Vala Thorsdotter was the great-granddaughter of Bodvar the Black and a leader of her clan's warriors at the Granite Tower of Vaasa in the mid-to-late 14th century DR.[2] She played a key role in Melegaunt Tanthul's successful scheme to summon the Shade Enclave to Faerûn in the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR.[4]
Description[]
Vala was both nimble and muscular, with auburn hair and green eyes. She was a deeply honorable yet pragmatic woman who had spartan tastes and a cynical disregard for luxury. She was a hardened warrior, a capable leader, and an incorrigible lecher, and had a reputation for being mercurial such that she could be serious, silly, and seductive all in the same breath.[2][5] She was illiterate as of the mid-to-late 14th century DR.[1]
Possessions[]
Vala was a skilled wielder of her family's darksword, one of twenty black glass weapons given to her ancestor Bodvar the Black by Melegaunt Tanthul, one of the Princes of Shade.[2][6] The blade rendered most Weave-based protective enchantments and spells useless, and gave her a limited ability to scry on the goings-on in the bedchambers of the Granite Tower.[2]
Complementing her black darkblade, she was known to ride into battle clad completely in black, including her horse (named Raven),[5] her cloak, and her scale armor.[2]
Relationships[]
Vala took her duties to her clan very seriously, and had devoted much of her life to keeping them safe from the dangers of Vaasa. She was quite close with her family, including her grandparents as well as her sickly father, in whose honor she wielded their darksword.[2] She cared especially deeply for her young son, Sheldon, and was known to miss him while away from the Granite Tower.[2][5]
Vala was known to be very sexually aggressive toward men she found attractive, including the elf Galaeron Nihmedu. She was not close to her son's father, and may not have even known or cared who he was.[2]
Vala strongly believed that her people had benefited greatly from the boons given to them by Melegaunt Tanthul, which included both the darkswords and the Granite Tower itself. As such, when the time came to fulfill her great-grandfather's debt to him, she was more than happy to serve him irrespective of being honor-bound to do so.[2]
History[]
Vala was born sometime in the early-to-mid 14th century DR in the Granite Tower. Her clan was bound by a pact that her great-grandfather, Bodvar the Black, had made with the wizard Melegaunt Tanthul in the Year of the Moat, 1269 DR, such that they were to dispatch twenty warriors to assist him if he demanded it. Melegaunt invoked the pact in the Year of the Unstrung Harp, 1371 DR, by which point Vala was an accomplished warrior and leader among her people as well as a new mother of a young son.[2][7]
Vala and her men were given a mission to excavate a tomb beneath Evereska and gain access to the Sharn Wall, so she captured a beholder en-route to assist with the digging. Her party ended up coming into conflict with an Evereskan tomb guardian named Galaeron Nihmedu, and the ensuing magical battle between this elven wizard and Melegaunt inadvertently broke the Sharn Wall and allowed the phaerimm to escape and wreak havoc in Evereska. After a terse meeting with the Evereskan Hill Elders, Vala, Melegaunt, and Galaeron would then travel to Karse based on Melegaunt's promise that it held a way to save Evereska and the rest of Faerun from the phaerimm.[2][4][8]
Melegaunt would end up killed at Karse by the Wulgreth liches, but not before tricking Vala and Galaeron into believing that only his people, the arcanists of Netheril, could defeat the phaerimm. Acting on this belief, Galaeron tapped into the power of the Shadow Weave and summoned the shade city of Thultanthar from the Plane of Shadow.[4][5] In the ensuing conflict with the shadovar, Vala was captured by Escanor Tanthul, the eldest of the Princes of Shade.[1] She was subsequently rescued when Galaeron joined forces with Khelben Arunsun and four of the Seven Sisters to strike at the Netherese.[9]
Following these events, Vala returned home to her son and the Granite Tower in 1372 DR accompanied by Galaeron and his lover, Takari Moonsnow.[9]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Troy Denning (November 2001). The Siege. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 978-0-7869-2678-7.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Troy Denning (March 2001). “Rogues Gallery: Heroes of the Summoning”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon #281 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 83.
- ↑ Troy Denning (December 2009). “The Summoning”. Return of the Archwizards (Wizards of the Coast), p. 95. ISBN 978-0-7869-5365-3.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Richard Baker, James Wyatt (March 2004). Player's Guide to Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 167. ISBN 0-7869-3134-5.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Troy Denning (March 2001). The Summoning. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 978-0-7869-1801-0.
- ↑ Troy Denning (March 2002). Realms of Shadow ("Darksword"). (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-2716-X.
- ↑ Troy Denning (March 2001). “Rogues Gallery: Heroes of the Summoning”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon #281 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 81.
- ↑ Troy Denning (March 2001). “Rogues Gallery: Heroes of the Summoning”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon #281 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 79.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Troy Denning (November 2002). The Sorcerer. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 1–343. ISBN 978-0-7869-2795-1.