nothing but watch, helpless, before the pair teleported away.
As she was released from the spells grip, she could find no trace of where the pair might have gone, and upset with herself, returned to the temple, desperately seeking aid to find her lost love. The temple assured her they would begin working to find her.
The Outlaws and the Black King
After going to bed one night, Jade found herself in a stone maze with none of her belongings. Running into The Outlaws, they were able to determine that they were in a dreamscape created by The Black King. Jade would assist the group, until she was transported elsewhere. Finding herself in some type of fancy bath house with many attractive people, she was given a robe and lead to a backroom, where she met Alexis Ironston, who she recognized as the Headmisstress from her school days. She promised to explain everything to her at a later date, but told Jade that she would be saving the lives of the people she met in the maze, and to speak with a woman named Isabella on the ship. Alexis gave her bottle of air and teleported her on to the ship The Widowmaker. Now with her weapons and armor, she found herself in the midst of a naval battle with a gigantic blue dragon. Finding Isabella, she learned that the rest of the Outlaws were comatose, despite her attempts to wake them. Isabella threw the Outlaws into a magic bag, and convinced Jade to do so as well, using the jar to keep them all alive.
Jade took quickly to the rest of the Outlaws, helping them to defeat Saint Brenedan and return to Leann, as well as in their trip to the Mountain and in the celestial realm. Her most important contribution came during the hunt for Julian Chamberlain and The Book of the Gods. The party had decided to try and raise an army to take on Julian's new forces, heading north to Skalsgrad in an attempt to meet with some members of Almas's military there. During the first day of their journey, Jade received a vision. Seeing a world that was being consumed by darkness and fire, she watched as Dais's army fell in it's last stand against devils and shadows. Lady Alexis appeared then, explaining that this is the future if they continued on their path. She further explained that this was the exact moment that Jade was born for, that her destiny was to convince the party to turn around and find the Book of the Gods, because only by recovering it could this future be avoided. Jade would come out of her vision and convince the party to turn around, where they would reform the book and prevent Julian Chamberlain from destroying all the gods with it.
After the Outlaws
After the split of the Outlaws, Jade in particular was left with (quite literally) no home to go back to. Returning to Sarah's Place (the only bar that would let her open up a tab), she spent her first months deep in drink and whores, occasionally performing some healing magic or other magical trick for patrons in exchange for coin. As the months and months went by, she grew into a depression, missing her former home, missing her lover, but more then that, missing the freedom of the open road and the life of adventure she had taken a liking to with the Outlaws.
Approached in a dream by Lady Alexis, she apologized for not coming by sooner, but explained that she was very busy trying to stop the next threat to the world. Alexis had a job offer for Jade: Come with me and help to save the world. She offered coin and freedom, but promised danger and to make a difference. With Alexis being one of her few connections to the old world, and not wanting her story to end in a bar, Jade accepted.
It is from here that Jade was introduced to The Order of The Blue Magi. A secretive order led by Lady Alexis herself, they try and use their immense knowledge and power to better the world from behind the scenes, using adventurers and intermediaries to shape their will. Despite her magical talents, she mostly served as Alexis's handmaiden and servant for her first months, a relatively simple job (because when you're an incredibly powerful wizard, you have unseen servants and things to clean your home and prepare your meals and all that) that mostly involved helping her with magical experiments and getting rid of Alexis's "guests" once she was bored of them. Besides this, she kept Jade at her side throughout her travels through the magical realm, trying to teach Jade about how to be a leader and looking at the big picture. It was here that Jade would learn that for a woman with immense power and resources, Alexis was still incredibly alone.
This would continue for months, Alexis providing Jade with the finest foods, shelter, and access to a library containing almost every book ever made. In exchange, Jade helped her deal with the difficulties of her life, giving her more time to focus on her own projects. But eventually, Jade would grow restless, wanting to see more of the world then just Alexis's private realm.
Alexis would give her an important assignment, to use her diplomatic skills to help convince a group of adventurers to save the world from the return a powerful diety called The Dragon Queen. Creating a dreamscape for Jade, they helped to create visions of the past, present, and future for the adventurers, to impress on them the importance of the quest. However, there were complications, and the adventurers were not the ones Jade expected. The adventurers agreed to the quest, but did not really like Jade, as she didn't really care for them, after they mocked all the work she put into the illusions of the past, present, and future. After the adventurers left, Jade returned to her post at Alexis's side, who kept her increasingly close, even inviting her to stay with her for the night several times, which Jade accepted. Alexis would send her out into the world a few more times, to witness amazing feats of alchemy performed by Jade's old acquaintance, Damian Hargrove.
Alexis seemed to be growing more depressed as time went on, and it was becoming evident that Alexis didn't really have friends, but instead had servants and students. Over time, they would grow close, Alexis trusting Jade with her most ambitious project, her attempts to manipulate time itself. It is here that Jade learned that Alexis knows secrets of Time Travel, and spends much of her time traveling back to their old World, in an attempt to redo events and change the future, with no success. It is also where she learned that Alexis had a secret wife, a holy knight by the name of Kari Stormrunner, who she keeps trying to bring back, but can't. Jade, knowing about how time works and from her innate connections to the gods themselves, finally convinces Alexis to stop trying to change the past, and that some events are just destined to happen, allowing her to find closure for not stopping her world from being destroyed.
After this, Alexis grew happier, and Jade stayed with her in a more permanent fashion, and Alexis stopped giving orders and just listened, keeping her around as a friend and lover instead of an employee. She would even devote resources to trying to find Selina, knowing her friend wanted her back, despite knowing it might damper their own friendship. Jade would learn that Alexis has a long history on this plane, even being one of the three "Ancient Sages" that led Humanity into its golden age, something Alexis hopes she keeps secret from those outside the order.
This would continue until Valen's attempted assassination of King Tavion Dhalmass the 14th of his name. Alexis, sentimental to the King (having known his ancestors and worked with them personally in her time as an Ancient Sage), and the Kingdom of Dhalmass itself (as it was basically her kingdom when she was a Sage), sends Jade to investigate why Valen did what she did, as Jade has received an invitation to the funeral of Valen.
Right before she left, Alexis dragged her into her workshop, for one last night of love, and also to gift her with a magical staff she created personally for Jade.
The Return of the Dragon Queen
Appearing to the group in a dream, she showed the group the past (showing them the last time The Dragon Queen was slain), the present (showing them their home town being burned down by a red dragon), and the future (a world where they were all dead and The Dragon Queen enslaved humanity once more). She was a bit moody, as the group didn't appreciate her illusions, and she was expecting a different group of heroes, having to settle for these ones. She explained that the world would be enslaved by the Dragon Queen once again if the group did not reform the sword Dragon's Bane and slay her. She also revealed that she was merely the messenger of a more powerful person, and that Lakewood had indeed burned down. She then sent them on her way, expressing that she was not confident in their abilities and hoped that she didn't have to see them again.
She appeared once more to witness Damian's teleportation machine, as part of her work for Order of the Blue Magi.
Children
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