Tala

Height; 5' 6"
Weight; 178 lbs
Age; Immortal (7482)   -Deceased-
Relationships; Count Vladimir 'Dracula'; Ex/sparing partner/friend, Yuri Sveldana; estranged son, Countess Courtney Yellsdana, heir/descendant, Zink; personal hero/mentor figure

Physical description;
Tala is one of the most distinctive looking figures in all of history.  At the root of her appearance is a single act of magic, a display of magic that nearly killed her.  When she awoke, the previously blue-eyed brunette found that her appearance had been changed by the elements she had channeled through her own body.  Her hair was made blue as the clear skies and her eyes bore the fury and power of lightning.  At most times they would be yellow, but at times they were known to flicker blue or purple.  She was also very short, especially by Nieldic standards; especially unusual considering the fact that her father was eight and a half feet tall.  She remained fit all of her life, even though she rarely fought physical battles, which is hardly unusual. 
Tala was always practical, and her wardrobe reflected it.  Despite the fact that she preferred to use magic to fight, she wore cargo pants and T-shirts more often than ornate dresses and robes.  Even in her days in the military she forwent uniforms for such casual attire. 

To see a picture, click here --> Tala, Artwork by Motley Mince
Bio;
Tala was born the princess of Gasca at the height of the hierarchy period.  Gasca held dominance over the western third of the empire under a string of weak emperors.  Tala's father had aspirations to ruling the whole empire, and she was the perfect tool to do so.  Since a young age she had been a skilled commander and she had no equal in combat.  It was while she was on an assignment to persuade the lord of Appeni to accept her father's leadership.  While there her men reported a strange woman in a stone circle; she quickly responded and after failing to talk the woman into submitting to the custody of her men, she attempted to breach the enchantments of the stone ring.  But even her most powerful spells couldn't breach the divine barrier.  So she turned to the resources around her.  She drew in the air and water from around her and forged a storm drawn from across the world.  Then she drew its power and channeled it through herself in an effort to destroy the barrier.  The power was more than she could bear, and she was near to death when the circle's inhabitant, an immortal named Ceanne, relented and dropped the barrier.  Tala lapsed into a coma that lasted three years, and woke to find one of her younger sisters in rebellion against her father.  At first she worked to oppose her, but as she began to see the war in a new light and witnessed the atrocities her father committed for his own gain.  She ultimately chose to go against her own loyalty to her father and chose to serve her people.  Her father died in the end, fighting rebels on the front lines as he had his whole life.  Tala rushed her army to the throne of Gasca and held her brothers at bay while her younger sister was coronated.  To seal the deal, she officially abdicated as her father's heir, ensuring that their could be no further doubt as to her sister's legitimacy as lady of Gasca.  She then left quickly. 
It is considered to be soon after that time that she obtained immortality.  She attended the Arcane Academy, and took an interest in a past student.  The longest inhabitant of the Academy, one who had made it her palace; the one they called Death Herself, Zink.  Tala followed the clues and found a fountain deep within a mountain, a single draught granted her immortality, invincibility, and youth eternal.  She used the clues that had lead her to that fountain and began searching the school for other clues, other trails.  She eventually found two trails; one showed her vast regions of inhabitable space down and south of Krove, and the second was an ancient prophecy of sorts.  She tracked down the one to whom the prophecy related, and found that it related to her.  Count Dracula, an old schoolmate of Zink's, introduced them by looking down the blade of her sword and telling her what interesting hair she had.  After what any mortal would deem a very long romance, she bore him a son. 
As any one who knew her well could tell you; it was the single act she never forgave herself for.  She referred to it as her one moment of cowardice.  But she abandoned young Yuri with his father at the hospital.  She fled and though she eventually reconciled with the Count, she never saw her son again.  She lead colonists into the region that would become Seclora, and was instrumental in the establishment of that empire.  She also helped to organize the immortals for the first time, with the aid of twins named Doron and Norod.  The leadership she set in place would become the so called 'Pantheon' of the immortals.  She also built a personal fortress within a nebula of her own creation; Stormguard.  And she had many adventures; and is accounted the third greatest number of kills in the unending war against Demonkind; after Zink, who's lessons and writings she studied rigorously, and Petra, Zink's daughter.  Among such exploits were her defeat of the demon that had hidden itself in the Pantheon since its conception, and her battle for the ashes of Dracula in the cathedral of St. Peter. 
But it would all change with the coming of the Frostbourne.  Tala was one of the first to notice the threat, and began to gather a force of her own to combat it.  Her first recruits were her own descendants; the coven named for her son, the Yellsdana.  Soon thereafter she enlisted the aid of the Elves, a mysterious race that had lived in hiding in the deep parts of space.  And there were many other races beside who found a permanent haven in a much expanded Stormguard.  And so, as the unnatural storm unleashed by the frostbourne crashed over the universe, Tala's own storm held fast before it.  She played host to many disenfranchised peoples as the war raged on, but in the end it would be one of her own, Jor, the emperor-elect of Danielland, who slew her.  She stood before him and drew her blade.  As he drew hers she heard a voice from beyond, beyond the grave.  Zink, Death Herself, whispered to her that the Lord was calling her home.  Tala lowered her blade, bowed her head, and answered the call.  So fell the Storm Mage; Tala, called by some Svel, died on the steps of her fortress in the heart of the Voalsvei Nebula.