In the old stories of the gods, when elves and giants and other creatures roamed the plains and rivers of Adrasil, the greatest heroes known to man lived and breathed their epic sagas of glory. It is said one of the most feared, the most revered of the ancients, was the Valkyrie of Odar, who chose the dead in his name. While Odar decided the warriors to die on the battlefield and enter the halls of Val-Noran, it was the Valkyrie who enacted his will and dealt the final sword blow. Reaper of death and justice, she was the harkener of a warrior’s final breath and of their glorious first step into the eternal mead hall.

But Odar first and foremost saw his Valkyrie as a cup bearer, she who served honey wine to the victorious dead from her horn that never emptied. It was a position of high honor, she who poured the golden elixir of honeyed, sweet victory. But the Valkyrie questioned Odar’s judgment and was not content as the bearer of the horn in the eternal halls. The warriors did not fear her there, did not tremble at her approach as they had quavered under her sword on the battlefield. The goddess Verda knew of the Valkyrie’s discontent, her thirst for blood that Odar restrained. For it was Verda who craved justice for men in a world of injustice, and it was by the Valkyrie’s blade that she foresaw the execution and mercy of that judgment. So the goddess offered the Valkyrie a golden sword which never dulled nor rusted, which she called Gunnr. And so the Valkyrie, chooser of the slain, swore herself to Verda, and walked centuries of battlefields to bless heroes with her guidance to Val-Noran, and to curse the unworthy as fodder to the soil while their weapon lay unhanded. As man multiplied, so too did the number of fallen warriors, and so the Valkyrie chose nine women, fallen heroes who craved more from Val-Noran and looked beyond the eternal halls. She named them her furies, to take up their own golden spears and choose the slain. And so the Valkyrie and her furies cut down man in the name of Verda, but to those deemed worthy, they bore a horn of mead to press to a warrior’s lips on their last breath, and bless with life in the eternal halls. In the memory of our ancestors, in the times of written history, the Hearthguard chose a female warrior to take on the title of Valkyrie and hold the center of the shieldwall, unbreakable and unyielding. Under her command are the furies, the fiercest of the shieldkin women, who fight in the shieldwall and die as the noblest warriors. They answer to the call of the goddess Verda, and swear to enact her judgment and mercy, and to act as choosers of the slain. To become a fury, a female warrior must be chosen by the Valkyrie and take the blessings of Verda in blood, and to drink mead from the Valkyrie’s horn before she can bear her own to worthy fallen heroes. 

The furies were once led under the command of Tagelia Sigurdson before her ascension to Jarl. They are now led under the Fanrik Valkyrie Astrid, and having grown in numbers, are now comprised of two fists, the Aerie under Valkyrie Aluna, and the eclipse under Valkyrie Siv.

Valkyrie Aluna was raised in a calm, yet sheltered home in northern Raven. She met the nomadic Kai in the woods and joined him and the Hearthguard after seeking Ferra’s counsel and after Kai opened her eyes to the much bigger world around her. Aluna found her home among a group of warrior women—the Furies. She was at home shooting her bow from behind the Fury shieldwall. After some time, Aluna was promoted to Huskarl of her own Fury fist, who she named the Eclipse. She became a Valkyrie and with much awe, joined the ranks of the most elite and fierce women in the Hearthguard. Aluna still chooses to bring light and beauty wherever she goes. She is an artist first and a warrior second. But her compassion and willingness to fight for what’s right always wins over her love for peace.