User:Vestialia

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Statistics

Name: Vestialia
Race: Drow
Age: 228
Eyes: Cold Scarlet
Hair: Long, Straight Alabaster
Skin: Tattooed Ebony
Height: 5'3"
Build: Svelte
Born in: Trist'oth
Born to: House Hla’t’tar (Destroyed – Cause unknown and unimportant to Vestialia)
Current House: House D'Artes
Class: Priestess of Vakmatharas (Formerly of Astrala)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Relationship Status: Single

Disposition

Of a calmer nature than most Drow, Vestialia seems to have a lot of patience for things that would otherwise drive her kind into a frenzy. She tolerates most races, even Elves, though it is evident by various snorts, scoffs, and growls that she does not find their company pleasant in the least and has merely grown accustomed to dealing with her prejudices after years of living on the surface. She often appears annoyed even before being bothered by anyone, yet isn’t quick to react aggressively unless her life is threatened.

Though she was once a respected Priestess of Astrala, and thus looked down her nose at the opposite sex, she has since abandoned these feelings of superiority and while traditional gender roles are somewhat ingrained in every Drow female, Vestialia suppresses any urges to assert dominance. Trist’oth has changed, after all, and she is a highly adaptable individual. She will do whatever keeps her alive and puts her in the position of power she desires. Respect and admiration are no longer things one simply receives at birth, she knows this. She hopes to one day earn that which she had initially been given only because of her gender.

History

• Vestialia is the first-born daughter of the Matron of House Hla’t’tar. Like most females of noble birth, she is sent to the Spider Queen’s Temple to train and become a devout member of Astrala's following as soon as she comes of age. For just over a century, the young Drow dedicates her every waking moment to the Priestess Academy, absorbing all the available knowledge from her mentors and the religious texts found in the Temple

• Excelling in her studies of the rites and rituals of Drow worship, Vestialia graduates and returns to House Hla’t’tar a full-fledged Priestess of Astrala. Serving both House and Temple, she proves herself a valued member of Drow society and earns her place among some of the most favored of Astrala’s priestesses. Though the House is of a lower rank, the Matron and her daughters remain ever hopeful of one day finding glory as First House.

• All is well and right in Vestialia’s world until the simultaneous pregnancies of her mother and a younger sister shatter her otherwise perfect existence. The birth of her niece causes much elation within the House for the High Priestess of Trist’oth herself attends and declares with certainty the child will not only surpass the Matron’s daughters, but the Matron herself. It will be this child, not Vestialia, who will become the new Matron of Hla’t’tar and bring them the glory they had for so long coveted.

• The news does not sit well with the first-born daughter and when her mother gives birth to her third son four days after the much celebrated birth of her niece, Vestialia sees an opportunity to rid herself of the child who would stand in her way. As decreed by Drow religious law, the third-born son is to be sacrificed to Astrala. However, Vestialia conspires with her brothers to switch the newborns and since she is given the task of performing the ceremony while her mother rests after the strenuous labor, nothing prevents her from carrying out her scheme. The attending priestesses and Vestialia’s own sisters are none the wiser until it is too late.

• It becomes clear to all present very quickly that the sacrifice is not only rejected by Astrala, but has indeed angered the Spider Queen. Vestialia misjudged the consequences of her actions for when her plot is uncovered the community is in an uproar. She had not only sacrificed a female destined for greatness, she had spared the life of a worthless male in doing so. The crime is unforgiveable and the repercussions will haunt Vestialia for years to come.

• The third-born son of Hla’t’tar is never found, his older brothers refusing to reveal his location before they are put to death for their role in the conspiracy. For Vestialia, however, there is a fate worse than death. Excommunication. She is cast out of not only the Spider Queen’s Temple, but her House as well. Stripped of her social standing and left utterly alone in the Underdark, ridiculed and humiliated by even the lowliest of citizens, males included, Vestialia journeys to the surface world.

• Though the disgraced priestess despises the world above and the bright sun that scorches its landscapes, she grows accustomed, slowly, to life there. She hopes that in sequestering herself on the surface, away from her kin, she will discover a means of placing herself back in Astrala’s favor.

• The years go by painfully slowly for Vestialia and her prayers go unanswered, seeming to fall on deaf ears. None of her attempts to appease the Spider Queen and return to grace do anything but drive the woman deeper into despair. Little does she know that it is not only her prayers that go unheard, but even those priestesses that have remained in Astrala’s favor for the Goddess has grown mysteriously silent, no longer paying regular visits to her Temple.

• Vestialia, upon receiving word of the turmoil in Trist’oth caused by a rebellion of the long persecuted males, believes her people have truly been abandoned by their deity. The resentment that has been growing inside the woman since her excommunication finally blossoms into complete and utter hatred. The years she has spent chasing after the love of a Goddess who repays complete loyalty with abandonment are at long last seen for what they are. Wasted.

• Vestialia returns to the Underdark, her beloved subterranean home, to find that it is no longer the home she remembers. House Hla’t’tar lies in ruins, overrun and destroyed during the rebellion, or perhaps during the invasion of the Dark Immortals even before that. She cares not to investigate and can only feel that justice has been served. The Temple to which she had once dedicated her life stands sealed and vacant while a Patron-led House sits as the highest ranking House in Trist’oth. This is indeed not the home she left behind, but it is home nonetheless and the fallen priestess wishes for nothing more than to become a proper citizen of Drow society once again.

• Trying to find her niche in Trist’oth, Vestialia realizes she will get nowhere unless she can regain the power she has lost in renouncing Astrala. She considers her options carefully, determining which deity is most worthy of her praise. Her own tendencies towards spells of pestilence and decay leave her with only one clear option. Vakmatharas, the God of Death. She makes the journey to his temple and spends time there learning what it means to be a priestess to the dark God.

• Upon gaining sufficient knowledge and converting to the worship of Vakmatharas officially, Vestialia again travels down into the depths of Trist’oth, this time in search of a House. She has regained some of her divine-gifted magics, yet she has by no means spent enough time in Vakmatharas’ service to reap many of the benefits the God of Death has to offer. She believes that by joining another Drow House and having their resources at her disposal, she will be able to better serve her new deity.

• Rejoining Drow society proves more difficult than Vestialia guessed. Even after the rebellion, many Houses retain their traditional ways and thus do not permit the excommunicated priestess to join their clans for fear of angering Astrala further. Her new devotion to Vakmatharas and her highly perceptible hatred for the Spider Queen makes it all the more difficult to find a willing House to take her in. Up until this realization, Vestialia has never considered joining any Patriarchal Houses, but it soon becomes clear that she may not have any other options.

• News reaches Vestialia of the current Patron of the First House becoming a Lich and comes to the conclusion that House D’Artes, in the highest seat of power in Trist’oth, was her most obvious choice from the very beginning. She seeks out Tiphareth, the Lichdrow Patron of the House, and requests admittance to the House as a Priestess of Vakmatharas. Though she expects yet another rejection, she is pleasantly surprised when her request is granted and she is permitted to join House D’Artes. From her new seat, Vestialia expects to find glory and respect beyond any she had ever know in Hla’t’tar and her first order of business is pleasing her dark God in order to become stronger than those priestesses still wasting breath in prayers for Astrala.