Lore: Valeer, The Barbed-Wire Queen

The first metals were forged by the ancient Axian race, on their islands to the far southwest, much removed from the Gilded Empire. They created glorious sheets and logs of metallic oddities that captured the eyes of the rich folk living on the mainland.

WHen the great witches of the Uncharted Lands traveled across the Gilded Empire to explore and examine the legendary metals, there was one witch that felt a much more harmonious connection to the inanimate alloys.

Valeer was the youngest of a long line of pure blood witches, gifted with the power to manipulate lifeless objects, a power that came from her father.

THe first time Valeer ran her slender fingers across the grey sheet on the coast she could feel her blood sing through her veins for more. So she stole the metal, hiding it beneath her dress when the Axian wasn't looking.

Surely he wouldn't mind or even notice a missing piece, right?

But notice he did and the Axian gripped her wrist with his powerful hand and squeezed until she felt the bone in her young wrist snap. His eyes widened in terror at what he'd done and profusely apologized for harming the poor young girl. But his pleas of sorrow and shame went unheard as rage built in Valeer's body. Her vision clouded and her mind swam.

With a quick motion she brought up her one good hand and slapped the Axian smith across the face, a punishment for hurting her so. But she was met with a spray of blood that fountained from the man's thick neck.

The man sagged to his knees, throat sliced open from right to left and then crumpled to the ground.

Valeer screamed and ran away, trying to hide what she'd done.

Only when she met her father, a fellow manipulator did she divulge of her murder. The sheet of metal had a small line of blood that had been left behind when it cut the Axian's throat. In her rage she wielded it as a blade, murdering the poor man by accident. 

After the incident Valeer vowed never to manipulate again, the shame of ending a man's life much too great for her conscience to bear. 

It was but a simple two years later that the great witch hunt began. Her people, including her father fell to the hunters when they invaded their homes. She escaped with the help of a young boy, using the darkness and the caverns etched in the Plenex Mountains as cover and hiding areas.

She didn't speak a word for years after, hiding and honing her powers to manipulate her precious metals. Valeer wanted nothing to do with others and exiled herself to solitude, her only friend the metal she'd been gathering for decades.

The legends said that her countenance had shifted to resemble a night terror. She used metal to sow her lips shut, blood constantly ran from the small wounds. And her nails were replaced with knife-like razors. In her eyes were flames of hate and resentment for common man.

Legends also stated that any that pass by her fortress of barbed-wire was immediately impaled and shredded by the dangerous metal she controlled.

Valeer, The Barbed-Wire Queen.