Valera

**Valera** is a near-immortal elf warrior who was the leader of the original Paladins as well as the leader of the original Resistance. Valera, alongside Karne and the former Paladins, ushered in a new golden age. She would rise again years later opposed against the Magistrate's banning of Crystal-Powered Technology, forming the Resistance.

## Background

Long ago, the Realm was in chaos; though the dragons had been dealt with by the Warders, a new threat kept the Realm in chaos: the Goblin Scourges. The northern side of the Realm was the victim of this chaos, and in response, a group of warriors, the Paladins, came together to end this threat, with Valera, a powerful warrior, leading the group. After two of the scourges, along with the assistance of the newly created Stagalla, the Paladins fought back the goblins and had finally brought peace to the Realm.

With no more threats, there wasn't any need for a group of warriors, and so, their job fulfilled, the group disbanded, Valera heading back to her normal life as a new group, the Magistrate was created, led by her ally Karne as Grand Magister. The Realm would enter a Golden Age that would last for nearly a century.

However, a new discovery was made that would begin the end of this peace; a new form of magic focused through crafted crystals with near limitless potential for technological advances; a crystal-powered revolution overtook the Realm, with many fantastic new inventions being created. However, not everyone had the purest of intentions.

Accidents, power-hungry individuals, loss of life and misuse of power threatened the peace and safety of the Realm. Karne, fearing these accidents and individuals would send them back to chaos and war from time's past and destroy everything that had been built, decided to outlaw crystals from the general public; hoping to keep the Realm peaceful.

However, not everyone agreed with Karne, with many rallying behind Valera, who herself disagreed with Karne's actions, believing freedom to be more important than peace, leading to the creation of the Resistance. Valera would weaponize crystal magic, and reawaken the old Stagalla to help her once more, the stone people oath-bound to assist. Though the Resistance was almost defeated in their first battle after the loss of one of the Stagalla, Terminus, the other remaining Stagalla, Inara, rallied the group and reinvigorated them. With the group's morale restored, Valera urged the group to take up the flag of the old Paladins once more, and thus, the Crystal War had begun.

At a later point, Valera led the Resistance deep into the Shattered Desert in search of shards of the moon. Eventually, the group encountered the Magistrate, there for the same reason, and later, they also came across the time-traveler Atlas, who revealed what would happen to the Realm if current events continued. The group eventually encountered the Magistrate once more, resulting in a massive battle between the two sides in the desert town of Bazaar.

The Resistance, seemingly being outmatched, caused Valera to call out to the Moon Goddess of the town, Io, and with some further encouragement from Jenos, the Shattered Goddess arrived in her town to protect her followers from the battle.

When Yagorath was released and the threat of the Darkness Jenos had foretold about finally arrived, Valera and the Resistance stood their ground in the fight to protect the Realm alongside everyone else ― friend or foe ― until Azaan descended from the Pyre to seal Yagorath once more.

Following Yagorath's defeat and Karne stepping down as Grand Magister, Valera felt inadequate in her role as a protector of the Realm. She felt as though every time she rallied the Resistance to fight for what she thought right, they'd barely survive, and always lose. As the dust settled and the New Magistrate spoke of peace and stability, Valera found herself missing the field, and she quietly departed the Resistance to look for a new fight over the horizon.

* This information comes from the "A Realm Divided" lore cinematic, The Fight of the Shattered Desert story, Io's teaser trailer, Yagorath's teasers, this stream, and Issues 1 and 6 of Series 1 of Paladins Chronicles.

## Trivia

* Valera has appeared a total of 9 times. This includes her appearances in the A Realm Divided lore video, briefly prior to this in Jaguar Falls on a poster, Atlas' reveal trailer (as a picture), in the End Times story, Io's teaser trailer, in the Magistrate's Archives map (as a statue), in Corvus' card Priority Targets (as a picture), in Octavia's card Interdiction (as a statue), and finally, in Saati's teaser trailer (as a coin, which also appears in Saati's various influencer packages and her splash art).

* A pirate-themed version of Valera also appears on Sea Queen and Crimson Tide Saati's coin (though only the model thrown out in matches with her Richochet ability for an unknown reason), oddly not featuring a pirate version of Karne alongside it.

* As mentioned here, it's assumed Valera (and other characters not shown that are involved in the conflict) was present in Yagorath's trailer and assisted in fighting, but wasn't shown due to not being able to show every single character.

* Valera is mentioned once by two characters in-game, these being Vora (▶️) and Overlord Khan (▶️).

* Unlike Karne, Valera has directly spoken in official media, albeit lacking any voice acting due to the Fight of Shattered Desert story being written.

* According to Atlas, Valera survived much longer than most against the Darkness, to the point there was no longer any Resistance or Magistrate.

* In the Lost Future, Valera would seemingly be killed by Yagorath herself.

* While previously hinted at, it was confirmed here that Valera is a warrior.
	+ Despite being a warrior, Valera is capable of using magic, as revealed here.

* Valera is revealed to have defeated dragons in the past, as stated in one of the teasers for Yagorath.

* As stated here, Valera didn't join the Magistrate as her job as a warrior was over.

* As revealed here, Valera fights for the freedom of the Realm, which is why she clashes with Karne, who fights for the peace of the Realm.

* While Karne and Valera are currently planned to never become playable characters, Paladins artist Thunderbrush once attempted to pitch concepts of the two as playable characters, as revealed here.
	+ As expanded on later, the original idea was that a future version of Valera would also come back in time, having turned her sword into an "uber-weapon of sorts", to destroy Yagorath, similarly to Atlas. Though this makes little sense, most notably due to it being implied she already died in the lost future.
	+ An early sketch of this concept can be seen here, though the concept never progressed into ability or playstyle ideas.
	+ It was later revealed / implied that both Karne and Valera were originally intended to be the next two champions after Yagorath, but by the time Yagorath's voice pack was being written, the two had already been cancelled.
	+ One of the reasons the two haven't been made playable is due to their status as major background characters leading the two largest groups in the lore, as revealed here.
	+ Another reason is due to them being the two most powerful characters in the Realm, as was said here (▶️) in the Evil Mojo Meet & Greet.
	+ Despite this, Karne and Valera aren't forbidden from becoming champions, but more along the lines of pitches for them being "impossible to gain traction on".
	+ Ironically, all the reasons given as to why Valera couldn't be playable have all become invalid, as Lian being made Grand Magister in Karne's place shows the position isn't actually as big a deal as it was made out to be, while Valera being too powerful to become a champion has been invalidated by her being killed in the Lost Future by Yagorath, as well as seemingly being unable to kill Yagorath in the modern day, even with the help of powerful characters such as Furia, Imani, Io, and Jenos, while Azaan defeated Yagorath with ease.

* The face of Valera's statue in the Magistrate's Archives map used Skye's face as a base.

**Directions**Anti-Abyss  •  Anti-Darkness  •  Nature Protectors  •  Neutral
**Groups** Bomb Kingdom  •  Deepwerks  •  Eternal Pyre  •  Followers of Io  •  House Aico  •  House Arturos  •  Outer Tribunal  •  Paladins (Former)  •  Red River Orcs  •  Sentinels  •  Shadow Tribunal  •  Summer Court  •  Tau-Kor Monastery  •  Thousand Hands Guild  •  Warders  •  Unknown Groups
**Noteworthy Items / Forces**Crystals  •  Magic  •  Souls  •  Warder's Key  •  Warder's Relic
**Notable Positions**Abyssal Lord  •  Border Lord  •  Grand Magister  •  Pyre Lord
**The Realm**Abyss  •  Aico Tundra  •  Crosswind Hold  •  The Eight Oceans  •  Enchanted Forest  •  Greenwood  •  Lunar Coast  •  Seris (Village)  •  Temple Isles  •  Trade Row  •  Warder's Watch
**Races**Abyssal Creature  •  Animal  •  Construct  •  Darkness  •  Dragon  •  Deities  •  Dwarf  •  Elemental  •  Elf  •  Faerie  •  Goblin  •  Human  •  Leipori  •  Orc  •  Pyre Creature  •  Ska'drin  •  Spirit  •  Stagalla  •  Tigron  •  Transformed  •  Undead  •  Vulpin  •  Wyrin
**Complete Timeline**Complete Timeline  •  Paladins Chronicles
**Story Arcs**Crystal Arc  •  Darkness Arc  •  Ska'drin Arc
**Time Periods**The Ancient Age  •  The Age of the Paladins  •  The Golden Age  •  The Age of Resistance  •  The Lost Future
**Notable Events**Dragon Scourge  •  Goblin Scourges  •  Golden Age  •  Crystal War  •  Koga's Revenge  •  Destruction of Seris  •  Battle of Ascension Peak  •  Warders Return  •  The Fight of the Shattered Desert  •  Shattered Goddess' Return  •  The Summoning of Raum  •  The Darkness Released  •  Shift of Power
**Other**NPCs  •  Updated Bios  •  Alternate Realities  •  Canon Skins  •  Statues  •  Legends  •  Misconceptions  •  Retcons  •  Character Feats  •  Alpha Lore

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThunderBrush/status/1437046231876964357
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThunderBrush/status/1437045673904455680
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThunderBrush/status/1437048781707661314
4. ↑ File:Karne and Valera Playable.png
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThunderBrush/status/1437385072626343941
6. ↑ [1]
7. ↑ [2]