Vikalden

**Vikalden** is a contract killer and hired muscle currently employed by The Syndicate of Sparks.

## Background

Vikalden was originally born on Cretio, and almost immediately the plane left its mark on her. Ever since she was a child, Vikalden has struggled to control her native magical affinities, especially amidst Cretio's erratic mana swells. Vikalden's spark ultimately ignited during one of these mana surges, and the instant she left her home, she knew she wouldn't want to return.

Her spark took her to Ravnica, where she caught the interest of House Dimir. The House took her in, and put her in a state of subtle mind control that let them better utilize her specific talents. Before her time with the Dimir, Vikalden wasn't someone you'd call subtle, and had no real experience with magic beyond her natural black mana manipulation. With the House's help, however, she quickly became an expert at infiltration and assassination, as well as developing a secondary specialty in shadow based magic.

Her time with the Dimir wouldn't last forever, however, as Vikalden eventually grew powerful enough that she was able to push through the mind control. Now, feeling like she couldn't trust the guild going forward, she left Ravnica, looking to bring her skills to the rest of the multiverse. Along her way, she spent time at the Arena, where she met, befriended, and nearly fought to protect Karina Oblay while she was possessed by Okus. Despite her demeanor and attempts to come off as heartless, Vikalden does have a soft spot for young girls, and on some level wants to protect them in the ways that she wished she could've been protected as she grew older.

For a while, Vikalden lived on The Spindle as she tried to find work as a hitman and thief. Eventually, she met Jay Volkan, who offered her a job with the Syndicate of Sparks, a criminal organization he recently founded that focused on interplanar smuggling and power politics. She's been working with him ever since.

## Capabilities

Vikalden is a master assassin and spy, with most of a decade worth of training at the hands of the House Dimir on Ravnica. She's proficent with a wide array of weapons, but largely prefers to take care of matters at a melee range. Vikalden never fights fair, and uses the environment to her advantage whenever possible, leveraging weather, night time, cover, and so on with a high degree of fluidity. Vikalden's physical strength isn't that immense, but she's very quick and possesses excellent technique.

Magic wise, Vikalden's magic holds a lot in common with her homeplane. It is nearly uncontrollable, with her being able to turn it off, on, and focus it, but generally unable to hold back. Her two primary areas of mastery are shadow magic and raw black mana manipulation. In terms of shadow magic, Vikalden primarily uses it to hide; although he can also make tools out of shadows or use them to blink between nearby locations, both of those require a level of finesse that she's not comfortable with if she's on the back foot. Her primary magic offensive tool is her black mana manipulation, however. Vikalden's magic is infectious, tainting other mana sources it touches and making them harder to use in their intended fashion. She can also drain extant black mana sources dry rapidly, and overpower other spellcasters with various attacks formed from raw mana.