Sophie d'Arafina

Sophie d'Arafina is a adventuerer and member of the Auric Lodge adventuering guild. She is famed among the Kealian peasantry as the Stormcaller, slayer of orcs, and folk hero. She wields a Bident of mystereous origin called the Stormcaller - from where she gets her name - which seems to have bound herself to it. It answers to no others.

Early Life
Sir Alfred d'Arafina of Brevale, Sophie's father, only spent one night with her mother. He only talked about it once during which he never mentioned her by name. What he talks about far more, especially when deep in his cups, is how the "noble whore's" family, stripped him of all honour, privilege and position and had him exiled, leaving him and by extension Sophie destitute. In place of the great knight he once was he was reduced to scrounging petty bounty jobs and drinking his way around the continent with Sophie in tow.

Being on the road all the time isn’t good for a child, but when Sophie was being taught to fight by her father, it was one of the few times she was truly happy during her childhood. By the age of 16 she was helping with the small bounty jobs that put food on the table and wine in the cups, it was an exciting life if not entirely fulfilling. It only lasted for a couple of years.

They were in Baldant when Alfred was killed, they had been drinking after a particularly long day's work guarding caravans. Sophie herself was in a particularly bad mood, and was taking it out on her father. Finally in an outburst, she shouted at him and moved to leave. Alfred moved to follow and ended up bumping into an off duty soldier from the king's army. A shouting match turned into a fist fight, and the fist fight turned into a knife fight as Sophie watched on in horror."'You're no hero! A hero doesn't sit around drunk feeling sorry for himself! You disgust me!' - Sophie's last words to her father."As the drunken soldiers continued to gloat over and spit on the corpse of Alfred d'Arafina, Sophie grabbed her father's bident Stormcaller and ran.

Becoming a Hero
Sophies priorities changed after that; she wasn’t getting anywhere as an uneducated bastard daughter of a bounty hunter. It was time to reinvent herself.

She was lucky (in a way), they didn’t take Alfred's coin purse, they didn’t take anything but his life. Sophie was able to pay for a better than average education and began crafting her new persona, a noble hero, for the people. No more gruff exterior, heroes smile. No more drinking, heroes need to set an example and no more bounty contracts, heroes need no reward. She was going to help people.

In 245AT, King Melnor V of Deal died in mildly suspicious circumstances. Left without an adult son after losing two in a disasterous campaign against the Elves of Dielmel, his passing triggered the War of Dealian Succession. As contient was split by war as the various factions sought to control the powerful and important realm of Deal, Sophie found more and more cases of people in need.

The Saviour of Séchilienne
Séchilienne is a small village in Adecilia, in the foothills of the Middenmons. In 243AT, the village was the target of a raid by orcs from the mountains. The small village militia, depleted by the needs of the conflict, was severely outmatched by the band of warborn approaching. A fight broke out as the militia desperately tried to hold against the orcs, the villagers hiding in the central stockade, or cowering within their homes as the warborn fought their way to the central village green, seeking to finish the defenders before turning their savage attentions upon the non-combatants. As the villagers

The warchief took the field at this point, charging at the lines of the Militia and cutting a bloody path. The Militia line began to crumble, until a figure stepped into the path of the chief. A young woman in worn plate, a blue cloak matted with blood and gore of the battle, a strange weapon that sparked and crackled with lightning. Some within the village recognised her as a traveller that had taken up lodging at the tavern the night before. Others saw her for the first time, wreathed in lightning and standing alone against the hulking frame of the warlord.

The exact course of the fight has a dozen versions, depending on the teller. Some say the dual lasted near an hour, others that it was ended in half a dozen fearsome blows. What is universal to the stories is that when the warchief and the stormcaller clashed, the fight would end with Sophie d’Arafina standing over the corpse of the orc holding aloft her and casting the head of the chief at the feet of his followers. The militia rallying to her side to push the now leaderless orcs back, and the orcs fled.

Variations of this story spread throughout rural Kealia, some whispering of a saint, others of a hero. In countless homes of the Kealian smallfolk, young girls argue over who gets to be the Stormcaller at play, while tavern minstrels adapt folk songs to suit this new hero.

In Pursuit of Val Garena
See: The Auric Lodge, In Pursuit of Val Garena