Alanna

Alanna is a ardent follower of Vayne and currently holds the rank of Master within the guardians_of_order. She has traveled much of the Western Realms as freebooter, mercenary, guard and on rare occasions priestess. She is considered one of the top twenty masters of the order with over 100 duels and less than a dozen losses. She has sought to master the Guardians of Order of Vayne, but its rigid discipline runs counter to her personality making it more difficult that it should be for someone of her skill.

There are some kids that just seem destined to be trouble and Alanna was one of those children. While other girls were learning to stitch and cook, Alanna was terrorizing the village boys and helping the men in the fields. Alanna idolized her wayward aunt, who was the black sheep of the family. Family pressure to conform finally drove her to turn her back on her family and follow in her aunt's footsteps.

Swordsmaster William, her master at the temple, trained Alanna relentlessly for the next 9 years at the temple of Vayne where he stayed. Her body and mind both progressed at a pace rapid enough that Master William even smiled occasionally. When she was knighted into the order, Master William gave her the pick of any sword in his collection. Alanna quickly chose the large claymore that was gifted to Master William by his master when he was knighted. With a final goodby to Master William, Alanna went into the world to put her skill to the test.

For 8 years Alanna journeyed across the land, adding her own reputation on top of her knighthood in The Guardians. She made many friends from other Guardian orders and lost many more upon the field of battle. But such is the life of a Guardian and she had no regrets. It was when word reached her of the death of Master William that she finally made her way back to her temple.

What she found sickened her. The memory of Master William was still fresh in her mind when she discovered that many of the other masters had been removed or died in challenges. Now Master Roland stood as Headmaster. Roland was a weasly man that could never have defeated Headmaster Gar in battle. The temple that once either tempered or broke its students upon an unyeilding anvil was now little more than a shadow of political infighting.

Alanna wanted to issue challenge and throw Roland to his death at the bottom of the rocky moat, but she knew the anger inside was clouding her judgement. Instead, she turned her back on the sickness that had taken root in her home and failed in Master William's last test: the twisting of her own moral code. She spent the next two years as little more than a rampaging beserker taking out her own anger upon those foolish enough to stand before her — silently asking Vayne for release from this mortal coil before every battle. However, Master William trained her well and her body and mind worked beyond her darkened soul to save her time and again.

It was in this state that La'oth de Manfi found her slumped on a tavern table. A shoag of unusual girth, he easily dragged her outside and proceeded to beat her senseless — then he woke her up and beat her some more. Just before the end Alanna knew she was finally looking death in the eye and she fought like a tiger to avoid that fate. It was in that moment that things snapped back into place and her soul righted itself against the unfairness of the world. La'oth smiled a particularly hungry smile and joyously laughed at the return of his dearest friend.

While she has not yet returned to her order, Alanna makes her way in the world dedicate no longer to the Order of the Guardians — but instead to the words and actions of Vayne. When she finally purges the last of her own weakness she will return to her order and clean it of Roland's stench. She will rebuild it in the memory of those masters who sought purity of being over simple power. Until then she is a simple wandering mercenary.

Alanna gains quite a bit from her Northman lineage. She is just a touch over six feet with a lean musclar body. Her shoulders and arms are a bit over sized for the rest of her frame, but that is from years of swinging her claymore in battle. Her eyes are a washed out blue with gray rings and set too far apart over a nose large enough that few would consider her attractive. She keeps her blond hair above her shoulders and typically tucked inside of a cap so that it doesn't interfere in battle. She is well-educated, although nobody would ever confuse her speech or mannerisms with that of a noble lady. PC Connection

Alanna is a woman one the road back to her own moral convictions. She is driven now by her effort to restore the honor of the masters at her temple to their rightful place. She will not falter in her task to one day clean up the temple and find a proper headmaster of the school. For the PCs should would make a valuable ally or even potential foe if they were duped into fighting on the side of devils. She can serve as a moral anchor and sounding board for ideas, in this case she will always be blunt and seek the higher ground as opposed to simply “doing a job”.