Vae
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
Contents |
Sound Track
- Fall out Boy - Beat It (NightCore) (MJ cover)
Appearance
Vaeltia stands at about sixty one inches (5’1”) high, she has bright blue eyes that manage to show her emotions quite plainly when she isn’t actively concealing them. She has dirty-blond hair, that falls just past her shoulders, on average it is usually pulled up into a short ponytail or a tight bun. She has slightly tanned skin that boasts various light scars on her hands, what looks like a scar from a raptor on her left shoulder, one long ‘s’ shaped scar across her back varying other scars are found on her body of inconsequential nature.
Frequently she wears her police badge around her neck on a leather thong, more often than not under her shirt
Nimbus
The air around her crackles with energy generating both light and heat and her voice seems to echo with the voices of many.
Biography
Emily Gideon was the product of a drunken one night stand during her parent’s college days. And became a form of foundling when her mother decided to take the veil, leaving the her on her father’s doorstep. Other than having a single father taking care of her she grew up like any other child. She would dive into libraries and their fantasy and science fiction sections to use it as an escape from school-yard tormentors. Although more than once she turned back on the bullies with a heavy hand.
It was the early teen years that had her turning just a little bit delinquent, like many others, she became involved in smoking then, and started to date the type of men her policeman father wouldn't want her to. But she never went too far. She was still the good catholic girl that she had been raised as. When she was sixteen a fairly traumatic meeting with five gentlemen in an alleyway[1] drove her to the nearest catholic church, and into the arms of a nun.
This nun happened to be her mother.
Nearly three years later, after the wonderful time spent with counselors and extra defense classes she found herself in the same alley way, albeit more prepared. She had planned it all from the beginning, her former boyfriend, an offering of sorts, and the revenge she finally claimed with the knife he had used to mark her.
It took two days for the guilt to set in. And every day she began to light a candle in repentance for what she had done -- she never went to confession with the matter, the shame was crippling as it was. The weight of it all crushing her -- the tears wouldn't stop. A teenage murderer. One day, in the midst of her penance, she found herself in a small wooden chapel, full of light and candles for the past to help guide their souls to heaven.
The salt of her own tears at the small altar and the feel of the cold wax candle in her hand was something she would remember for all times.
Awakening
It was nothing like she had ever seen before.
The Aether was before her -- hot with fury and wrath. It was beautiful, awesome, and fear inducing. For a moment she found herself frozen, then hunted by the denizens of the Supernal Realm. The thunder of their horses of flame, the wildfire of the chase.
She ran, until she couldn't run any more. And then in the last effort as she saw a growing chasm beneath her she turned, trusting on her instincts and the motions of animals when chased by a wildfire. She ran towards the flame, towards what was sure to be her end. The candle she was holding so tightly was beginning to melt around her hand, as she ran towards the fire and the sound.
Around her lightning filled the sky and the flecks of creation filled in her wake. The Exhilaration of the chase rushed through her veins, urging her forward, and then the spire rose up before her shining white and nearly impossible to look at.
Inside light was everywhere, the tower was like stained glass and on every surface there were candle holders burning bright the names of others. And before her one empty for her. She peeled the candle out of her hand and placed it on the stand, and instantly the flame burst to life.
Seconds later she was ushered out of the burning chapel, untouched and with no breathing issues.
Learning Control
It didn't take long after the flames died down for West to find her. He was the first person to offer some sort of guidance in her first steps, and a bit of understanding to what she had experienced. She was wary at first, but eventually came to trust him, be it through feeling she had or just the way he treated her, it's yet to be known.
He took her to his ranch, but means of automatic teleportation, and the lessons began right away[2]. Simple things at first as she took her first view of the world with open and awake eyes[3]. It was then that he offered to take her as an apprentice, which she declined due to her own soon to be imposed distance. Because for the newly awakened, the calls of the mortal world are still hard enough. At the end of the summer she would be headed to Chicago, IL to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)[4].
Although the offer was turned down, West still extended the chance for when she returned from school, and although it was informal, the two of them both knew that such a relationship would happen in the future.[5]
Chicago
Vaeltia's reason for going to chicago was her acceptance into SAIC, although while she was in the city she was found by Mages and brought before the Consillium for acknowledgment. In addition to her classes she also worked with the Sunhawks and was initiated into the Adamantine Arrow. As the years progressed in Chicago she became more proficient in magic, but mostly in the Art she had set up to do. She learned her lessons with the Adamantine Arrow and frequently patrolled the City with the Sunhawks in their unique way.
Through this she became accustomed to flying, and the secondary form of a Hawk[6], as it was simple initiation to the Cabal itself. Her time in Chicago was cut short when a bolt from the blue took out Song and left Vaeltia mid air[7].
The resulting investigation by the Hierarch and Guardians of the Veil ended with a KOS order on her head and her stand in the Order stripped from her as she ran from the city at the behest of the remnants of her Foster Cabal.
Vaeltia, herself, isn't sure how far the knowledge spread of her alleged murder of Adamantine Arrow Counselor Song, but she knows that she will never be able to pass through Chicago again. Barring specific measures to avoid detection.
The Sunhawks
While in Chicago she was fostered in an Arrow and Guardian Sentinel Cabal called the Sunhawks.
The Sunhawks were headed by a female Thyrsus Arrow named Song. Song filled the temporary place as Vaeltia's mentor while she was serving with the Sunhawks, as well as being one of the instructors in her initiation into the Arrows. Considering the number of life-proficient mages within the cabal, they have a unique way of patrolling the city, and make frequent use of the few Orphans of Proteus that have claimed their spirit-shapes and the Cabal as their own.
Counselor Song
Was the leader of the Sunhawks and was one of the Orphans. She took a special interest in Vaeltia, preferring to be the one to force her into her Hawkshape. She was murdered from a bolt that may have been aimed at Vaeltia as well as herself. They were both in Hawkshape at the time, and Song didn't live to hit the ground.
The guilt[8] is there even though she knows she wasn't the one who killed Song.
Sacramento
Vaeltia returned to Sacramento as soon as she could get out of the situation that the Consillium of Chicago had put her in. Being home once again she began to seek out other members of the Awakened community while selling her art on the side through one of the local galleries.
Apprenticeship
Vaeltia's formal apprenticeship to West was announced in Consillium VI in the midst of a Faerie Glade in Panama.
Protect and Serve
While still being under West's tutealage Vaeltia began her trek and training in the Police Academy.
Charge of the Arrows
Vaeltia took the position of First Talon and maintains the Arrow part of the Circle of Creation as best she can considering the time constraints the rest of her life puts on her.
Paint to Paper
Vaeltia still holds to her artistic nature, and she has worked on commission for Clark Miller for Avalon. Her painting there is displayed above the bar.
- The canvas is dark, a silhouette primarily of a woman dancing, behind her there are the lights of a club and the fainter shapes of others in the club. Vitality seems to pulse from the canvas, like the lights might just be moving slightly. And some of the light reflecting off of the surfaces seems to show the faintest of features on the figure in the foreground[9].
Her other paintings are either hidden[10] or can be seen displayed as a series in some of the galleries of Sacramento.
| Name | Description | Rating |
| Behold, Truth | The skyline shines and seems to sparkle and in the shadows of the buildings and the reflections of the buildings there seems to be a ‘fraying’. Like there is something underneath. In some of the lighter colors underlying layers of reds and greens and silver and gold can be seen | 8/8 |
| Even in Darkness | The painting is based in darkness, and the neon arcs and lines of light form through their motion and ‘noise’ the skyline. Above them is the hint of a storm brewing and the the tension is visible as the lightning gathers in the cloud to strike. | 8/8 |
| Unconnected Threads | The skyline is painted through the use of strands, thin lines expanding and forming images and shadows of images. The echo of the skyline continuing through all. | 10/8 |
| Doubletake | The skyline seems to be blurred, there are no direct hard lines and there are the afterimages of a burning city, and one higher and brighter. The trees at the foreground seem to show all four seasons at once. | 8/8 |
| Mindscape | The skyline is slightly warped, like some of the buildings are being seen through both squinted eyes and in a carnival mirror. The colors are mostly grey although there is selective color, but it is usually a color that wouldn’t be associated with what it is depecting. | 10/8 |
| Falling Sideways | The skyline seems simple enough but there are the smallest of ripples throughout the city, and the perspective seems off and not off at the same time. Almost like looking through a thin layer of water that is constantly shifting. | 8/8 |
| Ephemeral Curtains | The skyline seems to be cloaked for a, but in closer inspection the faded ‘mist’ that encompasses the picture can almost be parted and everything seems to have it’s own personality. The trees at the forefront seem to stand haughtily or proud, where as the buildings lean slightly as they wrestle with the weight they have been given to shoulder. | 9/8 |
| Every Breath | The skyline is filled of light, and each point of light is clustered. the small bird that was painted into a tree seems to have tracings of light within his feathers and across the bridge each of the six cars there have at least one trace of light coming from them. The flora shed their own light, but it is of a much more ‘green’ nature. | 8/8 |
| The Bell Toll | The painting is similar to Every Breath only that the points are not light, they are more of a darker shadow with a touch of light. They do not touch everything in particular but as if the presence of grief is shown. The skyline itself seems a little bleak, but the small run of flowers along the foreground seem to be highlighted in their transience. | 8/8 |
| Heavy Sleep | The textures of the objects in the painting seem to be more important, as well as the shading. The painting doesn’t hold much to illusory space but delivers in illusory tactile design. Objects have been given weight and a form of physicality. | 9/8 |
| Unfettered | The skyline is a clean image in 'black and white' painted through a mosaic of dots in colors of yellow, pink, blue and white. Thereby showing giving the illusion of a flat image at a distance. | 8/8 |
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