Jaltur Ironhide

::"What do you say to a man whose house got burned to the ground? To an orphan whose only caretaker is in the hospital? To a freshly widowed woman whose husband is now a burnt corpse ten feet under..? What do you say when you know that all that happened for no reason? Nobody thinks about that anymore. All they want is quick solutions. Shoot first. Kill them before they kill us. So I hate them."
Stoic and distant, Jaltur Ironhide is an officer in the Alamo Empire army, serving under Colonel Ralaux Rombaferre. When she does speak on rare occasions, it's with cold confidence and certainty. As the cousin to Hretlakk Flametail, she has a fearsome reputation for being a vicious fighter, but almost nobody has ever seen her draw steel or turn a firearm against someone else.
==Background==
From the start of her life, Jaltur Ironhide was raised alongside her cousin Hretlakk Flametail. However, unlike Hretlakk, Jaltur lacked the ambition to enlist in the army and climb the ranks. As a child, she was ridiculed for being soft and weak, rushing to the aid of bullied children and abused animals but backing down if faced with enough opposition. Eventually, Jaltur kept entirely to herself with the exception of Hretlakk, the only one she would confide in and also the only one who would protect her from her harassers. When Hretlakk enlisted in the Alamo Empire army, Jaltur found herself alone, though they wrote to one another frequently.
Feeling as though she had no other choice, Jaltur reluctantly followed Hretlakk into the army, albeit more as a scout than a soldier. Even years later, Jaltur struggled to put away her aversion to violence for the sake of protecting her nation. However, one day during a scouting mission, Jaltur uncovered a weapon that would change the fate of the whole of the Alamo Empire: Ji Lhan, Reality's Edge. Before reporting the discovery to her superiors, Jaltur brought Hretlakk to it, and they discovered Hretlakk's hidden potential to wield this weapon of unfathomable might. On their return, responses were mixed, but eventually, as Hretlakk displayed unparalleled fighting ability with this new weapon, the Alamo Empire looked upon the event as highly favorable. Both Hretlakk and Jaltur were promoted; though Hretlakk outpaced Jaltur in how rapidly she ascended to the rank of general and beyond, Jaltur eventually became an officer -- a rank she never desired.
Eventually, as Hretlakk started to "change" due to her constant time in battle and perhaps from Ji Lhan's influence, Jaltur grew more distant from her. She and Hretlakk found a second godslayer: Eiorozziore, the Godbreaker. Hretlakk said it was only right for Jaltur to take it, so that way they could fight alongside one another as equals. After merely holding the sword once, Jaltur refused, and Hretlakk took the sword instead.
Over time, Jaltur grew closer to the colonel of her squad, Ralaux Rombaferre, a young commander who, despite his carefree attitude, shared her opinion of violence against their enemies -- that it ought to be avoided if at all necessary, and that almost always when their superiors claimed it had been avoidable, it really wasn't. Apparently, he had loved a man who became a colonel in the Veriol Alliance army. They had gone their separate ways, but Ralaux still worried for him. Feeling as though she could trust Ralaux, Jaltur decided to stay with him even as his missions grew increasingly dangerous... and brought them to Veriol territories.
==First Dream of Arplakoon==
During Arplakoon's first dream, Jaltur took Nascimedo from the Veriol and Alamo soldiers that sought to bring it back to their respective leaders. She fled to protect Ralaux Rombaferre and Ferries Parang from the soldiers' wrath, forcing them to pursue her instead of the two colonels. Eventually, she found herself in the employ of the Gerualdi Union during the Fourth Galactic War, as she thought the Gerualdi Union's vision of neutrality was the proper way for the Ealdremen Galaxy to go. However, during the final bout of the Fourth Galactic War, Jaltur saw how brutally the other champions -- including her own ally -- surrounded and killed Gwyna Velkt, just a child. Now seeing that there was no "right" side to be on, and finding herself unable to turn against Hretlakk Flametail, Jaltur gave up. She heard the Nazdrovie Pact champion with Lagrímala coming to kill both her and the other Gerualdi champion, but she pretended to not hear and allowed them both to die.
==Meta==
In the original draft of the story she and Hretlakk are from, Jaltur was the one who died, supplying motivation for Hretlakk to turn more brutal towards the Veriol Alliance.
Category:Characters
Category:Ealdremen Non-Player Characters