Vaska, the Pallid King
King-Consort Vaska (a.k.a. The White King)
Once known as Vaska, greatest of the seraphs and King-Consort of the Red Queen, the Pallid King was the moniker that the chosen consort and ruler of Trandrafia went by when they turned their backs on the Red Queen and attempted to seize control of the Duchies for themselves.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
The Pallid King, before their death is described as a horrid creature of bone, pale skin, and shadow over a frame devoid of blood. They are given many renditions in texts, but it is believed that Vaska had at least one set of wings and a halo made of bone like a crown above their head. They were mostly humanoid in form and wore a set of heavy armor, wielding a longsword and a longbow.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Vaska's history is tied heavily to the rise of the Red Queen and the decline of the Dawn Kingdom. Prior to the rise of the nation of Trandrafia, Vaska is believed to have been nothing more than a servant within the city of Hanwaurëa, or "Dawnseat", now known as Zeiţăresti. Like may of the native people who submitted to elven rule when they spread their kingdom across the land, they despised their rulers. By divine providence, Vaska found themselves called to by the Red Queen and on a day they were sent into the caves beneath the city, lost and nearing death, they encountered her. It is there that the legends say Vaska was saved by the Red Queen, fed a divine fruit that she produced to grant them the strength to survive. Upon returning to the city, Vaska became the voice of the Red Queen, proclaiming that there was a goddess still alive that would save their people. A goddess who the elves had not killed, and would see their overlords driven from the land.
Through their connection to the Red Queen and the power that she had granted them, Vaska accumulated a number of followers in secret, waiting for the time in which their goddess would lead them to overthrow the elven regime. On the night of the Red Moon Plot, late in the year when the blood red moon becomes full, Vaska led their group of rebels into the imperator's castle, following the direction of their goddess, and assassinated the imperator along with a number of members of the royal family and their supporters who lived in the castle. Other pockets of rebellion elsewhere within the land also acted that night, many succeeding in ending the lives of the rulers in settlements and regions of the elven kingdom in a single night. In the resulting bloodshed, the Red Queen was able to step foot into the mortal world and Vaska would stand beside her for the next century.
What followed the Red Moon Plot was a long and drawn out war in which Vaska would stand beside the Red Queen, a goddess in the flesh, and lead the war effort against the elves along with a group of other chosen of the Queen who became known as her Seraphs. But it was not only the elves who they needed to remove from the land. There were other societies that lived in conflict with the elves and had taken their weakness as an opportunity to strike back. These pockets of resistance, as well as those that had risen from destabilized lands, would eventually fall to the influence or the sword of the Red Queen, and Vaska was the marshal of her armies.
It is believed that during this time Vaska and the Red Queen had a number of children, many of whom would be named after the war as the noble families of the nation of Trandrafia. This divine blood is said to give them the right to rule by the grace of the Queen.
Despite how close Vaska was to the Queen however, she would ultimately leave them, ascending to her own realm with her seraphs as her heralds beside her. Instead of having them join, the Red Queen chose Vaska to remain behind, naming them her consort and ruler of the land. As such, their title became "King-Consort". Trandrafia would enter a golden age for several hundred years following the ascension of the Red Queen under the rule of King-Consort Vaska, even with the constant assaults on their lands by the remaining elves that now neighbored them.
But this would not last. After nearly 500 years of rule, Vaska changed. They grew malevolent and vicious, angry and petty, and seemed to grow to despise - or at least dismiss - the Red Queen's rule. The offerings given to the Queen were halted, taken for themselves, and the means of these sacrifices in her name were changed to take life from which they would raise bloodless soldiers with undying loyalty to them. Vaska reached out to those most loyal to them and created a faction of loyalists who would quash descent at their command. In a final act of sacrilege, Vaska divested themselves of their divine blood, the very gift given by the Queen and their connection to her. With this act they grew into a pale, skeletal shadow of what they once were and took a new name: The White King. Scholars can only speculate on the reasons for Vaska's fall from grace, and it remains one of the great mysteries that surrounds the individual and their relationship with the Red Queen.
Though they had their loyalists, this treachery would not stand with everyone, and soon those loyal to the Queen rose up against this new monstrous creature that had once been their benevolent ruler, and another long war began against a new tyrannical monarch. It took many long years to wrest control from the Pallid King and defeat them, but eventually Vaska did fall. Within the Forest of Graves they fell, their body was destroyed, cursing the forest with a plague of undeath that still threatens settlements on all sides of its borders. Now they are known only for their rule as the tyrannical king who sought to overthrow their very goddess for power and greed, and the tale of Vaska and the Heartfruit is seldom repeated without a solemn attitude and acknowledgement that even the most devout can fall to temptation.
Through their connection to the Red Queen and the power that she had granted them, Vaska accumulated a number of followers in secret, waiting for the time in which their goddess would lead them to overthrow the elven regime. On the night of the Red Moon Plot, late in the year when the blood red moon becomes full, Vaska led their group of rebels into the imperator's castle, following the direction of their goddess, and assassinated the imperator along with a number of members of the royal family and their supporters who lived in the castle. Other pockets of rebellion elsewhere within the land also acted that night, many succeeding in ending the lives of the rulers in settlements and regions of the elven kingdom in a single night. In the resulting bloodshed, the Red Queen was able to step foot into the mortal world and Vaska would stand beside her for the next century.
What followed the Red Moon Plot was a long and drawn out war in which Vaska would stand beside the Red Queen, a goddess in the flesh, and lead the war effort against the elves along with a group of other chosen of the Queen who became known as her Seraphs. But it was not only the elves who they needed to remove from the land. There were other societies that lived in conflict with the elves and had taken their weakness as an opportunity to strike back. These pockets of resistance, as well as those that had risen from destabilized lands, would eventually fall to the influence or the sword of the Red Queen, and Vaska was the marshal of her armies.
It is believed that during this time Vaska and the Red Queen had a number of children, many of whom would be named after the war as the noble families of the nation of Trandrafia. This divine blood is said to give them the right to rule by the grace of the Queen.
Despite how close Vaska was to the Queen however, she would ultimately leave them, ascending to her own realm with her seraphs as her heralds beside her. Instead of having them join, the Red Queen chose Vaska to remain behind, naming them her consort and ruler of the land. As such, their title became "King-Consort". Trandrafia would enter a golden age for several hundred years following the ascension of the Red Queen under the rule of King-Consort Vaska, even with the constant assaults on their lands by the remaining elves that now neighbored them.
But this would not last. After nearly 500 years of rule, Vaska changed. They grew malevolent and vicious, angry and petty, and seemed to grow to despise - or at least dismiss - the Red Queen's rule. The offerings given to the Queen were halted, taken for themselves, and the means of these sacrifices in her name were changed to take life from which they would raise bloodless soldiers with undying loyalty to them. Vaska reached out to those most loyal to them and created a faction of loyalists who would quash descent at their command. In a final act of sacrilege, Vaska divested themselves of their divine blood, the very gift given by the Queen and their connection to her. With this act they grew into a pale, skeletal shadow of what they once were and took a new name: The White King. Scholars can only speculate on the reasons for Vaska's fall from grace, and it remains one of the great mysteries that surrounds the individual and their relationship with the Red Queen.
Though they had their loyalists, this treachery would not stand with everyone, and soon those loyal to the Queen rose up against this new monstrous creature that had once been their benevolent ruler, and another long war began against a new tyrannical monarch. It took many long years to wrest control from the Pallid King and defeat them, but eventually Vaska did fall. Within the Forest of Graves they fell, their body was destroyed, cursing the forest with a plague of undeath that still threatens settlements on all sides of its borders. Now they are known only for their rule as the tyrannical king who sought to overthrow their very goddess for power and greed, and the tale of Vaska and the Heartfruit is seldom repeated without a solemn attitude and acknowledgement that even the most devout can fall to temptation.
Intellectual Characteristics
Vaska, as the Pallid King, was reknown for their mastery over necromancy and all magic associated with the borders of life and death, especially those revovling around the spirit and corporeal body (specifically bones and the exanguination of a body). They taught many apprentices in their time, some of which survived the war, and some who appeared later as criminals and would-be overlords of small regions where they could expand their knowledge in relative privacy.
Children
Related Myths
King-Consort
Chosen of the Red Queen
First of the Seraphs
White King
Pallid King
Reaver of Blood
Former Home: Zeiţăresti
Ancestry: Half-Elf / Ascendent Humanoid / Celestial
Ethnicity: Trandrafian
Comments