Armageddon

Glorious leader of the Legion. Worshipped idol of war.

Early Life

Armageddon was born in the Far Lands, as the daughter of simple farmers. Soon after her birth, they noticed that her hair was white as snow, and this scared the supersitious people of her clan. White hair in a child was seen as a bad omen in the Far Lands and even beyond, a sign of the person being a child of Sulfur. At the first opportunity, her parents took the baby to a monastery and left her there.

Growing Up

After a lot of deliberation, the nuns took the child in and called her Vinter, after the current season. As soon as she was old enough to really understand social cues, Vinter figured out that the inhabitants of the monastery didn't treat her like the other children. There was always a sort of apprehension in their interactions. No one was outright hostile towards her, but she never felt very welcome, either. During her time in the monastery, she studied the various subjects that their library contained books on, but was most interested in the ones about ancient wars. Strategy and tactics, ancient rulers, countries, and warfare were the topics of the books she devoured. It was of course frowned upon, so she quickly started doing that in secret instead. When she was 12, a very harsh winter caused many of the inhabitants of a nearby town and even the nuns of the monastery to fall sick and even die. It wasn't hard for Vinter to figure out that she was being blamed for this misfortune somehow, as she overheard people inside and outside the monastery mentioning it. It didn't help that Vinter herself hadn't fallen sick at all. It wasn't a taboo, but didn't make her any more popular when Vinter eventually started practicing with weapons. No one was willing to teach her, despite some of the other inhabitants being proficient in combat - she had to find a teacher outside the monastery whenever she left it during the days. Unfortunately, spending time outside the monastery was hardly ever pleasant. People who saw her in the streets avoided or even cursed at her. After being attacked by particularly fearful citizens, Vinter decided to dye her hair black.

Rejection

She was 16 years old at that time, and definitely realized that the other inhabitants of the monastery weren't as compassionate as she thought they should be when they learned that she had been assaulted in the streets. In fact, she found out that some of the nuns had talked behind her back, that they thought it was the "bad luck" that Vinter was attracting due to her "unnatural existence". Vinter got fed up and packed her things to leave. She snuck out at night, and left the nuns a parting gift - a big fire that burned the monastery to the ground.

Life as a Mercenary

Now, she was homeless and without any ideas how she was supposed to get by outside the monastery. She needed money and shelter. Ending up in Vägkorset with an empty stomach and wallet, she found out that a certain man was looking to employ skilled mercenaries. Vinter didn't have any prior experience in that trade, but decided to try her luck and apply anyway. She had heard about Concord and his business, and also about his reputation of being rather lecherous. Suspecting that a young, pretty woman like herself would probably draw the wrong kind of attention from him, she decided to disguise herself as a boy. She was accepted into his camp indeed and successfully kept her identity a secret for three years. Eventually, she got tired of pretending. She also got tired of being exploited by Concord and doing underpaid henchman jobs. There was bigger things the world had to offer for Sulfur's daughter. She revealed that she had been only dressing up, and asked Concord to let her go. He didn't.

Departure from the Far Lands

Not only did Concord not want to lose such a useful employee, he also had more ulterior motives to keep her. He asked her where she was even planning to go instead, and how she imagined she would survive without a job like the one she had with him. Vinter couldn't answer these questions and was swayed into staying for the time being. She realized quickly that Concord had pretty much immediately fallen in love with her the moment he had found out that she was a woman. He had started courting her very blatantly. Vinter was disgruntled about this for several reasons, and she didn't reciprocate his attraction at all. She decided to leave for real, but had taken his words to heart - she had heard about the Legion and felt an intense desire to join them, so she knew where she wanted to go. She also stole all of Concord's money as she left, to survive without the need for a job for a while. (She felt entitled to most of that money anyway, as she believed that she had been paid much less than she deserved.)

Arrival at the Legion

She took a ship to the North and approached the Legion's recruiters. Her hair had grown out by then, revealing her natural - white - haircolor again; this made the recruiters somewhat skeptical of her. She was allowed to join anyway, but was put into an Admin unit. Far from combat, she was tasked with trivial things like keeping stock and scheduling shifts. Vinter was once again unhappy, but worked hard to rise in the ranks and impress her officers, hoping for promotions. She wanted to make a difference. After working her way up further in the units, she was at last allowed to carry out tasks like issuing promotions and scheduling raids. She had gained a bit of popularity among the troops and officers, being known as an intelligent and diligent member despite her "curse".

Becoming the Leader

As the Legion's high command went through troubles and unstable times, Vinter started wondering if she would be able to seize a much more influential position. Due to her job in the admin offices and assisting the higher ups directly, she had a very good insight into the power dynamics at play. With a great amount of calculation, Vinter started testing the waters and gathering allies in the high command. Her goal was to become part of the council that ruled the Legion. But when an opening appeared, she didn't hesitate and led a bloody coup that - not entirely intentionally - resulted in the entire council getting killed. Vinter saw her chance and simply declared herself the new leader of the council of one while still standing above the corpses of the previous leaders. In the following 10 years, she established herself as "Armageddon", and created a cult around her person to fortify her leadership.