Meet Hildria Amellius, the Kinslayer
She/Her ยทLawful GoodยทInquisitor of Iomedae
Hildria (nicknamed โHildeโ) was born in Vigil, capital of Lastwall. Her family could be described as devout followers of the Inheritor. Her father, Cullan Lariviere, was a cleric of Iomedae serving as a healer in the Knights of Ozem, while her mother, Belianna Amellius, was a paladin of the same order. Both were Taldans, and they met and fell in love on the battlefield.
Her mother was the very embodiment of the purest and most idealistic kind of knight. She devoted her life to the tenets of vigilance, valor, and self-sacrifice, but it was precisely this devotion that led to Hildria's tragedy. During a patrol, Belianna confronted a vampire. Though the creature had repented and left the Whispering Way, the tenets of a paladin did not allow her to simply let him go. Driven by hunger, he attacked her, and Belianna nearly lost her lifeโsaved only by the timely arrival of her comrades.
Only later did she discover that she had already been pregnant at the time. Her companions did everything in their power to cure the lingering curse left by the bite, while her husband searched endlessly for ways to ease her suffering during the pregnancy. Everyone urged her to abandon the ill-timed child, but she knew that either choice, abandoning it or carrying it to term, carried the risk of death. Believing this to be a trial set by her goddess, she chose to bring the child into the world. In the end, she endured immense suffering during childbirth and died from blood loss, leaving behind a pale, withered infant girl with fangsโsilent from the moment of her birth: a dhampir daughter.
Hildria took her mother's surname in remembrance of that brave yet over-sacrificing woman. Despite everything, her childhood was filled with loveโperhaps because the warriors of Iomedae were just and compassionate people. Cullan, devastated by the loss of his wife, devoted himself entirely to his daughter, and her mother's comrades treated her as one of their own. Though she bore the curse of undead nature, and though many quietly feared she might fall into evil, something she could keenly sense in the air, they still tried to guide her toward the light with love. To sate her unnatural hunger, they usually fed her animal blood, and occasionally blood drawn from wounded soldiers. But everything changed when, as a child, she once failed to control her hunger and bit her own father. The fear surrounding her has deepened, and protests arose among the knights. To those who had never known Belianna, keeping a half-undead child among them was intolerable. They feared she was a future dangerโthat one day this ill-omened child might bring catastrophe. Unable to endure the growing pressure and emotional torment, Cullan made the painful decision to send his daughter away from the outpost. He entrusted her to the Crusader War College in Vigil, hoping that strict military discipline might suppress her nature.
At the academy, Hildria faced even harder treatment than before. Yet having grown up amidst war, she was already more adept than her peers, whether in wielding weapons or understanding enemies and history. She quickly adapted to the life of a cadet. She learned fast and managed to restrain her bloodlust under intense discipline. However, the constant suspicion, doubt, and rumors left deep marks on her personality. She knew that undead blood ran in her veins, that she bore a vampire's curseโand that the people around her hated nothing more than the undead legions of Tar-Baphon. Even if she fought and sacrificed herself for her faith, there would always be those who slandered her with malicious speculation. Both her parents were devout followers of Iomedae, whose sworn enemies were the undead. And yet, when she fell asleep to stories of the Shining Crusade, when she gazed at the radiant goddess in stained glass, and when after her first true prayer she felt the sacred light of the Inheritor burn in her palmโฆ Hildria felt both comfort and confusion. Sometimes she believed her mother had made a terrible mistake in choosing to bring her into the world. But more often, she would clutch Iomedae's holy symbol and silently vow to finish what her mother had begunโto destroy all enemies of humanity.
She knew there was always a shadow of evil within her soul, and so she never dared to dream of becoming a paladin. That was her lifelong knot of sorrowโa vision she longed for, yet feared to reach for. She did not know how her goddess would judge her. But she understood clearly the origin of her misfortune, and thus forged her own creed: she would show no mercy until every enemy of Iomedae she could defeat was slain.
She especially hated the undead. During her time at the War College, she devoted herself to studying ways to combat them, determined to eradicate them completely. Yet tragedy struck her again. To test her endurance against hunger, her inquisitor mentor, Heratil Nightbreeze, imposed a two-month prohibition on blood. Afterward, she took Hildria to a vampire's lair in the Fangwood to complete her trial to become an inquisitor. During the battle, Hildria's mind slipped into a haze of hunger. In the end, she drained both the vampire and her own mentor of blood. Only afterward did she learn that the vampire had been the sworn enemy who killed Heratil's closest friend, and that Heratil had trained her for the sake of revenge. When Hildria sank her fangs into her mentor's neck, Heratil did not resist. Perhaps it was because her vengeance had been fulfilled and she had no regrets, or perhaps it was for a greater purpose: to make Hildria understand the cost of surrendering to her nature, and the price of becoming an inquisitor.
After more than a decade of grueling training, an inquisitor known as the "Kinslayer" emerged from the War College and left Vigil, assigned as a capable defender to the borderlands of Roslar's Coffer. This title reflected both her mission and the endless shadow over her lifeโfor deep within, she believed her own birth had killed her mother, and thus she sought vengeance against the monstrous forces that brought her suffering. Since the Shining Crusade, Lastwall had stood against the Whispering Way, ever-present enemies became her greatest foes. To face them, she continued to hone her skills and guard herself against corruption.
Her future remains uncertain. Greater and darker trials may yet await her on the road ahead.
Commissioned art by artists: ๅฑ ๅ & ๅก้ฟๆฏ
