Val'Sharess Diva'ratrika
From The Orthorbbae Library
Val'Sharess Diva'ratrika Val'Sharen is the current ruler of Chel'el'Sussoloth. She ascended the throne early in Chel'el'Sussoloth's history, possibly close to the year 250 of the Moonless Age, a position her mother may have held briefly before her. She is one of the last Dark Elves alive and in (relatively) public view.
As Val'Sharess, Diva'ratrika arbitrates all Council meetings: another member of the Sharen, usually the head ambassador, takes the Sharen seat on the council who addresses specific Clan interests (currently held by Zala'ess Vel'Sharen, Diva'ratrika’s fifth daughter). While she keeps in mind the position of the leading clan – the Sharen – she is to act impartial in meetings and has major swaying power on various inter-clan and city-affecting matters. She also rallies protective measures for the city, and the main city guard is made up of members of her clan plus any additions of other clans. In a sense, the Val'Sharess is the will of the Goddess in the city, though such an absolute position of power has waned over time as the fall and rise of various Great Clans and the usual pressures of continuing Great Clans tend to undermine her authority.
Diva'ratrika is tall, though maybe not as tall as Quain'tana Val'Sarghress or Diva's own daughter, Sarv'swati. She has a slighter build than female Drow, indicating the more mana-oriented lifestyle of Dark Elves, and has purple hair and eyes. Over one thousand years old, she lived on the surface as a child in the time just before the War of the Moons. Diva'ratrika also has the honor of being one of the few alive who knew Sharess – in fact, she is Sharess' great niece, meaning her mother is possibly the daughter of one of Sharess' sisters. The Sharen clan came about from the remnants of what used to be the kingdom that Sharess ruled over. This is most likely why the clan had such a drive to achieve Ruling Clan status, and why Diva'ratrika became Val'Sharess.
Diva'ratrika is a fair but tough ruler, as being Val'Sharess also implies she is Ilharess of her own clan. Her mother was able to solidify the Sharen clan with an iron fist, and Diva'ratrika continues this practice on some scale. She gave birth to six daughters, though only five survive. The living in order of birth: Snadhya'runes, Sarv'swati, Sillice, Nishi'kanta, and Zala'ess. While all her daughters are Second Generation due to Diva'ratrika's own status as First, only her first two have definite Second Generation characteristics such as natural, dark hair color. Drow as opposed to Dark Elves may have fathered her later daughters. Each of her daughters show amazing capacity of ruling their own bloodlines and share many of Diva'ratrika's ruthless characteristics, with Snadhya'runes being a near copy of her mother in the way of ambition.
Diva'ratrika is a skilled magic user, as is befitting a high-ranking Dark Elf. Her natural affinities are unknown, though the range of High Arts she is capable of may be inferred by the fact that some of her daughters tend to have specific affinities (though their fathers could also figure in there).
Over time, Diva'ratrika became reclusive. As more Dark Elves died off from melancholy or at the hands of their descendants, Diva'ratrika became a fixture of a dead race. As she enjoyed her solitude, she allowed her daughters to take larger roles in positions that they took interest in for the clan, possibly because she felt it increased their loyalty to be part of major workings. Snadhya'runes decided to work under the Headmistress of Orthorbbae, however Sarv'swati took a high rank in the Guard and Zala'ess began to represent the Clan at Council meetings and in other inter-clan negotiations. It is unknown how Nishi'kanta was involved, though Sillice may have head up a policing force in the Clan and the City herself if she assisted in the Queen's Inquisition of Tainting.
As time passed it appeared Diva'ratrika was becoming more detached from even Chel'el'Sussoloth. She'd leave Council meetings after obligatory visits, letting the clans work out their own issues amongst themselves while resenting the Val'Sharess' absence. Some of this may have escalated around the time that Velnari began tainting ceremonies, and the Val'Sharess herself began overseeing the efforts of arresting those summoners. However, this won her little support, especially when she called a Council to discuss the Nidraa'chal uprising and the attack at Orthorbbae. Instead of seeing it as a city security issue, the other Ilharesses treated it as an inter-clan issue between a minor clan and the Sharen.
The Val'Sharess is partly to blame for the rise of the Nidraa'chal. She treated reports of nether cults and tainted uprising as mere annoyances. Dark Elf and Drow culture saw tainted individuals as weak summoners that could not control the demons they brought forth, and so were no threat, merely those to be scorned for weakness or pitied for handicap. It wasn't until her own daughter, Snadhya'runes, approached her with glowing red eyes that Diva'ratrika realized the upsurge in tainting was not a sign of weaker Drow surviving but a real movement. Instead of seeing her condition as a weakness, Snadhya'runes saw it as an enhancement – she could now manipulate mana differently by adding the power of her seed to attacks (allowing them to pass through matter for example) and she was safe from possession by any demon she or another summoned.
The Val'Sharess watched helplessly as two more of her daughters, Sarv'swati and Zala'ess, tainted themselves for power. However, when she finally decided to make an attempt at slowing the wave of tainting, her Inquisition ended up causing a lot of distress among the Sharen's ally clan, the Val'Dutan'vir. The clan of drowussu and half-drowussu had been fiercely loyal to the Val'Sharess and of all the clans volunteered the most members to her Guard, however the Queen's Inquisition caused a lot of Dutan'vir to be imprisoned or put to death for conducting tainting ceremonies. All while the tainted daughters of the Val'Sharess remained untouched by the Inquisition. This caused the Dutan'vir to splinter, and one of its major houses left to join the Val'Kyorl'solenurn, perhaps preferring them to the Queen's hypocrisy.
Diva'ratrika found her support base fracturing. With the risen Nidraa'chal clan causing civil unrest and the Dutan'vir's Ilharess being assassinated, she attempted to go to the Council for help. As mentioned above, the Clans, angered by her earlier inaction, ruled it an inter-clan affair and left her to her own devices. Even the attack on Orthorbbae, a neutral ground, by the Nidraa'chal did not move them.
Diva'ratrika was forced to announce a forward movement in the areas of the city devastated by the Nidraa'chal. Despite the small size of the Nidraa'chal, the battle caused the Sharen to suffer heavy losses – the Velnari of the Nidraa'chal summoned demons that took over the commoner citizens of the area, creating an army of unfeeling beasts. The demons summoned also sapped power from much of the Sharen golems and tainted and possessed Sharen troops and mounts, making the battles frantic and confusing, as ally became foe.
The Nidraa'chal were defeated in the end, and word went out that Sillice, the Third Daughter, tried to use the pandemonium as a distraction for an attempt on the Queen's life in order to ascend to the throne. She was stopped by the three tainted sisters and by various accounts was either killed or escaped into exile. The Queen then supposedly went into total seclusion, trusting no one but the three sisters who had saved her. No servants enter the Queen's tower, only her trusted daughters approach her. The three took on full duties to their interests - Snadhya'runes became Headmistress of Orthorbbae, Sarv'swati became the head of the Sharen military, and Zala'ess became head Ambassador and handled many internal clan matters - as rewards, and the clan went Vel in order to protect itself from future possession tactics.
The Nidraa'chal faded into history, destroyed and with the few remnant members dispersed.
However, the story of the assassination attempt and the Queen becoming a hermit was a sham. In reality, the Nidraa'chal were most likely an army raised up by Snadhya'runes as part of a plan to overthrow the Queen, whom she and her tainted sisters felt had ruled them for far too long. The original plan was to kill Diva'ratrika at the height of the battle and claim the Nidraa'chal had assassinated her. However, the plan changed during its execution in order to keep the eventual power grab for the throne from weakening the clan further after the war. The sisters instead managed to injure and trap the Val'Sharess in her throne room, sealed in by lack of windows and a door barred by debris. The sisters then incorporated Sillice as a betrayer into their plan when the Third Daughter showed up demanding to see the Val'Sharess, fighting with her and chasing her off as a traitor. Diva'ratrika's hermit-like lifestyle lead to no questioning of the story.
However, Diva'ratrika lived still for at least another year, fed by a servant who could fit through a small air duct in the throne room that even the Queen could not. Over that time, she researched an old tome sealed in the throne to find a means of escape. One day she finally made a move, using a spell similar to Sharess' own ability, to leave her body and possess her servant. The young slave, Ragini, was forever altered, her skin color lightened and her hair turned blue. She forgot much about herself, taking on the name Liriel and wandering in search of beer to rid herself of headaches that seemed to alter her thinking more.
Diva'ratrika's body is most likely dead and decaying, Liriel is now traveling on the surface with Ariel.
Quote:
"Soon, one of the Tainted ones will be sitting on my throne..." - Diva’ratrika waiting in her throne room after her battle with the Sisters in the Longest Wait.
Relations:
Sharess – Great Aunt
Snadhya'runes Vel'Sharen – Eldest daughter/heir
Sarv'swati Vel'Sharen – Second Daughter
Sillice – Third Daughter, exiled
Nishi'kanta Val'Sharen – Fourth Daughter, hermit
Zala'ess Vel'Sharen – Fifth Daughter, representative on Council
Chrys'tel Vel'Sharen – Granddaughter
Nau'kheol Vel'Sharen – Grandson
Nihi'liir Vel'Sharen – Granddaughter
Vy'chriel Vel'Sharen – Granddaughter (adopted twin)
Sha'sana – Former Friend, former Headmistress
Ragini – Slave
Liriel – "new form"
First appearance: Prologue (Chapter 0), Page 05
Appears in chapter(s): Prologue, 9 (flashback)
Other Appearances: Longest Wait, Daydream, 2008 Contest entries