Virilian Steadmane
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| Age | Unknown |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Unknown |
| Gender | Female |
| Eyes | Red |
| Hair | Silver |
| Skin | Black |
| Height | 5'4 |
Virilian Steadmane
Virilian Steadmane, often called Viri, is remembered as one of the great paradoxes of Faelorian legend — a being of infernal birth who lived and died for love, redemption, and the fragile light within mortal hearts.
Known variously as the Drow of the Infernal Blood, Lady of Blackmane Spire, and The Succubus Who Defied Hell, Virilian’s tale bridges the boundaries between divine and mortal, light and darkness, love and ruin. Her story is told across songs, journals, and recovered tomes — pieces of a life that burned bright against impossible odds.
Early Life and Origins
The earliest surviving record of Virilian comes from a fragmented text known as the Scrolls of the Lost Hearth, found in the ruins of an old chapel near the city of Norin. It speaks of a “child born of the infernal fire, yet found weeping beneath a mortal sky.”
That child was Virilian — a succubus child, taken from the Infernal Plane and abandoned in the mortal realm. She was discovered by a wandering knight named Arvon Steadmane, who could not bring himself to slay an innocent. Instead, he raised her in secret, teaching her compassion and honor in defiance of her nature.
She grew swiftly, her beauty disarming and her intellect keen. Yet, her youth was shadowed by isolation. To protect both her and those who would fear her, Arvon kept her hidden from the world, raising her in the shadow of a forgotten fortress — the Blackmane Spire.
The Blackmane Spire
The Blackmane Spire predates most written history — a monolith of black stone piercing the mists of the northern highlands. It was here that Virilian met Ori of the Vale, a mortal scholar and mage who sought refuge from the wars of men.
Ori was brilliant, curious, and disarmingly gentle. He saw through Virilian’s infernal disguise and did not recoil. In him, she found what she had never known: understanding.
Their companionship blossomed into love — an unthinkable union between mortal and fiend. Within the Spire, they built a sanctuary of learning and peace, aided by Arvon, who served as both guardian and friend. For decades, it seemed as though the world had forgotten them, and they were content to let it.
The Fall of Ori
But mortal life is fleeting, and love eternal can drive the heart to madness. Ori, fearing death and unwilling to leave Virilian alone, turned his studies toward the dark art of necromancy.
At first, Virilian pleaded with him to stop. When he refused, she fled the Spire, believing distance would spare him from his own obsession. Yet in her absence, Ori’s mind unraveled. He bound his soul to undeath, becoming the lich known in later centuries as Ori the Hollow King.
His first act upon his transformation was to send word throughout the shadowed realms: a bounty upon the head of his beloved, alive and unspoiled, for the sum of ten thousand gold. It was said he sought to drain her life-force and fuse her soul to his own — so that they would never again be apart.
Virilian’s name became a curse whispered in the underworld.
Years of Shadow
For generations, Virilian lived in disguise — hiding her infernal nature beneath the veil of a Drow woman, traveling between cities and kingdoms, always one step ahead of bounty hunters and the restless dead.
Despite her efforts to remain unseen, traces of her kindness linger in historical record. In Letters from the Low Vaults, a chronicler in Dalr wrote of “a silver-haired woman who healed a thief’s wounds with a kiss that burned and soothed at once.” Another tale from Kokoro speaks of a Drow enchantress who stopped a demon’s ritual by whispering its true name — a feat only an infernal-born could manage.
Whether these are truth or myth, they shaped Virilian’s reputation as a phantom saint — a shadowed savior who walked the line between good and damnation.
The Chronicles of Faefall
Virilian’s life took its most dramatic turn during the era chronicled in the Chronicles of Faeloria, a collection of journals and epic verse preserved in the archives of Avaria.
The texts tell of a band of heroes drawn together by fate — each a descendant of the old gods — to restore Alcor (The Fallen Guardian). Among them were:
- Elara, a Tiefling Sorcerer descended from Eriana (The Verdant Soul),
- Natsuko, the High Elf Monk descended from Alcor,
- Maive, a Bard of Lucien (The Laughing Star)’s line,
- Caranion, the Half-Elf Hexblade bound to Inuera (The Flame of Resolve),
- Neacal, the Barbarian heir of Ariana (The Mother),
- and Trix, a Halfling Rogue of unmatched cunning.
It was in the town of Natplio that the fellowship first encountered Virilian — a mysterious Drow who offered her aid on the condition that they help her “finish an old story.” She joined their quest, and though they soon learned of her infernal nature, none could deny her courage or the sharp wisdom she brought to their cause.
Love Beyond Realms
During their journey, Virilian and Elara grew close.
Where Elara’s heart brimmed with warmth and light, Virilian’s burned with fear and guilt. Yet, in Elara, she found the one soul who saw her not as a monster or temptation, but as a person.
Their bond deepened through trials — across crypts of shadow, through the ruins of Alcor’s temples, and within the shimmering Veil where souls were weighed. Elara’s diary, later recovered from the archives of Ix, includes the line:
- “She calls herself cursed, but when I am near her, I feel nothing but grace.”
The Return of Alcor
When the heroes restored Alcor and ended the divine fracture, the world entered the first year of the new era, 0 TRA. Yet peace came at a price. The infernal taint within Faeloria began to burn away — and with it, Virilian’s place among mortals.
Knowing that the world would no longer tolerate her existence, she chose exile. Elara refused to let her go alone. Together, they crossed the planar threshold into the Infernal Plane. The act is described in a fragment from The Song of the Flame’s End:
- “And thus the sorcerer and the succubus passed beyond the veil of flame, hand in hand, where angels fear to tread.”
Life Beyond the Flame
What became of them beyond that point is uncertain.
Records from the Infernal courts centuries later speak of “two interlopers who built a haven in the wastes — one of blood, one of starlight.” Some claim they forged a refuge known as Erelune’s Hollow, a place where mortals lost to Hell might find peace. Others insist they perished together, consumed by the Plane’s endless wars.
Among bards, the most beloved version of the tale says that when the wind is still and the stars burn red, one can hear faint laughter carried from beyond the veil — the echo of two lovers who defied gods and demons alike.
The Return to the Spire
Some centuries after her disappearance, documents recovered from the ruins of the Blackmane Spire describe a silver-haired woman who faced the lich Ori in single combat. The surviving fragments, written in blood on aged parchment, read:
- “The Drow came to end what love began. The lich wept as he died.”
No mortal witnessed the battle, but when adventurers later explored the Spire, they found Ori’s phylactery shattered, his throne collapsed, and two intertwined rings resting upon the altar — one of black iron, one of silver.
Legacy
Virilian’s legacy is one of contradiction and transcendence. To the scholars of Avaria, she represents the triumph of mortal will over divine destiny. To the clerics of Ariana (The Mother), she is proof that even the darkest soul can find redemption through love.
In Norin, a small statue of her stands in the Garden of Night-Blooming Lilies, placed by unknown hands. In the Infernal Plane, cults of compassion whisper her name as a symbol of rebellion against cruelty.
Her story endures not as one of damnation or sanctity — but of the choice to love in defiance of both.
Quotes and Sayings
- “If love damns me, let damnation sing.”
- “My sin is not in being born of fire — it is in believing I could never warm the world.”
- “There is no redemption without understanding.”
- “I was made to seduce. I choose instead to save.”