Alera Firetree, Vice Captain of the Corpus Knights
Alera Firetree was an unlikely candidate for vice-captain of Evergrace’s Pool Guardians. In a city obsessed with ethnic and spiritual purity, her status as a tiefling makes her doubly suspect to most of the common folk. Indeed, the only reason she likely made the guard was the mandate by the Assembly that each pool be represented in the guard at least once. As a “corrupted” humanoid, Alera received her blessing from the infamous pool 13.
Alera’s path was unusual. Orphaned at a young age, she went to great lengths to escape Evergrace’s foster system and lived on the streets picking pockets and running messages for the thieves guild. She killed her first man at 13, when a drunken sailor tried to assault her in an alley. The thieves guild recognized her potential and she began rising through the ranks, taking on increasingly violent tasks.
Then an assignment came along that provided Alera with a cover identity. Once the mission was complete, Alera realized that between her excellent false paperwork and her being about the right age, she might be able to get a pass to receive a legacy from one of the pools. Having felt like an outsider her whole life, the chance to receive the ultimate marker of Evergrace citizenship was simply too great to pass up. Despite the risk, she submitted an application and was baptized in pool 13.
Whatever fragments of past lives Alera received, they troubled her deeply. She vanished for almost two years, beyond the reach of even the thieves guild to locate. When she returned to the city, she infiltrated the headquarters of the Guardians and managed to meet then vice-captain Chalmeck in his office without being detected. She calmly explained the situation, including the entirety of her past, and asked to be admitted to the guard, as “if I could get in to both the pool and this office, your security team needs me more than you need me in prison.”
Chalmeck was impressed with the young woman’s initiative, courage and willingness to accept responsibility for her past. He helped cover her tracks and arranged for her to be admitted as a guardian candidate. As a Tiefling of low birth in one of Evergrace’s most elite academies, she suffered enormous discrimination and prejudice, which Chalmeck did nothing to mitigate. He believed that suffering makes us stronger, and the only intervention he provided was a long talk in his office one evening after Alera was on the verge of quitting the academy.
Whatever he said seemed to renew her strength, because she stayed in the program, where he intense hard work and already significant skill began to earn her rivals, admirers and friends. She graduated with honors and attracted distinction after rescuing an injured corpus knight patrol from a bullette attack and locating no fewer than three separate security vulnerabilities in her first pool guard rotation.
Alera rose through the ranks and is one of the youngest vice-captains in history, serving under her mentor Chalmeck, who she’s grown to see as a sort of father figure. She’s fiercely loyal to the city, though she still lives in fear of someday being exposed as an ex-thief, murderer and illegitimate heir to her baptism. She strives to value the quality of a person’s work over their background, and has even promoted a few former rivals she deemed well-qualified, earning her great respect from most of her subordinates and great resentment from one or two of them that couldn’t let go of the past. She still retains some prejudice towards those who come from money and privilege, however, and is skeptical of anyone who thinks highly of themselves.
In combat, she’s a whirlwind, springing through enemy ranks with her trademark Naginata, Sentinel. Between her early life as a rogue, her time in the wilderness as a ranger and her training as a fighter at the academy she brings a diverse set of skills to the battlefield and is particularly talented at assembling teams whose skills and personalities complement one another.
PCs who serve in the Corpus Knights might report to Alera, and she’s a likely source of work for adventurers willing to handle “off the books” jobs that the guard can’t officially endorse like retrieving Evergrace citizens from countries that don’t recognize the right of extradition. Getting hired will require that the adventurers can earn her trust, of course, but she’s surprisingly well-informed as between her new noble friends, companions in the guard and a few old thieves guild contacts, she receives information through many channels.
Alera’s path was unusual. Orphaned at a young age, she went to great lengths to escape Evergrace’s foster system and lived on the streets picking pockets and running messages for the thieves guild. She killed her first man at 13, when a drunken sailor tried to assault her in an alley. The thieves guild recognized her potential and she began rising through the ranks, taking on increasingly violent tasks.
Then an assignment came along that provided Alera with a cover identity. Once the mission was complete, Alera realized that between her excellent false paperwork and her being about the right age, she might be able to get a pass to receive a legacy from one of the pools. Having felt like an outsider her whole life, the chance to receive the ultimate marker of Evergrace citizenship was simply too great to pass up. Despite the risk, she submitted an application and was baptized in pool 13.
Whatever fragments of past lives Alera received, they troubled her deeply. She vanished for almost two years, beyond the reach of even the thieves guild to locate. When she returned to the city, she infiltrated the headquarters of the Guardians and managed to meet then vice-captain Chalmeck in his office without being detected. She calmly explained the situation, including the entirety of her past, and asked to be admitted to the guard, as “if I could get in to both the pool and this office, your security team needs me more than you need me in prison.”
Chalmeck was impressed with the young woman’s initiative, courage and willingness to accept responsibility for her past. He helped cover her tracks and arranged for her to be admitted as a guardian candidate. As a Tiefling of low birth in one of Evergrace’s most elite academies, she suffered enormous discrimination and prejudice, which Chalmeck did nothing to mitigate. He believed that suffering makes us stronger, and the only intervention he provided was a long talk in his office one evening after Alera was on the verge of quitting the academy.
Whatever he said seemed to renew her strength, because she stayed in the program, where he intense hard work and already significant skill began to earn her rivals, admirers and friends. She graduated with honors and attracted distinction after rescuing an injured corpus knight patrol from a bullette attack and locating no fewer than three separate security vulnerabilities in her first pool guard rotation.
Alera rose through the ranks and is one of the youngest vice-captains in history, serving under her mentor Chalmeck, who she’s grown to see as a sort of father figure. She’s fiercely loyal to the city, though she still lives in fear of someday being exposed as an ex-thief, murderer and illegitimate heir to her baptism. She strives to value the quality of a person’s work over their background, and has even promoted a few former rivals she deemed well-qualified, earning her great respect from most of her subordinates and great resentment from one or two of them that couldn’t let go of the past. She still retains some prejudice towards those who come from money and privilege, however, and is skeptical of anyone who thinks highly of themselves.
In combat, she’s a whirlwind, springing through enemy ranks with her trademark Naginata, Sentinel. Between her early life as a rogue, her time in the wilderness as a ranger and her training as a fighter at the academy she brings a diverse set of skills to the battlefield and is particularly talented at assembling teams whose skills and personalities complement one another.
PCs who serve in the Corpus Knights might report to Alera, and she’s a likely source of work for adventurers willing to handle “off the books” jobs that the guard can’t officially endorse like retrieving Evergrace citizens from countries that don’t recognize the right of extradition. Getting hired will require that the adventurers can earn her trust, of course, but she’s surprisingly well-informed as between her new noble friends, companions in the guard and a few old thieves guild contacts, she receives information through many channels.
Children
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