Velvy the Pearl

Velvy Wintergarde

</image> <group> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Titles</label> <label>Relatives</label> <label>Relationships</label> <label>Faction</label> <label>Affiliation</label> <label>Former affiliation</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Status</label> </group> <group> <header>Biographical information</header> <label>Marital status</label> <label>Place of birth</label> <label>Date of Birth</label> <label>Place of Death</label> <label>Date of Death</label> </group> <group> <header>Physical description</header> <label>Race</label> <label>Species</label> <label>Gender</label> <label>Height</label> <label>Weight</label> <label>Eye color</label> <label>Hair color</label> </group> <group> <header>Appearances</header> <label>Portrayed by</label> <label>Appears in</label> <label>Debut</label> </group> </infobox>{{#ifeq: 0 | 0 | }} To the world, the young Velvy is a traveling enchanter, arcaneweaver, and magical artifacts dealer. Beneath this guise, she is a trained warlock and holds a Baroness title of a fallen Alterac house. One might find Velvy anywhere in Azeroth, gathering rare relics and lost knowledge, or perhaps spending lavishly on the finest suite of a tavern.

Appearance

Velvy resembles the pale elegance of an alabaster statue, with her ivory skin, silver-white mane and eyes of the same sterling hue. These unique features are a permanent mark of the dark ritual she endured at the age of ten, during which the communion with a demon stripped most of the color from her. Her original appearance is long lost to memory.

Her features are delicate, with long eyelashes, a slightly upturned nose, and lips the color of cherries. She wears a bloodstone as a pendant resting on her neckline and paints her fingernails a matching shade of red. The crimson of her lips, the bloodstone, and her nails creates a striking embellishment against the canvas of her pale form.

Velvy’s lithe, slender figure that hints at a youth spent in hardship. Her height and weight are below average for her age, and her poor physical stamina leaves her prone to exhaustion and illness. She frequently uses magic to compensate for these frailties, which has given her a unique and profound insight into the arts of life transference.

Velvy possesses an exquisite slender kiseru pipe, crafted from fine silver and bamboo, which she uses for smoking during her moments of leisure. The aromatic smoke helps to mask the sulfuric scent of fel magic, putting her at ease while concealing her warlock identity from others. Fermented Dreamfoil petal is her signature tobacco, which is expensive, but leaves a faint, lingering sweet fragrance on her person.

Personality

Velvy projects a practiced aloofness and a detached air, but she is not a cold person. Those who have earned her friendship discover a softer side, along with a resilient optimism and a wicked sense of humor. She is often cynical and highly perceptive of shifting dynamics and burgeoning conspiracies, allowing her to anticipate trouble. In her daily life, she prefers an existence of freedom, leisure, and ease.

She dislikes chatter. In most situations, she is a listener and an actor, rarely one for persuasion. By the same token, she is seldom moved by the silver tongues of others. Unless she takes a personal interest in someone, suitors find her exceptionally difficult to please. Those who do capture her favor, however, are rewarded with unexpected generosity.

Velvy loves money and material comforts. While her skills in enchanting and appraising artifacts provide a handsome income, she is not above using illicit means to make a profit. Yet she is no miser. She spends her gold lavishly and often donates what she cannot spend to those in need.

She is meticulous about her body, bathing frequently whenever possible and deliberately avoiding manual labor. Her posture and mannerisms are rooted in her aristocratic upbringing in Alterac. Such ingrained grace allows her to move effortlessly through high society, creating many opportunities for her pursuits.

Abilities and Skills

From her mentor Menara, Velvy inherited the craft of Arcaneweave, a specialized technique of weaving raw magic into threads. The garments created through this art are prized by Azeroth's spellcasters as superior power conduits and can also be used to create enchanted, coded correspondence. Complementing this, Velvy’s profound knowledge of enchanting and her expertise in appraising magical artifacts allow her to identify high-value items on her travels and trade them for a significant profit. Together, these skills form the bedrock of her legitimate public identity.

Beneath this facade, however, Velvy is a naturally gifted and well-trained warlock, with a remarkable specialization in the arts of life drain and transference. Aided by her bloodstone, she also maintains a firm command over demons, allowing her to solve many troubles that arise from her lifestyle.

During the dark ritual conducted when she was ten, her father failed in his attempt to directly summon a Sayaad. He resorted instead to using Velvy's body as a physical vessel for the demon. Though the ritual was interrupted and the Sayaad later banished by Menara, the demonic communion left an indelible mark on Velvy. It imbued her with a subtly seductive aura, capable of enthralling those with weaker wills. This dark legacy has also, to some degree, shaped her personality.

Backstory

Velvy Wintergarde was born seven years after the opening of the Dark Portal, the sole heir to the noble House Wintergarde of Alterac. By then, the Second War had concluded. Due to Lord Perenolde's betrayal of the Alliance, the entire kingdom of Alterac was occupied and dismantled. A year after Velvy's birth, House Wintergarde, like all Alterac nobility, was stripped of its lands. In the years that followed, they were absorbed into the criminal organization known as the Syndicate.

Though the old nobles of the Syndicate had lost their fortunes, they remained dedicated to restoring their rule. They invested heavily in raising their successors, which plunged Velvy into a childhood of jarring contradictions. She was often shuffled between bandit hideouts in the cold mountain valleys, living a life less stable than that of a Lordaeron peasant. Simultaneously, she received a formal aristocratic education, meant to instill in her a sense of nobility, superiority, and her inherent right to rule the frigid mountains and the wretches who remained there. Many of her peers internalized such logic after a single raid on a farming village. To Velvy, it was always absurd. She could never reconcile her miserable reality and the vile acts of her kin with the high-minded ideals she was taught. Nor could she see the value in the ogre-infested lands her father haggled over with her betrothed's family. Velvy quickly learned to ignore such delusions, focusing instead on the heavy tomes plundered from Dalaran caravans. The texts were far too advanced for a child, but they gave her mind a place to retreat from the absurdity of her world.

When Velvy was ten, Lordaeron was thrown into turmoil by the re-emerging Horde, an event the Syndicate viewed as an opportunity. A cult of warlocks called the Argus Wake grew in influence within the Syndicate, offering powerful Bloodstones as conduits for dark power. Many, including Velvy’s father, Baron Wintergarde, were seduced by their promises of ultimate strength. The Baron’s forces had suffered greatly in skirmishes with Lordaeron's military, and his calculus was grimly simple: the Bloodstone required a blood sacrifice, and what blood was more potent than his own line? Velvy was to be the offering.

However, Velvy was no lamb for the slaughter. Her studious nature had allowed her to discern her father's intentions as he prepared the ritual. She did not foresee the full extent of his depravity. He sought not just her blood, but her very flesh and soul as a vessel for a summoned demon. Instead of fleeing, Velvy spotted a flaw in the ritual's design. As a Sayaad was drawn forth to claim her, she seized the moment and offered the demon a far more tempting bargain. The ritual was twisted on its head. Baron Wintergarde and his acolytes became the sacrifice, their lives feeding the Bloodstone.

Clutching the empowered artifact and shielded by her new demonic pact, Velvy escaped the Alterac Mountains. But the pact was unstable. When the demon sensed her weakness and moved to claim everything, it was Menara Voidrender who intervened. A warlock who had long been stealing secrets from the Argus Wake, Menara saved Velvy from the greedy demon's grasp and became Velvy’s mentor, teaching her the ways of a warlock in exchange for the Bloodstone. For the next several years, the pair traveled widely, posing as Arcaneweavers from Dalaran or dealers of magic artifacts.

In the 20th year after the Dark Portal's opening, facing the relentless Scourge, Menara and Velvy joined Jaina Proudmoore's expedition to Kalimdor. Under Jaina’s leadership in the fledgling city of Theramore, experienced spellcasters and enchanters like Menara and Tabetha quickly proved their worth. As a gifted apprentice, Velvy naturally found her place among them. Her unique appearance and alluring presence earned her the nickname "The Pearl" among the Theramore sailors, none of whom suspected her connection to fel magic.

A year later, the Battle of Mount Hyjal erupted. At fourteen, Velvy was deemed too inexperienced for the front lines. But the spoils of war, artifacts of the Burning Legion, proved invaluable to her and Menara’s secret studies. This period ignited Velvy’s profound understanding of life transference and demonology. By sixteen, she was a capable warlock in her own right. But with her rise came danger. Rumors of dark magic practitioners in Theramore began to circulate, and the city was no longer safe.

In the 22nd year, Daelin Proudmoore's arrival sparked a ruinous war. Menara and Velvy had already foreseen the coming trouble and fled Theramore, escaping the conflict entirely. They made their way to Ratchet. The free-wheeling goblin town offered a haven where they could continue their work in peace. In Ratchet, however, Velvy honed her skills in enchanting and appraising magical artifacts more than the forbidden arts. Among goblins, such talents were far more profitable than dabbling in fel. Before she turned eighteen, she had amassed a considerable fortune, enough to travel with the affluence of a true noblewoman.

In the 25th year, Velvy bid farewell to her mentor to forge her own path. She planned to sail for Booty Bay and try her luck in the Eastern Kingdoms, where no one knew her name. As a final blessing and a mark of her graduation, Menara returned the Bloodstone to her.