Valania Aloro

## Synopsis

Valania Aloro is the mother of Gragnok, although he has never met her and knows almost nothing about her. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Avara Wasanthi - her last living descendant other than Gragnok.

## History

Valania was born in Mimrinoth to Ava Aloro and Remyn Aloro. Her parents, both students at the College of Mimrinoth, tried to coax her throughout her childhood to pursue magic. Valania was never interested in magic, and resented her parents' obsession with it and repeated attempts to convince her to join them at the College. Eventually, their relationship grew tumultuous enough that Valania left Mimrinoth and moved to Saltcrest, a city she had visited a few times in her childhood, to start a simpler life for herself.

In Saltcrest, Valania worked a sailor, picking up work were she could as a deckhand or other similar jobs. She enjoyed the work, and was content live out her life in Saltcrest.

Several decades ago, Valania's mother sent her a parcel containing a vial of her own blood, and that of her father. She explained that it was just a safety measure, should something ever happen to them, as blood can be very useful for tracking a person down with magic. Valania thought little of the vials at the time, but kept them somewhere secret in her home for safekeeping.

## Relationship With Vincent Mason

Beginning about 50 years ago, Valania was in a relatively serious relationship with a man named Vincent Mason (who would go on to be Duke Vincent Mason). The relationship, which lasted for about seven years, was passionate and intense, but ended on poor terms. Vincent moved away, and Valania did not see him again.

## Relationship With Carric Blackburn

About 40 years ago, a ship that Valania was working on stopped in the port town of Zinnowitz for a few days. There, she had a brief, casual tryst with a man by the name of Carric Blackburn. She thought very little of the event until several weeks later, back in Saltcrest, when she learned that she was pregnant. Valania did not want to be a parent, and was in no position to raise a child. After the boy was born, she took him to Hartwell, where she met with Carric Blackburn and told him that the boy was her child. She explained that she intended to give the child to an orphanage, unless Carric wanted him. Somewhat begrudgingly, Carric took the child in, and Valania left and never returned.

## Plot

About ten years ago, Valania's parents, Ava Aloro and Remyn Aloro both tragically perished in a shipwreck on the way to Saltcrest from Mimrinoth. Though Valania wasn't especially close with her parents, she was still shaken by the event. She also found the circumstances of their shipwreck somewhat suspicious, based on her nautical knowledge, and wondered if it had been caused by their dabbling in magic.

Valania spent some time investigating the mysterious circumstances of her parents' death, even going so far as to use magic to investigate the shipwreck itself. She became increasingly suspicious that not only had magic been involved, but that someone had deliberately sank their ship and killed them. Paranoid that the killer could be after her next, based on evidence she found at the shipwreck, she never returned to her home in Saltcrest. Instead, she set out on a venture to try to learn who killed her parents, and why.

Most recently, Valania received a mysterious anonymous message informing her that the answers that she was looking for could be find in the ruins of Volus, so she set out to find them. In truth, this message was sent by Thalien Omadithas, and was intended to set up an ambush.