Valda

Appearance | Personality | History | Skills and Abilities | As Seen By Others

Valda Winters
Player	Ural
Title	<Noble>
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Class	Mage
Age	27
Height	5'7" / 1.03
Weight	192 lbs.
Eyes	Teal
Hair	Faded red hair that is cut short to stay out of the way.
Affilliation(s)	Stormwind House of Nobles, The Black Dragonflight (formally), The Argent Crusade (formally), The Appleflow Family (formally)
Occupation	Adventurer
Relative(s)	Unknown
Mentor(s)	None
Student(s)	None
Companion(s)	Matharius Winters
Status	Alive

Appearance

Usual Equipment: Valda wears various sets of cloth outfits depending on what is required at the time.

Other: Valda maintains her physical fitness as much as her equipment. The woman is toned but has more endurance than actual strength. Her House Winter’s signet is enchanted with fire resistance, while the other is her diamond wedding band.

Personality

Valda has moved on from her past. Instead of haunting her every movement, it only nags at her with specific triggers. Only her husband, Matharius Winters, has her full confidence. But even within that close relationship there are barriers and hesitations. She believes they have embraced each other to the extent that two broken people can. Valda is a spirited woman for has a flair for the dramatic. This along with her jaded view on the Church of Stormwind often puts her at odds with their clergy. She values self-improvement, practical application of knowledge and determination. The passion she once carried for her countrymen has been put aside to focus on her own knowledge and gain.

History

Valda was the only child of a typical townsfolk family in Westfall. Her folks moved out there after the First War ravaged the Human lands. Besides the occasional bandit attack her childhood was pretty idealistic. Dad and mom were one of the first settlers and were respected in their community. John Bennett was an average farmhand working with the neighboring Appleflow plantation. Gertrude or 'Gert' did whatever she could for either additional income or reduce living costs. Valda and her mother would often work together stitching clothes for the family. They had a small garden which they could trade with also. Valda wasn't spoiled but like most was pretty much the center of her parent's universe.

Valda began to pick up on her mother's subtle use of magic. She would pretend to start the stove or a campfire but really wasn't that good at building the fire correctly. At first she was pretty sneaky, but as time went on she got more reckless. Valda approached her mother about it and was taken to her folks bedroom. From under their bed Mom revealed a dusty tome in a worn wooden box. She explained to her only child the history of her parents; one that began to take them down a different, darker path. But something happened, she was pregnant with Valda. Not wanting any corruption to come to their child they put away the dark arts and moved. They blended in with the settlers of Westfall and adopted a new life. She never admitted that she was still addicted to her past, but instead found an excuse to indulge in it more. She began teaching Valda. At first it was just simple fire magic while Dad was at work.

John attempted to be a good father-figure for his family. He was regarded as a good worker and often worked early and stayed late as any farmhand should. John and the Appleflow patriarch Markuss became good friends. With the Defias threatening the whole of Westfall, John wrote in a legally binding note that should anything happen to them, that their small plot of land would be given to the Appleflow family in exchange for taking care of Valda. Markuss would essentially be Valda's godparent.

Despite all these experiences, nothing was as thrilling as his darker past. Between the repetitive farming work and dull home life, John began to look for anything to take his attention. He soon found himself traveling with a merchant caravan as one of the riflemen. He wasn't a very good shot but he felt powerful and in control. He began seeing a mistress in a small town. The family continued to drift apart as time went by.

One night Valda's father came home early due to a temporary road block that had been set up for the Defias in the area. He opened the door and it seemed no one was home. He walked to the cellar door and opened it. An audible gasp drew him down where he found them both trying to cover up what they were doing. In an instant it all became clear to him. Valda cowered in a corner as her parents argued violently. Her mother lashed out against him with a wave of fire that also scorched Valda's arm. Burned and terrified he fled the house. Valda's mother tried to comfort her only child but only received a slap before Valda took off upstairs to her room. Alone and rejected her mother sat in the cellar. Valda cried most of the night in her bed before passing out from exhaustion.

The next day Valda woke up in pain from her mangled arm. She staggered out of her room looking for anything to dull the pain. She headed towards the cellar intent on finding her father's booze stash. She stepped down into the cellar and crumpled to the ground. Her mother had taken her own life with a dagger the night before. Valda laid there for what seemed liked hours. The scene burned into her mind. She crawled back up the stairs and took what she could from her parent's room. Beneath the cover of that dark morning and a hooded cloak Valda escaped Westfall.

When the sun rose, Markuss noticed that John didn't show up to work. That was very uncharacteristic of him, so after morning chores Markuss went to check up on his friend. The home was deserted, save for Gert's body in the basement. Figuring it must have been some Defias Warlock, the worst was assumed for the two missing bodies. Despite all the various rumors and accusations, Markuss took care of the burial for Gertude and upheld the Bennett reputation the best he could. The Appleflow family inherited the land and that was the end of that.

The next few years she traveled from place to place as a freelance adventurer. Her reputation for getting things done helped to spur her career along. She caught a break in the Wetlands. A Gnome hermit hired Valda to gather some regents that spanned both the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Instead of the hefty monetary reward, the gnome taught Valda more about tailoring. Though interesting the work was fairly dull. Next Valda traveled by boat to the ancient land of Northrend. At one of the hubs she accepted a contract to aid in the downfall of a Lich. The Warlock survived the conflict and caught a glimpse of a great red dragon delivering the final blow to the exposed Lich. With her earnings secured, Valda returned to the Eastern Kingdoms rather full of herself. Settled in a nook hidden in Deadwind Pass, Valda passed the time drinking away her money and tailoring. On a rather uninteresting night, she was approached by a man in a suit. His name was Lord Taylor, and he required someone who could deliver a package despite some danger. Valda agreed and found herself winding up the forgotten ruins of Karazan. At the top, was a High Elf. She was thin, pretty and quite quick with a bow as she trained it at Valda. Repeating what the Lord told her to say, the elf lowered her guard to accept the package. A flash of darkness overtook the pair and the elves' true form as a red drake was revealed. The necklace gift was actually a crippling trap! And the Lord Taylor, now in a set of black armor approached the disorientated Warlock from behind. He explained the situation and placed a heavy hand onto Valda's shoulder. She turned to look him and was caught off guard by the yellow reptilian eye glaring down at her. He commanded the drake's death. It would be easy with the debilitating collar. Valda looked down into the visually pleading drake's eyes. That only made things more difficult. She wanted to give it mercy.. but the pressure to do otherwise was wholly oppressive. Valda quickly kicked at the drake's snout to reveal the fleshy leather of its neck, and brought her longsword down. The cut easily followed down to the stone as the drake's flesh withered apart by the dark magic. The human revealed himself as Dulthaan. Not a whelp, not a drake, but a powerful dragon. Valda was sworn into his service and granted an enchantment on her longsword to call for aid, should she require it. Valda tried to suppress what happened and spiraled back down into her destructive habits.

A few weeks later Valda took up a quest to unravel a mystery concerning missing historic relics. While trapped in a pocket dimension Valda tried to use her enchanted sword to call for aid. She threw the sword across the floor in anger when nothing happened. When the group of adventurers did escape, Valda didn't have her sword any longer and fell out of contact with the black dragonflight. She returned to the town of Duskwood to look for something challenging. There the spellblade met up with a man who spoke of a family relic stolen by his greedy brother. It was all an elaborate trap simply to kidnap the young woman. She was taken to an island for some unknown experiment. At one point, she was thrown into a magical rune and engulfed in flames. This only further traumatized the woman crippled by arsonphobia. She recovered with the aid of the others who were kidnapped. After a couple of stressful weeks, they managed to escape.

Covered in fresh scars and wholly defeated in spirit, Valda returned to Westfall. Markuss eagerly took to his typical parental role over the young woman. Much to Valda's irritation, he would refer to her as Valda Appleflow. While working in the family's shop a finely dressed man entered the rustic building. The man called himself Mathias and inquired about the local Defias. He even enlisted the locals to investigate the hills around Moonbrook. So Markuss, a dwarf, Valda and Mathias headed into a cave nested among the hills. The whole trip was fairly quiet save for a nasty ambush of Defias. One of the thugs got the best of Valda and tackled her to the ground. The grinning thug never noticed the shadow that loomed over him. A demonic claw swatted him effortlessly off of the scarred woman. And just as quick as it happened, Mathias returned to his formal form. He held out a hand to offer a gentleman's aid to the wholly stunned Valda. She took his hand and was brought back up into reality. Markuss was injured by a dagger wound and dwarf was felled with an axe to his helmet. Quickly Valda set a Fel Healthstone to Markuss' wound and he recovered with a few side-effects. The dwarf's helmet had proved to protect him and he came back around as well. Markuss constantly bounced between calling Mathias a demon and heckling Valda to bear grandkids for the next few months.

The two began to court formally and was seen hanging around other Nobles of Stormwind and their social functions. In time, Valda settled into this new role and once again left Westfall to kickstart her career again. Valda learned a great deal of things from Matharius' vast libraries and improved her tailoring to impressive results. The pair often traveled together when Matharius was able to wrangle Valda for a few days. During one of their trips, he showed her the magically quality of Moonwells. The result was Valda shedding her scar-laden visage for a more natural one. It was around this time that Valda met up with an old friend.

During one of Valda's many trips to the towers of Karazan she discovered Dulthaan waiting. Something was different about him, but she dismissed it as he told her of her next mission; another parcel to deliver to the head of some cultist movement in Stormwind. After a bunch of running around into dead-ends, Valda was ready to give up. One of the mysterious gypsies beckoned her over at a bar and questioned her parcel. The man aided her with her task only to reveal himself as the leader of the local group. With a mixed blessing and warning, he sent Valda off to return to her master. Dulthaan seemed to distort again until he revealed the full glory of his dragon form. The Great Lizard spoke of leaving for the Highlands and left his Sworn with a couple gifts. The first was described as the instructions from Khaz'gorth to Neltharion. A titan enchantment, it would give whatever weapon the durability of Saronite. The second was simply a glossy black scale. Valda watched the giant wyrm fly off with a profound sense of awe. She devoted herself to finding more about the history of the Black Dragonflight. She trusted her fiancé with her dealings with the Dragon and one of the gifts. The onyx scale was given to Matharius so he would always know that she picked him over them.

A couple peaceful months later the pair headed to Matharius' homeland of Lordaeron to possibly scope out a wedding location. During their first stop in Menethil Harbor, Valda's past finally caught back up with her. A woman claiming to be in league with Dulthaan scolded Valda for losing contact. Valda was quick to claim a misunderstanding and never spoke of her promise to Matharius. The mysterious woman produced a necklace for Valda to wear under pane of death should she ever remove it. Even for just a moment could earn her a reminder of her days of being kidnapped. Valda even thought how her new necklace was like that heavy collar she wore during that time. Regardless, the woman left Valda with quite the impression.

She tried to push it out of her mind for this trip with her fiancé, but even that proved to be troublesome. While traveling through Silverpine the couple was beset by a pack of worgen. Attacking the Warlocks would be their last mistake. With only a few injuries the pair pressed on towards Lordaeron. However, it was soon evident with the Forsaken's movement and Matharius' fever that they would have to turn back. Before they could escape Silverpine Forest, Matharius' form morphed into that of a savage worgen. Terrified at his fate, Valda galloped away upon her felsteed. While she raced through Hillsbrad, Valda was intercepted by a mighty black drake landing suddenly behind her. The worgen was sent running soon afterwards before a blaze of fire. The drake identified herself as Azaria, the woman from before. Quickly the two left Silverpine. That should have been the last Valda ever saw of her lover.

Valda didn't leave Azaria's side for the next few weeks. To say it was a tense time together would be an understatement. To take their minds off of the ordeal, Azaria began teaching and training Valda. Her knowledge and skill of fire magic was a lot to absorb and Valda was constantly stressed about being around such a powerful creature. Recovery was spent rehearsing the ancient draconic language. Both activities exhausted the Warlock physically and mentally. When it was deemed safe, Azaria was eager to put some space between herself and Valda.

In due time Valda's usual travels had betrayed her, and Matharius tracked her down. It was not an easy reunion as Valda had heard about doppelgangers, or magical copies of one's loved ones designed to trick the intended target. She lured the man outside of town and caught him off guard with a dagger. The ensuing scuffle caused Matharius to shapeshift into a beastly Worgen as his curse demands. Thankfully, this caught Valda off guard and the beast was permitted to explain himself. Valda was wary about this change in her lover. Could Matharius stay in control like he's always displayed before? She learned over the next few weeks that he was the same man she fell in love with. The two wed in a small chapel in Elwynn Forest. Much like their relationship, it was a personal affair. Afterwards they enjoyed a secluded honeymoon in Shadowmoon Valley.

Both of them perused increasing the fame and renown of their newly christened House upon returning to Azeroth. However, Valda soon remembered why she so often worked alone. Other people were needy and she didn’t particularly care for their needs or wants. Instead, she decided to work out her own problems. The most pressing of course was to accept an offer of freedom from her patron. Valda didn’t believe it at first, nor did she want it then either. But now the time was right to see if she could get away from being associated with the Black Aspect ravaging the lands. The Dragonsworn’s request was granted, and so she relinquished her necklace and with it any connection she had with the Black Flight. The great dragon reassured her that no dragonkin under his charge would bring retaliation to bear.

With a measure of relief and the nagging feeling of disappointment, Valda returned home. She took some time for herself and resumed her studies on the former Earth-warder. She discovered the Titans’ grand plan for order and the tale of Sargeras’ self-corruption. It was along these lines that she in turn poured her energy into figuring out what happened to Neltharion. The only thing she could connect that to was the Old Gods imprisonment into the earth. She reasoned that was the purpose behind The Shaper’s blessing to the great Aspect; to protect the world from the ancient threat. Valda found her studies on corruption and the depravity of Deathwing caused her to question her use of dark magic.

Around the same time Valda was concerned about her status in the Stormwind House of Nobles. She was worried that if it got out that she was a warlock, it would undermine all of their work establishing House Winters. Thus she joined the Argent Crusade for the very shallow reason of protecting her reputation. The woman traveled with her husband to the Argent Tournament to sign up. Her request was forwarded to an acquaintance, Krilari Dawnsend. She did find some relief in letting one of her major secrets out, despite being warned and watched closely. It wasn’t long until she grew sick with her history and everyone’s spiteful attitude towards her. Valda approached her husband warily and let him in on her concerns. To her surprise, he decided he would not only support her but also give the dark arts up with her! Along the beach where they had once held a summer ball, the duo began a large sequence of summoning their demons. One by one they took turns unbinding and killing off their protectors from all those years. Valda had a particular soft spot for her felsteed but it too had to go. After the shore was ruined with the gruesome aftermath, Valda let go her sword and walked away. Even for an experienced warlock she had a hard time dealing with that much fel coursing through her body.

That was the last time Valda called upon the dark arts to do her bidding. The next few weeks wracked her mind, body and soul from withdrawal. At first she was hyper-sensitive and easily agitated. This climaxed in a tavern where she tackled a priest and punched him in the jaw. To counter this whenever she would catch herself in a difficult situation, she would shut down and walk away. Valda reasoned it was worth wounding her pride before giving into the urge to burn someone with fel. Finally the anxiety gave way to lethargy. Nothing would sate her boredom. She tried books, martial training, exercise and travel but nothing could take the place of the rush of magic. Valda returned home and contemplated studying the ways of a mage alongside her husband. She feared following down the same dark path as before. Matharius’ kind words and encouragements proved to overcome her apprehension. With all their time together once again, Valda rekindled a desire to study the Worgen curse. Between these things, she keeps herself busy, and content, once again.

Skills and Abilities

Valda is proficient with bladed weapons.

Forbidden Knowledge - There’s no forgetting the dark arts of warlockery when they are seared into your past.

Draconic - Valda's time with the Black Dragonflight has granted her some understanding of the tongue of the dragonkin.

Nobility - Valda has married a House Patriarch and assumes all the roles and responsibilities of running a House in accordance to the Stormwind House of Nobles.

As Seen by Others

This section grants others the opportunity to add their thoughts about this character. Feel free to discuss their relationship here.