Serine Edessa

Childhood

The Edessa family was not that high in rank, though they did not lack means in the form of money or influence. Key members of the mage seekers, they worked tirelessly to protect Demacia from threats within. The Lord of the family, Dimir Edessa, and his wife, Merani Edessa, had 5 sons when Merani once again became pregnant. It was a difficuilt pregnancy, and the lord had never been more stressed than the stormfull night her water broke. Several healers were summoned, and after a dozen agonizing hours and the lead doctor asking him if he wanted them to save his wife or the baby (he panicked and told them to save both, to which the doctor sighed and mumbeled something about both dying at this rate), he was relieved when he was allowed to enter his wife's chambers - and found her holding a sleeping baby girl. The baby immideatly became the apple of both parents' eye, and was spoiled from that day forward. Her brothers adored her, and she knew no hardship. The very best tutors (they could afford) were hired, and she was both elegant and kind. After witnessing the capture of a rogue mage in the city as a child her devotion to Demacia and anti-mage rethorics grew, but her parents (being mageseekers) saw no issue with this.
One of the more notable events of her childhood was her tenth birthday, when her parents gifted her a horse of the breed Connemara. Serine had always fancied herself a princess, and wanted nothing more than to ride into the sunset on a white pony with her very own prince charming. She named the horse Catherine, and they were quickly inseparable.

Orlian Velorus

Above all, Serine loved balls. Extravagant dresses, dancing, good food - it was always exciting to be invited. As the mageseekers' power grew, so did the rate at which she received invitations. One evening when she was 17, her best friend was crying in the garden after a particularly handsome nobleman had chosen to dance with someone else over her, and forgot her gloves. She returned later on her own to find them, and was surprised to run into another person by the fountain. He was sitting alone and staring at the stars, seemingly deep in thoughts. She walked over and picked up her gloves, surprised when the man showed no sign of noticing her presence. Possibly a little drunk, she abonded etiquette and sat beside the man and looked up.
"The stars are quite beautiful tonight, are they not?" She heard the man startle and fall backwards into the fountain. She immediatly stood up, surprised. "I am so sorry, I did not mean to startle you. Here - take my hand." The man stared at her dumbfounded, he was actually quite handsome - though soaking wet. Serine waited a couple of seconds before she asked "Do you not speak Velarian?" This seemed to stir the man into action, and he stood up. "Where did you come from?" "I was just looking for my gloves, I left them here earlier." She courtsied. "Serine Edessa, pleased to meet you. "Orlian Velorus," he replied with a small bow. "Do you usually ambush people by fountains?"
Serine does not remember the excact words, but she found herself taken with Orlian, and was more than ever looking forward to the next ball. The next few balls were whirls of colour, of wine, dancing and talking to this new man. On the day a year after they first met they kissed, and they swore they would always love each other. They began seeing each other in secret, Orlian finding new and more creative ways to bypass the security of the Edessa manor.
Dimir Edessa and Merani Edessa were hard at work finding a suitable spouse for Serine, all her brothers were married. They wanted someone who would treat her right, but most important were that she married into a good house that would be powerful allies. When Lord Eldred married Tianna Crownguard her parents cheered - this was a chance for the mageseekers to gain power, and their chance to be further enobled. They found several good candidates, but after Serine's maid tampered a little with their papers they landed at the heir of house Velorus, the very same Orlian Velorus Serine had been seeing in secret. They began negotiating their marriage, and ended up agreeing they would be engaged immediatly and then wed after Orlian had proved himself in the millitary.
Serine was 18 when her parents told her they had chosen a spouse. She felt queasy, she could not bear the thought of being separated from Orlian. For a brief moment she considered running away, but decided that her duty to her family came above personal feelings, not matter how strong. When she and her parents were invited to the Velorus manor for supper she thought nothing of it, she had noticed their fathers becoming friends, but nothing will ever beat the joy she felt when Orlian proposed - and her parents nodded their approval. Now they were officially engaged, and no longer had to hide around.
They began having weekly tea parties and got to know one another on a deeper level. Worried by Serine's lack of ability to fight, Orlian also taught her archery, a painful experience for both of them. Regardless, their relationship was strong, and Serine was looking more and more forward to their wedding with each day. When Orlian told her he was to take part in some big fight against Noxus. Serine could not care less about the details, she was too happy that her fiancé was finally getting the chance to prove himself. It was with a heat full of love and pride she saw him off before she went to a tea party with some friends - she will always chide herself for not treasure her last moments with him.

Death and Sorcery

All in all, Serine had a wonderful life. Everything changed when Orlian Velorus was declared dead - just another causality in the war against Noxus. Serine remembers the moment where her world shattered with clarity - she was in the rose garden, sitting on a bench near a fountain drinking her favorite tea and penning a letter to a friend, when her maid came running. Serine, not sensing the maid's serious mood, looked up from her writing and said "Where are you going in a hurry? Sit down, have a biscuit!" She was about to share some gossip, this was her favourite maid, when the maid interupted. "My lady, have you not heard?" "Heard what?" "My lady, you may want to put your cup down." Serine hestitantly sat her cup down, confused by her maid's weird behaviour. "Lord Velorus is dead." Serine blinked. "Truly? Well, he was starting to get old..." "No, my lady. I-... I am sorry, we just received the report from the front. The entire battalion was wiped out by some fell Noxian magic. Lord Orlian Velorus is dead." Serine stared at the maid. The world seemed to be spinning. "What?" she asked in a meek voice, as her stomach started turning and she could taste acid and tea in her throught. Her maid started explaining the details, and with each word Serine felt her world fall apart. How could this happen? This was not how the story was supposed to end, with her alone. This was unfair. How dare the Noxians do this? How dare the mages do this? She had always known the terrors of magic, and this proved everything her parents had taught her right. Magic was a disease, a rot, a scourge on the world, and now it had taken the one she loved the most. She felt anger brew within her, anger and sadness mixed with despair - nothing would ever be the same again. She did not notice her maid grow quiet, did not see the electricity cackling around her, all she knew was that someone had to pay. Her maid shouted for help, but it was too late. Serine was blinded by an overwhelming light and the vague sensation of being lifted into the air, and then the world went dark.
When she woke up, she was lying in her room. Her parents were by her bedside, crying. Serine has no idea what they said, the shock of Orlian's death making her numb. She felt unaturally empty, like some key part of her soul was missing. Unbeknownst to her, this was in part due to the petricite her parents had put on her to stop the occasionaly outbursts of magic that had appeared as she slept. Serine was forcefully dragged back to reality when her father handed her a strange vial and asked her to drink. She looked at it. "What?" Her voice was hoarse. Her mother started crying again, and her father's hands started shaking worse. "Darling, you need a bath. Drink this, then you won't need the petricite shackles anymore." Petricite? Now that he mentioned it, there was some shackles on her hand, albeit not chained to anything. She mindlessly accepted the potion and swallowed it in one gulp, she was thirsty, and felt it sear her insides. She coughed, but her throat still burned. Her mind went blank from the pain, and it brought her out of her shock. Her parents were giving her petricite. Petricite. That was what they gave to mages. What in the world was going on? Her mother's sobs were grating her ears, but she looked her dad in the eyes. "Why?" she managed to get out through the pain. "Darling, we do not know. Ever since.... ever since the news came you've had powerful outbursts of magic..." her dad kept explaining, but the only thing Serine could hear was the words "you've had powerful outbursts of magic" over and over, ringing in her head. She does not really remember what happened after, everything was a blur.
After an infinite amount of time (a week) she was calm enough to talk to her parents. They explained they did not know how it happened, but she was casting magic - and she was not in control. They theorized one of the mages they had caught had cursed her, or maybe her maid had carried a curse? Regardless, she was dependent on petricite to not explode. Her parents explained their plan, she was to drink petricite potions a few times a day and wear some petricite jewlery, and she would be able to continue her life. Meanwhile, they would find the mage responsible and cure her. Serine looked at her parents' explaining, it looked more like they were just rambling nervously. She could not believe what they were saying. Cursed or not, she was wielding magic - and that made her a danger to Demacia. Her parents were mageseekers, they should know this! She calmly explained to her parents that she had to be turned in, with the full poewr of the mageseekers she should be curable. They begged her to change her mind, but it was for naught. She had chosen her path, and would see it through - for honor and duty.
Her time in the tower was horrible. Some mageseekers pitied her, believing her parent's story about it being a curse. Others believed her to be a criminal, a mage who only confessed when she was caught and was hoping for milder treatment by turning herself in. Others rolled their eyes at the whole thing, saying she was just a normal mageborn who did not know of her powers but discovered them due to an outburst of emotion. There was repeated attempts to send her to the outskirts, but her parents shut them all down. She was cursed, sick, and would be cured and returned to her family. She spent almost three and a half years in the tower, though she had no way of keeping track of the passage of time, and the petricite slowed her mind.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Sylas of Dregbourne escaped his execution by dragging magic out of petricite and (supposedly) murdered the king. During his rebellion he killed the guards and set free all the mages in the tower. Serine hid, and was the only mage to stay behind in the tower. In the chaos she was found by her parents who had come rushing to her aid. They brought her home, where her horse, Catherine, was saddeled up with all the equipment she would need. Her parents explained what had happened, and told her she had to leave. No doubt, Prince Jarvan IV was furious - and his anger would be directed at mages. It seemed her magic had come to stay, but that did not mean she deserved to die or forever be a prisoner. They told her to run, flee the country - and live. Serine accepted, and after a tearful goodbye she left. After all, she could not serve Demacia dead.

Afer some weeks of aimless wandering, using her skills with a bow and arrow to hunt (and learning how to track prey, and prepare food), she found herself not far from Palclyff. As she was sleeping her camp was beset by bandits. They got the jump on her, she was unarmored and unarmed. Despairing, a bolt of lightning jumped from her hand and zapped a bandit dead. Focusing on it, she steered it from bandit to bandit and managed to kill them all before they were able to get away. She was shocked, this was the first time since the tower her magic had manifested. Her gaze wandered the bandits, and she realized her magic could - at least sort of - be controlled. She was good with a bow but would never be as skilled as her fiancé had been, this magic was her chance at power. And with power, revenge. She mounted Catherine with newfound purpose, and crossed the Noxian border. She would not slaughter aimlessly, most of these people were victims of the Noxian expansion after all, but started looking for information on who had murdered Orlian Velorus. Her coin quickly ran dry, but not before she figured she wasn't gonna get any information here. Her best bet, she believed, was to either head where the battle had happened (though she did not know where), or to go to the capitol of Noxus - the Immortal Bastion. Determined, she set course for Stonewall. There she would find a job to get the coin for a boat, and either take a boat through Piltover or to Rokrund. Regardless, she would find her answers - and her revenge.

Alignment

Neutral Good

Age

23

Parents

Dimir Edessa

Merani Edessa

Pronouns

She/Her

Belief/Deity

Kayle