Duchess Altina Freya Bastille, The "Valkyrie"
38 | Human, ♀ | 6'5 ft, 204 lbs
"Don't let that gentle gaze fool you. There's a devil lurking beneath those eyes."
Goal:An individualist with hedonistic tendencies, Altina makes no effort to veil her disdain towards any authority wishing to force her duchy under a system of unilateral rule. Be it for peace or for plain tyranny, she cares not for the ends that such governance would achieve. Thus, out of principle, she opposes the Wizard Queen, just as she opposed Ludwig II, despite ultimately bowing her head.
"To live is to be free: free to be strong; to be weak; to be slothful; to be ambitious. The Wizard Queen spits on this very tenet. Which means she is no friend of mine. That said, are you?"
— Altina, in a letter addressed to Duke Rhinecliff, the leader of the rebellion.
From a young age, Altina always felt like a bird trapped in a cage. To marry, to bear children, to serve her husband and family faithfully — the strict traditions of House Bastille kept her confined to a singular, predetermined destiny, one she believed she was powerless to rebel against. At least, at first. Altina was the first-born of Duke Alfred Sigurd Bastille. Typically, the rites of succession dictate that the first-born male would rise to the post of Duke when the time comes. However, as Altina was a woman and considered unfit to lead, she did not qualify. Thus did the status of "heir" fall to her brother, Altair Sigmund Bastille.
The battlefield was Altina's calling, and from the first time she swung a sword, she knew immediately that to master the blade was her true lot in life, something to set her apart from others. Unlike her peers, Altina possessed a strong body, and as she grew, she began to tower above even most of her suitors in height. But alas, despite all of her pleading, she was expressly forbidden from joining the military, with her father insisting it was not appropriate for a lady of House Bastille to sully her hands with calluses.
"And so, Altina resigned herself to the whims of her father, locking away her innermost desires, practicing etiquette, and patiently waiting for the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life."
If Altina were so spineless, then perhaps the strings hanging taut upon her limbs would have never been cut. And perhaps the future that her father had designed for her would have come true. It would have been easy to simply perform her part; to recite lines timeless and traditional. Easy. And boring. Therefore, behind her father's back, underneath the clandestine glow of moonlight, she studied the art of swordsmanship, modeling her stance and each of her strikes after her younger brother, who she could observe every morning swinging his blade from her bedroom window.
Although no amount of pleading could change his mind, the Duke did not reject every request Altina threw his way. One request he did honor, and to Altina's mild surprise, was her enrollment into a magical academy. With practiced words, Altina convinced her father that magic would serve as a means for her to protect herself. Of course, realizing her father's protective nature, she knew he would seriously consider it. Eventually, he relented, and she was off on a carriage to the most prestigious magical academy in all of the Arrowfell Province. There, she would become a proficient user of levitation and earth magic.
An exploration of the world at large further assured Altina of her views: that she was missing out; that she was truly akin to a bird in a cage. The cage would only begin to show cracks following the untimely death of her younger brother. "An expedition gone awry," she heard from the rumors. Working up the courage to ask her father, she ultimately discovered that Altair had perished fighting a fearsome monster that had been terrorizing their lands for some time. She had never seen her father in such a state before: so broken; so vulnerable. But instead of sympathy, Altina felt a different emotion welling up in her chest, one born from a warped sense of morality. Chink. The next morning, the Duke was found dead in his chambers, a teacup on his bedside table, along with berries as black as obsidian. To most, it was unmistakable what had taken place. "Stricken with grief over the death of his first-born son, the duke killed himself, unable to cope with the loss."
Altina was quick to fill the power vacuum left by her father, though it was certainly not without its trials. Now able to freely join the military, she rose the ranks with breakneck pace, establishing rapport with the people through leading various excursions against the monsters that lay outside Agrovia's walls. In particular, she felled the very monster that even her late brother, in all of his ability, could not fell. With that, she had proven her worth in the eyes of Agrovian people. A woman they saw not, but a protector, strong and capable. Still, there would be factions within Agrovia that would resist her claim to the duchy. Some acted out in the open, waging outright war against her, while others took to the cover of night to assassinate her. None of them would succeed. Altina would stamp out each faction herself, one by one, playing the role of judge, jury, and executioner.
At the end of it all, a crown would make its home atop her head.
Seed:The Convictus Lavalliere.
"Conviction so steadfast that not even the supernatural can sway it. That is what is contained within the Seed."
— Altina, describing the Convictus Lavalliere's power.
A fanciful necklace upon which dangles a shimmering diamond. It protects the bearer from all mental-based magic. It also nullifies any magic that attempts to take control of its bearer, or otherwise compromise their agency.
Magic:[Levitation Magic] Gravitas Armament: The spell that earned Altina the moniker of "The Valkyrie," it involves the application of fine levitation magic to achieve an effect. In Altina's case, she makes both her armor and weapons levitate ever so slightly, maximizing her mobility and allowing her to move as if she is unencumbered by the weight of her gear. In essence, most of the heavy-lifting is done by her magic.
[Levitation Magic] Sterling Cerberus: A feat of magical endurance, Altina can passively float 3 greatswords without much exertion. These blades form a defensive perimeter around her, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Altina can also treat her blades like projectiles, hurling them with worrying speed towards her foes.
[Earth Magic] Scaleskin: Altina can siphon any mineral within the immediate area to reinforce herself or others, providing an extra layer of protection. Once made a target of Altina's siphoning, steel and other metals will inevitably lose their integrity. Likewise, earth that has been stripped of its lifeblood will also start to turn to mush.
Shatterblade: With each swing of the sword, Altina projects magical energy outwards to extend her effective range. Intending to imbalance her foes, or simply repel bombardments coming from a distance, if she is given enough time to concentrate magical energy on her sword, Altina can even uproot trees in one strike, like a hurricane ripping through a forest.
[Earth Magic] Cortège of the Einherjar: "To split the ground into intricate slabs, and then put them together, architecting the visage of the human form and imbuing it with human-like sentience." Such a painstaking process prefaces the activation of this spell. However, in spite of the time it takes to cast, its benefits far outweigh its costs. In short, the spell manifests an army of humanoid golems numbering to the dozen, equipped with weapons made of enchanted stone. What makes Altina's creations particularly fearsome is their ability to regenerate from the ground or nearby rocks, or even by re-attaching the severed parts. Conversely, the spell can become rather taxing to maintain the more her creations are injured. She will be forced to dispel it if its magical expenditure reaches heights she cannot effectively manage.
Skills: Swordsmanship, martial arts, military strategy, leadership, magical expertise, sewing, tea-making.
Faction: Altina is both the figurehead of her duchy, as well as the chief commander of its military. Often, she takes to the front lines herself, with her golem army in tow. Though she is secretly aligned with the rebel faction, on the surface, she pretends to pledge her allegiance to the Wizard Queen. It is an obvious facade that she puts on, but she knows that as long as she capitulates to the Wizard Queen's demands and more, the Wizard Queen will likely not act against her. After all, showings of goodwill met with sudden betrayal would foment the brewing rebellion that the Wizard Queen fears so much. Towing the line between loyalty and disloyalty puts Altina in an admittedly precarious situation, but it is only a matter of time before her mask falls, revealing her true colors.
City / Assets:
Altina presides over the duchy of Agrovia, known for its bountiful farmlands, horticultural goods, and imposing walls. Though, the latter part was not always so. Situated to the north, ever since its inception, Agrovia has been plagued time and again by beasts of the forest. At first, escape was the only means of "defense" for the fledgling city, if one could call it that. Perhaps "preservation" would be the more apt term. Regardless, fearing for their lives, the denizens of the agricultural city began to build catacombs hidden deep in the earth, to which they would retreat during monster attacks. These catacombs would prove effective in keeping the people safe, but up above, one could not say the same for their crops. Untended to and therefore left unprotected, they were all but trampled afoot by the rampaging monsters. "Such a way of life is not sustainable." This would soon dawn on the Agrovian people. Realizing their plight, the early leaders of Agrovia started to form alliances with the nearby cities, the most notable of which was with Rockhold. A union that has endured for generations, the partnership between Agrovia and Rockhold was one where both cities stood to gain: the people of Rockhold would be hard-pressed to ever go hungry, while the people of Agrovia now possessed weapons with which they could beat back their adversaries.
Owing much to the city of Rockhold, Agrovia benefited greatly from their exports of silver and iron. For the first time, the people of Agrovia no longer cowered in their caves during monster attacks. Instead, they fought. And fight tooth and nail they did, even retaking land that the monsters had occupied for so long in the process. To keep out the monsters for good, the Agrovian people also erected sweeping walls around their city, which are collectively called the "Bastille," a name in honor of the ruling family.
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