Lina

**Lina** , also known as **Lina the Slayer** is a citizen of the Helio Imperium and sister of Rylai. She earned her title when she defended the Imperium's Seventh Legion from an arachnid army. Subsequently, she acts as a sort of enforcer, defending the Imperium from dire threats. She is eventually named Regent after the death of Emperor Shabarra.

## History

### Early life

As a child, Lina's powers manifested strongly and out of control. After burning down seven homes in the span of seven years, she was sent to the Temple of the Sun to master control of her powers. She hated staying at the temple, with the Priestess there seeing her as an uncontrollable weapon, and Lina often argued that they couldn't teach her anymore and that she wanted to leave.

Years later, having long since mastered her powers, she saved the Imperium's Seventh Legion from an attack by an army of arachnids. She was summoned by Emperor Shabarra, who commended her efforts. However, she expressed her confusion; if Shabarra truly was the God-Emperor, why couldn't he have saved the Legion himself? Flustered, Shabarra changed the topic to that of her reward - gold, a legion of her own, or a name. She then revealed that the Legion had already given her a name - the Slayer.

### Book 2

Lina is first mentioned by Father in *Nothing with Nothing*, who speculates that her and her sister, Rylai, could be members of the Dragon Clan, with Lina manifesting traits similar to those of an ember dragon.

She makes her first appearance in *Desolate and Empty the Sea*, peering into a green gem similar to the one Mirana received from the Shopkeeper while surrounded by flames. In it, she sees a vision of herself from behind, wearing a golden crown. She is interrupted by her house guard, who informs her that a Dragon Knight is aggressively asking to see her. Stepping outside, she sees Davion arguing with her other guards, with Auroth and Bram at his side. The moment they see each other, she and Davion become aware of a connection to each other. That connection makes her willing to help them, especially when Davion presents Rylai's token. Having been told by Rylai not to say anything good about her to Lina, he tells her that Rylai is a terrible shrew, though Lina can tell it was Rylai who told him to say that.

The next day, she has a conversation with Davion about Slyrak and the Eye of the Worldwyrm. They both agree that they need to convince the Emperor that giving Davion the Eye would benefit Shabarra more. She agrees to take Davion to have an audience, if only to see the Emperor squirm in the face of a Dragon Knight.

That night, a signal flare goes up as Luna and her allies escape their prison. Lina takes to the skies and unleashes blasts of flame, immolating several prisoners without hesitation, and rounding up the others with aid from Imperium soldiers.

In *Burial of the Dead*, Lina enters Mirana's room to investigate what happened there. Seeing Mirana's crystallizing body and Davion being held prisoner, she orders Asar to release him. She witnesses Auroth's attempts to heal Mirana, and later comes to check in on the Princess again. Seeing Viceroy Kashurra there, she tells him to arrange Davion's audience with Shabarra so that he may see the Eye. She then tells Davion that Shabarra planned to marry Mirana in order to further consolidate his power, and believes that Mirana should not have returned home. She accompanies Davion to the throne room, but is told to wait outside.

Later that night, a hooded figure is seen meeting with Vanari while Luna and Nico watch from the rooftops. Just as the figure offers Vanari a green gem, like the Shopkeeper's, Luna attacks, and the figure runs away. Nico pursues the figure, only to see a signal flare go up as Slyvion flies around the city, pursued by the Praetorian Guard. The figure grimaces and reveals itself to be Lina, who unleashes a blast of flame to deter Nico and help the guards.

In *The Hyacinth Girl*, she saves a guardsman from falling after being blasted out of the sky by Slyvion, but he dies shortly after. She orders the other guards to fall back and engages Slyvion, who mocks her attempts to use fire against the Father of Fire. Her attempts to reach Davion are for naught as he attacks her, and she retaliates with a powerful blast of lightning. She realizes that her connection to Davion is because of Slyrak, and urges him to return Davion. Slyrak refuses, and demands the Eye, telling her that she must obey due to her being a part of him. Slyvion then attacks her with a powerful blast of fire, but she manages to wade through the blaze and turn it against him, then pulls Davion free.

When Davion wakes up, and she admits that she initially wanted to put him in a stockade and find a way to help him. Apparently Kashurra disagreed, and spun a story that made Davion the hero that tried to stop Slyvion. She tells him that without someone to rally behind, the houses of the Imperium will descend into civil war. Davion admits he has faith in her after she saved him, and convinces her to become Regent.

After Shabarra's funeral, she appears floating in the sky as Legatus Tihomir brings her legion into the city. She tells Davion of her dreams of a Helio Republic. She then appears before the Senate, escorted by Davion and a few of her guards, and encourages its members to choose her as Regent in exchange for the protection Shabarra could not provide. When Mirana reveals herself, she argues that the Princess only wants to use the army to further her own ambitions in the Nightsilver Woods. Likely out of spite for Mirana, Tihomir calls for a vote and withdraws her name, nominating Lina in her stead, announcing that she will support her with her wealth and legion. Not long after, Lina is crowned Regent, fulfilling the vision she saw in her Gem of True Sight. She meets Mirana in the throne room, and declares that if the Coriel’tauvi attack the Imperium, she will destroy their enclaves.

In *The Violet Hour*, Lina finally grants Davion access to the Eye, but nothing happens, and he declares that its a fake. She tells him to give up, that everything he was told was probably a lie. They try again at noon, but when nothing happens, Davion expresses his frustration with the Imperium and it's politics. Not having the heart to lie to him anymore, she confesses that she hired the assassin that nearly killed Mirana. Feeling betrayed and lost, Davion discards her house band, proof of their alliance, and leaves.

That night, Kashurra interrupts her audience with members of the War Council. He tells her that she is too impulsive and unpredictable to claim the Sun Throne. She lashes out, surrounding him with flames, but he uses a mysterious power to snuff them out. He then tells her that she should not have tried to have Mirana killed. Shaken by his strange powers, Lina attacks with several fire blasts, but Kashurra nullifies and absorbs them all. At the end of the episode, Lina's bloody body is seen in the destroyed throne room, as Kashurra states that he killed her for daring to harm Mirana.

### Legacy

Upon hearing about Lina's death, Davion and Slyrak, in a rare show of agreement, transform into Slyvion, with Slyrak declaring that he will kill Kashurra for harming one of his own. Unfortunately, Kashurra reveals his powers and blasts them back, knocking Davion out cold in an instant. Kashurra then chooses Tihomir to be Lina's replacement, though her rule barely lasts an hour as Asar leads an army to attack her legions and slashes her neck, killing her instantly.

A giant statue of Lina is built in the city after Mirana becomes God-Empress, which Rylai visits. Kaden accompanies her and offers her comfort.

## Appearance

Lina was a young woman with short, fiery red hair, fair skin, and amber eyes. Her face was covered with small white markings under her eyes and on her chin, which she may have received while she studied at the Temple of the Sun, as the Priestess and the other kids bore the same markings. When using her powers, she was often surrounded by a fiery aura, and her pupils turned gold. She is normally seen in a red dress with detached sleeves and gold accents, which she later switches for a black and red ensemble with a high collar when she becomes the Regent.

## Powers and Abilities

From a young age, Lina manifested incredibly strong fire magic, having burned down seven homes. At the Temple of the Sun, she gained control over her powers while still young, and seemed at ease with them. As an adult she became far more powerful, able to release powerful bursts of fire and lightning magic to obliterate an army of arachnids within minutes, earning the title of Slayer. By the series start she was acknowledged as an enforcer and protector of the Imperium, with there being a unique signal flare for her.

Lina has the ability to manipulate flames, creating rings, spheres and pillars of fire, as well as spontaneous explosions of flame that detonate with enough force to leave one's ears ringing. She can also cloak herself in a fiery aura and fly. She seems to be completely immune to intense heat, having withstood a fiery blast from the Father of Fire capable of melting a hole through a stone tower, and can deflect or redirect fire magic thrown at her with relative ease. If her opponents are immune to her flames, she can summon a lightning blast instead, which was powerful enough to blast Slyvion several meters away.

Father once hypothesized that Lina had ember dragon blood in her. This seems to be true, considering that she immediately felt a connection to Davion, likely due to their joint connection to Slyrak.

## Quotes

* (To Kashurra) *I'm gonna smash your dawn-forsaken machine and build something new! Something better!*

## Trivia

* Lina's attacks and moves are very similar to her moveset from Dota 2. When she fought Slyvion, the lightning blast she used was likely a reference to her Laguna Blade, and when she fought Kashurra she summoned a pillar of flame, which resembled her Light Strike Array. Even her fiery aura and ability to fly may be her Flame Cloak, which turns her into a flying unit in the game.
* Lina is based on the character Lina Inverse from the 1989 Japanese Light Novel series “Slayers,” by Hajime Kanzaka. Kanazaka’s Lina is a short tempered sorcery genius with similar red hair and eyes. Much like DOTA’s Lina, Lina Inverse has the ability to fly, and use fire-based magic. Additionally, Lina Inverse’s signature spell, the Dragon Slave was added into the DOTA game as homage to Lina Inverse. Lina Inverse also has the ability to summon a “Laguna Blade,” though the nature of techniques is vastly different between the two franchises. While DOTA’s Laugna Blade seems to be a lighting based attack, Lina Inverse’s Laugna Blade summons the power of chaos into the shape of a blade that can cut through virtually anything, even through other dimensions. Lina’s epithet “the Slayer,” is also an ode to the Light Novel her predecessor comes from.
* Bram finds her and Luna's names confusing.