Permilla-Darvamiel Kaloblanca

Vinxelle (grandmother)

Aegis Mabusa (half-uncle)

*(Pur-mee-lah Dah-vah-mehl Kahl-oh-blanc-ah)* Born in 1014 AE to Amaranth, it would be many years before Darva discovered who her birth father was: Richard Holdenhome. After the discovery of her heritage, she became hell-bent on finding a way to take what she felt was hers. She became involved with Dagan Vennet and his operation in Coeur.

## **Biography**

### **Childhood (1014-1034)**

Despite her horrendously long and abbreviated name, Permilla-Darvamiel Kaloblanca was most often called 'Darva' or by her mother's nickname for her: 'Fluxhart'.
A drow's childhood is traditionally longer than that of a human, but Darva was always two steps ahead of her peers. She learned faster, lived faster, and developed faster. Among the many reasons she didn't fit in with children her age, those did her no favors in finding friends in a traditional drow society like that of Veroma.

Those who did accept her were far older than she and they were kin. Family was a difficult concept for Darva to deal with. None of them looked like her, all of them were much older, and her mother acted like not knowing the identity of her father was normal. Even her grandmother portrayed it as normal to not know who her biological grandfather was - but she claimed that was where Darva had gotten her red eyes, a feature that did not run in the Kaloblanca line.

When Darva was 10 years old in 1024, Amaranth revealed that whoever Darva's father was, he was likely human or half-elf as she didn't remember sleeping with any hrow or drow while on the mainland. This only served to make Darva feel even more alienated.

From the age of 12 (in 1026), Darva began working in her grandmother's nurseries as a botanist, gardener, and began learning nature magic with her mother and grandmother.

Darva got her first boyfriend in 1028, at age 14 (when Amaranth and Divankul had a child, Zahir Kaloblanca). He was an older drow, perhaps 18, and her kin descended on their relationship like demons. She was educated in excruciating detail how part-humans were incredibly fertile compared to regular drow and that she shouldn't be allowed a partner until she was much older. Being treated differently than her peers in this aspect of her life led to resentment of her elders - she even tried a same-sex relationship in rebellion, because how could they worry about her spilling humanspawn if conception wasn't even possible?

Although the relationship was born of rebellion and didn't work out in the long run, it became clear to Darva that she was bisexual. After her breakup with her girlfriend in 1031, when she was 17, she chose not to date for some time.

Her interest in old magic grew as she discovered her abilities were running up against blocks. Nature magic was all well and good, but if she wanted to pull from any source other than nature itself, magic became much more difficult to manipulate. Due to this difficulty, she tried several types of magic in search of one that she might have an affinity for, against the warnings of her kin. She discovered blood magic and found it resonated well with her.

### **Bastard Heir (1035-1037)**

While looking through some old documentation in summer of 1036, at age 20, Darva stumbled across some old correspondence regarding a reward for her mother's safe return. Curious, she read through the letters until she abruptly came across the final reward her grandmother and this 'Lord Holdenhome' settled on - a handful of Fluxhart seeds.
Her instincts bit at her, and she put some quick research into House Holdenhome. When she discovered one of their well-known exports was honey, she uneasily put the pieces together. She knew the meaning of her name was a tangle of tributes to bees and honey. Her hair was a washed-out deadlands blond. Her nature was feisty. Richard Holdenhome was likely her father. And her mother fucking knew the entire time.

She realized she had seen Lord Holdenhome and his wife at the wedding of her uncle Aegis to his husband Lyron, only a few months earlier.

She forewent confronting her mother. She spent time researching her father and his family, growing more and more resentful that her mother hadn't told her - nor had she likely told Lord Holdenhome. From what she gathered, Richard was a good man with a great pride in his family. Had her mother told him, perhaps he would have accepted her as his daughter - as his heiress.

But now he had a family of his own. Her half-siblings. Owyn, Griff, Warren, Agnes, Amara, Magnolia, and little Yarrow. Those could have been *her* family.

In pretense of seeing her uncle Aegis, Darva left for Caybourne in 1037 when she heard a number of Holdenhomes were there visiting their Ludlow relatives. A civil disturbance rattled in the streets, but she had the opportunity to see her father with his children: Owyn, Griff, Warren, Agnes, Amara, and even his displaced niece Amy Holmes who he treated like one of his own - a half-drow. He was a gentle man with them, a firm father but loving.

What had originally been some street fights burst into outright warfare as the Magic Uprising in Caybourne abruptly came to a head. In the chaos and horrifying bloodshed, Darva witnessed her father's death. The older children tried to fight and protect their siblings, but it was clear they were outmatched by these bloodthirsty mages and traumatized by the gruesome death of their father. Despite her heartbreak and confusion, Darva stepped in to support them with her own magic.

At one point in the struggle when Ludlow guards broke through to rescue the children, they missed little Amy - not realizing she was one of them. Although the children fought ferociously to retrieve her, the guards whisked them away to safety without her. Darva immediately took the little girl under her wing, burying the little girl's face in her robes so she wouldn't see the carnage around them, nor the destruction Darva herself wrought. For two excruciating hours, Darva fought tooth, nail, and soul for that child. Finally, she was able to deliver the child back to Owyn Holdenhome. After making certain her half-siblings were safe, she went in search of her uncle Aegis.

For the rest of the struggle, she fought alongside Aegis and his husband Lyron. Once the conflict was settled, she wrote to her mother and explained they had survived the incident but she was going to stay and help her uncles rebuild. In truth, she couldn't stand the thought of returning home with her newfound knowledge and grief. At least with her uncles, she could disguise it as trauma from the uprising itself.

### **Studious Resentment (1037-1040)**

Darva spent some time putting herself back together. But being present in Caybourne after such an event led to an interesting opportunity for her magic studies - a University. Which ironically, was created to avoid situations like that which arose from the Magic Uprising. She learned that the magic she had been trying to pull from was difficult to access because the energy was locked away in the Void. This was what the losing side of the Magic Uprising had desired - access to the Void to pull that magic through. She realized that had she not had allegiances to the Holdenhomes and her uncles, she might very well have been on the other side of the conflict had she known.
Dealing with several conflicting emotions and with no one to talk to about them, Darva became introverted and even more studious. Her interest in blood magics only grew after she learned about the Closing of the Void by Elmer and Divankul back in 1015. She read about Shatterlight Coven and their leader, Metheryl Arcaena. She decided after her graduation from the University, that would be her next destination - she had read about the winding caves beneath the Wilds, a place where the veil between this realm and the next was thin and Void energy had a better chance of transferring.

But all through her studies, her thoughts still lingered on her Holdenhome relatives. She came to an understanding that she was more powerful than the new heir, Owyn. She was older, more mature, and so much more capable... yet, he was going to inherit all that her father should have been allowed to give to her. He *had* inherited it all. She hated him for it.

### **Worth (1040-1044)**

Graduation was supposed to be a welcome escape from the stiff confines of the University. Breaking from her self-imposed exile to her studies and chambers, Darva chose to celebrate with her classmates. She had a surprisingly good time, enjoying the company of others for the first time in a long while. She even helped a fellow classmate by holding her hair back while she puked outside the tavern - and there, she saw a familiar figure.
She helped her classmate back inside before going out the back again. Owyn Holdenhome stood there, urinating on the wall in a drunken haze. Once he was done, she introduced herself. He actually recognized her and thanked her profusely for keeping Amy safe during the Uprising. They spoke for some time about the University and Owyn sobered up. At one point, she asked him how he liked being Lord Holdenhome. His response irritated her to no end as he admitted he didn't want the responsibility, that he never had. In her hotheadedness, she blurted who she was - that she was the rightful heir, and that Richard would be so disappointed if he truly knew the pathetic whelp he had left his house to.

Owyn reacted with anger, claiming she was a pretender. He insinuated that had she not thought this ruse would work, she would have only used another - such as attempting to seduce him. Her magic rage lashed him against the side of the tavern and he drew his blade to protect himself. But he was no match for her and she tore him apart with blood magic. Only as she stood panting, staring at his remains, did she realize what she had done. She used her magic to put him back together, to try and revive him, but was unsuccessful.

She fled Caybourne that night. Later, she heard reports of the Lord Holdenhome being beaten to death behind a bar - no mention of blood magic was uttered, so her attempt at putting him back together had been at least somewhat successful in hiding the cause of death.

She was not a fugitive, but had a difficult time adjusting to the fact she had killed a man - her own half-brother. But it wasn't the fact that she had killed him which troubled her. It was the realization that she had gotten away with it. And how delicious that feeling was.

Going with her original plan, Darva traveled to the Shatterlight Coven and began training there with a focus on her nature magic - at least, in the eyes of the other members. With their colossal knowledge of old magics, she was able to spend more time educating herself on blood magic and other less conventional practices.

Surprisingly, with the members of the Shatterlight Coven, Darva found kinship. There were many half-breeds, humans, and other assorted races that had come from all over since Shatterlight Coven was opened to the rest of Aradia in 1016. She made several friends, although she kept her extra-curricular activities hidden from them. She studied there several years, making fleeting romantic connections, and became somewhat disconnected from the reality of what she had done in 1040.

She tried her very best to learn the magical talent of Sending, but never succeeded with a living subject. However, she became adept at Scrying and reverse-sending - Pulling. By the members of Shatterlight Coven, this was considered soul magic - their most sanctified type of magic, and the one their members aspired to master. This type of magic allowed her into personal collections of other mages, where she would Scry and maybe even Pull from their books and tomes.

### **Closer to the Void (1045-1046)**

At a moment in her life when she realized her newfound friends had all moved on and she was alone, Darva decided it was time to leave. But with no clear destination in mind, she instead came up with another plan - she would study the Void more closely. Through old texts and secretive conversations with other students and teachers, she found the way to the old tunnels of lore.
It was a perilous journey to the depths, especially alone. But Darva had dedicated so many years of her life to magic, both regular and unconventional, that she was more than self-sufficient. It was months in the dark before she found anything of note - the congealed mass of demon, ore, and rock that oozed from a deep wound in the stone.

She studied the demonic remains in detail. Using her Scrying ability, she was able to compare details with works from Divankul Dul-Sansiska. She confirmed her magical abilities were amplified by the thin veil between realms so deep underground. Her time spent studying this place led to several discoveries - she learned how to pull energy from this place via her Scrying, no matter where she was. She learned to harness this energy to allow passive Scrying on multiple locations, where her attention could be drawn to an area if something occurred in it.

She also learned that opening the Void was not just a possibility - it was an inevitability. Sooner or later, someone - or something - was going to tear through the veil. Here, or elsewhere, magic was stronger than the seal on this place.

Had the delinquents of the Magic Uprising known a place like this existed, she wasn't entirely convinced they wouldn't have found a way to break through. They knew of the heavily-protected one in Westgate, but this one... this one was secret. The Shatterlight Coven had done their best to keep this one from the world.

Darva placed one of her passive scries on the Wound at Westgate so she would be alerted if it ever broke open.

### **A Keeper of Secrets (1046-1051)**

Despite the heavy guard around the Wound at Westgate, Darva was woken from sleep as her passive scry was tripped. Fearing the seal had broken, she roused herself and watched through her Scry. However, it was only a man and woman - two people she actually recognized, she realized. These people were Temperance Heartstone and (REDACTED). They reminisced on the events of the Magic Uprising before passionately kissing. To Darva's perverse horror, they proceeded to make love on the Wound itself.
Concerned this was some bizarre ritual, Darva kept Scrying. But once the love-making was complete, the two left as innocuously as they had appeared. With a rush, a strange possession stole over her as she viewed a reality that had not yet come to pass - their son, the one conceived on the Wound - astride a throne as he stared into the eyes of a skull held aloft in his gloved hand. And then she was back.

This strange occurrence happened more and more as The Pirate War began to rage. And yes, even deep beneath the Wilds, she knew it was happening - she saw moments. She saw deaths. It was in fact, one of these visions that led her to finally begin making the journey back up to the surface. And as she traveled, more and more pieces of her future clicked into place. Even, in the distance, the opening of the Void - although she could not be certain of what exactly caused it, or when.

She began to realize it was all the Void energy that had somehow blended with her Scrying ability. It had enhanced it, almost venturing into the realm of terromancy.

In 1051, she was in the port of Tonavi, Nagari. She sought out the young man from her repeated visions. When she approached him and told him she had seen him in visions and dreams, he tried to wave her off as some palm-reader looking for a handout. But then she detailed to him what Kievos had said to him - the lies he had woven, how he was the cause of his brother's death at the hands of a drow named Reynis. This young man stared at her with wide eyes, but then accused her of being in league with the drow that had killed his brother. She told him other conversations he had been part of, moments of his life she had seen: past and future.

She told him she didn't know why it was so important that she found him, only that she knew her future was bound with his. Unknowingly, she fed into his hubris and this was one of the solidifying moments where Dagan Vennet believed he was destined for greatness.

### **The League of Bastards (1052-1056)**

Despite the age gap and the obvious differences between the two, Dagan and Darva became friends. For a time they stayed in the pirate havens of Nagari, Darva ironically taking up the role of a palm-reader although she wasn't able to summon visions at will. She used deductive reasoning and trickery to become a successful seer. Meanwhile, Dagan began working as a mercenary throughout Nagari. The odd vision would strike, but nothing indicative of where she was meant to go next.
However, when The Pirate War came to an end, Dagan came to her saying they should leave. He fully believed he would be discovered in this place and they needed to go elsewhere. She agreed and they left with a ragtag group of pirates, veterans of the war torn and beaten to shreds. Dagan and the drow captain quickly came to blows and a mutiny was staged - Dagan became the new captain, unstoppable with his 'seer' by his side.

But Dagan was no sea-faring pirate. He relied heavily on his crew to make the right decisions, and eventually there was a storm they couldn't outrun or outwit.

Many of the crew drowned, but the survivors - including Dagan and Darva - washed up on the island of Boulange, Coeur. Their pirate companions managed to calculate where they likely were, although they didn't know for certain which of the Coeur islands they had ended up on. Darva had never heard of this place, but Dagan had heard brief mention of a nation of savage half-dwarves. He claimed the Heartstone Family originated from one of the islands here, as did Klossner - the former bodyguard of Richard Holdenhome, and founder of House Klossner which Darva's half-sister Agnes had married into.

As the crew found ways to survive on this island, stories began to come out. A surprising number of the crew had been born of nobility - but cast aside as bastards, or their parents had noble blood without a legit claim due to their own questionable parentage. Darva finally revealed to Dagan who she was and how she should have been the heir to House Holdenhome. This formed a bond between them all and friendships began to cement. A strange nobility also began to seep into their community - Dagan was still their captain, but there was a newfound respect among them: it could have almost been called equality.

When they were attacked in the night by the tribal peoples of Boulange, their group fought together ferociously. The tribals who survived the encounter were taken captive and given two options - fight for Dagan, or die. After seeing the cohesiveness of his group and the power of his seer, they curiously chose to join them.

Word spread among the tribes. Chieftains came to prove their mettle against Dagan's forces, stupidly throwing themselves at the enemy without strategy. This bizarre proving of worth only served to train Dagan and make him stronger. He and his men became a strong fighting force and each fight only gained them more warriors - warriors that they began to train to be better, smarter.

Soon, Dagan was taking the fight to these tribes. He conquered left and right, a bloodlust stirring in him that Darva hesitantly admired. This was certainly not the future she had expected for herself, but she stayed at Dagan's side no matter what.

In 1055, after almost four years on the island, Dagan was being called The Conquerer of Boulange. Not only had he waged war or absorbed all the tribes on the island, he was now leader of the largest settlement. His crew were lords among the people, taking land and women, beginning families, and effectively colonizing this wild land.

And he wanted more.

During this time, there was a brief moment where Darva felt the Void's call fluctuate. It quickly returned to normal and nothing came of it, but it played on her mind for many years.

### **The Warlord's Witch (1057-1080)**

Through the remaining 1050s, Dagan took Terre and Regis' Cairn. It took another five years to conquer Minette and Pierre, and in 1065 Dagan was feared by all throughout Coeur. Darva had become known as a terrifying witch, most fearing her but some coming to her in hopes of learning her power. She took several apprentices and reached an extremely respected rank in society.
More than ever, she wished to share this achievement. She wanted to to feel real - in the 'real world' with her half-siblings and her father's pathetic wife. She saw glimpses of their lives, and how she desired them to know this power she felt - to be crushed beneath it.

She had killed her own half-brother. And she could do it again. And again.

The more she worked with Dagan, the more they conquered, the greater her desire to go to the seat of House Holdenhome and rip it from those undeserving little shits. They hadn't fought for what they received. It all just fell into their laps, fumbled with by their soft little hands. Her power was ridiculous compared to theirs.

The taking of Delacroix was by far the most difficult military endeavor. But by 1071, Dagan's forces had swept through half the island and razed the place. The peoples of Coeur were not known for surrendering, nor did they expect mercy - but when they parlayed to join Dagan, it was clear he had won. He beheaded all the remaining chieftains to show he would not accept compromise. He had conquered these people with the killing of their leaders - and they accepted this.

In 1072, Darva was the one to lay a crown upon Dagan's head. They knew this coronation would not be considered legal in the eyes of mainland Aradian law, but what did it matter? No outsider accepted a King until they were under his boot themself.

The trivialities of rule chaffed on Dagan, but his ruthless methods got results. He formed a council of lords composed of many of his original crew, all of which were fiercely loyal to him - their king who had made them from paupers to nobles. The peoples of Coeur respected a strong leader and they appreciated their new way of life as outside ideas were implemented - medical treatments, economy, cultural additions, and many other concepts that were new to them. What they loved the most however, was the training that Dagan and his men could provide. These people loved a fight.

They loved a fight so much that when there was no one left to conquer, they demanded to travel across the seas. Dagan agreed this would be a possibility in the future, but that they would require much more training. And they needed ships.

Between 1072 and 1075, a shipyard was established and a fleet began to be assembled. It was forbidden to leave sight of the Coeur islands, but Dagan's League of Bastards began teaching their men the ways of the sea - and naval warfare. Practice wars were fought between the islands, mock battles staged, and finally, they were allowed to strike out as pirates without a banner.

Just before 1075 rolled around, a vision prompted Darva to advise Dagan of the Red Death. He pulled all piracy back until 1076 and the entirety of Coeur was unaffected by the illness that ripped apart the rest of the world. This mercy of whatever gods truly existed, of destiny, again confirmed Dagan's belief that he was destined for greatness.

By this point, Darva was convinced the Void itself was the deity they should be attributing their success to. Aradia wasn't the loving, sweet goddess of this realm named for her. The Shatterlight Coven had been right - her true self was the twisted mind of power and chaos, the writhing mass of unrelenting energy that would one day spill forth into this plane.

And if all her and Dagan's success was going to mean anything, they needed to know how to control such an entity.

### **Manipulation (1081-1086)**

It was 1081, when Darva was 67 years old and Dagan was 52, when he finally came to her and said it was time to start planning their claims. As a human, he had a finite amount of time before his body would give out on him and eventually his mind. This was the time to take their lands, usurp their families, and produce heirs to preserve their greatness.
It was clear that Darva's aging would proceed in the way of the drow. But Dagan was right, and they began plotting. They sent out agents from their League of Bastards - former pirates, or their new descendants. Her apprentices were assigned scries, able to watch these agents as they traversed the world.

One of their agents was able to infiltrate the court of the greatest Infobroker in Aradia. Darva herself took over the scrying of that individual, able to reach out and touch many different topics across the world. She kept her finger on the pulse, waiting for the right moments, the best opportunities, and... the most valuable targets. There were other bastards out there with like thinking to hers and Dagan's, after all.

### **Current**

In 1086, Darva's visions of the Void re-opening have been increasing in quantity. She knows the time to act is soon.