Holy Diver

> *“<...Then you should’ve handled this feud by yourself.>”* - Holy Diver
>
>

**Holy Diver** is a mute dragoon who currently serves as Captain of the Northern Raiders, stationed to the far north of the Spiral Isles. She assisted HEAVEN in defeating Jasper, and ultimately killed him.

## Biography

### Early Life

Holy Diver was born to an unknown fae and human couple, she was given to the legendary warrior Scathach of the Ashlands on Annwfyn as an offering. There she was raised by Scathach among her pupils and trained in the art of combat and rune magic. The rambunctious half-fae struggled with runecraft and to keep up with the competitive group of pupils and earn the affection and favor of her teacher, she became desperate to resolve her struggles. Whilst every other pupil was asleep, she snuck into Scathach’s library in search for an answer in the many books. Unaware of the dangers Scathach’s amassed written wisdom, she unwittingly performed a ritual she had thought would help her comprehend runecraft, effectively locking away her voice by carving a magic rune onto her tongue. Scathach, who had been watching from the shadows, appeared before the silenced Holy Diver, warning her of the sacrifice she had just made: By opening up one door to power, she had locked away the potential for other venues. If she was to erase the rune on her tongue, what power in runecraft she might have would be significantly weakened, but in maintaining the lock on her voice, she would not be able to perform any verbal magic which is often quicker and sometimes more powerful.

Accepting the consequences, Holy Diver resorted in only communicating non-verbally and even runes until she learned sign language. With heavy reliance on non-verbal communication, Holy Diver mastered runecraft and even learned Scathach’s personalized runes. At the time, the Holy Diver proved to be the top of her peers and favored a polearm, eventually becoming an adept wielder of the spear. After being declared a masterful spearsman by her teacher, Scathach gifted a weapon crafted by Ashur.

### The Rival

Eventually, Hadrianus Aquilius managed to enter the border of Annwfyn through Skye Island. Holy Diver was the first to encounter him and noted that he appeared to be in a trance. Wary of outsiders, especially on Skye Island, Holy Diver stood defiant to Hadrianus’ advance. The two entered combat, but in Hadrianus’ entranced state, he held his own against the master spearwoman. Just as Holy Diver was to weave a rune, Scathach stopped the fight, stating she recognized Hadrianus, or at least “he within him”. Much to Holy Diver’s disapproval, Hadrianus was given lodging and later on accepted as pupil. Both under Scathach’s tutelage, the competitive nature often got the best between them and with it, their rivalry bloomed and all too often they would resort fighting to the near-death. Despite their mutual animosity for each other, their feuds only proved to strengthen their individual abilities. As time passed on the island, training and combating the lingering undead and wraiths of Skye Island, a rival-mance flourished between Hadrianus and Holy Diver. After one last fight and an amicable goodbye, Hadrianus departed Skye Island to return to his home leaving Holy Diver peerless save for her master.

After a falling out with her master, the Holy Diver exiles herself from Skye Island. Knowing she would be ostracized by Annfwn for leaving dishonorably, she was a rendered a lost child without a home. Hearkening back to the stories Hadrianus spoke of the outside world, she took a skiff to the land of the Spiral Isles.  After months at sea, the skiff she had taken landed on the shores of Eden. Having been taught to keep Annwfyn a secret from the rest of the world, Holy Diver hid away both her spear and the skiff with powerful runes and wandered into Norfang. Mistaken for a mute orphan, she fell into the Spiral system, playing the part of an unruly child until the only option for the agency was to put her through military training. Having been taught Scathach’s way of combat, Holy Diver proved to be a formidable, up-coming warrior in the North but lacked notable skill with firearms. It was said that to compensate for that weakness, she worked tirelessly with the spear and physical speed. Though she would never deny this, it worked well for her cover. Eventually, she was normalized to the Edenian military life. Up for an officer promotion, she enrolled into the academy and met a native by the name of Drake Alstad. Fascinated with Drake’s tactical genius and perception, she would force them into situations to be paired up. Holy Diver conceded that Drake’s genius far surpassed her own, but he exhibited an antisocial behavior not befitting for a leader. Both graduated, but Holy Diver got awarded a chance at captaincy. Succeeding, she took Drake as her first mate.

### The Northern Raiders

During Holy Diver’s initial captaincy, the major issues of the North were the daring pirates and slave traders that used the icy seas above the coast of Eden as cover to transport illegally captured humans to other nations where slavery was legal. In order to do something notable for the Spiral Isles, Holy Diver and Drake proposed the idea of an independent naval company that would patrol the icy seas for long durations at a time and deter foreign slave traders from sneaking into Eden's borders and enslaving the unfortunate through the treacherous seas up North. Drake drafted her a schematic for a prototype warship with the capability of submerging beneath water meant for raids as opposed for espionage and firing nuclear weaponry. The magitech watercraft, ‘The Barracuda’ was constructed in the following month. The idea of heading out into the frigid northern seas for months at a time was less than appealing to most of the naval officer, but Holy Diver and Alstad were able to convince a group of over one hundred to serve on the Barracuda. On it’s first charted voyage, patrolling Eden's coast, the ship encountered a pack of slaver transports and successfully engaged in battle. Sign language was not a common form of communication taught barring the typical nonverbal signals thus the majority of the crew relied on Alstad for guidance, much to his own dismay. After a rigorous battle, It was here that the men and woman aboard the Barracuda witnessed the tragic outcome of slavery and how they were maltreated. Once returning to Norfang's port, more than a half of the origin crew requested transfers off the Barracuda. Despite the harshness and gritty reality of stopping what was seen as the scum of the earth in sub-zero temperatures, it was revealed that a purpose and an idea of liberating others and granting freedom to the enslaved is present in serving on The Barracuda. drew a more devoted staff onboard. After a few more voyages, staff turnover rates dropped dramatically and through the harrowing trials of cold and conflict, a tight-knit family was formed with Holy Diver as its matriarch.

### The Baron of the Northern Sea

During the Barracuda’s third year of operation, the captain had received intel off a pirate ship suggesting an organization or society operating somewhere within the frozen sea. Further information received provided evidence that this haven hidden in the ice is a way station that pirates and slavers use to fuel up and rest before departing to and fro. After a month of searching, the Barracuda and her crew located a mass of glacier pulled together by magnets and chains. In order to get more information, Alstad and Holy Diver went undercover as a master and slave. Using a skiff, they were welcomed aboard the frozen fortress and gathered in-depth intel of the the inner workings of the station and the history of the Baron. Armed with newfound knowledge, the duo escaped the citadel; the pirates and slavers none the wiser. The Barracuda launch an assault on the way station. To penetrate the thick walls of ice the combined glaciers formed, Holy Diver and Alstad came up with the idea of adding a surplus of magical energy to the magitech engines, resulting in the Barracuda’s charging speed bolstered. Utilizing the icebreaker and newfound speed, the Barracuda pierced the ice and struck the magnetic links and critical connectors sending the pirates in disarray. As the fortress fell apart, Holy Diver and Alstad struck down the Baron, leaving him to bleed out on the sinking, frigid platform.

### The Spiral Campaign

At the beginning phase of Rubidia’s Spiral Campaign and the secondary war, the Barracuda was still out on patrol, unaware of the war at home. They had received reports of the war but given no instructions to join the fray. On return from their patrol, they had noticed the thick miasma hanging over the continent. Only when they docked back on friendly ports, Holy Diver and the rest of her crew witnessed Paracelsus activate his cure. After the eastern province snatched a pyrrhic victory, Holy Diver and her crew were contacted by HEAVEN to escort vital war assets to the battlefront. Discontent ensued among her and her crew due to the nature of this task conflicting with the Northern Raider’s skill set, but loyal to the empire, they carried it out. On board, Holy Diver met Magnus and his Boyband. Whilst crossing the Pacific Ocean, another member of Magnus’ troupe, Artyom Blithe crashed from the sky, landing on the Barracuda on what appeared to be a flying motorcycle.

Hours after Artyom’s arrival, the sea’s weather took a turn for the worst and a wild hurricane approached the Barracuda. To avoid the destructive force, the Barracuda submerged, but their proximity to the coast of Rubidia prohibited them from going deep enough to avoid the harsh, choppy waves of the sea. To escape the hurricane entirely, Holy Diver ordered the magitech engineers to overclock the engines, turning the Barracuda into a giant torpedo, cutting through the water until it beached on the shores of Alestios. The Barracuda had taken severe damage during its landing. Holy Diver and the Boyband grouped up on the beach to determine their plan to join the fray. It had been expected that HEAVEN would interfere with their planning, considering how by-the-books they had wanted to play things out. Such wasn't the case, and they gave both the Northern Raiders and the Boyband to handle things how they wanted to.

Arriving in the shadow of Eisenclast, the group was greeted by the absolute destruction of the HEAVEN capital ship, ripped asunder by a brutal bolt of lightning. This began to demoralize the hardy Northern captain, floating on the momentum of the aforementioned doubt. As the battle of gods raged on, Holy Diver conjured a thick field of mist and began to hunt the foolhardy soldiers that wandered into it. Holy Diver’s jumping ability became enhanced and from afar onlookers could see the dragoon leaping out of the mist and diving back into it. As the battle raged on, she found it particularly difficult to face a certain Crimsonhead Soldier who proved more resilient than the rest of the quarry that trembled in. He acted more like a mad beast than a soldier, but after impaling the man twice, he remained down. The conflict felt prolonged and Holy Diver, exhausted from the continuous jump and diving, hovered above her field only to see Jasper escaping the battlefield. Considering that ordinary soldiers were having difficulty in subduing the mad god, Holy Diver left her field and provided chase, intercepting Jasper above the clouds. When searching for Jasper within the clouds of Eisenclast, his booming voice that seemed to encompass the area taunted her asking a singular question as if probing into the doubts of her mind. Falling for the taunt, the Holy Diver struggled finding the truth of this match between the gods with a view shift from good vs evil to pawns of the gods that were interlocked in a game of madness. Stunned by this and her faith faltering, the manipulator unleashed a sudden windblast.

Thrown through the undercroft of Jasper's floating city, the duo found themselves in old laboratories lying in the heart of Eisenclast. Jasper had appeared before her once more, hellbent in fighting both of them at once. Jasper proceeded to detonate old leylines of the laboratory which deactivated Eisenclast’s levitating capacities, causing the city to plummet from the skies. On a timetable to stop Jasper and keep the city from crashing into the armies below, Holy Diver doubled her efforts to defeat Jasper. The ensuing battle was close and visceral, with Holy Diver's training and speed barely allowing her to keep up with Jasper. Half the time, he toyed with her on purpose, coming within inches of striking range only to teleport away shortly before being hit. All the while, Jasper monologued on the state of Avashesh, and how humans were unfit to lead into the new era, further solidifying his social Darwinist philosophy. Given her muteness, Holy Diver couldn't exactly express her frustration at Jasper's flawed rhetoric, but nevertheless it made her fight harder just to shut him up. The timer ticked further down as they reached the limits of their plummet. Eisenclast crashed into Lake Misos below, consuming anyone who hadn't evacuated in a massive tidal wave. The floating city was no more, left in ruins upon the lake.

Jasper eventually was bested, laid beaten and bare in the remnants of his castle. He had expended much of his energy to summon the brutal storm that once consumed the battlefield, and was left at the end of his rope. Holy Diver, high above the sky, dove down once more with spear in hand. Her spear struck true, impaling the weakened Jasper for all to see. Knowing full well how easily a corpse can be reanimated and how the threat of Jasper could be revived, the dragoon disintegrated the cadaver of the fallen god. With that, Holy Diver had single-handedly ended the feud between nations. Still, she couldn't help but feel bitter that the whole thing had been necessary, and all the lives lost would just be another family mourning abroad. Holy Diver parted ways with her temporary allies, returning to Eden aboard the Barracuda.