Kara

Karalynn Marie Valencia, later to become Karalynn Marie Kane after her marriage to Jalix Kane, is one of the primary protagonists in the Legacy of Sorrow series and has a vast influence on the Sorrowverse itself as the core of its world and lore. Her involvement with the main conflict of the story (The Vampyre War) stemmed from a hatred for the Creature (Robert Schillinger), magnified during a traumatic event in 1988 that altered her personality further than the trauma of becoming the first modern Vampyre. Her general nature was combined with her history and supernatural telekinetic ability to form one of the most dangerous beings ever to grace the world with her presence. Her actions within The Legacy of Sorrow are consequential of her past and were the keystone for the protection of humanity against evil. 
Kara's presence in the first two books of the series, Sorrow and Affliction, highlight some of her past as well as her tendencies and behaviors, all of which revolve around her search for her own humanity as she wages war against an enemy that believes emotion itself is a curse for lesser beings. While she exhibits signs of psychopathy or sociopathy at times, her idiosyncrasies are a result of trauma and help shape her character throughout the series, with her family and friends being the primary driver of support during her personal journey. 
As the series progresses, the ripples of her past, her family, and her legendary personality are shown to be just as much of an influence as her physical presence. This is shown by her diminishing role as a direct actor within the conflict and showcases her change in personality from a steadfast warrior to a mother and wife. Despite her progressive and uplifting personality changes, she remains history's deadliest and most feared Vampyre. 
== History ==
Karalynn (Kara) was born a Duchess within a noble family in 1671 prior to the Dutch-Franco War. As an infant, her parents sent her away from the Netherlands to a British nobleman for safeguarding until the war was over. Her parents presumed killed in an attack, Kara was placed under the guardianship of her brother Valterius until their master, a lord, died unexpectedly in an accident caused by Kara and Sonya. Their flight from the land and away from persecution resulted in the Creature infecting both Kara and Sonya with the Vampyre Virus in a random, violent attack that nearly killed them both. 
The following centuries consisted of a game of cat-and mouse, with Sonya and Kara on the run from the Creature in what would become the United States. Their initial escape from Europe via ship was successful, but an accident in Salem, Massachusetts began the Salem Witch Trials. Kara and Sonya managed to evade their consequences under Val's protection and by moving from town to town. Eventually, the trio settled in Philadelphia. In 1695, Kara converted Valterius to a Vampyre as she saw him aging while she and Sonya remained youthful. 
In 1777, Kara used the American Revolution as an excuse to feed during battles and to pursue the Creature without much success. Other Vampyres became a threat, and Kara quickly realized that the Creature was building an army of his own Vampyres to protect and serve him. During one of these encounters, a pair of siblings by the name of Allison And Catherine (later known as Krystal) are saved from being fed upon. While they were both sick and undergoing an experimental treatment (created by Alice, 18 at the time) for Typhoid, Kara made the decision to convert the two of them to let the virus eradicate their illness and save their lives. The two developed unique abilities in the following years, and Krystal fell under Kara's wing of warrior mentorship while Alice was taught patience and diplomacy by Valterius. During this time, the group of five were subjected to repeated attacks by either the Creature or his minions. 
In an effort to shun society and find peace in solitude, as well as hoping that the Creature would leave Valterius, Krystal, and Alice in peace while he pursued them, Kara and Sonya abandoned the trio and made their way to uncharted territory west of Colonial America, incidentally carving the initial route for the Oregon Trail. Once they realized that society was developing in the New Salem they established, Kara began to feel the guilt of leaving her brother behind, recognizing that the Creature had not followed them and could have been pursuing Valterius, instead. After returning to Philadelphia, the pair spent months searching for the makeshift family they had abandoned, only to find that they were, incidentally, back in Salem, Massachusetts. Valterius and the Vicente sisters accepted the women back with open arms. 
Kara finally established the city of Aerael in the mid-19th century while building a civilization of Vampyres to rival the growing enemy faction. The group had decided to use the sick and dying as their source of either food (held captive for involuntary blood donations) or potential allies, depending on their subjective opinion of the person's potential to do good in the world. The next century consisted of Kara exploiting various wars and conflicts to seek the Creature and his minions in order to eradicate them, largely to no avail, while Sonya aided her in combat and Valterius maintained the backbone of the growing city of Aerael. the Creature wasn't sighted for more than a hundred years, leading to a loss of hope, but the effects of his growing army motivated the group to continue seeking him out. 
In 1943, Kara manufactured a plan to obtain more information on the Creature by exploiting his Nazi allies. The mission was not only successful in revealing that he had become more human by nature, but had given himself a name: Robert Schillinger. During this mission, they also retrieved a chemical formula for a synthetic blood substitute, eliminating the need for human feedings. Long-term plans were set in place, as a chess game of information and spycraft were utilized until a pivotal moment in 1988. At the height of the Cold War, Kara received information that Schillinger and his closest associate, the now-commander of the enemy faction of Vampyres (Pyrates) were uniting for a period of time in Russia. A mission was hastily planned and Kara left with only Alice and Sonya to kill the enemy leadership duo. 
This plan turned out to be calculated by Schillinger, who had intentionally leaked the information to set a trap for Kara. Wanting to exploit her incredible telekinetic and volatile abilities, he captured the three of them and imprisoned them in a Russian Gulag. Kara was raped by Schillinger until she conceived a child, and was tended to by Alice and Sonya throughout the brief pregnancy. Kara gave birth to twins, Ava and Annabelle, who later become known as Raven and Violet. At the time of birth, Schillinger was unaware that she had conceived twins, and whisked Ava away as soon as she was born. Alice helped deliver Annabelle (Violet) in secret, and with Sonya's help, they escaped the prison with Kara and the child. The risk of losing both Kara and her child provided them with an emotional motivator to violently escape from the prison and hide in the Russian countryside until help from Aerael could be reached. 
Her capture and detainment in the USSR-run gulag in 1988 was primarily orchestrated by Schillinger with the intent of producing a "perfect heir" for his role in the case of his passing. Kara was raped by Schillinger until she conceived a child, and was tended to by Alice and Sonya throughout the brief pregnancy. Kara gave birth to twins, Ava and Annabelle, who later become known as Raven and Violet. At the time of birth, Schillinger was unaware that she had conceived twins, and whisked Ava away as soon as she was born. Alice helped deliver Annabelle (Violet) in secret, and with Sonya's help, they escaped the prison with Kara and the child. 
While Sonya hid the child from Kara within the American foster system to further protect her psyche from the damaging memories she had endured, Alice utilized a series of codenames, aliases, and confidential informants to arrange safe passage back to Aerael. From there, Kara's Counsel was sent to remote corners of the world on "rotations" to watch for Schillinger and Kilkovf. While this was helpful in gathering information, the core purpose of the "rotations" concept was to allow Alice and Sonya to aid in Kara's psychological recovery. In the meantime, Alice and Sonya brought Tony, Eric, and Jared into the city to fill a critical shortage in trustworthy, high-skill personnel. After proving themselves to Kara, they each joined rotations at will and became a part of her Counsel over time. 
Once recovered enough to be self-sufficient, Kara's mentality became a brutalized copy of her former self, mercilessly pursuing any and all leads to slaughter Schillinger, Kilkovf, and anyone that declared themselves an enemy of the good Vampyres in Aerael. Due to Kara's traumatic suppression of the events, she was not aware of her daughters' existence and Ava's (Raven's) fate until many years later in 2003. Anna was quickly adopted into the city under the name of Violet and kept a secret to everyone but Alice, Sonya, and Kara. Kara avoided a role as a mother, allowing the city and her Counsel to influence Violet's growth instead. Violet was willingly converted by Kara in 2005 and provided further, more personal incentive to protect Aerael from attack. This led to the mission in Afghanistan at the start of Affliction and the beginning of the Legacy of Sorrow timeline. 
==Personality & Beliefs==
Until her traumatic encounter with the Creature (known as Robert Schillinger after World War II), Kara was often described by Sonya as hardened, motivated, and intelligent, while her brother Valterius described her as intuitive, resourceful, and calculating. She quickly adapted to the lifestyle of a huntress, seeking experience in conflicts throughout history to hone her skills in combat. Kara is a renowned marksman, skilled martial artist, and battlefield tactician at the cost of a diminished set of social skills. Her demeanor toward humans and other Vampyres was considered cold and succinct, as she felt she had little time or reason for compassion when her counterpart, Sonya, fulfilled that role for her people. 
After imprisonment within a Russian gulag in 1988 under Schillinger and Kilkovf's combined reign, Kara's psyche was mutilated. Alice's diagnoses were that of Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), panic disorder, and Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder (DPDR), along with a host of insomnias and generalized anxiety. This led to her codename of Sorrow, used during the endeavor to escape the USSR and return to Aerael. Her reaction to the torment she was subjected to resulted in an intense series of depressive episodes, where her only solace was the thought of killing Schillinger. 
After Sonya's severe injuries and near death, the events of Affliction began to shape her personality once again, with Val and Jalix's support starting to turn the tide of her previous disabilities. She left the title of Sorrow behind, vowing to become more personable and willing to begin acknowledging emotional attachment. As the timeline of the series progressed, her emotional traumas were handled with better control, as she was more willing to seek help in times of distress. 
Kara is considered to be agnostic rather than atheistic, claiming to have seen too much to believe that she is capable of perceiving something with the infinite power a God would necessarily possess. Although Aerael and some themes from her life take root in Christian terminology and Latin etymology, she is not of a Christian denomination, and largely participated in the naming conventions for the sake of her citizens. She has always held a respect for all cultures, religions, races, and sexual orientations, and holds a personal conviction to avoid the judgment of a person before they have proven deserving of it. 
==Description==
Kara stands approximately five feet and nine inches tall, with an athletic figure and proud posture. Her eyes are a bright silvery-grey, with a ring of deep black around her irises. One of her hallmark traits is the cool paleness of her skin and the long, black hair that extends to her lower back, making her recognizable even from a distance. This has contributed to historical accounts of Vampyres being pale creatures, and her aggression didn't aid in the perception that she was docile. While her genetics offered her a set of features that are considered to be sexually desirable, she makes every attempt to remain modest and avoid sexualizing herself out of personal preference. Her clothing style tends towards practicality, flexibility, and mobility, often opting for a long-sleeved shirt or sweater during the cooler seasons and a pair of dark jeans. In the late 1990's, Kara got a tattoo of one of Violet's drawings on her outer thigh, which was a series of thorned stems with blood-red roses interspersed throughout. 
==Titles==
===Sorrow===
A codename used by Alice to help the two of them escape from the USSR and return to Aerael in the 1980's. As told by Alice, Kara was silent and stoic after her trauma, but responded to the word Sorrow in a list of proposed emotions through a singular, silent nod during one of Alice's psychological evaluations.
===Ultimate Huntress===
A commonly-used term to describe her abilities in combat and used with reference to her skills in matters of tracking, planning, marksmanship, martial arts, and survival in austere environments. The origin of the term is unknown, but persists throughout her lifetime. 
===Vampyre Queen===
Initially a derogatory insult used by Kilkovf and the Pyrates, never used by herself, and only rarely by her Counsel and the citizens of Aerael.
==Relationships==
Despite Krystal's romantic and fanatical obsession with Kara until the end of Volume I, Kara had never attempted or maintained a serious relationship until the events of Affliction. Although she had very few and brief sexual encounters in the past, her first true relationship was with Jalix when she realized her capacity for emotional attachment. Jalix and Kara were married by Jared in 2015 after roughly six months of courtship, and the two remained irrefutable soulmates for the remainder of their lives. 
Sometime during the events of Sorrow, or possibly the end of the Affliction timeline, Kara becomes unknowingly pregnant with Jalix's child. Despite being on hormonal birth control, her pregnancy successfully develops and culminates in the rapid gestation of their child. This process kills her, although she is able to see and name the child Amelia before she passes away. 
Unknown to Jalix until her resurrection in one of Raven's laboratories and private admission afterward, Amelia was not Kara's first child. After Sonya's amnesia, Alice was the only one to know of Violet and Raven's origins until Jalix was informed in confidence that Kara was their mother, which was followed nearly 20 years later via public acknowledgement by Legacy in Desolation. In the epilogues of Despair, Kara and Jalix have their final child, a male this time, named Caleb Nicholas Kane (Caleb was the name of Jalix's father and Nicholas is Jalix's middle name). 
== Expanded Universe - Epilogues ==
Some of the following content is considered to be Expanded Universe, and is not expressly stated in the series:
Caleb grew up being best friends with his sister and his cousins and followed in their footsteps with intensive academic study right after high school. Kara and Jalix lived out of the spotlight to the best of their ability, favoring a domestic lifestyle and enjoying the peace and quiet. With their daughter as the President of the United States, this feat was difficult without the aid of Krystal's fortune granting them a fulfillment of all their basic needs. After Caleb graduated high school, Jalix and Kara moved away from their home in Boston to a secluded farmhouse in Pennsylvania, where she enjoyed gardening fruits and vegetables over a nearly 1-acre plot of land. While they desired and attempted to have more children, Kara had medical complications after Caleb's birth (being her first to develop over the 9-month human gestation period) that eventually resulted in a tubal ligation. In spite of this preventive effort, Kara's health declined after a few decades of wellness and she received a dual-diagnosis of ovarian and cervical cancer in 2065. 
Kept secret to all but immediate family, Alice personally performed surgeries to remove the spreading masses, including a complete hysterectomy. Between brief remissions, she tended her "garden of Eden" and enjoyed frequent visits from Amy, Caleb, and the entirety of their extended friends and family when they had time in their busy schedules. Unfortunately, the aggressive nature of the cancer led to her eventual death in the mid 2070's when her heart failed. Despite euthanasia (assisted suicide) being legalized in 2052 within the United States, Kara made the decision to enjoy her life with Jalix for as long as possible, and defied several predictions of her remaining time. She was buried in a plot of land adjacent to her gardens, which were eventually donated to the Pennsylvania government for protection and maintenance as a historical site and state park after Jalix's passing. In honor of being the first modern Vampyre and her provision of hope for the world during her centuries of protection, the park become known as "The Garden of Eve."