Athena Nestoris

**Squad Lieutenant Athena Nestoris** was a member of the elite armed forces. She was born in 44 AGW in Southern Nestoria, and became indebted to the Ambrose Family. She was fiercely anti-Voltaris and blood purist until the destruction of these ideals. She fought in the Second Great War as a Captain and currently lives in the Ambrose Family Village with Chief Ambrose and Chieftess Aylea.

# Personality

Athena is known for her vibrant and energetic personality. She can often turn angry in an instant and may not cool off for days at a time. However, she is capable of kindness and respect. She feels immense loyalty to those who have helped her, going to enormous lengths to keep Airiox safe from danger after his father asked her to. She is also independent and generally not reliant on others, but she does understand the importance of cooperation, especially on missions.

# Appearance

Athena is fairly tall (six and a half feet) and has bright yellow markings and eyes. Her horns go up and down, splitting in a fork about midway past her head. Her hair is dark brown, though she keeps it trimmed as it often bothers her during missions.

# History

## Early Life

Athena was born in a small village in southern Nestoria. As part of the Longold Family, she learned fishing from a young age and helped to supply the village with resources, often walking long distances to find new water sources. She despised the sea, and initially rejected becoming a fisher. Later the village was raided by Voltaris, resulting in the deaths of many of her relatives and motivating her to take revenge: as a result she was recuited by the Champions Task Force and began training under Firenis Kaltaris, a famous mentor who had trained many warriors.

## Intelligence and Espionage Efforts

During the time that she joined the task force, she was placed on spy guard in the Conchord capital city, Oakendale, where she would watch the black market thread that had been spreading there. She eventually pinpointed the source of the thread, and was assigned to an elite squad to destroy it. She was then held trial in Conchord after being arrested and sent to prison for five years.

After leaving prison, she decided to quit the espionage effort despite their success in Oakendale. She was then convinced to stay by Ambrose, an older Sendaris warrior who had been residing at the base, and he was successful. Her second intelligence mission was slightly less extreme and was simply to monitor a singular criminal in Felden, who she tipped off the authorities to.

## Military Service

Athena decided, following the two espionage missions, that she would join the military, specifically the Elite Squad division - a group of stealth operatives who would eliminate specific targets and aid in special combat maneuvers on the battlefield. Since the world was mostly at peace, they were assigned to take out the warlords that had filled in the power vacuum in the absence of the Voltaris and the Enderknights, especially near Old Voltaria. They were deceptively hard to assassinate, and Athena was gravely injured on an attempt to kill the warlord Telrock. She was admitted to the hospital later and would remain there for a year until her injuries healed.

The conflict with the warlords escalated until the crucial Battle of Ireden, which commenced after several warlords took over the town and fortified it. The Ardoni fighters then crossed the river and sustained heavy casualties from ranged fighting. Athena's elite squad stealthily entered the fortress and unlocked the gate, and the warlords inside subsequently fell with the support from the humans' military that arrived later. Athena once again returned to Nestoria to tend to her injuries, and officially left Firenis' training regiment.

## Search for Understanding

As her injuries and stress disorder tormented her as she recovered, she began having ideas about higher understanding and elevated thinking. Her father, Arisdian, suggested she travel to Ataraxia, a haven town for Ardoni where she could heal and learn. She embarked on the journey with her boyfriend, Serdin, who she later became engaged to. The journey was difficult with her physical injuries slowing her down, but she was able to make it to Ataraxia without obstruction: there she met Galleous Sendaris, a blacksmith, and several others in the town who helped her heal faster and stronger. The task force base in Ataraxia would continue to provide her with a place to work. She would often exercise her strategic planning abilities to help the task force attack Voltaris bases in the Barrier Mountains without causing damage to her own health.

## Devotion to the Ambrose Family

By the time her injuries were mostly healed, she was able to rejoin the task force, soon becoming the Lieutenant of the third squad. During an excursion to an offshore island where they would attempt to establish a watchtower, her squad was paired with the second squad, which was led by Ambrose, the Sendaris from the spy branch. Upon their return from the watchtower mission, she found her house in Ataraxia had been raided by unknown assailants, and her fiance, Serdin, had been murdered. Heartbroken, she and the authorities were able to track the killer to Kernis Kaltaris, who was then imprisoned for life. However, her mental health did not improve despite catching Kernis. Ambrose and his wife Aylea, who had then arrived at Ataraxia, offered to aid her financially and foundationally, as many of her belongings had been stolen in addition to her boyfriend's death. She was grateful and promised to pay the favor back, becoming intensely loyal to their family.

## Leaving the Task Force

In 113 AGW, she and several other elite squads had been traveling through the Ambrose Family Village to carry out several strategic operations against the warlord Freolf. However, the warlord attacked the village by surprise, causing most of the squads to switch to defense. Ambrose asked Athena to take his newborn son, Airiox, back to Ataraxia to keep him safe from the warlord. However, she was shot on the way near Hogtown, and the baby was kidnapped. She was left to die in the forest, but managed to bandage herself sufficiently and tracked those that had taken him. She rescued the baby and took him to Ataraxia; however, his parents had also been captured. Deciding she couldn't leave the child alone, she resigned from the elite squads and joined the strategy division.

Though Athena's skills were more practically useful in the physical sector of the task force, her obligation to the Ambrose Family and their newborn son kept her tethered to the strategy division, which met sometimes four times a week. She would bring Airiox to the meetings, as she didn't trust her home to be entirely secure any longer. She would also place him in her own room in his crib so that she could wake if he needed something. This led to his desire to want to have his own room like the other children as he grew older, but Athena insisted on his staying there.

## Raising Airiox

Eventually she trusted herself enough to send the boy to school, and she would attend only the night strategy meetings with him. Athena also took to training him lightly with a sword in their backyard, which he turned out to be surprisingly proficient at. She would also often tell him tales of Voltaris and the crimes they committed against humanity and the Ardoni, leading to his excessively negative view towards the fifth clan. Her stories inspired him to such an extent that he wished to become an Ardoni champion, especially after Champion Thalleous Sendaris visited the town a few years later. Athena professed his talent to Firenis and Galleous, who agreed to take him into the training regiment when the time came.

Athena became a good friend of Atorian Nestoris and his wife, who neighbored Athena's house and had a young daughter of similar age to her adoptive son. They offered to help her with parenting him, which was a relief for her, as she wasn't entirely sure she had done it right and was constantly filled with self-doubt. Despite her on-the-spot planning and lack of experience, she had raised him quite well; his independent and expressionistic personality was an asset that Firenis thought excellent for the future warrior. He was also a bright and optimistic child, often visiting the neighbors every day and helping Athena in whichever way he could.

On several occasions, she felt obligated and motivated to search for Ambrose and Aylea, but about twenty years after they were captured, the Champions Task Force was able to break the captured members out. Many were somewhat irritated, as Athena had abandoned them to take the child away, but Ambrose and Aylea were beyond content and thankful to see Airiox alive and well. Despite this, he already had a much stronger connection to Athena than either of his parents, and, after realizing this, Ambrose asked Athena to continue raising him. Surprisingly she agreed, and realized she had taken much joy in raising him over the years.

## Airiox Begins Training

Airiox seemed to grow quickly over the decades and was soon the equivalent of a human teenager, and Athena figured it was time to send him to training. However, Firenis had been caught up with assisting the Champion-in-training, Tempest Sendaris, on training routines for the upcoming Ardoni tournament, so the Task Force, which had officially recognized Airiox's induction into the training program, decided that Athena herself could teach him. After Ambrose and Aylea were relocated to the Kaltaria base to resume spy operations, Athena began to train Airiox in fighting and Songwielding. She gifted him a Mobilileap Song, which he would learn to use proficiently.

Later, she sent him on his first training mission to hunt down a Voltaris refugee that had strayed into the region. He failed the mission but ran away with the girl that he had spared; exasperated and scolding herself for thinking he was ready, she followed him and eventually found him captured at Mount Velgrin. Managing to slay over ten Voltaris, she rescued her student and brought him home, keeping a much closer watch on him.

## Conscription and War

From then, it wasn't long before the outbreak of the Second Great War. Airiox had been brought under the apprenticeship of Tempest Sendaris, who had ascended of Champion after the deaths of Thalleous Sendaris and Zulius Kaltaris. Athena was then conscripted to the Ataraxia defense force, but opted to rejoin the elite squads, where she was once again reunited with Ambrose and Aylea, as well as several of her friends from the third squad. She sustained minor injuries in earlier battles but later broke several ribs and an arm, and thus wasn't involved in much of the physical fighting during the war. In a battle at Meridian, she saved Aylea from certain death at the hands of a Netheran, and Aylea considered her debt paid.

## Retirement

Athena would spend most of her time after the war either in Ataraxia or Sendaria, helping the task force with strategic planning. The war had permanently injured her leg, rendering her incapable of further combat. She also attended Firenis' funeral, as he had met his death at the hands of Hallux Voltaris. With Airiox in the apprenticeship of Tempest and Aurora Nestoris, she was able to finally retreat to a more relaxed life. She lived at the Ambrose Family Village and would look after Airiox's children Lostris and Stellan, as well as the twins Melian and Swiftbrook. She would never marry due to the heartbreak following Serdin's death, and would spend many days receiving mental support. However, she was an asset for recovery in the village, often assisting with the gathering of resources.