Alia Beligarde

**Nation**
 **Born**
 **Titles**
* Baroness of Goodfield
* Steward of Kasselholt
 **Beliefs**
 **House**
 **Relatives**
* Nora [Redacted] Née Beligarde (Mother, Deceased)
* Anora Beligarde (Daughter)
* Alaric Mordrime (Uncle)
* Lydia Mordrime Née Beligarde (Aunt),
 **Coat of Arms**

Lady **Alia Beligarde** is a Stormwind noblewoman who rules over the County of Auster Vallum, Barony of Goodfield, and serves as the Steward of Kasselholt. She is an officer in the Stormwind Army who has taken on a more reserved role for the sake of consolidating her new holding.

## Personality & Beliefs

Alia is a withdrawn individual that prizes pragmatism and merit, often believing that skill, not birth, should dictate one's place in society, along with utilizing every resource one has in the pursuit of their goals. However, in the pursuit of her own ambition to achieve nobility, her openness to resources has often taken a back seat when confronted with more traditional methods of elevation; on more than one occasion, Alia has refused proposals of marriage, citing that she would rather achieve her goals through her own ability as a soldier, than by marrying into the peerage.

In the field, this often translates into an unyielding pursuit of her operational and personal objectives, even if they may be difficult to stomach for someone she believes may lack the will to see their tasks through to the end. However, she adamantly believes this does not preclude herself from adversity as well, and is often found in the midst of battle, directing her troops in harms way, or in the thick of battle alongside them.

With regards to her interpersonal relations, Alia is often at her most comfortable in a military setting, where she approaches superiors with the respect their position demands, while taking on a more free and informal air among peers and subordinates she has served alongside for an extended period, regardless of rank. In more social settings, it has often been said that her demeanor is stiff and frigid, with her discomfort often isolating her from others.

Following the destruction of Andorhal and the fall of Lordaeron, her worship of the Holy Light has atrophied to the point where she could hardly be called a believer. Instead, she has chosen to place her faith in her skills, her equipment, and the men and women she serves alongside, believing more empirical support will aid in her long-term survival than a Light that she believes only favors its chosen.

## Description

Standing five feet and ten inches tall, Alia is a woman that has been unmistakably marked by war. Her posture often  defaults to a parade rest even in a more casual setting, and rare is the smile that graces her stoic demeanor. She may be considered conventionally attractive, but a lack of makeup, hair cut short to fit under a helmet, and a preference for comfortable attire over more constricting or fashionable clothing makes it clear she prefers function over form.

Her thin, almond-shaped face is framed by dark brown hair that she constantly ensures never reaches beyond neck length. A sense of world weariness lies within her gaze, and there are periods where she may be staring into nothingness if no one is immediately grabbing her attention. A long, narrow scar runs through her right eye, followed by a smaller jagged claw mark runs along the upper bridge of her nose.

## Biography

### Birth & early life

Born the daughter of a merchant couple in Andorhal, Alia was expected to carry on her family's ambition of marrying up the social ladder to advance their own social standing. Despite this, she grew up admiring tales of knights and adventure, along with the war stories her aunt and uncle shared of their service during the Second War. In secret, her aunt cultivated Alia's dreams by teaching her the basics of fencing in secret, and putting her into contact with a family friend that had retired from the army not far from Andorhal.

### The Third War & its aftemath

Fate would eventually give her a chance to act on her dreams, albeit in the worst possible manner. When the Scourging of Lordaeron was underway, Andorhal was one of the first towns to be wiped out by the living dead and the cult that propagated their spread. Alia had barely managed to escape before joining a band of refugees that sought shelter behind Hearthglen's walls. Yet even there, she found no solace as she was forced to put the sword skills she'd learn to the test by surviving the ravenous hordes that descended upon the town. With her immediate family dead, and the kingdom descending into madness as the dead ran rampant, the growing movement to launch an exodus west to find safe refuge proved tantalizing to the young woman. Instead, she found only more conflict, fighting for her life amidst the conflicts that dotted Kalimdor during the Third War. However harrowing the experience may have been, it also presented an opportunity to break away from the dreary life she had been originally been doomed to, and forge herself into a soldier of prestige.

Following the Third War, she migrated to the Kingdom of Stormwind and enlisted in its army, hoping for a new start where she could put the baggage of her life in Andorhal behind her. During her tours, she applied herself to learning what skills she believe she'd need to both succeed as a soldier, and one day apply to an officership and potentially even elevation into nobility as well.

### The Third Burning Legion Invasion & the battles of three legions

In the waning months of the Burning Legion's third invasion, fate had once more given her a chance to prove her worth in the most undesired way possible. By now a captain within the 21st Legion, the forces she was deployed with were ordered to secure the territories north of the Thandol Span and hold the Burning Legion at bay as best they could to minimize the destruction wrought by the final wave of demonic forces pouring from the rift leading to Argus. Instead, much of the chain of command above her was wiped out in an assasination attempt, leaving her the surviving ranking officer of what was once a full strength legion and now a shattered, disorganized wreck being systematically picked off by the Burning Legion.

After surviving the ambush, she set herself to the task of rallying as many survivors of the 21st as she could and attempt to salvage their original orders. Her fortunes changed when the nearby 13th Legion linked up with her; although in a similarly diminished state, the 13th was home to several hardened veterans that knew how to discreetly navigate the northern Eastern Kingdoms, and even if their assistance required her to once more meet and work with her estranged cousin, Gabriel Mordrime, she could ill afford to turn down the aid. To facilitate this, the 13th Legion's highlord field promoted Alia to the rank of commander to grant authority over the remnants of the 21st.

What followed was several months of guerilla warfare as she helped coordinate the efforts of both the 13th and the 21st to strike back against the demons, and rally survivors of other nearby regiments an local forces into an improvised coalition. Although they gradually lost ground against the Burning Legion's relentless onslaught, the coalition made the demons pay dearly for every mile. In the end though, Alia and her allies were forced to make a final stand in the mountain passes of Alterac. Yet instead of meeting their end, the forces on Argus had managed to eke out a victory that, while pyrrhic due to subsequently leading to the Fourth War, had saved not just Alia, but her surviving comrades from total destruction as the demoralized demons either fled, or were cut down in their bafflement at a supposedly certain victory being snatched away.

Against all odds, Alia survived the most harrowing war of her life, and while she still continued to serve in the army, the recognition of her and her allies' triumph allowed her to not only retain her field promotion, but carry on her service in the coming Fourth War with the possibility of further advancement in her future.

### Fourth War

Following much needed R&R after surviving the Burning Legion, Alia and the reorganized 21st served in the Eastern Kingdoms theater; first by partaking in the disastrous Battle of Lordaeron, and then meeting the Horde's forces in the Stromgarde warfront. For much of the Fourth War's duration, Alia and her forces endured the grueling siege warfare that came to define the fighting Arathi, often desperately defending Stromgarde's walls one week, or advancing through trenches and bloody skirmishes to threaten the Horde's siege camp in what may as well have been a never-ending meat grinder. Yet in the end, the Alliance's forces were successful in pushing the Horde out of Stromgarde, and Alia and the 21st were able to share in the glory.

### Post-War Elevation to the Peerage

Follwing the Fourth War, much of the 21st Legion disbanded after their tours of duty were completed, and Alia was among their ranks. With two successful campaigns in two harrowing wars to her credit and a not-insignificant number of Stormwind's nobility casualties of war, she petitioned the House of Nobles to be elevated into the peerage and be granted an estate. Although she had served Stormwind and the Alliance dutifully, the issue of her commoner background brought with it her fair share of detractors.

Ultimately, Alia received the title and land she had sought, but it was far from what one would envision to be worthy land. The Barony of Masonmire was bequeathed to her, with her detractors believing that the estate would lead to the unraveling of a commoner upstart, and her supporters believing they had nominated someone fit enough to reverse the estate's decline. Long since resigned to fate's peculiar way of fulfilling her desires in a backhanded manner, Alia accepted the land without argument, and has set to work on rebuilding Masonmire. Here, she will make her stand; she will either fulfill her dreams of being a woman destined for a position in society greater than as a mere merchant's daughter, or be undone by her very ambition.

### Present Day

Although Alia's efforts to revitalize Masonmire met a brick wall when her personal funds were exhausted, a call to arms for Operation Greenwall soon granted her a chance to potentially gamble both her and her fief's future on the campaign. Taking on a loan, she led several volunteers from the disbanded 21st Legion into battle against rebels in Stranglethorn, along with the Bloodsinger Gurubashi Trolls, and fleets of pirates both living and dead. The gamble paid off; with looted Bloodsinger tribute, plundered pirate booty, and tribute from a loa within the jungle, she soon had enough funds to not only pay off the debt, but stabilize her barony enough to halt its steady decline, and give it the chance to mend as she worked to further her position in the army and the House, all in the interest of increasing her resources.

## Titles

### Countess of Auster Vallum

Alia Beligarde is the Lady of Auster Vallum, the fiefdom that expanded from the Barony of Masonmire she was originally responsible for governing. Its territory stretches from lower-middle of Westfall's plains to the southernmost reaches of Westfall's mountains.

### Commander of the Grand Alliance Army

Once Alia was able to enlist, she started in the ranks of the Stormwind Army as a recruit. As the Alliance's armed forces have grown over the years along with her rise in the ranks, she transferred into the Grand Alliance Army's command structure, eventually earning the rank of Commander during the Burning Legion's latest invasion.

## House

Alia Beligarde is the founder of House Beligarde. It is currently establishing itself thanks to its youth.

At present, the sole heir to the House is Alia's legitimized naturalborn daughter, Anora Beligarde

## Relationships

Due to a focus on her military career that has only recently loosened, Alia has not had the opportunity to establish relationships beyond the officers and subordinates she has served alongside.

Of her familial relationships, they can be best described as...Mixed. Little if anything is known of her parents; few records survived Lordaeron's fall to provide legal documentation of her lineage, and Alia has made a conscious effort to strike her father's name from her life. While she has kept a firm connection with her aunt and uncle, her meetings with her cousin are often cordial at best, confrontational at worst. While they have been known to work side by side and even have moments of joviality, those party to their encounters often remember the snark taking precedence over kinship.