Bella
| Race: | Human |
|---|---|
| Pronouns: | she/her |
| Age: | 27 or 974 |
| DOB: | ??? |
| Height: | 5'4" |
| Hair: | black |
| Eyes: | dark brown |
| Nationality: | Fairweather Vale |
| Hometown: | Cormount |
| Languages Spoken: |
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Bella (full name Carolina Isabella Nicholai), was a princess of Cormount when it was a vassal state of the Kingdom of the Fairweather Vale over a thousand years ago. After living for almost a thousand years and working to oppose the Iron Revenant, she died in 1337 VR after finally helping kill him.
Contents
Appearance
History
Carolina Isabella Nicholai was born in Cormount in 363 VR. Her ancestors were the original Cormount settlers, a group of mostly humans that migrated to the area from the Ten Towns region of the North. Her upbringing and education were appropriate for her noble birth. After coming of age, she had a brief flirtation with Ledros, the captain of her father's guard. When she was 20, her cousin Misca Kostry attempted to usurp the throne of Cormount and then turned his attention to south towards the rest of the Fairweather Vale, and Ledros followed to try and lead a resistance.
As the war continued with the newly-forged and seemingly unstoppable Iron Revenant at its head, Princess Lina and other freedom fighters made a desperate bargain. They slipped into the Shadowfell and met with the Raven Queen, asking for a divine intervention. The Raven Queen agreed to assist, but her assistance was limited: she could provide the means to trap the Iron Revenant in a Domain of Dread within the Shadowfell. In exchange, she took Princess Lina's death: not killing her but literally taking her ability to die, and requiring Lina to work to thwart anyone who would try and free the Iron Revenant from the prison.
After this was successful, the Kingdom of the Fairweather Vale remained divided into its constituent parts. Lina eschewed her original name and took a series of different aliases over the succeeding centuries. To disguise her immortality, she would alternate between engaging society and withdrawing from it, but always watching for - and quelling - any attempt to contact, channel, or summon the Iron Revenant. She would become a master illusionist, and would amass a large amount of power and money over the centuries, such as obtaining her Tiara of Truesight and her Staff of the Magi and being capable of casting 9th-level spells.
Present Day
The Lighthaus Inspektorz first met her under the name Bella at a small dinner party given by Iphigenia. She had a history with Astrid, both of them offering the other a cold civility. (Astrid would explain later that Bella's deliberate evasiveness frustrated her, and her own perceptiveness and presence annoyed Bella.) Bella was particularly interested in Raen, as his foreign accent came from a place she was not very familiar with and his cursed arm implied some kind of connection with dark magic she was very wary of.
Some weeks later as they were travelling to Swansing, Bella sent a creature of metal and shadow to attack Raen specifically. She had learned to create these types of creatures while attempting to learn more about the Iron Revenant's composition and searching for a weakness. The attack was meant to test Raen's reaction - when he was obviously confused and repulsed by the creature, she concluded he was ignorant of the Iron Revenant.
She next revealed herself to the LHI during their climactic fight with Yorn Fom below Brand's Hill. Independently of the LHI, she had been tracking Yorn's connection to groups interested in the Iron Revenant, and intervened to ensure that his attempted summoning failed. She unintentionally revealed a connection with the vampire Vladimir, as he arrived to help clean up the fight. Following their victory, she made a deal with the LHI: she would look for Yorn so they could finish the job, and they would come to her aid should she call for them.
That came sooner rather than later as two months later, Yorn and several mages in Cormount managed to break into the Domain of Dread and allow the Iron Revenant to pass through. Bella teleported the LHI from Drakehall to Cormount along with several other adventuring parties to begin the attempt to reclaim the city from the expanding Shadowfell. There, she evidenced a strong working relationship with General Jericho Swain as she explained her past dealings with each of the parties.
A few days into the operation, the LHI indicated that they had entered the Domain and briefly spoken to Ezra, the Raven Queen's consort, while there. She travelled to Wytchway and used the shadow crossing there to speak to him and appeal for aid. She came back to the camp angry that the Raven Queen had refused aid this time and determined to end this once and for all.
She would spend most of the next two weeks coordinating with Swain the various movements of the parties and attempting to divine or discern how the Iron Revenant could be ended. After the LHI brought back information from the monastery, she was able to finally formulate a plan to reduce the Iron Revenant's power or, at least, trap him anew. She also, with Raen and Mino's help, held a small funeral for Ledros and explained some of her past to them, the first time she had opened up to someone that she did not explicitly want something from. She also revealed that she had been alive for almost a millenia, trapped in immortality.
When the final push approached, Bella joined the LHI in their push to the Immortal Bastion and entered the castle with them. In the fight with the Iron Revenant, she stayed behind and did not accompany them into the Border Ethereal, instead trading spells with the Iron Revenant's servants. Once the LHI returned, she had Quill and Nergil throw spells at her which she absorbed with her Staff to charge it up. Once fully charged, she instructed the LHI to run and shattered the staff, exploding the side of the castle and weakening the Iron Revenant enough for Mino to kill him fully.
After the fight, the Raven Queen appeared to escort Bella to the afterlife as her mission had been fulfilled and her death was returned to her. Bella's final request to Raen was to be forgotten from history, but at least be given a funeral in the style of her people like Ledros. He obliged this request to the best of his ability, and Bella fully passed on.
Trivia
Bella is based on the League of Legends champion Leblanc, the Deceiver. While explicitly a villainous character in LoL, she took on more of an antivillain role as she developed. Her opposition to Mordekaiser, the Iron Revenant remained a fundamental part of her character.
Many of Bella's abilities and spells reflect her LoL skillset. At low health, she can automatically cast an illusion to protect herself and she can mimic spells she casts.
When the LHI first met Bella, her only game statistic was that any attempt to conduct an insight, perception, or investigation check to discern her thoughts and feelings would have disadvantage and a DC of 17 - just to get a basic response, no deeper information.
