Kalina Chivernu/History

* Overview
* Skills & Abilities
* **History**
* Changelog
* Image & Misc.

## Backstory

The industrial revolution was an age that rocked the world on its foundations. Many in the upper middle-class enjoyed newfound luxuries, whilst the richest were able to experience pleasures that many would have normally only dreamt off. However, none of this newfound wealth found its way to the pockets of the lower middle-class and the poor, especially not in the United Kingdom, where the traditional division between nobility and peasantry was still omnipresent. Alice Baker was born in a family that had drawn the shorter end of the stick.

Alice's grandfather used to be a peasant, a mere farmer who worked the lands of one of the many nobles. She never knew him, as it was said the man spontaneously died of a heart attack when he heard the land he'd been working on for most of his life would be sold off and that a factory would be build upon it. Out of a self-proclaimed kindness, Alice's father, still a young man, was allowed to work in the factory instead of working the land. He didn't work there for long, as the many chemicals used in dyeing fabrics weren't exactly good for the lungs. When Alice turned nine, her father was already stuck at home, sickly and without much desire to keep on living.

As a result, the only type of 'manly' or 'fatherly' figure she knew during her life was a frail and sickly man that barely seemed capable of enjoying anything at all. Her mother tried to step up, becoming the leader figure in their family. Sadly enough, this wasn't for the better. With her husband unable to work, she was stressed out more often than not, as the family had to flip every penny to see if they would have enough to buy their food for the next day. It didn't take her long to start taking out that stress on her children.

Alice still vividly remembers her first beating, being smacked to the other end of the room after just coming home from Sunday school. Ever since that day, she preferred working in the factories over being at home. The humming, clanging and scraping of machinery almost felt comforting. At the age of seventeen, she got her sleeve stick in the gears of a machine she had to crawl under to gather left-over pieces of cotton. The gears mercilessly pulled her arm into them, mangling it beyond belief. Her crying in pain and yelling in fear weren't heard. Her fate was discovered hours later, when she had already passed out from the pain.

Dying to her wounds would've been a blessing, but she lived on. The accident was blamed on her own 'careless' actions, allowing the nobleman that owned the factory to get away with firing her. To add insult to injury, he even withheld her pay to make up for damage to the machinery and told her she was lucky he didn't sue her family for more.

For two years, she was stuck at home. They couldn't pay a surgeon, so she had to drag around a deformed, useless and painful arm during all that time. She tried to do some housework with the arm that was still working, but life itself had become little more than a painful experience. She was at home when her father finally died. He just started coughing and spitting blood, until he was no more. She didn't care.

She also didn't care when she caught a fever, one that was said to be particularly deadly. At least the fever-dreams kept away reality. Her encounter with some weird entity, telling her about another world, felt like one such a fever dream. It was odd to be tasked with bringing an entire world into motion, especially after having just come from one that was progressing so rapidly. Even so, if luck would have it, she might at least be on the benefiting side of progression this time around.

## Current Life

Coming right out of a fever dream, Alice found herself in a coffin. For a minute, she was about as confused and panicked as could be. Then her recollection of the encounter with the entity kicked in, followed by a vague awareness of what she was and where she was. She was Kalina Chivernu, a vampire. The odd sensation of having memories of two lives didn't last long, as it didn't take long for her 'Alice' memories to start feeling more and more like a distant dream. She opened the coffin to find herself in a small catacomb underneath a crumbling church, which was an odd place for a being like her to be laid to rest. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to recall why she was here.

It didn't take her long to spot what she assumed to be her clothes, along with two weapons. A rapier and a hand-crossbow. It brought something back into her memories. She was a warrior of sorts; someone with fighting prowess. She was like that for a reason. There was something she needed to fight, or at least she strongly felt like there was. Even so, try as she might, she couldn't recall who or what it might be, nor whether she was the hunter or the hunted.

She spent a few days hanging around the church, trying to adjust to being what she was and trying to recollect more of her current existence. It was to no avail. Eventually, a thirst started to kick in. She'd already had a vague awareness of it, but she didn't want to admit to it. However, as the thirst grew stronger, she could no longer resist. Using her crossbow, she shot down the nearest crow and drank its blood. It was utterly disgusting, making her gag with every drop she swallowed. She knew this wasn't the type of blood she truly craved, but for now, it'd take the edge off.

A few days later, she was attempting to find a better source of blood to quench her thirst by draining a fresh rabbit she'd caught. It had little better result than with the crow. That's when an odd young girl approached her. They both were equally confused, as for Kalina, this was the first other person she encountered in this world, whilst for the other girl... well, Kalina had been drinking rabbit blood fresh from the source. Oddly enough, that wasn't a deal-breaker for either of them, as after some hesitant approaching, they ended up talking.

The girl eventually mentioned her wish to become immortal, which prompted Kalina to think about her own condition. She didn't age or die, but she was pretty much already dead, so she couldn't consider herself to be immortal. The latter was why the question intrigued her enough to humour the girl and go through various possibilities. Sadly enough, Kalina had little in the ways of memories and experiences to draw upon, but it was entertaining to talk to her. It was a feeling she hadn't really experienced, be it in this life or the past, so Kalina was quick to treasure it.

When the girl offered Kalina some blood, it sweetened the deal, literally and figuratively. Kalina's suspicion that the blood of humanoids would be far superior to that of animals was immediately confirmed, being far tastier and far more filling. That, combined with the companionship, had set them on a path to become quick friends. Sadly enough, the girl was quick to travel onwards, explaining she was working for some master that she had to obey and that she didn't want Kalina to meet said master. It was a bit confusing, but Kalina accepted it for what it was.

Kalina soon decided to leave the church and head out, attempting to hone the skills she'd been given upon rebirth by stalking and hunting animals. Her precision and speed, as well as her usage of the hand-crossbow and rapier, turned out to be only half of her skills. She was able to conceal both her weapons and her vampiric nature surprisingly well and could sneak around with relatively little effort. Even so, whether these abilities were there for her to hide or to hunt was unknown to her, as those memories hadn't returned.

Her search eventually led her to the north of the Ryken Forests, when she caught some rumours of trouble involving a witch. That was something she couldn't just ignore, so she set out to go and find out what was happening.