From SuspireWiki

Mortal History

OOC Note: Not much is known in regards to Hildr's past. She's hinted here and there on some aspects of it through stories and its rather known or surmised that she is from Texas. At current, no one knows her past beyond the Valkyrie herself. And the story of it lies beyond.

Hildr was born Denise Dunham in April 2nd, 1971 in a small town in the great state of Texas. She would be the third kid of six. DD, as her friends and family called her, lived a relatively simple life in the countryside. Her mother worked as a hand at a nearby cattle ranch and her father commuted to make money for them at an oil plant.

As a kid, she was more a tomboy then the girl next door as her older siblings were all boys. This often got her into not only fights at home but sometimes at school, her father often saying she inherited her temper from her mother rather then himself. Her mother hoped it was only a phase. She would meet disappointment as DD became a teenager who was prone to mischief as she had been then. Not because she was a troublemaker, she just didn't walk away from a fight.

When she wasn't busting an errant boy's nose or spitting out vulgarities, she would join her mom at the cattle ranch. By 17, she worked their regularly as her mom began to develop arthiritis. The tiring work, which would have worn the grain from most youths, only proved to make her more physical over time. By 18, she was helping break in horses, branding new steers, and working as much work as the boys there.

She stayed around after high school for another year, before finally deciding to move from away from her old town. Granted, this decision was prompted after whipping the snot out of her boss for inappropriate actions such as touching her derriere....but it was a good time to leave while she was still young.

DD soon moved into Houston around 1990, just looking for work where she could find it. For the next two years, it was wheel of misfortune as she kept flitting from job to job. Most places would only hire her on as a waitress or bar wench as she didn't exactly have a winning personality or demeanor. At 21, she finally got a job that suited her as a female bouncer for a club called Ruff Ridin'. It was meant to be a specialty bar...an underground club for those of gay persuasions. It wasn't her scene but the money was good and occassionaly she got to deal with idiots who came to the wrong place to start the wrong shit.

At 22, she was back on the job market again after Ruff Ridin' was finally shut down after pressure on the city council from religious zealots that didn't condone the activity there. A bit miffed at her job loss, DD started going to local bars and saloons to try and get similar work as her last job (after all...it was something she was good at as she had found). It was around this time she met Ariokt, a grizzly seeming biker at a saloon one night. There paths would likely have never crossed if he hadn't started ribbing her about trying to do a man's job.

One thing led to another before DD was trying to drag him outside to the parking lot for a round of ass stomping. At first, she thought he was just another guy full of himself...it was only outside that he took her across the pavement. He let her think he was a drunk...he was a nobody. And then he gave her a beat down harder then she had recalled in all her years.

After all was said and done, the man would show up in her life again a week after the incident. It was then that he offered her a job. He was vague about the position, but it sounded sort of like being a bouncer again. Not having many job offers yet...she agreed to it and soon found herself thrust into the nightly activities of the Kindred.

Kindred History

It was slight at first, nothing overly large scale or big...but as time crept on, she would have to face the facts more and more often that nothing was right about Ariokt Dietrech. Ariokt payed her well, mostly to guard a building or keep riff raff out that weren't on lists for dive joints and sometimes even areas in the deserts. It was almost two years of this, of being kept in the dark but just seeing enough of the shadows to know things were off that DD underwent.

It was October 1996 when Ariokt finally started talking. He had appreciated all her fine help as well as admired her strength. He was convinced that she was ready for 'advancement'. Denise didn't understand all of it, only that he wanted to give her something better then the once in awhile work as well as filling her in on everything. So, she agreed to his offer...not knowing fully what she was about to thrust into.

A week later, she found herself part of the things she had been guarding. She had been grabbed in the night, beaten unconscious and then brought before the circle of people garbed in painted runes and muddied dirt. Then Ariokt approached the confused and for once, frightened Denise. He smiled and brought her to her feet...telling her that fear was a mortal trait. He then led her to an altar the others were gathered around...a pedestal bearing golden apples and the familiar smell of blood.

It was there that Ariokt offered her godhood.

After Denise's embrace, Ariokt began to instruct her in the ways of the Kindred but mostly in the path she was to follow. He believed she was a reborn Valkyrie...that she was a muse of war and glory. She merely needed to eat and savor the vitae...taste the golden apples of Idunn to reawaken her true form. Denise, already stupified by the truth of being the undead, could not deny these 'truths'. After all, Ariokt was immortal....he possessed abilities that should not be, and most of all...he had power. Whether sorcery or the blessings of his office, Ariokt proved time and again that mortality did not have to end if she wished it.

Ariokt called himself a Son of Valkyrie but he also told her that they were known as the Children of Morrigan or Morrigu depending on whom you spoke with. He himself had been awakened to his calling a century ago by his sire, Gondul who had taken the name of a Valkyrie herself. Keeping with the tradition of the line...he named her Hildr after the valkyrie who returned Hedni and Hogni to life each night to renew their fighting.

Ariokt eventually left Texas with his childer, moving along the southern shores to Florida. There, Hildr would become blooded as she helped defend her sire from a lone werewolf attacking them along the road. In Orlando, they met with a small coven of the Crones, where she would meet others like her sire..like her. Gods walking in bodies...or those that worshipped the gods. Some saw themselves as vessels, others as venerators...but it was all the same. They were bonded by belief.

Belief in something far older then the workings of the U.S. of A or most other countries. Their history was not bound in fact but in the stories of things beyond reality. And who was more true...the ones who told you vampires didn't exist...or the vampires that told you that monsters truly walk the earth...

It was at the gathering, that Hildr would meet her first Skald. The storyteller mostly knew tales of their history but poems of war...tidings of woe as well as greatness. And though she was bound to war like Ariokt had designed, Hildr felt a new calling as well. It was around the Temple of the Orange Haven that Ariokt and Hildr parted ways. Her sire commended her on her wish to continue learning and set out to continue down his path.

From the turn of the century until 2007, she would stay with Heather Melphanes..the Skald of Orange Haven. She listened to the stories, soaked them in, as well as expand her own miniscule knowledge of the pantheon she belonged to. She would also serve in the capacity that her bloodline was meant to be...an arm of the Crone, defending them against would be intruders and hunting down those who had trespassed against them.

One night, Heather would take Hildr aside and tell her that she had learned all that she could tell her. That her path no longer belonged to that of Orange Haven. And that she had heard tale from their wise woman that a trail of blood streamed from Georgia. That the vitae of Kings and Gods leaking down from their summit. Hildr, knowing to stay would be insult to the vision and her mentor's wishes, bowed her head in acceptance.

Taking the weapons her sire had bestowed upon her...she set off to follow scarlet road.

Recent History

Since arriving in Atlanta, Hildr discovered the loss of the Crones as well as the unstable rule that had become the praxis of the city. Unsure of her role there, she began to just observe and meet with Coco, a supplicant to the Circle trying to help guide her. Eventually, a man named Vaugh would show who served under a different ideology. This would serve to create a split into two factions of belief within the Crone.

Eventually, Hildr would be involved in the turmoil as the Crones and Carthians would join briefly to relieve Jared Deuchamps of his crown. In a brief but bloody struggle, Hildr would briefly assist in the torporing and slaying of Jared, Aria Sanura, and Vivian Winthrop and three ghouls. Vaughn would move to take praxis and Hildr would return to her role as outsider. Around this time point she would go on to embrace Arlem, her first childe.

Small other incidents have occurred beyond Hildr's continued 'outsider' attitude and lack of union with other members of the Circle resulting in small incidents with Coco and occassionally Vaughn. One such incident would bring about Arlem learning Hildr's tough love approach after she would devastate his hand with a mace, almost pulverizing it to uselessness.

Hildr would also be an adamant foe to the rise of Bridget Connelly becoming the new Prince despite her history of having ruled the city before Hildr's arrival. Her 'rebellion' lasted shortly though before she pledged her willingness to follow the rules of the city after a brief dispute on her teaching methods with other Kindred's childer namely Lewis Johnson.

As of recent, she's begun further training with Arlem and seeing if he's ready to ascend from what he was to who he is. Sadly, she's already told him he'll never truly be part of her bloodline due to his role but that there is no shame or dishonor in such. Beyond that, she's been reflecting in her own role as a Crone...not just as Valkyrie. From there, she has began to meet frequently with a small group of mortals and forming a cult called The Pact.