Varthenral

::"The... the things that are history to me... They would just be a nightmare... that the universe wakes up from."
An enigmatic human who wears a skull-like mask, Varthenral has found herself in an increasingly hostile world that she nonetheless seems hellbent on saving. She stutters and stammers while speaking, but she's unfailingly honest and upfront about most things.
==Background (First Dream of Arplakoon)==
Varthenral's life was, up to a point, fundamentally identical to that of the Verkkit Framtikk. However, during a double eclipse (wherein both of Raljikka's moons blocked the sun) that was visible from the city of Tikkinsett, she discovered two celestial bodies that would later be known as Rolokus and Eurtune, the Chrono Stars. After mapping their parallax and determining their relative position, Varthenral published her findings. The discovery of Rolokus and Eurtune kickstarted the Fourth Galactic War as the factions contended with one another in order to lay claim to the bountiful resources that such "Chrono Stars" would yield to whoever owned them. Stricken with guilt, Varthenral intended to fade away into obscurity until abruptly, Rotus appeared and laid waste to the galaxy.
As one of the survivors of the calamity, Varthenral took it on herself to aid fellow survivors. During this time, she met and befriended Aricrauer Velkt, eventually developing an ultimately one-sided crush on her. The two resolved to find the godslayer known as Ganrikkat, the Timeripper -- the only godslayer that had not been present at the last battle of the Fourth Galactic War. Though they succeeded in finding Ganrikkat, Varthenral lost her nerve when "cloaked ones" appeared within the ruin that Ganrikkat resided in, and she abandoned Aricrauer. Burdened with Aricrauer's death, Varthenral used Ganrikkat to return to the past.
Going by the name "Varthenral," an Alamin name written with the characters to make it read as "Defiant Second Chance," she located Aricrauer in the past and, with some persuasion, secured her assistance in preventing the Fourth Galactic War from happening again.
==Second Dream of Arplakoon==
===Tumoria: The Emerald Meteors===
In the second dream of Arplakoon, Varthenral made her first appearance during the Tumoria campaign, though she had been mentioned earlier than that by Aricrauer vaguely referencing her and by name in a side session with Lexa and Brook Velkt. Here, Varthenral intended to take the modern-day Ganrikkat so that nobody else could interfere with time as she tried to make changes. However, the modern-day Ganrikkat refused to allow someone from another timeline touch it, and the dagger instead went to a listron named Astruc.
During Tumoria, Varthenral befriended Cameo and, to a lesser extent, Ddremmu, a fact that would later aid them during the events of Streeg. Prior to losing the second Ganrikkat, Varthenral also showed them the future she came from so that they would understand what she was trying to stop and why she needed the other Ganrikkat.
===Streeg: The Final Eclipse===
In the second dream of Arplakoon, Varthenral returned in Streeg to prevent herself from ever discovering the Chrono Stars. She broke into the store that Kit worked in, intending to murder her, but was stopped by Cameo, Ddremmu, and Isaak. Cameo managed to talk her down, during which Varthenral made reference to how Cameo stopped her "every time" she tried to kill Kit, indicating that she had time traveled numerous times and failed every time to accomplish this one task.
Eventually, they managed to convince Varthenral to leave Kit alone, though she still refused to tell them why exactly she needed to have Kit dead. After separating from the others, Varthenral encountered Hretlakk Flametail of the Alamo Empire. The two fought, and Hretlakk came out on top. Though Varthenral didn't know it, Hretlakk had intended to save Varthenral from the godslayer she wielded as a favor to Cameo. By also faking Varthenral's death, the Alamo Empire also ceased to hunt her down.
The end result of the campaign was Varthenral ultimately losing her Ganrikkat, which was taken by Hretlakk's subordinate, Endur Sigvarkk. Now unable to change the past if something went wrong, Varthenral departed to Kyrol in order to protect Aricrauer's sisters from what went horribly wrong in Arplakoon's first dream.
==Sixth Dream of Arplakoon==
===Ealdremen: The Adrift Dreams===
After following Njóskkari Skkartön, who intended to find out more information about Anleiter Velkt through his daughter Lexa, Varthenral surmised that Njó meant harm to the Velkts. She made reference to seeing something happen to the Velkts that Njó was somehow connected to. The confrontation turned violent when a shape-changed Tenth Falcon leapt to the defense of his apprentice. Varthenral killed him with a spell, but seemed rattled by the revelation that the "lion" attacking her was actual a person. Njó's acquisition of the other Ganrikkat, which Varthenral had on her person but was not using, resulted in time being shifted backwards to before the Tenth Falcon's death, but Varthenral ended up apologetically killing the Tenth Falcon again.
==Meta==
Varthenral's name can also be read as "Defiant Second Child," according to Kit. This is a meta reference to the original meaning of Varthenral in another story, where the -ral suffix denoted being a second child.
In the same story, Varthenral was an alternate universe version of the protagonist who came from the future to kill her other self in order to take her place as the "canon" protagonist. The parallels to the Streeg campaign probably do not have to be explained.
Varthenral's chronomancer bloodline is the "Martyred Bloodline". Though it was initially chosen to refer to her self-sacrificing nature, relentless determination, and would-be heroism, it became oddly appropriate on account of some bloodline perks that inspire others to the user's cause (which was exactly what happened when Varthenral encountered the player characters in Arplakoon's second dream).
Category:Characters
Category:Ealdremen Non-Player Characters