Name:Valeria Fontana
Gender:Female
Class:Mage (Necromant)
Race:Human
Alignment:Chaotic Neutral
Height:184cm (6’0”)
Weight:64kg (140 lbs)
Dominant Hand:Ambidextrous(originally right-handed but after a certain incident she learned to make use of her Left hand, and has good control with both of them)
Likes:Anything artistic, a fair amount of wealth, her exceptional control of her minions, whale meat, high-quality fur, privacy
Dislikes:Bitter food, temperatures that are too hot or cold, standing out too much, public authorities, arrogant or stuck up people, fish
Personality:Generally relaxed, quiet and calm, and also reclusive. She would rather observe a fight than jump right in, and is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her magic. But then again, one day she may save a person’s life, and the next, steal their belongings for herself.
Appearance:
Special Skills: Undead Army – The fruits of Valeria’s Necromancy have led her to have the ability to summon a miniature army of deceased soldiers, normally ranging from 8-12 undead minions that fall under her command, or a handful of more powerful, “general” warriors with more power and speed, but greatly fewer in numbers, only around 2 or 3. This is generally good when she wants protection from physical attacks, and having the minions make their own attacks (organized by Valeria). For the time being the “normal” minions possess moderately low combat skills, with their one advantage being sheer numbers, and the “general” minions possessing moderately high combat skills but very few numbers. In addition using this spell multiple times without much of a gap in between the summons is incredibly draining for Valeria, normally sapping away her energy and sacrificing a bit of her blood to make the spell successful. In the worst case scenario, such as losing a lot of blood before summoning, or using the spell too often, it may kill her.
Some images of the normal and general minions...
Normal Minions:
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa284/Z...nkvsStalfos.jpghttp://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd142/S.../undead_fat.jpghttp://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff142/a...ny/untitled.jpg Generals:
Luca
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee280/V...hantomganon.jpg (Without the horse)
He is Valeria’s strongest General under her command. He wields a lance with a long reach of 2.5 meters with more durability than an iron weapon. However, his summon alone consumes a large amount of Valeria’s energy and blood, and even when she is in perfect condition during the summon, she becomes drained afterwards. Luca has a normally sadistic personality, always happy to be told to attack the enemy and to do as he will (to which he normally responds by making the enemy suffer by killing them slowly), but he also has an undying case of arachnophobia. Simply the sight of a spider, centipede or scorpion is enough to make him shriek in terror. Luca seems to enjoy fighting the undead, especially skeletons, and often beheads them and uses their heads as a projectile weapon against other enemies. He still hasn’t said how he died.
Dmitri
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb99/Ro...reux/undead.jpgThis general is older than Valeria’s other minions, being a longtime war veteran until the ripe old age of 50, where he was killed in combat by taking in a volley of arrows to the chest and neck while engaging the enemy. He is a good several hundred years old, and thus is wiser than most of Valeria’s other minions. His overall experience makes him one of Valeria’s more frequently used Generals, and as a result he is the easiest of the Generals to control. Luca possesses a falchion with weight and durability, as well as a less frequently used battle axe. He hates water above all else because it not only rusts his armor (which severely annoys him even though he’s dead); he lacks the ability to swim. He is often paired with Ivan, and has more strength than Ivan, but lacks his speed.
Ivan
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f267/Cri...ke/014e626f.jpgA deceased elven General whose age isn’t as old as Dmitri’s, but close. He was captured by enemy forces and imprisoned for many long weeks without food or water, and despite lasting for so long, he finally died by malnutrition. In his inventory is a chain whip and a bow and a quiver of arrows, as well as a dagger, thus his inventory is slightly larger than Dmitri’s, but lacks power. The aftereffects of his death have led him to be hungry on a frequent basis, and when summoned and told to attack he will often try and bite off the neck or head of the enemy while attacking them with the dagger or whip, or take out an arrow and frequently stab them. He hates moths and flies because they frequently try to eat away at his skin and clothes or (in the case of the flies) use him as a place to lay their offspring. He hates horseflies even more because they always bite his skin before laying eggs and zipping out of sight. He possesses more speed than Dmitri but lacks his sheer power and experience. They can often be seen butting heads after a battle, criticizing each other on their performances.
Dark Sphere – Fires a black orb that has been cursed with an incantation, visible inside the orb. In a couple seconds it creates a small explosion that can do a small amount of damage or a fair amount, depending on if the person targeted was within its small blast radius (approx. 3 meters). It can damage Valeria’s undead minions and herself if she’s not careful.
Dimensione Decomposta (Italian for Rotted Dimension)– Valeria is capable of draining the world around her, as well as her own opponents. This in return sends what she has sapped back to her, converting it to energy and blood to continue a fight. It is however a very unstable magic and one that is almost impossible to maintain, and the incantation for the spell is very long. As a result, even with Valeria’s best efforts the spell hardly lasts for more than 5 seconds, and only converts ½ of what she has drained to her own energy and blood. It is far too dangerous for her to use it in a one-on-one fight, hence she often uses this ability after a fight or if she is escaping a battle. If her minions are caught in the spell it does nothing to them. In addition this spell only has a 6-meter radius.
Magia Nera (Italian for Black Magic) – This magic is strictly for the use of healing Valeria’s undead minions. It sends the energy of a target, which can be virtually any living thing including Valeria herself, and transfers it to one of the undead minions. It does not however, work on anything but something alive, and does not re-energize more than one minion at a time. Valeria tends to use this magic for the “general” minions rather than the lesser ones. The spell only works if Valeria physically touches the enemy, or is within a 1 meter range.
Cane Dalla Protezione (Italian for Guard Dog) – As the name implies, rather than summoning a humanoid minion Valeria will instead summon a “guard dog” for protection. It is significantly weaker than even the normal minions, its only advantage over the regular minions being speed. It’s no easier for Valeria to command than the normal minions, but like her signature Necromancy, overusing this spell is dangerous. She normally summons only 2-3 dogs at a time.
Appearance of Guard Dogs:
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc91/jj...l/untitled2.jpg Sap Bolts – Regular bolts from a crossbow that have been enchanted by Valeria to drain away the energy of an opponent. Unlike her other spells, the one casted on the bolts do not send the energy to the user—instead it all goes to waste. The bolts also have no effect on the undead, vampires or dark elves.
History:Valeria spent her childhood to early adulthood within a village in one of the arctic regions of the world, and grew up having to survive against the cold. While many people within such a village were able to tolerate the cold like second nature, Valeria was not born with such traits, and could never go outside in even one of the village’s heaviest coats without risking frostbite on her face or hands. Her way of adjusting was to very rarely go outside, and while it kept her out of contact from the people around her, at least she could stay mildly warm. However she never learned anything about moral values, aside from what her parents taught her, which was very little, leading her not to question if her actions were right or wrong, even today. Her nose was potentially the most frequent victim of the merciless cold, and she would often cover her nose with her hand, despite that soon enough the hand would become intolerably cold as well. The cold would kill the flames that were set outdoors, thus fires would have to be created indoors. This gave Valeria more reason to stay inside rather than go out, even when the seasons technically changed, as save for when the season was technically “summer”, when animals such as whales or bears would come to the region to breed or feed, it was still cold enough to have one’s hands freeze over.
Among the foods provided in the village, Valeria’s favorite was whale meat. On the occasions she did receive it Valeria could continually eat it for a fair amount of time. It probably had to do with keeping warm, as none of the animals hunted provided any warmth, except for bear fur. Valeria disliked fish though because even in the cold it had to be eaten fast before it went bad, which could range from a day and a half to only a few hours. In addition when fish was prepared it was never properly cooked, even when Valeria would try to cook once she became a teenager. It often tasted burnt or bitter, and never once did it taste good to Valeria. But in the arctic, an abundant consumption of food is needed to survive and keep warm…this ultimately led Valeria to hate anything that even slightly tastes bitter. It was a shame for her that fish was the most frequently caught food, and a good amount of it was saved during the “winter” season(though technically it always was winter). Valeria soon enough came to hate “winter” as well, for it was that time of year when fish was most frequently eaten. Even today Valeria despises fish meat and prefers to eat whale meat.
On a certain day in winter when she was in her mid-teens, the cold finally struck Valeria, and she had a terrible case of frostbite covering the right side of her face, which began to turn gray and become covered with blisters. Traumatized at the very sight of her face in the mirror, Valeria instinctively came close to the blazing fire in the house, and was only a couple feet away from it. She even snatched away rocks and lumps of coal from the fire and placed them in water to immediately heat the water, and when it was finally heated she would scoop a small amount in her hands and splash it in her face. This sudden change of temperature however, proved to be fatal for Valeria’s skin, and soon enough not only did she catch a small fever, the frostbite destroyed the right side of Valeria’s face before thawing and disappearing, leaving that region of her face mildly deformed. The fever left her weak and her temperatures almost dropped to a hypothermia level soon afterwards, and despite a rough week of having a bout of alternating between fevers and hypothermia, Valeria soon enough recovered. However, there was no return for her face. Out of shame she asked for a mask from one of the village elders, and split the mask in half so it covered the right side of her face, hiding the deformation underneath. The mask never truly fit however, until a few years later.
When she finally reached her late teens to early 20’s, Valeria decided to leave the arctic region for good, concluding that since she was finally considered to be an adult who could fend for herself, she no longer needed to stay in the village. Since she was never really close to any of the villagers in the arctic region, she decided to leave without saying goodbye to anyone save for her parents, and soon afterward left the village so she could finally not have to put up with the cold to survive. Travelling south, Valeria wandered the continent on horseback for several days, with just barely a proper abundance of food and water, and for the first time in her life felt air that was not heated by a man-made fire, but rather the sun above, and saw he lush green grass that covered the landscape. The skies were hardly ever gray, and instead a light shade of blue, and could freely wander the continent without wearing a coat. Soon enough she came across a small town, with numerous people that were from all around the continent. As a result numerous wares were put on display, each with designs that were foreign to Valeria. She would have taken one of the objects, a mask, for herself if she were not suddenly grabbed from the streets (figuratively), and constantly egged by a group of cult fanatics to study the art of Necromancy. Valeria reluctantly agreed to this after being told she would be well taken care of and would have a place to sleep in eat in return for her cooperation, and she studied the magic for several weeks. She was often being taught how to bring dead animals (which belonged to the neighbors as pets) back to life as animated corpses. Valeria started off working with animals as small as Chihuahuas, and with a small amount of guidance in channeling magic Valeria never realized she had, soon moved up to reviving something as large as a horse.
She managed to stay with the horse for a few weeks, before asking if there was anything larger. Those who managed the cult informed her that the horse was the largest and most advanced of the Necromancers’ works to revive, and Valeria, soon enough frustrated at their incompetence, left the cult and continued to travel. She soon came across the same mask with the same foreign design, and while no one was looking, and as a result of her own lack of moral values that did not tell her stealing was wrong, Valeria took the mask for herself, which also represented the mask Valeria wore. Running off into the privacy of an alley, Valeria hid the object in a random barrel that was left abandoned in the alley, which seemed to be never touched by the public. Heading back and continuing her “shopping”, Valeria came across a tome that also possessed odd designs, and soon discovered it to be a book that focused more deeply on Necromancy than the cult fanatics. As a matter of fact it almost seemed as if the whole shelf, even from where she stole her new mask, was dedicated to Necromancy. Not knowing any better Valeria stole the tome as well, but this time she was caught by authorities, and when they rushed towards her to capture her and send her to prison she instinctively ran off back into the alley, grabbing her new mask and finding some decent cover which kept her hidden from the authorities. Hearing that her actions could be punishable by hanging or the guillotine, Valeria had been struck with a severe distaste towards people who abided by law, seeing them as those who oppress others who are merely trying to survive the cruel world.
Replacing her mask and hiding away the tome in her robe, Valeria left the town and began to travel the world. Her travels had led her to numerous things that helped indulge her in Necromancy…a century-old battlefield with the corpses of thousands of soldiers, a dank prison in the forest with the souls of the dead haunting its corridors, the bodies chained to the walls and starved and depraved until their deaths, a region of the continent rotted and corrupted with black and ashen earth, bones and decaying corpses decorating the landscape…and several trips to abandoned castles with the corpses of castle raiders scattered here and there. All of which were excellent places for her to recruit and revive the dead, adding them to her collection of minions. The minions though, as Valeria soon discovered, were much more difficult to summon than what the cult fanatics taught her. While it was indeed possible for her to bring them back from the grave to do her bidding, Valeria quickly realized that summoning such minions were sapping away at her life, more specifically her energy and blood. While they do often prove to be useful minions, Valeria would always warn herself that if she were not careful with how and when they were summoned, they could be the very reason she gets killed…
Aside from this Valeria travels the continent freely and does as she pleases, and despite learning how to make use of money, she will steal something if she sees an opportunity, preferring to save money for restaurants and inns. She still hates authorities for their lawfulness and way of dealing with “criminals”, and never quite learned how to properly cook fish. Things with a fair amount of artistic design still appeal to her, and when she sees a restaurant that serves whale meat it doesn’t bother her to go out of her way to eat it. She dislikes fights but seeing as how she’s come close to being robbed during her travels on a frequent basis, she never ceases to be fond of her “undead army”.
Misc: While not a fighter by nature, Valeria has built a crossbow to defend herself when she lacks what she needs to summon the indeed, or if she is incapable of summoning in general. It’s simply a regular crossbow, but it’s the first weapon Valeria grew accustomed to, so she has not thrown her expertise with it away. Though she gladly throws away her current crossbow for the sake of grabbing a new one, if it's better…
Appearance of Crossbow:

Appearance of the tome:
