Julianna Vos

Lord Regent of Heimdar

The Lord Regent of Heimdar and older-sister figure to Opal.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Early Life

Julianna Vos was born as the daughter of Valen Vos, esteemed war hero of Heimdar and favored general of the King. Her mother died in childbirth, so she was raised entirely by her father. Raised is a strong word, as her father never seemed to have much interest in his child, beyond making a second him. Her childhood was hard, raised by harsh tutors and trying to fulfill the ever-rising expectations of a distant father. At some point, Julianna was sent to train in martial arts at the Kurst Monastery under Master Shun, under Valen’s insistence that the original founder himself train his child (which he did most threateningly). While her time there was perhaps her happiest during her childhood due to the caring nature of Shun and the friendliness of Rick and Roll, a lot of Julianna’s built-up anger and resentment at her lot in life came out during her training. She threw frequent tantrums, and at one point, even beat a fellow student to death in a fit of rage after he’d accused her of using her father’s position to get an advantage. She ran off after knocking him unconscious, and never learned that she’d killed him, since Valen was quick to cover the whole incident up.
It was Julianna who found Opal as a child. While in the forest after running off from another temper tantrum, she stumbled on the infant Opal, and unwittingly saved her from the nearby Granny Twigmouth by carrying her back to the monastery. It was Julianna who named Opal, and she latched onto the bear-eared baby, doting on her every spare moment she could, thinking herself a big-sister figure.
However, even that fleeting happiness came to an end when Valen lost interest in Julianna’s modest progress at the monastery, and demanded she return to him. Shun pushed back against his demand, having put together how toxic their relationship was, though Valen was not a man to be refused. Julianna never knew, but Valen burned down one of the buildings of the monastery with Roll inside as a threat, and the young dwarf suffered major burns because of it.
In the end, Julianna caught wind of her father’s demands, and out of a mix of shame, obligation, a desire to please him, and not wanting to make trouble for baby Opal, she bowed to her father’s will. Shun tried to talk her out of it, but she rejected his attempts to save her, saying that her father had finally asked for her to go with him, that it would be different this time, and though Shun didn’t believe it, she managed to fool herself. In one of the most heartbreaking moments of her life, she left the only home she’d ever had, left the monastery on bad terms, and had to say goodbye to her “little sister” Opal.

Young Adult Life

Julianna trained under her father directly in her teenage years, but only managed to be a disappointment to her father’s ever increasing expectations. Eventually, he seemed to give up on her entirely, and found another apprentice, a navy officer seemingly cut from the same cloth. When she became of age, her father made Julianna marry him so that he could be his heir instead of her. Pushed along almost entirely by shame at this point, Julianna bowed to her father yet again, and entered into a loveless marriage.
Her husband proved to be just as disinterested in her as her father, and made no effort to hide the convenient nature of their marriage. They spent little time together. At Valen’s insistence, they consummated their marriage a handful of times, to produce an heir if nothing else, though Julianna hated it every time and avoided it when she could. Still, Julianna went through with it, rationalizing that, maybe, being a mother was something she could finally do, thinking back to how much she loved little Opal.
She did eventually get pregnant, but that, too, was nothing like what she’d hoped. Julianna couldn’t stop a terrible feeling of disgust at herself and the child growing inside of her, and realized that, more than anything, she did not want to have it. Luckily, the cleric overseeing her health saw her situation for what it was and took pity on her. She helped Julianna abort the child, hiding the entire pregnancy from her husband and father. For the first time, Julianna had gone against her father’s wishes, which only compounded her sense of inferiority, despite the relief. She never slept with her husband again after that, which seemed to suit her husband just fine, as he seemed to have as little interest in children as he did in his wife.
The cleric lied to Valen about Julianna’s infertility to hopefully end the issue, and Valen felt yet another disappointment in his daughter. Luckily, before he could “fix” this problem too, he suddenly fell ill, and died soon after due to sickness. Julianna felt a terrible mix of shame and relief at his passing, part of her feeling free, yet another telling her that she would never break free of his shadow now that he was haunting her.
Her husband took over as Viscount of her father’s colony of Albien, though he was more of a military man than the statesman her father had thought, and Julianna had to do most of the actual governing. Unknown to her, her husband entered into an alliance with a demon-corrupted man named Dalio, which ultimately led to his death at the hands of Sathias Firevale, who killed him along with the demon. Julianna felt no great loss, and let Sathias go free after verifying her husbands crimes.
Julianna was named Viscount soon after, and though her heart wasn’t in it, she opposed the gnomish rebellion growing on the island, led by Queen Fritin, out of a sense of duty for her position and obligation towards her late father. The war turned quickly against her, however, and out of desperation, she tried to use Dalio’s grail to turn the tide, but was stopped by Sathias, who killed her at the last second. Her last sight as she died was her own father, her greatest fear summoned by the phantasmal killer that Sathias had created, stopping her heart, as her soul was absorbed into the grail.
Leonidas showed up shortly after, pursuing Dalio. He destroyed the grail and, due to the unusual circumstances of her death, raised her as a vampire to bring her back. He told her about himself, his mission, and the Empire’s dream of unity and equality, how he needed her to help him take Albien and Heimdar with as little bloodshed as possible. Partially due to the mind-controlling nature of her vampiric state, she immediately revered Leonidus as a father-like figure, and swore allegiance to the Empire as a general.
Julianna dramatically re-appeared on the battlefield of Albien, ordering her own colonial troops to cease fire on gnomish forces, and negotiated their surrender to Queen Fritin and Sathias. She offered Fritin a deal, the throne of Albien in exchange for joining the Empire as a special vassal state. Though surprised by Julianna’s sudden change in allegiance, Fritin accepted, wanting to avoid another war, and signed the Emperor’s contract. She surprised Julianna next by insisting they were friends now, and they quickly became pen pals despite Julianna’s hesitancy.

Imperial Years

Julianna went on to lead the new Empire navy in the war against her homeland of Heimdar. Despite her father’s disappointment in her, she had learned a great deal from him about naval warfare and Heimdar’s own defense strategies, and quickly led the Empire’s military might to many victories on the seas. Many in Heimdar, the King included, called her out as a traitor to her father’s memory and refused to bow at her asks for surrender, but Julianna had a new sense of purpose, and insisted that she, and the Empire, would right the wrongs Heimdar had committed and save her home nation from its own Nepotism.
One of her strategies was to surround the main islands by seizing a trade alliance with Issilidor and taking the oft-overlooked island of Kurst on the north side of the archipelago. Thus, she returned to the island she’d once called home, and while there, reunited with the now-grown Opal. To her disappointment, her “little sister” didn’t remember her, and hadn’t been told who she was, but she was quick to move past that and try to get to know Opal better, as well as her friends, Ira and Raina. She reunited with Master Shun, Rick and Roll too, though their reunion was a bit more tense, with Shun ultimately fighting her in what was supposed to be a friendly bout, but became an all-out fight as he demonstrated that she was unwelcome back as long as she was still trying to define herself by her father’s shadow. He would have killed her (only a setback as a vampire, but still), if Opal had not stepped in and stopped the fight. Julianna did not go back to the monastery after that, but spent a lot of time with Opal over the next year.
While they were there, Julianna helped the three heroes find a serial killer hidden among her own troops (who also happened to be werewolves). She executed the killer herself and punished the others severely, in public, in front of the people of Kurst to demonstrate that she would not allow injustice upon them. After that, she also helped Opal, Ira, and Raina hunt down and kill Granny Twigmouth, and also brought the frost giants to heel in a duel against their new chieftain. Julianna would have killed her had not Raina shot her in the arm to stop her. This almost caused an international incident, but Julianna was careful, and made sure it all worked out. The giants joined the Empire. As for Raina, Julianna tried to make her sign a contract to not take further action against the Empire, but was convinced otherwise, and merely sent Raina back to her homeland with a warning.
Over the next year, Julianna finished her conquest of Heimdar on behalf of the Empire. Emperor Leonidus came himself to break the throne, sentence the once-royal family to military duty, and congratulate Julianna. He named her governor of the Heimdar region, which she took to readily. Despite the large number of Heimdar natives who considered her a traitor, she demonstrated great skill as a governor and understanding of her own homeland by almost seamlessly transitioning the country to Imperial Law, and ultimately improved the nation for the better.
Julianna further helped Opal, Ira, and Raina by escorting them to Albien on their excursion to the Fey Wild. She became a little protective of Opal when they didn’t arrive back on schedule, but gave them paperwork and permission to travel to the mainland Empire all the same.
Her next interaction with the heroes was to her dread, a letter she received from Opal telling of how they could no longer stand by the Empire’s actions, found in the empty Kurst Monastery, where Shun had finally left, without another word to Julianna. Shortly after, the Emperor himself came to tell her that Opal had become a threat to the Empire. She went with him to the Tower of Stars to confront them, hoping to talk Opal into coming home and making amends, but was caught up in the fighting when the Emperor’s offer was rejected by the three, and things turned violent. She was inadvertently killed by the Emperor’s own Meteor Swarm, but as a vampire would have regenerated if not for Opal using the Quivering Palm to fully kill her, setting her free from her undeath.
Ira resurrected her not long after and, free from the vampiric influence, Julianna realized that they were right. The Emperor had gone too far, and had to be stopped. She joined with the Elven Court, advising them on various aspects of the imperial military and strategy. She had a lot of emotions to sort out after realizing she’d partially been controlled, but ultimately decided that the relationship she’d formed with Opal, and her new sense of self worth, were her own. She fought with the Elven Court against the Empire all through the siege of Casal Issilideth, and ultimately, helped them see victory.

Post-War

By popular demand, Julliana was pardoned by Trisha Alrestrauch and reappointed as governor of Heimdar. She was hesitant at first, seeing as she previously occupied by the position as a loyal vampire, but found that the parts of her that felt a sense of duty to her home and enjoyed improving the nation were indeed feelings of her own. After Trisha declared that conquered regions could choose to secede from the Empire, Julliana was quick to break through the fear of seeming disloyal and find out what the people of Heimdar really wanted. And, still freshly conquered, they wanted to go back to being their own nation, while still keeping the reforms and economic booms the Empire had awarded. While Grattenmar technically seceded first, Julliana led Heimdar through the first example of a succession of a region that had already been fully integrated, demonstrating to the rest of the world that a peaceful, near-seamless secession was possible. The transition went well, largely due to Julliana’s experience integrating Heimdar in the first place.
During this few year transition period, Julliana split her time between Heimdar and the All Capitol, helping Trisha in the early years of her rule. She was immensely helpful as a source of advice and familiarity for the young Empress. They bonded over their experience together in the war, their mutual friendship with Opal, Ira, and Raina, and the quiet respect they both held for Leonidus while still acknowledging his flaws. They became close friends, and Julliana gained another pen pal. After the secession, they continued to stay in touch, though a bit more professionally as world leaders.
After the secession, the leaders of the various islands established a new government to replace the monarchy, creating a conclave of island elders, who in turn elect a Regent to administer the nation as a whole. Julliana, naturally was named Regent, and was re-elected unopposed for the rest of her life.
Needless to say, Julliana spent as much time as she could with her “little sister” Opal, and the two became even closer as the years went by. Julliana even further trained in the Way of the Open Hand with Opal, not devoting her life to it, but she eventually got a ribbon or two. She did it most of all, to feel a connection to Shun. Needless to say, the Monasteries always had Heimdar’s support, and Julliana herself devoted a small shrine in a public place to Shun himself.
Julliana’s friendship with the Bernaldts helped ease age-old tensions between Heimdar and Grattenmar. For their part, the Bernaldts considered Julliana as much a part of the family as Opal, and in them, Julliana got to feel the sense of familial bonds she had always lacked.
Altogether, Julliana finally found her own way, and accepted herself as her own person, not defined by her father’s expectations

Year of Birth

3121 49 Years old

Eyes

Dark Blue (Red while vampire)

Hair

Blonde

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White

Height

5'11"