Alexandria Scarlette Knighte

Personality
Typically she remains quiet, speaking only when spoken to or if necessary. She is hard to trusting other people, but is as loyal as they come when trust is earned. She does not relish in killing, as every creature as stupid or stubborn or dangerous as they are, has a purpose and a reason. It is life. Its sacrifice ensures others will live. Most mortal races she doesn’t blink, but creatures she says a prayer for. Dangerous or no. She is least receptive to most other humans, the most reckless, prideful and judgmental of all, on the surface anyway. She bonds with elves quicker than most, knowing they have the best sense of honor and share similar feelings to her regarding killing or opinions on humanity. She is very reluctant to speak about herself, especially about her past. She keeps her true skills and afflictions as hidden as possible. She keeps a mask on around strangers, or at least keeps her eyes covered or hidden. She has a fear for wolves but has learned to ally with one within herself. She may seem shy or rude or blunt at first, standoffish or cold. But due to her solitude and her Blood Hunter transformation, most emotions have been stemmed away. She does her best to make others feel comfortable but has no problem putting people exactly in their place. She is hardly the first to draw her weapon, and chooses observation and logic over brute force, but is a deadly killer if combat is engaged.

Her main goal was to find a purpose, why she had not yet died and why others had spared her or how she had survived. She’s come to understand that her purpose was to join this Blood Hunter order, to preserve a balance. To be tested and tried through the Fates and the Gods, to prove her worth, and now believes her goal to be protection and preservation. With the Fates and the Gods finally behind her and with her, she strives to ensure as much peace between man and beast as possible, leaving man to settle its own issues within its factions and races. She serves the bigger picture and grand scheme of things. And hopes one day she will earn enough honor among the gods to be returned to her family. That she might fall in battle, in honor and glory, but does not go seeking death.

She enjoys a god story or a good song. Her time with the bard Xaanai, “Journey” was among the best in her early life. She wishes she could sing but is actually quite bad. She found her lithe and fast movements and skills of survival have taught her to move in a unique way. Her beauty combined with her movements and skills with a blade has given her a new talent of Blade Dancing. Though she rarely has time these days to perform such feats, as she discovered it accidentally while drunk with her Blood Hunter Order. She enjoys the chance to wear casual dresses, though hates corsets and formal gowns. She finds the garbs of most gypsies or pirates to be comfortable, especially if she’s dancing. She enjoys clear nights with the moon and stars, but also rainy nights in the tree tops. Her favorite color is deep blue, like Cerulean and soft pale greys or most pastel shades. She has a soft spot for children, becoming almost a different person when children are involved. She travels with her best friend and companion, Prince. A stately all white stoat who keeps her spirits lifted.

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Scars: Three large claw marks across left face from just over her eyebrow to the bottom of her cheek/jaw. The remnants of a vicious tattoo curse that covered her entire body like ivy vines, these are subtle scars. Several scars across her midsection and forearms. A bullet wound that seems to be unable to heal or keeps being reopened on purpose so as to never fade, on her right inner thigh. =====

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Tattoos: On her right shoulder blade is a wolf paw done in an elvish flourish, drawn in blueish ink. Over her left chest, above her heart are four name, written in careful and firm handwritten are four names around a red apple in front of a filled chemist's flask. Emelissa, William, Heather and James. On her spine, covering most of her back is the burned on golden emblazoned seal of Kelemvor, a skeletal hand holding a golden set of scales. =====

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Weapons/Accessories: A house signet ring from House Zyne'Urden. Bracelet charm that looks like it was built to hand from a weapon, shaped like a wolf sitting on a crescent moon carved from a material only found in the deep Underdark. A necklace with a skeletal hand holding a seemingly innocent gem, which holds the night sky its appearance. A holy symbol of Kelemvor, silver hand holden golden scales. A metal rose tucked and very very securely fastened in her hair. Her weapons include an ornate hilt of a blade called Dawnbringer, and a scythe made from the remnants of her sword. Riviani, that now houses the spirit of her wolf companion, hati. =====

History
1418 Born in Scornubel A young girl named Alexandria Knighte was born to Emelissa and William. The youngest to a sister named Heather and a brother named James. Her mother was formerly a world renowned archaeologist and researcher, a publisher of several books about Old Gods. To save her family from ridicule or harm from cultists of such ideals, Alexiana Marjolene Rhedd changed her name to Emelissa Scarlette Wrightson. A former soldier, her mother is a hardened and strict woman, but gave up her life of studies and soldiering to become a supreme judge for the Sword Coast, where her constant work and contracts kept her mind from wandering back to Old Gods like a drug. Her father was a famous alchemist and doctor, often called a mad scientist. He worked a good deal with dwarves of Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate and with a group called the Gearsmith’s Accord, namely Eitrigen Thundergun. Her sister, Heather, was a young and beautiful woman, content with being a happy and loved housewife, sweet and caring and often naive. Her brother James, like her father, had autism. He was loving but easily excitable. When struggling with certain things or having an episode he often decided it was best to beat it by running at it head first. He wasn’t the smartest but was far wiser than anyone could expect. His heart was made of gold. Alex, or Lexi, was a daddy’s girl and loved helping her father in the laboratory. He gave her a small kit of her own and made her his ‘official’ assistant.

1427 The Knighte Massacre. During a venture to their summer home away from the high traffic of Scornubel, down to Waterdeep to meet “uncle eight” and William’s best friend the dwarf Eitrigen. They never arrived at his home. During their travel past the forests no more than a day’s travel from the city, the caravan was attacked by a pack of rabid werewolves. Alex, her bother and sister were forced beneath the caravan while her mother fought them off, having long since tamed the werewolf within her and tried to ascertain alpha dominance. Her father, having worked with what he called Gunsmiths, procured a strange device, rounded and cylindrical chamber made of wood and metal. When he pulled a piece of the weapon, he made a loud explosive sound and one of the werewolves fell before the caravan, the children underneath it, the body was riddled with pellets of salt and metal. The ‘gun’ only fired once as a werewolf took her father down, her mother fell shortly after while running too late to defend William. Alex lay beneath the caravan as her brother and sister were dragged kicking and screaming, in a pool of blood of wolf and that of her family. As the last breaths and screams of her family died down, a single wolf paced the caravan as the others left. It looked beneath the broken cart, staring unblinking with yellow eyes at Alex’s tear filled seafoam blue green. The eyes were the last thing she remembered before waking up several days later in the home of a family friend back in the city. She remained in a catatonic state for several weeks before she left, sensing a change in herself. She was only 9 years old.

1430 Escape. Much to the despair of the dear family friend allied with her mother, a changeling cleric and bard Xaanai, little Lexi left the safety of the house, feeling desperate to try and rejoin her family. Ridden with grief, hate and fear, seeing yellow eyes everytime she closed her own, or looked in the mirror and feeling a change coming as a full moon approached she tried relentlessly to join them. But something or someone always got in the way. She stole to get caught and hung or loose a hand and die of dysentery. She tried to drown herself but was saved. She tried to jump from a cliff but was washed gently ashore by some sea creature and found a crone. Unfortunately for the crone, it was a full moon. The beast and curse within made itself known. That night on her 12’th birthday, Alex’s innocence was stolen as swiftly as the life of the crone that had saved her. Two other children were killed that night. No one mourned them. She was found several days later in the sewers. The other urchins feared her, knowing what she was. The townsfolk never paid much attention to urchins and treated her worse than dirt. The urchins were afraid of her, or teased her. Her family was gone. She had tried several times to escape life itself but always found her way back to life.

1440 The Night Wolf  She lived six years in the city. A faceless name. She was ruthless. She learned quickly how to fight with fist, with steel, and be invisible. She could move through the cities undetected. She could disappear into the crowds and take a life in a crowded place without being seen. She killed to survive. The other urchins wanted her dead, fearing their lives and fearing her turning them into monsters or even turning them in to the workhouses. Urchins were horrible. City guards and even officials of Neverwinter were dispatched to deal with the Night Wolf. Alex eluded and survived, growing cold, strong, smart, and cunning until her 18th birthday. She used her looks and whiles to secure work at bars and even amongst a select small thieves group within the city, even they had no clue who her true identity was. She became one of the most wanted between Scornubel and the cities of Waterdeep and Baldur’s gate, moving from the small cities upwards towards Neverwinter city. The small city life had grown too small for the beast growing inside her. She discovered, however, that there was no need to hide her skills any longer. She took up the mantle of a bounty hunter. 1440-1449 Life as a Bounty Hunter Being a bounty hunter was the easiest and most natural thing Alex had ever done. Just the need to survive, be or be killed, seek and destroy was such a natural instinct to her by now. She was rugged, unrefined, and dangerous. Beautiful but intimidating and mysterious. She was the definition of a Bounty Hunter. She made a successful and lucrative career as the Night Wolf. Her werewolf curse lingered with her, but she had secured a place in the woods, on the road from scornubel near where her family was taken, that she’d called home. She’d built it herself and lived in the woods. She hated the thing she was, and used the bounty hunter career as a threat to the creature within her. On the few occasions the beast broke through her control, she’d always find herself safely at her home in the woods. She avoided local news for signs of werewolf or beast attacks but always took the job to kill one, relishing in the threats she made to the monster inside her. But she very quickly learned that the biggest monster in Faerun wasn’t beast. But man. She learned, from her youth but only wise enough now to see, that man was cruel, uncaring, dominating. She’d bring back a beast and watch towns folk string it up half alive and beat it, while it’s eyes lingered at Alex. She wasn’t even celebrated. She was a beastly woman who killed beasts. She was only important when useful and no one took pity on her even if she saved a child from a burning building or an earthquake. With a child safely in her arms, she was cast out as a freak. She moved too fast, was too strong, and survived things she ought not have survived. She was quickly blacklisted when word and rumor spread of the Night Wolf, of Witchcraft and Lycanthropy followed her. Her past caught up with her when someone recognized her face, said she looked like just like her mother. She quickly killed the man, unknowingly leaving his son fatherless and unaware that the man she had murdered was in fact an apprentice to her father and they lived in her old home, running a successful alchemy shop out of the home. She quickly left the cities again and sought smaller quarry, taking to the road and traveling many roads from Tribor to Icewind to Amn and across the seas to untamed worlds. Along her travels Alex met a dwarf named Feiryn Fairdrake, a member of a dwarvish tribe on her youthful pilgrimage. Her family was known for their dragon raising and running a sanctuary of sorts for dragons. The young dwarf was a feisty fighter and the two quickly became fast friends.

1449 Journey.  One bounty led her to a small village in the Dalelands, plagued by a grumpy White Dragon. Alex was hired to kill the dragon and return with its fangs. But she knew the greed of humanity, secretly knowing they sought its hoard and the kindness and intelligence of Dragons. She said what the towns folk wanted to hear. When she entered the cave of the dragon she heard sweet music and felt the mountain shake with a laughter. Following the sounds she found herself beside an old family friend, or the child of. Xaanai, the changeling, had a daughter. Journey stood before Alex, recognizing the girl. There was an argument about safety and reward but ultimately Alex debated how to deal with someone from her past. Together the two solved the problem. The White Dragon had grown fat, the townsfolk fed him fatty sheep and cows and got him stuck, on purpose. Journey played her music which entranced the dragon to dance and wiggle, while Alex used her feral strength, calling willingly on the beast to help. She believed that perhaps the dragon might kill her if she bit it or got lose. Or would take care of Journey and she wouldn’t even remember it. Surprisingly, the beast within was happy to help and for the first time since being curse, Alex felt a connection to the beast. Natural. And felt twice as strong than when she resisted. She was unsure how that felt but focused instead of the dragon. Having freed him, the dragon offered them both a reward. Journey took a musical instrument. Alex asked for something which the dragon could not grant: her family, an end to the curse, or a way to go back in time. Unsatisfied with her answers, she told the dragon the truth of the village that had tricked him and their intentions for his lair. “a truth for a truth then” the dragon spoke, “A life for a life. Patience, child. Fate has plans. Your time will come. Seek the Runes of Aett.” The dragon flew off to take its revenge and Alex turned to see the eager waiting eyes of a family friend who neither judged, feared, nor pitied her. The first time anyone had looked at her like that since her family died. She sighed and the two left together, to seek adventure. Their journey began like this,

J: ''“I’m writing a story. And I think I’ve found the main character.” ''

A: “Please, no.” 

J: “Think of it, it was a dark and stormy night when I saved our hero from being eaten by a gold dragon.”

A: ''“It was mid day, sunny but overcast. And it was white. And I saved you.”''

J: “My version has so much more flair though.” The two travelled to Alex’s makeshift camp in the woods where Feiryn was recently returned from her own missions.

F: “Lex…I see you picked up another stray.” The dwarf grinned

A: “Yeah, the first one is still clinging to me.” Alex grinned back.

F: “I wouldn’t cling tae ya even if’n ya were a white dragon.”

J: “We just fought one!” 

A: “We set him free.”

F: “Where is thae thing now, lass?”

A: “Eating the village who fed him fat, planned to kill him and steal his hoard.”

F: ''“Ah. So all worked out in the end.”''

A: “Seems so.”

F: “so….the bard isn’t seriously sticking with us…is she?”

A: “…family friend…”

F: “That’s an unfortunate family baggage.”

J: “So, where are we going?” 

A and F: “insane…” 

The three remained on the road for another three years until each found themselves called elsewhere. Feiryn was called back to her home for some time then disappeared. Journey was called back to Neverwinter. And Alex was left to find her way alone again. It stung like losing a family again. Until the war in Neverwinter.

1452 The Siege of Neverwinter. Alex had snuck into the city during a particularly harsh winter. Her story can be read here.

1453 Broken Promises. Alex travelled happily with the troupe for two years, seeing the world from Neverwinter to Silverymoon and to the Dwarven keeps of Mithral Hall. She heard stories of people like Bruenor Battlehammer, Drizzt the Drow, she met Lady Alustriel once at a banquet. When she was asked to sing she politely declined. The elves were mildly insulted that someone would dare turn their queen down. But the Lady smiled and whispered words Alex would not soon forget. “Though you sing not for me, I hear the song you sing in your heart, the song of the wild for the moon each night. Do not keep it inside, find it. And use it.” Those words resounded in her mind. Some months after that visit, the troupe was attacked by a raid of bandits. The troupe was outnumbered, and while most were bards who could fight or enchant, they were not ones to fight. They were slaughtered, only a small handful remained. Alex had sworn f vow to protect them. The closest to a family she’d ever had. She turned to Xaanai and told her to take the others and run. The tiefling did so, not turning back. But she heard a howl and a group of men screamed and ran, leaving Alex there alone. Alex found her way back to Silverymoon to ask for mercy, for guidance from the woman who knew and did not fear.

1453-1460 Isolation While the Queen of the Elvish city could not allow a human, or a murderer or a cursed monster into the city, She was merciful and pointed her in the direction of aid. Empty fields and forests. Marshes that ran into the backs of mountains. Alex had pleaded for death, but the lady would not grant her such a wish. “if you wish to die, then do so with honour. Fight. Fight the beast inside, do not fear it. Befriend it. If you fail, then, either the drow, the dragons, the orcs or the patrols of my people will find you. You are filled with grief, and that shall be your punishment. Come to terms with that grief and you may yet find a reason.” Before Alex could question the wise Lady’s words, she was unconscious and awoke in the woods some time later. She lived here alone, making a small home for herself in the woods, using her surrounded as a way to calm herself. She thought back on what the Lady had told her, to listen to the beast. Befriend it. Use it. She took up her name as the Knighte Wolf, returned from death. The bounty hunter once more. She lived in isolation, away from anyone and everyone, taking jobs only when she needed money to afford gear, or food. She had become wealthy in her own way. Though the true amount of that wealth is unknown.

1460-1472 The Underdark. Having had her fill of the surface, its hates against each other, against monster, beast, race or even within race, Alexandria had decided to take bigger and bolder jobs. She grew tired of pointless wars over race or king or trivial things like land. She had grown to see, in her isolation, that humanity, or the mortal living races, were among the worst of the monsters in the realm. She had lost all hope of friend or family. She had seen betrayal, lies, murder, and been the victim of all such things. Pride, Prejudice and stupidity. Monsters were hunted because they were in a mine, but the mine was home to the monster long before civilization wanted to claim it. And the monster was sentient but peaceful. Humanity and the mortal races didn’t care. They needed resources for their pointless wars. Such events as these only pushed Alexandria into further isolation. Reflecting back to her childhood in the sewers and the streets. It had always been this way. And she had always done better on her own. There was one place however, she had never seen. A place feared unanimously on the surface. She took a job to hunt down a beast who prowled close to the surface of tunnels that led into the Underdark. The beast turned out to be a patrol of Drow, who were tired of pests wandering in. as more died, more people tried to kill the beast and the Drow were not one for guests. But Alex had always heard stories about Drow living much farther under the earth. She took the job anyway. And was captured within a few nights and hauled off to a Drow City. She was surprised she was not killed. But it seems the contract had been bait. For her. She would find a place in the Underdark, only a few days from the Surface. She would find a purpose here. And something she least expected. Love. Her skills were honed, her money saved, and her name infamous.

1473-1475 Return to the surface Alexandria had always been alone. Almost 50 years old and she had mostly been alone. Now, there was this Drow. And it confused her. Made her hesitant and question things. Laralay was disgusted when she found out. She set up a trap and framed Riviani, as that is the name Alex had given to him, for an act of betrayal. Alex fell for the trap. Naïve and in over her head. She’d been personally asked to take a patrol to the surface, with a letter signed and forged by Laralay. The patrol was sent to the slaughter when they encountered a human patrol twice their size. Alex knew Riviani was the only one who knew human patrol schedules and fell for the trap. She was captured and when he rose to the surface to free her she cast him out and the family. She returned to isolation on the surface for two years. Which passed in the blink of an eye. The first time in a long time she’d felt welcomed and wanted and loved, and it was a betrayal. She fell into her own madness and the beast within ran wild while she thought. She realized that she had been a victim of a trick. That it was out of Riviani’s character but not Laralay’s. But she had broken an oath of fealty to the Zyne’Urden house…and now could never go back. She was found two years later in her home, in meditation. As if she had been in meditation that whole time, barely breathing, thin and pale. Those that found her…were the blood hunters.

1475-1490 Blood Hunter and the Order of the Lycan The Blood Hunters had stumbled upon a house in the woods purely by accident, or so they said. They recognized the face of the woman, the mysterious Knighte Wolf who had appeared then disappeared and reappeared and disappeared again. They had thought it a title passed between generations. But now assumed it was the same woman. Barely looking older than hr early thirties. But the Blood Hunters could smell the beast. She begged them to take her life and end it. But just as the Lady of Silverymoon, they too spared her life. Her guilt was her punishment, but they could offer her salvation. She put up a fight but was weak and too long slumbered. But still she resisted. But that was the first test. Survival. She succumbed to sleep, dehydration and hunger quickly. And woke up at an old keep, mysterious and new to her. Around her were warriors training with blades and magic. But they looked different. Their eyes, their skin, their features. The famed Blood Hunters. She barely had time to come to when a sword was thrust in her hand and she was set into training. ten years of training had honed her body, her senses, everything. They trained her in beast lore, herb lore, tracking, killing, deception. She could find any creature and identify it and kill it or save it. She knew which were sentient which weren’t, hostile or not, dangerous or not. She learned sword play, proper sword play. Things she had learned in isolation or the Underdark served her well. She passed the training and was granted permission to take the Rite. Not all who took the Rite to become a Blood Hunter survived. But she was a survivor. Agony like she’d never known took hold of her, and she awoke several days later. She felt different. Better. Stronger. But she sat in panic and fear. The beast. A master of the order came to her and showed her the Order of the Lycan. She spent the remaining five years of her training with the order, furthering her Blood Hunter training and learning to control the beast she’d so long tried to repress. She was granted a place among the Blood Hunters officially, given a medallion and her first set of swords. One of which she named Riviani. In memorial.

1490-1492 Purpose having been made a fully fledged Blood Hunter, she had finally taken to heart the words Lady Alustriel had once whispered to her. “Though you sing not for me, I hear the song you sing in your heart, the song of the wild for the moon each night. Do not keep it inside, find it. And use it.” She could finally sing. Though not literally. She was free. She understood the words. Her heart was lighter. She had found purpose. Instead of fearing herself she used the curse as a weapon to protect. Even though she held great disdain for most of humanity and the mortal races, she had found the Blood Hunters don’t just hunt monsters. They maintain a balance. They walked both worlds. Could protect innocent humans for dangerous beasts, and protect peaceful beasts from ignorant humans. She had found purpose. Her survival had led to this. The years had finally decided what her fate was, and had revealed it to her. She was given a contract to investigate strange reports the North. The adventure that job would lead her to was not one she had expected…

Current Campaign: Out of the Abyss.

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To Alistor Von Helstrom Faust, A letter given to Alistor, upon her death when leaving the Underdark for the first time. =====