Valeriya

Brave and bloodthirsty, valiant and determined, Valeriya is a terrifying yet just warrior who combines the strongest of Orc attributes with those of Humans. Sharpening her beloved claymore, she dreams of taking over the Orc clan who adopted her and vengeance on those who wronged her. The Orcs are not known for being accommodating to outsiders, often choosing to kill anyone different from them rather than trying to understand them, which highlights just how unusual the tale of Valeriya the Beast Knight is. A Human born into a Yalnor mining outpost not far from the borders of the Roaring Canyon, Valeriya grew up in a poor family. Her mother died in childbirth while her father, from what little she remembers of him, was a guard, protecting the mine with his fine armor and claymore. However, life in the frontier land was difficult not only due to the climate and dangerous mines but also the threat of raids from increasingly emboldened Orcs. Early one morning, when Valeriya was a girl of eight, Orcs raided the settlement for resources and slew all who resisted. Her father fought valiantly but fell in battle with Valeriya trying to pick up his claymore to fight off the Orcs. Unable to lift it, she plunged her father's dagger into the neck of one Orc, slaying him. The chieftain leading the raid, Kishkan, was so amused that he decided to adopt her as his own child as he had no children of his own. While she was filled with hate at first, she soon became interested in the Orcs and learned their language and ways. She was taken on raids, shown secret ceremonies to the King of Storms few outsiders had ever seen, and celebrated with them at their feasts. Still remembering her own ways and learning those of the Orcs, she serves as a connection between the worlds of Orcs and Humans. All the while, however, she never forgot what Kishkan did to her father and schemes for her revenge. In adulthood, she became one of the finest warriors in the tribe and was thus called the Beast Knight for she did not fight as a puny Human, but as a savage beast. Kishkan saw her potential and presented her a special gift: her Human father's armor and claymore that she had tried to wield, reforged by the finest Orc blacksmiths to fit her. While others are suspicious of her and see her as a threat to the power of the Orcs, fearful of her revenge, she loves the Orcs and dreams of taking over the tribe so she can prove she is a better leader than Kishkan. She is driven by justice and fights for honor, long plotting to kill her unsuspecting adopted father Kishkan, and take over. She sits in her mud hall, decorated with the heads of her enemies, dreaming of inheriting the tribe, and avenging the wrongs they did to her kind with blood.