Velial

Information

Player: dragonmad

Character Full Name: Lady Velial Wintersun

Character In-Game Name: Velial

Nickname(s): Cricket

Association(s): The Kingdom Quel'thalas, the Order of Blood Knights, the Horde, the House Wintersun

Race: Blood Elf

Class: Paladin Noble

Age: 234

Sex: Female

Hair: Chin-length and black, usually obscuring at least one of her eyes if it hasn't been tied back into a ponytail

Eyes: Light (But No Less Sickly) Emerald Green

Weight: 123 Lbs

Height: 6'0"

Appearance

Velial's common clothing consists of a light brown top with an exposed midriff, simple leather pants and bare feet. Her armor is commonly worn over top of this, as to reduce the need for baggage. Her armor is plate mail, comprised primarily of different styles and sorts of armor, all taken from different sets. They are all made from assorted high-quality metals, however. Around her neck there is commonly a red and gold mask, sometimes pulled up to obscure her face, and sometimes functioning as little more than a fancy scarf.

Other: Velial's mask, at one point, had been enchanted to obscure her from location by magical means. Centuries of use, however, have worn down this spell, which at this point does little more than apply a bit of a blur or haze to her whenever detection or location is attempted. It is truly useless as an actual stealth or defensive piece of equipment at this point. This item was gained during her fleeing of the Scourge after the Third War, a gift from a dying scout in return for a promise to not allow him to join the ranks of the undead. She keeps it for sentimental purposes.

Personality

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Velial is a creature of two parts. The first is naïve, a bit strange and childlike, prone to humming, twirling and with a penchant for speaking in rhymes and riddles. She very much enjoys playing with language, often twisting her words around to an almost uninterpretable degree, including double negatives and the like. She truly does feel that most creatures apart from those of the Legion are “good”, and follows a heavily pacifistic philosophy whenever such can be attained.

Below the surface, however, Velial is a bit less innocent than she might have some believe. The centuries have left her with a quiet suspicion, and while not at all vile or particularly prone to “good decisions”, Velial is less trusting than she would have herself appear to be. To most, her thoughts are still very polite, and many a decision of hers are made in the spur of the moment, but there are some that she truly does think on. Any long term plan Velial shares is very likely to have been contemplated upon for at least one night, though her impulses may mean that such plans are not followed after concoction.

Velial is a strong believer in the Light. Even during her time as a Quel'dorei, she followed it faithfully. She sees the Holy Light as the main chance at the salvation of her people, often praying for true relief from the Fel-corruption and ever-present addictions caused by it. She still attempts to follow the original tenants, even as a Blood Knight, though she is no less prone to sudden fits of hedonism or selfishness than any other Sin'dorei. When presented with a strong source of magical energies after enough time away from Quel'thalas and the renewed Sunwell, she is quite likely to fall into old habits and attempt to drain from it. She may feel horrid afterwards, but such will not stop her. This constant drive to do something she understands to cause harm and pain is why she constantly refers to the Fel-taint as “the curse of her people.”

Skills and Abilities

Holy Light

Velial is, in her own mind, a Paladin first and foremost, even if she still has to balance it against her responsibilities as the Lady of her house. She can cast various healing and offensive spells, with a strong lean toward offense.

Swordplay

Sufficient to defend herself when need be, she fights like a berserker with a heavy offensive focus and little focus on her own defenses.

Riding

The only "whimsical", direct use of her status and wealth as the Lady of a house, Velial has learned to ride and care for a personal dragonhawk.

Wealth

While by no means able to support a kingdom, or even anything more than a small village short-term at best, the House Wintersun's coffers are substantial and Velial has access to them.

History

Velial was born nearly two and a half centuries prior, into the less-than-prestigious Wintersun House, living in the city of Silvermoon itself. Her father, Nalarian Wintersun was prone to long absences from the estate, tending to matters personally and leaving large gaps of time with the girl at home with her mother, Lorenei, while he traveled the region to trade his various wares.

Lorenei was less a kind woman than many outside the family would ever have thought to believe. A vehement racist, Lorenei attempted to sway her daughter to a similar line of thinking. The woman was also of the opinion that she should be an exemplary pillar of etiquette fitting of nobility, often holding the adolescent to absurd standards of propriety. A misplaced fork at dinner was met with a shout and a swift and literal slap across the wrist. Posture was enforced and trained brutally, and manners were stressed to an abusive level. Every entrance was to be given with a curtsey. Every exit with another. Anyone of lesser standing was to be treated as dirt, and while the family had ample servants at the time, Lorenei was of the mind that Velial was to fill that role as well.

Upon the arrival of her fiftieth year, Velial had adapted both retaliation and a shield. She began to feign ignorance, often being late with her chores and even humming as she did them. She would frequent the few priests in Silvermoon whenever she could evade her estate and handlers, learning what she could, enthralled by a different idea. She was enthralled by a faith of happiness and safety, rather than one of discomfort and numerous subtle rules that belonged to a world and caste she simply felt that one such as herself did not belong in. The façade developed then, with her ever present humming and dreamy tone of voice coming into full swing over the next several decades.

She never shared her aspirations of being a priestess, nor did she share much with the vicious Lorenei, but she survived nonetheless. Upon the age of ten years past her adulthood, Velial finally fled home. She didn't travel far and never left Quel'thalas. Eventually, the girl settled in to become the apprentice of a Priest of the Holy Light in Suncrown Village, concealing her identity with the pseudonym “Cricket”, quite grateful to be accepted as she was.

She was neither good nor poor as a priestess, though always a bit too gung-ho about using her abilities for defenses and offenses that would be better left to Magi. Another thirty years passed before she left Suncrown, now a priestess of moderate skill. She began to wander, ever hesitant on the thought of returning to her peoples' capital and to the monstrous mother and responsibilities that she so very feared. She did not hate Lorenei, however. The Light had taught her never to hate, and she did acknowledge that the woman desired good things for she and her family, though that did not mean her fears were quelled, or that she ever intended to return.

Instead she walked, lending her skills to any who needed them, but she did not walk alone. While in Suncrown Village, she'd met her first and only husband. The man was a Farstrider, and one who saw her oddities endearing. Over the time of her apprenticeship, he and she had courted on and off, in secret but not too secretly. The marriage itself had been a small ceremony, a topic of vague interest to the townspeople but otherwise ignored in the grand scheme thanks to some subtle coin exchanging hands and some scribes “misplacing” the marriage certificate soon after it was filed. It was on their first anniversary that the pair had set off, and on their eleventh that Velial fled.

They had been good to one another, but Velial had fallen pregnant. The pair had been of the same opinion that this would be wondrous news. However, upon the realization of her expectancy, the Quel'dorei priestess was filled with a fear. She feared being a poor mother, being a poor caregiver. A priestess was many things but immensely wealthy was never one of them, and coin skimmed from family coffers was eventually to be noticed. The prospect of her daughter's safety took precedence, and Velial's instincts pointed her northward. Back to Silvermoon, to set her heir into a world the infant would deserve.

The reunion with Lorenei was not a kind one, nor a cold one. The woman was in her later years, even by Quel'dorei standards, but she was accepting of her daughter. A small agreement was made, and Velial, while terrified for her daughter, was allowed to stay until she gave birth, and after that the child would be raised by her grandmother. Months later, a grief-stricken Velial fled. Ashamed of herself, her actions and her family, she left Quel'thalas all together, with Lorenei now the Lady of the household and Velial meant to never return to take her proper place.

Seventy-eight years later, a Quel'dorei priestess was living in Lordaeron when the rumors began to arise. Monstrous green men were appearing in the southern kingdom of Stormwind. These rumors interested Velial, but not overmuch. Likely just rumors or some tall tale. Upon learning that Stormwind had fallen, though, she began to feel uneasy. Surely they would never continue northward, though.

And then they did. These creatures—Orcs, she learned—were only moving steadily upwards, threatening her very home and livelihood. And if Lordaeron fell, Quel'thalas would be next, yet Velial was powerless. She was overlooked entirely when those who would later become the Silver Hand trained as Paladins, and a hesitance kept her from stepping forward. Her hands were unaccustomed to blades or hammers, and her frame was doughy and unused to lifting heavy things like armor.

During the siege of Lordaeron's capital, this mindset changed. Counseling as many as she could, attempting to calm their fears and heal their wounds, Velial's decision was made. Should she still live, even if Lordaeron's capital fell, she would defend all she could. She would stop the fear and protect all under her power from these Orcs, Trolls and their monstrous allies or the demonic entities they summoned. When the war finally ended, and Lordaeron still stood, she approached the Order of the Silver Hand for training. Five years passed, and she went from a squire to a Knight of the Silver Hand, a Paladin, and a protector of innocents and weak. She was a force of all the good she'd ever wanted to provide, and her presence allowed others to feel safer. Velial had never been happier in her entire life.

Naturally, this ended with the Scourge. She had been on the borders of Lordaeron already when King Terenas fell, and so her first reaction was to fall back into Quel'thalas upon roads she'd left upon about a century prior. The experience, while tense in nature, was only made more so when it became apparent that the Scourge was on her heels. She did make it to Silvermoon, but only in time to assist in the doomed defense mere days later.

In the battle, she fought, but was forced to assist fleeing refugees when it became apparent that things were lost. This was the first time she'd meet her daughter, though unknowingly. A mere commoner at the time, the child, Niah Wintersun, was almost into adulthood herself. With little more to do than flee, the group disappeared into the wildernesses of the forest.

The group was forced to scavenge and constantly move until assistance arrived, and eventually a force of Quel'dorei numbering in the hundreds stumbled upon these refugees. They continued to grow, eventually retaking and rebuilding the city that Velial had spent most of her life fleeing.

Lost, alone and without the Sunwell, though, she was weaker. She met Niah twice more, though their talks were never intimate enough to teach either of their relationship. Every day Velial would pray to the Light for guidance, though no direct answer came. Eventually, the forces of Kael'thas, however, did, and with him, he brought a new, more vicious way of thinking. The now-Sin'dorei went against much that Velial had believed in, but desperation and a magical addiction lent some to bending her beliefs.

Survival could bring happiness, could it not? She did survive, and took the place of the now-dead Lorenei leading the affairs of her household. The Sin'dorei priestess was simply miserable in this time, guiding her house's businesses halfheartedly and barely engaging in the politics of the reconstructing Quel'thalassian nobility. She alienated others, accidentally frayed old ties and formed strange new ones, but it was enough to keep the Wintersun house stable.

When the time came to turn to Fel, Velial was once more alone. She was not strong enough to resist the prospect of a sated thirst, even at the cost of all she had worked so hard to attain. She drank from the demonic energies brought back from the Outlands, and she accepted the demons as a necessity if her people were to survive. She did not like them, but she accepted them.

When M'uru came to Silvermoon, Velial's hope returned. The creature, this “Naaru” was in pain, but so were her people. Though she reviled herself for it, she prayed that the being would forgive her stealing of its powers to protect those she'd failed once already. The Horde was now their ally, as well, and while uneasy about it, she soon saw another view of the Orcs and Trolls. Perhaps they were not so different. They certainly smelled different, but now she was tainted green, just like those beasts. Now she lived on pain and demons, just as they had. Perhaps there was hope.

Then her hope was stolen, by Kael'thas's Felblood Elves and a temporary loss of power. The power was returned, but all eyes were on the Sunwell. Velial was on the first ship out, more than eager to join with the Shattered Sun. She fought at the Sunwell, but not inside it. She was on the outside, amidst a fierce duel against a Felblood sorcerer when Kil'jaeden was stricken down, and only heard about it afterwards. The Sunwell was restored, and the knowledge that M'uru had truly given of his power was something that set her mind back at ease.

The ship back to Quel'thalas had her meet Niah for the fourth time. The girl was simply working on said ship, no warrior herself, when the connection was made. A single apology was given, but Velial's progeny was not forgiving. She left the house, severing all ties with her blood and was not seen again by Velial from that point forward.

After the Sunwell, Velial took to her duties, wandering and protecting her kind, and serving the Horde while delegating off her responsibilities as a noble as best she could. She still frequents her estate, but makes every attempt to keep the Wintersun house away from grabs for power, instead strengthening their position in the current standing. She played no part in the Northrend conflict, but celebrated as all did when the Lich King fell.

She simply lives. She simply survives.